IEEE vs Y Combinator
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
IEEE
Access the latest technology news and innovations. Read and download IEEE magazines, manage virtual meetups, and connect with members. Discover conferences and stay informed about the world of technology.
- Personalized experience and recommendations
- Latest technology and innovation news
- Read and download IEEE magazines
- Schedule and join virtual meetups
- Locate IEEE members
- Discover conferences and meetings
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The IEEE App gives you the ability to engage and connect with all things IEEE: • Personalize your experience and recommendations • Stay up-to-date with news on the latest technology and innovations • Read and download your IEEE magazines • Schedule, manage or join meetups virtually • Locate IEEE members by location, interests, and affiliations • Discover conferences and meetings Staying connected to the latest technology and innovation resources has never been easier. The world of technology is in your hands with the IEEE app.
Y Combinator
Access Y Combinator's extensive library of startup content, including YouTube videos, podcasts, and essays. It also serves as a mobile client for Hacker News, offering the latest startup news for founders and programmers. Additional features are available for YC-funded founders.
- Organized YC YouTube videos
- Startup School content
- On-the-go podcast listening
- Hacker News mobile client
- YC founder-only knowledge base
- Access Bookface feed and messages
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The Y Combinator App is your home for all things YC. It organizes all of YC's YouTube videos, podcasts, and essays. It's also a mobile client for Hacker News, the best startup news source for programmers and technical founders. For founders who have been funded by YC, it has additional features. For everyone: - Organizes all of YC's YouTube videos - the world's best content on startups - All of the content from Startup School - Listen to YC podcasts on the go - Read Hacker News - the best news source for programmers and technical founders For YC founders: - Access the Bookface feed - Access Bookface messages - Read the YC founder-only knowledge base
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Y Combinator at 50% against IEEE's 7%. Y Combinator also leads on update cadence (every 8 days vs every 5 weeks) and rating (4.3 vs 4.1). IEEE's advantage is ratings volume (123 vs 26). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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.
Y Combinator holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 4.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 123 and 26 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 7% of IEEE's written reviews are positive against 50% of Y Combinator's.
IEEE ships an update every 5 weeks, Y Combinator every 8 days. Both last shipped on October 6, 2026.
| Parameter | IEEE | Y Combinator |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.1 (123 ratings) | 4.3 (26 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 6.5% of reviews | 50.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 123 — better | 26 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Every 8 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.6 | 16.4 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 105 MB | 84 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers Inc | Y Combinator |
Customer experience
IEEE
Y Combinator
Bugs and requests
IEEE
Reported bugs
49 issues- Cannot download magazines
- Cannot read magazines in PDF format
- Membership card to Apple Wallet does not work
- Email address input format validation error
- App sticks on a loop when adding card to wallet
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- Sign in doesn't work
- Cannot sign in with IEEE password
- Cannot read Computer Magazine online or PDF
- Magazine zoom in is not good
- No panning when zoomed
- Downloaded PDFs don't have navigation
- 404 errors when reading content online
- Privacy settings not properly appearing
- App crashes when opening
- App crashes every time trying to open
- App crashes when opening on iPhone
- App crashes after showing splash screen
- App crashes after trying to open a notification
- Magazines get out of focus on iPad
- Extra white bar appears on iPad
- Zooming on page blocks text
- Taping screen causes zoom out
- Download button has no effect
- App freezes and crashes all the time
- Orientation locked
- Cannot access magazines
- No working links in magazines
- Cannot copy text from articles
- UI not flexible for phone, not supportive for tablets
- Only magazines show up for content
- Glitchy, slow magazine interface
- Cannot highlight or clip articles
- Unintuitive magazine interface
- No offline reading
- Crazy phone-based UX
- iPhone screen too small to read journals
- App nonfunctional on latest iOS
- IEEE Magazines not available
- Articles in Trending section disappear if not bookmarked
- No iPad version
- Forces portrait mode on iPad
- Cannot read Spectrum
- Lost ability to read offline
- Impossible to use entire screen on iPad
- Cannot make displayed magazine larger
- Multi-step process to download PDF
- iPhone screen size for iPad
- Out of focus when enlarging on iPad
- Articles don't show text
Requested features
16 requests- Add membership card to Apple Wallet
- Improve magazine zoom and panning
- Consistent online reader experience
- Allow saving reading progress
- Improve UI for better readability
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- Develop a dedicated iPad version
- Enable offline magazine reading
- Add navigation features to PDFs
- Improve sign-in process
- Fix email format validation errors
- Make privacy settings visible
- Add horizontal reading support
- Improve search functionality
- Improve back and done navigation
- Allow copying text from articles
- Enable external links in articles
Y Combinator
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
IEEE
No in-app purchases
Y Combinator
No in-app purchases
