The Middle Pin vs Lightspeed Golf · Checked 20 September 2026
Lightspeed Golf, or a smaller bill for a smaller course.
Lightspeed Golf, formerly Chronogolf, is one of the best-reviewed golf systems there is, with no long contract. It is also priced for a bigger operation. This is the page where our higher card fee matters most, so it has the calculator.
Choose Lightspeed Golf if
- You do enough card volume that cheaper processing outweighs a bigger subscription (see the calculator).
- You want dynamic pricing and a polished, well-supported system.
- You have a restaurant that suits Lightspeed’s restaurant point of sale.
Choose the Middle Pin if
- Your card sales are modest and a $300-plus monthly bill is hard to justify.
- You want memberships with autopay dues in the same place as the register.
- You want one price you can see before you talk to anyone.
Side by side
| Lightspeed Golf | the Middle Pin | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Quote only. Review sites report a start around $325 a month.1,2 | $39.99 a month, or $99.99 with a website we build and host. Published, the same for every course. |
| How you pay | Monthly subscription.1 | A monthly subscription. No tee times traded. |
| Contract | “No long-term contract… cancel at any time.”1 | Month to month. |
| Card payments | Published: 2.6% + 10¢ in person, 2.6% + 30¢ online. $15 per chargeback.3 | Stripe’s 2.9% + 30¢, plus 2.1% to us: about 5% of card sales. Cash and checks cost nothing. |
| Online tee times | Included, with dynamic pricing.1 | Included. |
| Register (point of sale) | Through Lightspeed’s separate Retail and Restaurant point of sale.4 | Included on both plans, for the counter or a tablet on the course. |
| Website | Not listed on its golf pricing page.1 | Keep your own, or we build and host one on the $99.99 plan. |
What Lightspeed Golf is
Lightspeed Golf covers the tee sheet, online booking, marketing, events, dynamic pricing and reporting. Retail and restaurant point of sale run on Lightspeed’s own Retail and Restaurant products. Lightspeed Commerce bought Chronogolf in 2019.
Where it is strong
Quality and terms. Lightspeed Golf averages 4.7 from 176 reviews on Capterra, publishes its card rates, and lets courses leave without a long contract. Those are all things we respect, and do ourselves.2,3,1
What our course data shows
- 922of 12,226 public courses booked online through Lightspeed Golf
- 188of them are 9-hole courses
- 63moved off it between 2022 and 2023, 29 of them back to phone-only booking
- 174moved onto it in the same year
From the 2022–23 dataset of public golf courses in the US and Canada we work from. It shows which vendor each course used for online tee times; it is a snapshot, not a live count.
What you would pay
Your numbers, both ways.
Subscription and card fees together, at your card volume. Prefilled with Lightspeed Golf’s published card rate and the starting price review sites report. Change them to any quote you have.
A month, before tax. Cash sales cost nothing on either side and are left out. Neither figure includes hardware.
Where we fall short
- We are a small, young company. The companies on these pages have been doing this for years, with far bigger teams.
- We have no network of discount golfers to fill empty tee times the way GolfNow does.
- No handicap (GHIN) integration and no dynamic pricing yet.
- Our card fee is higher than the bigger vendors’ published rates. A course with a lot of card volume can pay less overall on a big subscription with cheaper processing. The calculator on the comparison page shows where that line is.
- We are built for small public courses. A private club with a full kitchen and complex member billing is better served elsewhere.
Questions
How much does Lightspeed Golf cost?
Lightspeed quotes each course. Review sites including Capterra list a starting price around $325 a month. Its card rates are published: 2.6% + 10¢ in person.
Is Lightspeed Golf the same as Chronogolf?
Yes. Lightspeed bought Chronogolf in 2019 and renamed it Lightspeed Golf in 2020.
When is the Middle Pin cheaper than Lightspeed Golf?
When card sales are modest. With a $40 average sale, we cost less until card sales pass roughly $9,800 a month. Above that, Lightspeed’s cheaper processing can win. Put your own numbers into the calculator.
Other comparisons
See it on a course like yours.
Twenty minutes, real screens, your questions. Or start on your own: month to month, nothing to sign.
Sources
- Lightspeed Golf pricing
- Capterra: Lightspeed Golf (Chronogolf)
- Lightspeed Golf payments
- PR Newswire: Lightspeed acquires Chronogolf (2019)
- Golf Course Technology Reviews: Lightspeed Golf
Checked 20 September 2026. Prices and terms change, and most of these companies do not publish theirs, so ask each one for a written quote. If anything here is wrong or out of date, email kevin@themiddlepin.com and we will correct it. Company names are trademarks of their owners and are used only to identify them.
