Pickleball vs Padel: What's the Difference?

Two racket sports have taken over British leisure centres, park courts and old warehouse units over the last few years, and their names get muddled constantly. Pickleball and padel sound similar, both use a solid bat rather than a strung racket, and both are usually played in twos. Yet they are genuinely different games, with different courts, different balls and a different feel underfoot. If you have ever stood at a booking screen wondering which one you actually fancy playing, this is the piece that sorts it out.

The confusion is understandable given how fast both have grown. Pickleball England reported that its membership rose by around 79% in 2025, and there are now roughly 200,000 people in the UK playing pickleball at least a couple of times a month, up from a few thousand at the start of the decade. Padel has boomed just as loudly, with hundreds of new courts appearing across the country. When two sports arrive at once and both involve a paddle, a net and a small ball, a bit of name-mixing is inevitable.

So, is padel the same as pickleball?

No. They are separate sports with separate histories. Pickleball was invented in the United States in 1965 as a back-garden game for bored children, and it kept the homemade, easy-going character that makes it so quick to pick up. Padel started in Mexico a few years later and spread through Spain and Latin America, where it became a serious, fast, glass-walled spectacle. You will also hear a third term, paddle tennis (sometimes written as paddle ball), which is a different American court game again. For most people in Britain, though, the real choice is between pickleball and padel, so those are the two we will line up side by side.

The court: walls versus the kitchen

The single biggest difference is the court itself. A padel court is fully enclosed, measuring 20 metres by 10 metres, and it is ringed by glass and mesh walls. Those walls are not just a boundary, they are part of play: the ball can rebound off them, so rallies loop and carom in a way that feels a little like squash. You almost always need a purpose-built, caged court to play.

Pickleball is played on a smaller open court, 13.41 metres by 6.09 metres, which is the same footprint as a badminton doubles court. There are no walls. Instead, the defining feature is a seven-foot zone on each side of the net known as the non-volley zone, universally nicknamed the kitchen. You are not allowed to volley the ball while standing in the kitchen, and that one rule shapes the entire game. It rewards soft, controlled shots at the net rather than big smashes, which is a large part of why pickleball is so friendly to newcomers.

The gear: paddles and balls

Both sports use a bat with no strings, which is where a lot of the mix-up begins, but look closely and they are quite distinct. A padel paddle is thick and often teardrop-shaped, made from carbon fibre or fibreglass, and it is dotted with holes through the face. The pickleball paddles you will find in a UK shop are different: they are flat, rectangular and thinner, with a solid hitting surface and a comfortable handle. They are also generally light, which makes long sessions kinder on the arm.

The balls are worlds apart, and this is arguably the clearest tell of all. Padel uses a low-pressure ball that looks and feels much like a slightly softer tennis ball, so it bounces and travels at pace. Pickleball uses a lightweight, hollow plastic ball covered in holes, closer to a wiffle ball, which flies slower and sits up nicely for the next shot. It is worth knowing that pickleball balls even come in two types: indoor balls with larger holes and a softer flight, and outdoor balls with smaller holes that cope better with wind. If you are just starting, our range of indoor and outdoor pickleball balls shows the difference at a glance.

How the games are played

Padel is almost always played as doubles. The enclosed court and the wall rebounds make singles rare and, frankly, exhausting. Scoring follows tennis exactly, with points counted 15, 30, 40 and games won in sets. If you have played tennis, padel's scoreboard will feel instantly familiar.

Pickleball is more flexible and can be played as either singles or doubles, though doubles is the social favourite. Scoring is simpler and quite different: games are usually first to 11 points, and you have to win by two. In the traditional format only the serving side can score a point, which keeps games sociable and gives everyone plenty of chances to claw back. The serve itself is gentle, delivered underarm and diagonally, so there is no intimidating power serve to master before you can enjoy a rally.

Can you play pickleball on a tennis court?

Yes, and this is one of pickleball's quiet advantages. Because a pickleball court is small and needs no walls, a standard tennis court can be marked out for one or more pickleball courts using temporary lines and a portable net set at 34 inches in the centre. Many UK clubs and leisure centres have done exactly this to meet demand. Padel simply cannot be squeezed onto a tennis court in the same way, because it needs its permanent glass enclosure. That accessibility is a big reason pickleball has spread so quickly through existing sports facilities, church halls and community centres.

Which one should you try?

It comes down to the sort of game you enjoy. Padel is dynamic, a touch dramatic and best experienced on a proper caged court, so you will usually book a session at a dedicated venue. Pickleball is gentler on the joints, quick to learn in an afternoon, and easy to set up almost anywhere there is a flat surface, which makes it a superb entry point for families and older players as well as competitive types. The two even share an audience: plenty of people happily play both.

If pickleball sounds like your kind of afternoon, the cheapest way to find out is to grab a two or four player paddle set, which typically bundles paddles and a few balls together, then borrow a badminton court or mark up a spare bit of tarmac and see how you get on. Whichever sport you land on, you are joining one of the fastest-growing corners of British sport, and there has never been a better time to give it a go.