Add to Chrome
Add to Edge
Add to Firefox
Add to Opera
Add to Brave
Add to SafariWhen comparing Spotify vs BeyondPod, the Slant community recommends Spotify for most people. In the question“What are the best software tools for listening to podcasts?” Spotify is ranked 3rd while BeyondPod is ranked 7th. The most important reason people chose Spotify is:
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.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
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.
Pro Related artists
Helps to find new authors based on your previous picks
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.
Pro Curated playlists
Public playlists on Spotify created by other people are great for finding new music.
Pro Has a free version
A free, ad-supported account allows streaming from an extensive library of music.
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.
Pro Smart Playlists
BeyondPod has the ability to create playlists based on usage, making for an easy way to group content of similar tastes.
Pro Playback speeds
You can change the speed of playback. (Paid)
Pro Per podcast settings
You can set each podcast to have different settings: Download settings, authentication, sort order, playback speed, volume boost and more.
Pro Easy to add podcasts
It's very easy to search through published podcasts or add a podcast feed by URL.
Pro Organize by category
You can create categories and add podcasts to them. This makes it easy to tap and play a specific genre, to have smart lists prioritize certain categories and keep yourself organized.
Pro Clean look
The app uses material design without a lot of clutter.
Pro Quick to play
Every screen lists downloaded podcasts, making it easy to tap and play. The rest of the download episodes, or episodes in the category you are in, are automatically queued. Other podcast apps will show you a list of podcasts for which there may be episodes downloaded, if you tap into them.
Pro Filter episodes
You can filter any episode view: audio, video, downloaded, unfinished, not played and favorites.
Pro Chromecast support
Users can cast their podcasts to Chromecast compliant devices easily with the built in Chromecast function of BeyondPod. This makes a great tool for those that don't want to have to use another app or service on their other devices as the podcasts can just be streamed to them from the users phone, where all their synced podcasts reside.
Cons
Con Free account have lots of ads
If you hate commercials, you would buy Premium or go on using something else.
Con Discovery is terrible
The discovery algorithm is poor and does not learn fast enough. Not obvious how to train it.
Con Poor audio quality
There's a high range of bitrates and most of vary from average to bad.
Con Slightly convoluted design
There is a left slide out menu, and right slide out play list, the play screen, and the default episode list screen. It's hard to exactly place yourself in the app because it's designed to easily let you jump from one place to another.
Con Buggy
Prone to long delays loading and starting playback, chromecast playback fails frequently and stays in the notification area even when stopped or dismissed.
Con Cannot play episodes with subscribing
To download a podcast or stream with regular controls you must be subscribed to the podcast. You can sample stream episode on the subscribe screen.
Con Features locked behind paywall
Users must purchase the full version to get Chromecast casting, changeable playback speeds as well as other features.
