[ad_1] Are you looking to start a podcast? If so, choosing the right podcast host is one of the first steps you’ll need to take. There are a lot of options out there, but we’ve narrowed it down to just the best of the best. It’s impossible to recommend one as the best for every podcaster, because your needs may be different than someone else’s. After the description of all of the hosts, you’ll see our recommendations for different scenarios. With the details found here, you’ll be able to make an informed decision. 🎧 Best Podcast Hosting Platforms Read on to learn more about each of the top choices and what makes them unique. 1. Buzzsprout Buzzsprout has been in the industry for a long time (founded in 2009) and is a solid option for any podcaster. While Buzzsprout has advanced capabilities, the simple and well-designed interface also makes it simple for beginners. With Buzzsprout, your episodes will be automatically submitted to the top podcast directories. If you have your own website, you can easily embed your podcast episodes (including a WordPress plugin). Your visitors will be able to access your episodes through the beautiful and user-friendly interface. And if you don’t have your own site, you can use one created by Buzzsprout. You can even use your own domain for the Buzzprout website if you’d like. Just some of the features offered by Buzzsprout include: Magic mastering (additional fee) automatically optimizes the quality of your audio files. Chapter markers that allow listeners to skip to certain segments of your episodes. Integrated transcription options to get text versions of your episodes. Affiliate marketplace to monetize your podcast with affiliate offers. Advanced podcast statistics to see how your podcast is performing. Unlimited team member logins so you can outsource to a VA or have others working on the same podcast. Manage multiple podcasts from the same account. Buzzsprout offers a free plan, but it comes with some significant limitations. You can only upload 2 hours of audio per month and episodes are only hosted for 90 days. After 90 days, your audio files will be deleted. While the free plan could be an option for getting started, having your episodes hosted for only 90 days is not ideal. Paid plans start at $12 per month, which allows you to upload 3 hours of audio per month. Episodes are hosted indefinitely with any of the paid plans. Try Buzzsprout 2. Podbean Podbean is another popular podcast hosting service. Like Buzzsprout, Podbean will also submit your episodes to the leading directories and provide you with a website if you don’t have your own. The Podbean websites can be customized to suit your needs. You’ll also be able to use an embeddable player to intergrade your podcast with your existing website or blog. Podbean offers a free plan that allows you to upload up to five hours of audio. Of course, most podcasts will reach this five hour limit pretty quickly, so you can think of this plan as a free trial so you can use Podbean before making a decision to purchase. Unlike Buzzsprout, Podbean does not restrict the amount of audio you can upload on paid plans. All of their paid plans come with no limits on storage space or bandwidth. Instead, Podbean uses different pricing tiers to determine the features that will be accessible to you. While the features will vary depending on the plan that you choose, here are some of the features available through Podbean: Support for video podcasts. Ad marketplace to help you monetize your podcast. PodAds, technology to dynamically insert your own ads into episodes. Premium sales to sell your audio or video. Patron program, which allows you to make certain content available only to paying members. Email integration to send your new content to your email list. Live streaming to reach your audience in real-time. Visual statistics to check on the performance of your podcast. The paid plans for Podbean start at $9 per month (if billed annually). This plan does not include video capabilities or some of the monetization features. Try Podbean 3. Blubrry While Blubrry isn’t as feature-rich as some of it’s competitors, it does stand out in two key ways: Blubrry offers support by phone, as well as by email. If you want to speak to a human on the phone, that’s possible with Blubrry. Their PowerPress plugin makes it easy to integrate your podcast into a WordPress-powered website. With the help of the PowerPress plugin, you can easily and conveniently manage your podcast right from your WordPress dashboard. In addition to PowerPress, Blubrry even includes a free WordPress-powered website in its plans, in case you don’t already have your own site. Other features include: Powerful statistics to track your progress. Unlimited bandwidth is included with every plan. Custom embedded player for putting the podcast on your site. Free file migration if you’re moving from another provider. Blubrry does not offer a free plan. However, you can get the first month free as a way to try it out. Plans start at $12 per month, which includes 100 MB of storage. Try Bluebrry 4. Transistor Transistor’s interface is well-designed and user-friendly. One of the ways that they stand out is by allowing you to host multiple podcasts as well as both public and private podcasts from the same account. This opens up a lot of possibilities and could save you some money depending on what you’re trying to do. The other features of Transistor include: Distribute your podcasts to all of the major directories. Embeddable player to use on your own website. Create your own website with Transistor if you don’t already have one. Detailed analytics to see how you’re doing. The most significant drawback of Transistor is the fact that their plans place a limit on the number of times your episodes can be downloaded per month. There are no limits as to what you can upload, but the download limits
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