Comparison

Pay Tel vs urvote

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Pay Tel

Stay connected with loved ones. Receive instant alerts for messages and notifications. Easily view your balance and add funds, or send photos to inmates in eligible correctional facilities.

Highlights
  • Instant message alerts
  • Unread message count
  • Current balance visibility
  • Add funds link
  • Send photos to inmates
Features
Read full description

The Pay Tel app provides you with easy access to important functionality: Instant alerts for any notifications from Pay Tel™ or your inteleMESSAGE™ contacts. Current unread messages count indicator. Just press to open inteleMESSAGE™. Visibility to your current balance, and a link to the main PayTel.com site for Adding Funds. Send photos to inmates in eligible facilities.

About

urvote

Encourage civic participation by sending personalized text messages to your contacts. Choose from a library of templates to inform and motivate friends and family about elections and important issues. Your messages are sent individually, ensuring a personal touch.

Highlights
  • Personalized text message outreach
  • Curated civic message templates
  • Contact group organization
  • Campaign tracking
  • Bilingual (English/Spanish) support
  • No account required
  • Privacy-focused design
Features
Read full description

The people making decisions that affect your life vote in every election. urvote helps you make sure the people in your life do too. urvote helps you reach the people in your contacts with personalized, one-to-one text messages that inform and encourage civic participation. No blast texts. No political robocalls. Just real messages, from you, to people you actually know. How it works: Browse a library of curated civic message templates — covering voter registration, election readiness, and the issues that bring people to the polls. Select a template, personalize the message body, choose your recipients, and send. iOS delivers each message individually through your own Messages app, one at a time. Every recipient gets a personal text from you, not a form letter or group blast. Key features: * Template Library — Curated civic templates across awareness, readiness, and election-day stages. Written to motivate, not manipulate. * Contact Groups — Organize your contacts into named groups — neighbors, coworkers, family — and reuse them across campaigns. * Personalized Messaging — Every message is personalized with the recipient's first name and your custom signature, automatically. * Campaign Tracking — Privately track how many messages you've sent, to whom, and resume paused campaigns at any time. * Bilingual — Full English and Spanish support, including civic templates in both languages. * No account required — urvote works entirely from your device. No sign-up, no login, no cloud. Privacy, by design: urvote does not collect, transmit, or share any personal data. Your contacts, messages, and groups never leave your device. The app has no third-party analytics, no advertising, no crash reporting, and no third-party SDKs. The only network activity is downloading updated message templates from urvote.org — no user data is sent during that process. Your outreach. Your contacts. Your phone. That's it.

Screenshots

Pay Tel4 screens
urvote4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: urvote at 5.0 against Pay Tel's 1.7. urvote also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 2 months). Pay Tel's advantage is ratings volume (140 vs 2) and chart position (#193 vs unranked). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

urvote holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 1.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Pay Tel has 140 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pay Tel ships an update every 2 months, urvote every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Pay Tel versus urvote: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPay Telurvote
PriceFreeFree
Rating1.7 (140 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews6.3% of reviews—
Number of ratings140 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
Best chart rank#193 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size34 MB3 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperPay Tel CommunicationsJeffrey Smith

Customer experience

Pay Tel

All ratings140 ratings
Positive17.1%
Neutral2.9%
Negative80.0%
Written reviews112 reviews
Positive6.3%
Neutral2.7%
Negative91.1%

urvote

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Pay Tel

Reported bugs

21 issues
  • App crashes on launch or during use
  • Login authentication errors persist across sessions
  • Messages fail to send despite payment being deducted
  • Messages don't appear in inbox despite being sent
  • App logs out randomly while actively in use
Show 16 more
  • Typing causes screen to flicker and delete message content
  • Blank white screens when trying to view messages
  • App won't work when Wi-Fi is enabled (Error 403)
  • Incorrect notification counts
  • Balance doesn't update after adding funds
  • Video call invitations don't pop up or display
  • Call connections drop mid-conversation
  • Echo/feedback during calls
  • Calls ring once then hang up immediately
  • Account lockout with 'phone number doesn't belong to account' error
  • PIN number errors preventing login
  • App won't open on certain devices (iPhone specific issues)
  • Messages appear days late
  • Duplicate messages being sent and charged
  • App freezes when typing long messages
  • Website login doesn't sync with app login

Requested features

12 requests
  • Improved app stability and performance optimization
  • Better customer service responsiveness (live chat, phone support)
  • Reduced pricing for calls and messages
  • Same-day video visit scheduling
  • Better message persistence (don't delete on app exit)
Show 7 more
  • Improved call quality and connection stability
  • Wi-Fi compatibility fix
  • Better user interface design and navigation
  • Automatic message saving/drafts
  • Transaction history visibility
  • Refund policy for failed transactions
  • Faster fund processing and balance updates

urvote

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Pay Tel

No in-app purchases

None

urvote

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Pay Tel free?
Pay Tel is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is urvote free?
urvote is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Pay Tel or urvote?
urvote is rated higher. Pay Tel averages 1.7 out of 5 from 140 ratings, while urvote averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Pay Tel or urvote have ads?
Neither Pay Tel nor urvote shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pay Tel or urvote?
Pay Tel ships an update every 2 months, and urvote every 2 weeks. Most recently, Pay Tel was updated on October 17, 2026 and urvote on October 1, 2026.

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