iOS has a bunch of great podcast managers these days, but after testing all of them, our favorite is Overcast because it’s packed with a ton of killer features and remains free.
Overcast
Platform: iPhone/iPad/Web
Price: Free
Download Page
Features
Streaming or download options
Chapter support
Various storage management options
Smart speed dynamically changes speed without distortion
Custom playlists
Optional push notifications
Sleep timer
Voice boost normalizes poor quality recordings
Optional syncing with web app
Discovery section for finding new podcasts
Easy import option from other podcast apps
Apple Watch support
Where It Excels
First things first; Overcast does everything a podcast manager should do really well. Managing podcasts is simple, creating playlists based on filters or manually is super easy, and it has a variety of storage management options so you don’t waste a ton of storage space when you get behind on podcasts. If you’re not one to download podcasts at all, Overcast lets you stream episodes instead of downloading them, which is great for people without a lot of extra storage on their device. If you tend to listen to podcasts on both your iOS device and your computer, Overcast has a rudimentary web player that syncs up with the iOS apps. The web player isn’t super feature packed, but it has what it needs.
Everything beyond that is what really sets Overcast apart. The Smart Speed setting gets rid of silent moments and dead air in podcasts to cut down on overall play time while not screwing with the voice speed. As for overall speed, Overcast can speed up podcasts and still retain a pretty natural sounding voice quality, which a feat in itself. Beyond that, the Voice Boost feature normalizes volume on podcasts so even if the production levels are bad, it still sounds great on your end.
Finally, Overcast has a ton of settings so you can tweak how you use the app. You can set up different time increments for seeking back and forth, different gestures for headphone remotes (like two clicks to skip a podcast, three clicks to go back 30 seconds, or whatever else), and limit how many unlistened to episodes are stored on the device on a podcast-by-podcast basis.
Where It Falls Short
There’s really nothing to complain about with Overcast. It has pretty much every major feature of the competition, but it’s free. If anything, the only complaint comes from the feature depraved web player, but considering it’s a free toss-in, it’s hard to whine too much.
While Overcast is free, you can support the developer. In the app, you can choose to support Overcast by paying a fee between $2.99 and $11.99. You don’t have to though, nor does doing so add any features. It’s solely there for if you like the app and want to see continued support. This is a great way to support the app, but it could mean that updates trickle down a little slower from here on out.
The Competition
The podcast manager scene has heated up a lot over the years and because of that, you have a ton of excellent options. One of our previous picks, Downcast ($2.99) is still one of the best podcast managers on iOS. It does nearly everything Overcast does, and only falls short in its design and usability. Downcast is a little clunkier, visually cluttered, and hard to get used to, but it does have a Mac app that it syncs with if you’re a fan of listening on your computer. If you’ve found that Overcast isn’t for you, Downcast is an excellent alternative.
Likewise, another one of our previous picks, Pocket Casts ($4.99) is a solid alternative as well. It does just about everything Downcast and Overcast does, but is cross platform so it’s easy to jump between devices. It also has a great web player so you can listen on your computer.
For people who don’t have a ton of podcasts to manage, we like Castro ($3.99). Castro has a great continuous play option, a ton of settings for data management, a sleep timer, and gestures that make it easy to control while you’re on the move. It doesn’t do great with a ton of podcasts, but if you’re only listening to five or six, or you just have a smaller capacity iOS device, Castro is an excellent pick.
It’s also worth mentioning Apple’s own Podcasts (Free). Podcasts syncs your subscriptions with iTunes, so if you use that or an Apple TV, it makes syncing pretty simple. Podcasts isn’t nearly as fully-featured as anything up above, but it plays podcasts perfectly fine, and if you’re deep into the Apple ecosystem is has benefits for using it on other devices.
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