Podcat vs Lysten
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Podcat
This podcast client offers advanced features for managing and listening to your favorite shows. It supports various chapter marker types and provides community-specific enhancements. Enjoy customizable playback speeds, sleep timers, and intelligent episode sorting.
- Supports Podlove and chapter markers
- Customizable playback speed per podcast
- Sleep timer
- Manual and automatic episode sorting
- Background downloading of new episodes
- CarPlay support
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Podcat 3 is the German podcast reference. You are looking for a Podcatcher that supports Podlove, can display any kind of chapter markers and also offers some special features especially for the German speaking community? Then you are right with the Podcat 2. The Podcat can have different speeds per podcast and has a sleep timer. Episodes can be sorted manually and played accordingly. You can sort podcasts into groups or use automatic groups with search options. For all podcasts, there are a variety of settings that will make your everyday life easier. New episodes are automatically searched for and downloaded in the background. You decide whether to attach them to the playlist or play them directly next. Subscribed but not heard so regularly? Then just do not put the episode into the list. It's your choice. And Carplay? No problem!
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.
- Privacy-focused design
- iCloud sync for progress
- Offline episode downloads
- Interactive widgets
- Sleep timer
- Adjustable playback speed
- Spotlight search indexing
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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
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Podcat at 5.0 against Lysten's 4.4. Lysten's advantage is review sentiment (80% vs 68%). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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. Podcat sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $8.99 per year and Lysten sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Podcat holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 10 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 68% of Podcat's written reviews are positive against 80% of Lysten's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 21, 2026 and August 16, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Podcat | Lysten |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (4 ratings) — better | 4.4 (10 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 68.2% of reviews | 80.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 4 | 10 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 24 MB | 44 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Jeanette Mueller | Ambi Studio AB |
Customer experience
Podcat
Lysten
In-app purchases
Podcat
- Subscription$8.991 Year
- Food donation$1.99
- Food donation$2.99
- Food Donation$4.99
Lysten
- Lysten+3 Days trial$1.991 Month
- Lysten+ Yearly7 Days trial$19.991 Year








