There’s great news for podcast fans. Pocket Casts is now free to use on the web and via the Mac and Windows apps.
Free for Everyone, With Accounts Unlocking More
Previously, you needed a premium subscription that set you back $3.99 per month or $39.99 yearly to enjoy Pocket Casts on desktop platforms. But now, you can do that for free.
Just hit play to start listening to a podcast. You can also create a free account to unlock three additional features on Mac, Windows, or the web player:
- Syncing playback progress across devices
- Managing your podcast queue seamlessly
- Saving subscriptions and preferences
In an announcement blog post, Pocket Casts explained the rationale behind the decision:
Podcasting was built on an open, decentralized standard, RSS, which means that anyone can create, share, and listen to content freely, without needing a specific platform’s approval. But today, major platforms are shifting away from open standards, moving creators into proprietary systems that limit distribution and control discovery through algorithms.
At Pocket Casts, we stand for the open podcasting ecosystem.
Pocket Casts is also available as an Android and iOS app. Those were already free before today’s announcement.
The Pocket Casts Plus subscription is still available and can unlock a number of other features. Some of those include folders to organize podcasts, smart shuffle to pick a random episode to play next, and the ability to listen on wearable devices. You’ll also receive 20GB of free cloud storage for personal media.
Another Great Way to Listen to Podcasts
Now that Pocket Casts has made the web and desktop clients free to use, it provides another great option for podcast fans looking to listen to the next episode. As you might imagine, there are a wide variety of free apps you can use to listen to podcasts.
Two of the major music streaming services, Spotify and Apple Music, also offer great ways to listen to podcasts. Spotify offers a number of advantages for podcast listening, like offline downloads and much more. And in 2024, Apple launched a web app for Apple Podcasts where you can listen to an episode without a dedicated app.
I’ve always enjoyed using Pocket Casts on my iPhone, especially with the great CarPlay version for listening on the go. I’m excited to now listen to more episodes on my Mac.
