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What are the best podcast apps for iOS?

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14 Options Considered

14 Options ConsideredPricePlayback SpeedSmart Speed
Pocket Casts
YesYes
Overcast
YesYes
Downcast
Yes–
Castro
––
SoundCloud
––
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Pocket Casts

Add Video or Image
Ryan
Britt
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...
Bryan
Andris Pelcbergs
Izem Lavrenti
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 podca...
Bryan
Izem Lavrenti
Ryan
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 w...
Ryan
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 customi...
Ryan
Britt
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.
Ryan
Britt
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.
Ryan
Britt
Top Pro

Quick access to shownotes

•••
When listening to a podcast you can swipe right to bring up all the shownotes with clickable links.
Ryan
Britt
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.
Ryan
Britt
Top Pro

Sleep timer built in

•••
Setting the sleep timer will stop the podcast after a set period of time.
DeliberateCicolluis
Top Pro

Sonos integration

•••
It is possible to connect Pocket Casts with Sonos, and play podcasts.
Izem Lavrenti
Top Con

Doesn't sync with iTunes

•••
See 9 more ProsSee 9 more Pros

Overcast

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Izem Lavrenti
Andrew
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.
Ray
Honesty_Gnat
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.
Andrew
Top Pro

Easy playlists

•••
By far the easiest UI for making playlists of podcasts I've seen
Honesty_Gnat
Martijn Engler
Top Pro

Voice Boost

•••
Boosts and normalizes volume
Andrew
Top Pro

Good catalogue

•••
Pretty much the same as the other options, but nicer categories and list views
Honesty_Gnat
Top Pro

Feed redirection

•••
Sometimes podcasts change their hosts/urls. Overcast will handle and remember this.
Honesty_Gnat
Top Pro

Ability to add podcast from URL

•••
RSS or whatever else will work
Honesty_Gnat
Top Pro

Themes

•••
Light, Dark (dark blue), Black
Honesty_Gnat
Top Pro

Podcast specific settings

•••
speed, voice boost, smart speed, notifications, download/stream new episodes,
Honesty_Gnat
Izem Lavrenti
Top Pro

OPML import/export support

•••
Honesty_Gnat
Top Pro

Twitter integration

•••
Recommendations within the app are surfaced to your followers
Honesty_Gnat
Top Con

Very barebones webapp

•••
Belle
Kmat
Top Con

Unplayed episodes

•••
Does not have the ability to show unplayed episodes for individual podcasts.
See 11 more Pros & ConsSee 11 more Pros & Cons

Downcast

Add Video or Image
Izem Lavrenti
Top Pro

Auto-downloads podcasts

•••
Downcast can be set to automatically download new episodes of podcasts in the background.
Taylor Coogan
Bryan
Izem Lavrenti
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.
Bryan
Izem Lavrenti
Top Pro

Simple to use UI

•••
Downcast has a straightforward, intuitive user interface.
Martijn Engler
Top Pro

Mac App available

•••
Bryan
Izem Lavrenti
Top Pro

Can stream episodes without downloading

•••
Bryan
Izem Lavrenti
Top Pro

Sync between iOS devices

•••
Downcast can synchronize podcasts and settings across iOS devices through iCloud.
Izem Lavrenti
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.
Bryan
Izem Lavrenti
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.
thermoplastics
Izem Lavrenti
Top Pro

Adjustable playback speed

•••
You can change the playback speed to fit your needs up to 3x the speed.
Izem Lavrenti
Top Pro

Sleep timer

•••
You can set Downcast to shut off podcasts after a set amount of time.
Izem Lavrenti
Top Pro

AirPlay support

•••
Izem Lavrenti
Top Pro

Adjustable skip interval

•••
Bryan
Izem Lavrenti
Ryan
Top Pro

Prioritizes show notes

•••
Selecting a podcast for playback will bring up shownotes, instead of the more common choice of album art.
Bryan
Izem Lavrenti
Top Pro

Supports password-protected feeds

•••
Izem Lavrenti
Top Pro

Gesture shortcuts

•••
Downcast supports multi-touch gestures for navigating around.
Izem Lavrenti
Top Pro

Accesses iTunes podcast library

•••
HonestAntiphates
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 Downc...
Izem Lavrenti
Top Con

Doesn't sync with iTunes

•••
See 16 more Pros & ConsSee 16 more Pros & Cons

Castro

Add Video or Image
Izem Lavrenti
Top Pro

Auto downloads podcasts

•••
Bryan
Izem Lavrenti
Top Pro

Beautiful, easy to use interface

•••
Castro has an intuitive, minimalistic interface.
Bryan
Top Pro

Sleep timer

•••
Bryan
Top Pro

Adjust playback speed

•••
Bryan
Top Con

Lacks categorization and charts

•••
See 3 more ProsSee 3 more Pros

SoundCloud

Add Video or Image
Bryan
Top Pro

Leave comments at specific times

•••
Bryan
Top Pro

Not just for podcasts

•••
In addition to podcasts, SoudCloud offers music, documentaries and audiobooks.
Bryan
Top Pro

Free

•••
Bryan
Top Con

Bad for discovering new podcasts

•••
See 2 more ProsSee 2 more Pros

iCatcher!

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Bryan
Top Pro

Advanced custom playlists

•••
Bryan
Top Pro

Set trusted Wi-Fi networks to download from

•••
Bryan
Top Pro

Multi-touch gesture support

•••
You can set what gestures should perform what action from the settings.
Bryan
Top Pro

Toggle art work on lock-screen

•••
Bryan
Top Pro

Adjustable refresh time

•••
Bryan
Top Con

Somewhat bland aesthetics

•••
See 4 more ProsSee 4 more Pros

Stitcher Radio

Add Video or Image
Bryan
Top Pro

Free

•••
Bryan
Top Pro

Find similar podcasts through Smart Station

•••
A feature called Smart Station will offer podcasts based on what you've previously listened to.
Bryan
Top Con

Limited preferences

•••
See 1 more ProSee 1 more Pro

Subcast

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Podcasts

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Bryan
Ryan
Top Pro

Comes pre-installed

•••
Bryan
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.
Ryan
Top Pro

Sleep timer

•••
Ryan
Top Pro

Free

•••
Izem Lavrenti
Top Pro

Saves podcasts to the iTunes directory

•••
Jennifer royals
Top Con

Very slow searching through podcasts catalogs

•••
Izem Lavrenti
Top Con

Random shutdowns

•••
A few people have issues with the app randomly deciding to shut down or not starting.
See 5 more Pros & ConsSee 5 more Pros & Cons

Breaker

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ReveredSerapis
Top Pro

UX is clean and easy to use

•••
Chloe Montanez
ReveredSerapis
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.
Chloe Montanez
ReveredSerapis
Top Pro

Absolute free, no ads

•••
Chloe Montanez
ReveredSerapis
Top Con

Only has one playlist

•••
See 2 more ProsSee 2 more Pros

Pod Wrangler

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Bryan
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.
Bryan
Top Pro

Super-simple user interface

•••
Know any negative aspects of this option?
See 1 more ProSee 1 more Pro

Castro 2

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Honesty_Gnat
Top Pro

Very nice playlist/triage features

•••
Know any negative aspects of this option?

Whooshkaa

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PodCruncher

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Endi Sukaj
WhiteLilac
CB
Top Pro

Nice user interface

•••
WhiteLilac
Top Pro

Huge podcast selection

•••
WhiteLilac
Top Pro

Play offline

•••
You can download the episodes and then play them when offline.
Know any negative aspects of this option?
See 2 more ProsSee 2 more Pros
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80 Community Recommendations

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+44
Request recommendations from the community
ReveredSerapis
ReveredSerapis
Contributor for 3 months
2
Total 
Recs.
80
Total 
Karma
Breaker
Recommended 3 months ago
Podcasts are in great quality. UX is clean and easy to use.
Pro
 Great for discovering new podcasts
Pro
 UX is clean and easy to use
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