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.
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8 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. Chartable
Chartable is my personal go to platform when I want to assess the podcast rankings of a particular show.
This platform offers comprehensive charts for podcasters and marketers. Unlike the previous entry, Chartable combines insights from both Spotify and Apple Podcast Charts, giving you more detailed data. Use it to check how your podcast episodes stack against the heavy hitters, such as Shawn Ryan Show, Charlie Kirk Show, and Joe Rogan. I find it much easier to sift through Apple rankings on Chartable than on Apple itself!
To use Chartable, you have to sign up for a free account or get a paid plan. The software integrates with Apple Podcasts Analytics, Spotify for Podcasters, and your preferred hosting platform. That way, you can monitor changes to audience size over time, follower count, and advertising deals.
However, the thing that impresses me the most about Chartable is the audience growth tools. The platform offers SmartLinks and Smart Promos to its podcast publishers. SmartLinks are vital for your funnels, showing you where the podcast listeners come from. Smart Promos helps podcasters share their content on top-ranked podcasts and track the performance of their organic marketing efforts.
I also love the report features. Track your popularity rating with live alerts or receive reports on your email. The platform also has incredible collaboration features that help you during paid and organic outreach.
3. Listen Notes
After Chartable, 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.
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Further Reading: The Top 25 Podcast Statistics You Need to Know in 2025
4. Podchaser
Podchaser is the default platform for podcast reviews, but it is more than that.
My favorite thing about Podchaser is that it categorizes popular podcasts based on the platform. For example, you can search the high-ranking podcasts on Spotify or Apple, or look at the charts based on the region. The potential listeners, as well as digital entrepreneurs, have the option of sifting through various categories, such as comedy, healthcare, or business.
The thing that separates Podchaser from other similar platforms is the emphasis on user-generated ratings. Learn about the user sentiment by checking out negative and positive reviews for shows and episodes.
If you decide to go with the paid plan, you’ll gain access to extra insights including audience demographics, reach, social links, and brand suitability. On the bottom, there’s also a section breaking down the show’s sponsors. That way, you can see if it makes sense to pitch the person for ads.
Further Reading: The 27 Leading Podcasting Tools to Help You Launch or Grow Your Podcast
5. 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.
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.
Further Reading: 15 Free Podcast Transcript Generators to Use for Your Next Episode
6. 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.
7. 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.
Further Reading: 21 Marketing Podcasts to Inspire You in 2025
8. 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.
Further Reading: A Complete Guide to Creating a Great Podcast Website
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!
