What's the best podcast hosting? 2024 edition.
Thank you for joining me for the Audacity to Podcast. I'm Daniel J. Lewis and I can
now say Hall of Fame inductee Daniel J. Lewis. Thank you so much for that support. I will
have an episode soon with the kind of extended edition of my acceptance speech because there
There was so much more I wish I could have said, but I was limited on time.
I want to explain more of why some of these people influenced me and more about what it
means to me and so much more.
So that is coming in a future episode to celebrate podcasting together as well as I'd really
like to shine the light on how others have inspired me so that you can be inspired and
inspire others too.
That's coming in the near future.
Right now I want to focus on something I haven't really touched on in maybe 10 years or so.
That's the best podcast hosting providers out there.
At least the 2024 edition of this because this has changed.
Now why do you need podcast hosting?
Well to host your podcast.
Episode's over.
Thank you.
Good night everyone.
Now you want it for, the basic stuff is to help you distribute your show, not distribute
your show for you.
That's really your job.
But you want the help to distribute it.
You want the stability, the reliability, the speed of it.
You want to understand your reach through analytics, statistics, any kind of measurement
and guidelines there.
And also now podcast hosting can help you with a lot more too, like helping you grow
your audience or monetize your podcast or so many other things that you're going to
learn from this that some of these hosting providers offer.
So if you want to follow along in the notes for this episode, they're a simple tap or
swipe away or go to theaudacitytopodcast.com/hosting24.
And at some point in the future, I'll update this list.
Again, let's hope it doesn't take 10 more years to update it though.
But speaking of 10 years, podcast hosting has changed over the years. Significantly.
As the podcasting industry is innovating and there are new ways to engage, grow, and monetize,
hosting providers have to keep up. Years ago, all we needed from a podcast hosting provider
was storage, bandwidth, stats, and maybe their RSS feed because you might have actually wanted
to generate that separately in the past. And back then, also, if your show was big enough,
you might have had a chance at getting sponsors through your hosting provider. I've had
some sponsors, thanks to Blueberry and Libsyn in the past. Now that's not so much all that
your hosting provider does. And some of these hosting providers don't even offer sponsorship
network opportunities like that, but they offer newer, more dynamic, play on words there,
opportunities for you to monetize your podcast in more modern ways. Today, podcast hosting
includes so many more innovative new features like that.
The other stuff they offer is like dynamic content insertion. It's not only for ads
by the way. That's why I say dynamic content insertion. It can be any kind of content.
Or automatic processing for audio, images, and video. Content creation assistance, marketing
tools, engagement outlets, and even built in ways to monetize your podcast directly
from your audience. That is why I've taken a lot of time to reconsider my recommendations
for podcast hosting providers. And this is now my new list going forward and what I've
been recommending in communities here and there for a little while and I'm ready to
say these are my official recommendations. And as you'll quickly notice, there is no
single best podcast hosting provider because it really depends on your needs. Thus, I hope
the following will help you make the right choice for your podcast because it's not
only about "this is the number one best podcast hosting provider ever!"
No, it's not that.
It's what's best for your needs and your podcast.
Your needs might be completely different than mine.
And your needs might be completely different from another listener's needs.
That's why I break this down into different categories of needs.
This is the best for this need.
This is the best for that need.
And here are some things for you to consider so that you can make the right choice, even
if you don't use any of these.
I want you to be on the right platform, even if I don't get paid for it.
And speaking of getting paid for it, yes I am an affiliate for most of these providers
that I'm going to mention.
I earn from qualifying purchases only through my links or promo codes, which you have to
go to the website or the notes theaudacitytopodcast.com/hosting24 to even get those links. So I am not being
paid or compensated by any of these companies right now to simply talk about them. No one's
paying me. In fact, none of them are even hearing this episode before I publish it.
I get compensated only if you join through one of my links. And I would love it if you
would, but I do want you to understand I do get compensated through some of these. Nonetheless,
you've heard me say this in the past, I'll say it again, I recommend things I truly believe
in regardless of earnings. So let's get to the list.
First, and this isn't like a number one, number two, number three kind of thing so
you're not going to hear me say numbers, just this is the first on my list, is the
best all-inclusive podcast hosting, also for multiple shows, Captivate. Captivate's podcast
hosting has been revolutionary. They offer the most extensive range of features, not
merely the typical media hosting and analytics features that everybody offers, but even features
to help you manage your content and monetization. Their dynamic content insertion tool called
Aimee is, in my opinion, the best in the industry. Yes, you can use it for inserting ads, but
you can do so much more with it, like using it for any kind of content. That's why I
keep saying dynamic content insertion, not dynamic ad insertion. Don't just think about
ads, think about anything else you could do, like announcements about an upcoming episode.
Or like Dave Jackson with his school of podcasting uses his dynamic content tools to promote
his question of the month. So if you download an episode this month of his podcast, even
one of his older episodes, you're going to hear a promotion for this month's question
of the month, even if you're listening to an episode from a year ago. That's the kind
of power that you get with dynamic content insertion. And I love Captivate's system
called Amy. Plus, Amy makes it quick and easy to prepare old episodes, like your entire
back catalog, for that dynamic content, even replacing old ads. As simple as painting over
them. That's even what they call it. They call it the ad painter in their system. Or
painting over it. That's what it's doing. It's like you're in your audio editor and
you're selecting the range of audio and then you're saying this is the range that I want
to replace with this other dynamic content. You can do a lot with Aimee.
You can also monetize your podcast directly from your audience through Captivate's membership
system and donations or exclusive content and more. And if you have multiple shows,
Captivate lets you run your whole podcast network with a single subscription.
Several other places require you to pay for each additional show or have completely separate
accounts, each with their own subscriptions that you pay for as well.
But Captivate lets you do that with a single subscription.
And the cheapest plan already offers up to three shows at no extra cost.
And that goes up depending on the higher plans, but it's basically based on the size of your
audience. Their whole pricing is really based on the size of your audience. Either the overall
podcast audience downloading your podcast and how many downloads you get per month,
or also the membership aspect of your audience if you're selling a membership. Some of the lower
tiers have smaller limits on that. But certain features aren't locked into only the more
expensive plans. It's really just the numbers that change as the plans go up. On top of this,
Captivate has the best Podcasting 2.0 support in the industry right now.
There's so much more I could say about Captivate, but I don't want this whole episode to be
only about this one provider as much as I do recommend them.
Captivate is my top recommendation.
It's not the number one for everyone, but I think for most it is because they have so
many features included in their system.
booking your guests and preparing your episodes. That's all built into their system. It's
really cool what you can do with it. So that's why it is generally my top recommendation
for most podcasters.
I had the honor and pleasure of serving on Captivate's advisory board until Captivate
was acquired. But lest you think I'm recommending Captivate only because I was on the advisory
board, it's actually the other way around. I don't recommend Captivate because I was
an advisor. I accepted the role as an advisor because I liked what Captivate was doing and
I wanted to help guide that in different ways. I had even previously called Captivate the
apple of podcast hosting because of their attention to detail and innovative developments
that they've made with Captivate. And just going through the feature list on their site,
there's so much more I could talk about. But I was so impressed with what they offer now,
Although it's not my creation at all, but I was part of the team for a while, so it
really feels like seeing your child grow up and accomplish great things.
It's just so neat to see everything that they've done and it's really exciting.
So check it out.
I've got the link in the notes at theaudacitytopodcast.com/hosting24 or it's a tap or swipe away.
And that is an affiliate link.
I earn only if you join through my link, which I'd love it if you would, but that's how I
earn from that.
Now an honorable mention here does go to Transistor who offers many of the same features as Captivate
but actually Transistor allows unlimited podcasts on every plan.
And when I'm saying podcasts I don't mean episodes, I mean separate shows, separate podcasts.
So you can have an unlimited number on Transistor's plan.
Still it depends on how many downloads you're getting though on which plan that you need
to be on.
But where Transistor is a little bit different with this than Captivate with their pricing
model is Transistor reserves some features for their higher plans. So you're not getting
everything on the lowest plan like you are with Captivate. You might need to upgrade,
but again, depends on your needs. Transistor is really good and they're connected well
with the podcasting industry. They're just not my top, but you wouldn't go wrong with
choosing them, I would say. Still though, I recommend Captivate higher above them.
Moving on to the best WordPress-based podcast hosting, Blueberry.
While all my other podcast hosting recommendations require using their publishing tools to manage
your podcast RSS feed, Blueberry is my top recommendation if you want to manage your
own publishing platform with WordPress.
And Blueberry has always been on my list here for WordPress.
WordPress lets you do almost anything with your website.
my own website, theaudacitytopodcast.com. On the website I publish articles, sometimes
with interactive charts, like my past episode about the fastest podcast hosting providers.
All the kinds of charts and data on there. You couldn't do that with anything else.
I could do that with my website though. I also sell video courses, like my SEO for Podcasters
or Zoom H6 for Podcasters course. I also sell a WordPress plugin through the website with
automatic updates and licensing managed with that WordPress plugin. And I even sell ID3
editor licenses through the website theaudacitytopodcast.com. That's still my top ID3 editor recommendation
works for Windows and Mac OS and I think even Linux. That's over at theaudacitytopodcast.com.
You can see it on the front page. I also created multiple recommendation pages for recommending
gear and microphones and software. I have countless redirects and automatic links. The
The notes for this episode, I did not put in every one of those hyperlinks if you're
looking at the notes. Those were put in automatically. And I designed the site to look exactly how
I wanted. All this extra functionality is powered by WordPress and its extensibility
with plugins and themes. So I've built my own platform here with WordPress. And Blueberry's
podcast hosting connects seamlessly to all of this through their free PowerPress plugin,
which you can even use without Blueberry if you want to, but you get the best experience
if you tie it with Blueberry.
And I've been using PowerPress since, I think, 2007, shortly after I started podcasting.
Originally I was using Podpress, which was horrible, and then PowerPress came along and
I switched to that because it was so much better and it's always been so much better.
And I don't think Podpress is even still around anymore.
While Blueberry supports the community so much that they've provided this plugin completely
free for many years and they will continue to do so and it is the best way to turn a
WordPress site into a podcast site, the best way to use PowerPress is pairing it with Blueberry's
podcast hosting.
Then, instead of going to another website to manage your podcast and possibly having
to then copy and paste everything from that site over to your WordPress site, or copying
and pasting everything from your WordPress site over to the podcast hosting site, Blueberry
integrates it all right in your normal WordPress workflow. And I love that. Some of the other
podcast hosting providers might offer WordPress synchronization plugins, but sometimes they
do weird things or they require you to change your workflow significantly. Not Blueberry.
With Blueberry, it's your normal posting and writing workflow. You simply create a
post like you normally would in WordPress and then upload your podcast episode and enter
your episode information directly within the same post editor. You don't need to go to
another website even to upload your media file. You can upload it directly through your
WordPress site and then it goes into Blueberry when you've connected PowerPress to Blueberry.
Blueberry is also leading the charge on including Podcasting 2.0 features. That doesn't mean
I think they have the best implementation or have all of them, but they are certainly
super supportive of it.
And I love to see that.
That is really a mandate for me, for any podcast hosting company that I will wholeheartedly
recommend they must support Podcasting 2.0.
And not just barely supporting it, but really be involved in supporting it and being on
the cutting edge.
And with PowerPress, it supports even some of the experimental features.
And if you really want to get on the bleeding edge of experimentation, you can even extend
features of PowerPress yourself with the right tools.
Blueberry's top goal is to help you build your own platform.
A platform that you own and fully control.
I can do anything on my website because I have that control.
I can do anything through my podcast feed with that kind of control.
No one else integrates as well with WordPress as Blueberry does.
Plus, PowerPress has become such a standard for podcasting with WordPress that many podcast-ready
themes like my favorites from SecondLineThemes, another affiliate link that I recommend, but
I use them myself.
Some of these other themes have built in support to enhance the podcast players for your website
audience and you don't have to do anything extra.
It just recognizes that you're using PowerPress, you've got an episode player here or a playlist
player and it automatically enhances it.
If you want to try Blueberry, if you use my link, make sure that it's applying the promo
code "noodle" so that you get a free month of Blueberry so you can try that out.
Several of these providers offer free trials.
With Blueberry you have to use my promo code, which I believe still automatically applies
through the link, but just make sure it's there.
Moving on then to the best easy/simple podcast hosting, but without compromises, Buzzsprout.
So far my recommendations have been feature rich and all about giving you total power
over every aspect of your podcast.
But with great power comes great anxiety.
Thus I present the oasis of podcast hosting, Buzzsprout.
Buzzsprout has always been one of the easiest to use podcasting platforms.
But don't let the white space and simple looks fool you as it had fooled me in the
past.
And then I really started looking more closely at Buzzsprout and they've really started
innovating.
They have jumped into my top recommendations because they've innovated.
And they also provide impressive extra features to help you podcast better, but still without
compromising their simplicity.
They offer three impressive features on top of their already great podcast hosting features.
Number one, Magic Mastering.
That's their system that automatically processes your podcast audio for clarity and ideal loudness.
So you don't have to pay for another service, you can use that within Buzzsprout.
They also offer automatic dynamic content insertion that's AI powered so it can find
the ideal place to place your ads or other kind of content or announcements within your content.
And they even offer ways to grow your own podcast, or grow your wallet, through these
opportunities.
Like, you can promote your own podcast as an ad in other podcasts hosted on Buzzsprout.
That's really cool.
They've got that community aspect.
So grow your podcast or grow your wallet with Buzzsprout.
And then the number three feature is, they call it Co-host AI. It gives you AI powered
suggestions on the episode title, notes, chapters, transcript, and more right from your podcast
publishing workflow. You don't have to go use another tool like ChatGBT or something
else. It's right there in your podcast publishing workflow and it's really good. It's important
to note that some of these features do come at an upgraded cost, but they can be worth
it in the time and brain cells it saves you. And they might even be a much better deal
than going somewhere else and paying for these services. Plus, they're right there in your
podcast publishing workflow. And Buzzsprout supports Podcasting 2.0 as well. They've
even led the charge on specific features of Podcasting 2.0. So it's really great to see
them so involved in the community, supporting the community. They're a very popular podcast
hosting provider. They even do offer free podcast hosting, but it does have certain
limits with it. Like how many episodes can stay online and you have to keep the podcast,
or at least your account active in order for the podcast to stay online. So it's not completely
free for all of your episodes, but it is a really generous program. If you just want
to experiment with podcasting, then check out Buzzsprout as well. They're not really
my top recommendation for a free hosting provider because they are more limited, but they are
the top free provider, even though they're limited on how many episodes or how much you
can publish, which is still quite generous what they offer. So if you need free, consider
Buzzsprout or, moving on to my next recommendation for the best free podcast hosting, if you
need more episodes than Buzzsprout will allow in the free plan, then my next recommendation
is RedCircle. And I do get it. These other recommendations do cost. Maybe podcasting
is so much your hobby that you can't even afford the relatively low monthly fees for
podcast hosting. I understand. While I still want to remind you that you get what you pay
Or, RedCircle is the only free podcast hosting provider that I think is worth recommending
for an entire archive of a podcast.
Buzzsprout's very good too.
I think RedCircle for free hosting is probably the better option though.
Their feature offerings aren't as advanced as my previous recommendations, but you can
host your whole podcast there.
And RedCircle's dynamic content insertion tools are quite nice, giving you opportunities
to pay for your hosting with ads and even earn some money yourself. While I still suggest
that you invest in your podcast hosting, if you absolutely need something "free" and
I would put that in quotation marks because nothing is ever truly free. There is some
cost somewhere because someone has to pay for it. All that said, RedCircle I think
is the way to go.
Now I have a dishonorable mention here. You probably know what's coming. Spotify for
podcasters, formerly known as Anchor, do not use them. Spotify's actions make it seem
like they hate the podcast industry because they keep rather arrogantly ignoring innovations.
Like they support nothing from Podcasting 2.0. They won't even acknowledge it exists.
They develop only proprietary features and they seem more interested in having you build
their platform than providing you ways for you to build your own.
Because of this and more, I'm not going to make this an anti-Spotify episode.
I think that the true cost of Spotify for podcasters is too high.
Even though it's "free".
No, it costs too much.
So I don't recommend them.
I'd love to if they turn things around, but it doesn't seem like they will.
If you have to go with free, use RedCircle or Buzzsprout.
Then my last recommendation, the best video podcast hosting goes to Libsyn.
Video podcasting is not nearly as popular as it was in the couple of years before YouTube
stole the show.
And don't believe the misinformation, maybe even disinformation, from corrupted surveys
claiming that video podcasting is back or that most audiences prefer video podcasts
– I could do a whole separate episode about that kind of stuff – all those surveys I've
seen are seemingly using invalid questions, allowing seemingly invalid answers, and draw
or have led to radically invalid conclusions, like the conclusion you might have heard,
Most people prefer watching a video podcast.
No, that's not what the data actually says and that's not the reality of it.
Okay, little tangent aside there.
All that said, if you want to do a true video podcast, and that is a video podcast with
an RSS feed that you can get in a podcast app, then I recommend Libsyn.
Libsyn is basically the OG podcast hosting provider.
been in this business since the beginning. And while they haven't innovated nearly
as much as I wish they had, at least at this time, they still offer the best bandwidth
bang for your buck, which is crucial for a video podcast, which is so much bigger than
an audio podcast. But it's not only about the value in the dollars here. I recommend
Lipson for video podcasting primarily because of this huge feature specifically for video podcasting.
Integration with YouTube.
Because YouTube is where most people go for independent video content, I suggest everyone
who makes a video show to also publish on YouTube.
Now that is still not podcasting.
Everything on YouTube is not a podcast.
You cannot get the YouTube stuff in your podcast app like Apple Podcasts.
No.
Overcast.
No.
Pocket Casts.
No.
But you might find some of the same shows in multiple places and that's because they're
distributing to multiple channels.
And if you have a video show and you want it to be a true video podcast that is downloadable
through an RSS feed and available in podcast apps, then I also urge you to put it on YouTube.
And maybe even start considering some of the other platforms like Rumble and such.
So if you want that exact same video show to be both on YouTube and as a real podcast
downloadable through an RSS feed, Libsyn is the way to go.
Because Libsyn allows you to publish only once and then they will automatically upload
your video to YouTube.
The same video.
So you get the video in your podcast feed and the same video uploaded to YouTube.
But it doesn't stop there.
I believe Libsyn is still the only provider to also bring your video stats back from YouTube
and display them with your normal podcast download stats.
So none of this checking your stats in two places or publishing your video here and going
over there to publish it.
So having to go two places for that too.
Libsyn makes it easy to do both of these things, see your stats and publish your videos in
one place.
The link for Libsyn that's in the notes for this episode, a tap or swipe away, or
at theaudacitytopodcast.com/hosting24, that link itself is not an affiliate link.
The only way I earn is if you use my promo code, but I do recommend that you use my promo
code which is "noodle" from the old days because that will give you not only one month
free. But it really works in an interesting way because Libsyn always
charges at midnight GMT on the first day of the month. So really if you use that
promo code you get the rest of this month and all of next month for free. So
if you've used it any time after midnight GMT on the first day of the
month you could get up to two months of free hosting from Libsyn. So they have
some other great tools and they're building an all-new interface and system.
They even have some recording tools built in. But really where they sit now
in my recommendations is especially focused on true video podcasting. And you
can get those links and the links to all of these other things in my promo code
that I mentioned in the notes for this episode a simple tap or swipe away or at
the audacitytopodcast.com/hosting24. So after all of this, the best podcast hosting is the one that
meets your needs. You can probably tell I rarely recommend a single option and that's because in
many areas I think there is no single best that does everything for everyone in the best way.
Like most things, my goal is to provide you with the information for you to make the right
choice for yourself and your podcast.
So my recommendations again are the best all-inclusive podcast hosting, also from multiple shows,
Captivate with an honorable mention to Transistor.
The best WordPress-based podcast hosting is Blueberry.
The best easy/simple podcast hosting without compromises is Buzzsprout.
The best free podcast hosting I think is RedCircle, with a shout out back to Buzzsprout.
And the best video podcast hosting is Libsyn.
If you want these links, promo codes, they're in the notes.
Simple tap or swipe away or at theaudacitytopodcast.com/hosting24.
Now that the Audacity to podcast is back on a more consistent basis, I am seeing those
streaming Satoshis coming in through a podcasting 2.0 enabled app.
Thank you so much for that.
Feel free to send in a boostogram if you want it to be read in the show.
It needs to be 10,000 sats or higher.
That may sound like a lot, but it's really not a lot.
But you can do that through a modern podcasting 2.0 enabled app.
And if you need a better app or want to tell your audience where to get a better app, especially
since Google Podcasts is going away, check out podcastapps.com.
Now that I've given you some of the guts and taught you some of the tools, it's time for
for you to go start and grow your own podcast
for passion and profit.
I'm Daniel J. Lewis from the audacitytopodcast.com.
Thanks for listening.
[Music]