Castro vs Crew
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Castro
Manage and listen to your favorite podcasts with a smart queue system. Organize episodes, skip unwanted content, and enjoy features like CarPlay and chapter support. Unlock advanced tools with an optional subscription.
- Smart episode queue
- CarPlay compatibility
- Trim silence
- Enhance voices
- Chapter support
- Sideloading audio files
- Dark mode and sleep timer
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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
Crew
This app provides a native iOS experience for browsing Stack Overflow content. It offers a clean, ad-free interface with powerful navigation and filtering tools for questions, answers, and comments. Enjoy a streamlined way to engage with the developer community.
- Native iOS design
- Ad-free browsing
- Powerful question filters
- Dark mode
- Real-time question previews
- Gesture navigation
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#PH daily pick 29/01/2020 "Crew brings the web service to a native app with a beautiful UI that makes browsing Stack Overflow much nicer than on the web." - MacStories "Crew isn't just an app, though. It's been designed with iOS guidelines in mind, making it look and feel every bit the native iPhone and iPad experience in a way the Stack Overflow website just can't match." - iMore Crew is a beautiful StackOverflow app built for fast navigation with powerful set of features. The delightful interface is coupled with extensive features that feel part on your device, whilst elevating your Stack Overflow experience. It’s created specifically with iOS design guidelines in mind, so it fits right at home on your device. Browse question without distraction or ads, use filter, add comments, or visit specific website areas like tags profile or badges section. You can quickly view list, tabs, inbox, notifications and more using gestures and context menu. Crew is an unofficial app, and side effects may include an incredible browsing experience. EXCITING FEATURES: - Trends and search support - All questions,answers and comments from Stack Overflow in your hands. - Search support - Rich rendering of questions - Dark mode - Beautiful iOS centric Ui - Universal app for iPhone and iPad. - Compose question with real time previews. - Powerful question filters (month, week, votes and more) It’s constatly evolving. If you have anything you’d specifically like to see, come to the Settings section and text me, I’d love to hear it! This app is not affiliated with or endorsed by Stack Overflow. Terms Of Use: https://www.danieljamestronca.com/crew/terms-of-use Privacy Policy: https://www.danieljamestronca.com/crew/privacy-policy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ratings volume: Castro at 9.2K against Crew's 65. Castro also leads on rating (4.6 vs 4.4). On price, review sentiment, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Castro sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and Crew sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Castro holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Castro has 9.2K ratings behind it against 65, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 64% of Castro's written reviews are positive against 68% of Crew's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Castro ships an update weekly, Crew every 10 days. Both last shipped on October 27, 2026.
| Parameter | Castro | Crew |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (9.2K ratings) — better | 4.4 (65 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 63.8% of reviews | 67.6% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 9.2K — better | 65 |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 10 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 167 MB | 59 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Bluck Apps | Daniel James Tronca |
Customer experience
Castro
Crew
Bugs and requests
Castro
Reported bugs
4 issues- Podcasts not updating properly
- Playback not resuming after interruptions
- Inconsistent behavior when switching audio sources
- Podcast artwork not loading consistently
Requested features
5 requests- Add chapter support
- Implement silence trimming
- Provide per-podcast playback settings
- Introduce podcast transcript display
- Add cloud sync between devices
Crew
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Castro
- Castro Plus Monthly$3.991 Month
- Castro Plus Quarterly7 Days trial$9.993 Months
- Castro Plus Annual7 Days trial$24.991 Year
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- Early Supporter Special7 Days trial$24.991 Year
- Castro Plus Family Plan7 Days trial$39.991 Year
- Early Supporter Family Plan7 Days trial$39.991 Year
Crew
- Monthly Subscription$1.991 Month
- Yearly Subscription3 Days trial$19.991 Year
- Smoothie-sized Tip$0.99
- Sandwich-sized tip$2.99
- Buffet-sized Tip$7.99
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- Deluxe-sized tip$16.99
- Lifetime Subscritpion$39.99









