State vs Smartly
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
State
Manage your insurance policies, make payments, and start claims 24/7. Get new quotes in minutes and access all your policy documents easily. Log in quickly with PIN or Face ID.
- 24/7 insurance management
- Fast login with PIN/Face ID
- Online claim submission and tracking
- Policy payment management
- View policy information and documents
- Get new quotes in 2 minutes
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About this app Your State insurance anytime, anywhere. With the State app, we’re here for you 24/7. Manage your insurance with faster log in using a PIN or face ID. Make a claim online Starting your claim is easy in the app. If you need to claim for home or motor insurance, you can start a draft, make a claim, and check your claim’s progress every step of the way. Easily manage your payments Make a payment for your policy straight from the app. All your policies in one place View your policy information and documents in the app. You can see what you’re covered for at any time. And choose to get your insurance documents by email or by post. Get a quote Get a new quote in 2 minutes. Or find an existing motor quote and pick up where you left off.
Smartly
This app allows employees to manage their payroll information, including viewing payslips, applying for leave, and submitting timesheets. Employers must set up employee accounts for access. It simplifies payroll management for both employees and businesses.
- View payslips
- Apply for leave
- Submit timesheets
- Track leave balances
- Assign hours to jobs
- Email PDF payslips
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The Smartly mobile app is for employees who work for a business that uses Smartly to manage their payroll. As an employee you can check your pay history and apply for leave as well as submit timesheets. To login, your employer needs to set you up in the payroll site and give you your username. You’ll then get an email to create your password and you’ll be good to go! FEATURES Pay details - View your payslips (up to 3 months). - Email yourself a PDF version of your payslip. - See a countdown to your next pay. Managing leave requests - Apply for leave (including special leave types). - View any upcoming leave, plus leave history and balances. - Managers can add, edit, approveor decline leave requests for their team. - View future leave balances when applying for leave. Submitting timesheets - Enter time and rate per hour. - Create multiple time entries for each day. - Managers can add, edit, approve or decline time for their team. - Remembers the last timesheet entry and prefills the same hours. - Copy a previous weeks timesheet to save time. Labour costing - Assign hours worked to different jobs or departments. ABOUT SMARTLY We know that payroll can be a headache. So, at Smartly we make it simple for businesses to pay their people on time, accurately and in-line with regulation. Faff-free payroll, happy staff, no headaches. Too easy!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Smartly at 4.8 against State's 4.5. Smartly also leads on review sentiment (32% vs 11%) and ratings volume (35 vs 4). On price, update cadence, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Smartly holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Smartly has 35 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 11% of State's written reviews are positive against 32% of Smartly's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 10, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | State | Smartly |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (4 ratings) | 4.8 (35 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 10.8% of reviews | 31.9% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 4 | 35 — better |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Monthly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 78 MB | 24 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | IAG New Zealand Limited | SmartPayroll |
Customer experience
State
Smartly
User reviews
State
From 4 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Makes insurance easy
- 👍 Renewals are simple
- 👍 Checking insurance cover is easy
- 👍 Printing documents is easy
- 👍 Easy to pay online (once accessed)
Room to improve
- 🐛 App requires newer phone/OS
- 🐛 Login issues (timeouts, incorrect password)
- 🐛 Difficult to make changes/add drivers
- 🐛 Slow and unfriendly customer service
- 🐛 Claim processing is slow
Smartly
From 35 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use
- 👍 Intuitive design
- 👍 Straightforward
- 👍 Good for tracking shifts
- 👍 Great for employees
Room to improve
- 🐛 Constantly logs out
- 🐛 Frequent login issues
- 🐛 App crashes/freezes
- 🐛 Slow performance
- 🐛 Poor accessibility
Bugs and requests
State
Reported bugs
17 issues- App requires newer phone/OS
- Login issues (timeouts, incorrect password, constant logouts)
- Cannot add drivers/make changes
- Security number expiry issues
- Claim processing delays
Show 12 moreShow fewer
- App crashes when viewing policies
- Authentication errors
- Registration stage not working
- App doesn't work or shows 'service not available'
- App bounces back to main menu with error
- App shows old/overdue/incorrect policies
- Buttons not functioning (roadside assistance, settings)
- Offers feature not working
- App doesn't render correctly on iPhone 11
- Policy button doesn't work
- Cannot view policies since updating
- Direct debit updates not real-time
Requested features
17 requests- Allow adding drivers on the app
- Allow making changes to policies on the app
- Show monthly/weekly/fortnightly/annual premium in summary
- Clearly show payment transaction statement in one place
- Allow adding new addresses manually
Show 12 moreShow fewer
- Sync app and website for new policies
- Provide policy wording
- Fix login timeout issues
- Allow viewing all pages of policy documents
- Improve app performance and stability
- Update the app more frequently
- Allow manual entry of addresses
- Improve customer service response times
- Make the app more interactive
- Allow viewing payment history
- Allow viewing personal details
- Improve direct debit updates to be real-time
Smartly
Reported bugs
39 issues- Notifications don't work
- App size increased
- Biometrics enrollment repeated
- Password reset issues
- Login button unresponsive
Show 34 moreShow fewer
- Keeps logging out
- App crashes or freezes
- Date selection hard
- App crashes or freezes regularly
- Issues with shifts past midnight
- Cannot log in
- App freezes when adding timesheet
- Timesheet tab buffering
- App doesn't function
- Cannot approve timesheets
- Randomly logs out users
- App crashes every fortnight
- Slow to respond to taps
- App freezes on loading screen
- Cannot add timesheet when logged in
- Timesheet tab buffering and error
- App won't function
- Cannot approve timesheets
- Randomly logs out
- App crashes every fortnight
- Slow to respond
- App crashes
- App crashes immediately
- App hangs on white loading screen
- Login issues
- App doesn't remember login
- Constant lag and freezing
- Screens don't allow scrolling
- New timesheet layout doesn't let you copy hours
- App needs to be repeatedly reinstalled
- App doesn't open
- App crashes
- App crashes immediately
- App hangs on white loading screen
Requested features
10 requests- Ability to put in start time without finish time
- Reminder for missing finish time
- More detailed app
- Web portal access for employees
- Ability to handle working past midnight without two entries
Show 5 moreShow fewer
- Export staff on leave to Outlook calendar
- Ability to put time to time in lieu
- Previous week preloaded
- Auto-save start and finish times from previous day
- Notifications
In-app purchases
State
No in-app purchases
Smartly
No in-app purchases
