The Berkshire Eagle vs Aebly Media
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
The Berkshire Eagle
Access local, national, and world news with this e-edition app. Browse by section, search keywords, and enjoy text-to-speech narration and language translation. Find local listings, real estate, employment, puzzles, and Sudoku.
- Local and breaking news
- National and world news
- Browse by sections and articles
- Keyword search
- Text-to-speech narration
- Language translator
- Classifieds and job listings
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Read local and late breaking news in the Berkshires, while staying connected to national and world-wide news. The app allows you to browse by sections, articles, past editions, and conduct keyword search. Text-to-speech option will narrate any story to you; and language translator works with several languages. Check the classifieds for local listings, explore real estate and employment opportunities. Entertain yourself with puzzles and sudoku games. Active subscription is required for full access; otherwise the 3 stories per month limit is imposed. Enjoy the best newspaper in the Berkshires!
Aebly Media
Explore news from multiple perspectives, understand government actions, and track your political compass. Engage with your community and hold representatives accountable with this civic-tech news platform.
- Multi-perspective news reporting
- Government bill and ruling analysis
- Personal political compass tracking
- Representative voting records
- Ballot and candidate comparison
- Community discussion and video commentary
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A digital newspaper you can actually finish. Two editions a day, AM and PM, with the stories that matter and every side laid out. Vote on how you feel about each one, then crumple your votes into paper balls and take your shot. YOUR AM AND PM EDITIONS The Morning Edition lands at 7 a.m. and the Evening Edition at 7 p.m., in your time zone. Each is a short run of stories with big pictures and one clear line apiece, and then it ends. No endless feed. Reach the last page and you're caught up. Missed the morning? The evening edition carries along what you didn't get to. Finish editions in a row to build your streak. VOTE ON HOW YOU FEEL Every story ends with one question about what's really going on. Swipe right if you're for it, left if you're against, and see how other readers split. Want the whole picture first? Open the story for the facts, the case each side makes, and the outlets behind it. Your vote is always optional. Reading both sides is the point. Your answers shape your Civic Compass, a map of where you stand built from how you actually vote. Every edition closes on the Daily Pulse: one question for everyone, with the top comments from each side once you've voted. PAPER TOSS WITH YOUR VOTES Every story you vote on gets crumpled into a paper ball, and the Daily Pulse adds a gold one. When the edition closes, flick them at the hoop over the newsroom wastebasket. One throw per vote, no do-overs, and from the second ball on, mind the breeze. The more you vote, the more shots you get. THE NEWSROOM Exclusives from Aebly's own journalists, dealt as a deck. Swipe right to read a piece and it lands in your finished bin, or left to toss it into the recycling. Every piece you read earns another throw. STATE BY STATE All fifty states on one map. Tap a state to see what happened there in the last day, with links to the original reporting and, where we have one, a video brief from that state's anchor. A state turns gold once you've read it. CATCH UP Yesterday, retold as a short story: the anchor's recap, the five stories that mattered, and everything that moved. THREADS Follow a story as it develops. Every chapter sits on a dated timeline with the conversation right on it, and new chapters come to you. CIVICS Vote on real bills, executive orders and Supreme Court rulings after reading both sides. See who represents you and who's running in your district, and compare the President's approval with every president since Truman. THE COLOSSEUM Challenge a friend to a live video debate on the day's question or one you write. Your friends pull up a seat, comment, and pick a side. WITNESS See what people are reporting near you on a live map, and report what you saw with a photo or clip. Reports are anonymous by design, and at 10 upvotes an investigative journalist takes the case. AND MORE · Home Screen widgets for the Daily Pulse, your compass and the newsroom · Daily games, including Deep State and Cancel Hangman · Search across stories, threads, legislation, debates and friends · The whole app in English or Spanish, in light or dark WHERE WE STAND Aebly Media is independent and nonpartisan. Every side gets the same format and the same sourcing, and we don't endorse candidates or parties. Edition stories are summarized with AI from the outlets covering them, and every source is linked. Exclusives are written by our own journalists. Results in the app are our readers' own votes, not scientific polling. Aebly Media is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or representing any government entity, and votes in the app have no effect on any official legislation, election or government action. Bills, executive orders and court rulings come from official records at Congress.gov, the Federal Register and SupremeCourt.gov, linked in the app. Comfort in your convictions.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Aebly Media at none against The Berkshire Eagle's shown. Aebly Media also leads on monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 2 months). The Berkshire Eagle's advantage is ratings volume (560 vs 13). On price, rating, review sentiment 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for The Berkshire Eagle against 4.7 for Aebly Media. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: The Berkshire Eagle has 560 ratings behind it against 13, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 85% of The Berkshire Eagle's written reviews are positive against 83% of Aebly Media's.
The Berkshire Eagle ships an update every 2 months, Aebly Media every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | The Berkshire Eagle | Aebly Media |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (560 ratings) | 4.7 (13 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 85.3% of reviews — better | 83.3% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 560 — better | 13 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.2 — better | 16.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 38 MB | 87 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 12+ |
| Developer | New England Newspapers Inc. | Julius Aebly |
Customer experience
The Berkshire Eagle
Aebly Media
Bugs and requests
The Berkshire Eagle
Reported bugs
4 issues- App crashes frequently
- Navigation issues when moving between articles and sections
- Inability to switch out of e-edition view
- Inconsistent login/subscription recognition
Requested features
4 requests- Add ability to save/bookmark articles
- Improve search functionality
- Implement a dark mode option
- Add more detailed local news coverage
Aebly Media
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
The Berkshire Eagle
No in-app purchases
Aebly Media
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is The Berkshire Eagle free?
Is Aebly Media free?
Which has better reviews, The Berkshire Eagle or Aebly Media?
Do The Berkshire Eagle or Aebly Media have ads?
Which is updated more often, The Berkshire Eagle or Aebly Media?
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