Review Insights · App Store
Wondery: Must-Hear Podcasts
Wondery, LLC · 31,989 ratings · ★ 4.7
4.7
★★★★★
31,989 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 86 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"times"
37 negative reviews mention this · 43% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Frustrating to get on. Can never access the app right away on iPhone and/ir CarPlay. When I click onto the icon, it actually freezes my devices. It happens about 3 or 4 times before actually being able to get on. Once on, it is great. Maybe it’s not keeping up wi…" - decatbietel
2
"crashes"
37 negative reviews mention this · 43% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Worst app experience ever. I’m perplexed at the generally high reviews this app has. This is the least functional app I’ve ever used. It is INCREDIBLY LAGGY. It crashes 1/2 of the time upon launching. It has trouble loading any episode, downloaded or not. Every time …" - Lynda Qin
3
"every"
34 negative reviews mention this · 40% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Trashes my phone EVERY time I try to use it. Wish I could leave zero stars. Doesn’t matter how often I update, each time I open up Wondery everything freezes and I have to wait 5-7 minutes to use my phone again. Every. Goddamned. Time. I cancelled my membership on this alone. I like t…" - CrapAtCrafts
4
"wondery"
28 negative reviews mention this · 33% of all complaints
★★★★★ "scam. I hate wondery! they make it ridiculously hard to get a refund so I never got one and I bought it through my apple podcast app so I still got ads perpetually which contradicts the reason I paid for wondery so I just never listened to my fav…" - lanymel
5
"podcasts"
24 negative reviews mention this · 28% of all complaints
★★★★★ "scam. I hate wondery! they make it ridiculously hard to get a refund so I never got one and I bought it through my apple podcast app so I still got ads perpetually which contradicts the reason I paid for wondery so I just never listened to my fav…" - lanymel
6
"content"
22 negative reviews mention this · 26% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Great content, horrible app. Great and engaging content, a mix of true crime and history. Truly a fun feast for people who want edutainment! However the app is god awful. Slow and you are unable to manually arrange listening queues. Every other podcast app has this. Al…" - That Hamster Kid
7
"listen"
22 negative reviews mention this · 26% of all complaints
★★★★★ "scam. I hate wondery! they make it ridiculously hard to get a refund so I never got one and I bought it through my apple podcast app so I still got ads perpetually which contradicts the reason I paid for wondery so I just never listened to my fav…" - lanymel
8
"podcast"
18 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "scam. I hate wondery! they make it ridiculously hard to get a refund so I never got one and I bought it through my apple podcast app so I still got ads perpetually which contradicts the reason I paid for wondery so I just never listened to my fav…" - lanymel
9
"subscription"
16 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Buggy. I just deleted the app from my iPhone 12. I love the Wondery+ catalog, but the app often crashes my phone when using with CarPlay. The final straw was an episode of American History Tellers that contained only 3 minutes of the programmed …" - bandit_517
10
"frustrating"
15 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Frustrating to get on. Can never access the app right away on iPhone and/ir CarPlay. When I click onto the icon, it actually freezes my devices. It happens about 3 or 4 times before actually being able to get on. Once on, it is great. Maybe it’s not keeping up wi…" - decatbietel
11
"love"
15 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "love the premise, app is not it. love the shows on the app but i have to try and open the app at least twice every time because it crashes and closes immediately. the app lags, and it’s not easy to discover new shows based on your preferences." - nonsenseprincess
12
"constantly"
14 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Great content, horrible app. Great and engaging content, a mix of true crime and history. Truly a fun feast for people who want edutainment! However the app is god awful. Slow and you are unable to manually arrange listening queues. Every other podcast app has this. Al…" - That Hamster Kid
📋 All 86 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
scam
I hate wondery! they make it ridiculously hard to get a refund so I never got one and I bought it through my apple podcast app so I still got ads perpetually which contradicts the reason I paid for wondery so I just never listened to my fav podcasts bc the ads irked me n my money for the annual ad free service went to absolute waste. it makes me so mad.
Trashes my phone EVERY time I try to use it
Wish I could leave zero stars. Doesn’t matter how often I update, each time I open up Wondery everything freezes and I have to wait 5-7 minutes to use my phone again. Every. Goddamned. Time. I cancelled my membership on this alone. I like their programs, but it’s not worth the hassle. No other app does this. You’d think by now Wondery would sort it out, but no.
Bad service
Bought a year access at the End of last year. Now the service is being moved to Audible for a monthly fee.
Frustrating to get on
Can never access the app right away on iPhone and/ir CarPlay. When I click onto the icon, it actually freezes my devices. It happens about 3 or 4 times before actually being able to get on. Once on, it is great. Maybe it’s not keeping up with all other the iOS updates. Very frustrating to use.
Worst app experience ever
I’m perplexed at the generally high reviews this app has. This is the least functional app I’ve ever used. It is INCREDIBLY LAGGY. It crashes 1/2 of the time upon launching. It has trouble loading any episode, downloaded or not. Every time I try to listen to downloaded episodes when I don’t have service, it logs me out and I can’t access anything. It feels like a relic from 15 years ago before we knew how to make good apps. I will be switching to Apple Podcasts immediately, the wondery plus features are nowhere worth this horrendous app experience.
Great podcasts, horrible app
The shows are great, but the app itself is horrible. Sometimes I have to attempt to open it 3 times just for it to work. I’m the past year or so I’ve never been able to just open the app and listen, it automatically shuts down every time. It’s frustrating because there’s no other app I have that has these kinds of problems.
App crashes multiple times every day
First app review I have ever left. This is one of the only apps I pay for. I do that because of armchair expert only. It’s the only podcast I listen to on the platform because the app is so terrible. I literally set aside 3-5 minutes each day to get the podcast to play. Open the app. Crash. Open the app again. Crash. Open the app one more time… maybe it seems like it will work… crash. Oh, one more time, open the app… and… Crash. Every day. Literally crashes 3-6 times daily before I can get my content to play. I am so looking forward to the day when AE goes to a different platform.
Not thrilled
I pay for Wondery plus specifically for Armchair Expert. I love Dax’s perspective and the dynamic between Dax and Monica. A lot of times the video doesn’t work and often times I have some sort of issue with the app (slowness, won’t sync well with my car, etc). I’m usually pretty tolerant but since I pay for this app, it gets really frustrating. I’ve emailed Wondery and usually just get a canned response. Video rarely works anymore! I won’t be renewing.
Crashes constantly
The app CONSTANTLY crashes and often doesn’t include the videos that are showing on other platforms. As a subscriber, this is very frustrating!
Constant crashing
The content is great but the app constantly crashes.
Always crashes!
This app crashes and then shuts off my Maps app when I try to use them at the same time. This is borderline unsafe in the car. I am stuck though because I will go anywhere Armchair Expert goes.
App is a mess. I’m cancelling
After several years with wonderly+ (ad free) I’m cancelling. The content can be excellent but the app is very glitchy. Yesterday it wouldn’t log me on and it wouldn’t reset. I’m tired of dealing with a poorly functioning service. Sad but maybe they’ll fix it and I’ll come back.
Gone downhill
The app and the content have gotten progressively worse over the several years I’ve been a plus subscriber. Many of my favorite shows have gone to over to SiriusXM and the Wondery app is buggy and loads at a glacial pace. It will also randomly log out when I go on airplane mode, and there have been multiple times where I’m on a flight, go to the app to listen to a downloaded episode and I have no way to access it. I have cancelled and gone to Sirius.
glitchy app
app exits / crashes out every time i press play on my current episode. takes me 3-4 times to be able to finally start listening
Constant crashing
I like that they include video with my podcast but I have to open the app 3-4 times before it actually works. Especially when using it with CarPlay. Super annoying.
Good podcasts, bad app
The app constantly freezes then crashes. I have to reopen it 5-6 times and it freezes my entire phone. It’s extremely frustrating.
Buggy
I just deleted the app from my iPhone 12. I love the Wondery+ catalog, but the app often crashes my phone when using with CarPlay. The final straw was an episode of American History Tellers that contained only 3 minutes of the programmed 36 minute episode. Spotify, which I’ve linked to my paid subscription, had the full episode and works much better.
Does Not Work In Airplane Mode
Excited to be able to listen to my favorite podcasts on a flight I took recently. I downloaded a bunch of episodes before the flight. I put my phone in airplane mode and the app logs me out, and I can’t log back in because that needs a network connection.
I mean, come on. That is really, really dumb. You can’t create a system that allows the login to stay for like 30 day intervals? Total BS.
I mean, come on. That is really, really dumb. You can’t create a system that allows the login to stay for like 30 day intervals? Total BS.
Great Content! Pitiful App!!
I don’t usually write reviews. In this case, I must.
The reason I must
is because the preferred method in which I wish I could listen to Wondery content (the Wondery App itself) is completely frustrating and practically unusable (been trying not to have to write this review for over a year now).
I have seen other user reviews along these lines. In this day and age, there is no reason for an app not to work properly and fulfill its intended purpose.
I would love to be able to keep my subscription active when it is time to do so.
Fix the app; I will.
The reason I must
is because the preferred method in which I wish I could listen to Wondery content (the Wondery App itself) is completely frustrating and practically unusable (been trying not to have to write this review for over a year now).
I have seen other user reviews along these lines. In this day and age, there is no reason for an app not to work properly and fulfill its intended purpose.
I would love to be able to keep my subscription active when it is time to do so.
Fix the app; I will.
Terrible app
Constantly crashes upon opening. Takes at last 2 tries to open before success. Despite video podcasts being out for days only audio appear at times - no clue why. Not worth the subscription fee.
Never opens properly the first time!
Every time I attempt to open the Wondery app, I have to open it THREE times for it to function properly. The first two times, it freezes and auto-closes. It has been like this for as long as I can remember. I have been a subscriber for a year and half. Very disappointing that this bug hasn’t been fixed, with a paid app I expect better app functionality.
Annoying
Today the app set a new record! The app force closed not once, not twice, but TEN times before I could start listening. Previous record was five times. I’m not sure why I continue to pay for W+.
Crash
This app is really awful. It crashes up to 10 times every time I open it! So frustrating!
Crashes and now ads
App crashes basically every time I open it. I like the content, but even as a paying subscriber I now have a that can’t be closed for audible. There an x in the corner, but it just opens the ad page. Good content in a garbage app.
Terrible App, Good Content
This app blows chunks. The actual content on Wondery is great, hence why i use it at all, but the app itself is so glitchy and laggy. I've never once been able to open the app and successfully navigate to an episode and start playing it without the interface lagging and then ultimately just closing out of the whole app. Small inconvenience but incredibly annoying when it's literally every time.
Crashes daily
The most buggy app on the platform. Crashes EVERY SINGLE DAY on my iPhone14 regardless of updates
Offline usage impossible
The app will log you out when you need it the most. I love wondery’s podcasts and have listened for years. I joined Wondery plus to enjoy them add free. Went out for a 6 day backpacking trip and opened the app to download podcasts the morning of. That same afternoon when I was in the woods and outside of service, I was asked to log in… meaning I couldn’t download those dozens of podcasts for my entire trip…
The cherry on top was that this sequence repeated itself on a seperate 3 day trip… useless and infuriating.
The cherry on top was that this sequence repeated itself on a seperate 3 day trip… useless and infuriating.
Would give less than one star if I could.
LOVE your actual podcasts but would give this app less than one star if I could.
Terrible App
This app is so terrible it’s borderline unusable.
Crashes 80% of the time
Genuinely this is the worst app I’ve ever used. I think Amazon has completely abandoned maintaining it. It crashes 4/5 times I open it and it’s a terrible UX. Honestly impressively bad for a company with so many resources.
APP SUCKS
It crashes AT LEAST 3 times every single time I open the freakin app. TRASH
Don’t subscribe: Waste of money!
App is incredibly laggy and crashes so much that it has become unusable. Podcasts that I listen to keep getting removed. At this point I have no reason to keep my membership, especially since Wondery support continues to ignore these issues.
App crashes constantly
Pay for premium for two years now. Updated don’t change anything. App crashes 2-4 times before I get it to work every single time.
Keeps Crashing
I love the offerings on this app, but it seems to be quite buggy for me. There are times I have to open it up 4 or 5 times to get it to work. And getting more episodes to load on the show page takes who knows how many clicks on “load more”. I’ve only stuck around to listen to my podcast ad free, haven’t been pleased with the app. If there’s something I need to do differently I’m all ears.
Quitter
It’s rare that I am able to open up the app in one shot. It always quits and then have to reopen.
Keeps crashing!!!
I've been using Wondery for podcasts for a couple years. Recently, however, the app keeps crashing! I will have to cancel my subscription if this is not resolved... :(
So glitchy!!
I signed up for Wondery Plus because I’m an Armcherry, I’ve enjoyed some of the other content on the app as well as the kids programming. That being said, the actual app itself is absolutely terrible!! It crashes 3 to 4 times before I can finally get it to play correctly that many days I just don’t even bother because it’s not worth the consternation. Please fix the app!!
Worst App I’ve Ever Used
It’s such a shame because I love Redhanded and I love Morbid (which just left the platform), but truly this is the most poorly working app I’ve ever used. I have to open it 5 - 10 times before it’ll actually play content w/o crashing out. It’s like preparing for a mental battle every time I open the app. Before it made sense to pay for the annual subscription because I could listen to my two favorite podcasts early & as free. But now that it’s just Redhanded and the app has progressively gotten worse I canceled my annual subscription. I don’t understand how a technology-based company can’t get a better software engineering team…
Love the app but it crashes my phone!
Love the app, but it crashes my iPhone literally every time I open the app. I’m talking it makes it freeze, reboot itself, get a million degrees hot. It’s normally a 3-5 minute process to get the stupid app open. Can you fix this bug??? Really don’t want to cancel my subscription.
TONS OF ADS!
I downloaded this app bc I was told on one of my favorite podcasts I listened to on the regular that there would be no ads on Wonderly. NOT true! Just save $$ and listen to your podcasts on the streaming devices you already have.
Love the content, hate the app.
Hate the fact that it take 5-7 times to open the app without it closing on its own.
They’ve lost all their talent and the app force closes 30x a day
This was my favorite podcast app for the last 5+ years. In 2025 they made huge changes and moved some talent to audible and even more they just dropped. They dropped huge draws and there’s just hardly anything left on their platform. On top of that this app has been foreclosing 30x a day for the past few months. No, it doesn’t need to be update I checked. Every time I open it, it force closes a good 10 times before I can get anything to load. Then it will continue to close while using it. It’s impossible to enjoy.
Would give 0 stars if count
Constantly crashing
Great…when it works.
For my first year using this app, was absolutely awesome. Used daily. But now it takes anywhere from 3-30 minutes to actually connect. I’ve given up on it, I’d rather listen to commercials on a free podcast app than spend my whole commute trying to access content on this worthless subscription app.
Constantly Crashes
Crashes a minimum of 3 times before anything will play. Most frustrating app ever.
App doesn’t work offline
The Wondery content is good but the app is garbage. You can’t listen to downloaded content offline. It automatically signs you out. I would subscribe through a different application.
App is more trouble than it’s worth.
The app is nice when it works. The problem is it rarely works properly. The app struggles to open or glitches out when selecting a podcast. I find myself constantly resetting the app. I will not be renewing this subscription and will go back to Spotify which has a greater selection and actually works like it’s supposed to.
Horrible UX
Wondery is easily the most atrocious app I have ever used. It is unreliable, glitchy and overpriced. I pay $50+ a month for Wondery Plus, only to be able to use this app 1/4 of the time.
Something changed
Don’t waste your money… daily it makes me close and open it twice to play. It doesn’t remember where you are in an episode. Save your money and skip ads or pay for your faves directly.
Unable to cancel subscription
Subscribed a few months ago, now I wish to terminate my subscription and have been unable to. They keep taking money from my account, but my subscription can’t be canceled anywhere on the app nor is it listed under my Apple subscriptions. Every attempt to reach to support about this is returned with an auto-email that is not helpful WHATSOEVER. Money has been taken from my account for months while I try to solve this. WONDERY WILL SCAM YOU.
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Sentiment summary
93%
Positive (4-5★)
2%
Neutral (3★)
5%
Negative (1-2★)