TPU75 – Top 10 Best Premium Podcast Hosting Platforms

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A good podcast hosting company can be the difference between stressful podcasting and worryfree. Podcasting. And if you're getting started with your own podcast, then this could be one of the most important decisions that you're making. In this episode, we'll take a look at the top 10 podcast hosting companies based on my experience, and an evaluation I did based on the criteria that we discussed in the last week's episode so that you don't have to go through that entire process of trying to find the best podcast host, and you can start off worryfree Welcome to the podcasting University. Looking for help on starting your own podcast, then this is the place to be. We will help you with everything from selecting your topic to promoting and monetizing your podcast in the simplest language possible. Listen to other podcasters who've been through the grind and learn from them as we interview them every week. You can find more details on the podcasting university.com.

Hello, and welcome to episode 75. This is Dilip for people who don't know me. I'm a podcaster, blogger and an affiliate marketer. I host a few podcasts including this one, which is about podcasts and podcasting. So if you're new here, and are looking for podcasting related information, then you are at the right place. Every Tuesday I released an episode on one podcasting related aspect that will help you with getting started with your own podcast. So if you haven't, then go ahead and subscribe to the show wherever you are listening to it right away so that you stay updated with the latest episodes that I release. Now on to this week's episode. Now this is in continuation to the last week's episode where we discussed about premium or paid podcast hosting companies. So if you didn't listen to that one, then I would recommend that you do it right now, you will be able to find the link to that episode in the description. So today, we are going to look at the top 10 podcast hosting companies based on my evaluation using a criteria that I spoke about the last week. So let us get started. Number one, a cast. A cast is one of the best and easiest podcast hosting platform, and probably the only one without a limit on their free plan. This show is hosted on a cast. While it is not a sponsored recommendation, I would still recommend a cast to anyone who's planning to get started with their podcast. Now there are a couple of reasons why I do that. Number one, you can start for free with a cast without any limitations without any restrictions on your show. And if you want to continue with a free option, you can absolutely do that. But if you're looking at getting premium features, then you can always upgrade to a paid plan. And in all of these paid plans, you get pretty much everything Unlimited, unlimited uploads, unlimited listens unlimited analytics, pretty much everything is unlimited in all of their plans. And the plans start for about 1499 per month. If you're paying annually, it will be slightly expensive if you plan to pay on a monthly basis. So I would recommend going for the annual plan. And since I always recommend trying out a host before you enter into a commitment with them, you can start off with their free plan, try them out and then upgrade if you find that they are a host that you would like to continue with. Now you get features like integrations monetization options, website pretty much all of these things in all of the paid plans. But these are not available in the free plans. So the only difference between the paid and the free plans are in the advanced features like monetization, integration, etc. And when it comes to monetization, you also have two options. One is programmatic ads, which they automatically insert into each of your episodes, you can also offer subscription to your listeners. So you have both of these options from a monetization perspective. Number two Buzzsprout. Now Buzzsprout is another excellent podcast host and the number two on my list. Here again, you can start for free. But what you need to keep in mind that it comes with some serious limitations, which is something extremely important. And something that you need to look at before you start with their free plan plans start from about $12 per month and gives you about three hours of upload each month. So if your episodes are about an hour long and you release about four episodes a month, then you will have to naturally go with the next plan which is for about $18 per month, which would sound a little expensive, but it's pretty much in line with what most podcast hosting companies charge. So in that case, you won't be able to start with the lowest plan which is about $12 per month. But if you are somebody who's releasing solo episodes that are about 20 minutes long, then I think the bass player of about $12 is good enough for you and you can get started with the bass Glen, the best part about Buzzsprout is that you get advanced statistics even on the lowest plan, which is something that a lot of podcast hosting companies don't offer. But transcription and editing tools, etc, have to be paid additional if you want to go with them. But the best option in Buzzsprout is that you can monetize your podcast using ADS, which is something that a lot of podcasters are benefiting from podcasters, who are hosted at Buzzsprout are benefiting from we're almost five minutes into today's episode, and I'm hoping that you're enjoying the conversation until now. If you are then then please do consider referring this podcast to your friends, your family and your social media circles. Whoever is interested in getting started a podcast, they will be able to find a lot of value in this show. So do consider referring the podcasting University to people who you think will benefit from this information. Now let's continue with the conversation. Number three, blueberry. Now blueberry is another excellent podcast hosting company of another third in my list. And they have a very simple plan, they have a pretty straightforward plan. There are no free options available. Their plans start at $10 per month. But it comes with the limitation that you will only get basic statistics, which isn't really enough from a growth perspective. So I would recommend that you go with advanced statistics, which means that you will have to go with the next plan. Now in the base plan, you get about 125 MB monthly downloads, which is good enough for anybody who's releasing about four interview episodes of about 60 minutes each. So the lowest plan for about $10 is enough from an upload perspective. But like what I said from a statistics perspective, I don't think that the basic statistics is good enough. Now monetization options are also available with blueberry. They also give you a nice WordPress plugin, which is a good thing. If you're hosting your website on WordPress. You can use this plugin to automatically embed your podcast player on your WordPress posts. Number four Lipson. Now Lipson is one of the first podcast hosts that I learned about my first encounter with podcast was the Smart Passive Income podcast from Pat Flynn. And Pat Flynn recommended Lipson because he was hosted with Lipson, and he used to recommend Lipson as a podcast host. So that was how I first came across Lipson. Now Lipson has a pretty straightforward pricing, their plans start for about $5 per month. But the limitation is in terms of the number of hours, which is about three hours per month, or 162 MB storage, whichever is lower. So if you are uploading four episodes of one hour length, then this plan might not be enough for you. But if you are a solo podcaster, recording about 20 minutes of each episode, then I think this is a good plan to get started with. Now the problem with this plan is that the statistics are in the form of snapshots. So you won't get a detailed statistics. For even the basic statistics, you will have to pay about $2 more. So it will essentially turn out to be about $7 per month if you're going for the base plan. But you get monetization option on all of these plans if you're a serious podcaster. And if you're preferring to go with Lipson, then I would recommend that you go with the $15 plan at least which is the the next plan that is available. Because that gives you pretty much everything in terms of the statistics like for example, advanced statistics, monetization, good upload limit, pretty much everything so I would recommend going with that plan. But keep in mind that there are no free options available with Lipson Lipson has another product which is called as Lipson Pro, which is basically free podcast hosting. So if you would want to go with free, then you will have to choose that option. Number five, pod bean pod bean is another excellent podcast host. I really like their customer support. One of my clients have hosted their podcast with POD bean and they absolutely love their service. And they have pretty straightforward plans. Their plans start at about $14 per month billed monthly, and about $9 per month if you pay annually. And you get unlimited everything from an audio podcasting perspective. So the only difference between their base plan and their next plans is that you get video podcasting in their advanced plan and audio podcasting for that base plan. Now like what I said, what I would recommend is that if you want to try them out, start off with a monthly plan, pay month to month and if you really like them, then go with paying annually because that is a good amount of saving if you look at it from a long term perspective. Now the stats are IAB certified so they are reliable. And all of the podcast hosts that I just poke about which is a cost Buzzsprout blueberry and Lipson all of their statistics is also IAB certified. So these are reliable statistics. But the only challenge with POD bean is that you won't get the podcast subscription option, which is something that I recommend that podcast hosting companies should offer their customers number six rss.com Now RSS is a very simple podcasting platform but offers a lot of features. The only drawback is that their statistics are not IAB certain fight so far as I know, and as of when I'm recording this episode, I'm not sure if they've applied for an IP certification or if it is already done. But as of now, so far as I know they are not IB certified, but they don't limit you on anything. So it is practically unlimited everything on their plans, they have a single plan, which starts at about $8.25 per month, if you're paying annually, and about 1299 per month, if you're paying monthly, like what I always recommend, start off by paying monthly, try them out and only then go to a long term commitment, you get pretty much all features, including monetization option in rss.com. So you need not worry, but the only thing that you might want to keep in mind is that there is no free plan that is offered by rss.com. Number seven sounder the sounder is a nice podcast hosting platform and one of the newest hosting companies. From what I know they started off somewhere around 2019. But they have come up with really well and are offering some excellent plans for podcasters. They have a pretty straightforward plan for about 1299 per month, and you get pretty much unlimited everything. But there is a slight caveat to it, your streams or listens as it is, is limited to about 50k per month in this plan. So if you exceed then you will have to upgrade to an enterprise plan for which you will need to speak with their support team. So that's a slight challenge that I find they should have offered a straightforward upgrade option for people. And limiting your episodes to a specific number of listens isn't something that I really recommend you get detailed analytics, though it isn't IAB certified, like what is said. monetization options are also available and also includes transcription, which isn't usually available with other hosts at such a low pricing plan. Number eight Spreaker. No speaker is an IB certified host. And a lot of people read them well. But there is a reason why they are showing up so low in my list. But before that, they are a nice host with multiple plans based on your requirements. Now they plan start at about $1 per month, it gives you about 100 hours of storage and basic statistics. So from a long term perspective, it isn't the ideal plan because you only get about $100. And statistics. If it is basic, I don't recommend it, I would recommend going with advanced statistics, because that is important from a growth perspective. Now, looking at the number of hours that you get from a storage perspective, you will have to go with their broadcaster plan which is their next plan, which starts at about $20 per month. If you pay on a month to month basis, now you get about 500 hours of storage in that one end advanced statistics and monetization options monetization option is not available in the lower plan in the broadcaster plan where you get about 500 hours of storage. Now keep in mind that this 500 hours of storage is your lifetime storage. So if you exceed the 500 hours of storage, which you will eventually if you're consistently releasing episodes, then you will have to forcibly upgrade to the next plan. But 500 hours is good amount of storage. If you look at it from a regular podcasters perspective, if you're releasing four episodes every month and every episode is about one hour long, then 500 hours of storage means you will be able to release about 500 episodes, which is about 10 years worth of data, which is good enough from a long term perspective. But if you're releasing more episodes, or if you're somebody who's doing a daily podcast, then this plan might just not be the right one for you. Now, this limit is something that I really didn't like. But I had used them for a brief period, what is more worrying for me was their customer support. They didn't respond to my messages for about two days, not on one but multiple instances. And when I checked with them as to why there is so much of delay, in response, they gave me some blame reasons for not doing that, which isn't something that is convincing from a customer perspective. So I absolutely don't like their customer support and which is one of the primary reasons why I don't recommend Spreaker to anybody. Now, the other aspects, which is a storage is also a limiting factor. But the primary reason for me not liking Spreaker is their poor customer support on to the ninth one which is transistor. Now this and the next one that comes on my list. I've rated them a little low on my list because of obvious reasons. Now they limit downloads. Now unlimited downloads is something that I really don't think is the right thing to do. Transistor plan starts from about $19 per month and gives you everything including advanced analytics, but no monetization options. Also, they limit your show to 50 Private podcast subscribers, if you're running a private podcast, they limit your show to about 50 subscribers and 20,000 downloads per month. 20,000 downloads per month isn't something that I think is right now their stats are not IB certified. So I not really sure if there is any reason why I would want to go with transistor if I look at all of these options, but if you're somebody who's heard good things about transistor, and you're okay to paying $19 per month with all these limitations, then you can, of course go with transistor, the 10th. One is Captivate. Now Captivate again is a good podcast host, but with a limitation on downloads. They are IB certified gives you unlimited storage and unlimited podcasts on a single plan, but they limit the monthly downloads that you can get on your show. The plans start at about 19 pounds, which translates to about $21 per month paid monthly. If you're paying annually, you'll obviously get a discounted price. Now the private podcast in Captivate is also limited to about 150 subscribers, though it is better than transistor, but there is still a limit to it. They do have a nice WordPress plugin if you're somebody who's hosting your website on WordPress, and you can use their plugin to embed your podcast episodes on your website. So those were the top 10 podcast hosts according to a lot of research that I have done. And based on experiences that I had with some of these podcast hosts of all of these, my favorite podcast host is a cast, which is where I host my show, primarily because it is value for money. They give you a lot of features, their support is excellent. And it gives you more return on investment for every dollar that you've spent. And that is followed by Buzzsprout which is again another excellent host. And the third one is RSS primarily because of their customer support and some of the features that they offer. Now, which of these is your favorite podcast host? Comment and do let me know you can visit the podcasting university.com/ 75 for the episode details, you can comment in there and let me know about your favorite podcast host or there is another host that you recommend that I try out. You can find links to all of these podcast hosting companies on the shownotes at the podcasting university.com So visit the podcasting university.com/ 75 for the shownotes and the resources that I spoke about in this episode. Subscribe to this podcast on whatever channel you're listening to it so that you stay updated with the latest episodes that I release in the podcasting University is available on pretty much all podcasting platforms, including Spotify, Apple, podcasts, Google podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Prime music, jiosaavn, and Ghana as well. So pick your favorite platform and give it a listen and then I'll be back again next week with another discussion on podcasting. Until then, keep listening to the podcasting University. And don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel where I release practical podcasting tips where I show you videos to implement some of these practical podcasting tips. So don't forget to visit the podcasting University YouTube channel and subscribe to the channel there. That is all that I have for this week. This is goodbye from Dilip I'll be back again next week with another podcasting tip. Until then, keep listening to the podcast in university

Transcribed by https://otter.ai