TLDR - Who is the winner?Feature BreakdownGetting details on a podcastGetting details on an episodeSearch for podcasts or episodesTotal Number of Podcasts & Episodes availableEpisode TranscriptsWebhooksREST vs GraphQLPriceSummary
TLDR - Who is the winner?
Both PodcastIndex’s Podcast API and Taddy Podcast API make it easy for you to integrate podcast data into your app. However, they come at it from very different perspectives.
PodcastIndex’s is 100% free, co-founded by Adam Curry (one of the inventors of podcasts), and has the mission of contributing to an open and independent podcasting ecosystem. It provides an up-to-date directory of all podcasts and episodes and basic search but doesn't try to do more than that.
Taddy Podcast API builds on top of that, along with having an up-to-date directory of all podcast and episodes it also provides episode transcripts, webhooks, advanced search, etc that make it easy to integrate podcast data into your app in minutes, instead of months. Taddy API’s mission is to provide a fair and affordable service so that app developers can focus on what makes their app unique without having to build and maintaining their own podcast infrastructure.
Below we go over a feature by feature comparison to help you get a summary of how to get the most out of each API:
Feature Breakdown
Feature | Taddy API | PodcastIndex API |
Get details on a podcast | ✅ - See getPodcastSeries | ✅ |
Get details on an episode | ✅ - See getPodcastEpisode | ✅ |
Search for podcasts | ✅ - See search | ✅ |
Search for episodes | ✅ - See search | ❌ |
Episode Transcripts | ✅ - See getEpisodeTranscript | ❌ Partial (Less than 1% of episodes in PodcastIndex’s directory have a transcript available) |
Webhooks | ✅ - Get a webhook notification whenever a new podcast or episode is released. | ❌ |
Type of API | GraphQL | REST |
Price | Free - 500 API Requests per month.
Paid - $50/month for 100,000 Requests per month
Business - $100/month for 350,000 Requests per month | Free |
Getting details on a podcast
Both APIs give you a way to get back details on a podcast.
Taddy API: See getPodcastSeries.
PodcastIndex API: See /podcasts/byfeedurl endpoint.
Getting details on an episode
Both APIs give you a way to get back details on an episode.
Taddy API: See getPodcastEpisode.
PodcastIndex API: See /episodes/byguid endpoint.
Search for podcasts or episodes
Both APIs give you a way to perform a text search on millions of podcasts. However, only Taddy API allows searching on 180 million episodes.
Taddy API: See search
PodcastIndex API: See /search/byterm endpoint
Total Number of Podcasts & Episodes available
Taddy API: 4+ million podcasts, 95+ million episodes
PodcastIndex API: 4+ million podcasts, does not specify how many episodes
Episode Transcripts
Paid users of Taddy API can access the transcript for any podcast episode. Business Users get 2000 episodes transcripts / month included in their Business Plan and can purchase more episode transcripts if they need them.
PodcastIndex provides transcripts for leads than 1% of episodes that are in their directory (these are the transcripts that are provided by the podcast creators themselves). If you want to get the transcript for the other 99% of episodes, you will have to use an external transcription service.
For apps that need transcripts for accessibility, search, or AI features, Taddy's built-in transcript feature is a key differentiator.
Webhooks
Taddy API gives you the ability to set up a webhook endpoint where you will receive notifications whenever there is a new or updated podcast or episode.
This can be a critical feature depending on what app you are trying to build because it means you don't have to constantly check our API to see if a podcast has updated information, Taddy will push these updates immediately to you. A common example why this is useful is if you want to send a push notification to your users about a newly released episode.
REST vs GraphQL
Taddy API uses GraphQL, which lets you request exactly the data you need in a single query. For example, you can fetch a podcast's title, the latest 10 episodes, and only the duration and transcript for each episode, all in one request.
PodcastIndex API uses REST, which will be more familiar to most developers. With REST, you typically work with predefined endpoints that return fixed data structures, and you might need multiple API calls to gather related information.
While REST's simplicity and widespread familiarity are advantages, GraphQL eliminates over-fetching and under-fetching of data, reduces the number of network requests, and gives you complete control over the data you get back.
Price
PodcastIndex is 100% Free.
Taddy API:
Free Plan - 500 API Requests / month
Pro Plan - $50/month for 100,000 API Requests / month
Business Plan - $100/month for 350,000 API Requests / month
Summary
Both the PodcastIndex API and Taddy API are great APIs to use if you are building a podcast app but serve different needs.
PodcastIndex provides essential, free infrastructure that ensures podcasts remain accessible and searchable. Taddy builds on this foundation to offer a complete developer toolkit which can save you months of development time and thousands of dollars in your own infrastructure costs or third-party services.
Also, make sure to check our list of the 🥇Top 5 Podcast APIs if you would like a summary of all the different Podcast API options available.
If you are new to using Taddy’s API, Get Started with our 🤖 Intro to Taddy’s API.
Article by: Daniel Mathews
Updated on August 18, 2025
More Links:
Podcast APIThe 5 Top Podcast APIsiTunes API vs Taddy API - Which is better?Listen Notes API vs Taddy API - Which is better?