# Castro: Podcast App & Player — Queue & listen to pod episodes

> Intelligent podcast player with queue management and advanced playback features. (iPhone/iPad app by Bluck Apps.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/castro-podcast-app-and-player/id1080840241 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Bluck Apps](https://appshunter.io/developer/1734049168)
- Category: News, Entertainment
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Rating: 4.60/5 from 9,166 App Store ratings · 597 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 9+
- Requires: iOS 16.0 · 166 MB
- Languages: American English, French (France), German (Germany)
- Released: 2016-08-15
- Data updated: 2026-08-29
- Monetization: freemium
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/castro-podcast-app-and-player/id1080840241/reviews.md

## What is Castro?

Castro is a beautiful, full-featured podcast player that makes it easy to track and manage lots of podcasts at the same time. Only listen to the episodes you want and easily skip the rest, queue up hours of podcasts at a time and enjoy a seamless listening experience with carplay compatibility, chapter support, trim silence and much, much more!

HOW IT WORKS

1. New episodes land in the NEW tab. Read their descriptions, add episodes you like to your QUEUE, and clear the rest.

2. Press play to listen to episodes from your QUEUE in order. Queued episodes are downloaded automatically.

3. Re-order your QUEUE to plan your next few hours of listening at any time. Browse your LIBRARY to review the back catalogue, quickly access starred shows, and see your listening history.

Subscribing to a podcast is no longer a commitment to listen to every episode. You don’t have to manage a huge list of subscriptions or choose a few shows and miss the rest.


WHY OUR USERS LOVE CASTRO

• Drag and drop podcasts to plan your listening with Castro’s unique queue
• An elegant dark mode and thoughtfully designed sleep timer offer the best in night time podcast listening.
• CarPlay support makes it easy to pick up where you left off while driving.
• Apple Watch app to control playback and select another episode from your queue.
• Episode notifications include a summary of the episode to help you decide if it interests you. Play, queue or clear the episode directly from the notification without opening the app.


CASTRO PLUS

Castro Plus is an optional paid subscription available for $24.99/year (includes a one-week trial). Plus unlocks a range of advanced features:

• Trim Silence — With this option on, the app will analyze audio as it plays to detect silent parts and accelerate those parts. Get through more episodes faster.
• Enhance Voices improves the listening experience for many podcasts and makes it easier to hear in loud environments. Under the hood, Enhance Voices applies a dynamic compressor to increase volume just where it’s needed.
• Sideloading: Import audio files directly, just by dropping them in iCloud Drive
• Mono-Mix — Mixes a stereo podcast to mono, which makes it easier to hear podcasts that pan some guests on left/right channels.
• Chapter Support: Artwork, Skipping & Pre-selection.
• Custom settings per-podcast: Episode Limit, Trim Silence, Enhance Voices, Mono Mix, Skip Intros, Playback Speed.


WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

“Castro 3 is an incredible app.”
— The Sweet Setup

“Castro 3 is everything Castro already was, but better.”
— MacStories

Castro 3 Is a Great Modern Podcast App”
— Beautiful Pixels

“Unlike other podcatchers, Castro's primary virtue is its simplicity and ease of use. The app combines sleek visual design with crystal clear audio.”
— Tom’s Guide


CASTRO PLUS SUBSCRIPTION TERMS

Castro Plus costs $24.99 per year. Prices are in US dollars and may vary in countries other than the US.

Castro Plus is charged to your iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase. It will renew on the day before the current subscription period ends. You can cancel auto-renewal any time from the Castro settings screen.

You can switch between the two subscription periods after you pick one, but your trial period will end immediately if you do, so it's best to wait till your free week is over before changing.

Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period. Subscriptions may be managed by the user and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to the user's Account Settings after purchase. Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription to that publication, where applicable.

Privacy Policy & Terms of Use: https://castro.fm/privacy-policy

## Key features

- Smart episode queue
- CarPlay compatibility
- Trim silence
- Enhance voices
- Chapter support
- Sideloading audio files
- Dark mode and sleep timer

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**Subscriptions**

| Subscription | Price | Period |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Castro Plus Annual | $24.99 | per year |
| Castro Plus Quarterly | $9.99 | per 3 months |
| Castro Plus Monthly | $3.99 | per month |
| Early Supporter Special | $24.99 | per year |
| Castro Plus Family Plan | $39.99 | per year |
| Early Supporter Family Plan | $39.99 | per year |


## Chart rankings

- #198 in Top Grossing · News (US App Store)

## What do users think of Castro?

Overall sentiment: positive

**Pros**

- 🚀 Intuitive workflow
- 👍 Elegant and polished UI
- 📚 Effective podcast management
- 🎨 Customizable playback options
- 💯 Best podcast app for heavy listeners

**Cons**

- 🐛 Buggy behavior (freezing, crashes, playback issues)
- 🔍 Lacking podcast discovery features
- 💰 Expensive subscription model
- 🔌 Poor Apple Watch integration
- 📱 No iPad app

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Podcasts not updating properly
- Playback not resuming after interruptions
- Inconsistent behavior when switching audio sources
- Podcast artwork not loading consistently

**Most requested features**

- Add chapter support
- Implement silence trimming
- Provide per-podcast playback settings
- Introduce podcast transcript display
- Add cloud sync between devices

## Recent user reviews (10 of 597)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/castro-podcast-app-and-player/id1080840241/reviews.md

### 5/5 — Incredible free version

*2026-07-29, version 2026.7.1*

Came from pocketcasts after they started using gen AI chapters. I feel like I wasted two years using it because Castro has been much less buggy for me so far! My only feedback is that the UI feels kind of messy, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. Really amazing work, thank you!!

### 4/5 — Favorite Podcast Player, Buggy CarPlay Support

*2026-07-28, version 2026.7.1*

It’s still my favorite podcast player, even if I have to regularly quit the app from my phone because the CarPlay app froze or won’t play sound.

### 2/5 — Downloading Errors Recently

*2026-07-19, version 2026.7.1*

Made castro my default podcast player a few months back, and, until recently, it worked very well. But downloading errors have become the rule, not the exception of late. 
What’s more, when there’s a downloading error, the episode in question still leaves my inbox—as if it had been successfully downloaded, which it hadn’t. This means I have to manually find the show, locate the episode, and hope that it downloads this time.

### 5/5 — Still the best

*2026-07-17, version 2026.7.1*

The "Inbox" metaphor is a great way to triage a lot of podcast subscriptions.

### 2/5 — DINK!!!

*2026-07-16, version 2026.7.1*

Does someone on your design team think that the sound of a sharp, ear piercing ‘dink!’ is a pleasant thing to put in your head every time there’s an error? Especially when that error is merely transferring from an area of wifi to 5G or vice versa? Especially since it happens several times a day and every other podcast app doesn’t freak out every time you switch connections?

Why do you willingly inflict pain on your app subscribers? Why does your app feel like you hate us? Stop stabbing me in the ears, please. And tell your app not to break down in tears every time I leave a wifi area.

### 3/5 — Bugs Have Appeared

*2026-07-16, version 2026.7.1*

I have lately noticed that about 1 in 10 of my queued, downloaded programs is immediately and silently skipped. I have also been getting a lot of errors trying to download.

### 1/5 — garbage search feature garbage user interface

*2026-07-10, version 2026.7*

Somehow it is still the best podcast app.

### 1/5 — Yet another rent seeking podcast app

*2026-07-06, version 2026.7*

I’d make a crack about podcast apps being super easy to squirt out, but this one wasn’t even written. The developer just bought a free app and started charging for it. Clever.

### 5/5 — It’s a breeze

*2026-07-03, version 2026.7*

Ordering the queue is a piece of cake. Love  your podcasts! Take control.

### 1/5 — has become almost completely unusable

*2026-06-25, version 2026.5.1*

Now it’s crashing every time I add a podcast to the queue. Every morning I have about a half a dozen new episodes from three or four different podcasts. Each time I go into a different podcast new episode list it hangs up and I have to exit the app and restart and go back in to add the episode and then go on to the next, where it crashes again. I have to do this three or four times each morning to set up my queue.

## Frequently asked questions about Castro

### What does Castro do?

Castro is a podcast player designed to help you manage and listen to your favorite shows efficiently. It features a smart queue system that allows you to organize episodes, skip unwanted content, and enjoy a seamless listening experience. The app also offers advanced playback options and CarPlay compatibility.

### What are the key features of Castro?

Key features include a drag-and-drop queue for planning your listening, CarPlay support for driving, an Apple Watch app for playback control, and episode notifications with summaries. The optional Castro Plus subscription unlocks advanced features like Trim Silence, Enhance Voices, sideloading, Mono-Mix, and chapter support.

### How much does Castro cost?

The basic version of Castro is free to use. An optional subscription called Castro Plus is available for $24.99 per year, which includes a one-week trial. This subscription unlocks a range of advanced features for an enhanced listening experience.

### What devices is Castro compatible with?

Castro is available for iOS devices, including iPhones and iPads. It also features CarPlay support for in-car listening and an Apple Watch app for convenient playback control on your wrist.

### How can I use Castro to manage my podcasts?

New episodes appear in the 'NEW' tab where you can read descriptions and add desired episodes to your 'QUEUE'. You can re-order your queue at any time to plan your listening. Your 'LIBRARY' allows you to browse past episodes, access starred shows, and view your listening history, making it easy to manage a large number of subscriptions without feeling overwhelmed.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 2026.7.1 — 2026-07-15

Revamp downloads

- Fix a number of issues where files wouldn't be deleted properly
- Fix "grace period" and make it apply in more situations
- Add episode downloads menu in settings to review your downloaded files
- Add option to manually download file in inbox or past queue length

### 2026.7 — 2026-07-02

Important fixes for sideloading along with other bug fixes.

### 2026.6 — 2026-07-01

- Fix the biggest crash in the app
- Fix several performance issues, particularly when the app is starting up
- Add some French into the app
- Localize certain time/date information
- Fix an issue with cached dates, so the lists might say 'Today' but it was actually yesterday
- Add an MCP server to the website so LLMs can parse Castro information more easily

### 2026.5.1 — 2026-06-13

- Fix now-playing not following top-of-queue in certain cases
- Add ‘All’ tab to listening stats
- Add more items to listening stats episode dialog and fix some text that wasn’t centered
- Fix an issue where syncing a secondary device could fail due to database errors
- Fix an issue where playback could stall and get stuck

### 2026.5 — 2026-05-07

- Fix a crash related to the watch app
- Fix a crash related to bad data in the database
- Fix an issue where watch sync would require Castro Plus

Castro is funded directly by those who love it. If you love Castro, you should subscribe.

## Apps similar to Castro

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| [Podbean Podcast App & Player](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/podbean-podcast-app-and-player/id973361050) | 4.8 (53,925) | Free | News |

## More apps by Bluck Apps

- [Pod Seek: AI Podcast Finder](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pod-seek-ai-podcast-finder/id6752532969)
- [Gravitas: Charisma & Aura App](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/gravitas-charisma-and-aura-app/id6767658034)

All apps by Bluck Apps: https://appshunter.io/developer/1734049168

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-29.*