Whether you are a podcaster or you want to analyze podcasts for advertising or guest appearance purposes, you will want to know what podcasts are popular and how certain podcasts compare in terms of popularity. These charts are useful as they allow you to analyze podcasts based on their industry and location and compare yourself with your peers.
In this article, I’ll go through some of the best sites for tracking podcast rankings. I’ll talk about each website’s main features, pros and cons, and how you can benefit from using them.
If you’re a podcaster, I suggest you start using one of these tools as soon as possible. They can provide you valuable insights you can’t find anywhere else.
Key Takeaways
✅ Podcast rankings are aggregated estimates, not official numbers. Apple, Spotify, and the third-party trackers each pull from different data, which is why the same show can sit at #14 on one chart and #31 on another.
✅ Apple Podcasts Charts is free and refreshes daily, but it only counts activity inside Apple. Every other listening app is invisible to it, so treat it as a partial picture by design.
✅ Chartable, once the default chart tracker, switched off on December 12, 2024. Spotify owned it and folded the pieces it wanted into its own products. Any guide still recommending it is out of date.
✅ Category and country filters matter more than global rank. A top-50 slot in Business in Canada is a credential you can put in a media kit. Position 8,000 worldwide is not.
✅ Chart data is competitive research. Watching which shows in your category are climbing tells you which topics are gaining traction, usually before it shows up anywhere else.
7 Best Sites to Check Podcast Rankings
A great thing about these services is that most of them are inexpensive. From free to a monthly price of $50, you can monitor the top-ranking podcasts within a niche. These platforms offer great insights into followers and audience interaction, with some of them showing previous sponsorships.
Most of these sites draw data from Apple Podcasts Analytics and Spotify for Podcasters. They might extrapolate data from other third-party platforms and use it to generate their own unique charts. These sites work as aggregaters, which is why their rankings might vary.
Another fantastic benefit of these platforms is that they allow you to sift through podcasts based on industry and location. This makes them ideal for competitive research, as you might not care about global ranking charts.
1. Apple Podcasts Charts
Apple Podcast Charts track the most popular podcast categories in different markets. They are ideal for competitive analysis, determining how you stack against similar shows. It’s worth noting that this podcast directory doesn’t measure the all-time top-ranking podcasts, nor do they measure the biggest podcasts in terms of viewership.
The great thing about this podcast platform is that it assesses shows on a daily basis. It takes into account several factors, which include episode downloads, listener engagement, and subscriber count. However, keep in mind Apple Podcast ChartsPlay only takes into account interactions via iTunes. So, it disregards results in other podcast hosting platforms.
Based on that, you can never fully assess your performance across the board. On the other hand, the data is rather on point and is neatly categorized for further use. The Apple Podcast Charts shines for measuring popular trends and podcast metrics for different categories.
My favorite thing about these charts is that you can’t use any tricks podcast algorithm. The software totally disregards automatic downloads, which prevents robots from increasing your podcast rank. Furthermore, the platform prevents engagement purchases.
2. Podchaser Charts
Chartable used to sit in this slot, and for years it was the platform I reached for first. Spotify closed it at the end of 2024, and Podchaser is where most of that chart-tracking work moved.
Podchaser combines Apple and Spotify chart positions in one browser, filtered by category and by country. You can see how your episodes stack up against the heavy hitters without bouncing between two apps. Pro accounts add 90 days of historical chart positions for any charting show, which is what you want if you are trying to tell a real growth story rather than screenshot one good day.
The free account covers the browsing. The paid tier is where the audience demographics, reach estimates, and sponsor breakdowns live.
3. Listen Notes
I also use Listen Notes because it provides one killer comparative metric for every podcast that exists: Global Rank.
Listen Notes is a complex platform providing numerous insights and tools for your podcast show. The first thing you’ll notice when you land on the website is the nifty podcast search engine allowing you to search for shows, episodes, and trending podcast topics based on keywords.
A fantastic thing about this tool is that it compiles data about global podcasts being broadcast at the very moment. You can see the number of shows airing in different countries and what people are interested in.
While the platform is mainly geared toward entrepreneurs, it also has tools and features for casual users. For example, it allows podcast listeners to save episodes for later consumption or to add notes to podcast titles and episodes. There are also a few features for collaboration, customization, and automation.
The users have the option of browsing each podcast category or finding authors by keywords. There are also a few bulk functions that are excellent for podcasts with a large audience size.
4. Rephonic
Rephonic gives you incredibly detailed insights about various original podcasts. While on the website, you have the option of browsing Apple, Spotify, and YouTube podcast charts. The software draws real-time data directly from these platform’s chart rankings ensuring that all information is on point.
Once you select one of these three options, you further categorize podcasts based on location and then based on podcast category. However, if you want to learn more about the audience base, you need to log in or get a paid plan. Among other things, the software shows you the monthly audience for each platform and their engagement level.
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As for other data, you also have access to the number of episodes for each podcast, primary language, website link, and date of the first episode. Perhaps the best metric is the engagement score, which analyzes several metrics to determine how engaged audience is. Treat that score as a proxy for whether people are finishing your episodes. If yours comes back low, look at how the episodes are built before you start changing the topic, which is what I get into in why your podcast script is killing your growth.
5. Podkite
Podkite offers a combination of analytics, discoverability, and attribution features. The best thing about this platform is that it tracks almost every major podcasting platform in the world. Aside from Spotify and Apple, it derives data from Stitcher and Google Podcasts. There’s also a nifty keyword features which tracks performance of different shows based on key phrases.
I like the fact that the data stretches back to 2018. With this kind of access, marketers can easily analyze performance over time. Podkite shows you how the podcast rankings changed over time for each location and based on a listening platform. The software performs automatic review collection, showing you how listeners react to your content.
If you’re an entrepreneur, you’ll love the optimization features. This option is primarily meant to boost your search engine rankings by improving tags and keywords. By tweaking titles and descriptions, you improve placement within Google, Bing, and other platforms, which helps you grow your audience over time.
6. Podstatus
Podstatus provides several great benefits for podcast publishers. It tracks changes to your chart rankings with hourly updates in 175 countries. The software is fantastic for reputation management as it aggregates comments from Apple, Spotify, and Ivoox, helping you determine what listeners think about your show.
The user gets a breakdown of rankings and reviews in their inbox in the form of daily reports. Interestingly enough, this platform integrates with the previously mentioned Podchaser, providing you with even more detailed insights.
Unlike most other entries on the list, Podstatus isn’t a free tool, though it has a free trial. However, given its low price, it’s more than a solid investment. Besides tracking your own rankings, Podstatus does a fantastic job of competitive analysis based on country and category. Paying for tracking starts making sense once the show is earning something, and chart position is one of the first things a prospective sponsor checks alongside download numbers and audience makeup. If monetization is where you are headed, how to make money podcasting covers which revenue models are realistic at which audience sizes.
7. Podcharts
Podcharts might be the easiest, most straightforward tool on the list. Unlike other platforms, most of which require registration, Podcharts works like a free online tool. There are two drop-down menus on the homepage, one for categories and one for location. After selecting your options, you get a full list of the best-ranked podcasts for that day.
Besides the name of the podcast, you also get the author. If you want some extra insights, such as the number of followers, you’ll have to leave private data. Based on what I’ve seen, the platform is really fast and works well for both improving your own podcast and spying on competition.
Frequently Asked Questions About Podcast Rankings
Chartable shut down on December 12, 2024. Spotify, which owned it, closed the platform and moved the features it wanted into its own products. Podchaser’s charts hub, Podstatus, and Podkite absorbed most of the chart-tracking role it used to play.
Apple Podcasts Charts and Podcharts are both free and neither requires an account. Listen Notes is the fastest way to get one comparative number, since it assigns a Global Rank to every show in its index.
Nobody publishes the formula. Apple weighs recent downloads, listener engagement, and subscriber activity, and it recalculates daily, which means the charts reward momentum rather than lifetime audience size. Third-party trackers layer their own extrapolations on top of Apple and Spotify data, so their numbers rarely match exactly.
Not on Apple. The system discards automated downloads and blocks purchased engagement, so bot traffic does not move your position. That is one of the reasons an Apple chart placement still carries weight with sponsors.
They help, but they are one input. A sponsor will ask for downloads per episode and audience demographics alongside your chart history, because rank alone tells them nothing about how many people actually listened.
Conclusion
Using podcast chart tools allows you to monitor fluctuations in your podcast’s popularity over time. They’re perfect for competitive analysis and assessing audience growth. Most of them come with additional insights that will guide your marketing strategy.
Given that new tools appear on the market all the time, I suggest you perform your own research. Check all the platforms on the list and give them a free trial (when you can, of course!). See if there’s something even better on the market, as you’d want to have the best program at your disposal.
What has been your experience with podcast rankings websites? Would love to hear your opinions in the comments below!
