I've been using Pocket Casts on the iPhone and Apple Watch for quite a while now. The price of $1-1.50 was very fair I thought. However, at the current price (40$) I'm definitely out, it's just more than I can afford for a single app.

Does anyone know of a comparable good app for podcasts, especially in combination with the Apple Watch? Or is there another way to get the subscription cheaper? I haven't found a way via a VPN, seems to be quite expensive in all countries now.

I have already tried Castro, Overcast, Apple Podcasts and iCatcher, all have synchronization problems (especially with the watch) or are simply much worse by design. Other apps don't even have the option to sort the podcasts by the latest published episode.

I know there are multiple threads about this, but with things changing constantly I am wondering what the best Podcast app is for the Watch once and for all (for the time being). I am actually a huge fan of Castro’s iPhone app and have been using it for around a decade. Their watch app is pretty broken and I have been patiently waiting for them to rewrite/fix it, but no dice yet anyway.

I want to disconnect from my phone as much as possible, but still listen to podcasts on my watch as I go. What’s most important to me is that they sync perfectly so I can switch seamlessly between Phone and Watch. Ideally I could even download podcasts using cellular but I am not married to that as long as I can preload a long playlist. I read in another thread that Pocketcast is currently the best, but hoping to obtain a bigger sample of advice before I change all my feeds over and go all in. Thank you!

UPDATE/EDIT: I tried native ios/watch app and I find it unusable. I think I am going back to Castro Plus and will just wait until they maybe one day fix the watch.

I want a podcast app which works seamlessly for both iPhone and Apple Watch and allows me to download podcasts onto my watch to listen offline, anyone have any suggestions?