- Starting price
- Free
- Free tier
- Yes
- Platforms
- Web · iPhone · iPad · Apple TV · Android · Android TV · Fire TV · Roku
- Developer
- The Christian Broadcasting Network, Inc.
- Launched
- 2012 app
- Updated
- Aug 2, 2026
The verdict
CBN News is a convenient free source for stories about Christians, Israel, religious liberty, Washington, and global ministry that general outlets may cover less consistently. Its evangelical and socially conservative perspective is a feature for its intended audience, not evidence of neutrality; the aging mobile build and surprisingly broad tracking and linked-data disclosures also deserve attention. Use it as one clearly identified viewpoint in a diverse news diet.
Try CBN News ↗Opens cbn.com
CBN News is the journalism and current-affairs arm of the Christian Broadcasting Network. Its app combines national and international headlines, original reporting, articles, photos, clips, full television programs, breaking notifications, special-event streams, and a free 24/7 live channel. Washington and Jerusalem are persistent reporting centers, with dedicated attention to U.S. politics, Israel, persecution, religious liberty, church life, entertainment, health, and stories of faith.
The app describes itself with the phrase “Balanced News, Christian View.” The second half is the more useful expectation. CBN is an evangelical Christian ministry, and current coverage often aligns with socially conservative priorities, strong support for Israel, religious-freedom advocacy, pro-life views, and concern about cultural secularization. That perspective can identify stories other newsrooms neglect, while also shaping headline selection, sources, framing, and which claims receive scrutiny.
Distinctive app features include “Pray the News,” which lets a reader register a prayer on an article and see a count; free full episodes of Faith Nation, Christian World News, Global Lane, Jerusalem Dateline, Newswatch, and Studio 5; adjustable type size; push alerts; search; multimedia stories; sharing; background updates; and calendar reminders for live events. No subscription or account fee blocks the journalism.
This is a researched review based on current CBN pages, policies, store disclosures, and live U.S. metadata as of August 2, 2026. We did not represent the app as personally tested. The iOS app has not visibly updated since March 2024 even though the news site changes continuously, so story freshness and software maintenance are separate questions. Rating counts also move in real time; the page and iTunes feed have recently differed by a few votes.
✓ The good
- Free reporting and live video - articles, shows, special events, and the 24/7 CBN News Channel carry no subscription wall
- Faith stories receive sustained attention - persecution, missions, churches, religious liberty, and global Christian communities are regular beats
- Washington and Jerusalem presence - dedicated reporting centers support two subjects central to the app’s audience
- Full current-affairs programs - Faith Nation, Christian World News, Global Lane, Jerusalem Dateline, Newswatch, and Studio 5 are available on demand
- Pray the News creates a distinct response - readers can move from consuming a difficult story to recording a prayer intention
- Practical reading controls - adjustable typeface, search, sharing, live-event reminders, background updating, and breaking alerts
- Available beyond phones - Apple TV and common streaming platforms make the continuous channel usable like television
✗ Watch out
- One strong ideological perspective - evangelical and socially conservative framing should not be confused with viewpoint-neutral reporting
- Broad Apple privacy disclosure - usage data may track users, and multiple categories may be linked to identity
- Store copy contradicts the privacy label - “no other personal data” is difficult to reconcile with linked location, contact, search, identifiers, usage, and sensitive information
- Aging iOS build - version 3.10.1 dates to March 2024, a long gap for an app handling live events, notifications, and changing platform requirements
- English-only Apple listing - the organization’s global reach is not reflected in the app interface metadata
- News can intensify rather than form - frequent political alerts and urgent framing require deliberate notification boundaries
Best for
- Evangelical readers seeking news through a Christian worldview
- People following Israel, religious liberty, and global persecution
- Viewers of CBN News programs and live television
- Readers who will compare claims with primary and varied sources
Avoid if
- You want one politically neutral source to cover everything
- You want minimal tracking and identity-linked analytics
- Frequent political alerts harm your attention or peace
- You need a recently updated or multilingual mobile app
What CBN News is
CBN News is a full Christian media newsroom rather than an automated devotional news digest. It publishes reported articles, commentary, television segments, interviews, video packages, breaking updates, and live coverage. Topic navigation currently includes U.S., Politics, World, Israel, Entertainment, Health, Shows, Podcasts, and Watch Live. The app condenses those products into a mobile feed and player.
It is also part of a ministry ecosystem. Prayer, evangelistic purpose, CBN programs, donor relationships, and Christian interpretation coexist with journalistic forms. A reader should evaluate an article by its sourcing and evidence, not accept or reject it merely because it appears on a ministry site. The app’s value is clearest when its viewpoint is explicit and its original reporting can be checked against documents and additional outlets.
Why Christians use a worldview-specific newsroom
Mainstream outlets may cover a Supreme Court dispute, overseas conflict, or humanitarian crisis without asking how it affects churches, missionaries, religious minorities, or Christian practice. CBN routinely centers those questions. Its Jerusalem presence and global ministry network can surface interviews and faith-community stories that a general assignment desk may not prioritize.
The same focus creates selection effects. A newsroom designed for an evangelical audience is more likely to choose conflicts, experts, and language that fit that audience’s concerns. The responsible response is not to demand a view from nowhere; it is to know the view, inspect the evidence, and pair it with sources that challenge its assumptions. CBN News is most valuable as specialized coverage, least valuable as a reader’s only account of politics and public health.
Breaking stories, Washington, Jerusalem, and faith-specific beats
The mobile feed delivers national and international stories with photos, embedded video, related coverage, and alerts. Washington reporting emphasizes U.S. policy, elections, courts, national security, and religious freedom. Jerusalem Dateline and other correspondents focus on Israel and the Middle East. Christian World News and global stories cover persecution, revival, missions, and church communities.
These beats provide genuine differentiation, but urgency needs calibration. A push alert is an editorial judgment about importance, not a command to interrupt work or prayer. Users should reserve notifications for breaking events they truly need, then read the full article and original documents before sharing a headline.
A free 24/7 channel and six recognizable shows
CBN News Channel streams continuously, and the app carries live events plus full episodes of Faith Nation, Christian World News, Global Lane, Jerusalem Dateline, Newswatch, and Studio 5. Video pages allow browsing related clips while watching. Apple TV support turns the service into a living-room channel rather than requiring phone casting.
Program format affects depth. A television panel or short package can introduce an issue but rarely exposes every document or methodological caveat. CBN’s article pages and source links should be the starting point for follow-up, especially on health, elections, law, war, and claims about another religious community.
Pray the News, live reminders, text controls, and sharing
Pray the News places a prayer action on selected stories and tracks how many readers have used it. The feature does not reveal prayer content; it functions as a counter and spiritual prompt. Other utilities include larger type, search, background refresh, breaking notifications, social and messaging shares, support contact, and calendar reminders for scheduled live events.
Prayer can resist passive outrage when it leads to compassion and action. It can also become a one-tap emotional release that ends engagement. The count is not a measure of truth, impact, or divine response. Readers should let prayer slow their reaction, verify the report, and consider material help where a story identifies real need.
Pricing
CBN News app and website
Free
Articles, videos, search, alerts, prayer interactions, live events, and the main news feed are available without a subscription charge.
CBN News Channel
Free
The 24/7 stream and full CBN news programs are available through the app, website, television platforms, and the broader CBN Family service.
Ministry support
Optional donations
Christian Broadcasting Network is donor-supported and may present giving opportunities across its ecosystem. A donation is not required to unlock the news app.
CBN News is free across articles, on-demand shows, alerts, live events, and the 24/7 channel. There is no premium reporting tier, trial timer, or cable authentication requirement.
The service sits within donor-supported CBN. Giving appeals or links may appear across programs and related properties, but donations do not purchase a separate news subscription. A user can read and watch without becoming a partner.
The non-monetary price is attention and data. A free breaking-news app can send frequent notifications, measure interactions, personalize content, and support organizational marketing. Apple’s current label confirms that CBN News has a much broader data relationship than the phrase “no other personal data” in its store description suggests.
Users who want the live news stream but fewer installed-app permissions can watch through a browser or CBN Family on a television device. That does not eliminate web analytics, but it may reduce another persistent mobile notification source.
Where CBN News falls behind
Privacy messaging is internally inconsistent. The description says “Privacy guaranteed” and “No other personal data relating to you is processed.” Apple says usage data may track users across other companies’ apps and sites. It also lists coarse location, name and email, customer-support content, search history, user and device identifiers, product interaction and advertising data, and sensitive information among data potentially linked to identity for marketing, analytics, personalization, or functionality. The store label is the safer expectation.
The mobile release cadence has stalled. Version 3.10.1 shipped March 20, 2024 to support iOS 17 calendar reminders and performance improvements. More than two years without a visible iOS update is a meaningful concern for security libraries, playback, notification behavior, accessibility, and compatibility even while server-delivered stories remain current.
Editorial range is bounded. CBN’s Christian perspective is usually evangelical and politically conservative rather than ecumenical. Catholic social teaching, Orthodox perspectives, mainline Protestant voices, and politically progressive Christians may appear as subjects but do not define the newsroom’s center of gravity.
Health coverage belongs under extra scrutiny. A ministry newsroom can report on medicine but is not a clinical authority. Readers should verify treatment, vaccine, nutrition, and public-health claims with licensed practitioners, primary studies, and relevant agencies before acting.
Accessibility is only partly visible. Adjustable type size is useful, but Apple says the developer has not declared supported accessibility features. The public listing does not guarantee captions, VoiceOver flows, or audio description across every article and video.
CBN News vs. WORLD News vs. Christianity Today vs. The Pour Over
CBN News is strongest in free television, breaking coverage, Israel, Washington, and a clear evangelical-conservative lens. WORLD News combines reported journalism and commentary from a Reformed evangelical framework, with subscriber-supported depth. Christianity Today covers the institutions, theology, people, and debates of global evangelicalism more like a magazine than a live channel. The Pour Over summarizes major mainstream stories in a concise newsletter and app with short Christian reflections.
Choose CBN for live video and stories explicitly selected for its audience. Choose WORLD for longer reported work and analysis, Christianity Today for church and evangelical-industry coverage, or The Pour Over for a lower-volume overview. For hard public facts, add a wire service, local reporting, official documents, and outlets with a substantially different editorial perspective.
The best news diet is deliberately redundant. If a claim matters enough to affect a vote, health choice, donation, or view of a group of people, one ministry app is not enough confirmation. CBN’s work can initiate the question without having to be the last word.
The bottom line
CBN News earns a place as a specialized free outlet: it consistently covers Christians, religious liberty, persecution, Israel, and ministry stories; provides a real 24/7 channel; and makes its evangelical viewpoint easy to recognize. It should not become an all-purpose truth filter. Disable nonessential alerts, compare important claims with primary and differing sources, treat health reporting cautiously, and read Apple’s broad privacy label instead of the app description’s narrow promise. For deeper print journalism compare WORLD; for church-industry coverage use Christianity Today; for a calmer digest try The Pour Over.
Alternatives to CBN News
WORLD NewsReported journalism and analysis from a Reformed evangelical perspective, with more subscriber-supported written depth and less live television.
Christianity TodayMagazine-style reporting and analysis focused on global evangelical churches, leaders, theology, institutions, and culture.
The Pour OverA concise, low-volume digest of major stories with brief Christian reflections for readers who want less continuous breaking news.
CBN FamilyThe broader free CBN streaming app combines the News Channel with family programs, Superbook, music, documentaries, and ministry video.
Not the BeeA conservative Christian news-and-commentary site built around viral stories and community reaction rather than a full broadcast newsroom.Frequently asked questions
Is the CBN News app free?
Yes. Articles, alerts, full shows, live events, and the 24/7 CBN News Channel are free. The Christian Broadcasting Network accepts optional donations, but there is no premium news subscription.
What political perspective does CBN News have?
CBN presents news through an evangelical Christian worldview and frequently reflects socially conservative priorities, strong interest in Israel, religious-liberty advocacy, and pro-life views. Readers should treat that as an identifiable editorial perspective rather than viewpoint neutrality.
What is Pray the News?
It is an article-level feature that lets a reader register a prayer and see a prayer count. The count is a participation prompt, not proof that an article is accurate or that an outcome will occur.
Which CBN News shows are in the app?
The store currently names Faith Nation, Christian World News, Global Lane, Jerusalem Dateline, Newswatch, and Studio 5, plus live events and the continuous CBN News Channel.
Does CBN News track users?
Apple says usage data may be used to track users across other companies’ apps and websites. It also lists several categories that may be linked to identity. This is broader than the app description’s claim that no other personal data is processed.
When was CBN News last updated?
The current iOS release is version 3.10.1 from March 20, 2024. News content can remain current through the server, but the more than two-year gap is relevant to software maintenance.
Should CBN News be my only news source?
No single outlet should. Use CBN for its specialized Christian, Washington, Israel, and global faith coverage, then verify important claims with primary documents, local or wire reporting, and outlets with different editorial assumptions.
Sources & further reading
More Christian News Websites
The Pour OverThe thrice-weekly Christian news email that summarizes major stories without picking a political team, then closes each one with a paragraph pointing readers back to Christ - and it has quietly become the default news source for a generation of Christians sick of tribal outrage.Christianity TodayChristianity Today has quietly become the closest thing global evangelicalism has to a paper of record - and the podcast network it built on top of it is doing more cultural work than the magazine itself.WORLD News GroupA 45-year-old Christian newsroom with a flagship daily podcast and a family-wide news ecosystem - and an editorial stance it states out loud rather than hides.
Religion News ServiceThe largest non-sectarian religion newswire in America, founded in 1934 and quietly cited by Reuters, AP, and The New York Times - and a different kind of resource than almost everything else on this site.
First ThingsThe intellectual heavyweight of religion-and-public-life journalism in America - ecumenical in contributors, conservative in editorial sensibility, and unembarrassed about taking ideas seriously.Not the BeeNot the Bee is The Babylon Bee's sister site running the opposite premise: real, sourced news picked because it reads like satire. Free with ads, $108 a year without them - and its own About page never once mentions Not the Bee.