How to see what users hate about a competitor's app
Your competitors' 1–3★ reviews are a free, public list of what their users would pay to get fixed. This guide shows how to read them systematically, and what we found when we classified 36,800 recent App Store reviews of 112 popular apps (16,363 of them, 44%, contained a complaint).
Get this for your app vs competitors – €29 or start with the free App Store check (top 3 complaint themes of any app in ~15 s).
1. Collect the right reviews
- Recent, not "most helpful". Apple's public reviews feed can be sorted by most recent; the last 1–2 months tell you about the current version, not what was fixed in 2022.
- More than one country. Pricing and localisation complaints differ a lot between storefronts. Pull at least the US plus your two biggest markets.
- All star ratings. 4★ reviews often contain the most precise feature requests ("great, but…").
- Note the app version of every review so you can see whether a problem started with a release.
2. Tag every complaint with one or more themes
We use 7 themes that cover almost every app: pricing / subscription, bugs, crashes / freezes, performance, UX / design, feature requests, and ads. A review can have several. Score each one for severity (0 = mild, 3 = "I'm deleting this").
3. Rank by reviews × severity, not by volume alone
Ten mild "dark mode please" reviews matter less than four "charged twice, no refund" ones. Multiply the number of reviews by the average severity and sort. The top 3 are your competitor's weak spots.
4. Turn weak spots into positioning
- If they lose on pricing: lead with a clear free tier or a one-time price, and say what paid users get.
- If they lose on bugs or crashes: talk about stability and fast fixes; show your release notes.
- If they lose on ads: an ad-free tier or fewer interruptions is a selling point on its own.
- If they lose on feature requests: those reviews are a roadmap. Ship the most-requested one and tell those users.
What 36,800 reviews of 112 apps show
Number one complaint theme per app, across the 112 App Store apps we have published reports for (recent reviews, up to 6 storefronts each):
| #1 theme | Apps | Share of apps |
|---|---|---|
| Bugs | 62 | 55% |
| Pricing / subscription | 39 | 35% |
| Feature requests | 5 | 4% |
| Ads | 3 | 3% |
| UX / design | 3 | 3% |
By category
Complaint rate = share of analysed reviews that contained a complaint. Categories with at least 3 apps.
| Category | Apps | Complaint rate | Most common #1 theme | Most complained about |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Social | 9 | 37% | Bugs (8 of 9) | Pinterest, Discord, Instagram |
| Streaming | 8 | 62% | Bugs (4 of 8) | Hulu, Disney+, Prime Video |
| Shopping | 6 | 28% | Pricing / subscription (3 of 6) | Amazon Shopping, Walmart, Temu |
| AI assistant | 6 | 39% | Bugs (4 of 6) | Character AI, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity |
| Food delivery | 6 | 50% | Pricing / subscription (6 of 6) | Uber Eats, Grubhub, DoorDash |
| Travel | 5 | 42% | Pricing / subscription (3 of 5) | Fly Delta, Airbnb, Expedia |
| Banking | 5 | 33% | Bugs (4 of 5) | Bank of America, Capital One, Chase |
| Fitness | 5 | 63% | Bugs (5 of 5) | Fitbit, Planet Fitness, Strava |
| Productivity | 4 | 43% | Bugs (3 of 4) | Fantastical, Notion, Todoist |
| Photography | 4 | 52% | Pricing / subscription (3 of 4) | VSCO, Halide, Lightroom |
| Music | 3 | 36% | Bugs (2 of 3) | YouTube Music, Spotify, Apple Music |
| Books | 3 | 35% | Bugs (2 of 3) | Blinkist, Amazon Kindle, Audible |
| Language learning | 3 | 33% | Feature requests (2 of 3) | Babbel, Duolingo, Busuu |
| Notes | 3 | 51% | Feature requests (1 of 3) | Evernote, Obsidian, Bear |
The 10 apps with the highest complaint rate
| App | Category | Reviews analysed | With a complaint | #1 theme |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hulu | Streaming | 300 | 91% | Bugs (56%) |
| Fitbit | Fitness | 300 | 88% | Bugs (73%) |
| McDonald's | Food ordering | 300 | 81% | Bugs (86%) |
| Disney+ | Streaming | 300 | 81% | Bugs (65%) |
| VSCO | Photography | 300 | 80% | Pricing / subscription (60%) |
| Headspace | Meditation | 500 | 80% | Pricing / subscription (56%) |
| PayPal | Payments | 300 | 79% | Bugs (50%) |
| Evernote | Notes | 300 | 77% | Pricing / subscription (71%) |
| Prime Video | Streaming | 300 | 77% | Ads (51%) |
| Afterpay | Other | 300 | 73% | Bugs (64%) |
Method: recent public App Store reviews (Apple's customer-reviews RSS), classified by AI into the 7 themes. Recent reviews skew negative compared with all-time star ratings, so use the numbers to compare apps, not as an absolute verdict. Each app has its own page with the full table and quotes: all app reports, side-by-side comparisons.
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Just your own app? Single-app report – €19.
Questions
How can I see what users dislike about a competitor's app?
Read its recent 1–3★ App Store reviews from several countries, tag each complaint with a theme (pricing, bugs, crashes, performance, UX, feature requests, ads), score severity, and rank themes by reviews × severity.
Is it allowed to analyse a competitor's App Store reviews?
App Store reviews are public. Reading and summarising them is normal market research; do not republish reviewer names or personal data.
What do users complain about most in apps?
Across 112 apps we analysed, the most common number-one theme was bugs (62 apps).