14 best alternatives to BeyondPod as of 2018 - Slant

Podcast Addict

Top Pro

Free ad supported version available

For those that would like to try out the app or don't mind advertisements in their apps there is a free version available for download. See More

Top Con

Design is hum-drum and cluttered

The UI is a bit boring and cluttered when compared to PocketCasts. See More

Top Pro

Import OPML

For networks out there that offer an OPML for their entire list of shows, users can import that full list, making an easy way to get an entire networks listings. See More

Top Pro

A lot of features

The app provides a lot of features, adjustments, and settings. See More

Top Pro

Built in playlist shuffle feature

While not on by default users can go into the players settings to allow for a shuffle feature of all podcasts in the users playlist. See More

Top Pro

Chromecast support

Chromecast is supported for those that want to stream their podcasts to a Chromecast compliant device. See More

Top Pro

Automatically creates play queue

When you play an episode from the Downloaded list, it makes a queue of all episodes for continuous play. See More

Top Pro

Radio Streaming

Specs

Platforms:Chromecast

Free tier:Ad-supported

Import/Export:Import OPML

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14 0

CastBox

Top Pro

Wide coverage

This is a must-have podcast app if you're living in another country apart from the US. CastBox supports and shows podcasts from more than 70 countries. See More

Top Con

Very invasive Ads in free mode

They really degrades the eperience in the free mode. See More

Top Pro

Vast library of podcasts and audiobooks

Top Pro

Award Winning Interface

Optimized to help you hear what you want to hear See More

Top Pro

Pro Subscription available

Remove ads, "customize home page" feature, and more for total productivity. See More

Top Pro

"Trim Silence" feature

Skip the silence and listen more to words See More

Top Pro

Adjustable playback speed

Slow down until 0.50x and speed up as fast as 3x. See More

Top Pro

Weekly updates & improvements.

The developers try to keep the app updated from bugs and to make it a world-class app. With ever-growing features and improvements, it even competes with the best podcast apps out there. See More

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9 0

Pocket Casts

Top Pro

Automated playlist creation

Pocket Casts has a feature called Episode Filter, that allows automatically creating playlists based on setting such as playing states (unplayed, playing, played), status (downloaded, downloading, not downloaded), episode type (audio, video) and of course podcasts themselves. You can also customize the appearance of the playlist with a color and an icon to help it stand out easier. See More

Top Con

Doesn't sync with iTunes

Top Pro

Remembers playback speed & starting position

You can set a 'start from' position for a podcast to skip a set number of seconds from the beginning of an episode. Great for when you don't want to listen to an intro you've heard a couple of dozen times before. Additionally, you can also change the playback speed, to slow down fast talkers or speed up slow talkers. See More

Top Pro

Excellent, easy to use discovery system

Clicking the plus button in the top-right corner will bring you to featured podcasts. From there you can access multiple ways of finding new things to listen to such as: top charts (that can be separated in audio and video), search (that allows searching both by name and feed URL), a list of podcast networks and different podcast categories. They also have a great selection of podcasts to choose from. The team behind Pocket Casts work hard to maintain a reliable and high quality catalog so you can avoid out of date listings, problems with raw feeds, etc. See More

Top Pro

Vibrant aesthetics

Pocket Casts has one of the most colorful, pleasant to use interfaces. For example, the app takes the most prominent color from the album art and colorizes the rest of the playback interface based on that color. This allows the app to stay vibrant and slightly different for each podcast. Or the way it displays featured podcasts in a colorful mosaic made from album art, makes the whole experience of using the app pleasant. See More

Top Pro

Auto download specific podcasts

You can set Pocket Casts to automatically download the latest episode of a podcast, whenever a new episode is released. See More

Top Pro

Queue up next podcasts

From the playback screen swipe to the right to access your podcast playlist. From there you can easily queue up your next podcast. See More

Top Pro

Quick access to shownotes

When listening to a podcast you can swipe right to bring up all the shownotes with clickable links. See More

Top Pro

Sync with iPhone, iPad, Android

If you use Pocket Casts on more than one device, you can synchronize settings, playback positions, etc., across all your devices. See More

Top Pro

Sleep timer built in

Setting the sleep timer will stop the podcast after a set period of time. See More

Top Pro

Sonos integration

It is possible to connect Pocket Casts with Sonos, and play podcasts. See More

Specs

Platforms:Android >5.0, iOS, Windows Phone, Web Player

Playback Speed:Yes

Smart Speed:Yes

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57 3

Overcast

Top Pro

Smart Speed and Voice Boost

For listening to talk shows, Smart Speed allows you to skip silences and pauses. Voice Boost is very helpful when the speakers vary from really quiet to really loud - it balances the whole thing out. And you enable them during playback, so neither will mess up music podcasts. See More

Top Con

Unable to sort by playtime

It would be nice to have the ability to sort tracks like podcasts from the shortest to the longest. See More

Top Pro

Very good audio quality

It has the best sounding audio when sped up. It also has neat features like the "Voice Boost" setting being tuned for being played when the phone is set flat on a table. See More

Top Con

Very barebones webapp

Top Pro

Easy playlists

By far the easiest UI for making playlists of podcasts I've seen See More

Top Con

Unplayed episodes

Does not have the ability to show unplayed episodes for individual podcasts. See More

Top Pro

Voice Boost

Boosts and normalizes volume See More

Top Pro

Feed redirection

Sometimes podcasts change their hosts/urls. Overcast will handle and remember this. See More

Top Pro

Good catalogue

Pretty much the same as the other options, but nicer categories and list views See More

Top Pro

Ability to add podcast from URL

RSS or whatever else will work See More

Top Pro

Themes

Light, Dark (dark blue), Black See More

Top Pro

Podcast specific settings

speed, voice boost, smart speed, notifications, download/stream new episodes, See More

Top Pro

OPML import/export support

Top Pro

Twitter integration

Recommendations within the app are surfaced to your followers See More

Specs

Free tier:ads, no file uploads OR app icons

Push Notifications:Yes

Playlist Sharing:No

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29 3

TuneIn Radio

Top Pro

Free version available

TuneIn Radio offers a free version of it's app with limited functionality. See More

Top Con

Free version has in app purchases

Ranging from $0.99-$9.99 the free version includes in app purchases that unlock extra features for the app. See More

Top Pro

Does more than just podcasts

TuneIn Radio offers many different listening options inclusing AM/FM, Internet Radio and Podcasts. So while it does make a good podcast client, it also has more functionality than just a standard podcast player app. See More

2 0

Google Play Music

Top Pro

Free no advertisements

Google Play Music is a free service for storing and streaming ones library that has zero advertisements in the interface as well as the playing music. See More

Top Con

Confusing to use

Top Pro

Upload library through browser

Google has added the option of uploading songs through the browser with the help of a Chrome extension download as well as directly through the desktop Chrome app. See More

Top Con

Status bar not sensitive nor customizable

There is no way to go easily go back a specific amount of time (for example: Audible has a button that allows you to go back 30 seconds). The status bar could be more time specific. If you want to go back to a particular segment of listening, there is no way to know exactly where you will land. You have to do some kind of guessing and it is annoying. Lot of time wasted in searching in a blind manner. See More

Top Pro

Instant mixes

Google Play Music can make smart recommendations for playlist by the user just picking an artist or song they want recommendations formed from. See More

Top Con

Quality only as high as 320kbps MP3s

There is no option to listen to lossless music, even if that is what the user has uploaded. The highest quality is 320kbps MP3s. If a lossless track has been uploaded and the user then downloads the track at a later date the file will also only be a 320kbps MP3. See More

Top Pro

Also offers streaming service

GPM can be used as a normal music player but also as a streaming service like Spotify. See More

Top Con

No way to start the app in ones library

The app offers no way to actually start up in ones library, either in the desktop Chrome app or the Android app. For those that only use this app for listening to their purchased or uploaded music this is pretty annoying as there s no real need for the front page of recommendations and activity. This doe snot necessarily need to be some social platform but just a way to listen to ones music, really the user should have the choice, especially if they are paying for this service through purchased music or their streaming service. See More

Specs

Platforms:Web, iOS, Android, Wear OS

Paid Plan Audio Quality:320 kbps AAC

Offline Download:Yes

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131 18

SoundCloud

Top Pro

Subscribe to artists

You can subscribe to artists to be notified the instant they upload a new song or give an update. See More

Top Con

Interface is full of bugs

The SoundCloud website has tons of problems, including issues with notifications, favorites, and uploading sounds. See More

Top Pro

Recommendations

Links to related music, based on what you're listening to, can be found in the sidebar. See More

Top Con

Audio ads in some uploaded content

Some content on SoundCloud includes audio ads, particularly sponsored podcasts. (Note that SoundCloud itself doesn't add these - all the audio you're hearing is exactly as it was uploaded.) See More

Top Pro

Follow people

You can follow people with similar tastes or that often find new music. When they favorite a song, SoundCloud will notify you about it. See More

Top Con

Can't do an advanced search

You can't search, for example, for Creative Commons music with the tag #trap. It could be useful to search for music you like that is under Creative Commons. See More

Top Pro

Explore tab has new music constantly

Explore tab on SoundCloud shows trending music that can be filtered based on genre/tag. There's a constant stream of new music. See More

Top Pro

Free to use

You don't even have to log in or sign up for an account if you don't want to. There are paid options for if you want to upload large quantities of audio (eg if you're a music label you'll need this), but it's free to download as much and as often as you like. See More

Top Pro

Pre-releases

Some music labels, especially newer ones, release on SoundCloud before anywhere else. See More

Top Pro

Creative Commons filter

SoundCloud allows for finding music that is licensed under Creative Commons. See More

Specs

Platforms:Web, Android, Desktop, Sonos, Windows Phone

Free tier:Partial

Paid Plan Audio Quality:Good

Offline Download:Premium (partial)

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59 13

Spotify

Top Pro

Huge collection of music and fast access to newly released songs

Spotify has over 20 million songs and arguably the largest collection out of its competitors and usually has the fastest access to new music. The Spotify desktop client allows local music files to be imported with the option of syncing with a mobile device which largely mitigates the issue of missing artists. See More

Top Con

Free account have lots of ads

If you hate commercials, you would buy Premium or go on using something else. See More

Top Pro

Curated playlists

Public playlists on Spotify created by other people are great for finding new music. See More

Top Con

Discovery is terrible

The discovery algorithm is poor and does not learn fast enough. Not obvious how to train it. See More

Top Pro

Has a free version

A free, ad-supported account allows streaming from an extensive library of music. See More

Top Con

Poor audio quality

There's a high range of bitrates and most of vary from average to bad. See More

Top Pro

Related artists

Top Pro

Client's functionality can be extended via third-party apps

Spotify desktop client allows for third-party apps. They extend the functionality of Spotify and many of them offer new ways of discovering music. Noteworthy apps include Moodagent, Last.fm, Swarm.fm, ShareMyPlaylists, The Hype Machine, We Are Hunted, Shuffler.fm. See More

Top Pro

Weekly Discover playlist uses a great algorithm

A playlist generated by Spotify based on your listening habits and released every Monday. The algorithm used by this playlist is great and stands out from its competitors. See More

Specs

Platforms:Web; Android; iOS; Linux; Windows; MacOS

Paid Plan Audio Quality:320 kbps Ogg Vorbis

Algorithmic Radio:Yes

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221 47

Elmedia Player

Top Pro

Plays almost any video file

Elmedia Player is a free media player for Mac that supports various audio and video formats, including FLV, SWF, MP4, AVI, MOV, MP4, DAT, MP3, etc. See More

Top Pro

Play online videos online without ads

You can open an online video with a URL and play it without Ads (like it usually happens on YouTube). See More

Top Pro

Handy Open URL option

Open URL option allows watching YouTube videos without ads. See More

Top Pro

Built-in web browser

The app features built-in web browser that allows you to watch online videos directly from the app, while Open URL enables you to do it without noisy ads. See More

Top Pro

Convenient video settings

You can use different settings to video like video and image layout adjustments. See More

Top Pro

Subtitles editing

Allows changing font, size, font color, border color, etc. Possibility to increase or decrease subtitles delay See More

Specs

License:Free/Pro

Embedded tracker:Yes

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46 16

iTunes

Top Pro

Can create a playlist based on rules

There is a feature included in iTunes called Smart Playlists that allows the user to create playlists based on criteria such as BPM, Genre, Artist, Album, Plays, Rating, etc. See More

Top Con

Album organization can be fragmented

Songs purchased from the same album at different times will be added as separate albums. See More

Top Pro

Can automatically create playlists based on a chosen song

There is a feature called Genius included in iTunes that allows the user to select a song and create a playlist based on that song. It will analyze the music library and choose songs similar in tone to the one chosen. See More

Top Con

Heavyweight

With each update, iTunes appears to get bigger and bigger, though adding little more value, especially for the user who just wants to listen to and organize music. See More

Top Pro

Syncs across devices

Synchronization of playback information, podcast subscriptions, and settings is possible in iTunes. It can also automatically download purchases made on other devices. See More

Top Con

Buggy iTunes app

Immediately after the worldwide launch of Apple Music, a new version of iTunes was released (12.2). Many users have reported issues with this release, such as music lists getting mixed up, music having wrong metadata, etc. See More

Top Pro

Airplay support

Streaming audio to all Airplay enabled devices within WiFi range is permitted by iTunes. It's also possible to select more than one device to play a song at the same time. See More

Top Con

Duplicates media files

Top Pro

Can auto-import CDs

The user can set up iTunes in such a way that media (from CDs) can be automatically imported once a CD is inserted. This also comes with customizable import settings (bitrate, codec). Additionally, iTunes can automatically fetch track names from the Internet. See More

Top Con

Authorization limit

Top Pro

Built-in parental controls

iTunes parental controls can be used to deny access to certain parts of iTunes such as podcasts, internet radio, store, or shared libraries, as well as restricting access to media that has a certain rating or warnings. See More

Top Con

Unfortunately required to fully manage iPods

Top Pro

Can autopull information about songs

Track names and album artwork can be automatically obtained by iTunes. See More

Top Pro

Sleek interface

The interface of iTunes presents a flat, clean design with playback controls at the top-left, search at the top-right, and a row of ways to categorize available media beneath that. It can also be minimized to take up much less space. The minimized interface is called the Mini Player and it can be set to display on top of all other windows. It's possible to show iTunes on top of all other windows when playing movies as well. See More

Top Pro

iTunes store has a huge selection of media

The iTunes store offers a huge catalog of videos, songs, and podcasts. See More

Top Pro

Advanced podcast management

Top Pro

iCloud integration

Top Pro

Internet radio

A music streaming service called Radio is available in iTunes. It creates stations based on chosen genres, songs, or artists and requires Apple ID for access. See More

Top Pro

Ability to add RSS feeds

The ability to add RSS feeds in iTunes keeps the user informed of the latest web content. See More

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51 37

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