• long running

Free Access to Pocket Casts Web Player & Desktop Apps (Was US$4 Monthly or US$40 Annually) @ Pocket Casts

590
Free Access to Pocket Casts Web Player & Desktop Apps (Was US$4 Monthly or US$40 Annually) @ Pocket Casts
Go to Deal
trixieb on 13/03/2025 - 15:52 blog.pocketcasts.com (751 clicks)
Last edited 13/03/2025 - 16:04 by 1 other user

Pocket Casts Web Player Is Now Available to All, No Subscription Required.

In a rare recent example of a product becoming more affordable (rather than moving full-speed in the opposite direction), the popular podcast service Pocket Casts no longer requires a subscription to access its web player and desktop apps.

Before Tuesday's announcement, you could listen for free on the Pocket Casts Android and iOS apps, but its web player and desktop apps required a premium subscription starting at $4 monthly or $40 annually. Now, you can check in with your favorite podcasters on your Mac or PC without paying a dime.

Pocket Casts makes its web player and desktop apps usable without a subscription(au.news.yahoo.com)

Entertainment Podcast

Related Stores

Pocket Casts
Pocket Casts

Comments

  • HansW on 13/03/2025 - 15:54
    +15

    My go to podcast app. Been using for the last 10 years. Love it.

    • Scoobth on 13/03/2025 - 16:44
      +9

      Same, the shifty jelly team made great apps.

      RIP pocket weather.

      • nzcoops on 13/03/2025 - 16:58

        RIP pocket weather.

      • thangcuoi on 13/03/2025 - 17:33

        I blame the BOM. Their Android app is so much more inferior.

  • chossenger on 13/03/2025 - 15:57

    Great app, been using it for yonks. I'm unlikely to start listening on desktop, but would use this if I did.
    Looks like funding is now purely on their subscription tiers that have some optional features:

    As it stands, Pocket Casts hopes its subscription-gated features will entice some folks into throwing a few bucks its way. The Plus tier adds (deep inhale) a shuffle feature, bookmarks, the ability to preselect chapters, 20GB of cloud storage, watchOS and Wear OS apps (which you can still use for free as long as the content is streaming from your phone) and other goodies like themes, icons and a year of content from Slumber Studios. Meanwhile, the Patron tier offers all that plus early access to features, 100GB of cloud storage, extra icons and, the most important of all, a profile badge.

  • Cheepcheep88 on 13/03/2025 - 15:59
    +1

    I used this years ago before spotify had podcasts. Genuinely curious what the use case is now for a standalone podcast app?

    • Aureus on 13/03/2025 - 16:02
      +11

      I use Spotify podcasts and it sucks. Going to switch over to this to not deal with Spotify's crappy podcasts.

    • beeb on 13/03/2025 - 16:13
      +10

      I don't use most of the Pocket Casts features, but just the queue management and being able to hide completed episodes makes it a lot better than Spotify.

    • witheredcouch on 13/03/2025 - 16:14
      +3

      Private ad free podcast feeds for me, there are a couple I support and pocketcasts allows me to listen to them wherever.

    • PurchaseAnxiety on 13/03/2025 - 16:58
      +5

      Personally I prefer purpose built apps that do their job well, over bloated apps that try to do 5 things and end up doing a mediocre job of all of them.

    • nzcoops on 13/03/2025 - 18:16

      One tap to open music app for music, one tap to open podcast app for podcasts.
      Not one tap to open spotify, then multiple taps to navigate.

  • MorningThief on 13/03/2025 - 16:01
    +1

    paid for the full price since June 2018…did not regret a single day of it…can occasionally mess up the syncing between devices, but all in all is a pretty damn good podcast player.

  • csi-lk on 13/03/2025 - 16:27
    +3

    Has been the GOAT podcast player since the start, highly reccomend

  • nitens on 13/03/2025 - 17:00
    +3

    I'm firmly in the open source camp… AntennaPod on android for the win.Works well on Android Auto. Can sync/import/export everything if you want to switch players and not lose your history - not that it's crossed my mind since I started using it.Those others are likely selling your interests to third parties or manipulating your searches (deprioritising some casts compared to others or flat out censoring results out of the ecosystem).

    Check out this video from Adam Curry (aka the PodFather):
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1xomzwJ4V8

    • thangcuoi on 13/03/2025 - 17:13

      I use both Pocket Cast and AntennaPod. Pocket Cast has the superior user experience.

      • nitens on 13/03/2025 - 17:20

        Sure… I'd agree that PC is likely more feature rich. But if you're not using those features then the experience is essentially the same - you're downloading, listening to, and managing audio files.

        You have me curious though… why do you use both? Or did you mean you have used both?

        • thangcuoi on 13/03/2025 - 17:30

          I use Pocket Cast as my main podcast player to listen to podcast without ads or only have ads at the beginning and end. Pocket Cast can skip these ads.

          I use AntennaPod to listen to ad free version of BBC podcasts I downloaded from their website, and from YouTube.

          I can't wait for someone to release a SponsorBlock version for podcast.

      • nitens on 13/03/2025 - 17:56

        Yeah… He seems like a bit of a tool. It doesn't mean that there is no truth in other statements he makes. Memories are just the stories we tell ourselves and egotistical people likely remember things they are involved in differently.

    • settings on 13/03/2025 - 17:42
      +3

      FWIW, Pocket casts is open source(blog.pocketcasts.com).

      • nitens on 13/03/2025 - 17:51
        +1

        Ok cool… now open source. They didn't used to be.

        • settings on 13/03/2025 - 18:24

          You’re totally right. It was something I recently learnt too.

    • heef on 13/03/2025 - 18:07

      I made the jump back when they got bought by NPR. Though AntennaPod recently disappeared from my Android Auto screen :/

  • nicktork on 13/03/2025 - 17:05

    Got in at the beginning and paid $7 one-off fee for lifetime access. Having access to their web player also gives you access to their Windows App which you can find in the Microsoft Store — handy because certain podcasts refuse to play in the web player.

  • thangcuoi on 13/03/2025 - 17:12

    This was my sore point when they grandfathered some people who paid for the app but not others. I understood the difference, but it still sucks to be left out.

    I rarely listen to podcast while sitting at the computer these days, but it's still good to have the option.

  • ginmi on 13/03/2025 - 21:31

    Always was free and always will be…and HEAPS better:
    https://antennapod.org/

  • jleang on 13/03/2025 - 22:23

    does pocket casts or antenna pod have wear os app? and decent widgets?

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join