94.1 · THE PROGRAMME GUIDE
A Radio Garden alternative for iPhone.
Radio Garden lets you turn a globe and tap a city to hear its radio. Radio Dad works the same way on iPhone and iPad, then adds live captions and translation, free CarPlay, an Apple Watch app and no ads. Here is a fair side-by-side. Every Radio Garden fact below was checked on its own pages.
Short answer: Radio Dad is a Radio Garden alternative for iPhone and iPad. Both put live radio on a globe you spin. Radio Dad adds on-device captions and translation, a Road Trip mode in its web player, free CarPlay, an Apple Watch app and no ads. Keep Radio Garden if you use Android or an iPhone that cannot run iOS 18.
Is Radio Dad like Radio Garden?
Yes, in the way you find stations. Radio Dad and Radio Garden both put live radio on a globe, so you tune by moving around the world instead of scrolling a list. The differences start once a station is playing.
Radio Garden's App Store page describes each green dot as a city or town that you tap to hear the stations broadcasting from there (as of October 2026). In Radio Dad you spin a 3D globe to tune. You can also search by name, country, city, genre or language. The directory holds 50,000+ live stations from 230+ countries and territories, taken from radio-browser.info, an open, community-run database released under CC0. Each stream plays directly from the broadcaster. Nothing is recorded or relayed.
What does Radio Garden do well?
Radio Garden is simple and it runs on a lot of devices. It plays in a web browser, on Android, and on iPhones as far back as iOS 12. If you want a quick spin around the world on whatever device is in your hand, it does that well.
The details, checked on Radio Garden's own pages as of October 2026. The Radio Garden website plays stations in the browser. Its App Store page lists iPhone and iPad support from iOS 12.0. Its Google Play page shows more than 10 million downloads. Both store descriptions say the team adds new stations every day and updates the ones that stop working. The app is free to download, with a Premium in-app purchase.
How is Radio Dad different from Radio Garden?
Radio Dad is built to help you understand what you hear, not only find it. It can caption and translate a live broadcast on your device, and it has no ads. It also reaches the car and the wrist, with free CarPlay and an Apple Watch app.
Live captions and translation. On iPhone and iPad with iOS 26 or later, Radio Dad writes down what a station says and translates it as it airs. Speech recognition runs on the device with Apple's SpeechTranscriber, with DictationTranscriber as a fallback for languages it does not cover, such as Turkish. Apple's Translation framework does the translating, also on the device. You see the original and the translation together as sentence pairs, or the translation only. The audio never leaves your device. It is part of Premium, with one free 2-minute preview. More in the captions and translation guide.
Road Trip. In the free web player, pick two countries. Road Trip plans the real road between their capitals and tunes a local station in each country you cross.
CarPlay and Apple Watch. CarPlay is free. There is also an Apple Watch app.
Song recognition. Identify a song with Shazam and see synced lyrics. Free users get 5 identifications a day.
Ads and privacy. Radio Dad has no ads, no tracking and no account. It collects anonymous usage statistics only. Radio Garden's Google Play page says the app contains ads, and its App Store page describes Premium as removing visual advertising. Its App Store privacy label lists data used for third-party advertising and analytics, all marked as not linked to you (as of October 2026).
How do Radio Dad and Radio Garden compare?
Both are free to start and both use a globe. The table lists only what I could check: Radio Dad from my own app, Radio Garden from its store pages and website as of October 2026.
| Feature | Radio Dad | Radio Garden |
|---|---|---|
| Tune with a globe | Spin a 3D globe | Rotate the globe, tap a city's green dot |
| Search | Name, country, city, genre or language | Stations, places and countries |
| iPhone and iPad | iOS and iPadOS 18 or later | iOS and iPadOS 12 or later |
| Android | No app. Use the web player | Yes |
| In a web browser | Free web player | Yes, at radio.garden |
| Apple Watch | Apple Watch app | Not listed on its App Store page |
| Ads | None | Free app shows ads. Premium removes visual ads |
| Live captions & translation | On device, iOS 26 or later, Premium | Not mentioned on its store pages |
| Privacy | No tracking, no account. Anonymous usage statistics only | Privacy label lists advertising and analytics data, not linked to you |
| Cost | Listening free. Premium $9.99/mo or $39.99/yr | Free, with Premium in-app purchases |
Radio Garden facts checked on 15 October 2026 on its App Store page, its Google Play page and radio.garden. Store listings change, so check them for current details.
Who should keep using Radio Garden?
Keep Radio Garden if you listen on Android, or on an iPhone or iPad that cannot run iOS 18. The Radio Dad app does not run there, though the free web player at listen.radiodad.app works in a browser. Keep Radio Garden too if you only want a quick spin of the globe and never need captions or translation.
Try Radio Dad if you listen to news and talk in languages you do not speak, if you want radio in the car through CarPlay or on your wrist, or if you would rather have no ads at all. You do not have to choose on day one. Both apps are free to start.
Can I try Radio Dad before I switch?
Yes. Listening is free in the app and in the web player, with no account. Captions come with one free 2-minute preview, so you can test them on a real broadcast before you pay anything.
BEFORE YOU SWITCH
Two honest limits. Captions are only as good as the audio: clear news and talk work best, and speech over music works much less well. And Radio Dad plays streams straight from each broadcaster, so it has no exclusive licensed content, such as a network's sports feeds. Search for your favourite stations in the web player first.
What else do people ask about switching?
Is there an app like Radio Garden for iPhone?
Yes. Radio Dad is a live radio app for iPhone and iPad that also puts stations on a globe. You spin a 3D globe to tune, or search by name, country, city, genre or language. It carries 50,000+ live stations from 230+ countries and territories, taken from the open radio-browser.info database. It needs iOS or iPadOS 18 or later, works with CarPlay for free and has an Apple Watch app. Listening is free, with no ads, no tracking and no account.
What does Radio Dad add to the globe idea?
Mainly a way to understand what you hear. On iOS 26 or later, Radio Dad can caption a live broadcast and translate it, all on your device, with the original and the translation shown together as sentence pairs. It also identifies songs with Shazam and shows synced lyrics, with 5 identifications a day for free users. Its free web player has a Road Trip mode that tunes a local station in each country between two capitals. And it runs with no ads, no tracking and no account.
Is Radio Dad free?
Listening is free in the app and in the web player, with no ads and no account. CarPlay is free too. Live captions and translation are part of Premium, which costs $9.99 per month or $39.99 per year, and the 7-day free trial is on the yearly plan only. Everyone gets one free 2-minute captions preview, so you can try them on a real broadcast before you pay. Free users can also identify 5 songs a day.
Should I keep Radio Garden instead?
Keep Radio Garden if Radio Dad cannot reach your device. As of October 2026, Radio Garden's App Store page lists iPhone and iPad support from iOS 12, and it also has an Android app and a website that plays in the browser. The Radio Dad app needs iOS or iPadOS 18 or later. If you only want a quick spin of a globe and never need captions or translation, Radio Garden does that job well. If you want to follow what is being said, try Radio Dad.
Where do Radio Dad's stations come from?
From radio-browser.info, an open, community-run database of internet radio stations released under CC0. Radio Dad lists 50,000+ live stations from 230+ countries and territories from it. Each stream plays directly from the broadcaster, and Radio Dad does not record or relay the audio. That also means a station cannot play while its broadcaster's stream is down, and that Radio Dad does not carry exclusive licensed content, such as a network's sports feeds.
NO ADS. NO ACCOUNT.
Want to spin it yourself?
Try Radio Dad free in your browser, no download, or get the app for iPhone and iPad, iOS 18 and up. Either way, I will have something playing.
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