9
votes
Seeking an Android podcast app without subscription. Impossible?
In search of an app where I can pay for pro features once and get a fully featured application. Is it even possible these days?
Ok, now begin rant.
I don't understand - these services are aggregators of other people's content and let's be honest, only have to build a competent media player one time.
Why the subscription? While I fully understand that Adobe kicked off this new evil timeline of permanent rentals, I don't fully understand how this applies for something as simple as a media player.
https://antennapod.org/
This is the app I use and I love it. Reminds me of the old iPhone podcast app before that got extremely bloated.
This is the best app I've used, and have tested lots
Nice, I'll have a look!
I've used podcast addict for about 4 years now, it does a lot.
https://podcastaddict.com/
Podcast Addict is excellent. It's free, I've been using it for years myself too. You can also add/play audiobooks/media you've downloaded from elsewhere. You can stream or download podcasts. There is a tiny advert banner but you never notice it and it's not distracting in any way.
I have the paid version because (at least when I bought it, times may have changed) it was a few quid for a permanent unlock and it's such a good app I was quite happy to support the developer. I use it almost daily, it plays podcasts pleasingly perfectly.
edit: looking now, it seems like the paid version has stopped existing, which is a shame.
I haven't used many others, but I like Podcast Republic. I think it's a $4 or $5 one-time fee to remove some banner ads. The UI of some views could be streamlined and more intuitive, but the views I use the most (playback and browsing a podcast's episodes) are good. And that's really the only issue I can think of. It has a ton of features and no bugs I've come across.
Pocketcasts by Shifty Jelly.
Pocketcasts is the app I'd recommend and premium was previously a one time purchase but they did shift to a subscription model sometime ago.
That being said I've used the app for ages and would highly recommend it. The only premium feature that would be handy for me is being able to organize podcasts into folders.
I feel quite lucky that I had purchased premium before they switch to a subscription model as I was able to keep it as a one time purchase.
Was there anything you needed to provide for that? I had purchased the app years and don't remember getting to keep the premium features after the switch.
Your rant is absolutely on spot. I would pay 10€ for good app on my phone in a blink of an eye, but somehow such apps are very hard to find in the store on my phone. Even hough they exist, the subscription based or "pay in the app" ones pop up almost exclusively.
This is why you have to come to other people and ask for their recommendation, whoch is what you did. And I hope you get a good one!
and also that the app stores could easily have a filter for premium being 'one time payment' vs 'subscription model' to help you find those good apps (which would in turn incentivise people to make them), but they don't. it's an area where they're very clearly working against our interests...
My vote is for podcast Republic! I absolutely love that i can "delete" episodes from my podcast subscriptions and they won't be backfilled. I need that cause I love Jim Morrison and all his dateline podcasts, but every time a new podcast is made ALL their dateline podcasts receive a new 'promotional' minute-long episode. That's infuriating so I'm glad I can remove them.