Comparison

Pocket Casts vs Overcast

Pocket Casts and Overcast both land on Worth it.

Pocket Casts

Worth it

Confidence: Medium

Buy it if you're an individual who listens to many podcasts and wants one player across iOS, Android, web, and Sonos . the free tier covers most needs.

Read the full report

Overcast

overcast.fm

Worth it

Confidence: Medium

Buy if you listen to podcasts on an iPhone and want more control than Apple's built-in app.

Read the full report

Pocket Casts versus Overcast
Compare	Pocket Casts	Overcast
Verdict	Worth it	Worth it
Best for	Heavy podcast listeners	iPhone podcast listeners
Who it's not for	Anyone considering a lifetime purchase	Android or Windows users . iOS only
Privacy	No confirmed breaches in sources reviewed; one user-reported private-feed exposure; no public security page found.¹¹	No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.
Support quality	No support-quality evidence in sources	One-person shop; no support evidence found
Public sentiment	Users long praised the app, but 2025 pricing increases and ads shown to lifetime members damaged trust.	Long-time users broadly love it, though a vocal minority complain about updates and price hikes, and some have switched back to Apple Podcasts.
Biggest gotcha	Lifetime membership did not prevent ads during 2025 bug; prefer monthly over lifetime^⁹	Premium pricing rose for new subscriptions; legacy ~$10/yr rates persist for older subscribers

Pick Pocket Casts when

Heavy podcast listeners
Cross-platform listeners (iOS, Android, web, Sonos)
Podcast discovery seekers
Budget users happy on the free tier

When Pocket Casts is not a fit

Anyone considering a lifetime purchase
Privacy-sensitive users of private podcast feeds
Businesses or teams . consumer-only product
Casual listeners fine with Spotify or Apple Podcasts

Pick Overcast when

iPhone podcast listeners
Apple ecosystem users
Heavy listeners wanting playback controls
Switchers from Apple Podcasts

When Overcast is not a fit

Android or Windows users . iOS only
Casual listeners fine with Apple Podcasts
Teams shopping for Overcast HQ video collaboration
Podcasters needing hosting or analytics

Sources

The Best Podcast Player Apps We've Tested for 2026pcmag.com
review
Pocket Casts 7: A Host of Improvements Make the App Feel Brand Newmacstories.net
review
Reddit: Pocketcasts: it's great.reddit.com
review
Reddit: I've swapped to Pocket Casts and recommend you do the samereddit.com
review
Reddit: $3.99 becomes $9.99/annually becomes $39.99/annuallyreddit.com
review
Forum: The new advertisements seriously suck.forums.pocketcasts.com
review
Hacker News: Pocket Casts, you altered the dealnews.ycombinator.com
news
The Verge: Pocket Casts is showing ads to people who paid for an ad-free experiencetheverge.com
news
9to5Mac: Pocket Casts lifetime members being shown ads9to5mac.com
news
Ars Technica: Pocket Casts makes its web player freearstechnica.com
news
Forum: Private feeds shown as public (data breach)forums.pocketcasts.com
security
Sonos: Pocket Casts on Sonossupport.sonos.com
official
GitHub: Automattic/pocket-casts-androidgithub.com
official
Tracxn: Pocket Casts company profile (acquired)tracxn.com
official
Overcast homepageovercast.fm
official
Overcast Podcast App - App Storeapps.apple.com
official