SMUD vs Pool Notes
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
SMUD
Manage your home electricity service with ease. View your bill, track usage, report outages, and make payments all from your device. Stay informed about your energy consumption and billing history.
- View bill history
- Make payments
- Track electricity usage
- Get outage information
- Report power outages
- Schedule auto bill pay
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The SMUD App offers our residential customers easy access to the things that are most important to you when it comes to home energy usage. We want your experience to be fast and simple, so once you sign in, you'll stay signed in on your device until you sign out, no matter how many times you visit. The first thing you'll see is a summary of your bill, electricity use, outage info and how to get in touch with us. Tap a tile to reveal the features: Bill - See your bill history - Make a payment - See your payment history - Schedule or cancel payments - Add or change payment methods - Schedule auto bill pay - Enroll in paperless billing Usage - See how much electricity you've used in this billing cycle - Check the current cost of your electricity use Outage - Get up-to-the minute outage info - Report a power outage See and do everything that's most important to you when it comes to your residential electricity service. Tap into energy with the SMUD App.
Pool Notes
This app simplifies pool maintenance by converting water test readings into precise chemical dosage instructions. It automatically adjusts targets based on stabilizer levels and offers guided algae treatment. All data is stored locally on your device for privacy.
- Precise chemical dosage instructions
- Automatic chlorine target adjustment
- Trend tracking over time
- Test reminders
- Guided algae treatment
- Local data storage
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Pool Notes turns a water test into plain instructions: log your readings and get exact doses in the units of the chemicals you actually own — "add 42 fl oz of 12.5% liquid chlorine," not vague advice. Chlorine targets adjust to your stabilizer level automatically. Watch trends over time, get test reminders, and when the water goes green, sound the Mayday: a guided rescue that walks you through knocking out algae step by step. Everything stays on your phone — no accounts, no cloud, no nonsense.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Pool Notes at 100% against SMUD's 25%. Pool Notes also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.5) and update cadence (fortnightly vs every 6 weeks). SMUD's advantage is ratings volume (916 vs 1) and iOS requirement (14.0 vs 16.4). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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.
Pool Notes holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: SMUD has 916 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 25% of SMUD's written reviews are positive against 100% of Pool Notes's.
SMUD ships an update every 6 weeks, Pool Notes fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 28, 2026 and September 19, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | SMUD | Pool Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (916 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 24.6% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 916 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 16.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 134 MB | 37 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | SMUD | JONATHON TIMOTHY MORTON |
Customer experience
SMUD
Pool Notes
Bugs and requests
SMUD
Reported bugs
3 issues- App crashes when accessing usage data
- Autopay feature not working as expected
- Compatibility issues with newer iOS versions
Requested features
3 requests- Dark mode option
- Customizable payment scheduling
- Improved push notification support
Pool Notes
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
SMUD
No in-app purchases
Pool Notes
No in-app purchases
