A podcast is a form of digital media consisting of an episodic program downloaded or streamed over the Internet using an XML protocol called RSS. Podcast episodes can be audio radio, video files, PDFs, or ePub files. These episodes can be viewed and listened to on a number of different devices including computers, portable media players, and smartphones.
The publisher or broadcaster podcasts the program by offering the episodes and the XML document to a web server. Whilst large media corporations are prominent publishers of podcasts, almost anyone can publish them, as often or as infrequent as they wish. Podcasts are a great way of keeping up to date with the latest news, reviews, banter, gossip, to deepen your understanding of the world we live in, and much more.
Podcasting lets listeners automatically receive the latest episodes of their chosen programmes as soon as they are released. This operation is made very simple by using the appropriate client software. The consumer can subscribe to the podcast and automatically check for and download new episodes, or download episodes of a podcast series individually.
To provide an insight into the quality of software that is available, we have compiled a list of 14 high quality open source podcast tools that offer an excellent way to manage and download podcasts. The selection includes only graphical tools, software which includes built-in podcast management, as well as stand-alone tools, so all tastes should be catered for here. We cover terminal-based podcast tools in a separate roundup.
Let’s explore the 14 podcast tools at hand. For each title we have compiled its own portal page, a full description with an in-depth analysis of its features, a screenshot of the software in action, together with links to relevant resources.
| GUI Podcasting Tools | |
|---|---|
| Kasts | Convergent podcast software |
| Cantata | Feature-rich client for Music Player Daemon |
| MusicPod | Music, podcast and internet radio player |
| gPodder | Downloads and manages free audio and video content |
| Rhythmbox | Integrated music management application |
| Poddycast | Podcast client that’s made with Electron |
| Amarok | KDE audio player offering a wealth of features, yet intuitive to use |
| GNOME Podcasts | Podcast client for the GNOME desktop |
| CPod | Simple and elegant free podcast player built with web technologies |
| Vocal | Modern Vala podcast player |
| Liferea | Three-pane GNOME based news aggregator with podcasting |
| Goggles Music Manager | Music collection manager and player with podcast support |
| Poddr | Podcast client built with Electron and Angular |
| Winds | RSS and podcast software created using React / Redux / Node |
This article has been revamped in line with our recent announcement.
 Read our complete collection of recommended free and open source software. Our curated compilation covers all categories of software. The software collection forms part of our series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. There are hundreds of in-depth reviews, open source alternatives to proprietary software from large corporations like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. There are also fun things to try, hardware, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. |
castget is missing.
The purpose of a Group Test is not to recommend every single application. We choose the best of breed software, but we’ll take a look at castget, although it appears its last release was a few years ago.
Not OBS?
If you mean OBS Studio, that’s live streaming and video recording software. It’s featured in our roundup on Screencasting.