Druthers vs Castor

Druthers is a podcast player built around one queue that fills itself. You add what you want, it suggests the rest, and every suggestion tells you why it's there. It also skips the ads it finds and makes a transcript of everything you download, all on your phone. ONE QUEUE Everything you play goes through one list. The episodes you added come first, and below them Druthers suggests what to hear next from the shows you follow. When an episode ends, the next one plays. Switch suggestions off and nothing else changes; the list is simply yours. WHAT IT SUGGESTS, AND WHY A suggestion weighs how much you like a show against how new the episode is. New is judged by each show's own rhythm, so a monthly show's episode stays fresh longer than a daily one's, and no single show can take over the top of the list. Each suggestion carries its reason: it's a favorite, it's fresh, you finish these, you usually listen around now. Press and hold one to see the numbers behind it. YOUR DRUTHERS COME FIRST What you tell it always outranks what it worked out. Favorite a show to hear it sooner, or ask to hear one less often. Play Next moves an episode to the front. Not Interested takes one away for good. Follow a series in order, starting from any episode. An episode you've started keeps its place in the queue. One you abandoned early drops out after two weeks. IT SKIPS THE ADS IT FINDS Each download is transcribed on your phone, and the sponsor reads found in it are skipped as you reach them, with an Undo. Nothing is cut from the file. The breaks are marked on the scrubber, so you can skip by hand instead, turn skipping off for one show, or tell it when it got one wrong. READ IT, SEARCH IT Every transcript is timed to the audio, so you can read along and tap a line to jump there. Search finds what was said in an episode, not only what it was called. Chapters are listed in the player. HOW IT SOUNDS Tighten shortens long pauses without speeding anyone up. Clarity lifts quiet recordings. Set the speed you like, and let any show keep its own settings. THE REST Subscribe by search or feed URL, bring your library from another app with an OPML file, or try a single episode without subscribing. Downloads and offline playback, with one screen showing what's on your phone and what went wrong if anything did. Lock-screen and Bluetooth controls, and a sleep timer that fades out. A listening history you can read: what you played, when, for how long, and which shows you keep coming back to. Export everything to one file, and restore it whenever you need to. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account, no analytics, no tracking, and no ads of its own. Transcripts and ad detection run on your phone, and there is no server of mine for your listening to go to. Druthers is made by one person. iPhone only, iOS 26 or later.

Castor is a simple, beautiful podcast app that respects your privacy. Subscribe to your favorite shows, download episodes and listen at your own pace on your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch or in the car. FREE, FOREVER • Search for any podcast or add it by its feed URL, including paid ones. Import your subscriptions with OPML. • Automatic downloads of the latest episode, so you can listen without a signal. • Up Next: your episode queue, arranged the way you like with a simple swipe. • Per-podcast speed, chapters, 15- and 30-second skips and a sleep timer. • Alerts for new episodes from your favorite podcasts. • Everything synced with iCloud across your devices. • Widgets, Control Center, Siri and Shortcuts. • "Your Year in Castor": how much you've listened, your favorite podcasts and what kind of beaver you are. CASTOR PRO (one-time purchase, no subscription, with a 14-day free trial) • Transcripts: read what's being said in any episode. Castor uses the podcast's own transcripts or creates them on your device, without sending the audio to any server. (Requires a device that supports Apple Intelligence.) • Search for a phrase across all your podcasts and jump to that exact moment. • Ask your podcasts questions and summarize episodes with Apple Intelligence. • Recommendations for new podcasts, worked out on your device from what you listen to. • Bookmarks with notes, exportable to Markdown. • Smart Queue: new episodes from your favorites go straight into Up Next. • CarPlay: your queue, your downloads and your podcasts on your car's screen. • Apple Watch: download episodes to your watch and listen with headphones, without your iPhone. YOUR PRIVACY COMES FIRST Castor has no accounts, no ads and no trackers. Your subscriptions and history stay on your devices and in your iCloud.