Comparison

Lysten vs Stacks

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

Head to head
About

Lysten

Easily discover and listen to podcasts with a privacy-focused player. Enjoy features like offline listening, interactive widgets, and seamless sharing with friends. Syncs via iCloud for a personal experience.

Highlights
  • Privacy-focused design
  • iCloud sync for progress
  • Offline episode downloads
  • Interactive widgets
  • Sleep timer
  • Adjustable playback speed
  • Spotlight search indexing
Features
Read full description

Start listening in seconds — search for any show, follow it, and get a clean list of episodes ready to play. Share episodes and shows with anyone, whether or not they have the app. iPhone and iPad users get an App Clip that drops them straight into playback. Tap the share button to invite your friends and loved ones. Lysten is a lightweight podcast player. Sign in with your email to keep your followed shows, episodes, and listening progress in sync across all your devices — iPhone, iPad, and CarPlay. Features: - Sync your library and listening progress across devices with a simple email sign-in - Interactive widgets showing your feed and unfinished episodes — catch up where you left off with a tap - Sidebar on iPad with cover art and grouped sections - CarPlay support, including a Continue Listening carousel - Download episodes to listen offline — long press an episode and select Download - Sleep timer, set, enjoy & sleep - Adjustable playback speed - Podcasts and episodes indexed in Spotlight - SharePlay support — listen to episodes with friends and family - Extremely lightweight If you run into any trouble or have any questions, please reach out: - E-mail: support@ambi.se - X (Twitter): @ambiApps - Mastodon: @ambiApps@mastodon.social Privacy policy: https://ambi.se/privacy Terms of use: https://ambi.se/terms

About

Stacks

A distraction-free reader for newsletters, blogs, and podcasts that downloads content for offline access. Enjoy your favorite content anywhere, even without an internet connection, with smart automatic downloads and a clean interface.

Highlights
  • Fully offline content access
  • Smart automatic downloading
  • Distraction-free reading interface
  • Built-in podcast player
  • Fast full-text search
  • Private by design, no account needed
Features
Read full description

Stacks is a calm, fully offline reader for the newsletters, blogs, and podcasts you already follow. Add any Substack or RSS feed and Stacks downloads the full articles, images, and podcast episodes to your iPhone so you can read and listen anywhere, even with no signal. On a plane, on the subway, off the grid: nothing buffers, nothing reloads. WHY YOU'LL LIKE IT • Truly offline — full article text, images, and audio are stored on your device for reading and listening with no connection. • A clean, distraction-free reader with adjustable text size, light and dark themes, and a built-in podcast player. • Smart automatic downloading keeps your latest posts ready and manages storage for you. • Fast full-text search across everything you've saved. • Collapsible comment threads, when you want them. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Stacks has no servers of its own, no account, and no analytics. Everything it downloads stays on your device and goes nowhere else. No tracking, no ads. No account is required: just add a feed and pull to refresh. ——— Not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Substack Inc.

Screenshots

Lysten4 screens
Stacks4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Stacks at 5.0 against Lysten's 4.4. Stacks also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 2) and update cadence (daily vs every 2 months). Lysten's advantage is ratings volume (10 vs 2). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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. Lysten sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Stacks asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Stacks holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Lysten has 10 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 80% of Lysten's written reviews are positive against 100% of Stacks's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Lysten ships an update every 2 months, Stacks daily. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Lysten versus Stacks: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLystenStacks
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (10 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews80.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings10 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsDaily — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size44 MB7 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAmbi Studio ABRichard Russell

Customer experience

Lysten

All ratings10 ratings
Positive90.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative10.0%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive80.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative20.0%

Stacks

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Lysten

Subscriptions2
  • Lysten+3 Days trial$1.991 Month
  • Lysten+ Yearly7 Days trial$19.991 Year
None

Stacks

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Lysten free?
Lysten is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Stacks free?
Stacks is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Lysten or Stacks?
Stacks is rated higher. Lysten averages 4.4 out of 5 from 10 ratings, while Stacks averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Lysten or Stacks have ads?
Neither Lysten nor Stacks shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Lysten or Stacks?
Lysten ships an update every 2 months, and Stacks daily. Most recently, Lysten was updated on October 23, 2026 and Stacks on October 8, 2026.

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