SBS News
How much does SBS News cost?
Prices are current as of 11 Sept 2026.
SBS News has no in-app products on record in the United States.
10+ alternatives to SBS News
| SBS News |   The Guardian - US & World News |   BBC: World News & Stories |   HuffPost - News & Politics |   South China Morning Post: News |   Reuters - Breaking World News |   Stuff.co.nz |   DW - Breaking World News |   VicEmergency |   Australia Local & World News |   Al Jazeera English | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rating / 5 | 3.2 | 4.8 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.6 | 4.7 | 2.9 | 3.7 | 3.0 | 4.2 | 3.8 |
| Reviews | 642 | 633K | 227K | 31K | 14K | 12K | 9.1K | 1.6K | 774 | 742 | 173 |
| Released | 2011 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2013 | 2013 | 2010 | 2012 | 2010 | 2012 | 2012 |
| Monthly price | — | $14.99 | $8.99 | $13.00 | $10.49 | $4.00 | — | — | — | — | — |
| Annual price | — | $129.99 | $89.99 | — | $124.99 | $45.00 | — | — | — | — | — |
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.
SBS News reviews
3.2 out of 5, based on 642 reviews.
What people like
- Clean design that loads very fast.
- You get great Australian news coverage.
- Feels like a trustworthy news source.
What they complain about
- Ads jump around and interrupt you.
- App is slow, buggy, and crashes.
- No way to search by keyword.
- Notifications are often in the wrong language.
Great new upgrade, good load speeds
Enjoying the new app, nicer layout and much faster load speeds. A much needed upgrade and a modern competitive app you have now.
Sinophobic scaremongering
Garbage
Subtitles on video
Please consider proper proportional font Subtitles. Please consider high on screen display for them, on top of the ticker blots out essential content most times. Please consider transparency for them. Any additional control for the viewer would be great.
Stories not loading
Clicked on article, full story not loading. Updated pp, still not fully loading
Cannot enlarge photos
For some reason, SBS have disabled the ability to enlarge the photos on their app. Consequently many of the photos accompanying news articles are so small as to often be indecipherable.
PURE NEWS!
Wow! I love love love using this app. I am a millennial, bi-racial, minority, young professional living in the city of Chicago. No matter how much I try to get away from ‘em, it seems like I’m always using the big 3 media tracking corporations; Apple, Google and Facebook for my news. This makes for painfully polarized and at most times biased news. I am so very thankful for this app and the mission of SBS as a news source. It’s unfortunate that I have to search across the globe to get objective American news. However, I am so glad this option is here for me. Thanks for all the trustworthy information. Corey
Advertising
I hate the adds. Not only do they annoy me they chew through my limited data alliwance in my iphone. I’m cancelling the app going back to ABC NEWS
Adverts
Great news app with excellent news coverage BUT advertising needs to be more obviously identified as such. With the image heavy layout the advertising needs to be more obviously identified. Otherwise the news is great and the advertising content justified.
Light on actual news
Very light on actual news, especially overseas news. Too much fluffy stuff and human interest articles. Just report the news not your opinions.
Cannot scroll
I cannot simply scroll through news stories without the interface “jumping” and defeating my efforts to actually preview news stories. Drives me mad, I eventually give up trying. I’d say it’s due to attempts to load advertising that’s causing this. Any updates to fix this in the foreseeable future?
Great news app
Using this in the USA
The most not news outlet that USED TO BE objective
I guess SBS caved to Zionist/USA pressure now. Now it’s just another propaganda distribution medium. (This is what I wrote 2 years ago) SBS is the only news outlet still at least attempting to remain fair and objective. I am not surprised that there are many negative reviews, as in the current climate SBS is really fighting against so much propaganda- no doubt in the negative reviews as well (paid by…?)
I would give 5 stars except…
I think it would be a really great idea for the developers to consider allowing readers to save articles they want to read for later! Is that possible?
No search function
The lack of one of the most basic navigating tools of any news app, the ability to search by keyword, rather than by just the “available topics“ undermines the utility of this app. I would have expected more of SBS…
App
SBS news app is no way as good a look or feel as other main news feeds. Look is very important, and relevant updated news events are essential. Needs an overhaul.
Great!
Very clean if simply design, working perfectly
App stopped working, now useless
The SBS News app has worked for years on my IPad, now with all the latest iOS and app, the news articles body doesn’t show, only the headlines appear. I have raised a technical problem report but to no avail. Also tried deleting and reloading the app too. Anyway, there are better news organisations around that are less left biased so it’s probably time to dump it anyway.
Tiny text is unreadable
This app does not appear to support dynamic text. I’d like to use it but cannot read the content
Poor layout, bad UX ad placement issues, biased journalism
I’d recommend going back to simpler layouts for accessibility of information. The ads also are a massive impact and relocate as you scroll which makes the headlines jump around. The Australian news stories are also biased to rewriting the narrative of modern Australia and have forgotten what forged this nation.
Update me to death.
How about saving all the little updates until there is a bunch. Seems like every time i open the app it wants an update. I just go to another news app while it does it. Maybe come back.
Excellent App
Thanks a lot to the provider of this great app. Your implementation is of high quality and very usable on iPhone.
Unusable
Impossible to read- if you try to scroll through stories, the page goes blank, reloads, flickers, jumps around on the page, reloads again.. don’t even bother
Nice app but lacks search option
App is really clean and nice but I dont find any option to search news with certain text .Also I believe more news customization options should be included.
SBS news alerts changed to Chinese
My news alerts have automatically changed into Mandarin for some reason. When I go into the app everything is still in English. I can’t seem to change it
Poor
Same news stories stay in app for days / weeks. Only one or two new stories each day. No point using more than once a week or so.
Love it!
Up to the minute national and global news.
Can do better
Take a leaf from the ABC NEWS app or even copy it as it's far too cumbersome to go to another news story with the SBS app.
Intuitive an easy
Well done
SBS news
Far too many articles remain in the app for too long and are old news Malcolm, Attadale
App uses too much space
App is using 30 gig of storage but there’s no way of seeing how. I need to delete the app to recover the space.
Excellent Australian & World news app
A free, comprehensive and nicely designed app. Also great Australian news and sport news coverage which is currently the best out there of the apps available outside Australia. Well done!
Old old news
Why is so much of this app populated by news that is days, and sometimes weeks old. It’s in the name, stupid: NEWs. I don’t want archival news, I want to find out what’s happening now, not what happened a week ago! Mongrel of an app: doesn’t know what it is!
Great new app
No problems. Designed well and easy to navigate.
News app? Really?
While I enjoy much of the drama and movies on SBS it’s news is way too lefty for me. So something I found particularly offensive made me delete the app. Was just watching the news- something I rarely do because I no longer trust MSM there was an item about an ancient sea creature on this afternoon’s news. I have a grandson obsessed with dinosaurs so I reinstated the app so I could send it to him. I scrolled- nothing. So I searched dinosaur, sea creature and a few others. Nada. I’ve re deleted the app.
Why can’t I tap on a picture and enlarge it
Should be able to do this , if a picture is worth including in a story it’s worth enlarging. A picture is worth a 1000 words!
Notifications
Serious, ongoing issues with notifications: sending multiple times, in the wrong language, against preference in app.
Widget doesn’t work
App is good, but the widget doesn’t work.
Christian News
When are you going to show Christian News?
Getting only Chinese notifications, no English
For some reason, the notifications are all in Chinese, leading to Chinese articles. I downloaded this app primarily for news notifications, so it’s basically useless for my use case. Can’t see any area to change the language and SBS mandarin news notifications are turned off.
Option to increase letter size
It would be great if you could include let the font size in your app adjust according to the font size set on the phone. Currently unable to use app as have vision impairment
Text size
I cannot find where I can increase text size - currently it is too small for me to read comfortably.
More app updates than news stories
Surely it doesn’t need updating THAT often - I mean how much difference does it actually make?
Tabloid content
The quality of the journalistic content has significantly fallen. The “world news” section now filled with click bait titles and celebrity goss. Plenty of articles have had spelling mistakes and are lacking the polished professionalism I would expect from SBS.
Video quality good when it works
The connection is a bit flaky. Sometimes you have to close it and open it again or close and open sections to get them working. The nightly news cast program just shuts off the app totally if you try to watch it. Good for getting short news updates while overseas.
SBS News FAQ
- Is SBS News free?
- Yes. The app is free, in all 149 countries it sells in, and it sells nothing inside it.
- Does SBS News have a free trial?
- No. None of its offers (US) come with a free trial.
- What are the best alternatives to SBS News?
- 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 HuffPost - News & Politics (4.5 from 31,421 reviews, premium from $13.00).
SBS News download
Last updated 1 month ago.
SBS News sells in 149 countries. It was released 15 years and 5 months ago, on 5 May 2011. It holds a 3.2 rating from 642 reviews.
Supports 1 language: English.
How much does SBS News make?
Third-party estimates for the last 30 days, worldwide — not the store's own figures, which Apple publishes for nobody.