Comparison

ESP vs SmartMatter

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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.

About

SmartMatter

Manage property finances and enhance tenant-landlord communication. This app streamlines property payments, offering full cost transparency and usage tracking. Experience a modern, convenient approach to property industry billing.

Highlights
  • Property payment management
  • Cost transparency
  • Usage tracking
  • Convergent billing platform
  • Tenant-landlord relationship improvement
Features
Read full description

Experience the future of property finances and improve your tenant-landlord relationship with SmartMatter. Our app allows you to take care of all of your property payments with a few taps on your smartphone, providing full transparency of costs and the ability to track your usage. SmartMatter allows you to take advantage of the modern and convenient way to handle payments and the benefits of a convergent billing platform designed specifically for the property industry. Make payments and track your usage with SmartMatter today.

Screenshots

ESP4 screens
SmartMatter4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: ESP at 85% against SmartMatter's 0%. ESP also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 3 weeks). SmartMatter'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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. ESP sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. SmartMatter asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ESP ships an update every 2 days, SmartMatter every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
ESP versus SmartMatter: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterESPSmartMatter
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (4.5K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews84.5% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings4.5K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 days — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.015.0
Further details — not scored
Size106 MB72 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperWELLWELLWELLSmartMatter

Customer experience

ESP

All ratings4,453 ratings
Positive93.4%
Neutral2.5%
Negative4.0%
Written reviews297 reviews
Positive84.5%
Neutral6.7%
Negative8.8%

SmartMatter

Written reviews11 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

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

SmartMatter

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

4 purchases

ESP

Subscriptions4
  • Pay Monthly$1.991 Month
  • Remove Ads for a year$13.991 Year
  • Pay Monthly$17.491 Year
Show 1 more
  • Pay Yearly$19.991 Year
None

SmartMatter

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is ESP free?
ESP is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is SmartMatter free?
SmartMatter is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do ESP or SmartMatter have ads?
ESP shows ads; SmartMatter does not.
Which is updated more often, ESP or SmartMatter?
ESP ships an update every 2 days, and SmartMatter every 3 weeks. Most recently, ESP was updated on October 16, 2026 and SmartMatter on September 23, 2026.

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