The FPL Tools A Beginner Actually Needs

1. Start with free tools. FPL is free to play, and every tool here has something useful at no cost.
2. Find your team ID in the web address of your Points page. No tool needs your password.
3. Pay only when a question keeps coming up that the free tools can't answer.
4. Check whether a price is billed yearly or is a sale price before you commit.

Fantasy Premier League is free to play, and your first few weeks are about learning the rhythm: pick a squad, make a transfer or two, choose a captain, and see what happens. You don't need a dashboard full of charts for that.

In practice, three things help most. First, a quick rating of your team so you can see where the weak spots are. Second, a fixture view so you can tell which teams have an easy run. Third, a planner so you can think a few gameweeks ahead instead of reacting to every result.

Everything else is a nice-to-have. If a tool's pitch is about squeezing out the last fraction of a point, it is probably meant for someone who has already played a season or two.

Here is what each tool offers for nothing, as of 25 October 2026:

• Fantasy Football Scout: Assistant Scout gives you key articles, news, community, basic fixture data and a team rating.
• LiveFPL: live rank, leagues, price predictor, planner and ticker. There is an optional subscription to remove ads.
• FPL Review: the free projection model in the planner.
• Fantasy Football Hub: an AI team rating, though you need to give an email address.
• Fantasy Football Fix: a free account.

FFIQ also has a free layer that needs no account: a projection for every player six gameweeks ahead, predicted line-ups, the weekly captain and transfer calls, and a free team rater called FPL Rate My Team.

You don't have to pick one. Trying two or three for a gameweek or so is the quickest way to learn which layout makes sense to you.

If you do want to pay, the prices below are as the companies list them. Read the small print, because several are tied to yearly billing.

• Fantasy Football Scout: Chief Scout is £3.25 a month, billed annually.
• Fantasy Football Hub: Starter is £2.49 a month, billed yearly, and that is a 50%-off sale price.
• Fantasy Football Fix: Premium is £3.48 a month, billed yearly, and that is a limited-time price.
• FPL Review: paid access is through Patreon.
• LiveFPL: the only paid option listed is the optional subscription to remove ads.
• FFIQ: £5.99 a month (the Founding Season price, 60% off the standard £14.99), or £59.99 a year.

FFIQ is not the cheapest option here. Sale and limited-time prices can also change, so check the live page before you sign up.

None of the tools in this comparison except FFIQ publishes an accuracy record. Scout, Hub, Fix and LiveFPL say nothing, and FPL Review doesn't publish its accuracy as a figure. That doesn't make them bad, but it means you are taking the quality on trust.

Chips are the clearest example. The Wildcard, Free Hit, Bench Boost and Triple Captain are powerful, but you only get so many, and using them well depends on knowing how the season flows. As a beginner, it is fine to read about them and wait.

The same goes for transfer solvers and deep projection models. They are useful once you understand why you are making a transfer. Until then, a simple planner is enough.

It also helps to remember the cost of impatience. Each gameweek you get free transfers, and extra transfers cost four points each. A tool that nudges you to move every week can cost you points, so a quiet gameweek is often the right call.

Most tools that look at your own squad will ask for your FPL team ID. That is the number in the web address of your Points page on the official FPL site. No tool needs your FPL password to read your team, so be wary of any that asks for it. FFIQ, for one, never asks for your password.

One quirk catches beginners out. FPL publishes every manager's picks only after the deadline passes. So between deadlines, any tool is reading the squad FPL last locked, not the changes you made this morning. If a tool seems a gameweek behind, that is usually why.

FFIQ is built for the manager who wants a clear answer for their own team rather than a pile of data. Before every deadline it gives you the move for your squad: captain, transfers, chips and line-up. It also includes Ask IQ, an AI you can ask anything about your team. Of the tools above, Fantasy Football Fix lists an AI chat (ChatFPL), while Scout and Hub don't list one and FPL Review and LiveFPL say they don't have one.

On method, this is the one line we give: every call combines 34 calculations with an algorithm that keeps updating as the scenario changes.

Premium covers your move in the War Room, IQ for any question about your team, projected points six gameweeks ahead, your mini-leagues (who's beating you and how to catch them), and price-rise alerts for your players the night before. It costs £5.99 a month or £59.99 a year. The offer is: Your First Month Free. Card needed, cancel any time.

We publish our record too: picks made before each deadline and scored on FPL's results, misses included. You can see it on the page and judge for yourself. And if you already belong to Scout, you can run FFIQ alongside your Scout membership.

Spend your first week on free tools only. Use a team rater, glance at the fixtures, and try a planner. If you enjoy one of them, stay with it.

If, after a few gameweeks, you keep asking the same sort of question, such as who to captain or whether to take a hit, that is the moment to consider paying. Pick the tool whose free tier answered that question best, and compare the billing terms as well as the monthly price.

Our beginner page walks through the first steps if you would like a gentler start.

Try it on your team →New to FPL? Start here →