NCP vs 1st Central Connect
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
NCP
Manage all your parking needs in one place. Purchase digital season tickets, pay-as-you-go for parking, and extend your sessions remotely. Features include favorite sites, AutoPay, and in-app customer support.
- Digital season tickets
- Ticketless pay-as-you-go parking
- Extend parking sessions remotely
- Favorite car park sites
- AutoPay with VRN
- In-app chat support
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The NCP app brings all your parking needs together in one convenient and easy-to-use place, offering the ability to: • Purchase and access a digital Season Ticket, giving you the ability to manage your account with ease • Ticketless pay-as-you-go parking at 370+ car parks across the UK Make sure you download the NCP app before entering one of our car parks to guarantee the best experience. Downloading the NCP app means you can purchase digital monthly, quarterly, and annual season tickets, depending on your needs. Your season ticket will then be stored in the app, meaning you’ll never forget or lose a physical season ticket again! Features of the NCP app include: • The ability to pay as you go and access your season ticket, if you have one, in one place • Extend your parking session in-app to save you having to go back to your car, you’ll be notified by push notifications from the app, so please ensure you have enabled notifications in your device settings to stay up to date • One QR code for all your products • Ability to favourite sites that you regularly visit in your favourites list • AutoPay provides fully automatic recognition and payment at selected sites via your vehicle registration number (VRN) • Map and list view of car parks with additional features • Buy and pay for a season ticket within the app, allowing unlimited parking within your chosen site for the length of your ticket • In-app chat function, giving you a direct line to customer service • Pay with Apple Pay
1st Central Connect
This app automatically tracks your driving, providing insights into your driving dynamics. It offers trip summaries and maneuver details to help you improve your driving skills and become safer on the road.
- Automatic driving detection
- Driving dynamics measurement
- Low-power battery consumption
- Trip summaries
- Maneuver details
- Driving feedback
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1st Central Connect gives you feedback about your driving, helping you become a safer and better driver. The application automatically detects when driving starts and stops, and uses the phone’s sensors to measure your vehicle’s driving dynamics. It uses low-power sensing methods to reduce battery consumption. The app shows you trip summaries, details on manoeuvres, and gives you useful feedback to become a better driver. It also acts a low-power logger of all of your driving trips.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: 1st Central Connect at 73% against NCP's 12%. 1st Central Connect also leads on monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). NCP's advantage is rating (4.3 vs 3.0) and ratings volume (100 vs 2). 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.
NCP holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: NCP has 100 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 12% of NCP's written reviews are positive against 73% of 1st Central Connect's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
NCP ships an update every 2 months, 1st Central Connect every 5 months. Both last shipped on October 25, 2026.
| Parameter | NCP | 1st Central Connect |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (100 ratings) — better | 3.0 (2 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 11.8% of reviews | 72.9% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 100 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 5 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 84 MB | 198 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | National Car Parks Limited | Cambridge Mobile Telematics Inc. |
Customer experience
NCP
1st Central Connect
User reviews
NCP
From 100 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Intuitive app
- 🚀 Helpful auto-popup to scan barcode
- 👍 Great app, easy to use
Room to improve
- 🐛 App doesn't work, redirects to web
- 🐛 App not recognizing username/password
- 🐛 App not storing login details
- 🐛 App not working, logging out constantly
- 🐛 QR code not working
1st Central Connect
From 2 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use and navigate
- 💰 Affordable insurance pricing
- 📊 Good trip tracking and monitoring
- 🎮 Gamified scoring system with badges
- 📱 Clear app interface and layout
Room to improve
- 🐛 Overly sensitive cornering detection
- 🐛 Overly sensitive hard braking detection
- 🐛 False phone usage notifications
- 🐛 Inaccurate speed limit data
- 🐛 Login issues on mobile app
Bugs and requests
NCP
Reported bugs
4 issues- App not recognizing account
- Inability to pay in app after getting ticket
- Duplicate parking sessions
- Inconsistent pricing between app and machines
Requested features
4 requests- Add biometric login options
- Allow saving multiple vehicles
- Improve session management and reminders
- Integrate with car park barriers
1st Central Connect
Reported bugs
11 issues- App won't recognize email/phone for login despite account existing
- Scored miles counter decreases incorrectly
- Phone usage detected when phone not in use
- Harsh cornering flagged at normal speeds
- Harsh braking flagged for normal braking
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- GPS records driving off-road/on grass incorrectly
- Speed zone data not updated regularly
- Bluetooth connection issues and repeated reconnection prompts
- Support contact form has no send button
- Connection fails when transferring to human support
- Feedback submission feature broken
Requested features
8 requests- Ability to explain or clarify harsh braking/cornering events
- Emergency stop exception handling
- WhatsApp customer support option
- Display remaining mileage allowance in app
- Recognition of main policy holder vs named drivers
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- Adjustment for vehicle characteristics (e.g., leaning motorcycles)
- Improved feedback submission system
- Passenger phone usage clarification for all metrics
In-app purchases
NCP
No in-app purchases
1st Central Connect
No in-app purchases







