What is the best podcast platform?

Open RSS players, music services that arrived late, and the video platform nobody expected to matter here.

1

Spotify

Bought its way to the front of podcasting with exclusive deals.

2

YouTube

Podcasts with faces, which turned out to be what many listeners wanted.

3

Apple Podcasts

The directory that defined the medium and still anchors its RSS plumbing.

4

Pocket Casts

A power-user player with the best playback controls.

5

Overcast

An independent iOS player known for its smart speed feature.

6

Amazon Music

Podcasts bundled into a music subscription people already pay for.

7

Castbox

Cross-platform listening with in-episode search.

8

AntennaPod

Open-source, ad-free and entirely RSS-based.

9

Audible

Audiobooks first, with an expanding slate of original spoken series.

10

iHeartRadio

A broadcast radio group that became one of podcasting's biggest publishers.

11

SoundCloud

Where plenty of shows quietly hosted their first hundred episodes.

12

Podbean

Hosting and listening in one product, aimed at independent shows.

13

Deezer

A European music service with podcasts folded in.

14

Player FM

A catalogue-first app built around discovery rather than subscriptions.