Top Hat vs BadgerSAFE
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
BadgerSAFE
This official safety application provides University of Wisconsin-Madison students and staff with critical safety alerts and instant access to campus security resources. It offers features like emergency contacts, real-time location sharing with friends, and direct tip reporting to campus security.
- Emergency Contacts
- Friend Walk location sharing
- Tip Reporting to security
- Safety Toolbox
- Campus Maps
- Offline Emergency Procedures
- Support Resources access
- Safety Notifications
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BadgerSAFE is the official safety app of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It is the only app that integrates with the University of Wisconsin-Madison's safety and security systems. The app will send you important safety alerts and provide instant access to campus safety resources. BadgerSAFE features include: - Emergency Contacts: Contact the correct services for the University of Wisconsin-Madison area in case of an emergency or a non-emergency concern - Friend Walk: Send your location to a friend through email or SMS on your device. Once the friend accepts the Friend Walk request, the user picks their destination and their friend tracks their location in real time; they can keep an eye on them to make sure they make it safely to their destination. - Tip Reporting: Multiple ways to report a safety concern directly to University of Wisconsin-Madison security. - Safety Toolbox: Enhance your safety with the set of tools provided in one convenient app. - Campus Maps: Navigate around the University of Wisconsin-Madison area. - Emergency Procedures: Campus emergency documentation that can prepare you for disasters or emergencies. This can be accessed even when users aren’t connected to Wi-Fi or cellular data. - Support Resources: Access support resources in one convenient app to enjoy a successful experience at University of Wisconsin-Madison. - Safety Notifications: Receive instant notifications and instructions from University of Wisconsin-Madison safety when on-campus emergencies occur. Download today to ensure you’re prepared in the event of an emergency.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Top Hat at 4.6 against BadgerSAFE's 3.6. Top Hat also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 14 months) and ratings volume (23K vs 14). BadgerSAFE's advantage is iOS requirement (15.6 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 3.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Top Hat has 23K ratings behind it against 14, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Top Hat ships an update fortnightly, BadgerSAFE every 14 months. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Top Hat | BadgerSAFE |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (23K ratings) — better | 3.6 (14 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 14.4% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 23K — better | 14 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 14 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Best chart rank | #147 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 15.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 162 MB | 34 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Top Hat Monocle | University of Wisconsin-Madison |
Customer experience
Top Hat
BadgerSAFE
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
BadgerSAFE
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Top Hat
No in-app purchases
BadgerSAFE
No in-app purchases









