VCU Mobile vs Top Hat
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
VCU Mobile
Access Virginia Commonwealth University resources on your phone. Find campus events, course details, news, and multimedia. Navigate campus and track the bus system.
- Student and faculty lookup
- Campus event listings
- Course information
- University news
- Campus navigation and bus tracking
- University multimedia gallery
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The VCU Mobile app is an on-the-go hub for all things VCU, connecting you to important Virginia Commonwealth University resources right from your phone. Look up students and faculty, learn about upcoming events on campus, find detailed information about courses, and get the latest news about VCU. In addition, get the latest VCU videos and images from around the university, track where you are as well as the bus system, and ask a question. The possibilities with the VCU Mobile app are endless, so what are you waiting for? Download it today!
Top Hat
Enhance your learning experience with interactive resources, in-class participation tools, and dynamic digital textbooks. Engage with professors and peers, and test your knowledge with quizzes and polls to improve comprehension and retention.
- Follow lecture slides on your device
- In-class response system
- In-app discussions with peers and professors
- Dynamic, interactive digital textbooks
- Take polls and quizzes
- Access graded and non-graded homework
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Top Hat is the perfect companion app to our comprehensive assessment platform that helps you learn better before, during and after class. Top Hat makes learning fun and engaging (seriously!) and sets you up for success, helping you connect with your professors, your peers and the content you’re learning in and out of the classroom. Here’s what Top Hat offers you: Compelling resources, delivered on your smartphone or laptop: • Follow your prof’s lecture slides on your own device • Contribute in class with an easy-to-use response system that’s always with you • Participate with your profs and peers using in-app discussions Content tailored to your course: • Experience dynamic, interactive textbooks loaded up with images, videos, audio clips and more • Read your digital materials from anywhere and keep them forever Quizzes, tests and polls that improve learning comprehension: • Challenge yourself by taking polls and quizzes on your own devices • Improve your knowledge retention with interactive assessment elements • Check for gaps in your understanding with graded and non-graded homework and short quizzes Thanks for using Top Hat. As you experience the app, we’d love to get your feedback: support@tophat.com or follow us on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook @TopHat
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Top Hat at 4.6 against VCU Mobile's 2.7. Top Hat also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 5 months) and ratings volume (23K vs 20). VCU Mobile's advantage is review sentiment (56% vs 15%) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). 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.
Top Hat holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 2.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Top Hat has 23K ratings behind it against 20, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 56% of VCU Mobile's written reviews are positive against 15% of Top Hat's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
VCU Mobile ships an update every 5 months, Top Hat every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 9, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | VCU Mobile | Top Hat |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.7 (20 ratings) | 4.6 (23K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 55.6% of reviews — better | 14.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 20 | 23K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Best chart rank | — | #204 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 35 MB | 152 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Virginia Commonwealth University | Top Hat Monocle |
Customer experience
VCU Mobile
Top Hat
Bugs and requests
VCU Mobile
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Top Hat
Reported bugs
3 issues- Answers not registering correctly
- Slides not loading properly on mobile devices
- Inconsistent performance across platforms
Requested features
3 requests- Add page numbers and search functionality to ebooks
- Improve syncing between mobile and web versions
- Allow more flexible location settings for attendance
In-app purchases
VCU Mobile
No in-app purchases
Top Hat
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is VCU Mobile free?
Is Top Hat free?
Which has better reviews, VCU Mobile or Top Hat?
Do VCU Mobile or Top Hat have ads?
Which is updated more often, VCU Mobile or Top Hat?
Other comparisons
