The Best NBA Playoff Pool Software in 2026 (Ranked)

Commissioners who want the pool to reward calling a sweep as well as calling the winner.

• A game-count bonus in the scoring model. Members pick the series winner and the number of games it takes; correct on both earns a bonus, and the bonus is set per round, so a first-round sweep call and a Finals call can be worth different amounts. PoolsByRound offers series game-count picks too, and does not describe weighting that bonus per round.
• Round-by-round picking for a two-month tournament. Members can pick each round off the real matchups as teams advance, each series locking when its first game starts. Over eight weeks that keeps more people in than a bracket decided on day one.
• Results arrive on their own for the whole run. A scheduled job pulls completed games every ten minutes, around the clock, and standings recompute.
• Flat pricing. $20 for the tournament at any pool size, or $90 for lifetime access to every tournament. Free covers one pool of 10 members with full scoring control and no ads.
• Pricing: Free is 1 pool, 10 members, 1 entry each. Tournament Pass is $20 for the NBA playoffs. Lifetime All-Access is $90 once.

Falls short: Brackets only: no confidence NBA pool. The play-in tournament is not a separate pickable stage; pools run on the 16-team bracket. No native app. Everyone needs an account; free guest entries cover the holdouts, but you type their picks. No entry-fee collection. And PoolsByRound is cheaper: it runs round-by-round pick'em pools free at any size.

First on one specific capability: a game-count bonus weighted per round. It beats RunYourPool and PoolTracker for a pool that wants sweeps and gentlemen's sweeps to be worth points; it loses to both if you want a format other than a bracket.

Commissioners who already run their group's NFL and March pools in one place.

• NBA playoff pools beside NFL, MLB, NHL, NCAA, golf and Oscars pools, so one account covers the year.
• A private message board, useful across an eight-week tournament where a bracket pool otherwise goes quiet.
• Automatic deadlines and real-time standings.
• Pick summaries and leaderboards under a commissioner hub.
• Free through the first week of the season.

Falls short: Pricing is per entry: $20.00 covers the first 10, then $2.00 each through 50, $1.50 through 200, $1.00 through 500 and $0.75 beyond, which is $100 at 50 entries, $175 at 100 and $325 at 200. The fee is waived when the pool collects its buy-in through Contest Vault, a LeagueSafe integration: Splash takes nothing, and each member pays a 3.5 or 4% processing fee on their own payment, $70 to $80 on a $2,000 pot. So a pool with a buy-in costs the commissioner nothing, and a pool without one pays per entry. Series game-count scoring is not described on its public pages. It has an iOS app and no Android app.

The convenient choice for a group that already lives there, and the best message board on this list. For an NBA pool it publishes nothing about series-length scoring, the feature that makes a best-of-seven pool interesting.

Commissioners who want a free NBA pool with no member cap.

• "PAY WHAT YOU WANT to run your office pools with us. Yes, you can even choose FREE!", with no member limit attached to the free choice.
• Nine formats, so an NBA group can run a bracket, a pick'em and a power-ranking pool on one platform.
• NBA beside CFL, WNBA, PWHL, NLL and the majors, the widest league list reviewed.
• A Pool Wizard for setup and autopicks for people who forget.
• Live scoring.

Falls short: Free pools carry ads. Paying reduces them in proportion, "Ad Removal Rate (%) = Payment / Removal Threshold x 100", and the threshold that clears them is computed per pool from format, features, participant count and duration, so an ad-free pool has no published price and costs more as the pool grows. Commissioner manual pick entry is not described publicly. No native app is named. Series game-count scoring is not described.

The best uncapped free option for an NBA pool, though free means ads, and clearing them costs more as the pool grows. Playoff Pick'Ems is the better pick if you want series-length scoring or a documented scoring model; OfficePoolJunkie is better if the pool must stay free and large.

Commissioners who need to fix entries during a long postseason.

• Commissioners can edit anyone's picks at any time, and set custom deadlines.
• NBA beside football, soccer, hockey, baseball and cricket.
• Free pools with unlimited players, carrying banner ads.
• Downloadable user data.
• Private-label branding and custom email.

Falls short: Free pools carry banner ads and score only nightly; "scores calculated within a few minutes of each game's end" is an upgrade. Upgrades are priced per player, and each of its 50-plus pool types has its own table, so budget from that pool's table. Private-label branding needs a template on top ($199.99 to $799.99). Open commissioner editing with no published audit trail is a governance risk over an eight-week tournament. Series-length scoring is not described publicly.

Reasonable if mid-tournament corrections are part of how your pool runs. Playoff Pick'Ems handles post-lock changes as one setting, off by default, and logs every change that does happen.

Commissioners who want to build an NBA pool from a custom bracket template.

• A Custom Tournament Bracket and Custom Pickem League that can be pointed at any competition, the NBA playoffs included.
• Published pricing: free Standard, $10.00 per season Plus, Premium from a $20.00 minimum then $1.00 per player for the first 100.
• Player clones for entries the commissioner maintains: 1 free, 16 on Plus, 50 on Premium.
• Online entry-fee collection from Plus upward.
• A what-if simulator on paid tiers.

Falls short: No purpose-built NBA playoff pool is listed; the route in is a custom bracket, so seeding and series structure are your problem. Ads on the free and $10 tiers.

The workaround option, and the only platform here with published prices and fee collection. You build the postseason from a blank custom bracket rather than picking it off a list, so the series-length scoring that makes a best-of-seven pool interesting is not part of what you get.

Commissioners who want the widest sport list at no cost.

• Free, with no paid tier at all: "All features are free" and "No annoying ads".
• Both picking modes, its "signature feature": "Pick one round at a time or the whole bracket at the start".
• Deep scoring: head-to-head, beat the spread, underdog weighting, round significance, pick risk, parlays, over/under, and series game-count picks.
• "One Login, Multiple Picks (no-login players)": the commissioner adds a name and makes that person's picks, free, the same job our guest entries do. They can see the leaderboard but cannot pick.
• The broadest sport list of any free platform here: NFL, college football, NBA, WNBA, March Madness, the Stanley Cup and MLB playoffs, both World Cups, and Olympic events.
• A league message board, automatic deadlines, and leaderboards "updated within minutes after each game".

Falls short: Its World Cup group-stage pool is match pick'em, 10 points for a win and 4 for a draw, with the knockout run as a separate pool. There are no predicted group tables, so a predicted standing or a perfect group cannot be scored. No confidence or survivor formats, and no native app.

The honest free choice, and it beats Playoff Pick'Ems on price outright. Its no-login players are commissioner-run, the same as our guest entries. Its feature list stops short of group-stage tables and per-round weighting of the game-count bonus.