One scores for you and damages nothing. The other feels like darts. The right answer depends on your wall and who else lives there — not on how good you are.
Updated October 2026 · By Stephen V.
Buy steel-tip sisal if you have a wall you can put holes in and you care how the throw feels; buy electronic if there are children in the house or you want the board to keep score. The Winmau Blade 6 is the sisal pick and the Arachnid Cricket Pro 800 the electronic one. Skill level has nothing to do with this decision, which is the thing most comparisons get wrong.
Both are real darts. Professional soft-tip leagues exist, and the official mounting dimensions are identical for the two. What differs is everything around the throw: what happens when you miss, who gets hurt, who does the arithmetic, and how much noise reaches the room above.
The short answer
In a hurry? These are the picks we'd buy. Prices are live; tap a card below for the full reasoning.
$289.9918% offPrice as of October 7, 2026·#addisclosure
Arachnid Cricket Pro 800 Electronic Dartboard
Automatic scoring across 40 games with plastic tips that damage nothing — the board that actually gets played in a house with other people in it.
Darts
Soft tip, 16-20 g typical
Scoring
Automatic, 40 games
Wall damage
None
Noise
Plastic click plus beeps
Safety
Blunt plastic tips
Pros
Automatic scoring removes the friction that ends casual games
Nothing gets damaged — wall, floor, feet or furniture
Safe to have up in a family room
Dozens of game formats built in
Cons
More bounce-outs than good sisal
The throw does not feel the same
Electronics and segments are wear items; the board is not a twenty-year purchase
Best for: Families, apartments, and anyone who wants the board to score.
How to choose (and what to skip)
Start with the wall, not the board
If the board is going on finished drywall in a room you care about, a steel-tip board needs a surround or a cabinet, and even then stray darts find the wall. If the wall is painted block, bare stud, or inside a garage, that objection disappears. If you cannot put a single hole in the wall, electronic is the only answer.
Then count who else lives there
Steel-tip darts are genuinely sharp. A bristle board in a family room with young children is a bad idea, and no amount of supervision makes a steel point blunt. Electronic boards with plastic tips are the right call there, and the automatic scoring also makes the game playable by a child who cannot do the arithmetic.
Consider who is doing the scoring
Scoring is the hidden reason dartboards stop getting used. Chalk scoring on a sisal board is part of the tradition and also a job somebody has to do every leg. A scoring app on a phone splits the difference. Automatic electronic scoring removes it entirely, and in a mixed group that is worth more than the better throw.
Noise, if anyone is below or next door
A steel tip hitting sisal is a low thud. An electronic board is a plastic click plus whatever beeps and voice prompts it makes, usually with no way to fully silence them. Both are quiet next to an air hockey table, but in an apartment the electronic board's electronic noise is the more intrusive of the two.
Cost over five years
A good sisal board plus a surround plus a set of tungsten darts is a one-time outlay that lasts years with rotation. An electronic board costs similar money up front but has consumables — plastic tips constantly, segments eventually, electronics once. Neither is expensive next to any game table, and buying both is a legitimate option.
Is one more 'real' than the other?
No. Both use the same board layout, the same throw distance and the same 5 feet 8 inches to the bullseye, and organised soft-tip leagues are played at a high level. The sisal board is the traditional form and the one professional televised darts uses, which is why it feels authoritative. But a player who practises on an electronic board is practising darts.
Where the difference becomes real is grouping. Steel-tip darts with a high tungsten content have slim barrels, so three darts can sit in the same treble bed. On an electronic board the segments are plastic and the holes are a fixed pattern, so tight grouping is physically limited and a third dart is more likely to bounce. If you want to chase a 180, that matters.
The bounce-out question
Both bounce out, for different reasons. On sisal, bounce-outs come from darts striking the wire — which is exactly what the premium boards engineer away with thin, flush-mounted blade wire and a staple-free bullseye. On an electronic board they come from a tip hitting a divider rather than finding a hole, and the most common cause is a bent or worn plastic tip rather than the board itself. A good sisal board bounces out less than a good electronic board; a cheap sisal board bounces out more than either.
Both, and in what order
The pairing a lot of home bars end up with is a sisal board in the garage or games room and an electronic board where the family is, and together they cost a fraction of any game table. If you are buying one now and may buy the other later, buy for your current constraint — if there are small children, that constraint will not change for years, so start electronic. If the room is yours, start with sisal, because that is the board you will still want in a decade.
Whichever you choose, the mounting and lighting advice is identical, and getting both right matters more to your scores than the choice between the two board types. Our mounting guide covers the measurements and the lighting problem most people never fix.
Frequently asked questions
Is steel tip or soft tip better for a home bar?+
Steel tip into sisal is the better game if the wall can take the misses and no small children have access to the darts. Electronic soft-tip is better in a family room or apartment: it scores automatically, damages nothing and is safe to leave up. Skill level is not the deciding factor — the room and the household are.
Do steel-tip and electronic boards hang at the same height?+
Yes. Both use the official dimensions: 5 feet 8 inches from the floor to the centre of the bullseye and 7 feet 9.25 inches to the throw line measured along the floor. That consistency is why scoring averages are comparable between the two formats.
Which bounces out more?+
A good electronic board bounces out more than a good sisal board, because a soft tip has to find a hole rather than penetrate a surface. But a cheap sisal board with thick stapled wire bounces out more than either. Board quality matters more than board type, and on electronic boards worn plastic tips are the most common cause.
Can kids play with an electronic dartboard?+
Yes, and it is the main reason to buy one. Soft plastic tips do not injure or damage anything, and the automatic scoring means a child who cannot yet do the arithmetic can still play a full game of Cricket or 301. A steel-tip board is not appropriate where young children have unsupervised access.
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