Pickleball is similar to tennis and ping pong, but you can’t use any of those balls to play the game. What do pickleballs look like?

Most net games have balls that look similar in that they are just like a typical ball, even if there are differences in size, weight, or color.

Pickleballs are like standard wiffle balls that are made of plastic and have holes drilled into them. Pickleballs are made of slightly heavier plastic though, and there are also differences between outdoor and indoor pickleballs.

There are many different types of pickleballs, just like there are different types of balls for other games.

We looked at the kinds of pickleballs available, and how they differ from each other. We also asked pickleball players for their opinions on what kind of pickleballs are common.

The Average Pickleball

When talking about different types of pickleballs and what they look like, first we should talk about your typical pickleball.

As mentioned earlier, pickleballs are wiffle balls made of plastic, with holes drilled into them. The balls used in pickleball are usually heavier than usual wiffle balls, and are colored in bright, vibrant colors that make them easier to see. Similar to how ping pong balls are colored bright orange, pickleballs are also vibrant in color. These are usually green or yellow, but some are also white.

There is no rule about color in the official rules, but the color should be consistent across the play in the same game.

The kind of ball approved by the USA Pickleball (which is the governing body for official pickleball play within the US) is one that is made of plastic, weighs between 0.78 and 0.935 ounces, and is between 2.9 and 3 inches in diameter.

Those are very specific numbers, and most of us don’t look at a ball and immediately know what the specific dimensions or weights are. The easiest way to understand this is that pickleballs are only a little bit bigger than a tennis ball, and just the slightest bit heavier.

Indoor vs Outdoor Pickleballs

While there is a ‘typical’ pickleball, there are plenty of differences between indoor pickleballs and outdoor pickleballs.

Indoor Pickleballs

For one thing, indoor pickleballs will usually be lighter and softer than outdoor ones, on top of being less bouncy. This is usually because when playing indoors, you need more control over the ball so you can make more powerful shots. Because they are less heavy, and softer, they are also not as painful to get hit by if you’re playing a very intense match.

The holes you’d find in an indoor pickleball are also bigger than those you’d find in an outdoor pickleball, and there are also fewer holes altogether. There are approximately 26 holes in an indoor pickleball, and they are also slightly bigger than outdoor pickleballs, though the difference is so negligible that most people don’t even know there is a difference.

All of these characteristics are designed to make the ball better for indoor play. Though the lighter weight results in less power generated between passes, it also results in extended volleys.

The ball is designed to make sure that it maximizes indoor play, and using an indoor pickleball to play outside will give you the opposite of a good time.

Outdoor Pickleballs

On the flip side, outdoor pickleballs are – surprise, surprise – designed for outdoor play. Most often, pickleball doesn’t actually get played on pickleball courts, since there aren’t as many of them, and you’d find yourself playing on a tennis court instead. Regardless of what court you play in, the likelihood that you’d be playing on a hard court is pretty high, and therefore outdoor pickleballs have to be made accordingly.

If you play outdoor pickleball with a softer ball, it can easily wear out and even break if it hit the ground very hard. That is why outdoor pickleballs are made of much heavier plastic that is relatively more durable, and this allows them to last much longer.

Outdoor pickleballs are heavier than indoor pickleballs but only very slightly. They weigh only about 0.9 ounces. This heavier weight allows for the ball to have more power when hit, which makes the game a lot more intense and fast-paced. The heavier weight also means that the wind will not have as much of an impact.

The holes in outdoor pickleballs are also smaller than those in indoor pickleballs, and there are more of them as well. An outdoor pickleball has about 40 holes in it (compared to the 26 in indoor balls).

Foam Pickleballs

While the balls that are used in games are made of plastic, these balls can actually cause problems when the game is played around the neighborhood. Because the ball is made of plastic, it makes a loud thwacking sound when you hit it with the wooden paddle.

This causes problems for people around, to the extent that there have been court cases about the noise!

This resulted in some manufacturers making pickleballs out of foam, which make a lot less noise when played with. Of course, these balls are not allowed in official tournaments (where the noise is the least of your problems, anyway) but they’re great for a casual neighborhood game without disturbing the entire block.

Of course, with foam pickleballs, you’d have to account for the difference in weight too. While the ball looks the same in that it has holes in it and is brightly colored, it will weigh less than the standard, plastic pickleball, so there will be a difference in how well you can play with it.

You wouldn’t have considered there to be so much to keep in mind when it comes to selecting what kind of ball to play with. For most games, you can go to the sports store and get any kind of ball as long as it meets the rule requirement. Pickleball players are very particular about their balls though, and for good reason!

The game heavily depends on how well the ball plays, so you would want to get the ball that works best for you and your court.

When it comes to appearances, however, all balls look the same. With the exception of the hole size (and the ball size, but that difference is very small), all pickleballs look pretty much the same, and there is no real difference between them.