Ohio State vs Top Hat
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Ohio State
Navigate campus life with this official university app. Access real-time transit, class schedules, grades, building directories, and dining information. Manage your student account, find organizations, and stay informed about campus safety.
- Real-time bus tracking
- Class schedules and grades
- Campus building directory
- Parking garage capacity
- BuckID account management
- Dining locations and menus
- Student organizations listing
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Put campus in your pocket with the Ohio State app! Features: • Real-time bus tracking • Class schedules and grades • Complete campus building directory • Parking garage listing with current capacity information • BuckID account balances and transaction history • Student statement of account • Advisors and notes • Dining locations • Course catalog search • Library listing • Faculty, staff, and student directory search • Apple Watch app with class schedules, buses, and BuckID balances • Class schedule and parking garage today widgets • Academic calendar • A comprehensive listing of student organizations • Siri shortcuts for BuckID balances, upcoming classes, and bus stop predictions • Gender inclusive restroom listing • Lactation room listing • A listing of merchants that accept BuckID • Information about safety on campus • Features for alumni • Wallpapers As always, if you have suggestions for improving the app or notice any bugs, please use the contact form within the app. We love to hear from our users! Go Bucks!
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
Ohio State and Top Hat both sit at 4.5 stars, but that hides the real split: 52% of Ohio State's written reviews are positive against 14% of Top Hat's. Ohio State also leads on update cadence (every 5 days vs fortnightly). Top Hat's advantage is ratings volume (23K vs 778) and chart position (#125 vs unranked). 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.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for Ohio State against 4.6 for Top Hat. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Top Hat has 23K ratings behind it against 778, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 52% of Ohio State's written reviews are positive against 14% of Top Hat's.
Ohio State ships an update every 5 days, Top Hat fortnightly. Both last shipped on September 24, 2026.
| Parameter | Ohio State | Top Hat |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (778 ratings) | 4.6 (23K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 52.2% of reviews — better | 14.4% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 778 | 23K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 days — better | Fortnightly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Best chart rank | — | #125 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 317 MB | 162 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Ohio State University | Top Hat Monocle |
Customer experience
Ohio State
Top Hat
User reviews
Ohio State
From 778 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Excellent user experience
- 🚀 Helpful for students
- 🚀 Convenient features
- 🚀 Integrates well with campus life
Room to improve
- 🐛 Buggy and glitchy
- 🐛 Inaccurate bus schedules
- 🐛 Login/logout issues
- 🐛 Crashing and freezing
- 🔒 Privacy concerns
Top Hat
From 23K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Smooth and intuitive interface
- 👍 Useful for attendance and in-class quizzes
- 💡 Potential for interactive learning
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and bugs
- 🔋 High battery consumption
- 💰 Expensive subscription fees
- 🔒 Privacy concerns with location tracking
Bugs and requests
Ohio State
Reported bugs
4 issues- White screen on launch
- Favorite bus stops not saving
- Incorrect class schedules
- Parking garage widget not working
Requested features
4 requests- Integrate with Carmen (learning management system)
- Add ability to view weekly calendar
- Improve bus schedule accuracy
- Expand to include more campus resources
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
Ohio State
No in-app purchases
Top Hat
No in-app purchases
