AceSense vs PB Vision: 2026 honest comparison
PB Vision and AceSense share AI roots but target different sports. Here's which one fits a tennis player and which fits a paddle-sport player.
Short version: PB Vision is for the smaller paddle sport. AceSense is for tennis. This page exists because Google search keeps surfacing one as an "alternative" to the other, and that suggestion is wrong in both directions.
If you play both sports — and a lot of rec players do — you'll want both apps. Neither is a substitute for the other, and the underlying AI models are tuned for different ball physics and different court geometry.
TL;DR
| AceSense | PB Vision | |
|---|---|---|
| Sport | Tennis | The smaller paddle sport |
| Court size | 78×27 ft singles / 36 ft doubles | 20×44 ft |
| Shot taxonomy | Forehand, backhand, serve, volley, slice, lob | Dink, drive, drop, third-shot, volley |
| Ball physics | Felt tennis ball, fast topspin, high bounces | Plastic perforated ball, low arc |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Check pb.vision |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes — limited |
| Court detection on clay | Yes | N/A (sport not played on clay) |
| EU hosting | Yes — europe-west1 | US-hosted |
When PB Vision is the right choice
Non-negotiable section:
- You play the smaller paddle sport. That is the entire reason this product exists. The dink classifier, the third-shot-drop labelling, the kitchen-line awareness — none of those exist in a tennis-AI product, including AceSense.
- You play both sports and need a paddle-sport tool. AceSense isn't going to do paddle-sport analysis well. PB Vision is the right tool.
- Your group is on PB Vision. Network effects in a small-community sport matter more than feature parity.
When AceSense is the right choice
- You play tennis. The whole pipeline — TrackNet ball detection, court keypoints, MediaPipe pose, CatBoost shot/bounce classifier — is tuned on tennis data. Tennis ball flight is faster, arcs higher, bounces differently; tennis courts have a different geometry; tennis shot taxonomy is different.
- You're on Android. AceSense is mobile-first on both stores.
- You want clay-court support. Clay isn't a paddle-sport surface, so PB Vision has no reason to support it. Tennis-AI products that cite "clay-court issues" — like SwingVision, App Store reviews — leave a real gap. AceSense's court model is trained on hard, clay, and indoor.
Feature-by-feature
| Feature | AceSense (tennis) | PB Vision (paddle sport) |
|---|---|---|
| Sport-specific ball model | TrackNet, tennis-trained | Yes, sport-specific |
| Sport-specific court model | Tennis lines (singles/doubles) | The smaller court layout |
| Shot classifier | Forehand / backhand / serve / volley / slice / lob | Dink / drive / drop / third-shot / volley |
| Stroke quality scoring | Yes — pose-based, tennis-specific | Limited |
| Court heatmap | Yes — per-shot, per-bounce | Yes — sport-appropriate |
| Serve speed | Yes (with methodology) | Less relevant — different sport mechanics |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Check vendor |
| EU data residency | Yes | No |
Pricing in plain English
PB Vision pricing changes frequently — check pb.vision directly. Both apps offer a free tier that's enough to try.
AceSense:
- Free — full per-shot report on short videos.
- Pro — €19/mo. Unlimited match length.
- Team — €49/mo. Multi-coach, async review.
"Can I use one for the other sport?"
Technically, yes. Practically, no.
- AceSense on a paddle-sport video: the upload succeeds; the court detector tries to fit tennis lines onto a much smaller court; the shot classifier returns nonsense ("forehand" for a dink, "serve" for a third-shot drop). Shot count will be roughly right; everything else will be off.
- PB Vision on a tennis video: the inverse. The court detector expects a 20×44-foot court and the ball physics differ enough that the tracker drops more frames.
These are not bugs. The vendors specialised on purpose. If you film both sports, use both tools.
Migration / dual use
If you came here from PB Vision because you also play tennis: you don't migrate, you add. Keep PB Vision for paddle-sport days. Add AceSense for tennis days. Different folder for each set of videos in your phone library is the simplest workflow.
Why specialisation matters more than people think
A common assumption is "AI is AI — same model, different sport, just retrain." It's not that simple. Here's what actually changes between a tennis pipeline and a paddle-sport pipeline:
Ball physics. A tennis ball is felt-covered, ~57 grams, leaves the racket at up to 200+ kph for pro serves. The smaller paddle sport's ball is plastic and perforated, slow, low-arc. The tracking model's frame-to-frame motion priors differ. A model trained on one will lose ball position on the other.
Court geometry. Tennis courts are 78×27 ft (singles) or 78×36 ft (doubles), with very specific keypoints — baseline corners, T-line, service line intersections, doubles tramlines. The smaller paddle sport's court is 20×44 ft with completely different lines (kitchen / non-volley zone). The keypoint detector that's been trained on tennis will mis-fit on the smaller sport's court.
Shot taxonomy. Forehand, backhand, serve, volley, slice, lob — these are tennis labels. Dink, drive, drop, third-shot — those are the smaller paddle sport's labels. The shot classifier is a multi-class problem; the labels themselves differ. A tennis-trained classifier doesn't have "dink" as a category, full stop.
Player positioning patterns. Tennis players cover a 78-foot court; the smaller paddle sport players play a much shorter court with kitchen-zone constraints. Heatmap clustering, court-coverage stats, and player-position-aware scoring all assume one or the other.
That's why "use the wrong tool for the wrong sport" produces nonsense. The vendors specialise on purpose. We did, and so did PB Vision.
Court compatibility
| Surface | AceSense | PB Vision |
|---|---|---|
| Tennis hard | Yes | Wrong sport |
| Tennis clay | Yes | Wrong sport / N/A |
| Tennis indoor | Yes | Wrong sport |
| Smaller paddle sport indoor | Wrong sport | Yes |
| Smaller paddle sport outdoor | Wrong sport | Yes |
Platform support
Both products ship on iOS. Android availability differs by vendor and changes over time. AceSense is on both stores; check pb.vision for their current Android status.
What real users say
PB Vision's user base is happy on the smaller paddle sport. The complaint pattern is mostly "I want this for tennis" — which is exactly why AceSense exists. We don't have a single representative public complaint thread we can point at because the product is younger and the discussion is mostly inside a small paddle-sport community.
For tennis, the relevant complaints are about iOS-only competitors:
"Will Swingvision still work with an Android?" — Talk Tennis
"Genuinely thinking of getting a iPhone just for the swing[vision]" — r/10s
That's the gap AceSense fills on the tennis side. The tennis-AI category had iOS dominance and no Android answer; PB Vision's iOS-first launch reinforced the same pattern. AceSense is mobile-first on both stores.
Migration / dual-sport workflow
For players who genuinely play both sports, a clean workflow:
- Folder per sport in your phone library. Tennis videos in one, smaller-sport videos in another.
- AceSense for the tennis folder. Per-shot analysis, court heatmap, stroke quality.
- PB Vision for the smaller-sport folder. Sport-specific shot taxonomy, kitchen-aware positioning.
- One report per sport, separately. Don't try to merge — they measure different things.
You're not "switching" between products; you're using both, each for what it's built for. The players who get the most out of cross-sport analysis treat them as separate pipelines.
Pricing context
AceSense pricing: free tier, €19/mo Pro, €49/mo Team. PB Vision pricing varies — confirm at pb.vision. Comparing the two on price misses the point because they aren't substitutes; you'd pay each one for its specific sport, not pick between them on cost.
FAQ
Is PB Vision for tennis? No — built for the smaller paddle sport.
Is AceSense for the paddle sport? No — tennis only.
Are they the same company? No. Separate companies.
Does PB Vision work on Android? Check pb.vision for current platform status.
Can I use AceSense for the paddle sport? Not usefully. Use a sport-specific tool.
Try AceSense free on iOS and Android — for tennis. If you also need a paddle-sport tool, PB Vision is a reasonable choice for that sport.
Try AceSense free → · How AceSense works · Read the accuracy methodology · vs SwingVision
Frequently asked questions
- Is PB Vision for tennis?
- No. PB Vision is built around the smaller paddle sport. The shot taxonomy, court keypoints, and stroke models are tuned for a 20×44-foot court, not a tennis court. Some players have tried it on tennis video — results are inconsistent because the underlying ball, court, and shot models aren't the right ones.
- Is AceSense for the paddle sport?
- No. AceSense is tennis-only. We chose to specialise rather than spread thin: tennis ball physics, tennis court geometry, tennis shot taxonomy. If you play both sports, you'll want one tool per sport.
- Are PB Vision and AceSense the same company?
- No. They're separate companies. SwingVision and PB Vision share a parent; AceSense is independent and EU-based.
- Does PB Vision work on Android?
- PB Vision runs on iOS. Check pb.vision for the latest Android status.
- Can I use AceSense for the paddle sport in a pinch?
- Technically the upload will succeed but the analysis will be wrong. The court model expects tennis dimensions; the shot classifier doesn't know dinks or volleys-from-the-kitchen. Use a tool built for the sport you're filming.