Comparison

payCity vs Olarm

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

Head to head
About

payCity

Manage traffic fines, renew vehicle licenses, and pay municipal bills. Purchase prepaid electricity, water, and gas conveniently and securely. The system offers simple navigation for easy account management.

Highlights
  • View and pay traffic fines
  • Renew vehicle licenses online
  • Settle municipal accounts
  • Purchase prepaid utilities
  • Secure card and EFT payments
Features
Read full description

Introducing our new and improved payCity app. payCity is an easy-to-use online system that allows you to view and pay for your outstanding traffic fines, renew your vehicle licence online, settle your municipal accounts and purchase prepaid utilities. Features: • View and pay your traffic fines, warrants of arrests and summons for selected municipalities. • Renew your vehicle licence online. • View and pay your municipal bills. • Make prepaid purchases for electricity, water and gas. Simple and safe payments via Mastercard, Visa, Credit- and debit cards as well as Ozow EFT. We have simplified our app for easy and convenient navigation and would like to hear what you think of it. Download the app and let us know what you think of the new functionality and design.

About

Olarm

Control and manage your home alarm system directly from your smartphone. This app allows you to arm, disarm, and monitor your system in real-time, receive notifications, and manage users. It also offers features like silent panic and gate control.

Highlights
  • Arm, Disarm, Sleep, Stay modes
  • Arming reminders
  • Real-time zone activity log
  • Silent Panic
  • Cancel Responder
  • User management
  • Gate and light control
Features
Read full description

This is the companion app to the Olarm device. Plug and play into your existing home alarm system and you can control and manage your home alarm system from your phone. Please visit our website for more information. Features: - Set your alarm system to Arm, Disarm, Sleep or Stay - Set reminders to arm your system - Real-time zone activity log and notifications - Silent Panic - Cancel Responder - User management - Monitor electric fence - Control gates and lights

Screenshots

payCity4 screens
Olarm4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: payCity at 4.5 against Olarm's 3.9. payCity also leads on review sentiment (67% vs 54%). Olarm's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 2 months). On price, ratings volume, 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

payCity holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.9. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 75 and 32 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 67% of payCity's written reviews are positive against 54% of Olarm's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

payCity ships an update every 2 months, Olarm every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
payCity versus Olarm: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterpayCityOlarm
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (75 ratings) — better3.9 (32 ratings)
Positive reviews66.7% of reviews — better54.2% of reviews
Number of ratings75 — better32
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.615.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size26 MB38 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSyntellOlarm (Pty) Ltd

Customer experience

payCity

All ratings75 ratings
Positive92.0%
Neutral1.3%
Negative6.7%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative33.3%

Olarm

All ratings32 ratings
Positive75.0%
Neutral3.1%
Negative21.9%
Written reviews72 reviews
Positive54.2%
Neutral22.2%
Negative23.6%

In-app purchases

None

payCity

No in-app purchases

None

Olarm

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is payCity free?
payCity is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Olarm free?
Olarm is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, payCity or Olarm?
payCity is rated higher. payCity averages 4.5 out of 5 from 75 ratings, while Olarm averages 3.9 from 32 ratings.
Do payCity or Olarm have ads?
Neither payCity nor Olarm shows ads.
Which is updated more often, payCity or Olarm?
payCity ships an update every 2 months, and Olarm every 3 weeks. Most recently, payCity was updated on October 24, 2026 and Olarm on October 21, 2026.

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