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

Apple Podcasts vs Spotify

Apple Podcasts 4.9★ · Free + IAP 40
Winner Spotify
Spotify 4.8★ · Free to download 70

Spotify is the better choice for a comprehensive audio experience, offering superior music streaming and a less buggy podcast interface, while Apple Podcasts struggles with core functionality and user experience.

Full reviews: Apple Podcasts · Spotify

Apple Podcasts, despite being free, is plagued by numerous bugs, poor search functionality, and a clunky interface, making it frustrating for many users. Spotify, while criticized for ads and limitations in its free tier, offers a more stable and feature-rich experience for both music and podcasts, with a highly praised algorithm and user-friendly design.

Head to head

Features & Content Discovery edge: SpotifyR1R3R4R7
Apple Podcasts Apple Podcasts users report significant issues with basic features like searching for episodes, organizing queues, and managing downloads R1R4R7R12. Many find the app's content discovery limited, primarily showcasing 'Top Shows' and lacking personalized recommendations R3. Some users appreciate the app for language learning or specific niche podcasts R8.
Spotify Spotify is praised for its extensive music library, curated playlists, and effective recommendation algorithm, which helps users discover new artists and songs . While primarily known for music, it also offers podcasts . Free users, however, complain about limitations like forced shuffle mode and inability to skip songs .
Ease of Use & Interface edge: SpotifyR1R7R9R12
Apple Podcasts Apple Podcasts receives widespread criticism for its confusing, buggy, and slow interface R1. Users struggle with basic navigation, queue management, and settings that reset R7R9R12. The recent addition of video podcasts has reportedly worsened the experience, causing glitches and loss of functionality .
Spotify Spotify is generally lauded for its straightforward and organized interface, making it easy to create playlists and navigate content . Some users express frustration with the inability to delete recently played items from their history .
Reliability & Performance edge: SpotifyR5R9R10R15
Apple Podcasts Apple Podcasts is frequently described as buggy and unreliable, with issues like podcasts not playing, episodes restarting, downloads failing, and the app freezing or crashing R5R9R10R15. Users also report problems with battery drain and device overheating .
Spotify Spotify users occasionally report the app being slow to load or not opening on older devices . Some premium users have experienced persistent bugs and issues over several years .
Price & Value tieR7R8R22R28
Apple Podcasts Apple Podcasts is a free app, which some users appreciate R8. However, many free users complain about excessive and aggressive commercials that disrupt the listening experience R22R59. Users also note that the app lacks features available in other free podcast apps R7R28.
Spotify Spotify is free to download but heavily criticized for its limitations and frequent ads for non-premium users R63R66. Many feel that the app is only truly valuable with a premium subscription .
Pick Apple Podcasts if

you are deeply integrated into the Apple ecosystem and primarily listen to a few specific podcasts, and are willing to tolerate significant bugs and a clunky interface .

Pick Spotify if

you want a robust audio streaming experience that combines music and podcasts, value a strong recommendation algorithm, and are willing to pay for a premium subscription to avoid ads and unlock full features .

Evidence note: Reviews for Apple Podcasts are heavily skewed negative, focusing on bugs and poor functionality, despite its high lifetime rating. Many positive reviews for Apple Podcasts are very brief or generic. Spotify's negative reviews are predominantly from free users complaining about ads and feature limitations, which is a common pattern for free-to-download apps with premium tiers.

Frequently asked

Which app has better search functionality for podcasts?
Spotify has better search functionality for podcasts and music, with Apple Podcasts users frequently complaining about its inability to search for episodes or find content easily R1R4.
Are there many ads in the free versions of these apps?
Both apps have many ads in their free versions, with Apple Podcasts users describing them as excessive and aggressive R22R59, and Spotify users also frequently complaining about the number of ads R63R66.
Which app is more reliable and less buggy?
Spotify is generally more reliable and less buggy than Apple Podcasts, which receives numerous complaints about freezing, crashing, download failures, and playback issues R5R16R31R54.

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. [R1] 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.
  2. [R3] Apple Podcasts 3/5 · US Love podcasts but this app is the bare minimum: The app itself could offer a far superior experience. They seem to only offer up Top Shows. Those are the easiest to find. Seems like it needs an overhaul so people can find shows they’ll like more easily.
  3. [R4] 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.
  4. [R7] Apple Podcasts 1/5 · US Do apple devs use this app?: This app lacks so many features other apps offer on their free tier. It makes it so confusing to listen to one podcast with only the unlistened episodes in any order new to old or old to new, it jumps to different podcasts when I want to listen a specific podcast episode after episode, it replays episodes I have already played…. I feel with a little bit of interest and
  5. [R9] Apple Podcasts 3/5 · US Has a few issues…: Podcasts have a tendency to not play on occasion, and on any kind of parental control/restricted mode, you can’t even listen to the clean episodes of a podcast if it has ONE explicit episode. Oof. You should at least be able to listen to the clean episodes. Also, the interface is pretty buggy, my settings for podcasts keep getting reset, especially the ones that dictate what e
  6. [R12] Apple Podcasts 3/5 · US Can’t control the queue: Is no one noticing that you can’t drag and drop the order of shows in the queue? You have to remove everything and then re-add in the order you want. I always end up ending this and then going to another device.
  7. [R5] Apple Podcasts 4/5 · US Great but…: This app works great. I’ve been using it for a long time but recently it’s had this glitch where without me touching anything it starts speeding up first two times speed then four then eight then 16 etc., and the only way to stop it is to manually delete and reinstall the app
  8. [R10] Apple Podcasts 1/5 · US Not working: App doesn’t work welll
  9. [R15] Apple Podcasts 3/5 · US Good organization/ bad download functionality: Non-explicit episodes labeled explicit for unclear reasons. An entire program went from played to unplayed inexplicably. The automatic download setting is somewhat broken… at the very least it is inconsistent. And the automatic play It’s generally a good app otherwise, but these are core functions that it fails at..
  10. [R8] Apple Podcasts 5/5 · US Language development: This is the most helpful app that I’ve ever used for improving my English skills! Now i see myself using this app everyday. Is there any way to get rid of this addiction? Haha Please keep this app FREE!
  11. [R22] 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?
  12. [R28] Apple Podcasts 2/5 · US This app could be so much more.: Why are you limiting this app Weirdos?? Put the features in that Every Other Podcast app has. Get it together.
  13. [R59] Apple Podcasts 1/5 · US The amount of adds is disgusting.: 3-4 minute adds every 15-20 minutes. It doesn’t push me to pay for any type of add free subscription, it pushes me to delete the app and never use it again. The adds are more aggressive then YouTube, Netflix or any other streaming service.
  14. [R63] Spotify 3/5 · US Too many adds: It’s great for making a playlist but way to many adds
  15. [R66] Spotify 3/5 · US REMOVE ADDS: Please remove these adds I get them every second
  16. [R16] Apple Podcasts 1/5 · US Video issues: The playback experience has become incredibly frustrating. If I pause a podcast and come back later, it often restarts from the beginning instead of resuming where I left off, causing me to lose my place. On top of that, there are times when commercial audio plays over the podcast audio at the same time, making it impossible to listen. These issues happen frequently and have made the
  17. [R31] Apple Podcasts 2/5 · US This app has become incredibly buggy.: For over a year this app has become more and more buggy, and as of writing this review it appears to be in the worst state ever. The app has become unresponsive and unusable. Transcripts are unusable and podcasts constantly fail to load. It's not being addressed.
  18. [R54] Apple Podcasts 3/5 · GB Good but Numerous crashes: Was always my go to app for podcasts but Since the last big update, whenever I slide down to close an episode it completely freezes the app and I have to fully close the app and restart it. Happening more and more often now and becoming really annoying to the point where considering a new podcast app

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