Are you looking for the best podcast hosting platforms? If yes, then you’re in the right place. Podcasting has undoubtedly become one of the most prominent platforms for audience engagement. Not only podcast hosts but businesses are getting immense benefits from podcasts, and businesses are endowing on podcasting channels for better reach.
In such cases, if you are not in the podcasting trend yet, you are making a huge mistake. Podcasting can be an excellent way to connect to the audience and earn money. If you have excellent speaking skills, you are on! However, to start with podcasting, you need podcast hosting first.
Podcast hosting platforms are quite similar in terms of web hosting platforms. As you need a web host to start blogging, you also need podcast hosting for podcasting. In this article, I have reviewed 10 Podcast hosting platforms. Read the full reviews to explore the difference.
💡 Highlights:
If you are in a hurry and looking for the best podcast hosting platforms, I would like to suggest you go with RSS.com, Buzzsprout, or Transistor. Those 3 are the best, most used podcast hosting platform used by renewed podcasters all across the globe.
You can make a list of all your podcast episodes and upload it to the platforms so that users can access them at any time. Here is a summary of the posts that you should read if you do not have time to read the whole post;
- RSS.com – $4.99 / Month – [Click here to claim deal]
- Buzzsprout – $12.00 / Month – [Click here to claim deal]
- Transistor – $19.00 / Month – [Click here to claim deal]
- PodBean – $9/ Month – [Click here to claim deal]
- Castos – $19 / Month – [Click here to claim deal]
- Captivate – $17 / Month – [Click here to claim deal]
- Resonate – $25 / Month – [Click here to claim deal]
- Fusebox – $15.83 / Month – [Click here to claim deal]
- Blubrry Podcasting – $12.00 / Month – [Click here to claim deal]
- Spreaker – $8.00 / Month – [Click here to claim deal]
Review of Best Podcast Hosting Platforms
As you all know, Podcast hosting platforms are virtual platforms to store and share your podcast audio files. When choosing a podcast host, you must expect the most basic features, and you should always expect ample space for storing your audio files and advanced analytics to know about your listeners and what they demand from you.
Below are the 10 best Podcasting hosting platforms.
1. RSS.com
RSS.com is undoubtedly one of the best podcast hosting platforms that comes with hundreds of features and benefits. This podcast hosting platform comes with unlimited episodes of unlimited duration hosting, which is generally not available on any other podcast platform. It is undoubtedly one of the most preferable platforms when you are indulged in releasing many Podcast episodes.
Not limited to this, but even when you’ve got smaller chunks of file size, RSS.com is a great podcast hosting platform for you. In addition, RSS.com emphasizes bringing quick monetization for podcast makers, and it leverages the existing partnerships to feed in more money.
You will get several other features such as cross-platform access to analytics, RSS feed, free website for podcasts, tailored embedded player, episode schedule, auto-submission, social media sharing, and many more. For the sponsors also, RSS.com is a great platform to insert ads to the podcast with good traffic.
Pricing of RSS
RSS is very simple to use and very affordable in terms of its pricing. In order to host your podcasts with RSS.com, there are three different pricing tiers available. Students, NGOs, and other small organizations can sign up for plans starting at just $4.99/month and going up to $8.25/month with some monetization benefits.
In this article, we have compared all the plans for you, so that you can choose the plan that matches your requirements the best.
- Students & NGO Plans: Starting at $4.99/mo, this plan offers unlimited podcast hosting of unlimited duration. A plan like this would be perfect for NGOs, students, and small organizations looking for a place to host their podcasts. In this plan, you will be able to get all the features you will ever find in a podcast hosting plan.
- All-in-one Podcasting Plan: With this plan, you will have to pay $8.25 a month. The features of this plan are almost the same as those in the former plan, however, here you will have the option of monetization as well as 24×7 customer support.
- Pro and Enterprise Plan: In order to learn more about the pricing of this plan, users will need to request a quote. This plan is tailored to meet the specific requirements of podcasters.
Got confused with all the plans and prices?
To make everything as easy as possible, we recommend you go with their “Students & NGO” plans, which are currently available for just $4.99/month with tons of benefits and unlimited episode hosting.
If you like their podcasting plan and would like to have your podcasts monetized, then you can move forward with their “All-In-One Podcasting” plan.
Pros
- RSS.com offers you cross-platform analysis along with episode stats
- You can integrate a free website for your podcast show
- There is an embeddable player for podcasts running on your existing website
- Automatic sharing to platforms like Apple Music and Spotify
Cons
- There are no significant cons of RSS.
2. Buzzsprout
Buzzsprout is another popular podcast hosting platform that may also be helpful for beginners and organizations. Besides the fact that it has several advantages over other podcast hosting platforms, it also comes with a free plan that allows you to store around two hours of your podcast per month. It has thousands of happy customers and in just the last week alone, approx 4118 people started their podcasts using Buzzsprout. This makes Buzzsprout one of the most reliable podcast hosting platforms on the web.
One of the things that makes it popular around the web is the free plan, which allows anyone to host 2 hours of podcasts each month, check their advanced stats, and monitor their progress from their free account. Apart from that, it brings you two hours of upload for 90 days in the free plan.
There is an editing tool that helps users to optimize audio files before uploading. Users can also make it more accessible on the search engine results page (SERPs) with an auto transcription feature. It offers distinct hours for episode hosting, and you can access a number of features, such as advanced analytics and unlimited team members.
Pricing of Buzzsprout
Buzzsprout brings you four pricing tiers for hosting your podcasts. It comes with a free plan which offers 2 hours of episode hosting limited to each user, but if you want to be a regular podcaster, we suggest you choose its most premium plan that offers you 12 hours of uploading each month.
- Free Plan: There is no charge for the first plan, and it costs you nothing. Users are only allowed to host two hours of shows per month. You will get several features, including advanced access to analytics, unlimited team members, an upgrade to remove ads, and many more. However, this plan does not include a magic mastery tool.
- Second Plan: This plan costs you $12 per month. With this plan, you can upload 3 hours of content per month. However, the episode hosting is infinite. In addition, you will get unlimited storage and free importing of podcasts.
- Third Plan: With the third plan you will pay $18 a month, and you will get 6 hours of podcast uploading every month along with the same features found in the other two plans.
- Last Plan: The final plan costs $24/month and offers you 12 hours of uploading per month along with all the other features you’ll find with other plans.
Got confused with all the plans and prices?
The Buzzsprout podcast hosting plan is one of the best plans that are perfect for everyone and includes a number of advanced features. If you are new to podcasting, you can try their free plan and if you like them, you can upgrade to the paid plan where you will get more benefits and podcast hosting for an indefinite duration of time.
Pros
- Offers you more audience by listing you in top-rated directories
- Complete monitoring of all your podcasts and episodes
- Built-in tools to optimize your audio files
- Easy browsing of podcasts with chapters
Cons
- There are no significant cons of Buzzsprout, I have been using this tool for a long time, and I am satisfied with it.
3. Transistor
Transistor is another remarkable podcast hosting platform for advanced podcasters. It is basically a data-driven podcast hosting platform, which basically means that it offers you more precise data for analysis and tracking purposes. When you host your podcasts on their plans, you will get access to advanced insights to measure the performance of your podcast more efficiently.
This platform not only uses the regular metrics found in other podcast hosting platforms but also offers tons of other stats. For example, the number of downloads, number of subscribers, etc. In addition to this, you can get an unlimited number of podcast creations with Transistor, which makes it one of the best podcast platforms out there.
The Transistor platform also offers several other perks, such as creating private podcasts, live customer support, a built-in podcast website, advanced analytics, 2-10 additional team members, etc, all starting at only $19/month.
Pricing of Transistor
Transistor offers three different pricing tiers for hosting your podcasts. These plans range in price from $19/month with advanced metrics, 2 additional team members, and 15,000 monthly podcast downloads to $99/month with 10 additional team members, 3000 private podcast subscribers, and 2,00,000 monthly downloads.
The following is detailed information about all these three plans, so you can easily choose the plan that best suits your requirements.
- Starter: For a monthly fee of $19, this is the cheapest plan available. It offers unlimited podcast creation to each user. There are several features provided to you, such as creating private podcasts, live customer support, a built-in podcast website, advanced analytics, 2 additional team members, and many more.
- Professional: This plan will cost you $49/month. In this plan, the features are almost the same, but you will be getting five additional team members, 500 private podcast subscribers, and a big 75,000 monthly podcast downloads.
- Business: With the Business Plan, you will be charged $99/month, and you will also be given 10 more team members to work with. With this plan, you will be able to have up to 3000 private podcast subscribers and a huge 2,00,000 monthly downloads.
Got confused with all the plans and prices?
In my opinion, you should start with their “Starter” plan as this comes with unlimited podcasting and two team members. In this plan, the maximum number of podcast downloads and a private podcast subscribers limit is too small, but if your podcasts become successful, you can upgrade to their “Professional” plan and get an upswing of huge limits.
Pros
- Users can create an extensive range of podcasts using the same account
- No additional cost for extra hours of uploading
- You can invite people to collaborate with your podcast
- You can use RSS feed to import podcasts to distinctive platforms seamlessly
Cons
- Too costly for beginners.
4. PodBean
Podbean is another most remarkable podcast hosting provider that offers freemium podcasting options to its users. There is no guesswork involved in creating podcasts on this platform; all you need to do is sign up for a free account and you can discover the features for yourself.
Podbean allows users to easily upload their audio files and create podcasts with the click of a button. In addition to this, Podbean lets users create their own podcasting design and comes with podcasting themes, and the best thing about this platform is that it offers 5 hours of podcast hosting free of charge with 100GB bandwidth.
By hosting your podcasts with them, you will gain many advantages such as creating your own private podcasting site, getting live customer support, integrating a custom embedded player, creating a podcast website, utilizing advanced analytics, and distributing your podcasts to all of the major apps.
Pricing of PodBean
The podcast hosting service offered by Podbean consists of four different pricing tiers. Upon learning the ropes, we recommend starting with their “Basic” plan as it costs you nothing at all. However, if you would like to add unlimited podcasts to your subscription, the “Unlimited Audio” and “Unlimited Plus” plans are the best ones for you.
I’d like to share with you a brief overview of all the pricing tiers;
- Basic Plan: You won’t be charged any monthly fees for the Basic Plan. The plan offers 5 hours of storage. With this plan, you will receive many features such as creating a private podcast site, live customer support, a tailored embedded player, a built-in podcast website, advanced analytics, and distribution to all major apps. Additionally, users will receive 100 GB of bandwidth per month.
- Unlimited Audio Plan: The Unlimited Audio Plan costs $9 per month. The features of this plan are almost the same, but you will be able to enjoy unlimited storage, bandwidth, and other features. Users can also customize the podcast themes.
- Unlimited Plus Plan: The third plan is the Unlimited Plus Plan, which costs you $29/month and is the most popular plan so far. This plan gives you unlimited access to all features. Moreover, this plan also permits you to upload video podcasts.
- Business Plan: This is the final Podbean plan, available for just $99/month. All business podcasting features are included in this plan, including some major features like Podbean branding removal, multiple admins, live chat support, and more.
Got confused with all the plans and prices?
Podbean is an excellent platform to host your podcasts and offers both free and paid levels of podcast hosting for its users. If you are just starting out, you can choose their “Basic” plan with approximately 5 hours of podcast storage, and once your podcast is successful you can move to their premium plans.
Pros
- Users can create a free account to upload their podcast
- You can share your podcasts to any podcast directory
- There is a built-in advanced ad managing system to monetize
- Easy engaging of an audience for live audio streaming
Cons
- Some users are not happy with its customer service.
5. Castos
Castos Podcast HostingCastos is another most remarkable podcast hosting platform recommended for small and big organizations. It is also a recommended platform for people who want to show podcasts on their WordPress websites. Most of the former podcast hosting platforms offer limited features in their initial plans, but thankfully, this plan doesn’t come with any restrictions on hosting your podcasts and accessing them.
Aside from this, this podcast hosting comes with its own advanced yet “Seriously Simple Podcasting WordPress Plugin” plugin which lets you manage all your podcast episodes on WordPress efficiently. You can also publish the same podcasts on your YouTube channels to reach more audiences.
Castos offers unlimited podcasts, episodes, and duration of hosting with every plan you find on their websites. And users can also have up to 500 private subscribers, 200,000 downloads, advanced analytics, etc features with their premium plans.
Pricing of Castos
Castos brings you three pricing tiers for hosting your podcasts. The first plan is the Starter Plan which comes with unlimited podcasts episode and duration of hosting, and the final plan is the Pro plan which offers you all the premium features.
- Starter Plan: This plan costs you $19/month; it offers unlimited podcast episodes and hosting duration. You will get several features, including advanced access to analytics. You can have up to 100 confidential subscribers, a free website, episode schedule, auto-submission, 20,000 downloading/month, and many more.
- Growth Plan: The Growth Plan costs you $49/month. The features are almost the same as the former plan. However, you will get some additional features, including video republishing to YouTube, headliner audiogram addition, 250 subscribers, and 75,000 downloads.
- Pro Plan: For this plan users need to pay $99/month. This plan is tailored to meet all demands of podcasters and comes with video file hosting, 500 private subscribers, and 200,000 downloads monthly.
Got confused with all the plans and prices?
Castelos is a premium podcast hosting platform with a user-friendly UI/UX design. It helps you declutter everything and focus on the things you truly care about. And if you are a beginner, I would suggest that you start with their “Starter” plan – but if you need more powerful features, then you should upgrade to their “Growth” plan as time goes on.
Pros
- Automates the transcription of your podcast for SEO
- A simple analysis of data in the dashboard
- Create a page for all your episodes to learn how the audience connected
- You can manage all your episodes on WordPress efficiently
Cons
- Pricing is quite high.
6. Captivate.fm
Captivate is another powerful podcast hosting platform that enhances your audience and influences listeners. It offers you all the features that help users optimize their audio files professionally. It also helps podcasters to get their voice heard and it’s more famous for its 24/7 live customer support.
The captivate comes with a simple and easy-to-use interface that also aids beginners in using the platform efficiently. Another most exciting feature of using captivate is, the users can add unlimited team members to all their plans.
Like some other podcast hosting platforms, they also offer unlimited podcast episodes, storage, and hosting duration; you can also anticipate features such as up to 150,000 downloads every month, advanced access to analytics, an extensive distribution list, a free website, and auto-submission.
Users can also have up to 3 private podcasts on their platform with around 5,000 private podcast subscribers with their plans with self-designing and customizable podcast player.
Pricing of Captivate
Captivate offers three different pricing for hosting your podcasts. The base plan starts from $17/mo and goes up to $90/mo with tons of extra benefits. If you are new to podcasting, a personal plan is the best option for you. However, if you already have some listeners, you can choose the business plan.
- Personal Plan: This is one of their base plan which costs you $17/month. It offers unlimited podcast episodes, storage, and duration of hosting. In this plan, you will get several features, including 12,000 downloads every month, advanced access to analytics, an extensive distribution list, a free website, auto-submission, and many more.
- Professional Plan: The Professional Plan costs you $44/month. The features are almost the same as the former plan, but it offers you 60,000 downloads every month and unlimited podcast uploads. In this plan, you will also get an extensive distribution list.
- Business Plan: For this plan, users need to pay $90/month. This plan is tailored to meet all demands of podcasters, and you will get 150,000 downloads every month.
Pros
- Additions of CTAs and promoting them for enhancing the conversions
- There is a captivating Sync plugin that helps you add podcasts to your WordPress site
- Easy monitoring of analytics
- Link to popular podcasting directories
Cons
- Pricing is quite high.
7. Resonate
Resonate (aka Resonate Recordings) is another most prominent full-service podcast hosting platform for you. Several users just don’t want to record podcasts and upload them to hosting. Instead, they want to optimize it professionally for better audience strength. Resonate is a platform that offers the same to you.
Users can also upload their podcasts to different directories with a single click and they can create quite a simple micro landing page for their podcasts more efficiently with Resonate. It also brings you a detailed embedded player, progressive access to insights, unrestricted downloads, and a free website.
Aside from all these features, it comes with unlimited podcast episodes on all plans with show users, storage, and advanced access to the analytics dashboard. Live chat support and podcast microsite is another preeminent feature that is helpful for a podcaster to get a live resolution to problems.
Pricing of Resonate
Resonate is another most interesting podcast hosting platform and it comes with three different pricing tiers according to your needs. The service also comes with a free 14-day trial period for those who want to give it a try before spending their money on it.
Here’s a breakdown of all their plans;
- Basic Plan: The Basic plan costs you $25/month. In this plan, you will get unlimited episodes, unlimited downloads, unlimited show users, analytics dashboard, detailed embed player analytics, embed player, and live chat support.
- Premium Plan: The Premium plan costs you $49/month. The only difference between the Basic and Premium plans is that the Premium plan gives you access to its microsite creator and dynamic ad insertion.
- Professional Plan: For this Professional Plan users need to contact the platform for pricing. This plan is tailored to meet all demands of podcasters.
Pros
- Users can upload the pre-processed and edited audio file directly
- One-click distribution to different podcasting platforms
- Easy tracking of performance and growth with analytics
- Embedded players to embed the last episode on your site.
Cons
- Too Costly for beginners.
8. Fusebox
Fusebox is another best podcast hosting platform on our list which comes with a unique podcast player. It is a smart podcast player that offers seamless access to users for browsing episodes, and it helps them listen to the podcast on websites.
However, it has gone through many upgrades ever since its launch, and it now presents unique ways of creating podcasts. It has many impressive features to entice you, and its features include a single-track player, brand color selection, color scheme, call to action, subscribe links, and many more.
You also get some needed features such as a download button. This platform is dedicated to assisting people with hearing disabilities and offers them downloadable PDFs of transcripts. All these transcripts are auto-created by the platform.
Pricing of Fusebox
Fusebox comes with affordable as well as competitive plans. It brings you three pricing tiers for hosting your podcasts. If you want to try this tool, it offers you a free trial that will help you make your decision.
- Free Plan: The Free plan will cost you $0/month. In this plan, you will get Single Track Player, Player brand color select, Call to action, Subscribe links, and Transcript WP plugin with the manual upload.
- Pro Plan: This Pro plan costs you $15.83/month and offers you lots of features like Single Track Player, Archive Player with Playlist, Full-page Archive Player, and Sticky Player.
- Go Pro Plan: You have to contact the platform to know the pricing of this plan.
Pros
- Podcasters can employ the single-track player or the full player to feature podcast
- It influences users to sign up for gathering an email list
- Auto-generation of transcripts that empowers your SEO
- People with hearing disabilities can download PDFs to read the podcast content
Cons
- UI is not good for beginners.
9. Blubrry Podcasting
It is a podcast hosting platform for all busy businessmen. It has the progressive tools to optimize and target your listeners; a turnkey pre-production service makes this podcasting platform more prevalent.
All the services in the features are offered to you by the in-house team. Distinctive MB monthly storage, standard statistics, phone, email, and tech support, along with the customizable embeddable player and free WordPress Website, are some of its most enticing features.
Users can access appealing features like domain mapping, unlimited download, DNS management, etc. All these features make podcast management seamless for you.
Pricing of Blubrry
Blubrry Podcasting provides you with three pricing tiers for hosting your podcasts. If you are not a professional podcaster, you can choose the standard plan, but if you have to upload too many podcasts, then the Pro hosting plan is the best option.
- Standard Plan: This plan costs you $12/month. In features, you will get 100MB of monthly storage, Standard Statistics Included, Phone/Email Tech Support, Unlimited Downloads, Custom embedded player, a Free WordPress Site, Blubrry Subdomain, Essential Themes and Plugins, and Free file migration.
- Advanced Plan: This Advanced plan costs you $20/month. All the features are the same as the former one. The only difference is the monthly storage. In this plan, you will get 250 MB of storage.
- Pro Hosting Plan: You have to pay $100/ month for this plan. This plan offers you unlimited storage.
Pros
- Publish your podcasts and share them from your WordPress site
- Users can customize the embeddable podcast player
- Access to insightful analytics by tapping the advanced analytics dashboard
- Email and phone support for queries
Cons
- Storage Limit
10. Spreaker
Spreaker brings the most seamless way of creating and uploading podcasts. It is for all those beginners who want things simple. Users can easily schedule podcasts and upload episodes at the desired time. There is a live stream facility to enhance interaction with the audience.
In these live streams, users would get more engagement and clear the audience’s queries. A monetizing podcast is also easy to attain on this platform. At Spreaker, you can monetize podcasts by allowing ads and managing them manually to insert in your podcast.
Access to analytics is more detailed in this podcast hosting platform, and it explains to you the gaps and how you can improve the insights. Spreaker also empowers users to promote their podcasts by automatically sharing them to top directories and social media stages.
Pricing of Spreaker
Spreaker is the most premium podcast hosting platform on the list that comes with 5 different hosting plans, including Free Speech, On-Air Talent, Broadcaster, Anchorman, and Publisher. Let’s discuss the plans in detail.
- Free Speech: This is the free plan that costs you $0. In features, you will get Multiple podcast hosting.
- On-Air Talent: This is the second plan that costs you $6/Month. The additional features that you will get in this plan are a Customizable RSS feed and auto uploads to multiple channels such as Spotify.
- Broadcaster: This plan is specially designed for professional podcasters that costs you $20/ Month. The features are almost the same as the former plan. However, you will get some additional features such as In-app support, Enhances private podcasts, and Standard statistics.
Anchorman and Publisher plans will cost you around $20/ Month and $50/ Month, respectively. These plans come with more premium features.
Pros
- Users can monetize their podcast by enabling ads and manually inserting them
- Access to imperative insights for performance analysis
- Easy monetizing of the podcasts and manually inserting ads
- Listing in top podcast directories
Cons
- Too costly
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Still, have doubts? As a human being, there is always a small doubt that would make me wonder about things. Hence, I come up with this section to answer all the questions that you might have!
1. What is a Podcast?
Podcasting is an online broadcasting platform. It is one of the most popular methods of digital communication these days. The main idea behind this method is to share the experiences of the host with the listeners.
Those people who are passionate about generating content and want their message to reach a broad audience can use this method to reach their listeners, subscribers! Podcasts are usually available in the form of RSS feeds, but you could also get them in the audio format or watch the videos on your devices.
2. Who should be using Podcast hosting Platforms?
The podcast hosting platforms are available for businesses, schools, and organizations that want to reach out to their audience. If you have a story to tell, then there is no better way than this platform to convey the message.
It can be a company story, an education-related story, or any kind of entertainment. Podcasts are the best way to get more and more listeners. And having your podcast hosted on the podcast hosting platforms will help you grow your audience without any trouble!
3. What is the biggest advantage of Podcasts?
Podcasts are the best way to connect your message to the listeners. The main advantage of using podcast hosting platforms is that it allows you to share the message with your audience. This may be a story about you and your experiences, or it may be a tutorial for something that you want to learn, etc.
Moreover, there are various ways for you to monetize the podcast. It could be through advertisements, or it could be by selling your product or service. This may not work for all the podcasts, but it will certainly work for those people who have a promise to fulfill their listeners.
4. Is it expensive to launch a podcast?
The cost of starting an audio podcast is not high at all. If you have a simple idea to begin with, then you can easily include the audio feed on your website. But there are some hosts that give more flexibility in terms of hosting.
If you have a very unique idea or have something that is difficult to list on any other platform, then you will need to look at other options. Your podcast can become a very big success with the help of this platform.
5. How to create a Podcast?
The first step that you need to take to create a podcast is to choose a topic. It can be anything, but you have to be very clear about your topic before you start the podcast.
Once having decided on your topic, you can choose a name for your podcast. You should remember that the podcast name should be catchy and interesting to the listeners. This is an important thing because it will help you get more followers and more people downloading your podcasts.
Once you have decided on the name of your podcast, the next step will be creating a profile for your podcast. This can be done by registering at various podcast hosting platforms. After this, you need to create a few episodes for your podcasts.
This is the main thing about podcasting, and if you are serious about your podcast, then always remember that you should provide something useful to your listeners. The last thing would be to increase the listeners!
Final Words
In conclusion, these are the 10 best podcast hosting platforms offering you a great range of features. These 10 podcast hosting platforms also prove that there is one for every type of podcast, and both beginners and professionals can find equal features in these podcasting platforms.
All of those podcast hosting platforms are easy to use, and however, you need to choose one that offers you better storage and pricing. Talking about my recommendation, I suggest you go with RSS.com, Buzzsprout & Transistor; those 3 are the most used and preferred podcast hosting platforms.
I hope this article about the best Podcast hosting is helpful to you. If you have any other suggestions, you can also let the reader know by mentioning the same in the comment section.
