Spok Mobile vs PAR Mobile
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Spok Mobile
This app facilitates critical messaging and alerting for professionals in healthcare, government, and public safety. It enables secure communication for urgent situations, with some features requiring a subscription to a supported system.
- Critical messaging
- Alerting
- Healthcare communication
- Government communication
- Public safety communication
- Secure messaging
Read full descriptionHide full description
Spok Mobile™ is a critical messaging / alerting application for use in healthcare, government, and public safety environments. Some functionality requires a subscription / connection to a supported Spok system.
PAR Mobile
Configure and maintain your weight-based inventory management system with this iOS app. It provides mobile access to the tools and features found in the desktop administration software for on-premises PAR installations.
- Configure PAR Bins system
- Maintain PAR Bins system
- Mobile access to admin tools
- Weight-based inventory management
- Compatible with on-premises PAR
Read full descriptionHide full description
The PAR Mobile app is compatible only with on-premises PAR installations. This PAR Mobile iOS app is not compatible with PAR Cloud software. Use PAR Mobile to configure and maintain your PAR Bins weight-based inventory management system. This iOS app offers mobile access to the tools and features available in the desktop versions of our administration software. © Copyright 2020 PAR Excellence Systems, Inc. PAR Excellence® is a Registered Trademark of PAR Excellence Systems, Inc.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: PAR Mobile at 100% against Spok Mobile's 10%. PAR Mobile also leads on rating (3.8 vs 1.6) and monetization model (free vs subscription). Spok Mobile's advantage is ratings volume (146 vs 4) and update cadence (every 4 months vs every 14 months). 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.
PAR Mobile holds the better App Store score, 3.8 against 1.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Spok Mobile has 146 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 10% of Spok Mobile's written reviews are positive against 100% of PAR Mobile's.
Spok Mobile ships an update every 4 months, PAR Mobile every 14 months. The most recent releases landed on November 10, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Spok Mobile | PAR Mobile |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 1.6 (146 ratings) | 3.8 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 10.2% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 146 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months — better | Every 14 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Subscription | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 39 MB | 10 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Spok, Inc. | PAR Excellence Systems, Inc. |
Customer experience
Spok Mobile
PAR Mobile
Bugs and requests
Spok Mobile
Reported bugs
24 issues- App crashes on startup or when opening messages
- Push notifications fail to deliver unless app is open
- Audio settings revert to high volume automatically
- Status switcher disappeared after iOS updates
- Alerts continue after message is opened
Show 19 moreShow fewer
- Messages arrive hours or days late
- Null messages received with no information
- App logs out unexpectedly
- Badges show unread pages but app won't load them
- Registration errors during setup
- Login timeouts and unresponsive authentication
- Dark mode makes text unreadable
- Incompatible with iOS low battery mode
- Phone number links require multiple taps to work
- App breaks with iOS updates
- Messages disappear from history quickly
- Confirm receipt system broken on iOS
- App freezes during update process
- Incompatible with VPN connections
- CarPlay compatibility issues
- Notifications don't work with Focus mode enabled
- Message body doesn't display in notifications
- Slow app startup and message loading
- Pages received out of order or with wrong timestamps
Requested features
20 requests- Apple Watch support with message preview
- Customizable alert tones and volume control
- Ability to mute/silence pager independently from phone
- Copy and paste functionality within messages
- Search function for messages
Show 15 moreShow fewer
- Better message threading and group messaging
- On-call directory integration
- Character count display before sending
- Repeat notification alerts until acknowledged
- Message preview in notifications and lock screen
- Delete all messages button
- Better dark mode support
- Improved Focus mode integration
- Vibrate-only alert option
- Custom ringtone selection from iTunes store
- Message templates/canned responses
- Improved favorites list
- Better message history retention
- Multimedia support expansion
- One-time alert option instead of multiple alerts
PAR Mobile
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Spok Mobile
No in-app purchases
PAR Mobile
No in-app purchases
