cleveland.com vs Star Beacon
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
cleveland.com
Stay informed with local news, sports, and weather updates impacting your community. Get timely and reliable reporting from trusted local journalists covering news, politics, business, and culture.
- Local news reporting
- Sports coverage
- Weather updates
- Politics and business news
- Cultural event coverage
- Premium content access
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Get trusted local news from across Northeast Ohio. Breaking news, in-depth reporting, and all the stories people are talking about. Stay connected to what's happening around you with timely coverage of news, weather, sports, and more, optimized for your phone. Free to download. Get breaking news, alerts, and top stories. Subscribers receive unlimited access to in-depth reporting, exclusive content, and additional features. Subscriptions are available in-app. Our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use: http://www.advance.net/advancedigitalUserAgreementPP/
Star Beacon
Access community news, commentary, photos, and videos on the go. Download content for offline reading and stay updated with breaking news, local weather, events, and classifieds. Share articles and local happenings with friends.
- Offline content downloads
- Breaking news updates
- Photo and video galleries
- Print edition view
- Local weather and events
- Social sharing
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Take the Star Beacon with you wherever and whenever you go. Your community resource for news, commentary, photos, video and special features is evolving. Access it now and take off with our award-winning breaking news, sports, weather and more. Features: - Download daily editions and content to read offline at your convenience. - Get breaking news and developing stories from the Star Beacon newsroom. - Browse photos and watch videos of local and national events. - View articles as they were written and edited for the Star Beacon print edition. - Access free local weather, events, classifieds and shopping information - See each page and article in a horizontal or vertical display. - Share articles, photos, coupons and local events with friends on your social network. - New enhanced Weather feature in Live News
Screenshots
Verdict
cleveland.com and Star Beacon both sit at 4.5 stars, but that hides the real split: 100% of Star Beacon's written reviews are positive against 30% of cleveland.com's. Star Beacon also leads on monetization model (free with in-app purchases vs subscription) and iOS requirement (12.4 vs 17.0). cleveland.com's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 4 months) and ratings volume (12K vs 44). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases 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. cleveland.com sells 14 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per month and Star Beacon sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for cleveland.com against 4.6 for Star Beacon. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: cleveland.com has 12K ratings behind it against 44, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 30% of cleveland.com's written reviews are positive against 100% of Star Beacon's.
cleveland.com ships an update every 3 weeks, Star Beacon every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | cleveland.com | Star Beacon |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (12K ratings) | 4.6 (44 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 29.8% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 12K — better | 44 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 4 months |
| Ads | Yes | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Subscription | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Best chart rank | #78 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 12.4 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 34 MB | 44 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 12+ |
| Developer | cleveland.com | CNHI LLC |
Customer experience
cleveland.com
Star Beacon
Bugs and requests
cleveland.com
Reported bugs
2 issues- Saved articles frequently deleted
- Inability to access specific sports sections
Requested features
3 requests- Improved search and navigation
- Restore high school sports coverage
- Bring back user comments and community features
Star Beacon
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
cleveland.com
- cleveland.com Football Insider$7.991 Month
- Digital Access$9.991 Month
- Digital Access1 Month trial$9.991 Month
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- Digital Access7 Days trial$9.991 Month
- Subscriber Exclusive Content1 Month trial2 variants$9.991 Month
- All Access to cleveland.com1 Month trial$10.001 Month
- All Access to cleveland.com$11.991 Month
- All Access to Cleveland$15.001 Month
- All access to cleveland.com6 Months trial$75.001 Year
- Insider Digital$79.991 Year
- All access to cleveland.com1 Year trial$99.991 Year
- Subscriber Exclusive Content1 Year trial2 variants$99.991 Year
- All Access to cleveland.com1 Year trial$100.001 Year
- All access to cleveland.com$119.991 Year
Star Beacon
- Today's ePaper$1.99
Questions
Is cleveland.com free?
Is Star Beacon free?
Which has better reviews, cleveland.com or Star Beacon?
Do cleveland.com or Star Beacon have ads?
Which is updated more often, cleveland.com or Star Beacon?
Other comparisons
