opencast vs PageFeed
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
opencast
A native podcast client focused on direct RSS listening. Subscribe to shows, manage your library, and stream episodes with customizable playback controls. The app is open source and designed for a clutter-free listening experience.
- Direct RSS feed subscription
- Podcast library management
- Episode playback with progress saving
- Customizable playback controls
- iCloud sync for subscriptions and progress
- Open source code
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opencast finds the ad breaks in your podcasts and skips them. It is also yours. There is no opencast account, no tracking SDK, and no ads of our own. Subscriptions and listening progress sync through your private iCloud, any RSS feed works, and the source code is MIT-licensed on GitHub. Transcripts are made on your device with Apple Speech or Whisper. Follow along as the episode plays and tap any line to jump there. Search everything said in the episodes you've transcribed. Generate chapters and a summary for any transcribed episode. Voice Boost is a broadcast-style leveler for quiet hosts and loud rooms. ~how ad skipping works~ Tap Detect Ads on an episode, or turn on automatic detection for a show, and your phone transcribes it. opencast checks the transcript for promo and sponsor reads and marks every break on the timeline and in the transcript. High-confidence breaks skip automatically. Borderline sponsor reads are marked but never skipped, so you decide. Queue a batch, keep listening, and get one notification when detection finishes. Detection works from the transcript text, not the audio. ~what the app can do for you~ • Skips ad breaks automatically, with one-tap undo • Transcripts on device, with tap-to-seek and follow-along highlighting • Full-text search across titles, notes, and transcripts in your library • Generated chapters and summaries for episodes with a transcript • Voice Boost, speed, sleep timer, AirPlay, and Up Next • Per-show intro and outro skip • CarPlay and Siri integration • New-episode notifications with no promotions inside • Search the podcast directory or subscribe by RSS URL • OPML import and export • Downloads for offline listening • Private iCloud sync for subscriptions and progress • Native SwiftUI for iOS 27, on iPhone and iPad ~optional and paid~ On-device transcription and ad skipping are free. Remote Transcription, cloud ad detection, and Chapters & Summary are optional and use transcription hours: the first hour is free, then 20 hours for $0.99 or 100 hours for $4.99, in the US. Remote Transcription and cloud ad detection process episode audio only for the jobs you request. Chapters & Summary sends transcript text, never audio. You see the estimate before a Remote Transcription or Chapters & Summary job starts. Remote transcription and summaries are offered at-cost. opencast is open source under the MIT license: https://github.com/connlark/opencast Your listening is not a growth funnel.
PageFeed
This news reader presents content in a book-like, page-turning format, eliminating scrolling. Organize your favorite sources, read offline, and enjoy a distraction-free experience with customizable text and themes.
- Page-based reading, no scrolling
- Organized by source, not algorithm
- Distraction-free reading experience
- On-device article summaries
- Customizable tagging and filtering
- Offline reading capability
- Adjustable text and high-contrast theme
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PageFeed is a different kind of news reader, built for reading, not scrolling. Featured by Six Colors, iPhoneBlog.de and iphone-ticker.de: the news reader you page through like a book. The sites, blogs, and writers you follow, laid out in clean, full pages. You tap forward and back, like turning pages in a book. Nothing scrolls. Every page is set to fit, so you always know exactly where you are. WHY PAGEFEED • Read in pages, never scroll. A calm, book-like way through every story, and on iPad, a two-page spread like an open book. • Your sources in order, not by algorithm. Newest or oldest first, your choice. Nothing is promoted, hidden, or reordered for you. • Group your sources. Organize the sites you follow into your own categories and read one topic at a time. • Private sync, your way. Sync through your own iCloud account to keep your iPhone and iPad in step, or through your own Google Drive to sync cross-platform, including the web. Either way, we never see your reading. Prefer simple? A free PageFeed sync account also works everywhere. • Summaries on device. On an iPhone or iPad with Apple Intelligence, get the gist of any article in a few private, on-device bullet points. • Tags, on your terms. Every story is tagged, so you can follow a topic or mute one and never see it in your feed again. • Save anything. Share a web page to PageFeed to keep it, and star the stories you want to come back to. • Works offline. Once loaded, your reading is there on the subway, on a plane, anywhere. It catches up when you're back online. • Find your sources. Browse hundreds of publications by topic in Discover, and follow the ones you like. • Adjustable type and a high-contrast theme. Set the text size and switch to an easy-on-the-eyes look. PageFeed is deliberately minimal: no noise, no infinite scroll, no clutter. Just the news you choose, in order, one page at a time.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: PageFeed at 5.0 against opencast's 4.4. PageFeed also leads on update cadence (every 5 days vs every 10 days) and review sentiment (100% vs 90%). 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
Both are free to download. opencast sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and PageFeed sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
PageFeed holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 8 and 3 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 90% of opencast's written reviews are positive against 100% of PageFeed's.
opencast ships an update every 10 days, PageFeed every 5 days. Both last shipped on October 28, 2026.
| Parameter | opencast | PageFeed |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (8 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 90.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 8 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 10 days | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 27.0 | 26.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 76 MB | 10 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Connor Larkin | Brad Moss |
Customer experience
opencast
PageFeed
In-app purchases
opencast
- 20 Transcription Hours$0.99
- 100 Transcription Hours$4.99
PageFeed
- PageFeed Unlock$9.99









