I use Funkwhale for my music collection and had my podcasts in there for a while. However, I ended up not listening to my podcasts very much since they were hidden among my much larger music collection.
So I moved my podcasts feeds to FreshRSS, which I was already using for RSS feeds. I like the simplicity of using something that I already had, but it doesn’t have any podcast-specific features like being able to resume where you left off.
Do you have any podcast listening apps that you like?
*edit: I should add that I originally meant “self-hostable applications for storing your podcast subscriptions,” but these phone app recommendations are great to have, too. I might just ditch the server-side of this entirely and just use a separate app on my devices for listening. It would be nice if I only had to subscribe in one place and be able to pick up where I left off across multiple devices, though.
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AntennaPod
What I’d like to know: For anyone using some app other than AntennaPod: Why? How is it worth it?
I’ve actually been fighting with this since yesterday.
Pocket Casts is one of my last things that I’m not self-hosting, and I’m trying to change that.
My list of requirements was:
- Multi-device sync
- Be able to play seamlessly from either a web UI or my mobile device, picking up where I left off on either device.
For my Gpodder backend I chose to use the GpodderSync NextCloud app, since I’m already running NextCloud.
I tried PinePods and PodFetch for the web interface, both of which had various issues with sync.
Supposedly there’s a big update to sync coming for PinePods in a couple days, but I wasn’t able to get it working at all.
PodFetch has its own internal gpodder server implementation, but for the life of me, I could not get it to keep listen state in sync. Also, I initially set it up to use OIDC authentication since I’m also running Authentik - but don’t try to do that if you want to use the Gpodder integration. The two are essentially mutually exclusive, at least in its current state.
What I’ve settled on for the moment:
- AntennaPod for mobile playback. (Be aware that there are additional steps for Android Auto support if you install it from F-Droid as I did)
- NextCloud GpodderSync to keep track of listen state and subscriptions.
- NextCloud NextPod app for web UI playback. I’m not exactly happy with this, as it’s a very ugly and basic UI, but it does work, and it does keep track of where I left off the way I want. Hopefully the PinePods update fixes my issues with it, as the web interface for that was much more slick.
UPDATE: I recently discovered RePod which is also a NextCloud app, but the interface is much better than NextPod.
with shame I will say Spoty is my only subscription…
Hey! I’m the Developer of Pinepods. It really aims to be the ultimate podcast solution that’s as self-hosted as possible. I’m trying to make it as fleshed out feature wise as any paid or android specific podcast application while allowing for server sync and access everywhere on any device. Its getting better and better all the time! https://pinepods.online/
Pinepods looks so cool! I just created an account on the demo instance. The “smart playlists” feature just absolutely sold me.
I’m using antennapod. It syncs to a selfhosted gpodder instance and some podcasts are hosted on my audiobookshelf. I like some exclusive podcasts from podimo but their player is shit. Selfhost a tool that creates rss feeds for those walled podimo podcasts and they get downloaded and served by audiobookshelf.
Podcast Addict.
My only gripe is that it only works on mobile, so I can’t have all my settings shared with my laptop. Otherwise, it’s nearly flawless and the premium is cheap as hell.
I have a slightly overcomplicated setup, but I use audiobookshelve to download all my podcasts for archival purposes and then antennapod on android to listen to them (the rss feeds generated by aufiobookshelve) which syncs everything to gpodder for nextcloud. I also occasionally listen to the pods via Kasts on my desktop, also synced with gpodder.
I specifically use audiobookshelve inbetween, since I have some paid podcast subscriptions and I don’t want to loose that content if I ever stop paying or they go under.
I like PodAura. It doesn’t have as many features as AntennaPod, including discovery, but it has the ones that are useful to me, and I like the layout.
I’ve just found out how to setup audiobookshelf for podcasts and I’m a bit annoyed that I won’t be using antennapod anymore.
DoggCatcher
GPodder is the FreshRSS equivalent for podcasts.
Just checked it out. That UI really does not look like any other contempoary app though. :|
Doesn’t matter, you don’t need the UI. You just connect it to AntennaPod or other supported client(s).
I don’t think I understood what gPodder is. The website says gpodder.net is a sync service, but doesn’t seem to indicate that it can be self hosted. The list of clients has gPodder listed as a desktop PC client to gpodder.net. Does the desktop client also work as a server?
AntennaPod can sync to gpodder.net (only at that url?). When I tried it I got a load of timeouts. Instead I enabled the gpoddersync NextCloud app to my own server. That worked like a charm between AntennaPad and kasts on PC.
It is both a sync service and a client.
That doesn’t clarify anything for me. Is the client application also the service, or are they (as I believe) two different things with the same name?
What I’m really getting at is that FreshRSS is self-hostable and as far as I can tell - gPodder isn’t.
or are they (as I believe) two different things with the same name?
They are.
FreshRSS is self-hostable and as far as I can tell - gPodder isn’t.
Oh cool, I wasn’t aware of gpodder.net. I actually thought you were talking about the desktop gpodder application, which I had used before. Didn’t realize there was a server-side component to it as well. Thanks!
I use Gonic, does exactly what I need. It’s in a docker container and hasn’t let me down in over a year.
To listen to Podcasts from it I use play:Sub on iOS
That minimalist UI looks very nice.
I’m using AntennaPod but it’s annoying me that I can’t sort and autoplay oldest to newest. Unused to use podcast addict but I’m keeping google play services outta my main profile in grapheneOS which means I cant use my pro licence for PA…
There seems to be a lot of fun checking out Podcast apps, but I couldn’t find a lot of these on iOS App Store sigh
