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Updated July 2026 · real, multi-region App Store reviews
Head-to-head

LinkedIn vs Fishbowl

LinkedIn 4.8★ · Free + IAP 70
Winner LinkedIn
Fishbowl 4.6★ · Free to download 45

Choose LinkedIn for established professional networking and job searching, but be prepared for potential app bugs and paywalls, while Fishbowl is better for anonymous, industry-specific discussions and insights, despite its significant technical issues and lack of support.

Full reviews: LinkedIn · Fishbowl

LinkedIn remains the dominant platform for professional networking and job seeking, despite user complaints about app functionality, intrusive verification, and paywalls. Fishbowl offers a unique space for anonymous, candid professional discussions, but is plagued by severe technical bugs and non-existent customer support.

Head to head

Features & Purpose edge: LinkedInR2R3R23R26
LinkedIn LinkedIn is praised as an excellent platform for professional networking, career growth, and job seeking, helping users find jobs and connect with professionals R2. It's seen as essential for networking and brand building R23R26. However, users are frustrated by features being locked behind a paywall, such as extensive search capabilities R3R43, and some find the job search suggestions unhelpful or difficult to filter .
Fishbowl Fishbowl is valued for connecting professionals within and across industries, offering a space for candid, anonymous discussions and insights . It's seen as a place to get 'real low-down' at firms and share common experiences . Some users note it used to be better for specific peer groups (e.g., consultants) but has become too broad, similar to Reddit .
Ease of Use & Reliability edge: LinkedInR1R4R6R7
LinkedIn Many LinkedIn users report significant issues with signing in, including frustrating CAPTCHA loops and invasive ID verification R1R7. The app is criticized for being slow , buggy, with comments not working correctly R6, and crashing, especially after upgrading to premium R4. Some find the mobile app cumbersome and poorly designed, with issues like lost drafts and small fonts .
Fishbowl Fishbowl is severely hampered by numerous critical bugs and reliability issues. Users report being stuck on the gender selection screen during sign-up R73R76R79, inability to update profile information like industry or job title R67, and the app constantly having server issues R67. Posting and commenting functionality is frequently broken R100R102, and the app often fails to load content or navigate to specific conversations from emails .
Price & Value edge: LinkedInR3R4R8R19
LinkedIn LinkedIn offers a free tier but heavily pushes its premium services, which users find ridiculously priced R3R19R43. Many feel the premium subscription doesn't provide enough value, citing issues like app crashes after upgrading R4, inability to find saved jobs R8, and limited visibility into recruiters . Some users also report losing their premium membership despite active subscriptions .
Fishbowl Fishbowl is free to download, and while reviews don't explicitly mention paid tiers, the significant functionality issues make it difficult for users to derive value from the app R67R102. The core value proposition of anonymous professional insights is undermined by technical failures and a lack of support R100R102R112.
Support & Moderation edge: LinkedInR9R19R20R37
LinkedIn LinkedIn users express frustration with customer service, particularly regarding hacked accounts R37 and verification issues R9. There are also complaints about excessive, spammy notifications that are difficult to turn off R20 and fake job postings R19.
Fishbowl Fishbowl's customer service is widely described as non-existent. Users report sending multiple emails without any response or resolution for critical issues like account verification, updating job titles, or regaining access to company bowls R100R102R108R112. There are also concerns about arbitrary moderation, with users being banned for comments deemed not offensive and the app protecting big companies over users .
Pick LinkedIn if

Pick LinkedIn if you need a broad professional network for job searching, career development, and connecting with a wide range of professionals, and are willing to navigate potential app bugs and paywalls for advanced features R2.

Pick Fishbowl if

Pick Fishbowl if you are looking for an anonymous platform to engage in candid, industry-specific discussions, get insights, and share experiences with peers, and are prepared to tolerate significant app bugs and a complete lack of customer support .

Evidence note: Fishbowl's recent reviews are overwhelmingly negative, focusing on critical app functionality issues and non-existent support, which significantly impacts its overall lifetime rating. LinkedIn, while also having many negative reviews about app performance and paywalls, still maintains its core functionality for most users.

Frequently asked

Is LinkedIn worth paying for?
Based on user reviews, many find LinkedIn's premium membership ridiculously priced and question its value, citing issues like app crashes after upgrading, limited visibility into recruiters, and features that should be free being paywalled R3R4R19R43.
What are the biggest problems with the LinkedIn app?
The biggest problems with the LinkedIn app include persistent sign-in issues with difficult CAPTCHAs and invasive verification R1R7, frequent bugs in comments and other features R6, app crashes R4, slow performance , and a cumbersome user interface .
Is Fishbowl reliable for professional networking?
While Fishbowl is praised for its concept of anonymous professional networking and insights, its reliability is severely compromised by numerous critical bugs, including inability to sign up or update profiles, broken posting functionality, and frequent server issues, making it often unusable for many users R67R73R76R79.
Does Fishbowl have good customer support?
No, Fishbowl's customer support is widely reported as non-existent, with users stating they receive no responses to multiple emails regarding critical account issues, verification, and app functionality problems R100R102R108R112.

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. [R2] LinkedIn 5/5 · US Stronger connection.: If you feel your gift is dying try LinkedIn, a few connection will reassure you of bring your gift back to life. Is not just connection is a place of hope when your talent is clear.
  2. [R3] LinkedIn 3/5 · US Cannot Access Certain Features Unless You Pay: I can no longer extensively browse people through search because I have to pay in order to look at more than 5 people but I can't afford to pay for the monthly or yearly membership as it's ridiculously priced. I understand how Premium makes sense for the job application process but everyone should have unlimited access to the search capabilities.
  3. [R23] LinkedIn 5/5 · US Founder: LinkedIn keeps me connected to my people. It is important to be a part of our community here to assist each other and support one another.
  4. [R26] LinkedIn 5/5 · US PERFECT FOR BUSINESS NETWORKING: The app is perfect for business networking and brand bullding!
  5. [R1] LinkedIn 1/5 · US Not a robot: I haven’t logged in to LinkedIn in years. Trying to login seems impossible. The “not a robot” prompts are apparently too difficult for me to understand. Mark all boxes with busses. If a bus bleeds over to another square does that count as a square? Tried both ways and still I fail it. Try the audio version. Am I supposed to put spaces between the words? Try both ways and still fail. H
  6. [R4] LinkedIn 1/5 · US Once I paid, it crashes every time I open it: Once I upgraded to premium. Every time I open the app on my iPad it prompts me for an update. And doesn't allow me to do anything. I click update. Which brings up the App Store. Asking me to open the app. And it starts all over again, prompting me for the update. I've deleted the app. Reinstalled the app. I can do nothing on LinkedIn. Because all I get
  7. [R6] LinkedIn 3/5 · US Comments are buggy: Cursor jumps to the end of text when attempting to revise comments on a post, no matter where it is placed. Tagging more than one user in comments also fails.
  8. [R7] LinkedIn 1/5 · US Problematic & Evasive: Sign in process can be outlandishly time consuming and ID requirements can be shockingly invasive.
  9. [R8] LinkedIn 4/5 · US Impossible to find saved jobs on app: No option to find saved jobs on the app, must use PC for this feature seems overly cumbersome
  10. [R19] LinkedIn 1/5 · US Like there’s any choice: LinkedIn practically monopolizes the job market and gives heavy advantages to the employers rather than the employee. They spam you to pay for their premium services and yet can’t identified and verified a real person. The platform is crowded with so called ceos and job gurus. There’s no real authenticity to what these companies really are. They do not do anything about th
  11. [R9] LinkedIn 3/5 · US Consumer Protection Act: It’s time for large technology companies to take consumer security seriously. Too many people are experiencing unauthorized access to their accounts, changes to their personal information, and breaches that should never happen in the first place. Consumers are required to follow strict rules, strong passwords, multi‑factor authentication, identity verification, recovery
  12. [R20] LinkedIn 4/5 · US App concept and execution are great but the amount of notifications should be criminal: I could not understand why I was getting flooded with random summaries and updates constantly so I went to check- they had added several dozen individual controls for turning off notifications. It took me 15 to 20 minutes to turn them all off. That was a cheap trick I don’t appreciate.
  13. [R37] LinkedIn 1/5 · US Customer Service about hacked Account: I tried to Get my account back multiple times after finding out my account was Hijacked and now being impersonated, And now the LinkedIn customer service is just ignoring my plead, so if this doesn’t get resolved or have my Number Changed to my Actual number 1386, I Will personally File a Lawsuit For Discrimination Against My Data
  14. [R43] LinkedIn 1/5 · US Used to be good, makes you pay money for nothing now: Cool concept but LinkedIn like other platforms has succumbed to paid tiers. The app handicaps you unless you pay monthly.
  15. [R67] Fishbowl 1/5 · US Broken App: This app constantly has server issues so you can’t update your industry. Can’t update your email or can’t update your description either you can try to update it 4, 5+ or more times it just won’t stick the app and their servers don’t work.
  16. [R73] Fishbowl 1/5 · US Unable to sign up: The app is stuck on Gender selection screen. I've tried deleting and reinstalling as well. Still its stuck. Please fix it
  17. [R76] Fishbowl 1/5 · US Stuck on gender: Huge bug with what is your gender. It won’t let me bypass it
  18. [R79] Fishbowl 1/5 · US Can't access further due to gender selection: As the other user pointed out I can't access this app due to this gender selection page keeps asking my gender & refreshing forever. I have exhausted all options and even reinstalled but it doesn't work.
  19. [R100] Fishbowl 1/5 · US The app is broken: Something is wrong with the app. I am now unable to make new posts or respond to new posts. But far more troubling is that there is no one working for the app who will respond anymore to any messages. This is my last attempt to see if they will respond before I delete the app.
  20. [R102] Fishbowl 1/5 · US No support response - app unusable: App broke - now just says to try again later when trying to post/comment (on latest version). I’ve reached out twice for help/resolution and didn’t even get an acknowledgement. App is now unusable, with no explanation or help fixing it
  21. [R108] Fishbowl 1/5 · US Why is there no fix and no communication?: Everyone is saying we can’t access our bowls, why aren’t you addressing this? What is going on?
  22. [R112] Fishbowl 1/5 · US Zero Support / Response: Can’t get support to verify title and restore access to private bowl. Have sent multiple Emails.

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