Best Podcast Hosting Platform Review For Beginners

What is a Podcast?

A podcast is a digital broadcast that is made available on the Internet. The word “podcast” is made of two words – pod and cast. ‘Pod’ is a popular portable audio player as in Apple’s iPod, and ‘cast’ comes from ‘broadcast’, meaning “to transmit for general or public use.”

Millions of people around the world can enjoy podcasts anyplace and anytime. They can join podcast shows during workouts, commutes, at home preparing dinner, or whenever they get free time. The podcast is a good medium to reach a wide audience.

From a technical perspective, the majority of podcasts exist in an RSS feed, which is an XML file hosted that contains all the metadata, artwork, and episode content of the show.

 

What Is Podcast Hosting?

After you have done your research and decided to podcast your shows, several questions will pop up. The following questions related to podcast hosting are coming to your mind.

What is the best podcasting site to host your shows?

Unfortunately, it is not possible to just record a podcast episode and upload it to iTunes or Spotify.

So, you need a podcast hosting platform that will store the files and make it easy to distribute them to directories. They provide you a podcast RSS feed that is basically a listing of all your episodes.  And, you will submit this RSS feed to podcast directories.

They also provide web players, analytics, scheduling tools, and other features so that you can publish and grow your podcast easily. They also integrate social sharing features, additional distribution options, and ad networks.

All podcast hosting platforms are not the same. Some of them are mainly designed for beginners, while others are for business and enterprise customers.

 

Why Can’t I Upload the Audio Files on My Website?

Actually, you can upload audio files on your website. But, high-quality audio files can require a lot of storage space and bandwidth to be streamed. Having many listeners simultaneously could prevent your website from functioning properly.

So if your podcast show gets popular and you get tons of listeners, you will need a high-end performing hosting service to handle it.

Another issue will arise in distributing your podcast. If you host it on a website that nobody lands on, then your purpose of podcasting gets defeated.

Podcast hosting services help you to deal with the above two situations. They let you store and stream the audio files without any technical issues, as well as give you all the features you need to reach your audience.

 

Table of contents

• What is a Podcast?
• What is Podcast Hosting?
• Benefits of Podcast Hosting
• Podcast Hosting Sites
• Free Podcast Hosting Sites
• Podcast Hosting Equipment
• Criteria for Choosing the Best Podcast Hosting Service
• Podcast Hosting FAQ
• Conclusion

 

Benefits of Podcast Hosting

The world of podcast hosting has given business owners and marketers a new way to reach their audience. People are very interested and enthusiastic about listening to podcasts.

Here, we are discussing the various benefits of podcast hosting for your businesses.

Wouldn’t it be easier to call and know the required information instead of reading the entire piece of information in the form of a blog post? The podcast hosts do the same thing.

 

Best Podcast Hosting Sites

1. PodBean

Best and Easy Podcast Hosting Platform ($29/Month + 1 Month Free)

PodBean is a name that has an excellent hosting service in the market. It provides distribution and promotion on platforms such as iTunes, Google Play, Slack, Spotify, Amazon Alexa, and many more. It comes with many podcast hosting plans which have unlimited bandwidth.

PodBean has successfully completed more than 10 years in the podcasting hosting space and is known as one of the easiest-to-use hosts in this category.

Main Features:

• Podbean has a box full of tools that help Podcasters grow and monetize their shows. It has high-quality hosting. Here, you also get the facility to easily tie in with the sponsorship marketplace, add a dynamic ad, and enjoy premium content service.
• You get the freedom to dynamically add your own sponsored ad campaigns into your new episodes so that you can monetize your podcast faster. This plan also allows you to get the recurring income you’re your audiences.
• PodBean users can enjoy their free YouTube version. You just need to sync your YouTube channel with this platform and your episodes will then be auto-uploaded to your YouTube channel.
• It has its own podcast app for iOS and Android phones. It also has an Alexa skill which allows you to listen to your favorite podcasts.
• Podcast promotion tools are another great feature that automatically submits your episodes to all top podcast directories. Your audiences can use this tool to listen to and download podcasts of their choice.
• It has marvelous design tools that can be used to host your website with customizable themes. Podbean podcast player can be easily embedded directly into your WordPress posts and pages.
• In addition to the above features, PodBean provides excellent analytics reports. It also automatically posts all your episodes to social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

 

Pricing:

• PodBean comes with 14 days free trial and free and paid plans.

 

Free Plan:

• This plan allows you to upload up to 5 hours of content per month. Its bandwidth is limited to 100GB. You cannot use your own domain name with this plan.

 

Paid Plans:

• Flagship Plan: It costs $14 per month or $9 per month if paid annually. You can enjoy an ‘Unlimited Audio Plan’, advanced stats, a website, custom domains, and more with this plan.
• Unlimited Plus Plan: It costs $29 per month when paid annually. Here you get all video features and unlimited audio hosting and video storage.
• Higher Plans: It costs $99 per month when billed annually. Here you get more customization, additional team members, advanced analytics, the ability to use a custom domain, 50K downloads per month, and much more.

 

Podbean Pros:

• It is very easy to use
• You can host your podcast shows subdomain and website without spending extra money.
• It offers various affordable plans and even a beginner can afford them.
• It comes with good monetization options

 

Podbean Cons:

• It only offers basic website functionality
• You have to pay extra for premium bandwidth.

 

2. Buzzsprout

The Best and Simple Podcast Hosting for Beginners (Free – $12/month + $20 Amazon Gift Card)

It stepped into the market in 2009 and has earned the faith of more than 100,000 podcasters. Buzzsprout is one of the easiest-to-use software for beginners and bears the crown in terms of simplicity and speed.

You can upload and publish your content quickly. It provides you the import tool, which makes your transfer from another host very easy.

Buzzsprout provides one of the best-designed dashboards, using which you can create content smoothly without bothering about your uploads.

What you actually need to do using this platform is that you just need to upload your media file and the best part is taken care of by the software.

 

Main Features:

• It has Magic Mastering to give you sound perfection. This tool allows you to give a final and mind-blowing touch to your audio before it reaches the ears of the mass.
• You also get the text editor for editing your show notes.
• Buzzpsrout has great looking Wave Embed Player. It works well on all screen sizes. It comes with cover art, forward and backward skip controls, social sharing buttons, and much more.
• In 2020, it has launched excellent statistics and a mobile-friendly podcast website.
• Unique “Listeners” stat is a feature that gives you an estimate of your total listener numbers in the first 90 days. You can also get to know the nationality of your audience. These analytics features are very useful as they will help you create better content in the future.
• Multiple episode players come with this software. You can use this feature to play one episode or a whole playlist of episodes.
• The ‘Video soundbites’ feature enables you to share your content on YouTube or other social media platforms.
• ‘Add chapter markers’ is present inside the episode interface. This feature enables your listeners to pop back to an episode in the future and listen to a particular part of it.
• Buzzsprout also offers a few unique features, such as the ability to create a video ‘highlight’ right inside the episode dashboard. You can select a section of your show, and they’ll create a video version of that so you can share it on social. You can give people a glimpse into what your show’s all about.
• It automatically presents your episodes to podcast directories and ensures that they are available on all devices and apps.
• BuzzSprout can make a website for you completely free. You also get the facility to customize the design of the website and you can also use a custom domain name.

 

Pricing:

It comes with both free and paid plans.

Free Plan: It comes with a limited free plan for 90 days. After 90 days all your episodes get automatically deleted. You can upload two hours of content for this period of time.

Paid Plans: There are three paid plans offered by Buzzsprout.

Episodes are hosted indefinitely as long as you are on any of the paid plans.

• $12 per month – You can upload 3hrs of new content each month.
• $18 per month – You can upload 6hrs of new content each month.
• $24 per month – You can upload 12hrs of new content each month.

I suggest you get started with a free plan and then upgrade to any of the available paid plans you want, based on the number of hours of content you need to upload each month.

 

Buzzsprout Pros:

• It gives an excellent user experience. It is true for all podcasters whether you are podcasting your first show, or transferring an old show to this platform.
• Its pricing is clear and transparent.
• You can choose your plan according to the number of hours of audio you host with them.
• You can distribute it to various directories – Spotify, iTunes, and Google Podcasts, among many others.
• It offers an audio transcription service that can let you convert episodes to blog posts.
• You can also create a website for your podcast shows.

 

Buzzsprout Cons:

• Your files get deleted after 90 days if you are using its free plan.
• You cannot create a full episode archive on its free plan.
• It sets a bandwidth capping of 250GB per month. So, you might potentially restrict the number of listeners you can have.
• Monthly downloads of more than 5000 episodes could force you to use its Pro plan.

 

3. Spreaker

Best Podcast System with Monetization features (Free – $120+).

Spreaker is a podcasting platform that has been in this field since 2010. It comes with a bundle of unique and useful features for podcasters.

Spreaker serves as a one-stop destination for podcasters. It serves equally well for both beginners and flourishing podcasters. It walks beside you and makes your podcasting path smooth to walk and run.

 

Main Features:

• Spreaker gives you apps for live broadcasting, offline recording, and some parts of production.
• Both desktop and mobile apps are available on this platform. The desktop app supports Windows and Mac operating systems and the mobile app supports both iPhone as well as Android phones. You can use these apps for live streaming, recording, viewing stats, etc.
• It connects your listeners, podcast creators, and advertisers and makes the monetization of your podcast easy. You can insert dynamic ads in your episodes which paves your way of income.
• Your all episodes are published to the main directories through the great distribution Spreaker platform.
• Spreaker’s user-friendly CMS allows you to manage and schedule multiple podcasts with the same account. Using dynamic ad insertion, you get advanced monetization technology. Using this, you can set the monetization feature both at the episode and show levels.
• Team management can be improved by podcasters by adding collaborators and trafficking their own audio. Its data is very trustworthy as it is certified by IAB. It provides a Live Podcasting option. This option enables you to directly interact with your audience with the help of the chatbox.
• One of its main features is its content management system. It allows podcasters of even beginner level to automatically distribute their content on all the major listening platforms such as Spotify, Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, etc.

 

Pricing:

Spreaker provides both free and paid plans.

The free plan is good enough to test this platform.

Professional Plan: It has three options.

• The on-Air talent package is the basic package. You have to pay $7 per month, for 100 hours of audio in total and basic stats.
• The broadcast package costs $20 per month. It offers you 500 hours of audio storage, advanced stats, and a monetization feature.
• The anchorman package costs $50 per month. It offers full statistics and customizable player colors as additional features.

Enterprise Plan: It costs you $120 per month. You will get access to a complete podtech platform.

 

Spreaker Pros:

• You can find your audience using its popular app.
• It comes with the feature of live broadcasting of your podcasts
• You can chat with listeners during the podcast show.
• It can be fully integrated with the Spreaker Studio.

 

Spreaker Cons:

• You will not get many statistics on cheaper plans.
• You need to upgrade your plan to get additional statistics.

 

4. Transistor

Best Choice for Private Podcasting & Player Options ($19-99/month)

Transistor is excellent, professional service software that hosts some popular podcasts namely Honeybadger, and Cards Against Humanity. It makes things smooth and comes with all of the essential and basic tools and is one of the younger podcast hosting and analytics platforms that have great team support.

Moreover, it is brand-specific and works in a dedicated way for serious podcasters with outstanding features for a range of players. That is, it is good for both professionals and beginners.

 

Main Features:

• Uploading and publishing your podcast is extremely simple. You can track the performance of all your episodes with its great podcast analytics.
• If you are without your website, it creates a free website for you. And now you can use its embed code to easily and quickly add each episode to the WordPress posts and pages.
• Its in-built website integrates with many email providers such as Convertkit, Drip, etc.
• One of the important features is that its various plans do limit the number of downloads. So, you only need to upgrade your present plan as your podcast grows.
• Running your private shows for earning handsome money is another great experience with the transistor. All you need to do is to focus on your content, upload them, and invite your audience. Rest everything is being taken care of by this platform.
• Transistor has recently launched its multi-episode player, with which you can very easily showcase your back catalog. You can show your newest episode and your 25 latest episodes also. You can run a single episode, the latest episode, or a multi-episode, all of your choice. This feature enables you to give a great tour of all your older episodes to your audiences, which ultimately increases your loyalty.
• Browsing and playing an episode can be done simultaneously. While you browse, your episode goes on playing continuously.
• You can publish your show to YouTube automatically, which increases your reach.
• It allows you to create both private and public podcasts, without creating separate accounts for them. This means you can handle your all podcasts from a single podcast account and single plan. It really sounds good as it saves you money!
• Its tools allow you to manage multiple users from a single account, host multiple shows, make a brand-new website with your domain name, and distribute your podcasts.
• Advanced analytics gives you a clear view of all the trends and stats about your various episodes. You can get fruitful information like the number of subscribers; average downloads per episode, and downloads over time.
• Using the transistor, it becomes very easy to import your existing content using simple migration tools.

 

Pricing:

Transistor lets you enjoy a free trial and comes with various paid plans also.

It has a 14-day free trial, which you can use to check and take a quick look at the various features it provides. After your satisfaction, you can purchase any of the plans, based on the number of downloads you need per month.

It gives you three paid plans:

• Starter Plan: It costs $19 per month. It provides unlimited podcasts and episodes, up to 2 users, and 10,000 downloads per month.
• Professional Plan: It costs $49 per month. This plan upgrades you to work with up to five team members and 50,000 downloads per month.
• Business Plan: It costs $99 per month. This plan upgrades you to work with up to 10 team members and 150,000 downloads per month.

It’s my advice to take a free trial of Transistor and if you like it, go with its paid plan as per your need. You can easily upgrade your plan as the number of downloads increases.

 

Transistor Pros:

• You can host unlimited podcasts.
• It focuses on team management.
• It comes with a good analytics option so that you can analyze the performance of your shows.

 

Transistor Cons:

• There is no free plan available.
• You are restricted to limited monthly downloads
• You cannot remove player branding except on the Business plan.

 

5. Simplecast

Independent Podcast Hosting and Analytics Platform ($15/Month)

Simplecast is a platform with powerful tools that promise to always remain behind you and support you to manage, distribute, share, and grow your podcast and take it to the next level.

Simplecast has been active in this field for more than six years. It is the choice of some of the largest brands in podcasting, such as Nike, Kickstarter, Facebook, and HBO.

 

Main Features:

• With its Recast tool, you can schedule and share clips of your podcast on various social media platforms.
• One-click publishing, different web players, a fully-functioning website, and advanced analytics tools are its important features.
• Its embeddable players come with a great look. You also track analytics for anyone who uses it. This is the main features that you enjoy with this platform.
• You can collaborate with multiple podcast managers using one account. You also enjoy unlimited storage, unlimited uploads, and distribution of your episodes to all major platforms.
• It keeps on updating its entire platform and brand, along with tons of new features.

 

Pricing:

It provides 14 days free trial and also has paid plans.

Simplecast provides three paid plans:

• Basic Plan: It costs $15 per month. With this plan, you get unlimited storage and uploads, two member accounts, a customizable show website, 20000 downloads per month, an embeddable web player, and email support.
• Essential Plan: It costs $35 per month. Opting for this plan you get all basic plan features, plus two extra user seats, additional web players, location and technology (apps, browsers) analytics, 50000 downloads per month, and chat support.
• Growth Plan: It costs $85 per month. Here you get all features of previous plans, plus 5 more extra user seats i.e. total of 9 users, ISP analytics, detailed metro area location analytics, and 120000 downloads per month.

 

Simplecast Pros:

• It comes with a one-click publishing option.
• You get unlimited storage and unlimited upload features.
• Its players come with an excellent look.

 

Simplecast Cons:

• It imposes restrictions on the number of downloads in every plan. So, it forces you to upgrade the plan.

 

6. Castos

Best WordPress Podcast Hosting Solution ($19/month).

Castos is a full-featured podcasting plugin for WordPress.

Veteran podcaster Craig Hewitt Castos founded a podcast platform and named it Castos. He had experience in the field of podcasting for more than 4 years. This platform is a full-featured podcasting plugin for WordPress.

 

Main Features:

• Castos Media Player is a highly customizable media player. When you are ready to host your podcast to the top directories, you just need to upload your audio file and your podcast is live now.
• Podcast Hosting works seamlessly with WordPress. It has a Simple Podcasting WordPress plugin. Here, you can manage your feed and upload new episodes by adding them to the new podcast section. You are able to upload podcasts directly from the WordPress dashboard after installing the WordPress plugin.
• Castos WordPress integration is rivaled only by Blubrry in terms of ease of use.
• Automatic transcription is another great feature. When you upload your audio file, it gets transcribed to your Castos dashboard within a few minutes. You can copy and paste this transcription into WordPress, or download the PDF version and add it to your site.
• With the help of Castos, you can migrate your shows and episodes without any extra charge if you are coming from another platform. This is because Castos has an automated import process.
• It also has an integrated Youtube publishing tool that can convert your audio files into video ones. It can be shared with the click of a button. You can publish to YouTube using Castos software. In addition, you can customize your podcast player, and access deep analytics.
• It comes up with features like unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, and unlimited podcasts.
• It has a user-friendly interface that makes podcasting simple whether you are a beginner or a veteran.
• You can also send an email or chat with the team live.

 

Pricing:

• Castos offers unlimited bandwidth and storage at only $15/month.
• You’ll get unlimited upload volume and download bandwidth for $19/month. In this plan, you can customize the audio player to embed on your website.
• Its pricing plan ranges from $19 to $49 per month. All plans come with unlimited storage and episodes.
• You can republish to YouTube and get full podcast hosting, using the higher-tier plans.
• You can try a free 14-day trial.

 

Castos Pros:

• You can host your shows on the WordPress website using the plugin.
• It comes with a good analytics feature.
• You get unlimited episodes and storage with all plans.
• All metadata can also be added in other languages.
• You get the option to republish podcasts to YouTube

 

Castos Cons

• You need a WordPress site to host your shows on the website.
• It requires technical knowledge of WordPress.

 

7. Captivate

Best for Marketing and growing the listeners ($19/Month)

Captivate was created by the creators of Podcast Websites. Both are run by the same Rebel Base Media. Captivate is a platform that is having all the features that Rebel Base Media has thought are required for the best podcasting i.e. for the exponential growth of podcast audiences.

 

Main Features:

• All plans give you an unlimited number of podcasts, unlimited team members, an amazing new podcast player, private podcasting, advanced analytics which is easily understandable, and marketing tools.
• A customizable, mobile-friendly website with in-built donation support is available with all plans.
• Captivate is focusing on the continuous up-gradation of its analytical software on the basis of feedback. With IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) it is working to help you monitor your shows in a better way than before.
• With the help of the import tool, you can easily import shows from another podcast host. You can generate links with its marketing tool to places like Overcast and Pocket Casts. These links help your audience to find your shows easily.
• Its calls to action tool on the podcast player, help you guard your audience with their choice. As the podcast player is highly customizable, you can match it to your company brand name. You just need to upload your episodes, distribute them to various directories, and then send an invitation to your team members.
• 24/7 support via email, live chat, and a knowledge base is really mind-blowing. Both its website and dashboard are very smooth to navigate, even a fresher finds it very easy to use.
• There are many features like smart UI features like default schedule time, batch uploading, WordPress integration with their custom plugin, and a lot more.
• Its podcast sponsorship kit PDF enables you to highlight recent episodes and shows key download numbers, which is indeed a great feature.

 

Pricing:

Captivate gives you a free trial and paid plans.

It gives you a free trial of 7 days when you can test its features and join the paid plan that suits you.

Captivate offers three plans based on the number of monthly downloads. The plans have been discussed below:

• Podcaster Plan: It costs $19 per month. This plan allows you to download up to 12,000 per month.
• Audio Influencer Plan: It costs $49per month. This plan allows you to download up to 60,000 per month.
• Podcast Brand Plan: It costs $99 per month. This plan allows you to download up to 150,000 per month.

 

Captivate Pros:

• It is a superb podcast player. You can choose to display one show only or your whole collection of shows.
• You can customize a call to action and other options.
• It is very easy to use and designed keeping in mind the user experience and intuitive features.
• It has a great dashboard and excellent team management features.
• A private Podcast feature is available on the entry-level plan. It helps you to monetize premium content, sell a membership, etc.
• It comes with a WordPress plugin. You can easily host your podcast on the WordPress website.

 

Captivate Cons:

• It is costlier in comparison to some other platforms.
• You get additional features that you pay for, but it is not feasible for new podcasters to spend a minimum of $19 per month to host a show.
• Overall statistics are lacking but for some reason, you could only find episode stats.
• It would be useful if the above stats will be combined for an overall view of your show’s popularity.

 

8. Podcast Websites

Best Podcast Hosting Platform for Website Builders ($67/month).

Podcast Websites is an excellent platform created by two well-known podcasters. Here you get a box full of exciting and useful features such as a WordPress website, web hosting, email address, unlimited podcast hosting, domain name, etc.

 

Main Features:

• Podcast Websites give you digital marketing support from experienced podcasters to help you promote your podcast episodes and ads.
• It provides tutorials in the form of a video library, through its Academy membership which teaches you how to get exponential growth. It also has a community forum where you can discuss strategies with other podcasters.
• Podcast Websites lays stress on building beautiful and eye-catching websites for your podcast. You get a quick start as its themes are made for WordPress.
• Moreover, it gives podcasters a drag-and-drop website builder with unique and attractive themes. Creating many landing pages, blog posts, and web pages to market your podcast is an easy job on this platform. Its themes are mobile-friendly.
• Podcast Websites has a very smooth workflow that allows you to access fully responsive website hosting. It has high-grade security, built-in statistics, daily backups, and unlimited traffic allowance and hosting.
• It has connections with many of the top email service providers such as Aweber and MailChimp, so you can easily build your email list.
• 24/7 support is provided by this platform, which ensures that you are taken care of at all times and do need not to bother about your troubles.

 

Pricing:

It provides two pricing plans.

The first accounts for $77 per month and the second for $97 per month. You need to choose your plan based on your needs. It’s an ideal solution where you get everything under one roof.

 

Podcast websites Pros:

• You can build beautiful websites for your podcast episodes
• It gives you excellent marketing tools to promote your shows.
• It is highly secured and offers daily backups.
• 24/7 support is available

 

Podcast websites Cons:

• Its plan starts from $77 per month which is costlier in comparison to other solutions.

 

9. Podcastics

Podcast Hosting with Unlimited Episodes (Free – $39/month)

Podcastics is new podcast software that is very simple and easy to use. It comes with many competitive and interactive features.

 

Main Features:

• Podcastics offers an intuitive dashboard. For a first-time user on this platform, it just requires a few clicks to set the podcast details and then you can quickly manage the user permissions. Importing your podcast from other platforms is also very easy. Importing is automatic from Apple Podcasts or from any RSS feed.
• For a podcaster with multiple podcasts, building teams within the dashboard is a very smooth process. It is a great option for studios and agencies.
• Podcast analytics helps you to know all details about your audiences. You can know about the details of the plays which are played, the days and hours when they are played, and also the location of your audience.
• It comes with live streaming
• Podcast and episode editing tools are the other positive aspect that you enjoy on this platform.
• You can even plan your episodes and schedule them for a particular day, date, and time.
• QR codes, surveys, smart links, and heat maps are some features that you enjoy on this platform.

 

Pricing:

Podcasts offer the following pricing plans. All the plans except the free one offer unlimited episodes.

• Premium Plan: It costs $ 4 per month. You can organize a series of episodes and can customize your website.
• Pro Plan: It costs $ 8 per month. In addition to the features of the above plan, it provides you hosting feature. It provides you unlimited bandwidth and storage access.
• Max Plan: It costs $ 4 per month. In this plan, you get access to the content delivery network.

All the plans come with the 1st-month free package.

 

Podcastics Pros:

• It is very easy to use and even a beginner can use it easily.
• It comes with advanced features such as surveys, smart links, and QR codes.
• Team management is another good feature of this platform.

 

Podcastics Pros:

• Its free plan comes with very basic limited options.

 

10. Anchor

(Free Podcast Software)

This is one of the free podcast software which gives services liked by most podcasters all over the world. It gives you unlimited storage capacity, without the condition of a trial.

 

Main Features:

• At this platform, you can very easily create, distribute, and monetize your podcasts, that too on any device. The company aims to democratize audio and thus helps people to get their voices heard worldwide irrespective of their experience or background.
• It takes care of all the pain points of creators, comes with easy-to-use tools, and powerful technology using the best practices. Hence it is a popular choice for many podcasters.
• You can distribute your podcast automatically to the top directories such as Spotify, Google Podcasts, etc.
• Its recording tool allows you to record audio from a desktop, iPad, or smartphone, which is compatible with a wide range of external microphones. It also provides Sync recordings across multiple devices, which you can access anytime you want.
• You can also change your episodes through audio segments, convert videos into audio and mix & match segments using the recorded audio in audio.
• This platform also gives you a special Leverage Anchor’s sound effect and transition library, which you can use to break longer segments in your recording. Additionally, you can convert your audio into animated videos and share them.
• If you want to record with guests remotely, you can very easily accomplish this task, no matter where your guests are situated in the world. Your audiences and listeners can commute with you by leaving a voice message for you.

• Its dashboard has actionable insights, that help you to know the rate of success of your podcast, and of course, you can monetize them to make good money.

 

Anchor Pros:

• It is a completely free podcast hosting platform.
• A one-click distribution feature is available in Anchor podcast hosting.
• You can record from your browser, desktop, or app.
• Multiple podcast episodes (up to 5 people) can be held simultaneously.
• It provides many monetization options.

 

Anchor Cons:

• Customer support is poor.
• Its audio editor is clunky.
• It has limited marketing and distribution options

 

11. Libsyn

 

Libsyn is one of the oldest and most trusted podcast hosting services that has been in this field since 2004. The “Old is Gold” proverb suits this platform. Moreover, it is a roof where you can host and monetize your shows. It is upgrading itself as the need arises.

 

Main Features:

• Libsyn is associated with IAB Tech Lab and provides IAB v2.0 certified statistics. This feature leads your investors, advertisers, and show sponsors to trust your podcast.
• It gives you almost all details and analysis such as platforms your listeners use, destination breakouts, geographical heat maps, social media statistics, data range selectors, downloads, and more.
• Its myLibsyn feature enables you to gather potential subscribers who pay to access premium content.
• You can very easily optimize and customize your episodes. It also gives you a WordPress plugin for publishing your content to the top directories with a single click.
• In addition to these features, it also provides a listing directory, compliance with RSS feed, file manager, and FTP support.
• It creates a mini-site for your podcast, which is also mobile-friendly and works on both Android or iOS apps. You also get a custom domain and color options for your brand.
• Monetization and the presence of enterprise-level tools are the other benefits for corporations and producers.

 

Pricing:

Libsyn does not have a free plan and its basic plan provides very little data, which makes you switch to its higher tier as your data limit exceeds.

• Its plan starts from $5 and whereas the pro plan costs $40 per month.
• These plans provide monthly storage in the range of 50 MB to 800 MB per month.
• It gives you many customizable options for various features, so you have to pay only for what you use.

 

Libsyn Pros:

• It has built a reliable reputation.
• You can host your podcast with tons of listeners with complete peace of mind.
• You can choose a monthly storage use limit as per your need.
• It gives you great choices in statistics, monetization, and how you present our podcast to the world with a custom website.

 

Libsyn Cons:

• If you spend a lot of time in the dashboard, you might get disappointed with the same design template.
• It does not offer any free plan. You have to spend $5 per month to use it.
• You need to spend an extra $2 for standard statistics.
• Even if you are using its paid plan, you have to pay an extra amount to use IOS and Android app or your own domain.

 

12. SoundCloud

SoundCloud came into the market in 2015 and became a leader in music or audio hosting. At present, more than 175M new visitors come to this platform on monthly basis. Due to its excellent service, it has become a popular choice for podcasters who want to host their music episodes and grow their career.

 

Main Features:

• SoundCloud helps you to increase the number of your listeners with the help of its advanced stats. This platform enables easy sharing and publishing of your episodes. You get immediate response and feedback from your audience which again helps you give proper direction to your business.
• By customizing your episodes, you can even turn on or off the comments section. Your fans and audiences can easily subscribe to you to get updates about your content.
• You can also pin up to 5 tracks, albums, or playlists, and get a badge showing on your profile. You enjoy the great support and even monetize, promote and distribute your podcasts to major directories
• SoundCloud provides Pro Unlimited paid plan with which you can schedule your releases, get advanced stats, highlight and pin popular episodes, and most importantly enjoy the unlimited hosting time.
• Advanced stats are real-time stats that show information such as the number of top listeners, their cities and countries, and the episodes they play and download. You also get to know about your per-episode likes, comments, and reposts, play by 3rd-party apps, RSS, and websites.

 

Pricing:

It offers both free and paid plans.

• Basic Plan: It is free. You get 3 hours of upload time, basic statistics, and embedding options.
• Repost Plan: You need to pay $30 per year for this plan. You can push your shows to streaming services and monetize them on one platform.
• Pro Plan: It costs $144 per year. Here, you get unlimited upload time, monetization options, and advanced listener statistics.

 

SoundCloud Pros:

• SoundCloud comes with a good player and easy embed options.
• You see Soundcloud players everywhere because it is very easy to integrate with various directories and platforms.
• You can get traffic from a large community.
• It helps you to increase your listener count by virtue of being on a social network and interacting with fellow podcasters
• You can get excellent statistics using this platform. It offers advanced and extremely in-depth “listener insights” in its paid plans.

 

SoundCloud Cons:

• It does not offer any monthly plans. You have to pay for a year at a time and there is no monthly payment option.
• To save a lot, you have to keep an eye on the regular promotions run on this platform.
• It imposes a three-hour limit on podcast shows.
• The free plan is limited by length and not size. So, if you are hoping to reduce bitrate a bit in order to upload longer episodes, you get disappointed.

 

13. Resonate Recordings

Resonate Recording is a platform that is constantly upgrading itself with the demand. Lately, it has incorporated hosting in its platform.

 

Main Features:

• Resonate Recordings provides you a single roof where you can get professional editing and production for seamless hosting of your shows.
• It gives you your own podcast website, and a great-looking embed player, with which you can maintain a proper record and deep analysis of your audience.
• Just with a single click and in no time, this platform enables you to distribute your audio to multiple top podcast directories like Google, Stitcher, and more.
• It has an intelligent dashboard, which lets you determine podcast SEO and performance.
• Resonate Recordings gives you an automatically made podcast micro-site, so you can set up your podcast channel online. This micro-site is a landing page, using which the audience can view your episodes, subscribe to your channel, and even contact you.

 

Pricing:

Resonate Recordings offers both free trial and paid plans.

It provides a 14-day free trial, which in my opinion is sufficient to test a platform. If you liked its features, switch to a paid model of the platform and run your podcast.

It provides the following three paid plans, with which you get unlimited shows, episodes, and bandwidth.

• Basic Plan: It costs $25 per month.
• Premium Plan: It costs $49 per month.
• Professional Plan: You can opt for this plan upon request.

 

14. Fusebox

Best Toolbox of Podcasting Software ($8/Month).

Fusebox is created by renowned podcaster Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income. After years of podcasting and gaining experience, he created the best possible podcast.

 

Main Features:

• Fusebox has an email capture feature, which is offered here only.
• Transcript plugin is also provided by Fusebox which is SEO-friendly. This feature automatically adds podcast transcripts to your website.
• Its player works in a clear-cut way. You just need to install the Fusebox WordPress plugin and add your RSS feed. Next, you need to give your subscription URLs to push your shows to the top directories. And finally, you come to the customization of the colors of your podcast player, and then add the player to your posts and pages.
• Moreover, you can host your files, by sending them to podcast networks and displaying them on your WordPress website.

 

Pricing:

Fusebox offers free as well as paid plans.

• Free Plan: You should start with the free plan. You can start podcasting using the sitewide sticky player. It is mobile-friendly.
• Pro Plan: It costs $8 per month when billed annually. It offers additional features such as custom colors, email capture, social sharing, future timestamps, etc.

 

15. Backtracks

Backtracks hold the crown in the field of podcast analytics and hosting platforms.  It comes with an advanced level of analysis. It aims at changing the present image of the podcast industry.

 

Main Features:

• Backtracks have been trusted by many large brands. It has robust analytics and a good embeddable player with clickable transcripts. In addition, it also provides secure hosting and API access.
• It comes with very potent analytics built on an open-source framework developed by it. You can create custom reports, get historical data, view trends, and take advantage of AI to ensure that the data is precise.
• Its interface is so user-friendly, that even a person having the least knowledge of technology can understand it quickly.
• Customer support is excellent as the support team members are knowledgeable. But this excellent support can only be enjoyed by its paid members.

 

Pricing:

You can try a podcast player option for free but has limited features.

• Its pricing plan starts from $49 per month and goes up to $249 per month.
• It is not suitable for you if you are a beginner, but if you run a media brand, its advanced analytics is invaluable for you.
• It is much more expensive than other solutions available in the market.

 

16. Podiant

Unlimited Storage at $12.99/month

Podiant comes with unlimited storage for $12.99 per month. This makes it very easy to start and grow your podcast. Podiant has started making its root deep in the podcast market and to date,  it has managed over 3 million downloads.

 

Main Features:

• Podiant gives you easy to navigate interface so that you can run your podcast smoothly. It comes with detailed analytics, which you can use to know the major statistics about your podcast. You also get recommendations on how to improve your viewership and audience engagement.
• Sharing on various social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter is also very easy with Podiant. It also allows auto-posting of your episodes to YouTube.
• Additionally, you are able to build good-looking podcast websites with landing pages, a blog, bio pages, episode pages, and more.
• Customer support is provided by experts and knowledgeable persons. The support is quite responsive and they have a detailed knowledge base.

 

Pricing:

You can try Podiant for free for 14 days.

It also offers the following paid plans:

• Indie Plan: It costs $12.99 per month. It is the perfect plan for beginners. Support is provided through Podcaster’s Hub.
• Profession Plan: As the name suggests, it is best suited for professionals. Higher-bitrate audio plus and premium support are features of this plan. You have to spend $24.99 per month.
• Networks Plan: It gets started from $35.97 per month. You can start this plan with three podcast network and upgrade plans as your network grows.

 

17. AudioBoom

AudioBoom is a place where you can host, distribute, and monetize your podcast.  It provides you a perfect platform where you can connect with advertisers and make handsome money.

 

Main Features:

• AudioBoom launched its “New podcasters” option where you can publish up to 5 episodes at $9.99 per month with up to 10K plays per month.
• Once you cross this barrier of 10K monthly downloads, you get access to its advertising partnerships, contributor accounts, sponsorships, sales service, targeted ad network, and branded partnerships. And then what! Nothing but just money and money.
• It has a separate plan for podcast networks and radio groups. It has its own monetization and management options.
• Audioboom enables you to distribute your podcast episodes over the top directories.
• You can add a responsive embeddable player and access analytical details about the performance of your individual episodes. You can create a simple podcast page on this platform and invite collaborators to help make your show a super-duper hit.
• Customer support is provided by experts and knowledgeable persons through email. They have solutions to all your problems, so you just need to focus on the creation of your content and uploading them. If a problem comes, contact experts via email.

 

Pricing:

It has two plans that are based on the number of downloads.

• If you have less than 10000 downloads per month, you have to pay $9.99 per month. You can do unlimited shows per month.
• If you have more than 10000 downloads per month, you get a price-on-demand monthly plan. In this plan, You will get branded content partnership opportunities, and event and live show sponsorships.

 

Best Free Podcast Hosting Sites

There are many podcast hosting platforms of which are free, and some are paid. Paid podcast hosting platforms also offer free plans in addition to their paid plans.

Below is the list of those podcast hosting sites that offer free plans.

1. Anchor

 

2. Podomatic

 

3. ZenCast

 

4. Blubrry

 

5. Buzzsprout

 

6. SoundCloud

 7. Megaphone

 

 8. Podcasts.com

 

9. Podbean

 10. Spreaker

 

Best Podcast Hosting Equipment

If you have planned to start podcasting your shows, you need to purchase some podcast hosting equipment. You just need a computer and a microphone to start your podcast.

Podcast listeners get frustrated from a recording that sounds scratchy or has dramatic volume changes as it was recorded or edited poorly. Since podcasting is such a crowded space, you cannot take the risk to distract or turn off your potential fans. So, you need high-quality audio, and for this, you need the following podcast hosting equipment.

1. Laptop

2. Microphone

3. Headphones

4. Mixer

5. Webcam

Criteria for Choosing the Best Podcast Hosting Service

Are you thinking about launching a podcast?

That is great!

But, before you get started, there are a few things you will have to discover—including which site you will host your podcast on.

As you research which podcast hosting service is suitable for you, evaluate each using these five criteria. It will help you to pick the one that will help your podcast succeed.

1. Storage Limit

2. Website Integrations

3. Content Repurposing Services

4. Audience Analytics

5. Monetization Support

While deciding which podcast host is best for you, you should keep these criteria in mind. You should choose the platform that helps in the growth of your show. And the company is making all strides to improve the platform. When you have chosen a suitable platform for you, go for a free trial so that you can explore all its features.

 

Podcast Hosting FAQ

1. What is podcast hosting?

2. Which is the best podcast hosting for me?

 

 

6. How to make money with podcasts?

 

8. What equipment do we need for podcasts?

To podcast your shows, you need some equipment. You can start podcasting your shows just with a computer and a microphone. But for a high-quality podcast show, you need some more equipment.

 

Conclusion

Listeners tend to give podcasts exclusive time and attention. Listeners join podcast shows during workouts, commutes, and whenever they get free time. When the listeners tune into your show, they are tuning in to you only. It enhances loyalty to your brand. Other forms of media are subject to many distractions.

Podcasting can build loyalty and positive sentiments toward your brands. But those benefits are not free. Podcast requires time, money, and significant labor. You have to spend between 5-15 minutes of your time producing every minute of podcast audio that the listener hears. In addition to this, you will have to market your podcast like a product.

So, we can conclude that podcasting can be an amazing channel to reach your audiences, and build loyalty, and positive sentiment towards your brand, but with significant costs and tradeoffs.