What are the best podcast apps for iOS?

Question

20

Options
Considered

155

User
Recs.

Apr 30, 2021

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

17 Options Considered

Best podcast apps for iOS	Price	Platforms	Playback Speed
87 Pocket Casts	$5.99	Android >5.0, iOS, Windows Phone, Web Player	Yes
85 Overcast	Free or $9.99/year	Web	Yes
66 Downcast	$2.99	macOS	Yes
-- iCatcher!	$2.99	-	-
-- Player FM	free	-	-

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score 29 · Answer 1

Pocket Casts

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

Specs

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

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 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! See More

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

Does not work with paid podcasts

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sonos integration

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

See All

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score 37 · Answer 2

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

Unplayed episodes

Does not have the ability to show unplayed episodes for individual 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

Top Pro

Voice Boost

Boosts and normalizes volume. See More

Top Con

Very barebones webapp

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

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

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

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

Podcast specific settings

Speed, voice boost, smart speed, notifications, download/stream new episodes. 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

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

Top Pro

Twitter integration

Recommendations within the app are surfaced to your followers. See More

See All

score 24 · Answer 3

Downcast

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

Top Pro

Sleep timer

You can set Downcast to shut off podcasts after a set amount of time. See More

Top Pro

Sync between iOS devices

Downcast can synchronize podcasts and settings across iOS devices through iCloud. See More

Top Pro

Adjustable skip interval

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

Top Pro

Can stream episodes without downloading

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

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

Top Pro

Supports password-protected feeds

Top Pro

Gesture shortcuts

Downcast supports multi-touch gestures for navigating around. See More

Top Pro

Accesses iTunes podcast library

See All

score 6 · Answer 4

iCatcher!

Top Con

No easy way to start playing a podcast from a podcast list with just one click

Top Pro

Set trusted Wi-Fi networks to download from

Top Con

Somewhat bland aesthetics

Top Pro

Advanced custom playlists

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

Top Pro

Adjustable refresh time

See All

score 3 · Answer 5

Player FM

Top Pro

Best online support

Top Pro

Cloud sync

Subscriptions and favorite topics sync across devices and the web. 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

See All

score 1 · Answer 6

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

Specs

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

Playlist Sharing:Yes

User-Created Playlists:Yes

Offline download:Yes

Top Pro

Has a free version

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

See All

score 2 · Answer 7

SoundCloud

Top Pro

Leave comments at specific times

Top Con

Interface is for Music

Podcasts need a whole lot of different features. See More

Specs

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

Free tier:Partial

Playlist Sharing:Yes

User-Created Playlists:Yes

See All Specs

Top Pro

Pre-releases

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

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

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

Bad for discovering new podcasts

Top Pro

Free

See All

score 2 · Answer 8

Podcast Addict

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 Con

Can not easily share a podcast

Yanis's Experience

Still my favorite anywhere ! See More

Specs

Platforms:Chromecast

Chapters:Yes

Free tier:Ad-supported

Import/Export:Import OPML

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 Con

Design is hum-drum and cluttered

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

See All

score 4 · Answer 9

Podcasts

Top Con

Random shutdowns

A few people have issues with the app randomly deciding to shut down or not starting. See More

Top Pro

Comes pre-installed

Specs

Top Con

Very slow searching through podcasts catalogs

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

Sleep timer

Top Pro

Free

Top Pro

Saves podcasts to the iTunes directory

See All

score 4 · Answer 10

Stitcher Radio

Top Con

Limited preferences

Top Pro

Free

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

See All

score 1 · Answer 11

Pod Wrangler

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

score 2 · Answer 12

Whooshkaa

Add Video or Image

score 2 · Answer 13

PodCruncher

Top Pro

Nice user interface

Top Pro

Huge podcast selection

Top Pro

Play offline

You can download the episodes and then play them when offline. See More

See All

score 3 · Answer 14

Breaker

Top Pro

Skip Silence feature

Keeps podcasts moveling quickly without increasing speech speed. See More

Top Con

Wonky bluetooth support

Sometimes the player will randomly reset to an earlier timestamp when listening on bluetooth devices. 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 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 Con

Only has one playlist

In newer versions, multiple playlists are possible for episodes and podcasts See More

Top Pro

UX is clean and easy to use

Top Pro

Absolute free, no ads

See All

score 3 · Answer 15

Subcast

Add Video or Image

score 2 · Answer 16

Castro Podcast Player

Top Pro

Very nice playlist/triage features

Top Con

Some seem to find its playlist vs inbox vs archive division counterintuitive

Specs

Push Notifications:Yes

See All Specs

Top Pro

All of the standard features, elegantly deployed

Top Pro

Drag and Drop functionality makes managing the playlist a breeze

Top Pro

Arguably the most beautifully designed app in the category

Top Pro

Mono audio settings

Allows per-podcast mono/stereo audio settings. See More

See All

score 1 · Answer 17

Podalong

Platforms:Web Player, Android, iOS

Playback Speed:0.5x - 2.0x

Free tier:Yes

Push Notifications:Yes

score 7 · Answer 18

17 Options Considered

My Recommendation for Pocket Casts

My Recommendation for Pocket Casts

Remembers playback speed & starting position

Cannot create custom playlists

Auto download specific podcasts

Skip episode often does not work with CarPlay

Quick access to Sleep Timer

Does not work with paid podcasts

Vibrant aesthetics

Automated playlist creation

Global and per-podcast playback settings

Can set custom skip-forward and back timing

Sync with iPhone, iPad, Android

Excellent, easy to use discovery system

Sonos integration

My Recommendation for Overcast

My Recommendation for Overcast

Smart Speed and Voice Boost

Unplayed episodes

Voice Boost

Very barebones webapp

Very good audio quality

Unable to sort by playtime

Feed redirection

Can't set a subscription to NOT download any episodes

Easy playlists

No paged RSS feeds

Podcast specific settings

Adds a subscription even after listening a single episode

Chapters navigation

Timestamp sharing

Good catalogue

Ability to add podcast from URL

Themes

OPML import/export support

Twitter integration

My Recommendation for Downcast

My Recommendation for Downcast

Auto-downloads podcasts

Extremely buggy

Adjustable playback speed

Doesn't sync with iTunes

Sleep timer

Sync between iOS devices

Adjustable skip interval

Set the end time to be x seconds / minutes from the end time.

Set the start time to be x seconds / minutes from the start time.

Straightforward discovery system with feed support

Simple to use UI

Mac App available

Can stream episodes without downloading

Can prioritize playlists

Set how long you wish to keep your podcasts locally

AirPlay support

Prioritizes show notes

Supports password-protected feeds

Gesture shortcuts

Accesses iTunes podcast library

My Recommendation for iCatcher!

My Recommendation for iCatcher!

No easy way to start playing a podcast from a podcast list with just one click

Set trusted Wi-Fi networks to download from

Somewhat bland aesthetics

Advanced custom playlists

Multi-touch gesture support

Toggle art work on lock-screen

Adjustable refresh time

My Recommendation for Player FM

My Recommendation for Player FM

Best online support

Cloud sync

Discovery

Web player

My Recommendation for Spotify

My Recommendation for Spotify

Huge collection of music and fast access to newly released songs

Has a free version

My Recommendation for SoundCloud

My Recommendation for SoundCloud