WEBTOON
WEBTOON offers a vast library of diverse comics and manga, highly praised for its engaging stories and art, but recent updates have introduced significant user frustrations including aggressive monetization, intrusive ads, and a confusing new user interface.
WEBTOON is a popular app for reading comics and manga, with users consistently praising its wide variety of stories and artistic quality. However, recent updates have led to a decline in user satisfaction due to increased paywalls, frequent and disruptive ads, and a redesigned interface that many find clunky and difficult to navigate.
What users like
What users complain about
- Aggressive monetization with paywalls and expiring coinsR11R22R24R25
- Intrusive and frequent ads, some unskippable or leading to dead endsR3R14R28R43
- New UI is confusing, clunky, and less user-friendlyR104R105R109R113
- Issues with account login, verification, and data lossR2R12R35R102
- App bugs, crashes, and performance issuesR19R30R38R55
- Removal of features like daily pass and voiced episodesR49R137R138R145
- Concerns about privacy and data trackingR2R42R99
Latest update · v3.9.6
What the developer says changed (the verdict above weighs this against what reviewers report):
- Minor bug fixes
Recurring themes
Who it's for
WEBTOON is for individuals who enjoy reading a wide variety of comics and manga, appreciate diverse genres including LGBTQ+ content, and are willing to tolerate frequent ads and potential paywalls for access to stories R6R13R17R50. It is not for users who prefer an ad-free experience, are unwilling to pay for content, or are frustrated by frequent UI changes and technical glitches R14R22R104R113.
Evidence note: The recent reviews skew heavily negative, focusing on monetization, ads, and UI changes, which contrasts with the high lifetime rating. This indicates a recent negative trajectory in user sentiment, despite the developer's notes mentioning only 'minor bug fixes' which are contradicted by ongoing bug reports R19R30.
Frequently asked
Is WEBTOON truly free to use?
What are the common complaints about the app's interface?
What reviewers actually said
Built only from these 120 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.
- [R5] I fricking love it: This app got me back into reading and it has different categorys if shorts witch is a great b Plus 😁
- [R6] AMAZING APP: I love this app! I’ve had it for a while now and it never disappoints me with its amazing story’s and artists! There are so many story’s and all kinds of them to. It doesn’t matter what genre and/or art style you like there is always a perfect story for you if you’re willing to read it!
- [R10] Best read manga ever: I love their designs are and I love how they have every single section that you really need and you can pick out whatever one that you really wanna watch and I love how you can play games and coins. I just love it so guys download WEBTOON.
- [R13] Amazing!!!!!!: Absolutely amazing!!! This is one of the best reading ever. I never really read before Webtoon because I never seemed to have the time or energy to get up and get a book. So this helped tons I read everyday now for multiple hours. The amount of genres there are is insane! All are awesome and so cool. I also love the fact it is LGBTQ+ friendly. And also the comments on the end of cha
- [R3] i really like it BUT: there are ads after you get to a certain point in a comic between every chapter but other than that i really like it! there are lots of great stories and amazing art and such so i highly recommend
- [R29] Love the on my way to meet my mom: It’s so lovely and love the art and that stuff
- [R17] Gay: I LOVE THE GAY ONES
- [R20] I LOVE THIS: I love the bl and gl
- [R50] FREE STORYS THAT MAKE ME SQUILL: GAY PEOPLE
- [R11] I love it: I love WEBTOON but I don’t love the fact that you have to pay for coins and now I can’t read half of it
- [R22] horrible: Horrible para que tengo que pagar por leer? para eso los descargo en telegram , quien va a pagar por leer no me gusto
- [R24] It’s good but DEFINITELY not free: You have to pay for more episodes😬😬🌝🌝
- [R25] Coin: Hate how it gives 5 free coins for reading a chapter, but it can expire, which is redundant for even doing it in the first place. What a scam. The comic and format is good by itself, but stop being scummy.
- [R14] Too many ads: App functions well overall and there are a lot of gems on here (and a lot that aren’t, but that’s okay). However, the ads have been getting more and more aggressive over time, making you jump through lots of different screens to get to the end, popping up on their own so you accidentally click them when trying to advance chapters, etc. I’m considering not using the app anymore due to
- [R28] Ads: Your ads are corny as hell never downloading ts✌️💔 get yo bullshi off my phone
- [R43] 5/5 comics. 1/5 predatory app.: Webtoons will gate some episodes behind ads. This would be fine, except the ads usually last 30 seconds or more and then roadblock you permanently. You'll get to a screen where you can 1) demo a mobile game, 2) install it, or 3) view it in the app store. There is no button to close the ad and proceed to the comic. No button appears no matter how long you wait.
- [R104] Bad UI: I’ve been using this app for years and it’s like what everyone says it keeps getting worse. The mangas and comics are still great but the app itself is not. The new UI makes me not use the app it’s that annoying.
- [R105] All of the updates done in the past year to the ui have made it worse: I don’t know what happened at the webtoon design team for it to fall off so quickly from the webtoon I used to love. It used to be so distinct from other apps like it but now it just looks unoriginal and most importantly doesn’t make sense as a user. All these features they’ve added to increase retention just push me away from
- [R109] Terrible UI: Webtoon’s old UI was something that everyone was familiar with and easy to navigate. With these new changes, the app looks messy, confusing, and makes it difficult to track our reading process. It’s awful. The experience is messy and overstimulating.
- [R113] THE NEW UPDATE IS ATROCIOUS!!!: I’ve been using WEBTOON for years and years and never once had a complaint about the UI or how the page is run. Since the newest update, everything is just absolutely god awful!! The forced videos which are just images you slide through, the messy homepage, not being able to see your series at a glance anymore and what’s been updated, old and new comics mixed in wit
- [R2] Log in requirement?: Why is there suddenly a requirement to link your account with google / social media after years of not needing one? After all that’s come out about larger sites and social medias tracking and selling user information, im really disappointed to see webtoon trying to also capitalize on user information by forcing users to link an account to save and support their favorite seri
- [R12] Annoying sign up process: Signing up for an account is annoying and I didn’t even get the account confirmation email
- [R35] Can’t read anything!: I want to read the story’s but I can’t because when I try it tells me to login and when I try that IT DOES NOT WORK!
- [R102] Bro what’s with the system error: I am trying to Get a account and when I’m done doing the password and email and Yh, I press the sign in button and all it says is system error try again in a moment
- [R19] The app is very buggy on my iPad: The WEBTOON app is extremely buggy on my iPad. It randomly freezes or crashes, even though I’m using an M5 iPad, which is more than powerful enough to run the app.
- [R30] Wont let me open: I was reading super fish but it would not let me enter the app and kicked me out or said that there was no internet when i did have internet but the stories r good
- [R38] Good but: There is so many glitches and comics that had more than 50 episodes had randomly changed to mature it is so frustrating
- [R55] These viruses need to be fixed: Hello! This app is honestly so fun to use you have great comics and an amazing system but I would like to inform that I almost had like 10 viruses so I deleted the app before it could do damadge and re downloaded it pls try to fix this.
- [R49] WHERE DID THE VOICED EPISODES GO???: i love watching webtoon, it’s very fun and entertaining, it’s more fun to watch than read. and today i clicked on the app to see on one of my FAVORITE webtoon boy loves, the watch tab was GONE. i am very disappointed, aggravated, and annoyed. i will not use this anymore. starting a riot on tiktok and twitter and facebook as we speak
- [R137] removing daily pass: i don’t know if i’ve ever left a review before but with the removal of the daily pass i feel like i have to. i’ve supported webtoon for years but to see this is awful.. why does every new update make this app worse? i’ve held on all this time because i adore the series i read on here but i think at this point id rather drop them and find a new app to read comics on.
- [R138] Review: Love webtoon sm it has so many genres and options to read from but the only thing is the new update and getting rid of all the daily passes! It forces me to either watch ads for one episode each time or spend money which ruins the fun!
- [R145] Love this but…: This such a great app!! I love all the different varieties of manga and comics you can read and how many books you can read is so overwhelming but good way but this being said the new update has completely ruined it for me a bit because there is no daily pass and that was the only thing I had to read some of the ones I was reading and nobody said anything or told the us that there’
- [R42] Buns: I didn’t even take a screenshot and it said “ramifications of law” or wtv DUDE I havent taken a screenshot. I was reading ‘Not so Silent’ and it popped up and I wouldn’t care if it let me read the next ep but it won’t
- [R99] Good App, But…: I very much enjoy this app, but why does it know I was screen recording while I wasn’t even using the app? I had it open, but ig minimized (on phone and don’t know the terminology for that) and screen recorded smth completely separate, and then when I finished I went back to read the Webtoon I’m on and it said, “screenshot detected, be careful(we can sue)” or something to that effe
- [R94] Used to love webtoons before coins was a thing: BE AWARE‼️Even if you pay for a premium membership, all of the free coins you earn expire within 7 days. No where in the app does it tell you that before you start collecting the free coins. I collected about 200 thinking I could use them whenever I wanted just to find out they were all gone a week later. Very disappointed I waisted all that time col
- [R143] Why coins?: The stories are good but why do i need to pay just to read a few more? It’s just money-grabbing. I love the stories and i was excited to read “rules for dating trash” but there’s only five and you need to pay for thirteen more! Are the creators greedy or just money desperate. If they keep on doing this, there might be no one wanting to read these stories. Creator, please do something
- [R44] Not really good: It’s good but not really you have to wait a bit is fine butter ads they are way to make
- [R64] Sell outs: I’ve had this app almost as long as it had been released for I’ve had the app since I was 10 years old before ads i am now 20 and the amount of downfall this app has had back in the days you never had to pay or watch and add to temporarily/permanently unlock an episode especially with series that had already been completed the company became so greedy coin prices are insane now and ad
Synthesized from 120 recent App Store reviews · updated July 2026 · View on the App Store