Podcast RSS feed testing

RSS feeds are how podcasting works - but most podcast apps rely on repeatedly polling RSS feeds. Podnews publishes just one podcast ourselves, but that podcast’s RSS feed is requested more than 42,000 times a day.

We wondered who supports compression in feeds like gzip or brotli (which saves around 80% of bandwidth); and also who supports lastmodified headers and/or etag (i.e. how easy it is to spot whether a feed has been updated.)

We tested a set of feeds - the most popular 100 hosts or so - from our podcast sample; we’ve linked to the specific RSS feed we tested. To test compression, we requested the content using an Accept-Encoding header.

This page is sorted by the host’s RSS domain. Looking for a specific host? Probably easier to use CMD+F or CTRL+F to search within this page.

HostGzip?Brotli?etag?lastmod?
3speak.tv
access.acast.com
anchor.fm
api.dr.dk
api.mujrozhlas.cz
api.octopus.saooti.com
api.rtve.es
api.sr.se
api.substack.com
apis.rfi.fr
app.kajabi.com
app.talkshoe.com
applehosted.podcasts.apple.com
audio.globoradio.globo.com
audioboom.com
cast.rocks
cdn.julephosting.de
cl.ivoox.com
cloud.mave.digital
Gzip?Brotli?etag?lastmod?
co.ivoox.com
fapi-top.prisasd.com
fast.wistia.com
feed.ausha.co
feed.cdnstream1.com
feed.cri.cn
feed.justcast.com
feed.pippa.io
feed.pod.space
feed.podbean.com
feed.podtoo.com
feed.xyzfm.space
feedcdn.podbean.com
feedpress.me
feeds.360.audion.fm
feeds.acast.com
feeds.audiomeans.fr
feeds.blubrry.com
feeds.br.de
feeds.buzzsprout.com
Gzip?Brotli?etag?lastmod?
feeds.djpod.com
feeds.feedburner.com
feeds.hubhopper.com
feeds.libsyn.com
feeds.megaphone.fm
feeds.podcastics.com
feeds.podcastle.ai
feeds.podcastmirror.com
feeds.podetize.com
feeds.rapidfeeds.com
feeds.redcircle.com
feeds.resonaterecordings.com
feeds.simplecast.com
feeds.soundcloud.com
feeds.soundon.fm
feeds.transistor.fm
feeds.tsf.pt
feeds.video.uni-erlangen.de
feeds.zencastr.com
feeds2.feedburner.com
Gzip?Brotli?etag?lastmod?
hearthis.at
iono.fm
itstreaming.apple.com
letscast.fm
librivox.org
mavecloud.s3mts.ru
media-podcast.open.ac.uk
media.rss.com
media.zencast.fm
mediapub.it.ox.ac.uk
mp3quran.net
mx.ivoox.com
pinecast.com
podcast.global.com
podcast.npo.nl
podcast.stream.schibsted.media
podcast.uctv.tv
podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk
podcasts.helloaudio.fm
podcasts.subsplash.com
Gzip?Brotli?etag?lastmod?
podcasts.vrt.be
podnews.net
podpoint.com
podster.fm
post.futurimedia.com
radiofrance-podcast.net
rss.acast.com
rss.amperwave.net
rss.art19.com
rss.castbox.fm
rss.dw.com
rss.podplaystudio.com
s3.amazonaws.com
sbs-ondemand.streamguys1.com
sermons.logos.com
services.err.ee
shenoto.net
stand.fm
toldot.com
us.ivoox.com
Gzip?Brotli?etag?lastmod?
webtalkradio.net
wizard2.sbs.co.kr
www.abc.net.au
www.accessradio.org
www.blogtalkradio.com
www.cbc.ca
www.dvidshub.net
www.ivoox.com
www.launchpaddm.com
www.loyalbooks.com
www.ndr.de
www.omnycontent.com
www.podcastone.com
www.poderato.com
www.podserve.fm
www.rtp.pt
www.screencast.com
www.sermonaudio.com
www.spreaker.com
www.srf.ch
Gzip?Brotli?etag?lastmod?
www.ximalaya.com
www1.wdr.de
xserve04.itunes.uni-muenchen.de

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