Comparison

TheMercury vs Daily Express Newspaper

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

Head to head
About

TheMercury

Features
Read full description

The Mercury newspaper South Africa -- get a head start. TheMercury allows you to subscribe to four auto-renewable subscriptions: • 1 month ZAR 15.99 • 3 month ZAR 39.99 • 6 month ZAR 39.99 • 1 year ZAR 169.99 •Payment will be charged to iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase •Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24- hours before the end of the current period •Your account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period, and the cost of renewal is •You may manage your subscriptions and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to the your Account Settings after purchase •No cancellation of the current subscription is allowed during active subscription period •Any unused portion of a free trial period, will be forfeited when you purchase an in-app subscription or if you decide to migrate to an authorized subscription from in-app. •Terms of Use: http://themercury.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/iphone/homepage.aspx#_terms •Privacy Policy: http://themercury.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/iphone/homepage.aspx#_privacy

About

Daily Express Newspaper

Access an exact digital replica of the Sunday and Daily Express newspaper on your iPhone or iPad. Enjoy the latest news, features, and stories with an exceptional touch screen experience. Download and save pages for offline reading and easily navigate through content.

Highlights
  • Digital newspaper replica
  • Touch screen navigation
  • Offline page saving
  • Search functionality
  • Zoom function
  • Social sharing integration
Features
Read full description

Enjoy an exact replica of the “Sunday and Daily Express” on your iPhone or iPad everyday... Subscribe to the Daily and Sunday Express today and pay less for your favourite newspaper, not only do you save but you also get it delivered directly to your device every morning ! Daily and Sunday Express brings you the very best stories, news and features on your device, published in exceptional clarity, with an incredible touch screen experience allowing you to swipe through the paper Flip your device and read the newspaper as a double-page spread or full screen single page, tap the page selector to choose a specific page to fast-navigate to. You can also download and save individual pages to enjoy offline and when you are on the go. Your Daily and Sunday Express app features search functionality to find key-words relating to recent content, a zoom function to enable clearer reading of selected articles and social networking integration to keep your friends and social-circles up to date with all the latest shared news from the Daily and Sunday Express Payment for this subscription will be charged to your account upon purchase. The subscription will auto-renew within 24 hours of the current subscription expiring. Auto-renewing subscriptions can be managed via Account Settings allowing them to be turned off. No cancellations of the current subscription are allowed during the active subscription period. Please see our privacy policy at: https://www.express.co.uk/privacy-notice and terms of use at: https://www.express.co.uk/terms-conditions

Screenshots

TheMercury4 screens
Daily Express Newspaper4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Daily Express Newspaper at none against TheMercury's shown. Daily Express Newspaper also leads on update cadence (every 4 months vs every 17 months). TheMercury's advantage is iOS requirement (14.0 vs 17.0). On price, 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. TheMercury sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and Daily Express Newspaper sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

TheMercury ships an update every 17 months, Daily Express Newspaper every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
TheMercury versus Daily Express Newspaper: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTheMercuryDaily Express Newspaper
PriceFreeFree
Rating—4.5 (24 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—35.5% of reviews
Number of ratings—24 — better
Update frequencyEvery 17 monthsEvery 4 months — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
Monetization—Subscription
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS14.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size50 MB22 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperPressReader IncReach Shared Services Limited

Bugs and requests

TheMercury

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Daily Express Newspaper

Reported bugs

58 issues
  • App crashes frequently
  • App freezes or becomes unresponsive
  • Content fails to download or update
  • Login credentials not accepted
  • Subscription access issues
Show 53 more
  • Technical difficulties reported
  • App causes iPad to reset
  • Links not working
  • Not optimized for mobile devices
  • Top of pages cut off
  • Enlarging print only works partially
  • App refreshes constantly
  • No image or content displayed
  • App exits back to index
  • Cloud icon with down arrow not working
  • Square with up arrow showing
  • App support links to news articles
  • App slow to update index page
  • Cannot jump to specific sections (e.g., sports)
  • Swiping pages takes time to change
  • Zoom snaps back
  • Difficulty swapping between editions
  • Awkward page navigation
  • Limited access to back issues
  • White screen displayed
  • App not reinstalling
  • Option to print page removed
  • Paper arriving late
  • Weekend magazines inaccessible
  • Clearing cache not working
  • Last week's magazines shown as current
  • App jumps to semi-text based view on magnification
  • Subscription expired message despite active subscription
  • Unable to access paper on iPad but available on iPhone
  • Scottish version always available, English version not
  • App not working on linked iPad
  • New update without instructions
  • Previous version was better
  • Content only available to subscribed customers
  • Account needs activation with no instructions
  • App not working on any devices after update
  • Restored purchases message but no access
  • New app without notification and no instructions
  • Cannot get paper to download
  • Update stops app usage
  • Unable to download subscribed paper
  • App asking for username and password after upgrade
  • No reply from customer service
  • Family sharing not working
  • Need to activate account
  • Swiping pages takes seconds to change
  • Zoom only goes so far and snaps back
  • Not easy to swap from Scottish edition to national
  • Navigating pages is awkward
  • Used to get access to all back issues now only a few
  • Emailing help did not address issues
  • Print too small on iPad
  • App jumps to semi-text based view when increasing magnification

Requested features

10 requests
  • Improve search function
  • Better reading experience when expanding page
  • More user-friendly interface
  • Cut out puerile puns
  • Add more letters page space
Show 5 more
  • Make Sudoku less hard
  • Improve navigation to specific pages
  • Allow family sharing
  • Improve text-based view options
  • Make print size adjustable on iPad

In-app purchases

4 purchases

TheMercury

Subscriptions4
  • The Mercury$1.991 Month
  • The Mercury$4.993 Months
  • The Mercury$9.996 Months
Show 1 more
  • The Mercury$20.991 Year
5 purchases

Daily Express Newspaper

Subscriptions5
  • 7 Day Subscription1 Month trial$4.997 Days
  • 1 Month Subscription1 Month trial$9.991 Month
  • 3 Month Subscription1 Month trial$24.993 Months
Show 2 more
  • 6 Month Subscription1 Month trial$49.996 Months
  • 1 Year Subscription1 Month trial$89.991 Year

Questions

Is TheMercury free?
TheMercury is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Daily Express Newspaper free?
Daily Express Newspaper is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do TheMercury or Daily Express Newspaper have ads?
TheMercury shows ads; Daily Express Newspaper does not.
Which is updated more often, TheMercury or Daily Express Newspaper?
TheMercury ships an update every 17 months, and Daily Express Newspaper every 4 months. Most recently, TheMercury was updated on October 29, 2026 and Daily Express Newspaper on November 1, 2026.

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