iPhone Radio Apps Compared: Stations, Search, Player, and Price
Most radio apps for iPhone play a live stream. They differ in how you find a station, how you keep favorites, what the player does, and what the extras cost.
We compare station discovery, favorites, playback tools, extra features, and pricing. Features are developer claims, not hands-on findings. Prices are in USD; where a listing does not identify a billing period, we leave it unspecified.
Radio apps compared
| What to listen to | Thousands of radio stations from around the world. |
|---|---|
| How to search | Spin the globe, choose a city, search stations and countries. |
| Your collection | Favorites, synced with iCloud. |
| Player | Background playback; song title shown; sleep timer in Premium. |
| Extra features | AirPlay. |
| Standout | A journey across stations on an interactive globe. |
| Price | Free with ads. Premium at $2.99 and $24.99 (billing periods not labeled in the listing). |
Take: a choice if you enjoy finding radio through a globe-first interface.
| What to listen to | 60,000+ radio stations, podcasts, audiobooks, and live TV. |
|---|---|
| How to search | Two interactive maps, by country and by city; search by genre and station name. |
| Your collection | Favorites, custom stream links, optional iCloud backup and sync. |
| Player | Background playback, sleep timer. |
| Extra features | Media downloads, podcast auto-download. |
| Standout | 10,000+ TV channels, podcasts, book tracking, and more. |
| Price | Free with ads. Ad-Free: $7.99 (US App Store). |
Take: a media library with radio built in. Best suited to people who also want podcasts, books, and downloaded media in the same app.
| What to listen to | 100,000+ stations, news, sports, podcasts, audiobooks. |
|---|---|
| How to search | Search, categories, themed collections. |
| Your collection | Favorite stations; tracking of sports teams. |
| Player | Live streams and on-demand programs. |
| Extra features | CarPlay, Siri, SharePlay, sports event notifications. |
| Standout | Live sports broadcasts and extra Premium content. |
| Price | Free with ads. The listing shows a $14.99 monthly subscription and several other Premium prices. |
Take: more of an audio service than a radio app. The paid version is most interesting for sports and audiobooks.
| What to listen to | 50,000+ stations from 200+ countries and territories, over 1 million podcasts. |
|---|---|
| How to search | By country, city, region, genre. |
| Your collection | Favorites and recently played songs. |
| Player | Background playback; equalizer in Pro. |
| Extra features | CarPlay, AirPlay, Apple Watch, Apple TV, Apple Music integration. |
| Standout | Builds playlists from the songs you heard, through Apple Music. |
| Price | Free with in-app purchases: $9.99/month; yearly options at $19.99 and $34.99; Radio Pro at $79.99. |
Take: a broad catalog of radio and podcasts with music extras, useful if you save heard music to Apple Music.
| What to listen to | 60,000+ stations and over 2.2 million podcasts. |
|---|---|
| How to search | Countries, cities, genres, topics, editorial picks. |
| Your collection | Favorites, recently played stations, sync with an account and Prime. |
| Player | Sleep timer, podcast downloads, playback speed. |
| Extra features | CarPlay, AirPlay, Chromecast, automatic deletion of listened episodes. |
| Standout | Radio and full podcast handling in one app. |
| Price | Free. Prime at $2.99/month or $25.99/year removes video and banner ads; station ad breaks remain. |
Take: a practical option for radio and podcasts, with a clearly listed monthly or annual plan for removing visual ads.
| What to listen to | 90,000+ radio stations. |
|---|---|
| How to search | Station search, music genres, themes. |
| Your collection | Favorites, started with one tap. |
| Player | Sleep timer in the paid version. |
| Extra features | Standalone listening on Apple Watch. |
| Standout | Radio on the watch without the iPhone nearby. |
| Price | Free with ads. Unlimited removes visual ads and adds the sleep timer; offers from $3.99, billing period not labeled. |
Take: a narrow radio player for quick access to favorite stations, especially with Apple Watch.
| What to listen to | Thousands of radio stations worldwide. |
|---|---|
| How to search | Countries, cities, genres. |
| Your collection | Favorites synced between the app and the website. |
| Player | Background playback, sleep timer. |
| Extra features | Car mode and track covers in the paid version. |
| Standout | One shared favorites list on the site and in the app. |
| Price | Free listening with ads. No Visual Ads from $4.99; billing period not stated. |
Take: a simple option if you switch between a computer and an iPhone.
Ads: the app and the station
Removing ads in a radio app does not always remove every ad. Some apps remove banners and video ads from the app itself, while ad breaks inside a station's stream stay. radio.net says this directly: its Prime plan removes banner and video ads, but a station's own commercial breaks remain.
Which radio app fits your listening habits?
- You enjoy exploring radio through a globe-first interface: Radio Garden makes that its main experience.
- You follow sports or audiobooks: TuneIn Radio covers sports broadcasts and audiobooks, though its monthly price is high for radio alone.
- You want to save heard music to Apple Music: myTuner Radio connects to Apple Music.
- You want radio and podcasts with downloads and playback controls: radio.net combines both in one app.
- You want radio on Apple Watch without the iPhone nearby: Simple Radio offers standalone listening on the watch.
- You switch between listening on a computer and an iPhone: Online Radio Box keeps your favorites available on its website and in the app.
- You want radio together with podcasts, books, and downloaded media: Black Duck Media Library is built for that.
Availability and pricing notes
Prices and features reflect the US App Store listings reviewed on October 27, 2026 and may change. Some listings show several purchase options without explaining their billing periods or differences. Station counts are developer claims; we did not test stream availability.
Disclosure: this article is published by the developer of Black Duck Media Library. The same listing-based criteria are used for every app.