Stuff.co.nz vs RNZ
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Stuff.co.nz
Access breaking news, live videos, and in-depth journalism from across New Zealand. Stay informed on politics, sports, business, and celebrity updates, with on-demand video content and daily quizzes.
- Breaking news updates
- Live videos and blogs
- On-demand video content
- Daily quizzes
- NZ weather forecasts
- Personalized notifications
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Stuff is New Zealand’s essential news source - independent and dedicated to making Aotearoa a better place. We deliver live, lively and trustworthy journalism from across this glorious nation. On our app you can: • Get up-to-the minute reports on breaking stories in New Zealand on our live videos and blogs • Easily read stories on the latest news, weather, sports, politics, money, business, celebrities, travel - whatever Kiwis are talking about today, we got you • Watch video on demand - including from our ThreeNews 6pm bulletin • Do the highly addictive daily Stuff Quiz (a national obsession) • See the latest NZ weather forecasts • Personalise your experience by enabling notifications Share feedback to experience@stuff.co.nz or click “Report a bug” from the end of the Settings screen on the app. Please note: This app features Nielsen’s proprietary measurement software, which contributes to market research, like Nielsen’s TV Ratings. Please see http://www.nielsen.com/digitalprivacy for more information.
RNZ
Access New Zealand's public broadcaster's news, radio stations, podcasts, and on-demand video and audio content. Enjoy a user-friendly interface with features like bookmarking, favorites, and a play queue for personalized listening. Listen live or offline, and receive breaking news alerts.
- Breaking news alerts and live coverage
- Live streaming of all RNZ radio stations
- On-demand programmes, podcasts, and series
- Play queue for listening later or offline
- Offline listening without internet access
- Personalization with favorites and bookmarks
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RNZ (Radio New Zealand) is New Zealand’s 100% ad-free, multimedia public broadcaster. Follow the latest breaking news, listen live to your favourite RNZ radio stations, programmes and podcasts and enjoy video or audio on demand - anytime, anywhere with the new RNZ app for iPhone. The all-new app is clear and simple to use, with bookmarking, favourites, sharing and options to personalise your experience – including a great new play queue and player. New features and highlights: • Get breaking news alerts, video and live coverage on a homepage news feed • Listen live to all RNZ’s radio stations – National, Pacific and Concert - plus the latest RNZ news bulletins, live blogs and live-streamed video • All-new build eliminates crashes and bugs and ensures audio play reliability • Live streaming sounds better than ever • New design is clear and simple to use • Easily discover all RNZ’s great programmes, podcasts and series, in their entirety • Add whole programmes, podcasts or individual audio items to your play queue for listening later or downloading for offline use • Favourite or bookmark to ‘My RNZ’ and easily find and listen to the latest content from all your favourite radio programmes • Listen offline without internet access The app was designed and developed in partnership with Alphero. If you have any feedback, a feature request, or wish to report an issue, we'd love to hear from you. Contact us at appproject@radionz.co.nz.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: RNZ at none against Stuff.co.nz's shown. RNZ also leads on review sentiment (40% vs 21%) and monetization model (free vs ad-supported). Stuff.co.nz's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 3 months) and ratings volume (129 vs 17). On price, rating, in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 3.7 for Stuff.co.nz against 3.6 for RNZ. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Stuff.co.nz has 129 ratings behind it against 17, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 21% of Stuff.co.nz's written reviews are positive against 40% of RNZ's.
Stuff.co.nz ships an update weekly, RNZ every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Stuff.co.nz | RNZ |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.7 (129 ratings) — better | 3.6 (17 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 21.0% of reviews | 39.6% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 129 — better | 17 |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Ad-supported | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 21 MB | 51 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Stuff Limited | Radio New Zealand |
Customer experience
Stuff.co.nz
RNZ
User reviews
Stuff.co.nz
From 129 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 📰 Great source for NZ news
- 🌍 Useful for expats to stay connected
- 🗞️ Variety of interesting articles
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and freezes
- 🤖 Buggy and glitchy performance
- 🤯 Frustrating ad redirects and popups
- 🕰️ Slow loading times
- 🔍 Poor search functionality
RNZ
From 17 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 📰 High-quality, ad-free news content
- 🌙 Dark mode implementation (recently added)
- 🎙️ Excellent radio streaming and podcasts
- 🆓 Free access to comprehensive news
- 📱 Generally user-friendly interface
Room to improve
- 🐛 App crashes and freezes frequently
- 📏 Text size too small, poor accessibility
- 🔊 Audio playback stops when app backgrounded
- 📱 Not optimized for iPad (phone-sized view)
- 🔗 Many articles redirect to external browser
Bugs and requests
Stuff.co.nz
Reported bugs
5 issues- Constant app crashes and freezes
- Redirects to App Store without user interaction
- Videos not playing properly or getting stuck
- Scrolling issues and content jumping around
- Login and password reset problems
Requested features
4 requests- Dark mode option
- Ability to save articles for offline reading
- Improved navigation and article browsing
- Better personalization and customization options
RNZ
Reported bugs
12 issues- App stops playing audio when screen locks
- Crashes on iPhone 14 with iOS 18.5
- HomePod connection drops after seconds
- News items fail to open randomly
- Swipe-to-go-back navigation broken
Show 7 moreShow fewer
- App cuts out mid-playback
- Buffering and stopping issues
- Dark mode renders graph legends unreadable
- iPad display shows narrow phone-sized view
- News articles stuck on stale cached versions
- Playback jumps back/forward during live streams
- App hangs when opening news items
Requested features
13 requests- Dynamic Type/adjustable font size support
- Image zoom functionality in articles
- iPad-optimized app version
- Granular notification settings (sports, crime, regional)
- Sleep timer feature
Show 8 moreShow fewer
- Skip forward/backward 30-second buttons
- Home button on every page
- Widget for breaking news
- Better CarPlay functionality
- Direct speaker/Sonos integration
- Program schedule display in app
- Offline access to downloaded content
- Siri voice command support
In-app purchases
Stuff.co.nz
No in-app purchases
RNZ
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Stuff.co.nz free?
Is RNZ free?
Which has better reviews, Stuff.co.nz or RNZ?
Do Stuff.co.nz or RNZ have ads?
Which is updated more often, Stuff.co.nz or RNZ?
Other comparisons
