YourPods vs Flat RSS
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
YourPods
This app offers a private and secure podcast listening experience with native playback across Apple devices. It features advanced audio controls, smart queueing, and robust data privacy, including self-hosting options.
- Trim Silence audio feature
- Smart 'Up Next' queue automation
- Per-podcast customization
- Native Apple Watch support
- Siri and CarPlay integration
- gPodder and self-hosting sync
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YourPods delivers a smooth and secure podcast experience across all your devices—even your vehicle. Native playback on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple CarPlay. No ads. No tracking. Ever. We believe your listening habits belong to you, which is why we give you total control over your data. Listen using a secure, local-only account to keep your library lightning-fast and 100% private right on your device. For self-hosters and privacy purists, YourPods offers seamless, native integration with gPodder-compatible servers (like Nextcloud gPodder Sync, NextPod, and RePod). Sync your entire library across devices on your own terms—without ever relying on Big Tech corporate clouds. Now in English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, and Dutch. PRIVACY YOU CAN SEE P3 — Privacy Preserving Playback strips tracking redirects from episode URLs before your device ever connects. SYNC YOUR WAY Choose how your data travels — or keep it local: - Vault Mode: Everything stays on your device. No account or server required. - Nextcloud / Self-Hosted: Bring your own gPodder-compatible server for full control. - gpodder.net: Free public sync with no server setup required. - YourPods Cloud: a free account syncs subscriptions and listening positions across your devices. YourPods Pro adds the web player, queue sync, stats, and notes sync — optional, never needed to use the app you bought. POWERFUL PLAYBACK - Per-podcast Listening Profiles: playback speed, skip intro, skip outro, auto-download, and AutoPilot queue management - Chapters read straight from the audio file, with chapter artwork — plus auto-extraction from show notes - Transcripts (SRT, VTT, JSON, Markdown, RTF, plain text), with search - Notes: annotate an episode while you listen, then export to Markdown, Obsidian, or Nextcloud - Trim silence, and a sleep timer with DriftOff Mode - Download episodes for offline listening - Smart episode notifications with per-podcast controls - Hide episodes to declutter without marking them played NATIVE APPLE ECOSYSTEM • One purchase: buy it once, use it on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. • Apple Watch Freedom: a full player on your wrist — download episodes for fast, offline, phone-free workouts. • Siri & Shortcuts: a complete actions catalog for hands-free listening and your own automations. • CarPlay: a beautifully integrated CarPlay UI. • Home Screen widget, Dynamic Island, and Lock Screen: feels like an app Apple designed themselves. TECHNICAL YourPods is open source. No advertising identifiers. No third-party analytics. The Privacy Manifest declares exactly what data is collected — and in Vault Mode, the answer is nothing. View the full data transparency screen in Settings. • Private Feeds: securely add password-protected premium RSS feeds (like Patreon). Stored locally with their credentials, never sync'd to any server. • Sync Backend: optimized for the gPodder Sync Nextcloud app (apps.nextcloud.com/apps/gpoddersync). Standard gPodder services may work, but are untested. • Protocol: implements the Open Podcast Sync protocol for subscriptions (SubscriptionDelta) and actions (EpisodeAction). • Architecture: written natively in Swift and SwiftUI. Playback runs on AVQueuePlayer with gapless auto-advance and automatic stream recovery. • Podcast 2.0: many features supported today, and we keep expanding. HUGE thank you to our TestFlight testers!! Get help or request features: https://asc.is/support/ Privacy Policy: https://yourpods.app/privacy
Flat RSS
Consolidate all your reading, watching, and listening into one calm, chronological feed. Save articles, videos, and podcasts from various sources, with offline access and cross-device sync. Enjoy a private, ad-free experience.
- Unified feed for RSS, podcasts, videos, social media
- Save articles, videos, and links to Stash
- Offline access for saved content
- Cross-device iCloud sync
- Ad-free and privacy-focused experience
- Customizable feed filtering
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Flat is one calm place for everything you read, watch, and listen to. Flat brings RSS, podcasts, videos, social feeds, and saved links together in one quiet place. No unread counts. No pressure. No algorithmic ranking. FOLLOW YOUR FAVORITE SOURCES • RSS, Atom, JSON feeds, podcasts, YouTube, Reddit, Mastodon, Bluesky, and more • Paste a URL or keyword and Flat finds the right source • Browse a clean chronological timeline • Filter by source, focus or hide feeds, and filter out unwanted keywords SAVE ANYTHING • Save articles, videos, podcasts, and links to your Stash • Save links from any app, browser, or Flat browser extension • Auto-stash items from feeds you never want to miss • Keep saved items until you are ready to come back LISTEN AND WATCH • Play podcasts and videos with playback progress synced across devices • Build your own audio and video queue • Use chapters and a sleep timer AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE • iPhone, iPad, and Mac • Automatic iCloud sync across devices • Offline access for saved articles, audio, and video podcasts PRIVACY FIRST • No ads • No tracking • No account required • Your reading data is not used for advertising FLAT PRO Start free with Stash, saved links from other apps, and up to 30 feeds. Upgrade to Flat Pro for unlimited feeds, so new articles, podcasts, and videos from all your favorite sources appear automatically in your timeline. A free trial is available. Just your content, at your pace. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://justasimple.app/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Flat RSS at Free against YourPods's $4.99. Flat RSS also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 56%). YourPods's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and chart position (#8 vs unranked). On update cadence, 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
Flat RSS is free to download; YourPods costs $4.99 up front. Flat RSS sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. YourPods asks for nothing beyond the download.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 10 days. Both last shipped on November 5, 2026.
| Parameter | YourPods | Flat RSS |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 55.6% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 10 days | Every 10 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Freemium — better |
| Best chart rank | #8 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 — better | 18.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 26 MB | 19 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | A Secret Company, LLC | Rene Fischer |
Customer experience
YourPods
Flat RSS
In-app purchases
YourPods
No in-app purchases
Flat RSS
- Flat Pro Monthly7 Days trial$3.991 Month
- Flat Pro Yearly7 Days trial$19.991 Year
- Flat Pro Lifetime$44.99









