Every "best podcast apps" list ranks the same things: feature count, exclusive content, audio polish. They all put **Spotify** near the top, because Spotify has a lot of shows and a lot of features. That's a fine ranking if you're trying to decide which app has the most buttons. It's the wrong ranking if you care about keeping your list. We read nine of those lists so you don't have to. We counted how often each app showed up and where each one landed. Then we re-ranked them by the three things we think actually matter for a reader: **portability** (can you export your subscriptions as OPML and walk away?), **ownership** (do you have to create an account just to press play?), and **day-to-day usability**. Spotify came in last. ## The consensus list Across the six sources that actually published ranked lists (two wouldn't load and one turned out to be a single-app homepage), six apps showed up on every list: **Spotify**, **Pocket Casts**, **Apple Podcasts**, **Overcast**, **Player FM**, and **Podcast Addict**. If you're picking from the overlap of every best-of list on the internet, those are your six. The averages: | App | Appearances (of 6) | Avg rank | | -------------- | ------------------ | -------- | | Spotify | 6 | 2.7 | | Pocket Casts | 6 | 3.3 | | Apple Podcasts | 6 | 5.3 | | Overcast | 5 | 5.6 | | Player FM | 4 | 5.0 | | Podcast Addict | 4 | 4.7 | | Castro | 3 | 2.3 | | AntennaPod | 3 | 10.0 | | Castbox | 3 | 9.0 | The second-tier apps (YouTube Music, Audible, Downcast, Goodpods, Podcast Guru, and a long tail of niche players) each showed up on only one or two lists. That's the input. Here's our output. ## Our ranking We scored each app on three criteria, each out of 5: 1. **Portability** — OPML import and export, or (failing OPML) a documented export path that produces something you can re-import elsewhere without a support ticket. 2. **Ownership** — can you use the app without creating an account? Does your listening data stay on your device or live exclusively on their server? Is the business model compatible with your long-term use, or is it betting on your eventual lock-in? 3. **UX** — daily-driver polish. Queue, playback, discovery, mobile ergonomics. Ties broken by whichever felt more honest. ### 1. AntennaPod — the gold standard **Portability 5 · Ownership 5 · UX 3** AntennaPod is open-source, entirely local (no account required), and handles OPML import and export as first-class operations. Your subscriptions live on your phone as a file you can back up and move. If AntennaPod shut down tomorrow, the last version on your device would keep working and your data would still be yours. The trade-off: Android-only, and the UI shows its roots — functional rather than delightful. If you're on Android and you care about the principles, this is the answer. ### 2. Pocket Casts **Portability 4 · Ownership 3 · UX 5** Cross-platform (iOS, Android, web, desktop), OPML import and export in settings, polished queue management. The reason it's not number one: you need an account to sync, and sync is where most of its value lives. But the OPML door is unlocked, and that's the part we care about most. Pocket Casts is the answer for most people most of the time — especially if you listen on more than one device. ### 3. Overcast **Portability 4 · Ownership 4 · UX 5** iOS-only, indie (built and run by one person, Marco Arment), OPML export is supported, and the listening features — Smart Speed, Voice Boost — are genuinely great. The small caveats: export is there but not as prominent as it could be, and sync requires an account (free). If you're on iOS and you want something considered, not committee-designed, this is it. ### 4. Podcast Addict **Portability 5 · Ownership 4 · UX 3** Free, Android, supports OPML in and out, works without an account. The interface is busy and the free version has ads, but it's honest about what it is. A good second choice after AntennaPod on Android if you want more features and don't mind the clutter. ### 5. Downcast **Portability 4 · Ownership 4 · UX 3** iOS. One-time purchase instead of a subscription, supports OPML import and export. An older app that has kept working. If you resent subscriptions on principle and live on iOS, Downcast is still here. ### 6. Player FM **Portability 4 · Ownership 3 · UX 4** Cross-platform, supports OPML, has a paid tier for multi-device sync. Competent and complete. Doesn't stand out in any one direction, doesn't disappoint either. ### 7. Castro **Portability 3 · Ownership 3 · UX 5** iOS-only, and the queue-centric UX is probably the best-designed in the category. The reason it isn't higher: Castro's future has been uncertain in the recent past (an acquisition scare that ultimately resolved), and OPML support is present but not front-and-center. We'd still recommend it for people who love the queue-first model — just keep an OPML export handy. ### 8. Fountain **Portability 3 · Ownership 4 · UX 3** Newer, leans into the Podcasting 2.0 standard (chapters, transcripts, value-4-value payments), and has built on the open podcast graph rather than around it. Worth watching. Not the daily driver we'd recommend to a general audience yet, but the ethos is right. ### 9. Castbox **Portability 2 · Ownership 2 · UX 4** Good interface, large catalog, cross-device sync — but the business model has historically leaned toward aggregation and recommendation, and the free tier caps subscriptions. Works. Not what we'd choose. ### 10. Apple Podcasts **Portability 2 · Ownership 3 · UX 4** Apple has made a lot of quiet improvements — transcripts, cleaner layouts, per-show subscriptions — and native integration is genuinely good on Apple devices. The catch: exporting your subscriptions from the iOS app is not a supported operation. You can sometimes get them out from the Mac desktop app, sometimes not. For a company that prides itself on being a good citizen of the open web for podcasts (and they do, compared to most of this list), the export story on mobile is worse than it should be. Perfectly fine. Just not somewhere we'd put our full list with no backup. ### 11. YouTube Music **Portability 2 · Ownership 2 · UX 3** Google Podcasts was shut down and folded into YouTube Music in 2024. That's the relevant data point. The service still works; the product category has been discontinued once already. You can get your data via Google Takeout, which is to Google's credit. You should not forget that you needed to. ### 12. Audible / Amazon Music **Portability 1 · Ownership 1 · UX 3** Amazon account required. No RSS. No OPML. Exclusive deals with specific shows. If Audible goes away or raises the price, you have no list to take with you because there was never a list — just a relationship with Amazon. ### 13. Spotify **Portability 1 · Ownership 1 · UX 4** Spotify has the most shows, the most features, and the most listeners. It also has: - No OPML export. At all. - Shows that are Spotify-exclusive — if the host moves, you have to follow them to wherever they re-host. - Spotify-hosted shows that don't ship a public RSS feed, meaning no one else can play them. The UX is good. The catalog is huge. The business model is the most explicit "this is not your list" on the market. Every podcast you follow on Spotify is a podcast you have to re-follow by hand somewhere else when you leave — if you can even find it outside Spotify. That's why it's last. ## The short version If you want the answer without the rationale: - **Android, principles first:** AntennaPod. - **Cross-platform, principles-ish:** Pocket Casts. - **iOS, considered:** Overcast. - **iOS, one-time payment:** Downcast. - **Works on your phone, you don't want to think about it:** Apple Podcasts, with a monthly OPML backup. - **Do not use as your only podcast app:** Spotify, YouTube Music, Audible. We're not saying Spotify is a bad audio app. We're saying it's a bad _list_. Use it for the music; find a real podcast app for the podcasts. ## A note on our bias feed.works is a reading tool that takes OPML seriously — you can import your subscription lists, merge them, diff them, and leave with them whenever you want. That shapes how we look at every tool in this category, podcast or otherwise. We think your subscription list is yours. If an app's answer to "can I take my list with me" is "no" or "sort of" or "not on mobile," we're going to call that out. If you think we're wrong about any of these rankings — especially the specific OPML claims, which move around as apps update — tell us. We'll fix it.