Which Swiss Tournament software should I buy?

Hey,

I will be helping to host a tournament at a local library. None of these kids have ratings or anything. But, I decided that a Swiss tournament would still be the best way to do it. We could have tie-brak blitz at the end to determine 1st/2nd/3rd. So, my questions are:

-Is there a better way than Swiss for a simple local tournament?

-What software should I use if any? I am OK at making swiss parings, but far from perfect, and I am bad at the whole floating idea. I have considered SwissSys,  Swiss Perfect, and WinTD. How do these compare? Which is best? I might be willing to spend the $100, $90, or $50 (respectivly) for one of these.

Thanks so much!

Hmm, do you really need tourney software if there are no ratings?  Just have winners play winners and keep track of current standings (people with 1 win play others with 1 win or with two draws etc).  In the end you'll have two (or more) players paired who have the best results so far.

Ok well I guess I could just do it myslef, I really like to its just I might downfloat the wrong person or something haha. Not sure...

Thanks for you input :)

For tournaments of up to 30 players, I believe you can use Vega for free.

Buy Swiss Sys. if you plan on running any rated events at some point.  It's the "industry standard" and the best out there. It's a well put together program that is easy to use.  I've been using it for 6 years now and would never run an event with out it.

True. The less player the more complicated Swiss (system) gets. (It's very likely you pair players twice. It happened to me on a National Seniors Event where the program was not working and all arbiters had to pair their category by hand!) 
For 14 players (for example) you'll get problems even if there are only 5 rounds.

LondonSystem89 probably has enough experience to recommend the program. (Actually I'm not organizing tournaments. Therefore I don't know what's on the - international - market. In Switzerland we have 'our system'  which is/was a little different from FIDE requirements - of course I prefer the 'correct' Swiss system!)

However your tournament for kids depends on how many players you'll have and how many rounds you can play. E.g. for 16 players you can easily play 4 times 3 round robin (in 4 groups) and a final 3 round robin with the 4 winners. Leaving you with a total of 6 rounds.

Of course for kids it's better to play all rounds. (Then you have to see that the numbers of players will be even.)

Thanks :)

WinTD is works fine have had no trouble with it. Tim Just said either one works for him too!

Before buying try this free online solution for chess tournament management: https://www.swips.eu

-Is there a better way than Swiss for a simple local tournament?

I guess Swiss the right way to conduct a tournament. Swiss pairing is easy and can be done manually. But when a tie happens,  it is hard to break it manually. 

-What software should I use if any?

I suggest not to buy any right away. I prefer Swiss Manager for my tournaments. It is free if the number of players is less than 60. You only have to buy if you want to conduct a real big tournament.
Bad thing is that Swiss Manager has no proper reviews or tutorials. It was hard for me in the beginning but I learned it watching videos in strange languages (Maybe Russian). I made a tutorial in English - https://kidschessworld.com/swiss-manager/

SWIPS is the best software i tried so far. It is modern, online, FIDE compatible and there is update every month with new cool features. I would recommend - https://www.swips.eu

Swips works online, rather than being installed.  That would be fine, except that sometimes their site is down.

I was asked to run a yearly city tournament with players without a rating.

SWISS SYS newest PC version .  . . I had 50 players. It Even has byes.

I set up four test rating stations. Each entrant carried their to each station and the

Volunteer marked down the score on the card. Volunteers must know chess! ! !

Place the station so only the tested can see it.

1.  put a single mate move puzzle   worth 50 points.

2.  two forced mate moves    worth 60 points

3.  Put a three forced mate mover  Worth 70  points

4.  Put a four mate mover . Worth 80 points.

I asked their age  worth their age in points times 10:  ( age 9 x 10 = 90)

I added the stations they passed plus their age to come up with a rating for SYS!

Whatever their raftings, I placed half in the higher in A group.

The lower ones in the B group.

The next year they moved up if the rating went up.

The best part of the program was that we entered all results for the first round

It printed on a $35 printer, standings and the next round printer quickly.

The next year it was easier. New ones were tested. Previous ones wanted to be tested but it was for fun. . . Swiss made me pro at running tournaments.

Have them sign up in advance use small cards. But you can also take walk ons.

It was weird that most games took only about 10 - 15 minutes. We all used clocks.

Hope this helps.

DENVER

I have a Mac and I use Swiss Manager with VirtualBox.

You don't need to buy any - there is a free online pairing program called Tornelo. https://tornelo.com/

It is FIDE approved and runs both online and on-site events.

Very happy with www.chessmanager.com -- it includes an OPTION to text all players their table and matches, and a link to the tournament at the beginning of each round. Very nice feature.

excel, at office 365 if you know how to use it

We use SwissSys at our club and we're very happy with the rating reports and the operation of the program.

You can also try the VinczeSwiss freeware program: http://vincze.euweb.cz