InitialView vs SMC Belle Tower
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
InitialView
This platform provides live, unscripted interviews for academic program admissions. It helps assess applicants' English ability and interpersonal skills for boarding schools, undergraduate, and graduate programs worldwide. The service offers admission officers assurance through its proprietary interview technology.
- Live, unscripted interviews
- English ability assessment
- Interpersonal skills evaluation
- Proprietary interview platform
- Global admissions support
- Admission officer assurance
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For InitialView Students and Schools' Admission Officers' Use. InitialView was founded in Beijing, China in 2009, and in a short time it has become a world leader in interview services, having provided interviews to thousands of applicants to top academic programs. We provide live, unscripted interviews which are then uploaded to our proprietary interview platform. Our proprietary platform allows viewers to, within seconds, determine the interviewee’s English ability and interpersonal skills. Our technology is currently patent-pending in both the U.S. and China. Our interviews have been a part of more than 40,000 applications reviewed by over 200 boarding school, undergraduate, and graduate programs. We have interviewed applicants in over 50 countries. We are able to provide admission officers a level of assurance about our interviews, processes and operations in China in a way that is unmatched by others in international education.
SMC Belle Tower
This platform centralizes campus life for students, offering event discovery, organization connections, and resource access. It keeps users informed about campus activities and involvement opportunities.
- Discover campus events
- Connect with student organizations
- Access campus resources
- Stay updated on campus activities
- Facilitates student engagement
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Belle Tower is Saint Mary's College's official student engagement platform, bringing campus life together in one convenient place. Discover events, connect with student organizations, and access the resources you need to make the most of your Saint Mary's experience. Whether you're attending campus events, exploring ways to get involved, communicating with your organizations, or finding helpful campus resources, Belle Tower keeps you connected to everything happening at Saint Mary's College.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: SMC Belle Tower at 5.0 against InitialView's 2.8. SMC Belle Tower also leads on update cadence (weekly vs monthly) and monetization model (free vs ad-supported). InitialView's advantage is ratings volume (13 vs 1) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.1). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
SMC Belle Tower holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 2.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: InitialView has 13 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
InitialView ships an update monthly, SMC Belle Tower weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | InitialView | SMC Belle Tower |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.8 (13 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 13 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Ad-supported | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 10 MB | 61 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Terry Crawford | THE CORPORATION OF SAINT MARY'S COLLEGE, NOTRE DAME |
Customer experience
InitialView
SMC Belle Tower
In-app purchases
InitialView
No in-app purchases
SMC Belle Tower
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is InitialView free?
Is SMC Belle Tower free?
Which has better reviews, InitialView or SMC Belle Tower?
Do InitialView or SMC Belle Tower have ads?
Which is updated more often, InitialView or SMC Belle Tower?
Other comparisons
