Both are excellent. Overcast is the better pick if you only use Apple devices and care most about how podcasts sound; its Smart Speed and Voice Boost are the best audio tools in any podcast app. Pocket Casts is the better pick if you use Android, Windows or a mix of devices. Neither skips the ads inside episodes.
Side by side
| Overcast | Pocket Casts | |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | iPhone, iPad, Mac (Apple silicon), Apple Watch, CarPlay | iPhone, iPad, Android, web, Mac, Windows; Apple Watch, Wear OS, CarPlay, Android Auto, Sonos, Chromecast |
| Android | No | Yes |
| Free version | Yes, with banner ads for other podcasts | Yes, with ads |
| Paid plan | Overcast Premium, yearly | Plus $3.99/month or $39.99/year; Patron $9.99/month or $99.99/year |
| Silence trimming | Smart Speed | Trim Silence |
| Volume levelling | Voice Boost | Volume Boost |
| Transcripts | Yes | Yes; generated transcripts need Plus |
| Smart playlists | Yes | Yes |
| Skips ads inside episodes | No | No |
Choose Overcast if
- You're on iPhone and don't need Android or Windows.
- You listen to a lot of talk shows with uneven audio. Voice Boost makes a real difference.
- You like small, independent software. One developer has built Overcast since 2014.
Choose Pocket Casts if
- You use Android, Windows, or devices from more than one company.
- You want to organise a big library, with folders, bookmarks and themes.
- You listen on Sonos or Chromecast.
What neither of them does
Both apps play the ads inside episodes: the sponsor reads and the ad breaks the publisher inserts. Both let you untick chapters, which helps only when a show marks its ads as chapters.
If the ads are what you want gone, Castria finds them in each episode and skips them as you listen, and the skipping is free. It runs on iPhone, iPad, Android and the web. See Castria vs Overcast and Castria vs Pocket Casts for the details.