ESP vs Olarm
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ESP
Track South Africa's loadshedding schedules with accurate, real-time notifications for your specific area. Connect with neighbors in local community chats to discuss power outages, local faults, and other neighborhood happenings.
- Accurate loadshedding schedules by suburb
- Real-time push notifications
- Local community chat groups
- Report local issues (power, water, etc.)
- Follow multiple areas
- Neighbor-to-neighbor communication
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Whole street dark? Water off again? Wifi down? ESP (previously EskomSePush) shows live power, water and internet outages in your suburb, reported by the neighbours living through them. Then you can talk to them about it. Free, made in South Africa, and used by millions. IS IT JUST ME? Open ESP and know in seconds. Every area you follow shows the live status of power, water and internet, built from your neighbours' reports. - Check in with one tap: "Mine's off" or "I have power" - Watch it happen on a 24-hour chart of off and on reports - Read a short summary of what's going on while it lasts - See the moment it starts coming back on TALK TO YOUR AREA Every area has its own chats for power, water, internet and Ask my street. Post a photo of the burst pipe, ask who else heard the bang, find a plumber, return a lost dog. - Message people near you. They get a request first and decide whether to chat - Add a profile photo so the neighbours know who's who - Sign in with WhatsApp, Apple, Google or email STILL THE LOADSHEDDING APP Nobody wants it back. If it comes, ESP is ready. - Schedules for your actual suburb, not a block number - The famous 55-minute heads-up, so the kettle's on in time - Home, work, school and the folks, all in one list WEATHER FOR YOUR STREET Current conditions, the next 24 hours, a 14-day outlook and weather warnings for every area you follow. ALERTS ON YOUR TERMS Choose which chats notify you and for how long: 8 hours, 24 hours or always. Mute the noisy ones, keep the ones that matter. ESP SUPPORTER ESP is free. Become a Supporter to remove ads, add the home screen widget with your area's status and schedule, and get a supporter badge in chat. All of South Africa, suburb by suburb. Building something? The ESP Business API puts the same outage and schedule data in your product. More at esp.info Terms of use: https://esp.info/terms Privacy policy: https://esp.info/privacy ESP is independent and not affiliated with Eskom or any municipality.
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.
- Arm, Disarm, Sleep, Stay modes
- Arming reminders
- Real-time zone activity log
- Silent Panic
- Cancel Responder
- User management
- Gate and light control
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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
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: ESP at 4.7 against Olarm's 3.9. ESP also leads on review sentiment (85% vs 54%) and update cadence (every 2 days vs every 3 weeks). Olarm's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 4) and ads (none vs shown). On price, device support and iOS requirement 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. ESP sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Olarm asks for nothing beyond the download.
ESP holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ESP has 4.5K ratings behind it against 32, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 85% of ESP's written reviews are positive against 54% of Olarm's.
ESP ships an update every 2 days, Olarm every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ESP | Olarm |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (4.5K ratings) — better | 3.9 (32 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 84.5% of reviews — better | 54.2% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 4.5K — better | 32 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 106 MB | 38 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | WELLWELLWELL | Olarm (Pty) Ltd |
Customer experience
ESP
Olarm
Bugs and requests
ESP
Reported bugs
3 issues- Schedules not updating in real-time
- Notifications not working as expected
- Certain areas/suburbs disappearing from the app
Requested features
4 requests- Add calendar integration for schedule planning
- Improve user interface and layout
- Provide more detailed historical data
- Enable location services for automatic area detection
Olarm
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
ESP
- Pay Monthly$1.991 Month
- Remove Ads for a year$13.991 Year
- Pay Monthly$17.491 Year
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- Pay Yearly$19.991 Year
Olarm
No in-app purchases
