Castanet vs Vancouver Sun
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Castanet
Access local and national news, classifieds, events, and more from the Okanagan region. Features include direct messaging for classifieds, posting ads, webcams, and an airport arrivals/departures page.
- Local and national news
- Classifieds with messaging
- Post classified ads
- Scenic and traffic webcams
- Airport arrivals/departures
- Events listings
- Obituaries
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Since launching in November 2000, Castanet has become one of the most visited media websites in Western Canada. The free Castanet.net app is the B.C. Interior's source for the latest local, national and world news, classifieds, events, webcams and more. The Castanet.net site is visited by 600,000 people every week. The Castanet.net app has all the features our desktop and mobile sites have with improved usability for smartphones.
Vancouver Sun
Access local and national news with a personalized feed. Enjoy in-depth articles, videos, and curated content from top journalists. Stay informed about your community and beyond.
- Customizable news feed
- In-depth articles and explainers
- Extensive video coverage
- Access to Postmedia network publications
- Personalize topics and journalists
- Discover trending Canadian stories
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The Vancouver Sun app connects you to the news you need to know. Create your custom feed so you don't miss the latest from your favourite writers. Features include: · Stay connected to news from your community and beyond. · Enjoy the wide variety of comprehensive explainers on issues shaping your community and compelling longreads from our top journalists — plus extensive video coverage. · Navigate directly to individual publications from across the Postmedia network. · You can choose your preferred publications when you first open the new app, ensuring a curated news feed that aligns with your interests. · Use the Discover tab to explore trending stories from our newsrooms across Canada. · Personalize your news experience by selecting topics, journalists and columnists you want to see more of, so your feed will be filled with the content and perspectives you enjoy. · Online Access and Home Delivery subscribers receive unlimited access to content on the app, included with your subscription. · App readers can access one free article before being prompted to register to gain access to two more articles. If you are not an existing subscriber, you can easily sign up through the app marketplace. · Payment will be charged to your store account upon confirmation of purchase. · Subscription will automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. · The account will now be charged $14.99 for monthly renewal within the 24 hours before the current period ends. · You can manage your subscription and turn off auto-renewal after purchase in the App settings. Select "My Subscription" then "Manage my Subscription" and you will be able to make changes. Privacy Policy: https://www.postmedia.com/privacy-statement/ Postmedia Terms and Conditions: https://www.postmedia.com/terms-and-conditions/ Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ We appreciate and value your feedback. Please send any comments, suggestions or questions to: appsupport@postmedia.com
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Castanet at 5.0 against Vancouver Sun's 3.1. Castanet also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 2) and ads (none vs shown). Vancouver Sun's advantage is ratings volume (19 vs 1). On price, update cadence, device support and iOS requirement 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. Vancouver Sun sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month. Castanet asks for nothing beyond the download.
Castanet holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Vancouver Sun has 19 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 19% of Castanet's written reviews are positive against 11% of Vancouver Sun's.
Castanet ships an update every 6 weeks, Vancouver Sun monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 18, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Castanet | Vancouver Sun |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | 3.1 (19 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 19.4% of reviews — better | 10.8% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 19 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Monthly — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 31 MB | 65 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Castanet Media Ltd. | Postmedia Network INC. |
Customer experience
Castanet
Vancouver Sun
Bugs and requests
Castanet
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Vancouver Sun
Reported bugs
182 issues- App is unnecessarily difficult to use
- Unfathomably slow to load
- Content doesn’t seem to get updated more than once or twice a day
- Subscription still requires advertisements to load
- Doesn’t allow you to select and look up words
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- Too slow to load
- Lacks the most basic device interoperability
- Ads incessantly violate your eyes
- No iPad version
- Very awkward to rotate my iPad to read the app
- Way too slow
- Cumbersome and slow
- Takes too long to load up
- Loads slowly or not at all
- Top stories loads somewhat slowly
- Next sections takes minutes to load each one
- Later sections never load
- Constantly asked to reenter your password
- App is unusable
- Lacks the most basic device interoperability
- Terrible app
- Poorly written
- Lacking even the most fundamental features such pull to reload
- Subscription still requires advertisements to load
- Horrible app
- New app is absolute garbage
- Worst app ever
- Latest update asks you to sign in again using your password
- Email to change password not received
- Paid subscription to read anything
- New update had made the app terrible
- Unlimited amounts of articles
- Tracking and sharing all my information
- Lacking in local news stories and information
- Reinstalled app several times and after one use it stalls and I get a blank
- Pay for subscription and have for years but when I contact the Sun I receive an email thanking me but they are busy
- Full of Mainstream Media Lies
- App is unpleasant to use
- Horrible way of forcing ads even on paying users
- Faking clicks on ads
- Article sharing freezes app
- App now freezes when the share button is pushed
- Freeze, loading duplicate pages
- “Share to” no longer working
- On iPad and iPhone, “Share to” has not been working
- Share pop up has quit working ever since iOS 15
- When you tap on the share link you get a blank screen with no options to share
- Mediocre content not viewable after a couple weeks
- App freezes and does not update
- Frustrating
- App keeps freezing and reloading doesn’t help
- Complete wast of my subscription money
- Poor Upgrade
- Worst version of the Van Sun app
- Too distracting with all the videos and ads
- App freezes
- After opening a few articles, the whole app freezes
- Works for a few days at best
- Then doesn’t update
- Bad and getting worse
- Video links in articles that bring up unrelated videos
- App under iPadOS 15 doesn’t always load all the articles
- If you try to share an article, you just get a blank pop-up instead of one that shows messaging options
- Awful
- App has been awful since day 1 and it just gets worse
- No search function
- IOS forward button returns a blank box
- Built-in share function doesn’t include e-mail as an option
- Can’t forward articles in iOS 15 app appears broken
- The forward icon just gives a blank screen where nimbly there’s are airplay, iMessage & email etc options
- IOS 15. Does not work.
- How come all the others do work.
- How long before an update?
- Impossible to contact.
- Canceled my subscription.
- Update happened, worse, useless app.
- Won’t open :(
- “Error Loading Invalid HTTP response (502) …..”.
- Can’t find the server
- Useless app regularly can’t find the server so news is weeks old.
- Pathetic
- It’s 2021 and the Vancouver Sun cannot produce a functioning app.
- Persistent freezing, slow or no load of stories.
- Won’t load and freezes often
- Freezes all the time
- It won’t load stories
- So frustrating I’m canceling my subscription
- Has Been!
- Used to be a good app now unusable
- Freezes constantly and or transfers over to an obscure link
- Delete!!
- The app is full of bugs
- For a while it would always open a settings screen that was filled with techy options that made no sense
- It opened randomly without any order and I’d constantly have to close it
- Instead I get a random “did ad record impression message” that’s infuriating
- It’s clearly not ment to be there and inhibits control of the page behind
- So you scroll then it comes up and keeps scrolling till you can close the pop up
- It’s unusable
- See the same stories for days at a time
- Junk
- Can’t search for stories in app
- Need to step up
- Whoever is responsible in leading the app needs to step up their game
- This app is far behind so many other apps
- I had this app and then deleted it because it's so bad
- Crashes upon sign in
- Crashes when trying to sign in with Google
- Update still freezes
- Was hoping the update would fix the issue but still freezing on me
- Frozen
- The app only works for one day
- Then you have to reinstall it to get an update of the articles
- Very disappointing!
- App constantly freezes
- Works for a day or two, then freezes
- I am on iPhone XR latest iOS
- Expect the app support to have this fixed by now
- It’s been doing this for many months
- Frozen
- Freezes all the time now
- Still not working
- This app is terrible
- Freezes each day
- The only way to read the paper is to delete the app and re- install it
- App Freezes
- I’m having the same issues
- Very frustrating!!
- Frozen
- App just freezes and I need to delete and re download in order to refresh
- Sloppy
- Same problem as hmlixvan
- After working for one day, app freezes and has to be deleted and reinstalled
- Started after the most recent iPhone update
- App was great before that
- Frozen
- For past 2 months App is totally frozen
- apps been frozen for weeks
- It started by freezing sometimes but has been locked up for weeks now
- Rebooting or restarting app does nothing
- Useless now unless I want to see three week old headline
- New update eliminated content
- Not impressed with new update
- The weekly sections have disappeared
- The screenshot provided in the description of the app is not what I see when opening it
- New device, updated app
- App Freezes Frequently
- This app needs an update because it freezes up after a few days
- The only solution is to delete the app and reinstall it
- It used to be very stable but now it is unusable
- App freezes after a day on IPhone
- You need to fix a bug that makes the app freeze a day after installing
- When I wipe it and reinstall, it works for a day or so
- I noticed the issue perhaps a month ago
- This is very annoying
- App freezes and doesn’t refresh anymore
- Useless to buy subscription now as the app can not refresh and freezes all the tine
- No way to force a refresh
- Need to resolve this if you are going to charge for subscriptions!
- App keeps freezing
- Unfortunately the iOS app freezes after a few days requiring a blunt force fix of an app instance delete and the a new download to restore the app (temporarily)
- Recycled garbage....
- Eliminated readers' ability to comment on news
- An app only a mother could love
- Very functional, does everything you'd expect it to do
- Dims articles you've read
- Functionally its faultless
- So god damn ugly
- Feel dirty looking at it
- Embarrassingly bad
- So slow
- Takes forever to load
- Unstable app
- Serious technical problems
- Can't swipe from one page to the next without repeating numerous times
- Considerable on/off flashing of the page
- Gallery picture txt description problem
- Txt description disappear automatically cause reading problem
- Crash
- Crashes on regular basis
- Trouble opening
- Ever since the latest update, my application simply stalls while trying to download the news, then crashes!
- Completely frustrated with it
Requested features
18 requests- Adapt to competitor usability
- Better Vancouver area coverage
- iPad version
- Fix app freezing
- Fix share pop-up
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- Fix text description disappearing
- Fix crashes
- Fix slow loading
- Fix login issues
- Fix subscription issues
- Fix ad issues
- Fix search function
- Fix portrait mode on iPad
- Fix word lookup feature
- Fix pull to reload
- Fix content update frequency
- Improve local news coverage
- Improve UI/visual design
In-app purchases
Castanet
No in-app purchases
Vancouver Sun
- The Vancouver Sun$6.991 Month
- The Vancouver Sun$9.991 Month
Questions
Is Castanet free?
Is Vancouver Sun free?
Which has better reviews, Castanet or Vancouver Sun?
Do Castanet or Vancouver Sun have ads?
Which is updated more often, Castanet or Vancouver Sun?
Other comparisons
