Pocket Casts vs Podverse

Pocket Casts is a podcast listening and discovery service from Pocket Casts, a maker founded in 2010. Listeners can search for shows, play episodes and browse recommendations curated by experts. The service supports offline downloads, video podcasts, episode transcripts, private feeds and cross-device sync. It is available on Android, iOS, macOS, web and Windows, as well as Apple TV, Apple Watch, Wear OS, CarPlay, Android Auto, Android Automotive, Sonos, Alexa and Chromecast. The free plan includes podcast listening and discovery with web and desktop access; no limits for the free offering are specified. Pocket Casts Plus adds folders, Up Next Shuffle, bookmarks, wearable apps, themes and icons. For new subscribers, Plus costs USD 3.99 per month or USD 39.99 per year. Taxes and fees may apply based on location. Support is available through the help center, forums and direct contact.

Podverse is an open-source podcast manager for the web, iOS, Android, and F-Droid. It supports audio and video podcasts, livestream playback, offline downloads, private feeds, and custom RSS feeds, with OPML import and export. Podcasting 2.0 features include chapters, cross-app comments, and episode transcripts, while Value-for-Value listening supports Boostagrams. Apple CarPlay is available in Free and Premium. Free costs nothing and includes podcast subscriptions, video and livestream playback, CarPlay, Podcasting 2.0 features, and screen-reader accessibility. Premium costs $18 a year after three months free and adds cross-device sync, notifications, clips, playlists, listener-profile subscriptions, and episode history. Podverse software is provided under the AGPLv3 license. The project states official support for iOS 14–16 and Android 11–13. Podcast audio and video load from podcasters’ public servers rather than being hosted by Podverse. Clips can be any length, but dynamic ads may make their timestamps inaccurate.