Top Hat vs UTRGV
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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
UTRGV
Manage your academic life and connect with your university community. Stay organized with event and assignment tracking, access academic tools, and discover campus resources. Get important notifications and find your way around campus.
- Academic tools access
- Class and assignment management
- Event discovery and reminders
- Campus community interaction
- Campus services information
- Push notifications for alerts
- Campus map navigation
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The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley App brings campus to your fingertips and enables you to connect with the UTRGV community: Stay on top of your events, classes, and assignments with the built in calendar function, and get notified of important dates, deadlines & security announcements. Make friends, ask questions, and access campus resources at any time! Some other exciting features include: + ACADEMICS: real-time access to all of the critical academic tools. + DEADLINES: Stay on top of multiple deadlines with push-notifications, students receive reminders, alerts and critical notifications. + CLASSES: Manage classes, create to-dos & reminders, and stay on top of assignments. + EVENTS: Discover campus events, set reminders, and track your attendance + FEATURED ACTIVITIES: Orientation, programming, etc. + CAMPUS COMMUNITY: Meet friends, ask questions, and keep up with what's happening on the campus wall. + GROUPS & CLUBS: Get involved with campus organizations and meet people with similar interests + CAMPUS SERVICES: Learn about services offered, such as Academic Advising, Financial Aid & Counseling. + PUSH NOTIFICATIONS: Receive important campus notifications and emergency alerts. + CAMPUS MAP: Find the quickest route to classes, events, and offices.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: UTRGV at 93% against Top Hat's 14%. UTRGV also leads on rating (4.8 vs 4.6) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 17.0). Top Hat's advantage is ratings volume (23K vs 717) and update cadence (fortnightly vs every 6 weeks). 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.
UTRGV holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Top Hat has 23K ratings behind it against 717, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 14% of Top Hat's written reviews are positive against 93% of UTRGV's.
Top Hat ships an update fortnightly, UTRGV every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 15, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Top Hat | UTRGV |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (23K ratings) | 4.8 (717 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 14.4% of reviews | 93.2% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 23K — better | 717 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 6 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Best chart rank | #141 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 162 MB | 61 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Top Hat Monocle | The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley |
Customer experience
Top Hat
UTRGV
User reviews
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
UTRGV
From 717 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use
- 🚀 Helpful features
- 🤩 Great university app
- 🤟 Awesome experience
- 💯 Excellent resources
Room to improve
- 🔒 Frequent sign-in required
- 🗺️ Lacking navigation features
- 🐛 Occasional glitches
Bugs and 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
UTRGV
Reported bugs
2 issues- Login issues for some users
- Slow performance on older devices
Requested features
3 requests- Integrated campus map
- Single sign-on for all services
- Improved password management
In-app purchases
Top Hat
No in-app purchases
UTRGV
No in-app purchases









