# Pocket Casts review, pricing and alternatives

Source: https://listme.name/software/pocket-casts
Website: https://pocketcasts.com/

Podcast app from Automattic for iOS, Android and the web

Pocket Casts is a free podcast app from Automattic for iOS, Android and the web, with search, curated recommendations and private RSS feeds added by URL. The app code is published on GitHub under MPL-2.0, and the apps offer in-app purchases.

Pocket Casts is a podcast player made by Automattic. It offers search, discovery tools and hand-curated recommendations, and it runs as apps for iPhone, iPad and Android, as well as in a web browser. Private, paid and members-only feeds can be added by pasting their RSS feed URL, and the support center describes this for network subscriptions such as NPR Plus.

The apps are free to download and offer in-app purchases. Automattic publishes the code of the Android and iOS apps on GitHub under the MPL-2.0 license; the service behind the apps is not described there. Pocket Casts suits listeners who want a free app across phones and the web with RSS support. Among the focused players in this list, Overcast is free with ads and Castro sells a paid tier, so Pocket Casts is the free alternative to those two.

- Free plan, paid upgrades | iOS, iPadOS, Android, Web | open source (MPL-2.0)
- Price: Free app with in-app purchases
- Checked: 2026-10-10

## Strengths

- Free app with search and curated recommendations
- Adds private and paid RSS feeds by pasting the URL
- App code published under MPL-2.0

## Limits

- Extras are sold as in-app purchases
- Only the app code is published; the service behind it is not described

## Rankings

- #3 of 10 in [best Podcast apps](https://listme.name/best/podcast-apps), score 85.0: A free podcast player for iPhone, iPad, Android and the web, with curated recommendations and private RSS feed support. Its app code is published under MPL-2.0, and its paid extras are in-app purchases.

## Alternatives

- [Apple Podcasts](https://listme.name/software/apple-podcasts), score 90.0
- [Spotify](https://listme.name/software/spotify), score 85.5
- [Overcast](https://listme.name/software/overcast), score 84.0
- [AntennaPod](https://listme.name/software/antennapod), score 82.5
- [Castro](https://listme.name/software/castro), score 81.0
- [Podcast Addict](https://listme.name/software/podcast-addict), score 80.0
- [Snipd](https://listme.name/software/snipd), score 79.5
- [Castbox](https://listme.name/software/castbox), score 79.0