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4.7 star rating
0
Audio
iOS
Apps
Podcasts
What are the best podcast apps for iOS?
21
Options
Considered
233
User
Recs.
Jan 9, 2024
Last
Updated
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18
Options
Considered
Best podcast apps for iOS
Price
Platforms
Playback Speed
64
Pocket Casts
$5.99
Android >5.0, iOS, Windows Phone, Web Player
Yes
63
Overcast
Free or $9.99/year
Web
Yes
52
Downcast
$2.99
macOS
Yes
--
Podurama
FREE
Web, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android
0.5x-2.5x
--
iCatcher!
$2.99
-
-
See Full List
64
Pocket Casts
My Rec
ommendation
for
Pocket Casts
My Recommendation for
Pocket Casts
All
17
Experiences
3
Pros
10
Cons
3
Specs
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
Con
•••
Cannot create custom playlists
You can not add specific podcast episodes to create a custom playlist. While you can set up "filters" to create a playlist, if you're trying to follow a thread of specific podcast episodes, you can't set that up.
See More
ProductiveTawhaki's Experience
very expensive (40/year subscription)
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Android >5.0, iOS, Windows Phone, Web Player
Playback Speed:
Yes
Chapters:
Yes
Smart Speed:
Yes
See All Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Quick access to Sleep Timer
The most pleasing User Experience (UX) to set a Sleep Timer. Activating the sleep timer will stop the podcast after a set period of time or at the End of the Episode.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Skip episode often does not work with CarPlay
The Skip Episode feature, to automatically mark an episode as listened to and finshed, often does not work in CarPlay mode. Instead, you have to push the "skip forward" button a lot. Good luck having a long enough stoplight for that!
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HonestUlanji's Experience
Pocket Casts is easily my favorite Podcast app. It's extremely easy to make and adjust a playlist of new podcast episodes throughout the week.
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
Con
•••
Does not work with paid podcasts
See More
FlexibleBirdu's Experience
Easy organization of podcasts I listen to. I can also listen on iOS, android, PC and as a service on Sonos.
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
•••
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
•••
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
•••
Sonos integration
It is possible to connect Pocket Casts with Sonos, and play podcasts.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Global and per-podcast playback settings
Enables you to set a "global" playback speed to use for all podcasts which can be over-ridden by a podcast specific playback speed.
See More
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
Pro
•••
Can set custom skip-forward and back timing
You can set custom "skip forward" and "skip backward" timings for easily skipping past parts of podcasts you don't like.
See More
Hide
See All
$5.99
Recommend
36
7
63
Overcast
My Rec
ommendation
for
Overcast
My Recommendation for
Overcast
All
22
Experiences
1
Pros
13
Cons
7
Specs
Top
Con
•••
The ability to discover new or relevant podcasts ("Recommended for you") is practically useless
Similarly, the search feature seems to only look for podcast hosts or podcast names. You can't find all podcasts that has a specific guest.
See More
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
DebonairCalleis's Experience
Granular control over playback by podcast, easy search and add, terrific sound quality and time saving.
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Web
Playback Speed:
Yes
Free tier:
ads, no file uploads AND no app icons
Chapters:
Yes
See All Specs
Top
Con
•••
Very barebones webapp
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Voice Boost
Boosts and normalizes volume.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Unplayed episodes
Does not have the ability to show unplayed episodes for individual podcasts.
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
•••
Adds a subscription even after listening a single episode
It is not possible to pick a single Podcast Episode to download without having to subscribe to yet another Podcast feed (that shows up in your Subscriptions List).
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Feed redirection
Sometimes podcasts change their hosts/urls. Overcast will handle and remember this.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Can't set a subscription to NOT download any episodes
By subscribing to a podcast you have to set it to download at least one (most recent) episode. There is the setting to set the podcast to stream only, but would prefer to set to zero downloads and choose which episodes to download individually.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Easy playlists
Simple UI for making playlists of 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
•••
Podcast specific settings
Speed, voice boost, smart speed, notifications, download/stream new episodes.
See More
Top
Con
•••
No paged RSS feeds
this Podcatcher does not support reading longer RSS Feeds that are split into several pages (for faster access).
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Chapters navigation
Supports several Features for a great #UX to navigate Podcasts Episodes with chapter marks. Even shows a visual timeline for each chapter.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Timestamp sharing
Links to episodes can be combined with timestamps for easy sharing (links the timestamp to the web app).
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
•••
OPML import/export support
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Twitter integration
Recommendations within the app are surfaced to your followers.
See More
Hide
See All
Free or $9.99/year
Recommend
43
12
52
Downcast
My Rec
ommendation
for
Downcast
My Recommendation for
Downcast
All
22
Experiences
1
Pros
18
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Auto-downloads podcasts
Downcast can be set to automatically download new episodes of podcasts in the background.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Extremely buggy
Around mid-2015 Downcast implemented some code that started to leave infinite loop processes that have the potential to cause the phone to heat up, lag, crash Downcast, or crash other apps. The bugs have only continued to get worse. Go with Overcast or Pocket Casts, or even Podcatcher for the Downcast feel.
See More
CulturedKarkinos's Experience
It´s so simple and complete. I love it.
See More
Specs
Platforms:
macOS
Playback Speed:
Yes
Top
Pro
•••
Adjustable playback speed
You can change the playback speed to fit your needs up to 3x the speed.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Doesn't sync with iTunes
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Sync between iOS devices
Downcast can synchronize podcasts and settings across iOS devices through iCloud.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Accesses iTunes podcast library
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Supports password-protected feeds
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Gesture shortcuts
Downcast supports multi-touch gestures for navigating around.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Sleep timer
You can set Downcast to shut off podcasts after a set amount of time.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Adjustable skip interval
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Set the end time to be x seconds / minutes from the end time.
The ability to set the end time to be x seconds / minutes from the end is so excellent.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Set the start time to be x seconds / minutes from the start time.
The ability to set the start time to be x seconds / minutes from the start time is amazing.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Straightforward discovery system with feed support
This app helps users subscribe to podcasts through browsing top lists and categories as well as entering a feed or OPML address.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Simple to use UI
Downcast has a straightforward, intuitive user interface.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Mac App available
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Can stream episodes without downloading
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Can prioritize playlists
You can have Downcast prioritize your playlists automatically, allowing you to listen to podcasts in the order your prefer without you having to manually reorganize them.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Set how long you wish to keep your podcasts locally
Downcast can be set to automatically remove podcasts that have been on your device for a certain amount of time or take up a certain amount of space on your device. This can be done to groups of podcasts or on a per podcast basis.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
AirPlay support
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Prioritizes show notes
Selecting a podcast for playback will bring up shownotes, instead of the more common choice of album art.
See More
Hide
See All
$2.99
Recommend
26
9
--
Podurama
My Rec
ommendation
for
Podurama
My Recommendation for
Podurama
All
3
Pros
2
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Powerful and fully featured
Great UI, extremely quick to act of bug reports and recommendations, decent discovery and good playback controls. Great that there is free syncing, playlists, favourites etc for mobile, web and computer platforms.
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Web, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android
Playback Speed:
0.5x-2.5x
Free tier:
Yes
Playback Options:
Smart Resume, Strip Silence, Smart Auto Queue considers your show sort order, Auto skip played episodes, Sleep timer
Top
Pro
•••
Fully functional web app
Search over 500K podcasts and millions of episodes, create unlimited playlists, free data sync on cloud between unlimited devices, take notes for podcast episodes, sort favourite podcast episodes into tiers, keep track of listening patterns.
See More
Hide
See All
FREE
Recommend
14
--
iCatcher!
My Rec
ommendation
for
iCatcher!
My Recommendation for
iCatcher!
All
7
Pros
5
Cons
2
Top
Con
•••
No easy way to start playing a podcast from a podcast list with just one click
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Set trusted Wi-Fi networks to download from
See More
Top
Con
•••
Somewhat bland aesthetics
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Advanced custom playlists
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Multi-touch gesture support
You can set what gestures should perform what action from the settings.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Toggle art work on lock-screen
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Adjustable refresh time
See More
Hide
See All
$2.99
Recommend
7
4
--
SoundCloud
My Rec
ommendation
for
SoundCloud
My Recommendation for
SoundCloud
All
12
Pros
5
Cons
6
Specs
Top
Con
•••
Interface is for Music
Podcasts need a whole lot of different features.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Leave comments at specific times
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Web, Android, Desktop, Sonos, Windows Phone
Free tier:
Partial
Playlist Sharing:
Yes
User-Created Playlists:
Yes
See All Specs
Top
Con
•••
Annoying spoke ads
Without the expensive Go+ Subscription you have to listen to advertising for their paid subscription option. They are quite aggressive in placing those ads very frequently (as of Summer 2019).
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Pre-releases
Some music labels, especially newer ones, release on SoundCloud before anywhere else.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Bad for discovering new podcasts
See More
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
•••
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
•••
Not just for podcasts
In addition to podcasts, SoudCloud offers music, documentaries and audiobooks.
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
•••
Free
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
Hide
See All
Free or $9.99/mo
Recommend
2
7
--
Podcast Addict
My Rec
ommendation
for
Podcast Addict
My Recommendation for
Podcast Addict
All
9
Experiences
1
Pros
5
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Con
•••
Can not easily share a podcast
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
Yanis's Experience
Still my favorite anywhere !
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Chromecast
Free tier:
Ad-supported
Chapters:
Yes
Import/Export:
Import OPML
Top
Con
•••
Design is hum-drum and cluttered
The UI is a bit boring and cluttered when compared to PocketCasts.
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
•••
A lot of features
The app provides a lot of features, adjustments, and settings.
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
•••
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
Hide
See All
Get it
here
Recommend
2
4
--
Player FM
My Rec
ommendation
for
Player FM
My Recommendation for
Player FM
All
5
Pros
4
Cons
1
Top
Con
•••
Next played episode is wrong sometimes
On some podcasts when an episode ends the player "jumps" to the last episode or even to an entirely different podcast.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Cloud sync
Subscriptions and favorite topics sync across devices and the web.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Best online support
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Discovery
Can follow whole topics and search individual episodes.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Web player
Functional web app that shares settings with Android app.
See More
Hide
See All
free
Recommend
3
3
--
Podcasts
My Rec
ommendation
for
Podcasts
My Recommendation for
Podcasts
All
9
Pros
5
Cons
3
Specs
Top
Con
•••
Very slow searching through podcasts catalogs
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Comes pre-installed
See More
Specs
Platforms:
iOS
Playback Speed:
Yes
Chapters:
Yes
Smart Speed:
No
See All Specs
Top
Con
•••
Makes my iPhone hot when using with associated battery drain (iPhone 11 Pro)
Still not fixed in iOS 17. Finally have to give up on this app.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Sleep timer
See More
Top
Con
•••
Random shutdowns
A few people have issues with the app randomly deciding to shut down or not starting.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Free
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Can auto-download new episodes
You can set the app to automatically download new episodes. Additionally, you can set how many episodes should be stored locally.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Saves podcasts to the iTunes directory
See More
Hide
See All
Free
Recommend
4
6
--
Stitcher Radio
My Rec
ommendation
for
Stitcher Radio
My Recommendation for
Stitcher Radio
All
3
Pros
2
Cons
1
Top
Con
•••
Limited preferences
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Free
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Find similar podcasts through Smart Station
A feature called Smart Station will offer podcasts based on what you've previously listened to.
See More
Hide
See All
Free
Recommend
4
4
--
Spotify
My Rec
ommendation
for
Spotify
My Recommendation for
Spotify
All
5
Pros
2
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Con
•••
Awful for Podcasts
Lacking in so many ways it's shocking. Spotify is one of the worst things to happen to Podcasts; a complete lack of basic and advanced features. Worse, they are abusing market dominance as a music player to get more people using their app, including uncompetitive practices [in relation to Podcasting, not general business] (such as buying big studios/networks and making many shows exclusive to their player, worse, also buying exclusive rights to existing shows. Disgusting). I can't help but worry about how this will go once they feel they've achieved a sufficient number of captive listeners. By all means, let them continue making money by owning shows and collecting the ad revenue like other successful networks; but let us select our own players. People sacrificing all the good aspects of a strong podcast player for convenience are potentially harming Podcasting in the long run.
See More
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
Specs
Platforms:
Web; Android; iOS; Linux; Windows; MacOS
Playlist Sharing:
Yes
User-Created Playlists:
Yes
Offline download:
Yes
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
Hide
See All
Get it
here
Recommend
1
4
--
Pod Wrangler
My Rec
ommendation
for
Pod Wrangler
My Recommendation for
Pod Wrangler
All
3
Pros
2
Cons
1
Top
Con
•••
Free version limitations
Makes the app redundant for non-paying users. Even paid lacks a lot of features and quality from most players free option.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
A limited free version is available
The free version is limited to 5 podcast subscriptions and has occasional ads. Limits and ads can be removed with an upgrade.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Super-simple user interface
See More
Hide
See All
Free/$1.99
Recommend
1
1
--
Whooshkaa
My Rec
ommendation
for
Whooshkaa
My Recommendation for
Whooshkaa
Hide
Get it
here
Recommend
2
--
Castro Podcast Player
My Rec
ommendation
for
Castro Podcast Player
My Recommendation for
Castro Podcast Player
All
7
Pros
5
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
All of the standard features, elegantly deployed
See More
Top
Con
•••
Some seem to find its playlist vs inbox vs archive division counterintuitive
See More
Specs
Playback Speed:
Yes
Chapters:
Yes
Smart Speed:
Yes
Push Notifications:
Yes
See All Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Very nice playlist/triage features
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Arguably the most beautifully designed app in the category
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Drag and Drop functionality makes managing the playlist a breeze
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Mono audio settings
Allows per-podcast mono/stereo audio settings.
See More
Hide
See All
$4.99
Recommend
3
1
--
Subcast
My Rec
ommendation
for
Subcast
My Recommendation for
Subcast
Hide
Free
Recommend
3
--
Breaker
My Rec
ommendation
for
Breaker
My Recommendation for
Breaker
All
8
Experiences
1
Pros
4
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Con
•••
Only has one playlist
In newer versions, multiple playlists are possible for episodes and podcasts
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Skip Silence feature
Keeps podcasts moveling quickly without increasing speech speed.
See More
ReveredSerapis's Experience
Podcasts are in great quality. UX is clean and easy to use.
See More
Specs
Playback Speed:
Yes
Smart Speed:
Yes
Top
Con
•••
Wonky bluetooth support
Sometimes the player will randomly reset to an earlier timestamp when listening on bluetooth devices.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Great for discovering new podcasts
It's like a podcast app with social system. People can comment, like, etc. It's relatively new. It's based on social aspect. It can only get better after more people joining in.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
UX is clean and easy to use
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Absolute free, no ads
See More
Hide
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FREE
Recommend
3
2
--
PodCruncher
My Rec
ommendation
for
PodCruncher
My Recommendation for
PodCruncher
All
3
Pros
3
Top
Pro
•••
Nice user interface
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Huge podcast selection
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Play offline
You can download the episodes and then play them when offline.
See More
Hide
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$2.99
Recommend
2
--
Podalong
My Rec
ommendation
for
Podalong
My Recommendation for
Podalong
All
1
Specs
Specs
Platforms:
Web Player, Android, iOS
Playback Speed:
0.5x - 2.0x
Free tier:
Yes
Push Notifications:
Yes
Hide
0
Recommend
1
Don't see your favorite option? Add it.
--
Instacast 4
My Rec
ommendation
for
Instacast 4
My Recommendation for
Instacast 4
Get it
here
Recommend
7
--
Castro
My Rec
ommendation
for
Castro
My Recommendation for
Castro
$3.99
Recommend
4
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