Replace / Apple Podcasts
Best free Apple Podcasts alternatives (open source, self-hosted) 2026
The best open-source alternative to Apple Podcasts is Castopod (or Funkwhale) with AzuraCast, self-hosted on Railway. A podcast you host. Castopod is AGPL-3.0 — Apple Podcasts without the hosted show seat.
Estimated save $1,200 a year.
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How Apple Podcasts compares
| Apple Podcasts | Castopod | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Hosted subscription | Open-source or fair-code license; you pay the host |
| Hosting | Vendor cloud | Self-hosted on Railway or any VPS |
| Rough monthly cost | Public list price not verified this run | Hosting only — no SaaS seat meter in this repo |
- Castopod
AGPL-3.0 podcast host (Codeberg-shaped GitLab origin; GitHub is a mirror) — the published Apple Podcasts path
- Funkwhale
AGPL-3.0 federated audio library (GitLab origin)
- AzuraCast
AGPL-3.0 web radio if the job is a station, not episode RSS
FAQ
- What is the best free open-source Apple Podcasts alternative?
- The best open-source alternative to Apple Podcasts is Castopod (or Funkwhale) with AzuraCast, self-hosted on Railway. A podcast you host. Castopod is AGPL-3.0 — Apple Podcasts without the hosted show seat.
- Is it free?
- The Castopod licenses are open source or fair-code. You still pay hosting (Railway or any VPS) and any APIs the stack calls. There is no Apple Podcasts seat or task bill on this path.
- Can I migrate from Apple Podcasts?
- Yes. Start with the workflows or data you actually use, then cut over. The Castopod stack page has the agent prompt and the cost table; most teams rebuild the slice that matters and leave old Apple Podcasts links until they expire.
- How do I deploy it?
- Open the Castopod stack, copy the agent prompt, and deploy on Railway (one service, PORT, and a volume when the app needs disk). Placeholder: Castopod (PHP + a database + a volume for audio) as castopod.org documents. The GitHub repo is a read-only mirror of code.castopod.org. No one-click template in this repo yet — Start on Railway. A listener library stays on /stacks/audiobookshelf-books.
- What does this replace?
- Apple Podcasts / Buzzsprout / Transistor. The published small-team estimate on this stack is $1,200 a year.
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