Readly UK Reviews 2,162

Two weeks in to using this new app and I absolutely hate it.
All my bookmarks should supposedly have been migrated, but out of the hundreds I’d saved there are only about a dozen. Whether this is because I had tagged most of them with meaningful names I don’t know, but they’re gone, and there is no way of me being able to find the articles I’d saved.
The app is really unintuitive, and goodness knows how people are supposed to navigate it.
Publications often take ages to load so you get odd pages missing, or even just half the magazine. Pages freeze when you’re reading so you can’t move on to the next page or exit the publication altogether.
In many cases the app is now little more than a PDF reader, so clicking on a url within a magazine no longer takes you to the web site - a feature I used often in the old version.
Do this company not understand that web apps are supposed to be designed with accessibility in mind?
With 30 odd years in IT development behind me, I can honestly say that if I or one of my team had released this utter rubbish we’d have deserved sacking. It wouldn’t even pass as a beta version.
How dare they try to sell it as an improvement?

Update 7/5/26:
No news on hte Saturday Guardian issue but having read some of the other recent reviews, I want to add some comments about other issues with the new version(s) of Readly.
In desperation I tried the smart phone and tablet apps - both are terrible - the articles appear to be listed in a random order, rather than by section eg business, sport etc, and there's no way of navigating through the list other than just scrolling. That is really annoying when you're looking for something specific.
So, back to the desktop PC / browser version - I have the same issue on Chrome and Firefox so I doubt it's a browser issue. I've noticed that the front page of whatever I want to read takes approximately 20 seconds to load - despite me having a fast fibre to the premises internet connection. And another thing, I reached page 43 of today's Guardian but when I clicked to the next double page after 41-42, it was all fuzzy so I had to reload the paper. I guess it happens once per document on average.
Update: 2/5/26
Still can't see anything beyond page 88 on Saturday's Guardian. The tabs at the bottom of the screen are all wrong - they don't relate o the content they suggest. I've been complaining about this for weeks and you say you'll bring it to the attention of your technical team. Please wake them up and DO something about it!
Post the Cafeyn takeover, the web version of Readly is a disaster. Navigation is clunky, can't find favourites but worst of all, some papers don't show all pages eg Saturday's edition of the Guardian only has the first 88 pages so over 100 pages are missing. Readly/Cafeyn provided really helpful advice - log out, delete cookies, log in. Didn't work.

I used to love readly and would have given it five stars but the new app takes a huge backwards step making it clunky and difficult to browse

Awful ''update'' , can't now use on Amazon tablet, all downloaded issues disappeared, user experience is just rubbish

Latest update...not impressed ..layout completely different. Hard to navigate...Will be cancelling. Shame as loved the previous app set up amd was a member for years

What a farce the new app is. Can't interactively use touch screen entry for puzzles any more in magazines and newspapers. Yet they even list puzzle and crossword publications which can't be used so what. S the point. If it isn't corrected soon I will be cancelling after several years as a customer!

I have been a happy Readly user for many years. Their service was great, everything worked well, and on the few occasions there were glitches, emails to Customer Support were also responded to within hours, always with positive resolution.

So it is so disappointing that they have burned up so much goodwill in the space of a couple of weeks - not only due to technical failures in the migration but in their refusal, almost two weeks later, to acknowledge any problem, never mind apologise formally to the user base.

I am one of the many people whose favourites and bookmarks, built up over many years, were lost in the migration. My experience was quoted in the article published last week in Press Gazette (easily found in a Google Search, TrustPilot does not allow links).

The article includes a quote from the owners claiming "97% of users successfully accessing the new app during migration." I suspect that figure refers to people who were able just to log in, and that the number of people who, like me, lost their favourites and bookmarks, is higher.

Either way, Cafeyn has refused to acknowledge the problem that has affected some users. Many of the (presumably AI-generated) responses from Readly below encourage users to get in touch with Support. I did that, on 16 April, sending screen shots to show the missing Favourites, and have not had a reply in the last 11 days. So much for taking users' problems seriously.

This was a superb app but the update has been a huge step back. Saved magazines have disappeared, navigation is next to impossible and the whole experience is now rubbish. Was this even tested?
EDIT: have cancelled my subscription. What a shame.

I was a big fan of Readly, but then came the merger and it’s all gone down hill. I sent a message to Readly via social media about this - no response - they don’t care. This new version is several steps backwards - I will not be continuing with my subscription.

Used to love readly but since it merged with cafeyn it's terrible.
Quality is awful. Its hard to navigate. I hate it.

The new app has taken something easy to use and useful to something impossible to navigate and dreadful.

The search function is now completely useless, failing to find information or names from within any publications. As this is the main reason I subscribe I will be cancelling.

I am genuinely at a loss at how they could have made this update any worse.

The new app is absolutely rubbish. It’s not user friendly & I’m seriously considering cancelling my subscription. I don’t see why it had to change especially as I can’t see any benefits. I can’t always read my favourites as they are released but was able to see which ones I’d read & would catch up when able, that is not possible now. Not being able to do the crosswords is a major issue for me.
Currently searching for an alternative app.

Since Cafeyn acquired Readly they have decided to make detrimental changes to the app. Now the app is barely functional. It loads content very slowly, despite me being on a fast connection. If this continues I will have to unsubscribe. The unsubscribe button has also been removed. You can do better.

Since the merger by Cafeyn the content is terrible and negotiating the site is atrocious . Also they think they have a god given right to stop you unsubscribing.

The new app is really bad - the previous version was intuative and did exactly what it needed to do. Now you can't even find your way round a magazine. I've Ben subscribed continuously since 2021 (and on and off before then) and have recomened Readly to many but that's completely changed now. I've tried to cancel but it seems you can't even do that now in the new app so I will be contacting my bank to cancel any future payments.

Cannot recomend this to anyone stay clear.

Absolutely dreadful. Forcing the new app on users is bad enough, but removing your ability to cancel your subscription is both cynical and dishonest. Thankfully I used Paypal recurring payments so I didn’t need to interact with this appalling company to cancel. I would urge all users who are unable to cancel to speak to their payment providers.
I really hope this company fails as a result of this, and I say that as a former long term subscriber.

Blocked from cancelling subscription. Promise if reimbursement but support dont reply.

Was a happy member for eight years. They got taken over and immediately discontinued Amazon fire support. Not happy, now cancelled

Absolutely terrible customer service. Since the new app I haven’t been able to fill in crosswords or sudoku. I contacted them over a week ago and no one seems capable to deal with my problem. So I decided to cancel but when I logged on and tried to cancel it said that I didn’t have a subscription. So I don’t know how that works? The old app was twenty times better and it worked fine. Very stressed with them.

The new app is a disaster I really was a satissfied customer but the new app is missing my favorite magazine. Awfull I think I will cancel my subscription