Services sell you a person; profiles sell you a tool. Most families need the tool and are sold the person. How to tell which one your athlete actually needs before spending hundreds — or thousands.
The recruiting industry sells two very different things under one label. A recruiting service sells you a person — a consultant who builds target lists, drafts emails, and coaches the family through the process, at prices families report from hundreds to several thousand dollars. A recruiting profile is a tool: the public page with your athlete's verified stats, film, and contact info that all that outreach points to.
Even if you buy the service, you still need the profile — it's where every coach lands. And the parts of recruiting that actually move the needle are the parts nobody can outsource anyway: the athlete's film, the verified numbers, and outreach that sounds like a real kid, not a template. A consultant can organize that work; they can't replace it.
Families with zero bandwidth to manage the process, or who want a human guide through a confusing first cycle — and who can afford it comfortably. That's real value for some households. If that's you, buy it with clear eyes: you're paying for organization and hand-holding, not access coaches don't otherwise have.
Everyone else. Today the tool does most of what the consultant used to: Lightning Pro ($50/yr) builds the target list with an AI matchmaker, drafts the outreach, and shows you which coaches opened your emails and viewed the profile — with the $25/yr tier covering the verified profile itself. Our honest NCSA comparison and profile-cost guide lay out the numbers so you can decide which purchase your family is actually making.
— Christian Bentley, Founder, First Step Athletics