Although both are fast-growing racket sports using stringless paddles, padel and pickleball have huge differences in courts, equipment, gameplay and rules.

Court Design (The biggest difference)

Padel is played on a 20m × 10m fully enclosed court surrounded by tempered glass walls. The glass walls are part of the game; players can use ball rebounds off walls to create tactical shots.

Pickleball uses an open 13.41m × 6.10m court without walls. It features a special 2.13m-wide non-volley zone (called "kitchen") on both sides of the net, where players cannot hit volleys.

Equipment

Padel: Uses a low-pressure tennis-style rubber ball and a perforated composite padel racket.

Pickleball: Uses a lightweight hollow perforated plastic wiffle ball and a flat, solid pickleball paddle without holes.

Game Format & Scoring

Padel: Almost exclusively doubles. It adopts traditional tennis scoring rules (15-30-40, games, sets).

Pickleball: Singles and doubles are both popular. It uses simplified scoring, normally played to 11 points and you must win by 2 points.

Serve Rules

Padel requires an underhand serve, and the ball must bounce once on your side before hitting over the net.

Pickleball has a double-bounce rule: both the serve and return must bounce once before players can hit volleys.

Commercial Application

Padel courts are larger enclosed panoramic facilities, widely invested by sports clubs, resorts and hotels across Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. Pickleball courts occupy smaller space and are more popular in North America.