Spotify and Pandora are two of the most popular music streaming services, but which is best? We're going to pit Spotify vs. Pandora to find out which comes out on top.

Here's our comparison of Spotify and Pandora's cost, music selection, device availability, and more.

Free Spotify vs. Free Pandora: Which Is Better?

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Free Pandora

Free Pandora allows you to create radio stations based on your favorite genres, artists, or songs. You can customize the music that plays on your station by giving each tune a thumbs up or thumbs down as you listen.

Unfortunately, you will have to listen to adverts as you stream, and you only have a limited number of song skips. You also won't be able to create playlists, share them, or listen to music offline.

It's also not the best for audiophiles, since Pandora's free tier offers a lower audio quality than a premium membership.

Free Spotify

As a free Spotify user, you can take full advantage of the platform's music recommendation engine.

In other words, the app will listen to the songs you consume daily and recommend new music for you. Although, you will still be required to listen to ads, and on the mobile app the songs are shuffled.

You will also be limited to lower-quality audio, six-track skips per hour, and you won't be able to listen to music offline.

Both Pandora and Spotify's free versions are supported by ads. Still, Spotify's free version proves more generous as you can listen to songs on-demand when using a desktop.

Spotify Premium vs. Pandora Premium: Which Is Better?

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Pandora Premium

Pandora offers two premium tier levels, but only Pandora's highest tier competes with Spotify's Premium membership.

Pandora Premium is ad-free, and offers on-demand playback and unlimited track skipping. It also has better audio quality than the free tier.

You can also benefit from unlimited offline listening. However, you must remember to connect your phone to Wi-Fi at least once every 30 days for the songs to remain active on your device.

Spotify Premium

Spotify Premium comes with unlimited access to on-demand music listening, track skipping, and ad-free listening.

In this tier, you'll also have the ability to download over 3,000 songs on up to three various devices.

Spotify Premium also includes better audio quality. You can try Spotify Premium for 30-days before becoming a paying subscriber.

Related: Is Spotify Premium Worth Its Premium Price?

Spotify vs. Pandora: What Do They Cost?

Pandora Price Plans

  • Pandora Plus: $4.99/mo, one account per household. Includes most features in Premium.
  • Pandora Premium: $9.99/mo, one account per household.
  • Family: $14.99/mo, six Premium accounts for one household.
  • Student $4.99/mo, one Premium account per student.
  • Military $7.99/mo, one Premium account for active US veterans.

Spotify Price Plans

  • Spotify Premium: $9.99/mo, one account per household.
  • Duo: $12.99/mo, two Premium accounts for one household.
  • Family: $14.99/mo, six Premium accounts for one household.
  • Student: $4.99/mo, one Premium account per student.

Both platforms offer competitive pricing, but Pandora's lower-priced Plus option can be a more economical alternative if you don't care about offline listening.

On the other hand, Spotify's duo pricing might be an excellent option for households of two.

Spotify vs. Pandora: Which Has The Largest Music Collection?

Pandora's Music

Pandora's library size ranges from one to two million tracks. However, Pandora does not host song covers, karaoke versions, or user-generated uploads like Spotify does.

Spotify's Music

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Spotify's library has about 60 million tracks available. It's important to note this number includes original content from amateur creatives, including podcasts and original covers.

On Pandora, you won't run into original music from artists or covers. If you enjoy more amateur and indie music, then Spotify is likely a better option for you.

Spotify vs. Pandora: Which Has Better Social Features?

Pandora's Social Features

Pandora covers your basic shareable social features, but it might not be your first choice if you consider yourself to be a social media junkie.

You can share your favorite stations on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, but on-demand playback won't work for non-premium subscribers, which defeats the purpose of social sharing.

Related: You Can Now Share Pandora Music on Instagram Stories

Spotify's Social Features

As a Spotify user, you can share individual songs and entire playlists on almost every social media platform, including Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, Skype, Tumblr, and Instagram.

You also have the ability to collaborate on playlists with your friends and other fun interactive features, like Listen Alike which lets you compare your music tastes to celebrities.

If sharing your music on social media is essential to you, then hands-down Spotify is the best choice here.

Spotify vs. Pandora: Which User Experience Is Better?

Pandora's Interface

Pandora's platform is intuitive and easy to navigate.

On Pandora, you have the option to list your playlist alphabetically or by date. The interface allows you to switch between listening to your favorite stations and discovering music in the My Collection and Browse sections.

Pandora also offers voice control for mobile devices. You can also make use of Alexa support.

You can listen to Pandora in three ways: mobile, web, and a desktop app (available to Pandora premium subscribers only).

Spotify's Interface

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Spotify's interface is visually stimulating and interactive. You are bound to find playlists that cater to your musical preferences and favorite songs.

You can find everything you need in the Home section or browse for more in the Browse and Radio sections.

Both platforms offer artist information and similar discovery features, though Spotify feels like a more well-rounded version of everything you want and need in a streaming service. Nevertheless, they are both easy to navigate and offer attractive interface options.

Spotify vs. Pandora: Which One Has a Better Podcast Selection?

Pandora's Podcasts

Pandora offers a wide selection of podcasts and access to SiriusXM Shows. It offers playback features like the ability to jump forward (great for skipping podcast adverts) and bookmarking your place, so you can always pick up from where you left off.

Spotify's Podcasts

Spotify is undoubtedly a leader in the podcast world. You will find tons of podcasts; those available elsewhere, but also original podcasts only found on Spotify.

Spotify's podcast interface offers bookmarking, playback speed selections, and a podcast-specific sleep timer.

Both platforms offer various podcasts and exclusives, but Spotify leads the way with the range and the depth of its podcast-specific features.

Which Is Better: Spotify or Pandora?

As an overall well-rounded streaming platform, it feels like Spotify gives you more bang for your buck, but ultimately the best choice comes down to your needs.

Ask yourself which platform features are the most beneficial to your musical needs, including where and what type of music you listen to on a daily basis, and what fits your budget.