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Two club management platforms aimed at different problems. Row HQ is built for rowing only. LoveAdmin is a UK-based general-purpose club platform. Here is how they line up if your Australian rowing club is evaluating both.
By Jason Burns, Founder, Row HQ · Updated
LoveAdmin is primarily UK-focused and most of its sport-club customers are British. Australian rowing clubs typically compare Row HQ against generic team-management apps and spreadsheets. We have kept the comparison below for Australian clubs evaluating LoveAdmin specifically, but do confirm that LoveAdmin actively serves clubs in Australia (currency, payment provider, support hours) before signing.
LoveAdmin is general-purpose club management software covering many activities - gymnastics, dance, football, swim, drama and more. Row HQ is purpose-built for rowing only. If your club needs rowing-specific workflows (boat booking with hull-type rules, drag-and-drop crew selection, regatta entry, water-versus-erg session tracking, cox handling), Row HQ fits naturally because the software speaks rowing. If you run a multi-sport club and want one platform across rowing and other sports, LoveAdmin is the more flexible choice. Both handle the membership basics - subs, comms, attendance - well.
Where the two platforms differ on what rowing clubs use day to day. Last verified against published feature pages on loveadmin.com.
| What you need | Row HQ | LoveAdmin |
|---|---|---|
| Built specifically for | Rowing clubs only | Any sports or activity club |
| Boat booking with hull-type rules | Yes - per-hull access rules and conflict blocking | Not advertised on their site |
| Drag-and-drop crew selection | Yes - visual crew builder with seat assignment | Not advertised |
| Regatta entry workflow | Yes - crew sheets, payments, Rowing Australia exports | Generic event management |
| Cox role first-class | Yes - cox is a recognised seat with its own permissions | Not advertised |
| Sweep vs sculling distinction | Yes - native to the data model | Not advertised |
| Water vs erg session types | Yes - separate session categories | Generic class and event types |
| Member CRM, online payments, comms | Yes | Yes |
| Email and SMS to members | Yes | Yes |
| Attendance tracking | Yes - one-tap from app | Yes |
| Member self-service app | Yes - white-labelled in your club's branding | Yes - JoinIn app |
| Pricing model | Free to 20 members, then banded, AUD, public on our pricing page | See loveadmin.com for current pricing |
LoveAdmin is built for breadth. Their customer base spans gymnastics, dance, football, swim, drama and more. That breadth is the reason to look at them.
If your organisation runs more than just rowing - a multi-sport community club, a school running rowing alongside several other sports, or a wellbeing centre with classes - LoveAdmin keeps everything in a single platform. You get one CRM, one payment system and one comms tool covering every activity, and your back office only has to learn one piece of software.
LoveAdmin also leans on a managed onboarding model with a dedicated consultant and a "Step2Success" growth programme. If you want a hands-on partner who works on broader club growth alongside the software, that is part of their pitch.
And if you are already using LoveAdmin elsewhere with member data, registrations and reporting living inside the platform, the cost of switching has to clear a real bar before it makes sense.
Row HQ is the right pick if rowing is the whole job. Most rowing clubs are pure rowing clubs - the boats and the lineup are the central daily workflow, not an afterthought next to ten other sports. We built the software to make that workflow fast.
Boats are a first-class entity in Row HQ. Each shell carries its hull type, access rules (who is allowed to row a 1x or take out the M8+), conflict blocking and a maintenance log. Boat booking is not bolted on top of a generic resource booker - it understands rowing.
Crew selection works the same way. Coaches drag-and-drop rowers into seats, see attendance and side preference at a glance, save crew templates and broadcast the final M8+/W8+/IV/novice lineups in one tap. Cox is a real role with its own permissions and box assignment, not a custom field.
The language matches too. Sessions are water or erg. Events are heads or regattas. Boats are scullers or sweep. Crews are eights, fours, quads, doubles, pairs, singles. We built the schema for clubs that talk like clubs, so you do not have to translate every screen on the way past.
Multi-squad clubs - juniors, seniors, masters, schools - each get their own scheduling, attendance and crew lists, with shared admin overhead and shared finance. School programmes across the GPS, AGSV, CAS and APS competitions, and university boat clubs, use the same primitives without contortions.
Six rowing-specific workflows where the platforms diverge.
Row HQ models each shell as a tracked asset with hull type, access rules and crew limits. Members see live availability, can only book boats they are signed off for, and conflicts are blocked automatically. Coaches see who is in which boat for any session. See the boat booking feature. LoveAdmin's booking engine is class and session focused - members book a session, not a specific shell with hull rules.
Drag rowers into a crew, see availability, side preference (bow vs stroke side) and recent attendance side-by-side. Save lineup templates for repeat outings. Push the lineup to members and parents and see acknowledgements. See the coach tools. LoveAdmin focuses on player rosters and squad lists rather than seat-level crew construction with rowing's side-and-seat constraints.
Members confirm in one tap from the app. Coaches see available rowers grouped by squad and session type (water, erg, land). Weather call-offs reschedule the whole session and notify everyone in seconds. See training session management. Both platforms cover attendance well; the difference is that Row HQ's session model already understands water vs erg vs land, so reports separate them out.
Build a regatta or head race entry, attach crews, collect entry fees, generate Rowing Australia returns and see acknowledgements in one place. Built around the King's Cup, Head of the Yarra and the school regatta calendar. See event and regatta management. LoveAdmin has generic event management and ticketing - which works for many sports but does not know about the Head of the Yarra or a King's Cup entry.
Juniors, seniors, masters, schools and university squads each get their own scheduling, crew templates and attendance, while sharing one membership database, one finance system and one comms surface. Coaches see only their squad. Both platforms support multi-group setups; Row HQ's default templates are pre-shaped for the common Australian rowing squad structure.
Members log in to a portal in your club's branding. They see upcoming sessions, the boats they're booked into, crew sheets, payments and notifications. See the member portal or white-label setup. LoveAdmin's JoinIn app is a shared member app with their branding; check their site for current white-label options.
Free for clubs of up to 20 active members, then flat monthly bands by member count - all public in Australian dollars on our pricing page. No setup fee, no card to start, and every feature on every band.
Pricing is bespoke and depends on club size, setup needs and chosen modules. Check loveadmin.com for a current quote. Note that LoveAdmin is UK-priced; if you are in Australia, confirm currency, payment provider and support hours that line up with AEST.
Yes. Send us your member export, payment history and any class or session data. We import everything into Row HQ as part of onboarding, so nothing is lost. Most clubs are running fully on Row HQ within a week of handing over the data.
For rowing-specific workflows - boat booking, crew selection, regatta entries, cox handling, water vs erg sessions - Row HQ goes deeper. For broader sports coverage (gymnastics, dance, football, drama, swim), Row HQ is not the right fit because we focus only on rowing. The general-purpose membership basics (CRM, payments, comms, attendance) are well covered in both.
Pricing depends on club size and the modules you need, and LoveAdmin's pricing is bespoke, so there is no clean headline answer. Row HQ is free for clubs of up to 20 active members, then publishes flat monthly bands by member count in AUD on the pricing page. Get a current quote from LoveAdmin and compare against ours for your specific club size.
Yes. Book a demo on the demo page and we will walk through your current workflow in Row HQ live - boat booking, crew selection, sessions, payments, the lot. Or set up your club on the get-started page and try it for yourself - free for up to 20 active members, no card required.
Then LoveAdmin's broader sport coverage may suit you better, because you would get one platform across rowing and other activities. Row HQ is the wrong choice if you need to manage non-rowing activity in the same system. If rowing is the dominant activity and other sports are minor, some clubs run Row HQ for rowing and a smaller tool for the rest.
Still weighing options? Read our comparison Row HQ vs spreadsheets if you are starting from a Google Sheet or Excel workbook. Or browse our best rowing club management software 2026 roundup for a wider view of the market.
Free for clubs of up to 20 active members. No card. Bring your data and we will import it for you.
Use every Row HQ feature with your own boats, crews and sessions. No card. No time limit.
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