Five platforms host almost every fantasy baseball league. Here is how FanRanked Leagues stacks up against each one on the features a commissioner actually decides by, with the places we are behind marked, not hidden.
Updated 2026-11-07.
FanRanked is 100% free to host and free to play. A $ marks a feature that costs money on Fantrax.
| Feature | FanRanked | Yahoo | ESPN | CBS | Fantrax | Ottoneu |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | ||||||
| Free to host a full-season league | Yes. Every format is free to host and play: dynasty, keeper, redraft, guillotine, best ball and the special formats | Yes | Yes | Partly. A free tier; commissioner leagues are paid | Yes. Free tier with ads; a paid tier for extras | No. Paid per team per season |
| Ad-free option for the whole league | Yes. The commissioner buys every manager a year of Pro at $15 per team: no ads and every Pro tool; anyone already on Pro is left out of the total | Partly. Yahoo Fantasy Plus removes ads for the subscriber only | No | Yes. On paid leagues | $ Yes · Paid Add-On. A separate add-on, not part of Premium: $18 per team for 1 year, $45 per team for 3 years | Yes. No ads |
| Formats and Scoring | ||||||
| Rotisserie with custom categories | Yes. Any 1 to 20 categories from box-score and derived stats, or up to 12 formula categories you write | Yes | Yes | Yes | $ Yes · Free and Premium. The longest category list anywhere; specialized categories are Premium | Partly. Fixed 4x4 and 5x5 menus |
| Head-to-head categories, each category or one win | Yes. Each category or most categories; periods daily, weekly, semi-weekly, bi-weekly, monthly or custom dates | Yes | Yes | Yes | $ Yes · Free and Premium. Daily, semi-weekly, bi-weekly and monthly periods are Premium | Yes |
| Head-to-head points and season points | Yes. Periods daily, weekly, semi-weekly, bi-weekly, monthly or custom dates | Yes | Yes | Yes | $ Yes · Free and Premium. Daily, semi-weekly, bi-weekly and monthly periods are Premium | Yes. FanGraphs and SABR points |
| Custom point value for every stat | Yes. Any box-score stat, derived stat or formula category, up to 40 per league | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes · Free Tier | No. Fixed |
| Innings minimum and games-played caps | Yes. Innings minimum and a games cap per slot | Yes | Yes | Yes | $ Yes · Free and Premium. Games minimums and per-position maximums are Premium | Yes. Fixed caps |
| Configurable playoffs and divisions | Yes. 2 to 32 teams, reseeding, consolation, toilet bowl, placement games, round lengths, up to 16 divisions | Yes. Up to 8 playoff teams | Yes. Up to 8 playoff teams | Yes | $ Yes · Free and Premium. Reseeding and extra consolation brackets are Premium | Partly |
| Best ball with auto-set best lineups | Yes | No | No | No | Yes · Free Tier | No |
| AL-only and NL-only player pools | Yes. AL-only, NL-only or any set of clubs; the pool applies to drafts, waivers and adds | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Rosters and Lineups | ||||||
| Configurable roster slots | Yes. C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, CI, MI, IF, LF, CF, RF, OF, DH, UTIL, SP, RP, P, BN, IL, NA, TAXI, MiLB, up to nine custom slots, custom roster columns, rookie minimums and maximums, minimum starters per slot | Yes | Yes | Yes | $ Yes · Free and Premium. Specialized positions, custom columns, rookie limits and position minimums are Premium | Partly. A fixed 40-man roster |
| Minor-league slots with eligibility rules | Yes. By prospect flag or career at-bats and innings, with age, games and days-on-roster caps, optional auto-graduation | Partly. NA slots, no eligibility rules | No | Yes | $ Yes · Free and Premium. Slots are free; eligibility options are Premium | Partly. Minor leaguers count on the 40-man |
| Injured-list slots with rules | Yes. IL10 or IL60, custom injury types, grace days, auto-park, forced activation | Yes | Yes | Yes | $ Yes · Free and Premium. Slots are free; advanced removal rules are Premium | Yes |
| Daily or weekly lineups, lock at first pitch | Yes. Daily, daily-tomorrow, weekly or once per scoring period; per-player lock, a fixed time or a time per weekday; nightly auto-start | Yes | Yes | Yes | $ Yes · Free and Premium. Semi-weekly, bi-weekly, monthly and custom lineup periods are Premium | Yes |
| Commissioner-set position eligibility thresholds | Yes. Games this season and last, starts, appearances | No. Yahoo sets eligibility | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Transactions | ||||||
| Waiver order or FAAB bidding | Yes. Rolling, reverse standings or first come; FAAB with minimum bids, tradeable; claim groups and alternate drops | Yes | Yes | Yes | $ Yes · Free and Premium. Claims are free; claim groups and budget trading are Premium | No. In-season auctions instead |
| Instant free agents option | Yes. Same day or next day | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes · Free Tier | No |
| Trade review: commissioner, vote or timed | Yes. None, commissioner, league vote with a veto count, or a timed window | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes · Free Tier | Partly |
| Multi-Team Trades | Yes. Up to four teams in one trade | No | No | No | Yes | No |
| Trade draft picks years ahead | Yes. One to five seasons of future picks, set by the commissioner | Partly. Next draft only, in keeper leagues | Partly. Next draft only, in keeper leagues | Partly | $ Yes · Premium | No. No drafts after the startup |
| Conditional picks and swap rights | Yes. Finish, protected, usage and swap conditions | No | No | No | No | No |
| Trade analyzer and trade finder inside the league | Yes. Analyzer, a balance-this-deal helper, and a finder with three-team loops | No | No | Partly. A trade evaluator | Partly · Free Tier. A trade block, no finder | No |
| Drafts | ||||||
| Live snake draft room | Yes. Clock by round, queue with pick-from-queue, chat, pause, undo, force pick, pick trades on the board, automated drafts | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes · Free Tier | No. Auction only |
| Auction draft | Yes. Live or slow, proxy or sealed bids, keepers pre-loaded at salary | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes · Free Tier | Yes |
| Slow draft with hours per pick | Yes. Clock in hours with an overnight pause and custom days off | No | No | Partly. Email and offline drafts | Yes · Free Tier | Yes. Auctions run over days |
| Offline draft entry | Yes. Paste snake or auction results with a dry run | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes · Free Tier | No |
| Rookie draft with a first-year-player pool | Yes. Startup, rookie, supplemental and MiLB drafts | No | No | Partly. Limited-pool drafts in keeper leagues | Yes | No |
| Weighted draft lottery | Yes. NBA, NHL, linear or even odds, seeded and auditable | No | No | No | Partly. Randomized or manual order | No |
| Linear (non-snake) draft order | Yes. Snake, snake with third-round reversal, or linear | No | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Dynasty Economics | ||||||
| Keepers with a count and a deadline | Yes. 0 to 60 keepers with a minimum, position caps, years limits, hidden or public picks and a deadline default; a flat dollar raise or last price paid in auction leagues | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes · Free Tier | Yes. Everyone is kept at salary |
| Keeper cost by draft round | Yes. Round drafted with escalation, a first-round floor rule, a pickup round, first picks or named picks; keepers fill their slots on the board | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Contracts with years, options and extensions | No. Keeper salaries instead: a price that rises each season he is kept, with finish raises and a yearly limit | No | No | Partly. Keeper years, not full contracts (ahead) | $ Yes · Premium (ahead) | Yes. One-year with raises (ahead) |
| Salary cap with hard or soft enforcement | Yes. An optional team cap on keeper salaries: blocked, luxury tax or shown only; a floor; a change by team; cap space in trades | No | No | No | $ Yes · Premium | Yes. A hard cap |
| Arbitration and salary raises | No | No | No | No | No | Yes. The signature feature (ahead) |
| Dead money and multi-year cap sheets | No. Dropping a kept player costs a share of his salary this season only | No | No | No | $ Partly · Premium. Cut penalties, no multi-year sheet (ahead) | Partly. Cut penalties (ahead) |
| Commissioner Tools | ||||||
| Change settings mid-season with an audit trail | Yes. Every section validated and logged, mid-season included | Partly. Some settings lock after the draft | Partly. Most settings lock after the draft | Yes | Yes | No |
| Constitution page with version history | Yes. 25 versions and read receipts | No. A league note | Partly. A league note | Yes. A rules page | Partly. Rules text | No |
| Dues ledger and payout table | Yes. Ledger, per-team amounts, part payments, waive and refund, prize pools, payouts by place, reminders; card checkout is not wired yet | No | No | No. LeagueSafe links | $ Yes · Free and Premium. Its Treasurer collects, holds and pays out league fees, free on both tiers; prize management is Premium | No |
| Season archives, record book and trophy case | Yes. Archives, record book, awards, trophy case; twelve seasons from Yahoo | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sandbox copy of your league to test changes | Yes. A private copy to try a rollover or a rule change | No | No | No | No | No |
| Commissioner assistant that reads your rules | Yes. Reads settings, constitution, trades and flags; proposes, never applies | No | No | No | No | No |
| Community | ||||||
| Chat, message board and polls | Yes. Reactions and images; threads, pins and polls on the board | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes · Free Tier | Yes |
| Discord bot and webhooks | Yes. Webhook embeds for chat, trades, waivers and posts; a bot that links accounts and DMs alerts | No | No | No | No | No |
| Push notifications in a store app | Partly. Web push and email are built; there is no store app to carry push yet | Yes (ahead) | Yes (ahead) | Yes (ahead) | Yes · Free Tier (ahead) | Partly. Email |
| Power rankings, playoff odds, matchup previews | Yes. Plus a news feed filtered to your rostered players | Partly | Partly | Partly | Partly | No |
| Side games inside the league | Yes. Weekly pick'em and a prospect bracket | No | No | No | No | No |
| Imports and Data | ||||||
| Bring a league over from another host with its history | Yes. Yahoo and Fantrax in one click with past seasons; ESPN, CBS, RTSports and NFBC rosters through Connections; rosters and salaries from one spreadsheet | No | No | No | No | No |
| CSV exports and a read-only API | Yes. Eight CSV datasets and a read-only league API token | Partly. A developer API, no exports | Partly. An undocumented API | Partly. Some exports | Partly. CSV exports of some tables | Partly. CSV exports |
| Minor-league stats can score | Yes. Chosen levels and a weight, from the MLB Stats API | No | No | No | No. MiLB stats shown, not scored | No |
| Apps and Platform | ||||||
| Apps in the App Store and Google Play | No. Installs to your home screen as a web app; store apps are not published | Yes (ahead) | Yes (ahead) | Yes (ahead) | Yes · Free Tier (ahead) | No. Web only |
| Live scoring during games | Yes. About every four minutes while games are on | Yes. Near real time | Yes. Near real time | Yes | Yes · Free Tier | Partly. Updated through the day |
| Rankings and trade values that read your league | Yes. Dynasty rankings, trade calculator, StreamMachine and player values read your rosters and settings | Partly. Yahoo's own advice | Partly. ESPN's own advice | Partly. SportsLine advice | Partly | No |
| Sample leagues to explore without signing up | Yes. Seven sample leagues, each frozen on one day of the season: dynasty, keeper, redraft, season points, weekly head-to-head, and a salary-cap league in season and in the offseason | No | No | No | No | No |
| Public leagues to join right now | Partly. A marketplace of open seats, but far fewer leagues than the big hosts | Yes (ahead) | Yes (ahead) | Yes (ahead) | Yes (ahead) | Yes (ahead) |
| Postseason formats | Yes. Long Ball, One and Done, October Box Pool and Playoff Draft | No | No | No | No | No |
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