# News Explorer vs Crew

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.

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.

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.

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.

## The numbers

| Metric | News Explorer | Crew |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | $4.99 | **Free** |
| Rating | **[4.7 (640 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/news-explorer/id1032668306/reviews)** | [4.4 (64 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/crew-stack-overflow-code-q-and-a/id1547171709/reviews) |
| Number of ratings | **640** | 64 |
| Positive reviews | **79.0% of reviews** | 66.7% of reviews |
| In-app purchases | **No** | Yes |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | **Every 10 days** |
| Monetization | Paid | **Free with in-app purchases** |
| Best chart rank | **#15** | — |
| Size | 49 MB | 59 MB |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | **15.0** |
| Devices | **iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch** | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [Ron Elemans](https://appshunter.io/developer/802165890) | [Daniel James Tronca](https://appshunter.io/developer/1534445542) |

## What reviewers say

### News Explorer

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/news-explorer/id1032668306)

**Currently charting:** #15 Top Paid · News (US App Store)

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:** Apple Watch app, Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases:** none

**What reviewers like**

- 🚀 Great app
- 👍 Fantastic RSS reader
- 🔒 Respects privacy
- 🚀 Smooth and fast
- 👍 Customizable

**What reviewers complain about**

- 🐛 Occasional bugs and crashes
- 🔍 Needs better search and filtering options
- 🔍 Limited theme and color options
- 🔍 Inconsistent behavior when marking articles as read
- 🔍 Needs better support for Mastodon and other platforms

**Reported bugs**

- 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**

- Ability to add custom RSS feeds
- Improved support for newsletters
- Option to translate articles
- Bionic reading mode
- Annotation and highlighting tools


### Crew

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/crew-stack-overflow-code-q-and-a/id1547171709)

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:** macOS Compatibility, Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases (7)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Monthly Subscription | $1.99 | per month |
| Yearly Subscription | $19.99 | per year |
| Smoothie-sized Tip | $0.99 | one-time |
| Sandwich-sized tip | $2.99 | one-time |
| Buffet-sized Tip | $7.99 | one-time |
| Deluxe-sized tip | $16.99 | one-time |
| Lifetime Subscritpion | $39.99 | one-time |


## Frequently asked 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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*Compared by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/) from daily US App Store data. Review summaries are generated from verbatim App Store reviews.*