[m_fayer]

The server side crawling in Pocket Casts means it's always instantly up to date with my 50+ feeds, and perfectly synced with its web client. Seems like a full service to me.

Also in my experience, relying on small-scale FOSS apps means opening myself to the vagaries of their on/off development cycles, dealing with their underinvestment in design, and the impossibility of them spending significant resources on good old fashioned centralized backends. Of course FOSS apps have many strengths of their own (esp. in the desktop content/code creation category), but the apps on my phone are "lifestyle" - I want them to be rock solid, aesthetically pleasing, to require zero thought, and to respect my privacy, and I'll happily pay good money for that, which is something I think in this day and age should be encouraged. FOSS apps are simply a different value proposition.

[synchronise]

> and to respect my privacy, and I'll happily pay good money for that

That's the issue for me. If it's proprietary, I simply don't trust it to keep my data secure. I have no way of knowing that myself.

And that's the great thing about gpodder too, you can host your own instance of it so you are in total control of your services.

[m_fayer]

That's why we have permission APIs at the OS level. Better than nothing. Also you say you only trust foss software to not only not maliciously spy on you but too keep your data secure. Do you really check the code for security flaws or run automated analysis tools on it?