iOS Podcast Player App Comparison

🔔 Many features of Overcast have been removed in the latest release. Those changes are only partially documented here.

Please help keep this updated by leaving a comment or by editing this doc!

• Chapters and Notes
• Playback and Playlists
• File Formats, Devices, and Subscriptions
• Controls and Downloads
• Sync and Import / Export
• Other
• Acronyms
• Articles and Reviews

✅ = supported

🚫 = not supported

⚠️ = partial support

💲= paid feature

Chapters and Notes

	Chap. Mark	MP3 Chap. Mark	Choose Chaps.	Chap. Dura-tion	Chap. Start Time	Chap. End Time	Chap. Image	Notes for DL'd	Notes w/o DL
Overcast	✅	✅	🚫	✅	✅		✅	✅
Castro	✅💲	✅	✅💲	✅	🚫	🚫	✅	✅	✅
Downcast	✅	✅		✅	✅	🚫	✅	✅	✅
iCatcher!	✅	✅		✅	✅	🚫		✅	✅
Pocket Casts	✅	🚫	✅💲	✅	🚫	🚫	✅¹	✅	✅
Procast
Apple Podcasts	⚠️	🚫	🚫	🚫	🚫	🚫	✅	✅	🚫
RSSRadio	✅			🚫	✅	🚫	✅	✅	✅
Player FM
Breaker

1. Does not display image on lock screen.

Playback and Playlists

	Sleep Timer	Trim Silence	Play Speed	Vol. Boost	Book marks	Personal Playlist	Personal Smart Playlist	Predef. Smart Playlist
Overcast	✅	✅	✅	✅		⚠️	⚠️
Castro	✅	✅💲	✅	✅💲	✅💲	✅	✅	✅
Downcast	✅		✅	✅	🚫	✅	✅	✅
iCatcher!	✅		✅	🚫	✅	✅	✅	✅
Pocket Casts	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅💲	✅	✅	✅
Procast
Apple Podcasts	✅	🚫	✅	🚫	🚫	✅	⚠️	✅
RSSRadio	🚫		✅	✅	✅	✅	🚫	✅
Player FM					✅💲	✅💲
Breaker						✅

File Formats, Devices, and Subscriptions

	Air-Play	Car-Play	Siri Short-cuts	iPad	Land-scape	Push new eps.	Custom Sub. Sort	Alpha. Sub. Sort	Video
Overcast	⚠️	⚠️	🚫	✅	🚫	✅
Castro	✅		✅	🚫		✅	🚫	✅	🚫
Downcast	✅	✅	⚠️	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
iCatcher!	✅			✅	✅	🚫	✅	✅	✅
Pocket Casts	✅	✅	⚠️	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Procast
Apple Podcasts	✅	✅	⚠️	✅	🚫	🚫	✅	🚫	✅
RSSRadio	✅			✅	✅	✅	🚫	✅	✅
Player FM			🚫
Breaker

Controls and Downloads

	Air-Pod Cntrl.	Skip Intro	Skip Outro	Play DL'ing Ep.	Parallel DL's	Ep. stream	Pass. pro-tected	Auto. DL Opts	Disk Space Mgmt
Overcast	✅	⚠️	✅	🚫	✅	🚫	✅		🚫
Castro	✅	✅	🚫	✅	✅	✅		✅	✅
Downcast	✅	✅		✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	⚠️
iCatcher!	✅	✅		✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	⚠️
Pocket Casts	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	🚫	✅	✅
Procast
Apple Podcasts	✅			✅	✅	✅	🚫	✅	🚫
RSSRadio	✅	✅		🚫	✅	✅	✅	✅	🚫
Player FM						✅
Breaker

Sync and Import / Export

	Cross Device Sync	Sync Tech.	Import Music Lib.	OPML Export	OPML Import	Pod-cast Dir.	Paged Feed
Overcast				✅	🚫
Castro	🚫			✅	✅	✅
Downcast	✅	iCloud	✅	✅	✅	✅	🚫
iCatcher!	✅	iCloud		✅	✅	✅
Pocket Casts	✅	Prop.	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Procast
Apple Podcasts	✅	iCloud	✅	🚫	🚫	✅
RSSRadio	✅	iCloud	✅	✅	✅	✅
Player FM	✅💲
Breaker

Other

	Price	Multi-Plat	Tran-scripts	Clip Share	Per Podcast Settings	App subscription URI scheme	Wikidata ID
Overcast	$18 /yr	Web	🚫	✅	✅	overcast://x-callback-url/add?url=	Q20707973
Castro	$25 /yr	🚫		✅	✅	castro://subscribe/	Q100576609
Downcast					✅💲	downcast://
iCatcher!					✅	icatcher://
Pocket Casts	$40 /yr ¹	✅🚀		✅	✅	pktc://subscribe/feed-url-without-http
Procast
Apple Podcasts	🚫	Mac	✅	🚫	✅	pcast://	Q70058728
RSSRadio					✅	rssradio://
Player FM	$40 /yr
Breaker

1. 50% off first year

Acronyms

• Chap = Chapter
• Cntrl = Controls
• DL = Download
• Ep = Episode
• PL = Playlist
• Sub = Subscription

Articles and Reviews

• https://amplify.matchmaker.fm/what-is-the-best-podcast-app/
• https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-podcast-player-apps
• https://www.descript.com/blog/article/best-podcast-app
• https://www.lifewire.com/best-podcast-apps-ios-4169824
• This document started as a copy of Podlove's Matrix (now outdated).