Verithiathe honest score on any app
Updated July 2026 · real, multi-region App Store reviews
Head-to-head

The Athletic vs Yahoo Sports

The Athletic 4.8★ · Free + IAP 80
Winner The Athletic
Yahoo Sports 4.6★ · Free to download 65

The Athletic offers superior in-depth sports journalism and a cleaner, ad-free experience for subscribers, making it the better choice for dedicated fans willing to pay, while Yahoo Sports is a decent free option for quick scores despite its ad issues and broader content.

Full reviews: The Athletic · Yahoo Sports

The Athletic excels in high-quality, in-depth sports journalism, offering a premium experience for subscribers, though some users report app glitches and ads. Yahoo Sports provides quick scores and broad coverage for free, but is plagued by intrusive ads, notification issues, and a less refined user experience.

Head to head

Content Quality & Depth edge: The AthleticR11R17R23R26
The Athletic The Athletic is highly praised for its impressive, consistent, and current in-depth sports journalism, offering pro insight and thorough reporting across various sports, particularly soccer and Premier League R11R17R23R26. Users appreciate the stories behind the scenes and the quality of writing .
Yahoo Sports Yahoo Sports is valued for providing easy information on a broad spectrum of sports and quick scores . However, some users find the content to be too focused on specific leagues like NBA/WNBA and cultural issues, neglecting other major sports like NHL Finals or college baseball/softball .
User Experience & Interface tieR20R21R24R38
The Athletic Users generally find The Athletic easy to use R38R20 but some report issues with the app's interface. Problems include articles disappearing while reading , difficulty finding comment replies R24, and a desire for better search functionality for columnists R21. Some also feel the app looks old and archaic .
Yahoo Sports Yahoo Sports is noted for its good UI and simple scores , with some finding it easy to use . However, many users experience issues like reduced usable screen area , difficulty navigating , and an inability to customize or sort leagues on the scores tab . The widget is also reported to be slow to update or disappears after updates .
Ads & Monetization edge: The AthleticR10R12R28R30
The Athletic Despite being a paid subscription app, many users of The Athletic are frustrated by the presence of ads, including video ads that autoplay even when settings are off R10R12R28R30. Some feel betrayed by ads appearing after subscribing to what they believed was an ad-free service R28.
Yahoo Sports Yahoo Sports, being a free app, is heavily criticized for intrusive and annoying ads, including dating app ads , non-sports related ads , gambling pop-ups , and audio ads that interrupt podcasts . Users express a strong desire for options to remove or block these ads .
Reliability & Performance tieR3R8R22R42
The Athletic The Athletic experiences frequent crashes and freezing R8, slow loading times for articles , and issues with the podcast player being unstable R42. Some users also report content being blocked or login issues despite having a subscription R3R22.
Yahoo Sports Yahoo Sports users report frequent app crashes , freezing , and blank screens on launch . There are also reports of features not working, such as adding funds for fantasy leagues or the feedback form R99.
Notifications & Alerts tieR1R5R13R18
The Athletic The Athletic is criticized for intrusive and excessive push notifications, even when users have turned them off or customized them for specific teams R1R13R49. Users find it difficult to manage notification settings and report issues with live activities stopping R5 and live scores not updating reliably R18.
Yahoo Sports Yahoo Sports also faces significant criticism for its notification system. Users report receiving unwanted live score updates for unfollowed teams even with notifications turned off R64R118, and settings changing after updates R79. Notifications are described as unreliable and slow .
Customer Support edge: The AthleticR34R40R49R99
The Athletic Users of The Athletic report significant difficulty accessing customer support, with issues like the help center not existing R34, inability to find a contact number R40, and being directed to an AI chatbot that fails to connect to a human or understand the issue R49.
Yahoo Sports Yahoo Sports users mention issues with the feedback form not working R99. There is no direct feedback on the quality of human customer support, but the inability to submit feedback is a concern.
Pick The Athletic if

you prioritize in-depth, high-quality sports journalism and are willing to pay for a subscription, even with some reported app glitches and occasional ads R11. You value comprehensive coverage of major sports and leagues R17R23R26.

Pick Yahoo Sports if

you need a free app for quick scores and general sports information, and are willing to tolerate frequent, intrusive ads and some inconsistencies in app performance and notifications .

Evidence note: The Athletic's reviews are more skewed towards recent negative experiences, particularly concerning ads and app functionality, despite its higher lifetime rating. Yahoo Sports, as a free app, naturally draws more complaints about ads and basic functionality from its broader user base.

Frequently asked

Does The Athletic have ads for subscribers?
Yes, many subscribers to The Athletic report still seeing a significant number of ads, including video ads that autoplay, despite paying for a subscription R10R12R28R30.
Can I customize notifications in Yahoo Sports?
While Yahoo Sports allows users to select favorite teams and leagues, many users report issues with unwanted notifications for unfollowed teams and sports, and difficulty in managing or turning off these alerts, with settings often reverting after updates R64R79R111R118.
Which app offers better coverage for niche sports like college baseball?
The Athletic has broader coverage, including Wimbledon tennis R2 and world soccer R23, but some users in the UK desire more rugby coverage R33. Yahoo Sports is criticized for its lack of coverage for college baseball and softball, despite numerous requests from users R69.

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.

  1. [R11] The Athletic 5/5 · US Impressive Coverage: Consistent and always current, love them.
  2. [R17] The Athletic 5/5 · US Amazing: So much pro insight easy access to so many games well actually all games 5 stars love it
  3. [R23] The Athletic 5/5 · US Awesome Soccer Reports: Amazing insight into world soccer news from all regions, leagues, and cups.
  4. [R26] The Athletic 5/5 · US Best Premier League coverage anywhere: My trial subscription to the NY Times netted me access to The Athletic which I have enjoyed since day one. I gift articles to my sports fan sons-in-law about their favorite teams and I plan to include them in a family membership next.
  5. [R20] The Athletic 5/5 · US Love this App: It’s an all in one, so I even keep up with sports I don’t think I like. At age 84 it makes things easier😊.
  6. [R21] The Athletic 3/5 · US Need a way to search by columnist: The Athletic has so many incredible writers yet, it appears there is no way to search for them (or get alerted) when they write a new piece.
  7. [R24] The Athletic 3/5 · US Notifications are the app’s main issue: This review is about the app notifications appears the writing and reporting. The app is fine except for notifications. 1. Comments. A user may enter comments and replies but it is impossible to find them and you aren’t notified if you have a direct tagged reply. 2. App icon badge. I frequently see numbers on the app icon but clicking on the app does not
  8. [R38] The Athletic 5/5 · US Love The Athletic!: Good app. Easy to use and great product!
  9. [R10] The Athletic 1/5 · US Videos autoplay regardless of settings: I turned off video autoplay and am constantly having video ads auto playing. Means the app is entirely unusable when not on WiFi for those of us without unlimited data.
  10. [R12] The Athletic 3/5 · US Fine: Love the content, but I should have ads in app behind a pay wall that I’ve already paid. They need to be taken out if I pay for a subscription. Or add a “no ad subscription”
  11. [R28] The Athletic 2/5 · US Now with invasive advertising: They added advertising after I paid for a subscription that they said was ad free. Will they lower the price now that ads are making the experience worse? I doubt it.
  12. [R30] The Athletic 3/5 · GB Too many ads: The app is perfect for football news and offers a refreshing switch up from what I was previously using (Twitter/X - filled with unwanted content). However very disappointed that despite paying for a membership there are still an awful lot of ads. At times taking up the whole screen! Close to being the perfect sport news app but slightly out of touch in that aspect.
  13. [R3] The Athletic 3/5 · US Logging On: Tired of being asked to subscribe or sign in when I already have a subscription. May cancel because of this inconvenience. Too many other options for sports news.
  14. [R8] The Athletic 4/5 · US Great app but crashes all the time: I like the app but I hate the fact that it often freezes when I’m in the middle of writing a comment.
  15. [R22] The Athletic 1/5 · US Terrible app: Obviously The Athletic didn’t spend a lot on software development for their App. Continues to block content telling me I am not a subscriber even though they already have my money!
  16. [R42] The Athletic 3/5 · GB Unstable podcast player: I love the Athletic content, but I find the podcast player to be frustratingly unstable. I often have to try multiple times, refresh the app or update it to get it to eventually play.
  17. [R1] The Athletic 1/5 · US Spam: Get off my phone
  18. [R5] The Athletic 4/5 · US What happened to Live Activities on lock screen and dynamic island?: It was displaying Paraguay France World Cup live activities on the lock screen then stopped. what happened? how do you control this feature from within the app? it looked NICE. i want to turn it on but there’s no control that i can find in app. i have live activities both switched on for the app in system settings.
  19. [R13] The Athletic 1/5 · US Intrusive: Constantly trying to force new notifications on me, making me have to constantly turn them off.
  20. [R18] The Athletic 3/5 · US Live scores suck: The app is fast and works fine, but even when you choose your favorite leagues and teams, it fails to provide live updates.
  21. [R34] The Athletic 1/5 · US Help Center doesn’t exist?: So I’m having a problem with the app where it won’t show any comments and I went to contact support and got an error saying that help center doesn’t exist. How does one get help?
  22. [R40] The Athletic 1/5 · US Customer Support: Can’t find anyway to access customer support #
  23. [R49] The Athletic 1/5 · US Endless Push Notifications: I have turned off all push notifications other than the 3 teams I follow. Regardless, the app continues to send constant push notifications about the World Cup, nba draft, any random story, etc. I attempted to reach out to customer service and was directed to an AI chatbot for the New York Times. It failed to ever connect me to a real human and shockingly failed to un
  24. [R99] Yahoo Sports 3/5 · US Can’t send feedback: Overall it’s pretty good but ATP and WTA aren’t updated for 2026 and their feedback form isn’t working.
  25. [R64] Yahoo Sports 1/5 · US Stop the score banners!: Deleting this app because I’m constantly getting live score updates on top banner of my Home Screen even when locked, for teams I don’t even follow. All notifications and haptics are turned off and they still show up.
  26. [R79] Yahoo Sports 2/5 · US Tired of it ignoring settings: Why does it change my notification settings update. It won’t even let me change them back without uninstalling and reinstalling it, it seems like EVERYONE single update
  27. [R111] Yahoo Sports 3/5 · US Watch app ?!: Please add a watch app
  28. [R118] Yahoo Sports 1/5 · US Annoying unwanted news notifications: It feels like every month or so some new notification category pops up in the add with a default to turn ON those notifications for me, so I get some random news about some league I don’t care about. I only want the notifications I’m explicitly asking for: the score alerts I sign up for with teams I follow or for specific games. Stop sending me all of these ot
  29. [R2] The Athletic 4/5 · US Wimbledon: Great app but shocked there’s no Wimbledon coverage. It’s not even listened in scores. Went to check when some of the matches were and couldn’t find it. I would suggest adding tennis for the 4 major events. Otherwise great overall coverage.
  30. [R33] The Athletic 3/5 · GB Why no rugby?: Great football coverage but in the UK I don’t want to read about Baseball, Cricket and American football. I want to read about Football, Rugby and Cricket. Please start thinking about expanding your coverage…
  31. [R69] Yahoo Sports 3/5 · US Good, Not Great!: While I think the Yahoo sports app is one of the better sports apps available for the iPhone, especially if you use Yahoo as your fantasy home (it’s the best), it could be much better. I’d love to see y’all add College Softball, and the teams to the normal coverage as well as horse racing. I also wish there was more user freedom in how things are arranged for our viewing pleasure

Synthesized from 120 recent App Store reviews · updated July 2026 · View on the App Store