UB Mobile vs Top Hat
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
UB Mobile
This app provides a comprehensive mobile portal for university students and staff. Access academic resources, campus maps, transportation schedules, dining information, and university news. Stay connected with campus events and athletic updates.
- Campus maps and navigation
- Course management access
- Transportation tracking
- University news and events
- Faculty and staff directory
- Library resource access
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It’s UB at your fingertips. Search UB, find people and departments, access MyUB, manage courses, get the latest UB news, event listings and Bulls scores, along with access to library resources, campus maps and transportation information, including bus and shuttle schedules and parking details. Features include: SEARCH • SEARCH THE UB WEB: Find the UB websites and resources using our UB Google Search! • FIND PEOPLE: Locate faculty and staff contact information, or look up student email addresses. • FIND DEPARTMENTS: Locate specific departments on UB’s three campuses. ACADEMICS • My UB: It’s your one-stop portal for important announcements and deadlines plus HUB access that lets you register for classes, look up your grades and gives faculty, staff and students easy access to many other important online resources. • UBLEARNS: Access your course management system at UB. Find a syllabus or get information on readings, assignments and exams. • LIBRARIES: Fingertip access to UB’s collections and the World Cat catalog; manage your account; find locations, hours and contact information for each of UB’s nine libraries. GETTING AROUND • MAPS: Search interactive maps to find campus buildings, parking lots, dining, student housing, and athletic facilities. • TRANSPORTATION: Use the Transportation Tracker to find out where the nearest shuttle or bus is; see traffic and parking alerts; look up bus and shuttle schedules and route maps. SERVICES • DINING: Find dining locations, menus and hours; report a lost MyUB Card; look up nutrition information; and more. THINGS TO DO • EVENTS: See a listing of all university happenings, both on and off campus, including lectures, performances, exhibitions and athletic events. • ATHLETICS: Buy tickets and get scores, stats and standings, along with photos, videos and breaking news about the UB Bulls. STAY INFORMED • NEWS: Read the latest on breakthrough research and other campus news in the areas of medicine, the sciences, engineering, technology, the arts, alumni and athletics. • SOCIAL MEDIA: Keep up with UB on such networks as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
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 UB Mobile's 2.3. Top Hat also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 10 months) and ratings volume (23K vs 33). UB Mobile's advantage is review sentiment (44% vs 15%) and iOS requirement (13.0 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 2.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Top Hat has 23K ratings behind it against 33, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 44% of UB 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.
UB Mobile ships an update every 10 months, Top Hat fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and October 15, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | UB Mobile | Top Hat |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.3 (33 ratings) | 4.6 (23K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 44.4% of reviews — better | 14.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 33 | 23K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 10 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Best chart rank | — | #189 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 38 MB | 162 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | University at Buffalo | Top Hat Monocle |
Customer experience
UB Mobile
Top Hat
Bugs and requests
UB 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
UB Mobile
No in-app purchases
Top Hat
No in-app purchases









