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

The Philadelphia Inquirer vs WNEP The News Station

The Philadelphia Inquirer 4.6★ · Free to download 45
Winner WNEP The News Station
WNEP The News Station 4.8★ · Free to download 55

WNEP The News Station is generally preferred for its content, especially weather, but both apps suffer from significant usability issues and intrusive ads.

Full reviews: The Philadelphia Inquirer · WNEP The News Station

Both The Philadelphia Inquirer and WNEP The News Station apps are plagued by technical issues and intrusive advertising, with recent updates causing major user frustration. WNEP edges out The Inquirer due to its slightly higher lifetime rating and more focused content, despite its own severe usability problems.

Head to head

Features tieR2R5R8R14
The Philadelphia Inquirer Users appreciate The Inquirer for its local news, sports coverage, and opinion columns, with some noting improvements over time R2R8. However, users frequently request features like 'listen to article,' article sharing, and TV listings R5. Recent updates removed landscape mode, which is a major point of contention for many iPad users R14R17R40R43.
WNEP The News Station WNEP is highly valued for its local news, alerts, and especially its weather reporting, with specific mentions of forecasters like Joe Snedicker . However, recent updates have significantly degraded the weather features, with users reporting issues with radar, missing daily forecasts, and lack of high/low temperatures . Other features like 'Near Me' and community events have also disappeared .
Ease of Use tieR4R7R14R17
The Philadelphia Inquirer Many users find The Inquirer app difficult to use due to intrusive ads that block content or accidentally launch webpages R4R30R42. Recent updates have removed landscape mode, making reading on iPads awkward R14R17R40R43. Some articles are slow to open or don't open at all R7.
WNEP The News Station WNEP's recent update has made the app's navigation difficult, with users describing it as an 'endless scroll of nothing' and lacking menus or search functions . Ads are a significant issue, being too loud, repetitive, and causing the app to freeze or crash . The removal of landscape view is also a complaint .
Reliability tieR6R7R9R12
The Philadelphia Inquirer The Inquirer app is frequently criticized for being a 'memory hog,' consuming large amounts of storage (9GB-50GB) and requiring users to delete and reinstall the app R6R9R19R22. Users report the app crashing, not loading, articles not opening, and general unresponsiveness R7R12.
WNEP The News Station WNEP users report frequent app freezes, crashes, and the app not opening at all . The radar feature is described as slow and freezing . Some users also report issues with live TV not always playing .
Price/Value tieR1R4R10R17
The Philadelphia Inquirer The Inquirer is free to download, but many users subscribe. Subscribers are frustrated by still seeing intrusive ads R1R4. Some paying subscribers report issues accessing content despite being logged in R10. The price increased to almost $30/month, which some find expensive given the app's issues R17. Users appreciate the App Store subscription option for easier cancellation .
WNEP The News Station WNEP is free to download. Users complain about the high volume and repetitiveness of ads, which detract from the experience and sometimes prevent access to content .
Support tieR3R6R19R28
The Philadelphia Inquirer Users express frustration with The Inquirer's app support, stating that issues are ignored R3. Some users resort to deleting and reinstalling the app to fix memory issues R6R19. There's a complaint about predatory subscription practices making cancellation difficult R28.
WNEP The News Station WNEP users report that the app hasn't received an update in a year, leading to persistent freezing issues . There are no specific mentions of direct support interactions, but the lack of resolution for widespread issues suggests poor responsiveness.
Pick The Philadelphia Inquirer if

Pick The Philadelphia Inquirer if you prioritize in-depth local journalism, sports analysis, and opinion pieces from a non-profit organization, and are willing to tolerate significant app performance issues and intrusive ads .

Pick WNEP The News Station if

Pick WNEP The News Station if you primarily seek local news and weather updates, especially from specific local personalities, and are prepared for a potentially frustrating user experience due to recent app updates and heavy advertising .

Evidence note: Both apps have a significant number of negative reviews, especially recent ones, indicating a decline in user satisfaction following updates. The free-to-download nature means many users are likely experiencing friction related to ads and limited features.

Frequently asked

Do these apps have a free tier?
Both The Philadelphia Inquirer and WNEP The News Station are free to download, but The Inquirer requires a paid subscription for full access, while WNEP is ad-supported R1R36.
Are there many ads in these apps?
Yes, both apps are heavily criticized for intrusive and numerous ads; The Philadelphia Inquirer has full-screen and inline ads even for paying subscribers, and WNEP's ads are often loud, repetitive, and cause the app to freeze R1R4R30R42.
Do these apps support landscape mode?
The Philadelphia Inquirer's recent update removed landscape mode, making it portrait-only on iPads, which is a major frustration for many users R14R17R40R43; WNEP also has complaints about the removal of landscape view .
Are there performance issues with these apps?
Both apps have significant performance issues; The Philadelphia Inquirer is a 'memory hog' (9GB-50GB) and frequently crashes, while WNEP freezes, crashes, and has slow radar R6R9R19R22.

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] The Philadelphia Inquirer 4/5 · US 👍: App has improved a lot!
  2. [R5] The Philadelphia Inquirer 4/5 · US Love the Inquirer, but…: When will the “listen to article” feature be added to the app? Seems like a total miss. Why would I use the app if the convenience is on the website? As for the listen article feature on the website, for long articles, the page eventually refreshes, stopping the reader feature. And there’s no way to pick up where it left off. I hope you solve that glitch too. Keep up the
  3. [R8] The Philadelphia Inquirer 5/5 · US My Inquirer: I rely on Will Bunch’s column
  4. [R14] The Philadelphia Inquirer 5/5 · US Recent update doesn’t allow landscape: I always loved this app but the recent app update no longer allows reading in landscape. This is very annoying when reading on an iPad as you have to turn the iPad around and stand it upright. This doesn’t work well with most iPad cases. Please allow both landscape and portrait.
  5. [R4] The Philadelphia Inquirer 1/5 · US Out of date articles and BIG ADs: I’m really getting fed up with this app. First, while many articles land in the app days before appearing in the published newspaper; there are many “breaking” stories that don’t show up in the app. The inline adds are getting so big you can’t scroll the page without launching the ads webpage. Finally the video ads become so intrusive it’s not worth reading th
  6. [R7] The Philadelphia Inquirer 2/5 · US Some articles don’t open: In the newspaper view, some articles do not open at all, or are very slow to open, with only a spinning circle appearing. Those same articles open fine on the website so it seems like an app problem.
  7. [R17] The Philadelphia Inquirer 4/5 · US Portrait mode only update?: I love reading the inquirer everyday on my iPad. But today, I noticed the app icon had changed from black to white. And now I can only use the app in portrait mode. It is much more difficult to read this way, and the stand on my case can’t hold it open that way. I didn’t mind that the price went up to almost $30/month, but that is a lot of money for a product that is
  8. [R6] The Philadelphia Inquirer 3/5 · US 16 GBs?!: I love the app for news and viewing the paper but something needs to be fixed with the cache/storage. I don’t download papers and yet the app is still occupying 16 GBs of memory at present and it grows each time I use it. I end up having to constantly delete, redownload, and log back-in in order to use the app and my iPad in general. This has only been an issue in the last 3 months. Real
  9. [R9] The Philadelphia Inquirer 3/5 · US Memory Hog: Love the app and paper but it currently is using 9gb of memory on my phone. Why? I am going to have to delete the app.
  10. [R12] The Philadelphia Inquirer 3/5 · US App not loading: The App has been "experiencing difficulties" for quite a while. Am I the only one?
  11. [R1] The Philadelphia Inquirer 1/5 · US Subscription with Ads?: I’m paying monthly for a subscription yet still get obnoxious full screen ads that take over the screen and article I’m reading. Really unfortunate. I won’t be renewing my subscription.
  12. [R10] The Philadelphia Inquirer 1/5 · US Figure out you online access policies: For the 2nd time in the past 12 months I've subscribed to your online paper. And for the 2nd time I am unable to access any articles, as I'm told I've reached my limit of free access, even though I am logged in. This is incredibly frustrating. I am paying for access and can't access.
  13. [R3] The Philadelphia Inquirer 3/5 · US Half-baked app: I really want to support my local newspaper, but this app is not great, and worst of all the only advertising they manage to attract is from Nigerian princes, weight loss “secrets,” and other scams. I wish the app’s support would addresss issues instead of just ignoring them.
  14. [R19] The Philadelphia Inquirer 1/5 · US Uses too much space: I like the app but it’s taking up all the free space on my phone (32GB), which is absurd. The clear cache button doesn’t work. The only solution is to delete the app.
  15. [R28] The Philadelphia Inquirer 1/5 · US Predatory Subscription Practices: This paper makes it near impossible to cancel without a call or chat.
  16. [R36] The Philadelphia Inquirer 3/5 · US Free: The digital version should be free for all plus ads thx
  17. [R30] The Philadelphia Inquirer 3/5 · US Bad ad placement: I’ve had problems with missing sentences or photos in past articles too, but today I couldn’t even do the first question of the news quiz because a moving ad is perpetually in the way. Please hire some more UX experts who can actually QC the app.
  18. [R42] The Philadelphia Inquirer 3/5 · US Sneaky Ads: Ads within the articles are extremely sensitive and when the reader attempts to scroll through, they accidentally open the adds. In addition, many of the adds are sized in a way that you cannot scroll past without touching them. Super distracting to be reading an article and have to jump back and forth from an ad that “accidentally” opens in a browser. Seems like they’ve done this on p
  19. [R40] The Philadelphia Inquirer 1/5 · US Awful update: New update will not rotate on my IPad. So I can’t read it easily. Not acceptable. I hate it. Might drop my subscription.
  20. [R43] The Philadelphia Inquirer 2/5 · US Portrait only: This app provides the content in a good fashion and I would give it a 4 except for one problem with the latest update. The app will only show itself on my iPad (purchased early 2025) in the portrait mode with the charging port down. This behavior is not present on other apps. When/if they fix it, I will change the rating.
  21. [R22] The Philadelphia Inquirer 2/5 · US Memory hog: This app eats up memory more than anything else on my phone. How can an app go to 50G of use after a month?

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