Castro: Podcast App & Player

Name: Castro: Podcast App & Player
Rating: 4.6 (9173 reviews)
Author: Bluck Apps

By: Bluck Apps App

Queue & listen to pod episodes

Overview

Version:

2026.7.1

Last updated: 2026-07-15

Features & Capabilities

Castro is a beautiful, full-featured podcast player that makes it easy to track and manage lots of podcasts at the same time. Queue hours of episodes, download them automatically, and enjoy a seamless listening experience with CarPlay compatibility, chapter support, and a thoughtful sleep timer.

Castro Plus unlocks advanced features like Trim Silence, Enhance Voices, direct sideloading from iCloud Drive, Mono-Mix, and per-podcast settings. It also includes chapter support, a streamlined workflow, and notifications to help you decide what to listen to next.

User Growth & Download Statistics

App Music & Audio Entertainment News & Magazines

By:

Bluck Apps

Rating:

4.60

(9,173) 4 new ratings

Version:

2026.7.1 Last updated: 2026-07-15

Version code:

887758528

Creation date:

2016-08-15

Compatible devices:

Size:

166.39MB

URLs:

Website ,Privacy policy

Full description:

Source:

Apple Apps Store

Data ingested on:

2026-08-31

Compare stats and ranking:

Ranking

# 18,826 ▼ 42

Other rankings

#8 in Keep Up With Your Podcasts #12 in cache keyword 43 ▲

For Developers

Monetize with App Pass Boost with Extension Booster

Contact the developer

Chrome-Stats does not own this Apple app. Please use these information below to contact the Apple app developer.

Developed by:

Bluck Apps

Apple Apps Store

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/castro-podcast-app-player/id1080840241

Website:

https://castro.fm

User Reviews

Castro is praised for its queue/inbox workflow, beautiful simple UI, reliability and regular feature updates, plus strong discovery and customization options (download a single episode, smart speed, sideloading). Recurrent complaints focus on stability problems (crashes, lag, startup freezes), updates that reset settings or wipe the queue, intrusive upgrade prompts and ads, sideloading issues, and accessibility problems with VoiceOver and chapters. Overall, the app offers a standout workflow and design, but its usefulness is offset by ongoing quality and accessibility concerns when updates roll out.

Pros

Queue & Inbox workflow is unbeatable for organizing and discovering episodes.
Beautiful, simple UI with intuitive navigation and polished animations.
Reliable performance with fast playback and regular feature updates.
Advanced features and customization (smart speed, silence skipping, Siri Shortcuts, chapters) and the ability to download individual episodes without subscribing.
Sideloading support enables flexible workflows and content sources.

Cons

Frequent bugs, crashes, lag, and startup freezes that affect reliability.
Updates that reset settings or wipe the queue, breaking user workflows.
Intrusive upgrade prompts and ads, even for paying users.
Sideloading and related features sometimes broken or unreliable.
Accessibility issues with VoiceOver, particularly around chapter navigation and chapter lists.

Recent reviews

Came from pocketcasts after they started using gen AI chapters. I feel like I wasted two years using it because Castro has been much less buggy for me so far! My only feedback is that the UI feels kind of messy, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. Really amazing work, thank you!!

by so*****, 2026-07-29

Made castro my default podcast player a few months back, and, until recently, it worked very well. But downloading errors have become the rule, not the exception of late. What’s more, when there’s a downloading error, the episode in question still leaves my inbox—as if it had been successfully downloaded, which it hadn’t. This means I have to manually find the show, locate the episode, and hope that it downloads this time.