My son got use of SportsRecruits as part of his travel team fees. He did not use it to research schools (Google is fine for that) and did not pay for any of their added services, but maintaining a profile there was very useful, IMO.
Yes, he could have built his own web site, and yes you can use YouTube. But SR gave him a template to post and regularly update info and videos. The site also pinged him when a school viewed his profile or watched his videos, and told him which schools were looking into him. It was useful to know, after he sent out a round of emails early in the process, which schools immediately checked out his profile, and which never showed a flicker of interest. If he could see that a school looked at his video but never got back to him, that was useful knowledge, too. In a few cases he could see a school checked out his video 3 or four times over a period of a couple of days--a good sign. YouTube and home made sites can give you data on traffic, but SR specifically tells you that "ABC University viewed your profile" or your video.
Bottom line: I would have paid something for a service like SportsRecruits (or one of its competitors), but maybe not as much as they ask. However, if your son gets use of one of those sites without paying additional fees, I think maintaining a profile there can be very useful. (My son was targeting HA D3s and a few HA D1s. He also was looking almost exclusively at schools outside our region.)