Comparison

SmartHub vs BREC

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

Head to head
About

SmartHub

Manage your utility and telecommunications accounts with ease. View usage, billing, and payment history. Report service issues, receive important company news, and manage your WiFi network all from your mobile device.

Highlights
  • View and manage bills and payments
  • Monitor energy usage trends
  • Contact customer service easily
  • Receive service news and outage alerts
  • Report service interruptions
  • Manage WiFi network and devices
Currently charting
Read full description

SmartHub provides utility and telecommunications customers account management at their fingertips. Customers can view their usage and billing, manage payments, notify customer service of account and service issues and receive special messaging from their local utility or telecommunications company. NISC serves over 500 telecoms and utilities across the nation, install the application to determine if your local organization is supported. Additional Features: Bill & Pay - Quickly view your current account balance and due date, manage recurring payments and modify payment methods. You can also view bill history including PDF versions of paper bills directly on your mobile device. Make a payment now or schedule it for a future date. My Usage - View energy usage graphs to identify high usage trends. Navigate graphs quickly using an intuitive gesture based interface. Contact Us - Easily contact your service provider by email or phone. You can also submit one of the many predefined messages, with the ability to include pictures and GPS coordinates. News - Provides a convenient way to monitor news that may affect your service such as rate changes, outage information and upcoming events. Service Status - Displays service interruption and outage information. You can also report an outage directly to your service provider. Maps - Displays facility and payment dropbox locations on a map interface. Manage Wifi - Easily manage your WiFi network and connected devices. Maintain passwords, troubleshoot issues, create and control guest networks, limit access to connected devices, create rules with parental controls and check internet speed.

About

BREC

Manage your utility account securely and conveniently on the go. View bills, make payments, schedule alerts, and receive notifications. Access nearly all customer portal features from anywhere.

Highlights
  • Secure account access
  • View bills and balance
  • Make payments
  • Find payment locations
  • Schedule alerts and reminders
  • Receive push notifications
Features
Read full description

Our Mobile App is designed to give you fast, secure account access so you can easily manage your account details, view your bill and your account balance, make payments and find payment locations, schedule alerts and reminders, receive push notifications. Nearly everything you can do from our "Customer Portal" can now be handled instantly whether you're at home, at work, or on the go.

Screenshots

SmartHub4 screens
BREC4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ratings volume: SmartHub at 1.9K against BREC's 28. SmartHub also leads on update cadence (every 2 months vs every 5 months) and chart position (#147 vs unranked). BREC's advantage is review sentiment (31% vs 16%) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.0). 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

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

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 2.7 for SmartHub against 2.7 for BREC. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: SmartHub has 1.9K ratings behind it against 28, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 16% of SmartHub's written reviews are positive against 31% of BREC's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

SmartHub ships an update every 2 months, BREC every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and June 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
SmartHub versus BREC: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSmartHubBREC
PriceFreeFree
Rating2.7 (1.9K ratings)2.7 (28 ratings)
Positive reviews15.8% of reviews30.8% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1.9K — better28
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 5 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
Best chart rank#147 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size29 MB174 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperNational Information Solutions CooperativeBlue Ridge Electric Co-op

Customer experience

SmartHub

All ratings1,946 ratings
Positive36.9%
Neutral8.5%
Negative54.6%
Written reviews228 reviews
Positive15.8%
Neutral8.8%
Negative75.4%

BREC

All ratings28 ratings
Positive39.3%
Neutral7.1%
Negative53.6%
Written reviews13 reviews
Positive30.8%
Neutral0.0%
Negative69.2%

Bugs and requests

SmartHub

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Login issues after recent update
  • Incorrect or missing usage data
  • Inability to disable auto-pay
  • Compatibility problems with newer OS versions

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add support for multiple utility accounts
  • Improve push notification system
  • Provide more detailed usage insights
  • Allow customizable alert thresholds

BREC

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

SmartHub

No in-app purchases

None

BREC

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is SmartHub free?
SmartHub is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is BREC free?
BREC is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, SmartHub or BREC?
SmartHub and BREC are both rated 2.7 out of 5 on the App Store, from 1.9K and 28 ratings respectively.
Do SmartHub or BREC have ads?
Neither SmartHub nor BREC shows ads.
Which is updated more often, SmartHub or BREC?
SmartHub ships an update every 2 months, and BREC every 5 months. Most recently, SmartHub was updated on September 25, 2026 and BREC on June 5, 2026.

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