SkyTrak+ Free Mode: What You Actually Get for $0
Testing the SkyTrak+ Basic membership to see whether the free driving range and club data are enough to skip the $250/year renewal.
If your SkyTrak subscription has lapsed — or you're wondering whether you even need one — the good news is that the SkyTrak+ still does quite a bit in "Free Mode." Danny put the Basic membership tier to the test to find out exactly what carries over for $0 and what gets locked behind the paywall.
Compared to the Bushnell Launch Pro, which offers very little without a subscription, SkyTrak's free tier is surprisingly generous. You keep access to the driving range — and not just a single range, but a whole spread of themed and practice-focused options.
Bushnell Launch Pro
What's Locked in the SkyTrak App
Fire up the app without a subscription and you'll quickly hit the walls. Game evaluation, challenges, and course play are all locked by default. SkyTrak teases course play by letting you browse the course list, but tap into any of them and you'll get an "upgrade plan to unlock this course" prompt.
Practice mode is the same story — on-course practice looks available but is really just a tease. In short: no virtual golf and no real course play without paying. What you can do is head into the ranges.
The Free Driving Ranges Are the Real Draw
This is where the free tier earns its keep. Hit "Play Now" under ranges and you're greeted with a genuine variety of environments:
- Standard SkyTrak range
- Haunted House themed range
- Winter Wonderland range
- City range (just a fun one)
- Accuracy range with islands on water
- Shot shaping range — hit around a tree
- Pinseeker "kissing tree" — plays like a par 3
The one catch on the standard range: the gear icon that would normally let you set a custom fairway or green size is locked. Click it and you're prompted to upgrade. You can still adjust variables in the settings area, though — Danny sets his Denver elevation, for example, and it works fine.
Ball Data and Club Data on the Free Tier
Here's the pleasant surprise: the full data suite is available in free mode. Expand the bottom panel and you get launch angle, backspin, descent angle, max height, smash factor, ball speed, and club speed. The top-left readout shows total distance plus average carry and total across the club.
The only metric missing is angle of attack — and that's not a paywall issue. SkyTrak doesn't provide angle of attack on any tier, so you're not losing anything by not paying.
The Pinseeker range in particular shows off some genuinely useful practice features: a persistent face-to-target and club path display, a side view for launch angle, and a dispersion heat map you can reset at any time. The shot history tab lays everything out in a table you can export to track in other software.
What works
- Full ball and club data in free mode
- Large variety of driving ranges included
- Persistent club path and face-to-target display
- Exportable shot history table
- Elevation and environmental settings still work
What doesn't
- No course play or virtual golf
- Challenges and game evaluation locked
- Custom fairway/green sizing paywalled
- No month-to-month membership option
Should You Renew?
For a lot of players, the range experience alone is enough. The sheer variety of practice environments meaningfully extends the value of the free membership. Danny's main wish? That SkyTrak offered a month-to-month plan like Garmin or Awesome Golf — so you could pay for sim golf only when you actually want to play a course, then drop back to free mode for everyday range work.
If you never touch course play, saving $250/year and living in free mode is a completely viable strategy on the ST+ (and the newer ST Max).