Comparison · Daedo PSS vs Taekwondo Competition Manager

Daedo PSS is brilliant kit. It also costs £20,000+ per ring. Here's what works for the other 99% of taekwondo events.

An honest, non-affiliated comparison. Daedo's Protector & Scoring System is the official electronic hardware of World Taekwondo. If you're running a WT-sanctioned event, you need it. For interclubs, club opens, association championships, ITF and TAGB events, patterns, padwork and breaking — there's a web-based alternative that runs on the phones and TVs you already own, from £39 per event.

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The honest summary

Two products, two different jobs.

Daedo PSS exists to do one job extremely well: detect impact, automatically score WT-style continuous-action sparring, and produce a competition record that World Taekwondo will recognise as sanctioned. The hardware (electronic hogu, sensored head guards, scoring control unit, judge consoles) is the only legal way to score a WT championship. If that's the event you're running, the conversation ends — buy or hire Daedo.

Taekwondo Competition Manager exists for the much larger pile of events that aren't WT championships. Club championships and interclubs. Association opens. ITF and TAGB events that don't use electronic hogu at all. Patterns competitions. Breaking and padwork events. Mixed-style martial-arts opens. Belt-grading days. The vast majority of taekwondo events that happen on a Saturday in a sports hall somewhere in the UK each year.

For those events, the cost and complexity of a Daedo install are wildly disproportionate to the need — and Daedo doesn't cover the formats anyway. That's the niche we sit in.

About this page. Web Matter is independent. We're not affiliated with, endorsed by, or competing with Daedo at the WT-sanctioned level. The figures and capability claims below are based on publicly available product information and typical UK organiser experience — always confirm current Daedo pricing with an authorised distributor before making a purchase decision.
Side-by-side

What you get with each.

Capability Daedo PSS Taekwondo Competition Manager
Primary use caseWT-sanctioned championships Olympic pathway, national selection, world eventsClub, association & federation events Interclubs, opens, ITF/TAGB events, patterns, breaking
Hardware required per ringElectronic hogu set, sensored head guards, scoring control unit, judge consoles, central PC, mat sensors Five-figure capital cost typicalPhone, tablet or laptop you already own + any TV with HDMI / Chromecast / AirPlay £0 hardware required
Scoring methodAutomatic impact detection on hogu & head guard sensorsJudge-tap scoring on phone or tablet Same model as non-electronic events
Setup time at venueHours Cabling, calibration, pre-event tests per ringMinutes Volunteers scan a QR code on their phone
WT-sanctioned event eligibility✓ Required by WT— Not for WT-sanctioned events
Sparring (continuous-action, impact-scored)✓✓ Judge-tap, no auto-impact
Patterns (poomsae / tul) competitions—✓
Padwork & breaking competitions—✓
Brackets, draws & fixtures— Not a bracket / draw tool✓ Single-elim, round robin, all TKD formats
Online competitor registration—✓ Free Registration as standard
Real-time Scoreboard on any TVProprietary scoreboard hardware✓ HDMI / Chromecast / AirPlay to any TV
Real-time Matches Running Order—✓ So fighters know exactly when they're up
Judges & corner coaches multi-deviceProprietary judge consoles✓ Any phone or tablet, paired by QR
Medals, certificates & podium tables—✓
OBS streaming overlays—✓ Professional & Federation tiers
Pricing modelCapital purchase or per-event hire Quote-based£39–£799 per event flat fee, or £7,999/yr unlimited No subscription, no per-competitor fees
Best forNational federations & WT-pathway eventsClubs, associations & federations running everything that isn't WT-sanctioned
The honest call

When you genuinely need Daedo. When you don't.

Pick Daedo PSS

You should be using Daedo if…

  • You're running a World Taekwondo sanctioned event — anything on the Olympic pathway, national team selection, or international ranking.
  • The competition rules require automatic impact detection on hogu and head guards, with calibrated thresholds.
  • You're a national federation hosting WT championships and the result needs to be officially ratifiable.
  • You've already invested in Daedo hardware and are looking for the matching event-management workflow that ships with it.
  • Your sport context is exclusively WT-style continuous-action sparring, no patterns, no breaking, no padwork.
Pick Taekwondo Competition Manager

We make more sense if…

  • You run interclubs, club championships, or association opens where electronic hogu isn't part of the rules and the budget for it doesn't exist.
  • Your competitions include patterns, padwork or breaking — formats Daedo PSS simply doesn't cover.
  • Your scoring is semi-contact, point-stop or referee-judge consensus — so anything outside of WT-with-electronic-hogu, including most ITF, TAGB, FEKO and independent club competitions.
  • You want online registration, brackets, scoreboards and a running order in one platform — not just the scoring engine.
  • You'd like the audience scoreboard on the venue's TV, the running order on the warm-up TV, and the scoring on the phones in your volunteers' pockets — without spending five figures on hardware that lives in a flight case 11 months of the year.
  • You run several events per year and need a flat-fee licence rather than ongoing rental costs.

Bottom line

If your event has Olympic pathway implications, you need Daedo. Nothing else is a substitute.

Bottom line

If your event is the other 99% of taekwondo competitions in the UK, our software is built for you — not retrofitted from a generic bracket tool.

What it actually costs

A like-for-like cost picture.

Figures below are ballpark UK estimates based on publicly available product information and typical organiser quotes. Always confirm current Daedo pricing with an authorised distributor.

Daedo PSS — single ring

£15k–£25k+
Capital purchase, fully kitted
  • Electronic hogu (×ring set)£3k+
  • Sensored head guards (×ring set)£2k+
  • Scoring control unit + judge consoles£5k+
  • Central PC, cabling, scoreboard hardware£2k+
  • Training, installation, calibration£1k+
  • Annual maintenance / replacement consumablesongoing

Hire-only for a single event: typically £1.5k–£3k+ per ring depending on size and location.

Taekwondo Competition Manager — single event

£39–£799
Flat fee per event, no subscription
  • Quick Match (16 contestants, 1 ring)£39
  • Starter (50 contestants, 1 ring)£149
  • Standard (200 contestants, 4 rings)£349
  • Professional (unlimited)£799
  • Federation (unlimited events / year)£7,999/yr
  • Hardware required£0

Real-time Scoreboard, Real-time Matches Running Order, Real-time Multi Device Scoring and Free Registration are standard in every plan.

The honest framing: the comparison isn't really like-for-like, because Daedo PSS includes electronic-hogu impact detection that we don't replicate, and our software includes brackets, registration, certificates and running-order management that Daedo doesn't ship. The figures are useful for budget context, not as a direct head-to-head — pick the tool that fits the event you're actually running.
Format coverage

Daedo scores sparring. We cover the whole event.

Daedo PSS is, by design, a sparring scoring system. It's optimised for WT continuous-action competition rules where impact thresholds matter and contact is full-power. That's the right tool for that job.

But a typical UK taekwondo event runs four formats simultaneously across the day. Sparring goes on Ring 1. Patterns happen on Ring 2 with a panel of judges scoring out of 10. Padwork uses speed-and-power criteria on Ring 3. Breaking takes place separately later in the day with its own scoring system. Daedo PSS doesn't help you with any of those except the first one.

Taekwondo Competition Manager handles all four formats in the same workflow. The same registration form, the same bracket generator, the same operator console, the same scoreboard. One platform, one event, every format.

For ITF, TAGB and most independent styles, the conversation is even simpler — your rules don't use electronic hogu at all, so Daedo isn't really on the table to begin with. The relevant question is "is there an alternative to paper brackets and a clipboard?" and the answer is yes.

Using both

"What if we run one WT event a year and a dozen interclubs?"

Common pattern, sensible answer: use both. Hire or buy Daedo for the one or two WT-sanctioned events a year that genuinely require it. Use Taekwondo Competition Manager for everything else — the interclubs, the open championships, the patterns days, the grading-day mock comps, the squad selection rounds.

The platforms don't conflict. Your competitor database is yours; we don't gate-keep results. Many of the federations in our outreach use Daedo at their flagship championship and quietly run the rest of their year on us.

The question to ask isn't "Daedo or not Daedo." It's "what is each event for, and which tool fits?" — and the honest answer is usually "both, in different rooms."

Common questions

Honest answers about both platforms.

Is this an official Daedo replacement or Daedo-approved? +
No. We are not affiliated with Daedo and our software is not a substitute for Daedo PSS at World Taekwondo sanctioned events. WT events require Daedo's electronic Protector & Scoring System for impact-detected scoring. Our software is a competition management platform for everything else — interclubs, club opens, association championships, ITF events, TAGB events, patterns, breaking and padwork tournaments.
Does the software work with electronic hogu (Daedo or KP&P sensors)? +
No. Our scoring is judge-tap based — corner judges and the referee record points by tapping a phone or tablet, exactly as judges score at non-electronic events. We do not interface with electronic hogu sensors. If your event requires automatic impact detection, you need Daedo or KP&P.
How much does Daedo PSS actually cost? +
Daedo PSS pricing is quote-based and varies, but a fully-kitted single-ring installation (electronic hogu, head guards with sensors, scoring control unit, judge consoles, central PC, training and installation) typically runs into five figures. For a one-off rental of a full PSS rig for a single event, organisers in the UK often see quotes in the £1,500–£3,000+ range depending on event size and location. Always get a current quote from Daedo or an authorised UK distributor.
Can I use both — Daedo for our championships and your software for everything else? +
Yes, that's a common pattern. Many clubs and federations run their flagship WT-sanctioned event with Daedo and use our platform for the other ten or twenty competitions in the year — interclubs, club championships, training-day mock events, patterns and breaking comps. The platforms don't conflict.
Can a national federation run sanctioned events on this? +
For non-WT-sanctioned national events — domestic opens, association championships, federation cups not requiring electronic-hogu impact scoring — yes, our Federation tier covers unlimited competitions across the year with sub-user accounts for regional organisers. For WT-sanctioned events you need Daedo (or KP&P) plus the WT-approved match management workflow.
What about ITF, TAGB, FEKO and other non-WT styles? +
Daedo PSS is built for WT-style continuous-action sparring with impact thresholds. ITF, TAGB and most independent styles use semi-contact, point-stop or pattern-based scoring where electronic hogu isn't part of the rules. For those styles our judge-tap scoring is the correct fit, and we cover the formats Daedo doesn't (patterns, padwork, breaking) as standard.
Why should I trust this comparison? +
We've tried to write it without spin. Daedo is genuinely the right tool for WT events and we say so. Where we sit is in the much larger market of events that don't need electronic hogu and can't justify the hardware spend. If anything on this page is inaccurate, get in touch and we'll correct it — we'd rather be honest about what we don't do than overclaim.
Related reading

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