In 2002, two years before the word "podcast" was coined, I stumbled across an iTunes station that sounded like an amateur talk radio show. A couple of friends got together each week, recorded an hour or more of their conversation, and posted it as The Great Radio Tiki Experiment. (The show is long gone, but archives of it are still available.) This obscure program was one of the earliest podcasts, and I was hooked.
Today. the podcast market is so overrun with content that the only practical way to find shows you love, organize episodes you want to hear, and listen to them is to download a dedicated podcast app.
Below are our favorite podcast players, along with some advice about how to pick the one that's going to best meet your listening needs.
Best for Sideloading on iPhone
Castro
If you use the free version, Castro is an average podcast app for iPhone. However, if you upgrade to Castro Plus, you get the Sideload feature, which lets you upload any content you want to play to the podcast player, such as audiobooks, talks from conferences, and anything else you want. The rest of Castro's features are average, including a button that trims dead air from your listening experience, a voice booster setting, the ability to customize settings for each show in your feed, and a dark mode. I don't recommend the free version of this app; if you're interested in a Plus account, you can try it for a week before paying.
Castro is available on the App Store for free, and Castro Plus costs $4.99 per month, $29.99 per year, or $49.99 per year for up to six family members. It's for Apple devices only.
Best No-Subscription App for Android Devices
DoggCatcher
If you want to listen to podcasts on Android and you want to pay only once, as opposed to paying a monthly subscription, DoggCatcher is your best bet. This app has standard features, such as variable playback speeds, offline playback, customizable playlists, and automatic deletion of episodes you've played from your device. But the real selling point is that it's a reliable podcast player app that doesn't require a subscription for any special upsells, ad-removal, and so forth. Some users have complained that the app hasn't been updated in several years, and a few features are buggy, but I didn't experience any issues in testing.
DoggCatcher costs just $2.99 and is available on Google Play for Android devices.
Downcast
Downcast (for iPhone)
Downcast is among the best podcast apps for iPhones and Macs. It also works with Apple Watches and CarPlay. You pay once for the app and own it forever with no subscription fees. It's easy to subscribe to podcasts on Downcast, whether you browse, search for them, or add them via a URL feed. Rich settings let you automatically start your favorite podcast a set number of seconds in or end them early, letting you bypass lengthy intros or closing ads. A list view contains shows that you've either subscribed to or downloaded, with details such as how many episodes are in your queue, when the most recent episode debuted, and an icon indicating if you are not subscribed to download the next release automatically. Downcast is an excellent choice if you're an Apple-only user and don't need a web console.
Downcast costs $2.99 for the iPhone version and $4.99 for macOS.
Best for Sharing Clips
Overcast
Overcast is for Apple devices only (iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, Apple Vision) with a few unique features, the standout one being clip sharing. With clip sharing, you can tell a fellow podcast lover about a show you love by sending them an audio or video clip from an episode, up to one minute long. I also like that you can create playlists of podcast shows so that each new episode appears in the list (called Smart Playlist), as well as playlists of specific episodes you want to hear. The free version contains ads and has a few feature limitations but no showstoppers.
Overcast is free, or $9.99 per year for Premium. It's available for Apple devices.
Best Free Android App
Podcast Addict
Many readers of this article have commented that they swear by Podcast Addict, a free podcast player app for Android. Being free and uncomplicated are its selling points. In testing, I found the interface to be cluttered and the features light. For example, you can create one active playlist but not multiple custom playlists that automatically repopulate daily. So if you want a Morning News playlist that repopulates every morning and a separate Dog Walk playlist, you can't do that in Podcast Addict, but you can in most other podcast player apps. That said, does Podcast Addict work and is it free to use? Yes. But compared with other Android apps, it's not the most sophisticated.
Podcast Addict is free, and the Premium version costs $0.99 per month or $9.99 per year. It's available in the Google Play store for Android.
Best Free Podcast App, All Platforms
Pocket Casts
One of the most loved podcast player apps, Pocket Casts, is free for Android and iOS. It's also available on Amazon Echo, Apple CarPlay, Apple Watch, Android Auto, and other platforms, some of which are restricted to Plus and Patron members (macOS, Windows, web player). This app has a tidy interface and great features. It's easy to see what's on your subscription list and which episodes you've started but still need to finish. It has 0.1 increments for increasing or decreasing the audio speed, so you can gently adjust the pace. Paying members get access to some platforms that are off-limits to free users, as well as cloud storage and exclusive app icons and themes.
Pocket Casts is free, and the Plus version costs $39.99 per year. The Patron subscription level costs $99.99 per year and adds more cloud storage (100GB, whereas Plus members get 20GB), early access to features, and a few other perks. It's available on Android, iOS, macOS, the web, and Windows.