Popular Podcast Hosting Sites That You Need to Check Out
Choosing podcast marketing and promotion services is vital to getting your work out. You have developed an idea, planned it out, recorded it, polished it and now you have to share it with the world.
How will you accomplish this? This is where podcast hosting comes in.
The hosting platform provides the avenue for you to store your podcast’s audio while simultaneously making it available 24/7 streaming on listening houses like Stitcher, TuneIn, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify allowing access to your episodes by a large number of listeners.
In reality, the hosting site is not in itself a listening directory and no one can hear your podcasts from it, but it generates a signal called an RSS feed which links the hosting platform to the different podcast directories where people will listen to it.
Why Do You Need a Podcast Hosting Platform?
- It provides storage for your podcast’s episodes
- It produces an RSS Feed that can be sent straight to listening directories
- It creates HTML embed codes so that your episodes can be added to your website
There is an ever-growing number of hosting sites to select from, but to be sure you have made the right choice, check out some of these carefully selected podcast host options that are currently the buzz of town:
1. Buzzsprout
Ranked among the top hosting service providers, Buzzsprout is famous for its stunning simplicity, video promotion and a good value for your money. With a full Buzzsprout review, you will also find that it offers free podcast hosting services. The free also comes with nearly the entire package features as found in the paid options. This makes Buzzsprout the leading podcast host that is suitable for all classes of people.
How Much Does it Cost?
You are required to have one paid account per podcast, and pricing is dependent on monthly uploads:
- Free: Upload 2hrs New Monthly Content.
- $12/month: Upload 3hrs New Monthly Content
- $18/month: Upload 6hrs New Monthly Content
- $24/month: Upload 12hrs New Monthly Content
Notable Features
- Unique “Listeners” stat: estimates total listeners based on past trends.
- Mobile-friendly and feature-packed website
- Multi episode players
- “Magic Mastering”: a feature to help inexperienced producers tune sounds
- Dynamic ad capabilities.
- Feature for creating ‘video soundbites’ for sharing on YouTube etc.
- Add chapter markers right inside the episode interface.
Other Things To Note About Buzzsprout’s Free Podcast Hosting
- You can upload up to 2hrs of audio each month which is great for a weekly 30min show
- Your episodes go offline after 3 months of free publishing
- Buzzsprout offers a spectacular free 3-months trial,
2. Podbean’s Free Podcast Hosting
Podbean isn’t completely free but also offers paid hosting services. However, they have a free package for podcast beginners or those who just want to try them out. They aren’t as generous as Buzzsprout and have the following limits:
- 5 hours of audio for free once in a lifetime
- 100GB monthly bandwidth
- The good thing is that you can run short episodes for a few months; say 15 episodes of 20 minutes each.
3. RedCircle’s Free Hosting
RedCircle is one of the few entirely free podcast hosting platforms. They provide tools for podcasters to make income without charging a fee upfront; though, they can decide to take a cut when or if they want from the proceeds.
RedCircle offers unlimited storage to host your podcast. Other notable features include:
- Ability to take donations,
- Subscriptions to premium content,
- Ability to host read ads and programmatic ads.
4. Anchor’s Free Podcast Hosting
Anchor is yet another one of the few entirely free podcast hosting places that offers great tools for recording and putting together a normal show.
They have one or more control and customisation issues but they’re also quite good for starters. Once you grow to become quite successful, you may need to move to better available hosting options.
5. Captivate
Captivate is a leader when it comes to the provision of standard promotion tools. They make a great podcast hosting spot.
How Much Does it Cost?
Unlike Buzzsprout, Captivate’s pricing is based on the number of downloads per month. You can also use as many shows as you like on one account.
- $19 per month for 12,000 downloads per month
- $49 per month for 60,000 downloads per month
- $99 per month for 150,000 downloads per month
Don’t downlook the downloads per month. You may need well over 5000 weekly listeners and around 300 episodes in order to cover 12,000 downloads for example. So, that’s quite a lot.
Notable Features
- Calls to action from inside the podcast player.
- Unlimited team members.
- Ability to run as many shows as wanted under one account and under one plan.
- Ability to run a private podcast.
- Numerous listen and subscribe links.
- Mobile-friendly website with great templates
- WordPress plugin option for syncing with your own website.
- Presence of tools to connect and grow your email list
- Zero changes or alterations to original episode files.
- Audio mastering and Dynamic Ad insertion
6. Transistor
Transistor podcast host is a very good hosting option for private podcasting and unique player options.
How Much Does it Cost?
Transistor’s pricing like Captivate is based on downloads per month. You can also host as many shows as you wanted on a single plan.
- $19 per month for 10,000 downloads per month
- $49 per month for 50,000 downloads per month
- $99 per month for 100,000 downloads per month
Notable Features
- Private podcasting tools that are best used to create a members-only podcast for a group
- Availability of a ‘show import’ tool to transfer your shows in minutes.
- Single episode, latest episode, multi-episode & dark mode players.
- Top-notch support.
- Feature to publish directly to YouTube automatically.
- Feature to invite multiple team members to manage your show.
- Ability to integrate with several email providers like Drip, Convertkit
Castos
Castos is a champion when it comes to integrating your podcast channel with wordpress. It also offers great podcast editing services.
How Much Does it Cost?
- $19/month package
- $34/ month package
- $49/ month package
They also offer a free 14 day trial to test their hosting.
Notable Features
- Integrate with WordPress using a specialized plugin.
- Create unlimited shows with a limit on downloads.
- Built-in episode transcriptions.
- Option to create private podcasts.
- Option to outsource your editing to Castos Productions team
There are quite a greater number of podcast hosting platforms than those listed here. They all have their strengths and their weaknesses. However, the ones reviewed here are some of the best in town in terms of available features and their popularity. Make sure you select one from here when making your choice of a podcast host.
