Comparison

Playapod vs Liquid Apollo

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Playapod

Listen to podcasts with advanced features like cross-platform syncing, precise episode tracking, and offline playback. Bookmark favorite moments, enjoy video and text-to-speech content, and organize your listening with custom playlists and filters. It's a free, ad-free experience designed for dedicated podcast enthusiasts.

Highlights
  • Cross-platform device syncing
  • Second-by-second episode tracking
  • Time-coded bookmarking
  • Video and text-to-speech playback
  • Offline listening
  • Custom playlists and filters
  • CarPlay integration
Features
Read full description

Playapod is the best way to listen to your favorite podcasts and features cross-platform device syncing, episode tracking down to the second, remote media controls, offline listening, new episode notifications, bulk imports, fast performance, no ads, and more! • Multi-Device Sync Sync all your podcast subscriptions and episode progress between multiple devices and across all platforms! Just sign-in with your favorite social network or with e-mail. • Episode Tracking Tracks exactly the portions of episodes that you have listened down to the second. You'll never forget where you left off or what you skipped over! • Bookmarking Bookmark your favorite parts of any episode so you can quickly go back and listen again. Bookmarks are time-coded and synced across all your devices. • Video Playback (NEW v2 Feature) Video playback supported. Tapping on the video will toggle full-screen mode. • Text to Speech (NEW v2 Feature) Turn any text-based feed into an audio podcast with full progress bar support including scrubbing and bookmarking. Great for keeping up with the latest news and blogs. • Media Bar (NEW v2 Feature) Quickly access whatever is currently playing by tapping on the media bar at the bottom of the screen. It’s always on with quick access to play/pause. Tap the bar to bring up the full media player view. • Recommendations (NEW v2 Feature) Our recommendation engine will suggest new subscriptions you might enjoy. • Groups & Filters (NEW v2 Feature) Filter content by favorites, category, media flags, content type, and time. Save filters into Groups for quick one-touch access. • Media Files (NEW v2 Feature) Add media files such as audio, video, and text files to Playapod using iTunes File Sharing for local playback. • Car Play Driving with your iPhone puts your Playapod Now Playing queue right on your car's built-in display. • Custom Playlist Create a custom playlist of your podcast episodes. Drag and drop reordering makes it easy to listen to your favorite shows all day without device interaction. • Media Controls Toggle playback and skip forward and backwards quickly using lockscreen and bluetooth controls. • Listen Offline Download entire podcasts and listen on the go without a network connection or cellular data charges. • Free & No Ads Free download with no advertising! There are no bulky 3rd party ad networks that are known to kill battery life, slow performance, and consume network bandwidth. • Push Notifications Get new episode notifications so you stay on top of your favorite shows. Toggle notifications in the app settings. • Import Podcasts Quickly bulk import a list of podcasts with OPML files (Outline Processor Markup Language XML Files). • Advanced Configuration Lots of settings to customize and tweak the behavior of the Playapod app. Custom settings available for each subscription too! • Customer Support Our developers listen to your feedback and quickly fix all reported issues. Join our Facebook Page and start a discussion! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playapod/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/playapod Website: https://playapod.com/

About

Liquid Apollo

Access a wide range of AI language models, both locally on your device and through cloud APIs. This app allows you to chat with open-source models, connect to your own hosted LLMs, or utilize services like OpenRouter for broad model access.

Highlights
  • Local LLM support
  • OpenRouter integration
  • Custom backend connections
  • Private AI chat
  • Access to open-source models
  • Connect to hosted LLMs
Features
Read full description

Chat with private, local AI models, connect to every open source AI, or your own locally-hosted private LLMs. Apollo is your own customizable client for accessing language models from all around the web. Local model support (powered by LEAP, a Liquid AI product): run smaller LLMs privately and securely on-device. OpenRouter support: bring an OpenRouter API key to chat with every model on the web. Just sign in by creating an account over at OpenRouter and paste it in to Apollo to access nearly every model, from open source models like Meta Llama 3, to closed source models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4. Custom Backend support: want ChatGPT at home? Run an LLM on your computer with tools like LM Studio or Ollama and connect to it with Apollo to host your own private ChatGPT-like mobile app for your family.

Screenshots

Playapod4 screens
Liquid Apollo4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Liquid Apollo at every 10 days against Playapod's every 3 months. Playapod's advantage is rating (4.7 vs 4.5) and review sentiment (79% vs 68%). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Playapod holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 620 and 653 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 79% of Playapod's written reviews are positive against 68% of Liquid Apollo's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Playapod ships an update every 3 months, Liquid Apollo every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Playapod versus Liquid Apollo: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPlayapodLiquid Apollo
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (620 ratings) — better4.5 (653 ratings)
Positive reviews79.2% of reviews — better68.2% of reviews
Number of ratings620653 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 10 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS13.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size25 MB162 MB
Age rating12+12+
DeveloperTMSOFTLiquid AI, Inc.

Customer experience

Playapod

All ratings620 ratings
Positive92.7%
Neutral3.7%
Negative3.5%
Written reviews77 reviews
Positive79.2%
Neutral9.1%
Negative11.7%

Liquid Apollo

All ratings653 ratings
Positive87.7%
Neutral3.7%
Negative8.6%
Written reviews151 reviews
Positive68.2%
Neutral11.3%
Negative20.5%

User reviews

Playapod

From 620 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Honest and caring app
  • 🚀 Works perfectly on iOS
  • 🚀 Plays both video and audio podcasts
  • 🚀 Easily share podcast clips
  • 👍 Fantastic individual settings

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Issues with video podcast downloads
  • 🐛 Podcast playback issues (pausing, resuming, background playback)
  • 🐛 Inconsistent episode marking as played
  • 🔋 High battery consumption
  • 🐛 Syncing issues and data loss

Liquid Apollo

From 653 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Great app
  • 🚀 Works well with OpenRouter
  • 🚀 Excellent for running local models
  • 🚀 Convenient one-time purchase
  • 🚀 Clean and intuitive UI

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes frequently
  • 🐛 Glitches when editing messages
  • 🐛 Inconsistent message formatting
  • 🐛 Slow performance with larger conversations
  • 🔒 Unable to disable app transport security

Bugs and requests

Playapod

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Podcast downloads failing or timing out
  • Playlist issues (not playing next episode, losing queue)
  • Episodes marked as played before finishing
  • Inconsistent behavior on different devices and platforms
  • Data loss when device is turned off

Requested features

6 requests
  • Volume boost and normalization
  • Silence skip feature
  • Ability to reorder individual playlists
  • Video podcast playback support
  • Diagnostics and troubleshooting tools
Show 1 more
  • Search by episode title

Liquid Apollo

Reported bugs

6 issues
  • Unable to download Liquid Models
  • Deleted locally installed models
  • OpenRouter support crashes the app
  • Voice list doesn't load all available voices
  • Backspace lag leading to unintended text deletion
Show 1 more
  • Inconsistent behavior when using code blocks

Requested features

10 requests
  • Add support for more open-source models (e.g. Gemma 3)
  • Implement image generation and upload functionality
  • Allow scheduling of asynchronous tasks
  • Integrate with Hugging Face model repository
  • Provide built-in prompt library
Show 5 more
  • Add MCP (Multimodal Conversation Protocol) support
  • Enable direct OpenAI API integration
  • Improve voice chat functionality
  • Add option to delete all chat history
  • Implement search and filtering for chat history

In-app purchases

None

Playapod

No in-app purchases

None

Liquid Apollo

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Playapod free?
Playapod is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Liquid Apollo free?
Liquid Apollo is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Playapod or Liquid Apollo?
Playapod is rated higher. Playapod averages 4.7 out of 5 from 620 ratings, while Liquid Apollo averages 4.5 from 653 ratings.
Do Playapod or Liquid Apollo have ads?
Neither Playapod nor Liquid Apollo shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Playapod or Liquid Apollo?
Playapod ships an update every 3 months, and Liquid Apollo every 10 days. Most recently, Playapod was updated on October 15, 2026 and Liquid Apollo on October 16, 2026.

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