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Two club management platforms, two different approaches. Row HQ is purpose-built for rowing. LoveAdmin covers many club sports. Here is how they compare for an Irish rowing club.
By Jason Burns, Founder, Row HQ · Updated
LoveAdmin is general-purpose club management software built for the UK market and covering many activities - gymnastics, dance, football, swim, drama and more. It can be used by Irish clubs, but it was not built with Rowing Ireland affiliation returns, Garda vetting tracking, EUR billing, or Irish VAT in mind. Row HQ is purpose-built for rowing clubs only. If your club needs rowing-specific workflows (boat booking with hull-type rules, drag-and-drop crew selection, regatta entry for the Irish Championships, Garda vetting status on member records, subs in EUR), Row HQ fits naturally because the software speaks rowing and speaks Irish. If you run a multi-sport organisation and want one platform for everything, LoveAdmin's broader coverage may suit you better.
Where the two platforms differ on what Irish rowing clubs use day to day.
| What you need | Row HQ | LoveAdmin |
|---|---|---|
| Built specifically for | Rowing clubs only | Any sports or activity club |
| Rowing Ireland affiliation tracking | Yes - per-member affiliation status and renewal | Not advertised - general membership fields only |
| Garda vetting status tracking | Yes - per-coach Garda vetting record against member profile | Not advertised for Irish welfare workflows |
| EUR billing and Irish VAT | Yes - EUR-native, 23% VAT handling | GBP-primary platform; EUR possible but not native |
| 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 and payments, Rowing Ireland returns workflow | Generic event management |
| Cox role first-class | Yes - cox is a recognised seat | 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 |
LoveAdmin was built to serve a wide range of activity providers across the UK - sports clubs, gymnastics academies, dance schools, swim programmes, classes and courses providers. Irish clubs can use it, but they are getting a UK-market platform adapted rather than built for their context.
If your organisation runs more than just rowing - a multi-sport community club, a school running rowing alongside several other activities - LoveAdmin keeps everything under one roof with a single CRM and one payment system. You would only need to learn one piece of software regardless of which activity you are managing.
LoveAdmin also offers a managed onboarding service with a dedicated consultant. If you want a hands-on partner working with your committee through setup, that is part of their offering and a fair reason to evaluate them.
For Irish rowing clubs that deal primarily with Rowing Ireland affiliation, Garda vetting, EUR subs, and crew-based training sessions, the fit is less natural than a purpose-built rowing platform. LoveAdmin does not know what Inniscarra is or what a Garda vetting reference number looks like. Row HQ does.
Row HQ is the right pick when rowing is the whole job. The platform was built around the operational reality of running a club like Commercial RC or Skibbereen - pre-dawn outings on the Lee, crew sheets for the Irish Championships, Garda vetting records on file for every junior coach, and subs collected in EUR with a paper trail the committee can stand behind at the AGM.
Boats are a first-class entity in Row HQ. Each shell carries its hull type, access rules (who is cleared to take out the single or the IM3 quad), 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 members into seats, see attendance and side preference side-by-side, save crew templates and publish the final lineup to members in one tap. Cox is a real role, 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. The platform talks the way Irish rowing clubs talk.
Multi-squad clubs - juniors, seniors, masters, novice, university - each get their own scheduling and crew lists, with shared admin and shared finance. School programmes and university boat clubs use the same structure 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 slot, not a specific shell with hull rules.
Drag members into a crew, see availability, side preference and recent attendance together. Save lineup templates for repeat outings on the Liffey or the Lee. Push the lineup to members 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 members 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; Row HQ's session model already understands water vs erg vs land, so reports break them apart without extra configuration.
Build a regatta or head race entry, attach crews, collect entry fees, and track acknowledgements from one screen. See event and regatta management. LoveAdmin has generic event management and ticketing, which works for many sports, but it has no concept of a Rowing Ireland entry schedule or an Inniscarra division draw.
Juniors, seniors, masters, schools and university squads each get their own scheduling, crew templates and attendance, while sharing one membership database and one finance system. Both platforms support multi-group setups; Row HQ's default templates match the squad structure Irish rowing clubs already use.
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; 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 euro 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 and chosen modules. Check loveadmin.com for a current quote. Note that LoveAdmin prices in GBP; Irish clubs should factor in any currency conversion.
Yes. Send us your member export, payment history and any class or session data. We import everything into Row HQ as part of onboarding. 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, Garda vetting tracking, Rowing Ireland affiliation fields, EUR billing - Row HQ goes considerably deeper. For broader sports coverage (gymnastics, dance, football), Row HQ is not the right fit. The general-purpose membership basics (CRM, payments, comms, attendance) are well covered in both platforms.
LoveAdmin prices in GBP and their pricing is bespoke, so direct comparison is difficult. Row HQ is free for clubs of up to 20 active members, then publishes flat monthly bands by member count in EUR on the pricing page. Get a current quote from LoveAdmin, factor in any sterling-euro conversion, and compare against ours for your 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 coverage may suit you better, because you would get one platform across rowing and your 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 the others are minor, some clubs run Row HQ for rowing and a simpler 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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