Best Football Score App for Android and iPhone

Every app on this page is free to install and shows live scores for the big leagues. They differ in how far beyond those leagues they go, in how much they show besides the score, and in what sits between you and it: ads, news, video or other sports.

We went through the Google Play and App Store listings of the ten apps this article named in 2019, and of the apps that lead both stores’ searches now. Nine of the ten are still listed. We kept to apps whose listings are about scores and news.

Football score apps compared

FotMob: start here

FotMob does football and nothing else. Its listing claims more than 400 competitions and names the Premier League, La Liga, the Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1, MLS, the Champions League, Liga MX, the Women’s Super League and the Championship among them. Beyond the score it lists expected goals, shot maps, player ratings, live text commentary and TV schedules.

Goal notifications and alerts for your clubs and players are in the app’s main feature list, with no charge mentioned. The purchases shown on its App Store page are for removing ads and for memberships. The Android version also runs on Wear OS watches.

Sofascore and Flashscore: more than football

Sofascore covers more than 25 sports, and its listing goes furthest on statistics. It describes heatmaps, shot maps, momentum charts and side-by-side comparisons of players and teams, with profiles for over 150,000 players. You can set notifications for goals, kick-offs, final scores, red cards and substitutions. The purchases on the App Store are ad removal and two paid tiers.

One thing to know before you tap through the permission screens on Android. The Google Play listing discloses an optional shopping feature that uses the Accessibility service to see the shop pages you open in Chrome and show coupon codes. It needs your permission. It has nothing to do with football, and we would leave it off.

Flashscore is the broadest: more than 30 sports and 6,000 competitions by its own count. The football list changes with the store you open it from. On the Nigerian store it starts with the NPFL, and on the UK and Indian stores it runs from the Premier League down to League Two. It sends alerts for line-ups, match starts and goals, and lets you follow individual players. On Android it is free with ads and has nothing to buy. On the App Store a banner-free version is sold inside the app. Its Google Play page opens for Nigeria, India and the UK but not for the United States.

LiveScore: nothing to buy

LiveScore has been doing this since 1998, according to its listing, and it keeps the offer simple. Scores, fixtures, tables and news for football come first, with tennis, cricket, basketball, hockey and American football behind them. The listing names the Premier League, the Champions League, LaLiga, Serie A, the Bundesliga, the Eredivisie and the FA Cup, and says it follows more than 1,000 football matches a week.

You switch on notifications for the teams you mark as favourites and manage them in settings. Neither store shows an in-app purchase, so there is no paid tier for alerts to hide behind. It is free with ads on Google Play and on the App Store.

Forza Football and OneFootball

Forza Football claims the widest football coverage here, more than 1,450 leagues and cups, and makes a point of the women’s game: its listing names the NWSL, Liga MX Femenil and the Women’s Super League. Push notifications can be set per match, team, tournament or player. It also lists video highlights, line-ups and a TV guide for your country. The subscription on the App Store removes the ads.

OneFootball is a news app with scores attached. Its listing is about news, transfer coverage, video highlights and, for people in the US or the UK, live streams of selected matches. The TV guide works in eight countries: Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain, the UK and the USA. The listing does not mention goal alerts, and the purchases on the App Store include passes for individual matches and competitions. Choose it for reading, not for the fastest score.

Apple Sports: no ads, iPhone only

Apple Sports is free, with no advertising and nothing to buy on its App Store page. It needs an iPhone on iOS 18 or later, and Apple’s page on Google Play has no Android version. Scores update on the Lock Screen through Live Activities, and a widget shows fixtures on the Home Screen.

Its coverage is a fixed list, and Apple prints it in full. The football part includes the Premier League, the Champions League, LaLiga, Serie A, the Bundesliga, Ligue 1, MLS, the Saudi Pro League, the Egyptian Premier League, the South African Premiership and the Indian Super League. If your league is on the list, this is the only app here with no ads and nothing to buy. If it is not, use FotMob.

BBC Sport and the official apps

BBC Sport is a news app with live scores, text commentaries and tables, and a page for each Premier League club. Its listing says you can set notifications for more than 400 football teams. The international version is free with ads and has nothing to buy. In the UK the BBC publishes its own version, which carries no ads label.

The official apps are narrow by design. Each is free.

• Premier League: live scores, tables and alerts for line-ups and goals, with Fantasy Premier League built in. It carries no ads label on Google Play, though it does show in-app purchases.
• UEFA Champions League: minute-by-minute updates, push notifications for goals, kick-offs and line-ups, live audio commentary and next-day highlights. Free with ads.
• FIFA Official App: a match centre for club and international football, with alerts for match starts, goals and team news. Free with ads.
• MLS: scores, play-by-play commentary and highlights for MLS and the cups its clubs play in. Free with ads.

Which one to pick

• Football only, on any phone: FotMob. Forza Football if your league is too small for FotMob.
• Football plus tennis, basketball or cricket: Sofascore for the statistics, Flashscore for the widest spread of competitions.
• You never want to be asked to pay: LiveScore.
• No ads, and you have an iPhone: Apple Sports.
• One competition: its official app.
• Reading about football more than checking scores: BBC Sport or OneFootball.

For something to listen to between matches, see our guide to BBC podcasts. If you would rather hear a match than read it, our guide to radio apps for Android covers the apps that carry sports stations.

What happened to the old list

FotMob, Forza Football, OneFootball and the FIFA, UEFA Champions League and MLS apps are all above. ESPN is still on both stores and still shows scores, but its listing is now mostly about streaming, which needs a paid subscription and varies by region. Stats Zone, the FourFourTwo app, no longer turns up in a search of either store.

Quick answers

What is the best football score app for iPhone?

FotMob if football is all you follow, or Apple Sports if you want no ads and your league is on Apple’s list. Both are free on the App Store.

What is the best football score app for Android?

FotMob if you only follow football. LiveScore if you want an app with nothing to buy.

Is there a football score app with no ads?

Apple Sports on iPhone has no ads and no purchases. On Android, the official Premier League app carries no ads label, and nor does the BBC’s own BBC Sport app in the UK. FotMob, Sofascore and Forza Football sell ad removal, going by their App Store pages. The rest are free with ads.

FotMob or Sofascore?

FotMob if football is all you follow: its listing is only about football and counts more than 400 competitions. Sofascore if you also want other sports or deeper statistics such as heatmaps and player comparisons.

Are goal notifications free?

As far as the listings show, yes. Each one that mentions alerts presents them as part of the free app, and LiveScore, BBC Sport and Apple Sports have nothing to buy at all. Where there are in-app purchases, the ones the App Store names are ad removal, memberships and match passes.