RNZ
How much does RNZ cost?
Prices are current as of 11 Sept 2026.
RNZ has no in-app products on record in the United States.
10+ alternatives to RNZ
| RNZ |   The Guardian - US & World News |   BBC: World News & Stories |   Pocket Casts: Podcast Player |   Stuff.co.nz |   SBS News |   New Zealand News & Headlines |   SBS Audio |   Al Jazeera English |   The Central App | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rating / 5 | 3.6 | 4.8 | 4.5 | 4.6 | 2.9 | 3.2 | 4.2 | 3.6 | 3.8 | 4.3 |
| Reviews | 458 | 633K | 227K | 32K | 9.1K | 642 | 453 | 368 | 173 | 23 |
| Released | 2010 | 2011 | 2010 | 2011 | 2010 | 2011 | 2014 | 2011 | 2012 | 2016 |
| Monthly price | — | $14.99 | $8.99 | $9.99 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Annual price | — | $129.99 | $89.99 | $39.99 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
The going rate for each plan in United States, in its own currency, shaded from the cheapest price on the row to the dearest. Plans fewer than four in ten of the priced apps sell are left out.
RNZ reviews
3.6 out of 5, based on 458 reviews.
What people like
- Serious news without political spin
- Great local and global content balance
- Excellent live radio streaming capability
What they complain about
- Dark mode is still missing or broken
- You cannot change the font size
- Notifications flood you with useless sports news
- Articles open in browser instead of app
Update deleted my queued list
Been using the RNZ app for years, mainly for curating my own replay radio list from favourite shows on NatRad. Shocked to open the app this morning to find … nothing! Update on Friday last had wiped 70+ items from my “to listen” list, along with all my bookmarked shows. WTF? Boring commute to work followed, as I painstakingly re-selected stuff I wanted to hear. Better not be wiped again (might have to drop RNZ and listen to ZB … as-if)
The app developers wiped all my favourites!!
This app is a disgrace! the people who designed it need to be held accountable. i've had years worth of saved interviews stored in the app but the app developers wiped everything in their latest update? Why? Also now you can't even enlarge the screen to see the photographs as that is jammed solid. Why? The app is actually quite hard to navigate when you are new to it. But I've used this app for several years now I am bitterly disappointed in what's happened. I suggest RNZ get rid of these incompetent developers and hire a new team because they have dropped the ball. It's an appalling update!
Fine but some glitches…
I’ve been delighted with this app as a great source of news though some odd problems on my ipad: 1. Leaving the app and returning later in the day does not reset and update the news unless quit the app completely and re-open 2. This is a new one, didn’t happen on earlier versions. News articles which send to a ‘read the article’ link rather then directly to article text open a full page catalogue of ‘RNZ Sections’ right over the top of the text…rendering it useless. This did not happen on previous version, and has never happened on the android version.
Crashes on open
It’s been crashing immediately on opening since the last update. Latest iOS, iPhone 15. Still waiting for an update. It’s a good app, when it’s working. Other than the repeated stories, which is a little unusual.
No option to disable spoilers
If you’re going to post sports score lines as “breaking news” then there should be an option to disable that. A bit ridiculous to have sports notifications disabled and still get sports headlines.
Awesome, but needs Dark Mode!
Does what it says on the tin, delivers great relevant news. My only wish would be for a Dark Mode, which would help reading it at night, easier on the eyes 🤓 UPDATE: It now has Dark Mode, yay!!
Dynamic text size needed
Awesome app, though can we just have a way to change text size, please asap, thank you!
Good updates
What would make it even better is the option to increase font for app. Is that an option?
Not fit for purpose
This app is maddening and the state broadcaster has a responsibility to do better. It frequently crashes, the audio stops all the time even when it says it’s playing, the search function is a joke, as is the ‘now playing’ function which often bears no resemblance to scheduling, not to mention the screen lock bug mentioned in many other reviews. When was it last updated for god’s sake?!
Drops Apple HomePod connection
Love the app and content, however I can’t play through the HomePods anymore. It connect then after a few seconds drops out. Have factory reset the HomePods multiple times to no avail. All other apps seem fine. Don’t know if this is a new bug? Not a huge issue but annoying.
Almost perfect - dark mode please!!
This is the only app I frequently keep running overnight but has no dark mode so that’s my one and only ask. Fantastic app, good solid and serious news source without spin - it’s wonderful to keep up with news from home and globally without having to resort to the Stuff website or to try and navigate the Murdoch media minefield here in Aus. High quality educational and entertainment shows and podcasts, an absolute treasure trove of deep dive music material. I love this app and can’t recommend it enough
Notification spam
I set my notification settings up to be breaking news only. It seems pretty much everything is classified as this, for example “is your predictive text getting worse? you’re not imagining it” doesn’t seem like breaking news.
Excellent ad free news
Better than the any commercial nz news outlet
Font size and UX issues
Good source of news, but the not size is way too small and not adjustable. It’s crazy this simple issue remains after all these years. Also you can touch the text of a story and it will jump to another story without reason. Boggles my mind that the developers don’t make the app more accessible. Better off using the website.
Mixed results
Cuts out of term. Chews through battery even when no audio playing
Good content
Good content with a better balance than other NZ news websites. Covers important local news not on other sites.
Unreliable at opening
RNZ app will come up with error of “Something is wrong”. Pity
Please add Dynamic Type
I love that you have added Dark Mode. This makes a big difference in reducing eye strain. So much nicer now to peruse the news at the end of the day. UPDATE: please consider supporting the Dynamic Type accessibility setting. The font in your news articles is very small.
No image zoom
Please please please let users select and zoom in on images within news articles. It is super frustrating not to be able to see details one couldn't see trivially on the website.
Dark mode problem
My initial excitement about dark mode has waned somewhat. It does not work with images of graphs. The legends are now black on black so impossible to read. Take a look at today's article on colonoscopies. The graphs are impossible to interpret. If the legends were in any colour other than black it would work.
great station
as someone who loves international broadcasting, like to know what else is going on with the world besides us news
Far too many notifications!
I like RNZ for its reporting of news, but… please stop notifying us about everything and anything! My notifications are set to “Breaking news” and yet I am getting tens of notifications per day! I have tried other notification settings but it doesn’t seem to make any difference: still tens of notifications per day! Sadly, others have reported this same issue several years ago and, clearly, nothing has ever been done about it. 😕 I have been using the app for years but I am getting closer and closer to uninstalling it. Just fed up with all those useless notifications!
Dark Mode
Dark mode please. It’s 2024!
Terrible App for those with visual impairments.
In short, they’re basically excluding those users who have vision problems from using their App. Although the app does implement choices for light or dark modes, there is no way to enlarge the article text font size. This makes for one of the worst NA news content apps in the App Store.
Good, but often takes you to a browser page
I’ve had this as one of my main news apps for years now, primarily for NZ based news. Have noticed recently however that many articles simply have a one sentence summary followed by a ‘Read the article’ click link, that then takes you to a separate browser page. Why??? Please bring the articles back into the app! It’s gotten to the point where I won’t bother reading the story and will just move on.
Great app has podcasts and a live stream
Really enjoy it and feel like a fly on the wall listening in to these kiwi conversations
Sick of the sensationalism and negativity.
RNZ news I can do withoit
Still room for improvement
Good app generally, but some of the navigation can be clunky. Desperately needs dark mode support!! I don’t want to get blinded checking the news in the morning.
Too small on iPad
I look at the RNZ on my phone everyday, but due to eyesight difficulties decided to put the app onto my iPad. However it is not designed for iPads and is too small. I will now delete it and use the website as before.
Latest update broke swipe to go back?
Solid app, but the latest update seems to have broken the main way I navigate through - open a story, then swipe from left phone edge to go back up to the main page. Swipe from the left edge now and it just goes to another story. Only way to get back to the main page is to tap the tiny ‘Return’ arrow at literally the furthered point from a right handed user… This significantly reduces user experience for me!
Nice App
Good app. Lots of choices to listen to what you want, from news bulletins to podcasts. It’s the quickest way to listen to RNZ live. Load times are a bit long though.
Excessive ‘breaking news’ notifications, and more steps required to read an article
An increasing number of articles now don’t support the app natively and require you to click ‘Read the article’ which opens an embedded web browser. This is frustrating. It’s also really annoying to get spammed with sports notifications that are categorised as ‘breaking news’ when I’ve specifically turned off notifications about sports. This app needs a real overhaul - RNZ’s site is good, but this app hasn’t kept up.
Little Buggy, want widgets
I like the app, headline notifications are nice. Would love a widget that displayed the days most recent breaking news
No disability support
My phone is set to increase the font on apps but this has no effect on the RNZ app. It needs updating.
Needs dark mode
It’s bright white screen at night. All modern apps now have a dark mode option for night viewing
Essential!
Great! At last you can stream live RadioNZ audio to your iPhone or iPad. The audio on demand is useful too - easily catch upon interesting programmes you missed, or catch the start of shows you only heard the end of. Wouk be useful if it also had a full programmeclisting for each day
Won’t open on IPhone 14 ios18.5
Closes after splash screen
Good app, bad notifications
Great app, but the notifications need to be looked at. I only subscribe to breaking news but I’ll get notifications about rugby games which I have no interest in. Please consider fixing this.
Frustrated
Another day that this app is underperforming on my iPad and I had to delete and reinstall the app When I clicked in one news item to read, immediately another news item shows up and the format is distorted to make impossible to read Second time that I provide this review and is ignored
About time for an iPad app
Considering this is the only non commercial news now in NZ and is taxpayer funded, can’t believe it still doesn’t have an iPad app like other NZ news sites
aee!!awesome
title sooooooooo aaaaaaaweeeeeesoooooomeeee
Doesn’t play in background
Recent changes have meant that the app stops playing live audio when in the background, meaning it needs to be kept in the foreground to play - making it useless. I’ve gone back to the website in Safari. Uninstalling and reinstalling “fixes” this for a period of time, however the issues always comes back after some time.
Best source of important news updates
I have switched to the RNZ app as my main source of news. The other NZ news apps send too many notifications for me - I just want important news updates when it matter and not to be constantly flooded. RNZ let’s me control which topics I want notifications for. I also like being able to locate interviews from the radio programme and star them for referral later - some great content there. I have two requests that would make the app a lot better for me. 1) please add the ability to increase the font size of articles I am reading. 2) please support dark mode. Thank you.
No accessibility features
It would be really nice if you could increase the size of the text. Dark mode support would also be nice too.
Ok.
Better than STUFF and far better than ONE news and herald. Would be happy to pay a little, but updates need to be quicker.. reporting ok, but stop “buying” the news from stuff and herald’s useless fabricated/one sided content
Radio NZ
I'm a huge fan of Radio NZ programmes. This app works as advertised, features a fine selection of the radio's best pieces. I'm looking forward to live streaming. A BIG THANK YOU is in order :-)
iPad support
Doesn’t display full screen on iPad
Needs notification settings for types of news
News notifications are helpful but too many can be really annoying and distracting. Other news apps let you toggle which types of news are worth receiving notifications for. Like sports, regional, politics, arts, etc. I’m not a sports person and in April 2018 all these commonwealth games notifications are really working my nerves. Five stars when this improvement is rolled out!
Accessing News Items
The app has become super frustrating - news headlines are visible but the items will not open. This is random - there are 3 iPhones in the house 1 with OneNZ and 2 with 2Degrees. Which phone is able to open a news item is completely random. We have tried turning phones off, reloading the app and resetting network settings. Again the result is random.
App takes up memory
For some reason the App takes up a lot of storage space on my phone. I don’t know why but I suspect downloaded content stays on my phone even when deleted.
RNZ FAQ
- Is RNZ free?
- Yes. The app is free, in all 175 countries it sells in, and it sells nothing inside it.
- Does RNZ have a free trial?
- No. None of its offers (US) come with a free trial.
- What are the best alternatives to RNZ?
- The Guardian - US & World News (4.8 from 633,102 reviews, premium from $6.99), BBC: World News & Stories (4.5 from 227,062 reviews, premium from $8.99) and Pocket Casts: Podcast Player (4.6 from 32,132 reviews, premium from $3.99).
RNZ download
Last updated 1 month ago.
RNZ sells in 175 countries. It was released 15 years and 9 months ago, on 14 Dec 2010. It holds a 3.6 rating from 458 reviews.
Supports 1 language: English.
How much does RNZ make?
Third-party estimates for the last 30 days, worldwide — not the store's own figures, which Apple publishes for nobody.