Podcasts are an important part of media consumption for a lot of people today. While most listeners tend to consume podcasts on their mobile phone, listening on the desktop gives you more room and flexibility to integrate it to your current workflow. In this article, we’ll look at 8 of the best podcast clients that you can install on Linux today.
Content
- 1. gPodder
- 2. Amarok
- 3. Rhythmbox
- 4. Liferea
- 5. Newsboat and Podboat
- 6. MusicPod
- 7. GNOME Podcasts
- 8. Kasts
1. gPodder
gPodder is a simple, GUI-based podcatcher for Linux. It comes with a highly utilitarian interface that shows you everything you need to know about your podcast feeds. It’s also a cross-platform program, meaning you can install it on Linux, Windows, and MacOS.
When you first run gPodder, it will give you the following options: choose from a list of example podcasts, add a podcast by entering its URL, and restore your subscriptions from gpodder.net.
On gpodder.net, you can browse, search, and play various podcasts that are registered with the service. It also allows you to sync your subscriptions among your clients and devices. To subscribe to a podcast on gpodder.net, you must first subscribe to it in your podcasting client and then upload your subscriptions.
In gPodder, go to Options Menu -> Preferences -> gpodder.net to set up synchronization.
Once you have set that up, your subscriptions will show up on gpodder.net where you can manage devices and optionally export your subscriptions list as an OPML file. You don’t need to use the gpodder.net service to use gPodder.
Overall, gPodder is a nice, dedicated podcatcher. It is lightweight and supports several types of feeds. One thing you have to take note is that it does not provide its own media player; when you play a podcast from gPodder, it will open in your default media player.
Good to know: looking for a web-friendly RSS reader? Check out our guide to deploying FreshRSS on Linux today.
2. Amarok
Amarok is a popular music player for KDE and it’s arguably the most fully featured application of its kind for Linux. It is rather heavy to use just for podcasts, but if you already use it for managing and playing your music library, you may also want to use it as your dedicated podcast player.
To access the podcasts feature in Amarok, select the Podcasts category in the left sidebar.
Click the Add Podcast button, then provide the link of the podcast that you want to add.
Once done, you can click the Refresh icon to fetch the episodes from your feed.
Confirm that you’ve properly imported your new feed by double clicking the “Local Podcasts” category.
Being a music player, Amarok gets the upper hand of being able to play your podcasts natively on its client. However, this also hampers Amarok’s ability to be a great podcatcher.
For instance, the client doesn’t support show notes, and it doesn’t provide a decent way to browse through podcast feeds. This alone makes Amarok hard to use as a podcast client unless you’re only looking to stream and download podcast episodes.
3. Rhythmbox
Similar to Amarok, Rhythmbox is a general purpose audio player that can handle podcast feeds and internet radio streams. It ships by default on most GNOME-based Linux distros, making it one of the most accessible podcast players that you can get today.
To use Rhythmbox as a podcast client, click the Podcasts category on the app’s left sidebar.
Select Add on the panel’s top bar, then type the name of the podcast that you want to subscribe to on the search box.
Click Subscribe to add the podcast feed to your Rhythmbox home screen.
Note: you can also manually subscribe to a podcast by pasting its RSS feed URL on the search box, then clicking Subscribe.
Click Close to apply and confirm your new podcast subscriptions.
Rhythmbox is a great audio player with decent support for podcast playback. Since it was developed as a music player, it also suffered the same drawbacks as Amarok. It doesn’t have any support for show notes, and it can’t easily scrub through a long podcast episode. That said, Rhythmbox’s accessibility still makes it a good pick for those who are just starting out with podcasts and don’t want to immediately install a dedicated podcatcher on their system.
On a side note: are you a music listener that’s on the go? Learn why Musicolet is the Android music player for one of our writers.
4. Liferea
Liferea is not a music player; rather, it is a feed reader with podcast support. When you first install Liferea, it will provide some pre-subscribed feeds and podcasts. You can find the podcasts in their own folder in the left sidebar. To subscribe to a new one, just add the subscription as if it was a regular feed URL.
When you click on a podcast entry in Liferea, the show notes will show up in the main window. Just below that, you can press the Play button to start listening to the latest podcast episode in your feed.
Liferea is a great RSS and news feed reader. However, it falls short as a podcatcher compared to other similar clients. It doesn’t have any support for podcast download and playback, electing to rely on external tools instead. While this makes Liferea flexible, it also means that you have to install additional tools just to make it work as a podcatcher.
5. Newsboat and Podboat
Newsboat is a flexible, general-purpose TUI feed reader for Linux. It comes with a minimalist interface that can run even on systems without a graphical desktop. Dubbed as “the mutt of RSS feed readers,” one of its key selling points is that you control it entirely through your keyboard with the help of shortcuts.
Before you can run Newsboat, you must populate the “~/.newsboat/urls” file with your podcast URLs. Alternatively, you can use the following command to import an OPML file directly to the client:
newsboat -i opml-file.opml
Once done, run newsboat on a new terminal session, then press R to refresh your current feed list.
From the Newsboat interface, you can view episode titles and show notes, but you’ll have to use Podboat to grab the media files. Like Liferea, Newsboat recognizes media files, or “enclosures,” in feeds. The “Podboat” part refers to the download manager that handles these enclosures.
To download a podcast episode, press Enter while highlighting the episode entry, then press E to send it to Podboat.
You must also create and edit the file “~/.newsboat/config” to add some configuration commands. At the very least, you must specify a player for your media files. For instance:
player mpv
You can also specify a download directory (which defaults to your home directory) and a maximum number of simultaneous downloads:
download-path /home/ramces/Music/Podcasts max-downloads 3
Now you can run podboat on a new terminal session, then hit D on any episode you wish to download. Once the program’s done downloading the podcast episode, you can play it by pressing P.
I wouldn’t say that Newsboat and Podboat are an elegant solution, since you have to copy and paste the links to the episodes you want to download. That said, it could be useful for someone who either already uses Newsboat or wants a command-line podcatcher.
FYI: keep yourself up to date with latest developments in tech by checking out some of the best tech-related podcasts today.
6. MusicPod
MusicPod is a sleek multimedia client that can play audio files, internet radio stations, and podcast feeds. It comes with a beautiful iTunes-like interface that allows you to easily subscribe and track your favorite content all in a single app.
To start using MusicPod, click the Search category on the app’s left sidebar.
Click the search box on the app’s top bar, then select the label on its right side.
This will bring up a drop-down list allowing you to pick between “Local Audio,” “Radio,” and “Podcast.” Click Podcast, then search for the feed that you want to subscribe to.
Note: MusicPod also supports manual podcast subscriptions. To do that, click the Add category on the app’s left sidebar, then select Podcast.
All in all, MusicPod ticks all the boxes for a great podcast client. It’s easy to use, beautiful to look at, and comes with enough features for casual users. This makes MusicPod a great pick for those that are looking for a “no fuss” podcast client for Linux.
7. GNOME Podcasts
GNOME Podcasts is a simple podcast player that focuses on the basics. It comes with a minimalist interface that can search for podcast feeds, import and export OPML files, and provide decent playback controls.
To get started with GNOME Podcasts, click the + icon on the app’s upper left corner.
Doing this will bring up the search page for GNOME Podcasts. Toggle both the “fyyd.de” and “itunes.apple.com” switches, then search for the podcast that you want to subscribe to.
To import an existing OPML file, press Ctrl + O to bring up the file picker menu for GNOME Podcasts.
Browse through your filesystem, then select the OPML file that you want to import to the program.
At this point, you can now click either the New or Shows tab on the app’s top bar to check on your current podcast subscriptions.
While it doesn’t have as many features, GNOME Podcasts makes up for it by providing a rock-solid podcasting experience. It comes with a scrubbing tool that allows you to go back or fast-forward in set increments, and it also provides the episode’s show notes in a clean interface. As such, I recommend GNOME Podcasts to anyone who wants a straightforward and dedicated podcast player for the desktop.
Good to know: learn how you can streamline your podcasting experience by creating a podcast playlist on Spotify today.
8. Kasts
Kasts is a powerful and highly customizable podcast player for Android and Linux. Similar to gPodder, it’s a dedicated podcast client that can synchronize its feeds and playback position to gpodder.net. Kasts also has a ton of features, including the ability to customize the default player, check the current connection status, as well as set up automatic downloads.
To start using Kasts in Linux, click the Discover category on the app’s left sidebar.
This will bring up the podcast search page for Kasts. Type the podcast that you want to subscribe to, then click Search.
Similar to a traditional podcast client, you can also manually subscribe to a podcast feed in Kasts. To do that, click the Subscriptions category, then select Add Podcast on the category’s top bar.
You can confirm that you’ve properly subscribed to your podcast feeds by clicking the Subscriptions category.
Overall, Kasts is a podcast client that strikes a balance between ease of use and functionality. It’s not as minimalist as GNOME Podcasts but it also doesn’t overwhelm the user like gPodder. As such, Kasts is a good client for anyone that just wants a little bit more out of the standard podcast experience.
Learning some of the best podcast clients available for your Linux desktop is only the first step in exploring this deep and diverse world of podcasting. Take the next step and expand your library by checking out the great podcasts that we’re leaning into today.