HOBART SmartConnect vs Relay | Communicator
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
HOBART SmartConnect
Monitor and analyze the performance of connected commercial kitchen and dishroom equipment. Receive email notifications for errors and events to prevent downtime. Optimize operations and reduce costs with detailed performance data.
- Machine monitoring and analysis
- Email notifications for errors and events
- Dishmachine cycle analysis
- Sanitization status and logging
- Resource consumption and cost tracking
- Service request submission
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Commercial Kitchen & Dishroom Performance at Your Fingertips with SmartConnect For HOBART and other ITW equipment with built-in WiFi, get connected with the new SmartConnect app. Create better procedures and performance with machine monitoring, analysis, and email notifications. ITW SmartConnect365 Suite of Apps • Get Connected: SmartConnect will pair with any compatible WiFi enabled equipment across ITW Food Equipment Group brands. • Machine Status: Manage your equipment and fleet with machine status for all your connected machines. • Error Codes & Event History: Prevent downtime with monitoring and emails for errors or events, and easily submit a service request when needed. Dishmachine Features* • Operating & Cleaning Cycles: Create better dishroom operations and procedures by analyzing dishmachine wash cycles and run-time over days, weeks and months in the easy-to-use graphs. • Sanitization Status & Logging: Maintain food safety with views to current wash and rinse temperatures, temperature history graphs, and temperature log files sent right to your email. • Resource Consumption & Cost: Lower your operating costs by analyzing water and energy cost and consumption over days, weeks, and months. Learn more about the ITW SmartConnect365 Suite of apps at https://www.itwfoodequipment.com/smartconnect365 *Not all features are available in every country or product model. Compatibility: HOBART AM16, HOBART AMTL.
Relay | Communicator
This app provides two-way communication and location tracking for teams. It includes features like a panic button and work tracking to enhance team performance and operational efficiency.
- Two-way communication
- Panic button
- GPS tracking
- Work tracking
- Radio replacement
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Relay turns the phone in your pocket into the most capable radio your team has ever carried. Built for frontline teams who don't work at desks, Relay puts push-to-talk, worker safety, and real-time location on one screen. Nationwide range. No line of sight. No dead channels. PUSH TO TALK, ANYWHERE Push to talk and your voice reaches your whole channel instantly, whether they're across the building or across the country. Switch channels in a tap and catch what you missed. Live Audio keeps the conversation running in the background while you work. CHAT AND PHOTOS WHEN VOICE ISN'T RIGHT Send text to a channel or directly to a teammate, right alongside the voice traffic in the same conversation. And now you can send photos, too — snap the broken fixture, the spill, the delivery, the whiteboard, and share it in seconds. Some things are so much faster to show than to describe. EVERYONE UNDERSTANDS EVERYONE Language shouldn't slow a team down. TeamTranslate translations appear right in the conversation, so a multilingual crew works as one. PANIC, WITH SOMEONE ON THE OTHER END Slide to confirm and Relay broadcasts a panic alert with your live location to the people who can actually respond. Responders acknowledge, follow your location as you move, and resolve the incident once you're safe. It's the difference between an alarm and a lifeline. INCIDENTS, DISPATCHED AND DOCUMENTED Dispatch an incident with a single button, mapped to the workflows your organization has already built. Track it as it unfolds, add details along the way, review the full message history, and close it out with a resolution. Every incident is kept in history for the review that comes later. FIND ANYONE, INSIDE OR OUT Outdoor maps place your team across a site or a city. Indoor positioning takes it further — the right building, the right floor, the right room — so "where are you?" stops being a question. Geofence alerts let you know the moment someone crosses a boundary that matters. YOUR ATTENTION, ON YOUR TERMS Availability Modes put you in control of what reaches you and when. Choose Available to hear everything as it comes in, Critical Alerts to let only the urgent stuff through while you focus, or Silenced for quiet when you need it. One tap to switch, so you're never fumbling with settings mid-shift. BUILT FOR THE WORK YOU DO Manufacturing floors, hotels, casinos, hospitals, campuses, golf courses, and large venues. Wherever your team moves, Relay moves with them. Relay is made for organizations running on the Relay platform. An active Relay account is required to sign in — check with your administrator, or visit relaypro.com to learn more.
Screenshots
Verdict
HOBART SmartConnect and Relay | Communicator both sit at 5.0 stars, but that hides the real split: 67% of Relay | Communicator's written reviews are positive against 33% of HOBART SmartConnect's. Relay | Communicator also leads on ratings volume (437 vs 2) and update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 6 weeks). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases 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.
HOBART SmartConnect holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Relay | Communicator has 437 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 33% of HOBART SmartConnect's written reviews are positive against 67% of Relay | Communicator's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
HOBART SmartConnect ships an update every 6 weeks, Relay | Communicator every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | HOBART SmartConnect | Relay | Communicator |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | 4.8 (437 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 33.3% of reviews | 66.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 437 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 — better | 16.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 34 MB | 86 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | ITW Food Equipment Group | Relay, Inc |
Customer experience
HOBART SmartConnect
Relay | Communicator
In-app purchases
HOBART SmartConnect
No in-app purchases
Relay | Communicator
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is HOBART SmartConnect free?
Is Relay | Communicator free?
Which has better reviews, HOBART SmartConnect or Relay | Communicator?
Do HOBART SmartConnect or Relay | Communicator have ads?
Which is updated more often, HOBART SmartConnect or Relay | Communicator?
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