Comparison

News Explorer vs Crew

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

Head to head
About

News Explorer

This app aggregates news from various sources including RSS, Reddit, and podcasts. It offers robust synchronization across Apple devices, smart filtering, and automatic reader view for full article text. Users can also add notes, tags, and comments to articles.

Highlights
  • iCloud sync across Apple devices
  • Smart filters for news customization
  • Automatic Reader View for full articles
  • Read and add article comments
  • Create rich text notes for articles
  • Customizable feed settings and prefilters
  • Article inspector for metadata and tags
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

News Explorer is a full-featured yet easy-to-use RSS, JSON, Atom, Reddit, YouTube, Podcast, Bluesky and Mastodon news reader with iCloud synchronization between Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Apple TV. Full iCloud Sync • News Explorer syncs your feeds, filters, folders, articles including statuses, notes and tags, across all your Apple devices. • Synchronization is based on iCloud, so there is no need to login or to sign up into any other service, it just works out of the box. Smart Filters • Filter your news according your own conditions and preferences, easily accessible from the feeds list. • Filters customizations are synced across all your devices. Automatic Reader View • Use automatic Reader view to download and read the full text version of truncated articles from supported sources. • News Explorer makes use of multiple parsers to offer the best Reader view results. Article Comments • Read article comments from other readers directly in the app. • Works with RSS feeds that has comment feeds per article, YouTube feeds, Reddit feeds and Hacker News feeds. • Also works with most feeds from websites that use Open Web comments. Article Notes • Create rich text notes, directly in the context of the article. • Notes are synced via iCloud together with the related article. Feed Settings • All aspects of a feed like title, source link or icon, can be adjusted in the Feed settings dialog. • Disable the feed temporarily or permanently. • Override app settings for syncing, downloading comments and reading articles. Feed Prefilters • Prevent the app from downloading articles you don’t want to see or read. • Prefilters are synced via iCloud, and can be easily configured on feed level in the Feed settings dialog. Article Inspector • Inspect metadata, tags, media, notes and comments of articles in the Inspector panel. • View and add custom tags in the Metadata panel. • Browse and download media, including podcasts, in the Media panel. Article Tags • Article categories of RSS articles are displayed in the Inspector panel as tags. • Can be extended with your own tags. • Custom tags are easily recognizable, and are synced via iCloud. • Tags can be used as conditions in filters. Local Account • Add feeds to News Explorer that only exists on your device by activating the Local account option. • The local account option can be used in addition to or instead of syncing with iCloud. Reading Features • Mark items as favorite for later reading. • Navigate with one click to the original content. • Full keyboard navigation. • Full text search in the List and Timeline view. • Mark as read while scrolling option. • Image viewer to browse through all images of articles or feeds. • Built-in sharing to Instapaper, Raindrop and Readwise. • Share news items via Email, Messages and other services. Configuration Features • Countless settings to tweak layout, fonts, behaviors and more. • Import and export feeds via OPML. • Add new feeds via the Search new feeds or Add feed dialogs. • Organize your feeds by assigning them to folders. • Multiple themes, tint colors and app icons. System Features • Create automations with News Explorer actions in the Shortcuts app. • Option to index articles with Spotlight. • Local notifications for feeds selected in the Feeds Manager. • Widgets with adjustable sources and fonts. Multi Platform You only need to buy two apps to cover all Apple platforms: • News Explorer for Mac is available on the Mac App Store. • News Explorer for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Apple TV is a universal purchase app, available on the App Store of the mentioned devices. On visionOS you can use the iPadOS edition of News Explorer. Support • News Explorer has an extensive help page on https://betamagic.nl/support/newsexplorer/help.html. • If you still have questions or need support, email us at support@betamagic.nl. If you like News Explorer then feel free to leave a review or a rating in the App Store, it helps us a lot!

About

Crew

This app provides a native iOS experience for browsing Stack Overflow content. It offers a clean, ad-free interface with powerful navigation and filtering tools for questions, answers, and comments. Enjoy a streamlined way to engage with the developer community.

Highlights
  • Native iOS design
  • Ad-free browsing
  • Powerful question filters
  • Dark mode
  • Real-time question previews
  • Gesture navigation
Features
Read full description

#PH daily pick 29/01/2020 "Crew brings the web service to a native app with a beautiful UI that makes browsing Stack Overflow much nicer than on the web." - MacStories "Crew isn't just an app, though. It's been designed with iOS guidelines in mind, making it look and feel every bit the native iPhone and iPad experience in a way the Stack Overflow website just can't match." - iMore Crew is a beautiful StackOverflow app built for fast navigation with powerful set of features. The delightful interface is coupled with extensive features that feel part on your device, whilst elevating your Stack Overflow experience. It’s created specifically with iOS design guidelines in mind, so it fits right at home on your device. Browse question without distraction or ads, use filter, add comments, or visit specific website areas like tags profile or badges section. You can quickly view list, tabs, inbox, notifications and more using gestures and context menu. Crew is an unofficial app, and side effects may include an incredible browsing experience. EXCITING FEATURES: - Trends and search support - All questions,answers and comments from Stack Overflow in your hands. - Search support - Rich rendering of questions - Dark mode - Beautiful iOS centric Ui - Universal app for iPhone and iPad. - Compose question with real time previews. - Powerful question filters (month, week, votes and more) It’s constatly evolving. If you have anything you’d specifically like to see, come to the Settings section and text me, I’d love to hear it! This app is not affiliated with or endorsed by Stack Overflow. Terms Of Use: https://www.danieljamestronca.com/crew/terms-of-use Privacy Policy: https://www.danieljamestronca.com/crew/privacy-policy

Screenshots

News Explorer4 screens
Crew4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Crew at Free against News Explorer's $4.99. Crew also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.0). News Explorer's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 7) and rating (4.7 vs 4.4). On update cadence, ads and device support 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

Crew is free to download; News Explorer costs $4.99 up front. Crew sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. News Explorer asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

News Explorer holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: News Explorer has 640 ratings behind it against 64, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 79% of News Explorer's written reviews are positive against 67% of Crew's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

News Explorer ships an update every 3 weeks, Crew every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and October 2, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
News Explorer versus Crew: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNews ExplorerCrew
Price$4.99Free — better
Rating4.7 (640 ratings) — better4.4 (64 ratings)
Positive reviews79.0% of reviews — better66.7% of reviews
Number of ratings640 — better64
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 10 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#15 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS18.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size49 MB59 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperRon ElemansDaniel James Tronca

Customer experience

News Explorer

All ratings640 ratings
Positive93.3%
Neutral3.0%
Negative3.8%
Written reviews281 reviews
Positive79.0%
Neutral8.2%
Negative12.8%

Crew

All ratings64 ratings
Positive82.8%
Neutral7.8%
Negative9.4%
Written reviews36 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral16.7%
Negative16.7%

Bugs and requests

News Explorer

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Issues with iCloud sync reliability
  • Freezing and crashes on certain devices
  • Inconsistent behavior when marking articles as read
  • Rendering problems with some websites in Reader mode

Requested features

8 requests
  • Ability to add custom RSS feeds
  • Improved support for newsletters
  • Option to translate articles
  • Bionic reading mode
  • Annotation and highlighting tools
Show 3 more
  • Tagging and advanced organization features
  • Text-to-speech playback
  • Improved Apple Watch app experience

Crew

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

News Explorer

No in-app purchases

7 purchases

Crew

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Subscription$1.991 Month
  • Yearly Subscription3 Days trial$19.991 Year
One-time5
  • Smoothie-sized Tip$0.99
  • Sandwich-sized tip$2.99
  • Buffet-sized Tip$7.99
Show 2 more
  • Deluxe-sized tip$16.99
  • Lifetime Subscritpion$39.99

Questions

Is News Explorer free?
News Explorer costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Crew free?
Crew is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, News Explorer or Crew?
News Explorer is rated higher. News Explorer averages 4.7 out of 5 from 640 ratings, while Crew averages 4.4 from 64 ratings.
Do News Explorer or Crew have ads?
Neither News Explorer nor Crew shows ads.
Which is updated more often, News Explorer or Crew?
News Explorer ships an update every 3 weeks, and Crew every 10 days. Most recently, News Explorer was updated on October 13, 2026 and Crew on October 2, 2026.

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