How to build a profitable podcast.
The fourth most important decision to make when starting a podcast: choosing the best podcast hosting software.
There are four BIG decisions to make when you start a podcast:
In our previous posts, we explained everything you need to hit the first three the best place to start is with our guide to starting a podcast.
Now it's time to tackle the fourth...
If you are new to the podcast industry; advertising in podcasts was worth just over $1 billion in 2020, according to Deloitte. Now of course, the benefits of podcasting are extensive... not just limited to advertising, but this statistic shows the growing interest in the space.
A CRUCIAL part of your ability to capture a slice of the $1bn is the software that you are using to host your show.
Before you launch your podcast, you need to identify which podcast hosting service will give you the greatest likelihood of podcasting success.
To help your decision, here are the top 16 podcast hosting platforms...
A podcast hosting platform is exceptional assistance that stores media files and conveys to your audience. Their services include podcast analytics, web hosting and embeddable media players you can share with third-party websites.
An exceptional podcast hosting service is a crucial decision.
It's crucial because a low-quality hosting service can hamper your growth. But excellent hosting service can do wonders on your show by assisting you with dealing with your large audio or video files, episode promotions, and increasing your audience.
Consider these platforms as a headquarters for your podcast.
You may be curious -- why can’t you just host your show on your website instead?
Well, you can certainly do that – however, it's best not to.
You ask me why?
This is because podcast episodes files are usually huge. Which insinuates that hosting and delivering them from your website's server may cause your site to crash… and you know what that means when your audience can't access your contents.
Which is precisely why it's essential to employ an excellent podcast hosting platform to take that burden off your website. These platforms host those large files and provide other necessary tools for your show’s successful running.
There are numerous platforms offering podcast hosting services. If you are looking for the best WordPress hosting platforms, you will find the right choice as we have it all covered in this section.
With that in mind, we will be searching for the ones that are the most effortless to utilise, offer unique tools and podcast support, and obviously adaptability in file sizes.
Now, let's take a closer look at 16 of the best podcast hosting platforms to help you decide which one is right for you; in no particular order.
1. bCast
We pride ourselves as the only brand that's designed "for marketers by marketers." With notable features like audio inserts; we give you the autonomy to insert a Call To Actions (CTAs) to allow listeners to sign up for your mailing list, webinars and more.
After starting your 14-day trial, you can access advanced show analytics regarding your listeners, such as their geographical location, how they found your show, as well as the type of device they use to listen.
Other cool features include:
Our plans start at $19 (starter pack) per month, and there are also $35 (Growth package) and $75 (legendary) monthly plans. You likewise have the option of paying yearly. All packages come with unlimited bandwidth, storage space and episodes.
2. PodBean
The second podcast hosting platform on our list is PodBean. The website gives you access to submitting your show directly to directories like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify and more.
PodBean has exceptional analytics with an excellent user interface that is extremely easy to use and can help you share your episodes with potential partners or advertisers efficiently.
Other cool features include:
PodBean has one of the widest arrays of features you can find in the market, though several such features only come at higher-priced plans.
With regards to pricing, PodBean offers a basic plan that goes for $9/month, and an unlimited plus plan you can get for as little as $29/month. You can also get a free plan at no cost with 5 hours of content upload; however, the bandwidth is capped at 100GB.
3. Podcastle
Podcastle’s Hosting Hub is known as one of the simplest and most user-friendly hosting providers available. With just a few clicks, you can easily publish your podcast and make it ready for distribution on all major platforms, including Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and many other podcast directories.
Other cool features include:
You can get access to unlimited podcast hosting and publishing with Podcastle’s Free plan. If you want to explore Podcastle’s other features without limitations you could also try their Storyteller package at $11.99/month, or the Pro package at $23.99/month. Podcastle also offers a Custom plan that can be tailored to your business’s needs.
4. BuzzSprout
Like the previous platforms, BuzzSprout is another top podcast hosting platform. With an automatic scheduler, you can schedule your episode to publish on all the major podcast directories and embed an audio player on your website.
Besides, its straightforward and intuitive analytics dashboard gives invaluable insights to improve your show and marketing strategy. Another distinctive feature of BuzzSprout is adding episode chapters. By adding more chapters, your listeners get a better understanding of the episodes in order.
Other cool features include:
The platform offers free podcast hosting to upload episodes up to two hours per month, where you host your files for some 90 days before they're automatically deleted. Another downside to this plan is that it displays ads on your website and the podcast player.
However, a premium paid plan starts from $12 with unlimited storage. Likewise, you get to have your files hosted indefinitely on this plan.
5. Captivate
With a not-so-cliché tagline; 'the only growth-oriented' podcast host – Captivate has their platform features designed to live up to that. The platform interface and dashboard provide an easy-to-use interface for brand new podcasters and those of us that are non-techy.
Once you get access to the platform dashboard, you can start playing with its growth & monetisation tools, such as the 'One-Click Sponsor' kit, podcast players' calls to action and an exceptional one-stop-subscribe page.
Other cool features include:
As opposed to the previous platforms, Captivate is based on 'downloads per month.' No matter how many shows you host on one account, you get to pay based on the number of downloads accrued by all the shows together. You will be charged $19 per month for 12,000 downloads, $49 for 60,000 downloads monthly, $99 per month for downloads of about 150,000 downloads monthly.
6. Castos
An oddly easy podcast hosting service for WordPress users with some excellent features to repurpose your podcast and grow your audience. Castos has a WordPress plugin known as Seriously Simple Podcasting which gives you access to adding a new podcast directly from your WordPress backend – similar to adding a new post or page to your website. These new podcasts are then added to Castos, to be distributed to major directories.
Another distinctive feature of Castos is the automatic transcription; which lets you upload your episode while Castos creates a transcribed document of your audio in minutes that you can then download as PDF or document and paste to web pages.
Other cool features include:
All Castos plans give you unlimited podcasts, uploads, and downloads. With pricing starting at $19 per month. For $49, you also get access to the YouTube republishing feature. In contrast, while $99 gets you access to video file hosting and advanced analytics.
7. Transistor
Transistor has various features starting with and not limited to giving access to podcasters to distribute their podcast to top directories and creating a branded website via a custom domain name.
Transistor also integrates effortlessly with marketing services such as ConvertKit, MailChimp, and Drip. While Transistor's embedded code permits you to effortlessly add every episode to your WordPress posts and pages.
Other cool features include:
Pricing starts from $19 monthly for about 10,000 downloads each month. With $19 you get access to 10,000 downloads for two users, $49 for 50,000 downloads and five user access, and $99 for 150,000 downloads and ten user access.
8. Podiant
One distinctive feature that makes Podiant a unique and unarguably one of the best podcast hosting platforms in the market is its Production Assistant system. A feature that helps you write podcast scripts, review your uploaded content and add show notes directly from the Podiant dashboard.
Other cool features include:
With $12.99 per month, you can get unlimited storage access to Podiant hosting service. This is a professional plan that permits you several shows from just one account and one-on-one technical support to help you grow your show.
9. Blubrry
Another podcasting platform with WordPress plugin; Blubrry makes it less complicated to share your podcast episodes to popular directories like Apple and Google Podcasts. The platform gives three distinctive offerings; the first is the podcast hosting service. The second is the podcast statistics. The third is the PowerPress plugin.
Besides, you get access to unique social media features that enables the effective promotion of your episodes to a new audience.
Other cool features include:
Blubrry plans begin at $12 monthly for 100MB of audio storage space. Hence, if you choose to upload one episode weekly, that size should be enough.
10. Libsyn
With superior features like double opt-in ads and premium paywalls, you get to monetise your episodes with any hassle. The platform is likewise heavy on promoting your episode to major podcast directories to reach more audience.
Other cool features include:
Libsyn plans start at $5/month, but their platform isn't as robust as the competition compared to the competition. Still, the brand considers making money an essential factor in podcasting, so if money is your priority coming into the podcast industry, you may consider Libsyn.
11. SoundCloud
One of the podcasts hosting sites with a vast listener's base. Aside from the fact that SoundCloud is not only a podcast hosting platform, it is also likewise a popular streaming platform that's popular amongst 175 million new listeners every month. SoundCloud is so famous that 12 hours of audio content is uploaded every 60 seconds.
Its podcast hosting platform provides features like an embedded audio player and timed comments. The latter lets your listeners attach their observations to some audio clip parts.
Other cool features include:
The platform offers a free plan that allows you to upload three hours of upload limit regarding pricing... Whist paid plans begin from $6 monthly.
12. AudioBoom
If you are an independent podcaster, this is one of the best services you may find in the market because of its variety of tools. Besides, it allows you to share your shows to directories like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRADIO and Google Podcasts. It likewise provides you with an embedded audio player that you can use on your website and social media pages.
That's not all, with AudioBoom, you can collaborate with a co-host or send invites to other people to help you run your podcast.
Other cool features include:
AudioBoom plans begin at $9.99 monthly. This package consists of unrestricted uploads and up to 10k plays monthly.
13. Simplecast
The popularity of Simplecast among top-brands like Facebook, Nike, Shopify and Kickstarter speaks for it, which is why it deserves a spot on this list.
If there's a key feature you demand from a top podcast hosting platform, Simplecast has it all on lock. They provide some essential tools like Recast; which permits you to create, schedule, and share your podcast’s snippets to social media for promotion.
Other cool features include:
Simplecast plans come with unrestricted storage costing $15 for 20; download monthly. $35 for 50k download monthly and $85 for 120k download monthly.
14. Spreaker
A comprehensive podcast hosting site – Spreaker has everything you want to create, share and monetise your show. It has features like embed audio player, podcast scheduler, insert ads and creating personal podcasts.
Other cool features include:
Spreaker plan charges $6 to $45 monthly. You can also get a free plan. However, it's limited to only five audio hours, which means you may have to upgrade it eventually. For the $6 per month plan, you are allowed a 45 minutes talk time per episode, whilst the $18 per month plan gives you unlimited hours.
15. Fusebox
A great invention by Pat Flynn, a famous podcast and inventor of Smart Passive Income – After so many podcasting years, Pat created this fine audio podcast player. Among other things, Fusebox has email capture and other top-notch features.
Likewise, it has a transcript plugin with Search Engine Optimisation friendly live text that routinely adds transcripts to your website.
Other cool features include:
Fusebox pricing starts from $8.09 monthly (can be billed annually)
16. Podcastics
Podcastics is one of the most comfortable podcast hosting platforms with competitive features. The platform has an intuitive dashboard that can help you manage user permission in a few clicks. And if you have multiple podcasts, the platform allows you to build teams inside the dashboard – this is perfect for studios and agencies.
Other cool features include:
It has five pricing plans – every plan has unlimited episodes. Still, unlimited bandwidth and storage space begin at the $8 per month Pro Plan.
There you have it…
Everything you need to know to decide on number 4. The fourth most important decision to make when starting a podcast. Choose well... we're also happy to advise, simply drop us an email on grow@fame.so we won't be biased, I promise ;)
And of course, if you want to learn more about podcasting, check out our guide on how to start a podcast, the best podcast software to record with and how to edit your episodes, then how to write podcast scripts, show notes and many more.
