Gran Board alternatives

The verdict: the Arachnid Cricket Pro 800 is the closest alternative to a Gran Board for a buyer who wants automatic scoring - it scores, calls and tracks players entirely on its own display, with no phone or pairing involved. The budget pick is the Viper 777 Electronic, the cheapest board here that still does the scoring for you. And for a buyer whose real goal is to get good at steel-tip darts, the honest alternative is the Winmau Blade 6, a premium sisal board with nothing in it to fail.

Start with what a Gran Board is for. It is a soft-tip electronic board whose distinctive feature is connectivity: rather than a built-in display, it pairs over Bluetooth with an app that handles scoring, statistics and online play. That is a genuinely different proposition from a conventional electronic board, and it means the alternatives split by which part of it you actually want.

Automatic scoring. By far the commonest reason, and the easiest to replace. A standard game of darts means subtracting three-dart totals from 501 and finishing on a double, and the arithmetic is the barrier that stops casual households playing - not the throwing. Any electronic board removes it, and the cheap ones remove it as completely as the expensive ones.

Statistics and tracking. Averages, checkout percentages, trends over months. This needs software rather than a board, and that software exists independently: a bristle board plus any darts scoring app on a phone produces the same statistics, with the manual step of entering scores. Whether that manual step is worth the saving is a personal call.

Online play against other people. This is the part that genuinely has no substitute among the boards here. A connected board that matches you against remote opponents is doing something no standalone board does, and if that is the reason you are shopping, nothing on this page replaces it. The honest answer in that case is to buy the connected board.

It is also worth knowing that soft-tip darts is its own discipline rather than a home version of steel tip. The World Soft Darts Association governs it, with its own international circuit, and the equipment and some of the conventions differ. Choosing between formats is choosing between two related sports - steel tip vs soft tip covers the differences.

1. Standalone or app-dependent. A board with its own display works for any guest on any evening. A board that needs a paired phone and a current app occasionally does not. In a shared games room, standalone usually wins.

2. Display readability from the oche. The oche is 2.37 m (7 ft 9 in) from the board face per the World Darts Federation standard. A display that cannot be read from there is a display somebody has to walk up to, which defeats the purpose.

3. Segment layout, which is the electronic equivalent of wire profile. On a bristle board bounce-outs come from wire; on an electronic board they come from points not seating in the holes. Better boards shape the segments to seat cleanly.

4. Player slots, not game-mode counts. Households play one or two games and need four player slots. Long game lists are specification-sheet features.

5. Whether anyone will actually keep score. If the answer is no, an electronic board is not a compromise - it is the board that will get used. If the answer is yes, a bristle board is better equipment for less money.

6. The dart format you want to practise. Steel tip on sisal, soft tip on plastic. They are not interchangeable in either direction, and steel darts will destroy an electronic board.

Quick picks

Tap any row to jump to the full write-up.

#	Product	Best for	Price
1	Closest match on standalone scoring Arachnid Cricket Pro 800 Electronic Dartboard A tournament-style electronic board that scores on its own display, no phone needed.	A games room where the board should work without anybody's phone	$249.99$289.9914% offView on Amazon
2	Best value electronic Viper 800 Electronic Dartboard The same automatic scoring at a fraction of the price, with a readable display.	A household that wants scoring handled and does not care about apps	$79.99$157.9949% offView on Amazon
3	The bristle alternative Winmau Blade 6 Single Core Dartboard A premium sisal board - no scoring, no electronics, and nothing to fail.	A player who would rather improve than be scored for	$89.00View on Amazon
4	Budget pick Viper 777 Electronic Dartboard The cheapest board here that still scores for you.	A family that wants the scoring handled on the smallest budget	$68.43$88.9923% offView on Amazon

#ad · Buy links are affiliate links and we earn a commission on qualifying purchases. Prices and product photographs come from the Amazon listing itself and are refreshed daily; the date they were last checked is shown under each buy button. Where a maker does not sell through Amazon there is no product photo, and the card below says so.

1. Closest match on standalone scoring

Arachnid Cricket Pro 800 Electronic Dartboard

Arachnid

If what you want from a Gran Board is automatic scoring, this is the alternative that delivers it without a dependency. The Arachnid Cricket Pro 800 is a full electronic board with its own display and its own stored games, so it scores, calls the game and tracks players with nothing paired to it.

That independence is worth more than it sounds. A board that needs a phone paired and an app open is a board that occasionally does not work - a dead battery, an app update, a guest without the app installed. A standalone board is the same board every evening, and in a shared games room that reliability is the feature.

Arachnid is a long-standing name in electronic darts and the Cricket Pro line is its home-tournament tier, which shows in the segment layout and the number of game variants rather than in connectivity. What you are not getting is online play against strangers, which is the Gran Board's distinctive draw. Best electronic dartboards covers the category.

What we like

• Scores, calls and tracks players entirely on its own display
• No phone, app or pairing needed - works for any guest
• Many stored game variants beyond 501 and cricket
• From an established electronic darts maker

Worth knowing

• No online play or app statistics
• Priced well above the simpler electronic boards below
• Plastic segments wear and cannot be rotated like sisal

Who it’s wrong for

A player whose reason for wanting a Gran Board is playing people online. No standalone board does that, and nothing here substitutes for it.

$249.99$289.9914% off·View on Amazon

#ad · We earn a commission on qualifying purchases. How this is funded · Price as of November 10, 2026

2. Best value electronic

Viper 800 Electronic Dartboard

Viper (GLD Products)

This is the pick for most households shopping away from a Gran Board, because most of them want the scoring and not the connectivity. The Viper 800 does automatic scoring, holds a long list of game variants, and has a display large enough to read from the 2.37 m oche - for a fraction of what a connected board costs.

Scoring is genuinely the thing that matters. A standard game means subtracting three-dart totals from 501 and finishing on a double, and that arithmetic is the reason casual households stop playing darts rather than any shortage of enthusiasm. Automate it and the board gets used.

The segment layout is designed to seat soft-tip points cleanly, which on an electronic board is the equivalent of wire profile on a bristle one - it is what stops darts dropping out. Expect the electronics to be the first thing to fail eventually, which is true of every board in this format.

What we like

• Automatic scoring at a small fraction of a connected board's price
• Long list of stored games and plenty of player slots
• Display readable from the oche
• Segment layout designed to seat soft-tip darts

Worth knowing

• No app, statistics or online play
• Plastic segments wear over time
• Electronics will be the first component to fail

Who it’s wrong for

A steel-tip player. Electronic boards take soft-tip darts only, and steel points will wreck the segments - see steel tip vs soft tip.

$79.99$157.9949% off·View on Amazon

#ad · We earn a commission on qualifying purchases. How this is funded · Price as of November 10, 2026

3. The bristle alternative

Winmau Blade 6 Single Core Dartboard

Winmau

This belongs on the page because for a lot of buyers it is the right answer. If the attraction of a connected board is the statistics - tracking averages, checkout percentages, where your darts actually land - the alternative worth considering is a proper bristle board plus keeping score on paper or in any darts scoring app on your phone.

The reason is format. Tournament steel-tip darts is played on sisal boards, and the Winmau Blade 6 is a premium-range example: thin low-profile wiring that reduces bounce-outs, dense self-healing sisal, a staple-free bullseye. Soft tip is a related but distinct discipline with its own governing body in the World Soft Darts Association and its own circuit - the darts, the weights and the target behaviour are all different.

So the honest framing is this: if the goal is to get good at the darts most people mean by darts, a bristle board is the equipment. If the goal is scoring and connected play without the arithmetic, it is not. Bristle vs electronic is the page that settles it.

What we like

• The format tournament steel-tip darts is actually played on
• Self-healing sisal that lasts years with rotation
• No electronics, batteries, pairing or app to fail
• Thin low-profile wiring, which is the specification that reduces bounce-outs

Worth knowing

• No scoring help at all - you keep score, or a phone app does
• Missed darts damage the wall unless a surround is fitted
• Needs correct mounting height and a lit corner to be enjoyable

Who it’s wrong for

A household that will not keep score. If the arithmetic is the barrier, a bristle board will sit unused, however good it is.

$89.00·View on Amazon

#ad · We earn a commission on qualifying purchases. How this is funded · Price as of November 10, 2026

4. Budget pick

Viper 777 Electronic Dartboard

Viper (GLD Products)

This is the budget pick and its job is the single most valuable function in the category at the lowest price: it keeps score. The Viper 777 does automatic scoring with soft-tip segments and a display, with a shorter game list and a simpler cabinet than the 800 above.

Most households play one or two games, so the shorter list is rarely the constraint it looks like on a specification sheet. What is worth checking is the number of players supported, because that is the feature families genuinely use - four people taking turns is the normal case.

Everything true of the format is true here: soft-tip only, plastic segments that wear and cannot be rotated, and electronics as the likeliest failure point. In exchange, nobody has to subtract 57 from 243 standing up with a drink in their hand, which is the entire reason this category exists.

What we like

• The cheapest board here that scores automatically
• Soft-tip segments, so bounce-outs do not damage the wall
• Simple enough that a guest can use it unaided
• Supports multiple players, which is what families use

Worth knowing

• Fewest game modes here
• Smallest display - check readability from the oche
• Plastic segments wear and cannot be rotated

Who it’s wrong for

Anyone working toward steel-tip play. The darts, the weights and the way the board accepts them are all different disciplines.

$68.43$88.9923% off·View on Amazon

#ad · We earn a commission on qualifying purchases. How this is funded · Price as of November 10, 2026

• Mounting height. The World Darts Federation standard is a bull centre 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in) from the floor with the oche 2.37 m (7 ft 9 in) from the board face. An electronic board mounted by eye trains the wrong throw exactly as a bristle one does.
• Lighting. A board you cannot see properly is a board nobody enjoys, and the display does not light the target.
• Segment wear. Plastic segments wear and, unlike sisal, cannot be rotated to spread it. The twenty bed goes first on every board.
• Electronics failing. The most likely component to end an electronic board's life, and usually not economically repairable.
• Dart choice. Soft-tip darts are their own thing, and the weight and grip that suit you are personal rather than a quality ladder.
• Bounce-outs. They still happen - points fail to seat rather than hitting wire, but the dart still ends up on the floor.

• Scoring without a phone - Arachnid Cricket Pro 800. Standalone display, many games, works for any guest.
• Scoring for much less - Viper 800 Electronic. Same core function, readable display, a fraction of the price.
• Scoring on the smallest budget - Viper 777 Electronic. The cheapest board here that still scores.
• Steel-tip darts, properly - Winmau Blade 6. The format the sport is played on, with nothing to fail.

Prices in this category move, so this page compares positions rather than figures and leaves the number to the live listing on each pick. For the electronic category in full, best electronic dartboards covers the range, and what dartboards do professionals use answers the question behind a lot of these purchases.