A 4 minute read, written in September 2026
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Padel vs pickleball: the differences, and which one you should try
Both are booming, both are easy to start, and people confuse them daily. They are not the same sport: padel is played in a glass-walled court with a ball like a tennis ball, pickleball on an open court with a plastic one. Here is how to tell them apart and which suits you.
Padel vs pickleball, side by side
Put the two sports next to each other and the differences are plain. They share an underarm serve and a liking for doubles, and very little else.
| Padel | Pickleball | |
|---|---|---|
| Court size | 20 by 10 metres (about 65.6 by 32.8 feet) | 44 by 20 feet (13.41 by 6.10 metres), the size of a doubles badminton court |
| Walls | Glass and mesh all round, in play after the bounce | None: an open court, with a 7 foot non-volley zone (the kitchen) on each side of the net |
| Ball | Pressurised and felt-covered like a tennis ball, at slightly lower pressure | Hard perforated plastic, light, with a low bounce |
| Racket | A perforated racket with a foam core and no strings, around 360 grams | A solid paddle with no holes, lighter and thinner |
| Serve | Underarm, after a bounce, hit at or below the waist | Underarm, from the air or after a drop |
| Scoring | Tennis scoring: 15, 30, 40, game, sets of six games | Games to 11, win by two; traditionally only the serving side scores |
| Players | Almost always doubles; singles needs a narrower court or half of a normal one | Both, with doubles the usual social game |
| Cost | Courts are built and booked, 30 to 60 an hour split four ways; rackets from about 60 euros | Courts often free in public parks; paddles from about 40 euros |
Is padel the same as pickleball?
No. People mix them up because both are small-court games that took off in the same years, both are mostly played in pairs, and both serve underarm. The overlap ends there. Padel is played inside a glass box, and the ball stays alive after it comes off the walls; pickleball is played on an open court, where a ball that gets past you is gone. The ball is the easiest way to tell them apart: a padel ball looks like a tennis ball, felt and all, while a pickleball is a hollow plastic ball punched with holes. The rackets differ just as much. A padel racket is thick, perforated and built around a foam core; a pickleball paddle is flat, solid and much thinner. Neither works in the other game.
Paddle tennis is a third sport, and platform tennis a fourth
Search for paddle tennis vs pickleball and you may be comparing two different things. In the United States, paddle tennis usually means a scaled-down version of tennis, now also promoted as POP tennis: an open court with no walls, about 50 by 20 feet in its classic form, a solid paddle, a tennis ball with reduced pressure and a single underarm serve. Platform tennis is different again. It is a winter game played on a raised deck surrounded by tall wire screens, with a rubber ball that can be played off the screens, and in the north-east of the country its players often call it paddle for short. Padel itself is sometimes called padel tennis and often misspelt as paddle. So if someone in the US invites you to play paddle, ask which one they mean before you buy anything.
How they feel
Pickleball is quick hands at the kitchen line: short, fast exchanges, a lot of dinking, points over in a few shots. Padel is a longer game. The walls keep the ball alive, so a point can be fifteen or twenty shots, and the winner is usually the pair that moved the other pair off the net rather than the pair that hit hardest. Padel asks more of the legs; pickleball more of the wrists.
Your call
A ball rebounds off your back wall high and comfortable, around chest height, and both opponents are at the net. What do you play?
The bajada is the attacking shot from the back: a high glass rebound, taken early and driven down.
The whole reasoning, at every level
Padel or pickleball: which one for you
Come from tennis and want your groundstrokes and your overheads to count: padel, with one warning, that the walls will punish a tennis player's power for a month until the brain accepts that the ball comes back. Come from squash or badminton: padel too; the wall reading and the short racket are yours already. Want a game you can play at seventy with a new knee: both work, pickleball is gentler on the legs, padel is gentler on the shoulder. Have four friends and ninety minutes: padel is built for it; pickleball is easier to find in the United States, padel easier everywhere else. Want to watch a professional tour with stadiums and TV: padel's Premier Padel is the bigger show; here is where it is on this week.
The honest differences in cost
Pickleball is cheaper: a paddle from 40 euros, courts often free in public parks. Padel courts must be built and booked, so an hour costs 30 to 60 split four ways, and a racket 60 to 300. Padel is also the one with a wall around it, which is why it is booked out at nine on a Tuesday night in half of Europe.
Try padel first
Read what padel is, book one open match at your club's beginner level, and rent a racket. Then come back here: the level guide will tell you where you stand.