Pocket Casts is one of the best podcast players there is: polished, on almost every device, and around for more than a decade. What it doesn't do is skip the ads inside episodes, and its free version shows ads of its own. Castria is built around skipping those ads, and the skipping is free.
At a glance
| Pocket Casts | Castria | |
|---|---|---|
| Skips ads inside episodes | No | Yes, automatically, free |
| Ads in the app itself | Free version shows ads | None |
| Paid plans | Plus $3.99/month or $39.99/year; Patron $9.99/month or $99.99/year | Optional Premium subscription |
| Platforms | iPhone, iPad, Android, web, Mac, Windows; Apple Watch, Wear OS, CarPlay, Android Auto, Sonos, Chromecast | iPhone, iPad, Android, web; Apple Watch and CarPlay with Premium |
| Transcripts | Yes; generated transcripts need Plus | Yes, searchable, free |
| Episode summaries and topics | — | Yes, free |
| Silence trimming | Yes | Yes, on downloaded episodes |
| Skip chapters you don't want | Yes, with Plus | No |
| Folders, bookmarks, themes | Yes | No |
| Smart playlists | Yes | Yes, with Premium |
| Import your shows (OPML) | Yes | Yes |
Where Pocket Casts is better
- More places to listen. Desktop apps for Mac and Windows, Sonos, Chromecast, and watch and car apps on both Apple and Google platforms.
- More ways to organise. Folders, bookmarks, Up Next shuffle, themes and custom icons. Castria has none of those yet.
- Track record. It's been the go-to third-party podcast app for years, with a very large user base.
Where Castria is better
- It skips the ads. Castria scans each episode, finds the ad breaks and sponsor reads, and skips them as you listen. Pocket Casts can skip intros, outros and chapters you untick, but it plays the ads in the episode.
- No ads in the app. Pocket Casts' free version carries ads; its App Store listing says so. Castria shows none.
- Summaries, topics and transcripts for free. Each episode gets a short summary, tappable topics and a searchable transcript, on the free plan.
- It shows its work. Every ad Castria found is listed with a confidence score and a quote, and you can keep any sponsor you like.
Switching from Pocket Casts
Export your shows from Pocket Casts as an OPML file, then import it into Castria. Your whole list comes over in one step. You can also search for shows by name.
Questions
Does Pocket Casts have an ad skipper? It can skip the first and last seconds of every episode, and with Plus you can untick chapters to skip them. Neither finds ads in the middle of an episode, which is where most of them are.
Is Castria free? Ad-skipping, summaries, transcripts, downloads, playlists and sync are free. Premium is optional and adds server-side ad detection, 20 GB of cloud storage, smart playlists, CarPlay and an Apple Watch app.