# AL.com — Local News, Sports & Weather > Local news, sports, and weather reporting from a trusted source. (iPhone/iPad app by al.com.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/alcom/id419876008 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [al.com](https://appshunter.io/developer/419876011) - Category: News, Sports - Price: Free with in-app purchases - Rating: 4.50/5 from 15,258 App Store ratings · 115 written reviews indexed - Age rating: 12+ - Requires: iOS 17.0 · 32 MB - Languages: American English - Released: 2011-02-18 - Data updated: 2026-08-29 - Monetization: free with in-app purchases - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/alcom/id419876008/reviews.md ## What is AL.com? Get trusted local news across Alabama. Breaking news, in-depth reporting, and all the stories people are talking about. Stay connected to what's happening around you with timely coverage of news, weather, sports, and more, optimized for your phone. Free to download. Get breaking news, alerts, and top stories. Subscribers receive unlimited access to in-depth reporting, exclusive content, and additional features. Subscriptions are available in-app. Our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use: http://www.advance.net/advancedigitalUserAgreementPP/ ## Key features - Local news reporting - Sports updates - Weather forecasts - Community-focused content - Timely and reliable information ## Pricing and in-app purchases Base price: Free. **Subscriptions** | Subscription | Price | Period | | --- | --- | --- | | All Access to Al.com | $15.00 | per month | | All Access to Al.com | $150.00 | per year | | Basic Access to Al.com | $10.00 | per month | | Basic Access to Al.com | $100.00 | per year | | Premium Access to Al.com | $20.00 | per month | | Premium Access to Al.com | $200.00 | per year | | Digital Access | $9.99 | per month | | Digital Access | $99.99 | per year | | Digital Access | $9.99 | per month | | Digital Access | $99.99 | per year | ## Chart rankings - #200 in Top Grossing · News (US App Store) ## What do users think of AL.com? Overall sentiment: negative **Pros** - 💡 Great overall news source - 🚀 Timely and informative news coverage - 👍 Diverse content and topics **Cons** - 🐛 Frequent app crashes and freezes - 🔋 Performance issues, slow loading - 💬 Biased and one-sided reporting - 📢 Intrusive and disruptive ads **Commonly reported bugs** - App title displaying incorrectly as 'OSU Basketball' - Inability to access recent search history - Difficulty closing ads or navigating back from articles **Most requested features** - Improve app stability and performance - Provide more balanced and objective news coverage - Optimize ad placement to minimize disruption ## Recent user reviews (10 of 115) All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/alcom/id419876008/reviews.md ### 5/5 — Boo! *2026-08-21, version 5.0.0* I used to enjoy reading everything but now that you are charging to read most articles I’ve almost decided to delete my app. Plus football season is here and it will be nothing but football from start to finish. Block those articles! ### 1/5 — Subscription Etc *2026-08-20, version 5.0.0* I have no interest in paying for a subscription. I don’t know why you can’t just use ads like most everyone else. Also I really don’t like now having all the sports related articles all grouped under “Sports”. This needs to be broken out into smaller groups. I continue to look for other ways to get sports information. ### 1/5 — The absolute worst website! *2026-08-14, version 5.0.0* The absolute worst website! ### 1/5 — Useless website *2026-08-13, version 5.0.0* You are a useless website. You only allow about 1% of the articles submitted to be read by people who don’t see any value in an overpriced subscription. ### 5/5 — Great local news *2026-08-12, version 5.0.0* Great writers and articles with AL.com and good local news on our community. I suggest everyone with any interest in our community subscribe ### 5/5 — Excellent *2026-08-10, version 5.0.0* Read every day ### 1/5 — Horrific *2026-08-08, version 5.0.0* Not reader friendly. The rapid decline in the journalist on this is disturbing. Biased and racially divisive journalism . What has happened to journalism? ### 1/5 — Garbage. Everything is behind a paywall now *2026-08-06, version 5.0.0* Unable to view any articles or stories. They either have a bug that needs to be fixed or they are putting everything behind a paywall for an outrageous amount of money. ### 1/5 — Buggy and paywalled *2026-07-26, version 4.5.11* This app has been buggy for a very long time. It crashes a lot. It needs to be redesigned from the ground up. Most of the articles are behind an outrageously overpriced paywall. ### 3/5 — What have you done now? *2026-07-24, version 4.5.11* Here we go again. Today is July 24, 2026. The app last updated about a month ago, and was working amazingly well at that time, as it has for the last couple of years. But, a few days ago, new issues—some of them similar to issues we had some years ago—popped up. Now, when I bring up an article, the material jumps around, making it difficult if not impossible to read the content straight through. Not only this, but totally unwanted ads intrude themselves into the material. Most annoying of all is the appeal to subscribe to a rather pricey subscription. I subscribed years ago to what was then the free account; and, if the app began misbehaving, all I needed to do was to sign in again to that account. Now, when I attempt to sign in, it doesn’t even recognize me, and keeps throwing the subscription message at me. If we are now at a point that one can no longer use the app without a paid subscription, I will be forced to delete one of my favorite apps for state and local news. As if to add insult to injury, when I open the app now (as of the last two or three days), there is no longer a menu, and no “Contact Us” feature. Shame on you for messing up, without an update, what was a perfectly good and useful app which, at least for the past few years, worked well with screen readers. I wish I could offer a screenshot of how it looked before this latest mess-up, as opposed to how it looks now. My previous reviews will probably still appear below, after I submit this one. Old issue resurfaced. Today is June 5, 2022. With the most recent update—about two weeks ago—ads are again intruding into articles, making reading them difficult. Rarely, one can get through an article uninterrupted , which is wonderful. With the latest update, there is a Close button—which, at least now, usually works— next to the popup ad, but that button evades VoiceOver. Therefore, when an ad pops up, VoiceOver users must go through a rather clunky process to find the Close button and close the ad. Vut, as soon as _that ad is closed, _another one pops up, and one must repeat the process. This can happen numerous times during a given article. And, don’t even get me started on when that sort of thing happens if one is in Around The Web, assuming that one was able to read the entire article. Please fix this issue. There have been brief periods when the app worked like a charm, and received 5 stars from me. I do not want to have to delete the app, as I get much out of the material presented therein. There are still issues with the Search feature (see my previous reviews, which follow. Reinstalling the app, of course, didn’t alleviate these issues. New update; bug fixed quickly; back to 5 stars for now. Previous reviews below. There have always been ups and downs with this app; but, for the last little while, it was working quite well. However, with the most recent update, as of around April 8, 2022, the app is again almost unusable. The most frustrating issue is that, when a notification arrives and one clicks it, the _article that initiated the notification generally doesn’t come up, but you are taken to the most recent top stories. If that notification is from several days ago—and you are just now getting to it—you will not find that article in the latest news. So, you bring up Search; but, if you don’t enter the exact wording of the article’s title, or the exact keyword, you won’t find it anywhere. Finally, if one is scrolling through “Around the Web” after reading an article, and choose to read something, the Back button no longer takes you back into Around the Web, but takes you back to the original article—and Around the Web disappears. Again, as of three days ago, ads again pop up, sometimes with no way to close them (because the Close button doesn’t work), thus preventing reading the rest of the article or making reading it difficult. I don’t want to have to delete the ad again—as I was forced to do at one point several years ago when it wasn’t working well—but it may come to that again. This would be a shame, because I like the app overall. An earlier review may still appear below. I have always liked the diversity of content which this app offers, and have used it for a long time; however, there have always been a few issues with it. For some time, adds have tended to pop up in the midst of articles, with no foolproof way to close them, thus making it difficult to finish reading the articles. Also, an article will occasionally disappear before I can finish reading it. I had hoped that the latest app update would alleviate these issues, but it did not; and, a new—and annoying bug has crept in. Now, when reading an article that was recommended as a notification, when there is a “Done” button for backing out of an article, that button no longer works, and the only recourse is to close down the app. A similar thing happens when I look up a word directly from an article, and must hit “Done” in order to get back to the article (which doesn’t happen now, because “Done” doesn’t work)! When an article takes me directly to the website, and a “Back” tab is used to back out of an article, that tab _does work. Please fix the “Done” button, even if this is an issue for VoiceOver users only. ## Frequently asked questions about AL.com ### What kind of content does this app provide? This app provides local news, sports updates, and weather forecasts that directly impact your community. It covers a wide range of topics including news, sports, politics, business, and culture, all reported by journalists who live and work in the same areas as the users. ### Is this app free to use? The app is free to download and use. However, it does offer in-app purchases and may display advertisements to support its operations. ### Who is this app designed for? This app is designed for individuals who want to stay informed about the latest happenings in their local area. It's ideal for residents who value timely and reliable reporting on news, sports, and weather relevant to their own backyard. ### What are the benefits of using this app over other news sources? The app offers timely and reliable reporting from a trusted source with reporters who have firsthand knowledge of the communities they cover. It focuses specifically on local events and stories that have a direct impact on users' lives, ensuring relevance and awareness of unfolding events nearby. ## Version history (last 5 releases) ### 5.0.0 — 2026-08-04 Meet the new AL.com app, rebuilt from the ground up to put local journalism front and center. This release introduces the redesigned experience with clearer navigation, editor-curated stories, and easier ways to follow the topics and teams you care about. It's a more focused, intuitive way to stay connected to what's happening in your community throughout the day. Thanks for reading with us. ### 4.5.11 — 2026-05-06 A fresh, redesigned app experience, making your timely, reliable and local news faster and easier to read. In this release, we've focused on the reading experience: easier-to-read resizable text, support for dark mode, richer layouts, and improved performance throughout. Thank you for reading! ### 4.5.10 — 2026-04-28 A fresh, redesigned app experience, making your timely, reliable and local news faster and easier to read. In this release, we've focused on the reading experience: easier-to-read resizable text, support for dark mode, richer layouts, and improved performance throughout. Thank you for reading! ### 4.5.9 — 2026-02-27 A fresh, redesigned app experience, making your timely, reliable and local news faster and easier to read. In this release, we've focused on the reading experience: easier-to-read resizable text, support for dark mode, richer layouts, and improved performance throughout. Thank you for reading! ### 4.5.8 — 2026-01-25 A fresh, redesigned app experience, making your timely, reliable and local news faster and easier to read. In this release, we've focused on the reading experience: easier-to-read resizable text, support for dark mode, richer layouts, and improved performance throughout. 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User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-29.*