Verithiathe honest score on any app
Updated July 2026 · real, multi-region App Store reviews
Head-to-head

Amazon Music vs Apple Podcasts

Amazon Music 4.7★ · Free + IAP 70
Winner Amazon Music
Apple Podcasts 4.9★ · Free + IAP 55

For users primarily interested in music streaming, Amazon Music offers a better experience with a wider song variety and fewer ads for paying users, while Apple Podcasts struggles with core functionality and ad placement for its podcast-focused audience.

Full reviews: Amazon Music · Apple Podcasts

Amazon Music is generally preferred for its music library and ad-free experience for paid subscribers, despite some complaints about app performance and shuffle functionality. Apple Podcasts, while having a high lifetime rating, faces significant criticism for its buggy interface, poor search capabilities, and intrusive ads, making it a less reliable choice for podcast listeners.

Head to head

Features & Content Library edge: Amazon MusicR3R5R11R14
Amazon Music Amazon Music users appreciate the wide variety of songs available, often finding most of their favorite music R11. Paid users enjoy an ad-free experience and the ability to skip unlimited songs R5R14R26. However, some users report issues with purchased music disappearing or albums being incomplete R3R16R43. Podcast variety is noted as an area for improvement .
Apple Podcasts Apple Podcasts offers a vast selection of podcasts, with users finding it helpful for various interests like language development or specific topics . However, users frequently complain about missing core features found in other free podcast apps, such as effective search for episodes within a show, queue management, and a history feature R64. There are also requests for more video game choices and the ability to create podcasts .
Ease of Use & Interface edge: Amazon MusicR1R3R10R12
Amazon Music Amazon Music receives mixed feedback on its interface. Some users praise its clear, concise, and excellent layout, finding it easy to use and well-organized . Others find it complicated, difficult to navigate, and confusing, especially after updates R1R3R10. Specific complaints include unwanted playlists being forced, issues with shuffle functionality playing the same songs, and a lack of options to search within playlists or customize settings R1R12.
Apple Podcasts Apple Podcasts users widely criticize the app's interface and navigation. Many describe it as confusing, basic, boring, and difficult to use R61. Specific issues include poor search functionality for episodes, inability to easily manage the queue (drag and drop), and inconsistent sorting R61R64. Some users also report issues with text size not responding to system settings .
Reliability & Performance tieR2R6R9R18
Amazon Music Amazon Music users frequently report performance issues, including the app being slow to load, laggy, and unresponsive R2R18. Common complaints include songs restarting randomly, the app crashing or shutting down during playback, and playlists lagging or failing to update R6R9. Some users also experience issues with downloading songs .
Apple Podcasts Apple Podcasts is plagued by numerous reliability and performance issues, especially after recent updates. Users report the app being slow, glitchy, unresponsive, and constantly crashing . Specific problems include podcasts not playing or resuming where left off, episodes restarting, playback speed changing randomly, and download failures . Synchronization issues across devices are also noted .
Price & Value edge: Amazon MusicR4R5R14R15
Amazon Music Amazon Music offers a free tier, but many users express frustration with its limitations, such as forced shuffling, inability to play specific songs, and ads R4R15R28. Some long-time Prime members are upset about increased prices or features that used to be included now requiring an additional 'Unlimited' subscription R15. However, paid users generally feel it's a good value for an ad-free experience with extensive song selection R5R14R26.
Apple Podcasts Apple Podcasts is a free app, and some users appreciate this . However, the free experience is heavily criticized for excessive and poorly placed ads, often interrupting mid-sentence or being significantly louder than the podcast content R81R82R84R99. Users express a desire for an ad-free subscription, potentially integrated with Apple Music, but this is not currently offered R84. The app's numerous bugs and lack of features also diminish its value, even as a free product .
Pick Amazon Music if

You are an Amazon Prime member looking for a music streaming service with a large library and an ad-free experience R5R14R26. You prioritize music over podcasts and are willing to pay for the 'Unlimited' tier to avoid free-tier limitations R5.

Pick Apple Podcasts if

You are deeply integrated into the Apple ecosystem and primarily listen to podcasts, hoping for future improvements to the app's core functionality and ad experience .

Evidence note: Apple Podcasts has a higher lifetime rating, but recent reviews are overwhelmingly negative, focusing on significant bugs and poor user experience, which skews the perception of its current state. Amazon Music's reviews are more mixed, with a noticeable divide between free and paid user experiences.

Frequently asked

Is Amazon Music truly ad-free?
Amazon Music's free tier includes ads and limitations like forced shuffling, but the paid 'Unlimited' subscription offers an ad-free experience with full control over song playback R5R14R26R28.
Can I search for specific podcast episodes on Apple Podcasts?
Many users report significant difficulty or inability to search for specific episodes within a podcast on Apple Podcasts, often requiring manual scrolling through long lists R61R64.
Why are there so many ads on Apple Podcasts?
Apple Podcasts users frequently complain about an excessive number of ads, which are often poorly placed (interrupting mid-sentence) and significantly louder than the podcast content, negatively impacting the listening experience R81R82R84R99.
Does Amazon Music have issues with purchased music?
Some Amazon Music users report that music they previously purchased has disappeared, become incomplete, or is difficult to find within the app R3R16R43.

What reviewers actually said

Built only from these 120 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.

  1. [R3] Amazon Music 3/5 · US Changed everything: App layout totally changed amd rose yet, music I purchased totally disappeared.
  2. [R5] Amazon Music 5/5 · US Love it: I hate when you have to hit shuffle to play the Song that you want, and this app doesn’t do that! I mean idk if it does if u don’t pay, but it’s not a bad price. And love that you can skip as many songs as you want
  3. [R11] Amazon Music 5/5 · US It’s good: I highly recommend it. It’s super fun to listen to and it has like most of my favorite songs.
  4. [R14] Amazon Music 5/5 · US Good quality!: There’s no ads which I love and you don’t have to pay for it because there’s no ads, unlike other music playing platforms. I love the song variety and all of the abilities such as Queues, and Play Next.
  5. [R1] Amazon Music 1/5 · US Too Complicared: Needs to be slimmed down, stop forcing unwanted playlists from being crammed down your throat, and correct the issue of personal playlists disappearing when a new device is added.
  6. [R10] Amazon Music 1/5 · US No shuffle: Platform is confusing. If i hit shuffle i get an error code everytime. Added albums and it says i have no songs. Going back to apple music.
  7. [R12] Amazon Music 3/5 · US Shuffle not Great: I like a shuffle option but I hear the same songs all the time. I wish the shuffle was better.
  8. [R2] Amazon Music 5/5 · US Playlist problems: There has been patches to a lot of bugs for me, and I appreciate that a lot, but my biggest issue still isn’t fixed. My playlists are lagging so freaking hard. I need this fixed, it takes forever just to load into a playlist and even longer to scroll down enough to see the next 2 songs. Please fix the playlists!!!
  9. [R6] Amazon Music 3/5 · US Laggy: It often restarts a song with no reason it just restarts it
  10. [R9] Amazon Music 3/5 · US No station shuffling: Wish we could shuffle stations. The app keeps shutting down randomly during music play and have to restart it. Other than that, it’s ok.
  11. [R18] Amazon Music 3/5 · US Add dislike button to Apple CarPlay: Please, I hate not having it as an option. Needs to dislike and skip songs! After recent update, app takes a long time to open.
  12. [R4] Amazon Music 1/5 · US Worst music app ever: Horrible app doesn’t play the music or album you want it just shuffle to what ever
  13. [R15] Amazon Music 3/5 · US Dislike Subscription Ads: I remember when I would ask Alexa to play a specific song by a specific artist, and it would play the song. At times, it’s telling me that in order to be able to do so I need to have the monthly subscription.
  14. [R26] Amazon Music 5/5 · US MY ALL TIME FAVORITE MUSIC APP!!: This app is by far the best app I have ever had to listen to music!! Unlike Spotify, there are no ads!! I wouldn’t trade this app for the world!! In middle school, this app was a staple on the bus, all I needed was my earbuds, my music, and a seat and I was happy💗💗✝️✝️
  15. [R28] Amazon Music 2/5 · US Ads: Literally said add free when I get ads after TWO SONGS. Stop false advertising.
  16. [R61] Apple Podcasts 1/5 · US Worst app ever made by Apple: Just try doing a search / it’s the biggest piece of trash you could ever imagine. It is absolutely unfathomable how something that is used by so many people can be so unbelievably useless for things like search. Literally everybody who worked on this app should be fired.
  17. [R64] Apple Podcasts 1/5 · US Can’t search for episodes: I can’t search any episodes for shows in this app. So if my favorite show had a topic or guest years ago, the only way to find that old one is to scroll and scroll and scroll. Crazy such a feature is missing.
  18. [R81] Apple Podcasts 3/5 · US Great App: It’s a great app for podcasts to listen to work and other things but…. Currently for some reason I seem to be getting random ads while the podcast is in mid thought or sentence
  19. [R82] Apple Podcasts 2/5 · US Commercial, commercials, and commercials.: It's been a while since I listened to a podcast on my iPhone using the Apple Podcasts app, and I honestly can’t take it anymore. The commercials crammed into a single podcast are beyond excessive. It completely ruins my listening experience. At what point does enough become enough? Does every app have to squeeze every possible dollar out of its users?
  20. [R84] Apple Podcasts 3/5 · US Ad free subscription: It’s a good app that i use for all of my podcasts. But it has a problem with the placement of ads in the middle of sentences or other bad spots. Also the volume of the ads seems to be alot louder than the rest of the podcast. Why can’t this app communicate with apple music subscriptions and allow for an ad free podcast experience?
  21. [R99] Apple Podcasts 3/5 · US Constant offensive ads: The listening experience is constantly disrupted by highly offensive ads, often in the middle of podcasts, and there does not seem to be an easy or effective way to give feedback, block the ads, or report the problem. This makes the app feel frustrating and unpleasant to use. Instead of enjoying the content, I find myself irritated enough to consider quitting the app altoge
  22. [R16] Amazon Music 1/5 · US Previously owned tracks are no longer available: Many, MANY albums are incomplete now… or completely gone. Some only have one or two tracks! Absolute garbage, don’t buy music from Amazon
  23. [R43] Amazon Music 1/5 · US Terrible, Awful, No-Good, Very Bad: I don’t think this app could possibly be worse. So many steps to find your own purchased music, constant push of product and content by the app itself, unbelievably difficult to navigate, bugs and problems when trying to create playlists, it’s almost as if it was made bad on purpose. I regret purchasing any music through Amazon.

Synthesized from 120 recent App Store reviews · updated July 2026 · View on the App Store