Comparison

Daily Freeman vs Shawangunk Journal

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Daily Freeman

Access personalized news, save articles for later, and receive custom push notifications. Enjoy a streamlined reading experience with offline access and a digital replica of the daily newspaper.

Highlights
  • Personalized news recommendations
  • Save articles for later reading
  • Customizable push notifications
  • Digital newspaper replica (Enews)
  • Offline reading capability
  • Swipe left for next article
  • Follow/unfollow topics
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

To continue enjoying our app, we kindly request that you log in again after this update. If you're a subscriber, please take a moment to restore your account to ensure uninterrupted access. You can find the “Restore Subscriptions“ button in Settings under Subscriptions. Welcome to a new app experience, we have optimized our app and giving it a facelift! This faster iOS native app now has the following new features: Your News: Provide personalized recommendations for content based on user preferences. Users will be allowed to customize the content they want to engage with by selecting the topics they are truly interested in. By going to the “Your News” tab the user can bypass the noise of all that is published and home in on the content they want Saved Articles: Save feature that allows users to save articles or other content they are interested in for later reading or reference.Push notifications will remind users to read their saved articles or suggest related content Custom Push Notifications: The user can select what topics they want to be notified about which makes for a much less intrusive experience. Top Navigation Bar: A top navigation bar lets the user switch between sections by swiping or tapping. Enews in-app: Desire the newspaper experience? No need to open a separate app! By simply going to Settings and selecting E-News the user can browse the Digital Replica of the day’s paper. Offline Reading: This feature allows users to enable offline reading from Settings. Offline “Reading Preferences” can also be customized for Settings. Swipe Left: Instead of going back to the main section to find more articles, users have the option to simply swipe, immediately opening other articles in the Section. Follow Topics: A user will be shown articles on topics they are following. To follow select “follow” at the article level and related articles will gain relevancy and be shown more frequently. Just as easily “Unfollow” Terms of Use: https://www.medianewsgroup.com/terms-of-use/ https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Shawangunk Journal

This publication provides local news and independent views for several towns in Ulster County, serving as the official paper of record. It aims to revive local media presence with weekly updates.

Highlights
  • Local news coverage
  • Independent views
  • Official paper of record
  • Weekly publication
  • Serves multiple towns
Features
Read full description

The Shawangunk Journal was started in 2006 by Alex Shiffer and Sharon Richman who sought to revive the local media presence once occupied by the Ellenville Journal, which ran from 1849 to 1989. The paper, which was profiled in The Economist in 2018, is a weekly publication that currently serves the towns of Crawford, Mamakating, Marbletown, Rochester, Rosendale, Shawangunk and Wawarsing, and everything in between. It is also the official paper of record for Ulster County, the Village of Ellenville, and the Towns of Crawford, Mamakating, Marbletown, Rochester and Wawarsing, as well as SUNY Ulster and the Ellenville, Rondout and Pine Bush school districts.

Screenshots

Daily Freeman4 screens
Shawangunk Journal3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Shawangunk Journal at none against Daily Freeman's shown. Shawangunk Journal also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.6) and monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). Daily Freeman's advantage is ratings volume (524 vs 2) and chart position (#193 vs unranked). On price, update cadence, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Daily Freeman sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $11.99 per month and Shawangunk Journal sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Shawangunk Journal holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Daily Freeman has 524 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Daily Freeman ships an update monthly, Shawangunk Journal every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Daily Freeman versus Shawangunk Journal: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDaily FreemanShawangunk Journal
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (524 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews26.9% of reviews—
Number of ratings524 — better2
Update frequencyMonthly — betterEvery 6 weeks
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank#193 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.014.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size187 MB20 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperJournal Register CompanyZelacom Electronic Publishing, LLC

Customer experience

Daily Freeman

All ratings521 ratings
Positive91.4%
Neutral4.8%
Negative3.8%
Written reviews67 reviews
Positive26.9%
Neutral10.4%
Negative62.7%

Shawangunk Journal

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Daily Freeman

Reported bugs

12 issues
  • App crashes on startup and during use
  • Articles fail to load despite showing headlines
  • Login failures with Auth0 authentication
  • Subscription restoration not working
  • News content not updating for days
Show 7 more
  • Slow performance and laggy scrolling
  • Images not displaying properly
  • Fixed viewport making website viewing impossible
  • Nickname validation preventing review submission
  • Incompatibility with older iOS versions
  • Broken links to obituary pages
  • Ads appearing without corresponding articles

Requested features

12 requests
  • Push notifications for breaking news alerts
  • Daily updated obituaries with search functionality
  • Letter-to-editor submission feature
  • Comment section below articles
  • Replica edition access from app
Show 7 more
  • Better search functionality
  • Consistent sports coverage year-round
  • National and world news sections
  • Comics/funnies section
  • People section matching print edition
  • Improved font size and readability options
  • Light mode option (alternative to dark background)

Shawangunk Journal

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Daily Freeman

Subscriptions2
  • Daily Freeman Monthly Sub1 Month trial$11.991 Month
  • Daily Freeman Annual Sub1 Year trial$139.991 Year
3 purchases

Shawangunk Journal

One-time3
  • Credit 4.99$4.99
  • Credit 9.99$9.99
  • Credit 24.99$24.99

Questions

Is Daily Freeman free?
Daily Freeman is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Shawangunk Journal free?
Shawangunk Journal is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Daily Freeman or Shawangunk Journal?
Shawangunk Journal is rated higher. Daily Freeman averages 4.6 out of 5 from 524 ratings, while Shawangunk Journal averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Daily Freeman or Shawangunk Journal have ads?
Daily Freeman shows ads; Shawangunk Journal does not.
Which is updated more often, Daily Freeman or Shawangunk Journal?
Daily Freeman ships an update monthly, and Shawangunk Journal every 6 weeks. Most recently, Daily Freeman was updated on November 1, 2026 and Shawangunk Journal on November 3, 2026.

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