How RacketOS ranks padel rackets
Fixed rules choose the rackets, a language model only writes the explanation, and the weight of every rule is printed on this page. Nobody pays to be listed or ranked.
What your answers feed
The racket finder first asks which racket you play, which you can skip, then five questions. Each question feeds a named part of the ranking, and nothing else about you is used.
- Your racket. The first step. Name the racket you play and the racket finder asks what you want to change in place of the five questions: up to two wishes, the arm question, and the level and budget read from your racket, which you can change. Each pick then leads with what moves from your racket, and rackets that share its shape, balance, feel and weight earn a small credit. With “Continue without a racket” the five questions follow.
- Your level. Decides which rackets are in the running, one level either side of yours, and credits the ones made for your level. If you play at club level, an advanced racket costs half what a level off otherwise costs.
- Your game. Credits the shapes built for how you win points.
- Your priority. Optional. Power, control or comfort adds points for the weight, balance and feel that coaches usually pair with it.
- Your arm. Any answer other than none changes the list itself, before any scoring. See the sore arm part of the weights below.
- Your budget. A limit on the price we show. A racket above it is not in the running, unless too few rackets fit, and then the board says so.
- Your brands. Optional. A filter you set, not a score: your matches are filled from the brands you choose first, and only when fewer than five of them fit do the rest come from other brands, which the board says. No brand earns or loses points.
- Men's or women's. Optional. Men's and unisex takes the rackets marked as women's rackets out of the running, except a racket marked only because it is a woman pro's signature model. Women's fills your matches with women's rackets first, those that score within 10 points of the highest score, in the usual order, then the rest. Neither adds or takes points, and skipping it shows both.
A skipped optional step adds no points.
Rules choose, a model explains
Every racket the finder can recommend gets a score from the fixed rules below, and the same answers always give the same list. The five highest scores become your matches, with at most two rackets of one brand where there are enough alternatives. A racket whose published specs are identical to a higher pick's is held back, so a board never shows one choice twice.
Only then does a language model, Claude from Anthropic, write the plain-English reason for each pick. It is given the shortlist and your answers. It cannot add, remove or reorder a racket, and it is not asked which is best. If it is unavailable, the board shows a templated explanation and the order is the same.
When two rackets score exactly alike, the one with fewer sore arm charges comes first. If you named the racket you play, the one priced closest to it comes next. If you set no budget limit and named none, the newer season comes next. Then the one with more of its shape, weight, balance, feel and level confirmed comes first. After that, the cheaper one wins.
The weight and feel controls under your picks only reorder those five. They never change which five, and “As matched” returns the order the rules gave.
The percentage on a pick: Fit relative to the highest-scoring racket on your board, not a probability.
The weights
A racket earns points for each rule that fits you and loses points for each that does not. The racket with the most points ranks first. The numbers below are read from the ranking's own settings when this page is built, so the page and the ranking cannot disagree.
These are the sizes at full certainty. Where a spec is an estimate and not a published value, a rule pays its expected share of the points across the values the estimate could be. In the sore arm, comfort and beginner rules, an estimate can lower a credit but never a charge.
A light frame earns full credit at 365 g or under, fading to none at 368 g. A heavy frame is charged from 368 g, and the charge grows over the next few grams. Weight is read from the middle of the range a brand prints.
Your level
A racket two or more levels from yours is not shown at all. If you answer solid club player, an advanced racket pays half the cost of a level off, since club play spans intermediate to advanced. If you name the racket you play and it is a level above yours, rackets of that level count as made for your level, where its level is published.
| Rule | Points |
|---|---|
| Made for your level | +30 |
| One level above or below yours | +15 |
| An advanced racket, when you answer solid club player | +23 |
Your game
The style you choose is the style we use. Credits for power, and for a back attacker's balance and weight, are not paid when you report a sore arm, because the sore arm rules decide balance and weight.
| Rule | Points |
|---|---|
| Shape built for your style | +25 |
| The same, for a beginner who attacks, where the engine holds the specialist credit back | +12.5 |
| Versatile, all-round shape | +10 |
| Power read for attackers, control read for defenders, an even power and control for players who mix it up | up to +15 |
| Net finisher: head-heavy balance | -4 |
| Back attacker: head-heavy balance | +4 |
| Back attacker: heavy frame | up to +4 |
| Back attacker: diamond shape, on top of the shape credit above | +10 |
Your priority
Power buys mass behind the ball, not a harder feel. Its mass credit is not paid when you report a sore arm or say you win at the net.
| Rule | Points |
|---|---|
| Power: an estimated swing weight of 373 g or more, worked out from weight and balance | +10 |
| Power: an estimated swing weight of 358 g or less | -5 |
| The shape your priority points to, a diamond for power and a round shape for control or comfort, when your game answer has not already claimed it. Not paid if you win at the net or finish with the smash | +10 |
| Control: soft or medium feel | +5 |
| Control, beginners only: round shape | +8 |
| Control, beginners only: hybrid shape | +4 |
| Control, beginners only: low balance | +4 |
| Comfort: soft feel | +10 |
| Comfort: hard feel | -10 |
| Comfort: lower weight | up to +3 |
Beginner level
The level answers “Still learning” and “I can rally” count as beginner level. At that level the engine pays for a light, soft, low-balance racket and charges a heavy swing or a hard feel.
| Rule | Points |
|---|---|
| Light frame | up to +8 |
| Low balance | +6 |
| Soft feel | +4 |
| Estimated swing weight over 368 g | -6 |
| Hard feel | -8 |
Sore arm
If you say your arm is sore, even a bit, we leave out every racket whose feel could be hard, and every racket whose feel no source states, because an unconfirmed feel could be hard. This is a precaution built on what coaches usually suggest for a sore arm. RacketOS does not claim that a racket can treat or prevent an injury. The rackets that stay are scored with these points, a mild answer in the first column and a hurting arm in the second.
| Rule | A bit | It hurts |
|---|---|---|
| Soft feel | +8 | +15 |
| Medium feel | -3 | -8 |
| Light frame | up to +5 | up to +8 |
| For each 10 g lighter than 365 g, down to 335 g, as an extra credit | +0.6 | +1 |
| Frame heavier than 368 g | -5 | -8 |
| Head-heavy balance, or a balance the brand never published, which we read as head-heavy | -6 | -10 |
Adult weight floor
A frame whose published maximum weight is under 335 g is too light for an adult swing, at every level. It earns no light credit anywhere and takes this one charge.
| Rule | Points |
|---|---|
| Frame under 335 g | -6 |
Age of the model
Older models cost points in proportion to your budget, because at a low budget an older model is often the good deal. No penalty up to €150, half of it up to €250, all of it above.
| Rule | Points |
|---|---|
| Each year older than this season | -4 |
Your budget
Your budget is a fence, not a score. A racket whose price is above it is not shown. The limits are €80, €150, €250, or no limit. The price tested is the price we print, described under how a price is shown. If fewer than five rackets fit, we raise the limit once, by 15% or €30, whichever is more. The board then says the budget was widened and marks each racket above your budget. When the list is short because a sore arm left rackets out, we do not widen it, and the board shows fewer picks.
The racket you play now
Optional. These credits make the board a comparison against that racket. With a sore arm the balance and weight credits are not paid at all, because the sore arm rules decide balance and weight. The shape credit stays small where your racket's shape is our estimate or where the pick reads head-heavy, because shape mostly follows balance. The feel charge runs one way. A firmer feel is the direction coaches usually treat as the cost, and our comfort, sore arm and beginner rules charge it too; a softer feel is not, so a player with a hard racket who is shown a soft one loses nothing we claim to know. Where a racket's feel is not confirmed, it pays the share of the charge its likely feel carries, and the board prints that as "Feel not confirmed against your racket" with the points, without guessing the feel. The handling answer compares published weights and takes the place of the weight credit. It is asked of intermediate and advanced players who report no sore arm, beside a racket whose weight is published. If you win at the net you are offered quicker or about the same, and if you finish with the smash about the same or more stable, because your game already says which way you lean.
| Rule | Points |
|---|---|
| Same shape, where your racket's shape is published: as much as your game answer pays for its own shape | +25 |
| Same shape, where your racket's shape is our estimate | +10 |
| Same shape, when you report a sore arm and your racket's shape is our estimate or the pick reads head-heavy | +6 |
| Same balance, silent when you report a sore arm | +4 |
| Same feel, only beside a soft racket when you report a sore arm | +4 |
| Two feel steps firmer than yours (a hard feel beside your soft one), silent when you report a sore arm | -6 |
| Weight within 10 g, when you give no handling answer, silent when you report a sore arm | +4 |
| Quicker or more stable, as you asked: from nothing at 3 g lighter or heavier than yours to the full credit at 12 g | up to +10 |
| The other way, against your answer, by 12 g or more at the full charge | up to -5 |
| About the same: within 5 g of yours, fading to nothing at 15 g | +10 |
The brand's own line-up
We place each brand's lines in flagship, mid-range and entry tiers from the brand's own tiering, pro endorsements and price band, never from popularity or payment. Paid once at most.
| Rule | Points |
|---|---|
| A flagship line, when you play at competitive level | +3 |
| Same class as the racket you play now (flagship or mid-range line), when you name a racket | +3 |
What you want to change
When you name the racket you play, the racket finder asks what you want to change in place of the five questions. Each wish is a credit, never a charge, paid only to a racket that moves that way. More control and more power use the priority credits above, and lighter uses the quicker handling credit. With a sore arm, softer, lighter and more power are not heard, because the sore arm rules decide feel, weight and balance. The near-price credit is paid on every board built from your racket, except when you ask for cheaper or just newer, or when we print no price for your racket, and never to a pick a sore arm charge applies to.
| Rule | Points |
|---|---|
| Softer feel, for each step softer than your racket's published feel | +5 |
| Softer feel, where your racket's feel is not published: a pick whose feel is confirmed soft | +5 |
| The same, for a pick whose feel is confirmed medium | +3 |
| Cheaper: from nothing at 3% below your racket's price to the full credit at 25% below it | up to +8 |
| Nothing, just newer: the next season of your racket in the brand's own line | +14 |
| Nothing, just newer: another racket of the same line in a later season | +10 |
| Nothing, just newer, where the line holds nothing newer: a later season of the same brand and shape | +5 |
| Priced near your racket: the full credit within 25% either way, nothing from 50% | up to +10 |
After scoring
So that one brand cannot fill the board.
| Rule | Points |
|---|---|
| Each earlier racket of the same brand on the list | -5 |
| Rackets of one brand in your five, where there are enough alternatives | at most 2 |
How a price is shown
A price on RacketOS is one of two things. When a shop showed a price for the exact racket in the last 30 days, we print it with the shop's name and the day we checked. Otherwise we print the brand's list price and say that the current price is unconfirmed.
A shop price older than 30 days is not shown as the price, and the budget fence uses the same price, so a racket never passes your budget on a figure we would not print.
The shop link goes to the page the shop price was read from, also when that price has grown too old to print. When several shops showed a price, we set aside any far above the lowest (more than one and a half times), take the lowest of one or two, and the middle price of three or more, which is the lower of the two middle prices when the count is even. A shop that is sold out sets no price. When no shop has shown a price, the link goes to a shop page we cite for the racket, or to a price comparison search, and its label says which.
The directory's default order
The directory opens in an arrangement and not a ranking: new season first, brands take turns. The newest season comes first. Inside a season it takes one racket per brand in turn, brands from A to Z, going through each brand's own flagship, mid-range and entry lines as the brand designates them. Popularity and payment play no part in it. Choosing a column makes it a plain sort, and one link returns to the arrangement.
Sources and estimates
Every spec on a racket page says where it came from, and opening one shows the source. These tags say how far to trust a value:
- VERIFIED: published by the brand or a shop for this exact racket, with the source named.
- CITED: read from a shop's labelled spec field, or from the brand's own words naming the feel, for this exact racket, with the source named. Only feel can be cited today.
- ESTIMATE: worked out by us from related specs, and always shown with its tag.
- ASSUMED: a stand-in so the racket can be scored. We do not state it as a fact, and the engine reads it cautiously.
- NOT PUBLISHED: the brand does not publish it.
An estimate can move a score, but a feel or any other spec is put into words only where a source states it.
Specs and errors
Specs come from public product information and can contain errors. Check with the maker or the shop before you buy. Brand and product names only identify rackets.
What we do not claim
Some things said about rackets are not backed by measurement, so RacketOS does not say them in its own voice:
- how large a racket's hitting area is, or where it sits;
- that a surface finish adds spin;
- that a carbon grade or weave number makes one racket better than another;
- that holes or frame shapes make a racket cut through the air;
- that frame thickness is a feature;
- that any racket can treat, prevent or relieve an injury.
When a brand makes such a claim, we may show it in quotation marks with the brand's name in front, as the brand's words and never as ours.
We don't rate sweet spots. Robot scans of 225 rackets found no link between where the sweet spot sits and a racket's shape, weight or balance.
Who runs it
RacketOS is run by one person in Berlin, not by a shop or a brand. The name and contact details are in the Impressum. No shop, brand or retailer pays to be listed, featured or ranked, and the order of your matches comes only from your answers and the rules on this page.
If RacketOS ever earns a commission from a shop, it will be labelled at the link and will never change the order or which shop we link.
The catalogue
The racket finder chooses from 476 rackets from 19 brands. The directory lists 477, which adds the junior rackets the finder never recommends, because it assumes an adult player. We add rackets by hand from brand and shop pages, so a racket you expect may be missing, and some brands' newest flagships are not in yet. Specs can contain errors: check with the maker or the shop before you buy.
Questions players ask
How does the racket finder pick rackets?
Fixed rules score every racket the finder can recommend against your answers, and the highest scores become your five matches, with at most two rackets of one brand where there are enough alternatives. A language model only writes the explanation afterwards; it cannot add, remove or reorder a racket.
Does any brand pay to be shown?
No. No shop, brand or retailer pays to be listed, featured or ranked. If RacketOS ever earns a commission from a shop, it will be labelled at the link and will never change the order or which shop we link.
How fresh are the prices?
A shop price is shown only if a shop showed it within the last 30 days, and the page says which shop and which day. With no recent shop price, we show the list price and label it as that.
What does ESTIMATE mean on a racket page?
The tag marks a spec we worked out from related specs, because no source states it for that exact racket. We never put an estimate into words as a fact; a spec stated by the brand or a shop carries the source instead.
Which racket suits a sore arm?
No racket is a remedy, and we do not claim one is. If you say your arm is sore, the racket finder leaves out every racket whose feel could be hard or is not stated by a source, which follows what coaches usually suggest, and the board may show fewer picks. For the pain itself, see a doctor or a physiotherapist.
Should a beginner buy a diamond racket?
Coaches usually point newer players to round or hybrid shapes first. For a beginner who attacks, the racket finder pays only half the usual credit for a diamond shape, and it credits round and hybrid shapes for the control priority.
How do I compare my current racket?
Name the racket you play in the first step of the racket finder. Rackets close to it in shape, balance, feel and weight earn a small credit, and each pick shows what differs from yours where both values are published.
Do I need to sign up?
No. The racket finder and the directory work without an account.