I’ve researched the Best Podcast Hosting for Beginners (newbies) and pros – that is easy to record and release your podcast shows in minutes.
If you’re looking for a better free unlimited podcast hosting and platforms compared including pros and cons, pricing and hosting sites reviews for simplecast, buzzsprout, podbean, transistor, blubrry and those that support WordPress web hosting like libsyn – you’re in the right place.
This guide shows you the best free and paid hosting services for beginners to publish their episodes in iTunes and other podcast directories for their listeners to download.
The best podcast hosting for beginners should support audio and video content and other marketing features and tools you’ll need to host your podcast and build an audience.
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What is Podcast Hosting?
Podcast hosting is a platform that hosts your RSS feed and audio content files for your podcast. Hosting platforms allow upload of your audio files, show notes, and other details to generate your feed. Hosting companies enable users to subscribe to your podcast, the podcast host automatically send the episodes and media to the platforms directly.
Related Reading: Best Podcast Hosting for Churches
What is the Best Podcast Apps?
Podcast apps are standard podcast player and tools that allow listeners to play back your podcast episodes, download and sort the newest episodes, manage your subscriptions, audio files and features to give your listeners the best experience.
Some podcast apps can turn your smartphone into a mobile recording and editing studio.
Here’s my favorite podcasting apps for Android and iOs devices.
Further Reading:
6 Best Podcast Hosting for WordPress & 21+ WP Plugins
The Best Podcast Apps for Beginners
You can get more benefits out of podcast with these apps for beginners.
1. Overcast (iOs)
Overcast is a powerful podcast player with voice boost, smart speed and smart playlist to help your listeners to listen to more podcasts in more directories and try new shows.
Overcast is a podcast player app for iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad and an iOs app developed by Macro Arment which downloads and play podcasts.
It has been reviewed by journalists and named as the best podcast listening app for iOs in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020.
See Also: 13+ Best Wireless Earbuds for Podcasts (Headphones) You’ll Love in 2021
2. Google Podcasts (Android)
Google Podcasts is a free and trending (new) podcast player for Android users where you can discover and listen to the world’s podcasts.
It’s a new way to discover and listen to podcasts, subscribe to any show for free and download episodes for offline listening.
3. Castro (iOs)
Castro Podcast player app makes it easy to manage lots of podcasts, and enjoy the best episodes of all your favorite podcast shows on the go.
Castro is designed exclusively for iOs 7 and lets you track lots of podcasts at once with support for clip sharing.
Castro Podcast player has become the latest podcast app for iOs.
4. Spotify Podcasts (Android, iOs)
Spotify for podcasters makes it easier for millions of people to find and listen to your podcast while you get data and insights to grow your audience.
You can use Spotify Podcasts to organize and listen to podcasts. It’s the easiest way to make a podcast, create episodes, distribute, host and monetize your podcast.
5. Pocket Casts (Android, iOs)
Pocket casts is a powerful podcast app and platform by listeners, and for listeners.
Pocket casts player provides next-level listening, search and discovery tools, top-notch, full featured options available for free on Android and iOs.
6. Laughable (Android, iOs)
Laughable is the best, free Andoid & iOs app for all your podcast listening allowing you to follow people across podcast world even as guests.
Laughable is paradise for podcast lovers and comedy fans and is the world’s best-rated podcast app for iPhone, Android and iOs.
7. Breaker (iOs)
Breaker is a social podcast app that lets you share episodes on Twitter and Facebook or send to a friend on Breaker.
When a user sign up, you’re prompted to follow your Twitter, mutual, Facebook friends and Instagram followers.
What is the Best Podcast Hosting for Beginners
Podcasts are important and finding a good podcast hosting platforms can be tough. There are dozens of most popular podcast platforms available for newbie podcasters, so we’re rounded up the very best.
If you’re looking for the best podcast hosting for beginners, I’ve you covered with the best platforms that can help your listeners discover, download, listen and share your episodes.
Here are my favorite picks of the best podcast hosting for beginners to help you get started.
1. Buzzsprout Podcast Hosting
Best free podcast hosting for newbies
Buzzsprout is the easiest podcasting software for hosting, promoting, and tracking your podcast shows.
You can start podcasting today with free podcast hosting plan or options that Buzzsprout provides to new podcasters.
What is Buzzsprout?
Buzzsprout is the best way to publish your podcast from a reliable and secure hosting platform.
Additionally, they’ve everything you need including iTunes support, HTML 5 players, show statistics and WordPress plugin to publish and promote your podcast.
How much does Buzzsprout cost?
Buzzsprout paid pricing plans range from $12 per month for 3 hours, $18/month for 6 hours and $24/month for 12 hours.
Buzzsprout’s free podcast hosting plan provides the most features compared to Soundcloud podcast hosting and others.
The benefit of using the free plan allows you to upload 2 hours every month but your episodes get deleted after 90 days.
No credit card is required when you sign up for the free plan with Buzzsprout.
With Buzzsprout, you’re getting everything that Blubrry or Libsyn offers but in a much easier to manage package.
Try Buzzsprout today
2. PodBean Free Podcast Hosting
Ranked Best Podcast Hosting 2018 & 2019
PodBean is a podcast publishing and monetization service provider, offering free and premium hosting packages for beginners, businesses and individuals.
Podbean, the popular podcast hosting company and distribution is reviewed by journalists for their podbean podcast apps as a top trending podcast app of global best 2017 in Google Play store, with 60k+ reviews and an average rating of 4.715.
Podbean provides ultra simple podcast publishing solution that lets you host, promote and track your podcast.
You can try Podbean for free or upgrade to an Advanced plan for only $3, Unlimited Audio for $9 and Podcast Starter plan for 100GB/month with your favorite podbean app.
How much does Podbean Podcast Hosting Platform cost?
The minimum storage space gets you 100MB. For $9, $29 and $99 pricing packages, you get unlimited space.
Their primary pricing plan gets you 100GB and comes with unlimited bandwidth.
Try Podbean Today
3. Transistor
Most popular podcast platforms for creatives, brands & beginners.
Transistor is a new comer to the podcast hosting marketplace with all the tools you need to build and grow your audience.
They are one of the newer podcast hosting and analytics platforms that focuses on brands and big companies, like Kickstarter and Cards Against Humanity.
The benefit is that, Transistor helps beginners (podcaters) get more listeners with unlimited shows, podcast analytics, multiple users and distribution on Spotify podcasts, Apple podcasts and Google podcasts.
How much does Transistor Podcast Hosting cost?
On average, 80% of podcasts get under 1,100 downloads per episodes.
With their basic plan, you get up to 10,000 downloads or podcast plays per month.
They have three excellent pricing and provide great hosting, analytics, and distribution tools for your podcast.
Starter plan at $19/month gives you unlimited number of podcasts and episodes, up to 2 team members, analytics included and 10000/month of downloads.
Note: Every time your listener plays, streams, or downloads the MP3 for the show, it counts as a download.
Professional package plan is billed at $49/month with unlimited podcasts, and episodes, five team members, up to 50,000/month downloads and analytics included.
Business plan at $99 per month gets you unlimited episodes/podcasts, analytics, up to ten team members and 150,000 month downloads.
You can get started today with a free 14 day trial.
Try Transistor
4. Simplecast
Best Podcast Hosting Platforms, Distribution & Analytics for Beginners
Simplecast is the modern independent podcast hosting and analytics platform providing the easiest way for podcasters to publish audio online with one-click publishing to Apple podcasts, spotify or wherever your audience listens.
One click, millions of listeners than Anchor Podcast Hosting
With Simplecast, publishing and distributing an episode to the world is easier than other podcast hosting sites.
You can distribute your podcast episodes on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Spotify podcasts, stitcher, Soundcloud podcast hosting and many more.
Simplecast provides podcasters especially beginners with industry-leading publishing, distribution, analytics and sharing tools. The same tools powering powerful shows from the world’s biggest brands and companies.
How much does Simplecast cost? – Features & Pricing
Simplecast provides tools needed to manage, distribute, share and grow your podcast from your first listener to your first million.
They have a plan for every beginner podcaster starting from the basic $15 per month, Essential $35/month and Growth plan at $85/month.
All their plans include unlimited storage space, unlimited uploads, distribution on all platforms, listener analytics & reports, themed show website, secure RSS feed, API access with limited options based on each package.
Try Simplecast Today
5. Captivate
Unlimited podcast hosting, analytics & marketing that outsmart Soundcloud podcast hosting
Beginner podcasters can start podcast within minutes for free and launch today with Captivate platform.
Captivate is the evolution of podcast hosting, built by podcasters for humans using AI that helps you grow your show.
Captivate podcast is a storage place for theological discussions about worship, Christian ministry and mission.
Listen via stitcher for podcasts
Are you looking for a platform to upload your podcast? Captivate prides itself as the world’s only growth-oriented podcast host.
The parent company, Podcast Websites, is the brain behind Captivate.fm that provides the easiest way to listen to podcasts on your iPad, iPhone, PC, Android, Smart speaker and in your car.
How much does Captivate podcast cost?
With a variety of great podcasting features, Captivate offers flexible pricing plans ranging from $19/month to $99/month based on the number of monthly downloads.
- $19/month Podcaster plan offers 10,000 downloads.
- $49/month Audio Influencer plan gives 50,000 downloads limit.
- $99 per month Podcast Brand plan lets you have up to 120,000 downloads.
If you’re a beginner podcaster looking for built-in features and growth-based podcast host, give Captivate a try.
Try Captivate
6. Spreaker
Spreaker provides you with intuitive tools to start a podcast and distribute it on Spotify, iTunes and more.
Best storage and monetization podcast host
Spreaker allows podcasters to try their monetization features, analytics and enjoy vast podcast catalogue.
You can keep your favorite podcasts, a variety of channels, curated lists, personalized playlists created by you.
Spreaker is a mobile-friendly site with its speaker studio tool for desktop and mobile users. They gibe podcasters private episode sharing, show into insertion for ads and ad revenue sharing for monetization.
How much does Spreaker cost?
Spreaker’s free plan gives you unlimited features, with a single session of 15 minutes and 5 hours of storage.
To get more storage and unlimited streaming, you can upgrade to any of the three plans at $5.50 – $41.25.
Their most popular hosting plan is the Broadcaster Plan at $16.50 per month and gives you 500 hours of audio & 3 hours per live podcast.
Get one month free and give Spreaker a try.
Try Spreaker
7. Castos
Castos is a powerful podcast hosting and analytics platform that helps beginners to build, grow, and monetize their podcast in simple steps.
The Best Podcast Hosting for WordPress Beginner Podcasters
If you’re looking for a WordPress integrated podcast hosting platform that is simple to use and user-friendly, try Castos podcast hosting.
Castos is pioneering the next generation of premium subscriptions for podcast hosting platform where beginners can charge for access to each or some or all of their podcast episodes.
It’s the next membership site for podcasts.
Castos is the best way to manage your podcast episodes and podcasts from your WordPress website. It comes with the following built-in features:
- Podcast hosting made for WordPress.
- Top-rated WordPress plugin – seriously simple podcasting.
- One-click imports.
- Unlimited podcasting for one price.
- Unlimited audience insights.
- Enhanced player experience.
- Manage multiple shows.
- Convenient workflow.
- Free add ons.
- Dedicated hosting platform.
- Integrated statistics.
- Automatic transcription.
Their plans range from $19 to $49/month.
You can get full podcast video hosting and republish your podcast episodes to YouTube if you upgrade to their higher plans.
Castos is a great choice for WordPress site owners.
Start a free 14-day trial with no credit card required. Use 2-months free of charge if you pay for annual plans.
Try Castos
8. Libsyn
Libsyn focuses on helping beginners to professional podcasters who want to monetize their audio content quickly.
Libsyn was launched in 2004 and is one of the most popular podcast hosts that doesn’t offer free plan. They are not free as their plan starts as low as $5.
They boost of 62 million+ audience members and a grand breaking record of 4.6 billion podcast downloads as at 2006. They hosted over 35,000 podcasts.
They offer users between 50MB and 1.5GB of monthly storage, analytics reports, RSS link generation, app, and premium content.
Prices start from $15 – $75 per month.
9. Blubrry
Blubrry is the first and only IAB trusted and certified podcast hosting provider and podcast stats platform providing statistics, hosting, and powerpress podcasting WordPress plugin for beginners and podcasting pros alike.
Best WordPress podcast hosting provider
Their podcasting hosting is highly optimized for WordPress users with the PowerPress plugin.
With 100+ features and over 75,000+ active installs, PowerPress plugin from Blubrry is consistently upgraded and free to use.
Blubrry offers free basic statistics service. If you upgrade to a paid plan, their premium statistics service such as Blubrry certified statistics, trending and exporting and its downloads, is available for as low as $5 per month.
As a top-rated choice, Blubrry offers SEO options, MP3 tagging, great tools, podcasting manual (PDF), tips and service to succeed for new beginners.
Their plan options start at $12 per month and give you 100MB of storage.
They also have professional plan with custom pricing and additional four paid plans starting from $12 to $80 with 100MB to 1000MB storage space per month.
Try Blubrry
Frequently Asked Questions About the Best Podcast Hosting for Beginners
Here are some common questions potential and beginner podcasters asked on Forums, Quora, Reddit, as per how to choose from the best podcast hosting sites.
How do I choose a podcast host?
If you are a beginner podcaster and want to pick the best options for your podcast hosting, these are few questions you need to consider.
There are many different podcast hosting sites and to decide which one to choose is difficult.
Not all podcast hosts are the same. Some are designed for brands, enterprise, beginners with custom pricing.
You’ve to look for ease of use, customer service, audio quality, pricing, WordPress plugins, embed players, storage options, video podcasts, and more to enable you pick the best host for your podcasting business.
Here are some tips for choosing the best podcast hosting sites.
1. Pick a host with great features.
There are basic features that come with every podcast hosting site. Always look for essential features like FTP uploading, media validation and IDB tagging.
2. Cross check prices like trial, sign up & renewal.
Many podcast hosting providers have different price points for new sign up, trial period, and renewal.
3. Get to know the hours of monthly audio hosting you can consume.
The best podcast hosting for beginners provides unlimited uploads of audio content files, while some podcast hosts give their customers two hours of upload time monthly.
4. Check uptime, bandwidth options, and security & server reliability.
If scalability is crucial, check their upgrade options. You can have access to unlimited monthly downloads, unlimited storage space and unlimited upload times if you upgrade to premium plans in some podcast host sites.
What are the best podcast submission sites for beginners & podcasting pros?
Podcast submission sites are podcast directories that receive your podcast audio content files, and RSS feeds and push them to their front end systems.
Examples of podcast submission sites are:
- iTunes
- Spotify, and
- Google Play
These podcast submission sites (directories) allow your audience to discover your podcast show with an app, iPhone, or Android device or computer.
How podcat submission sites work?
You upload your audio files and the directory will detect a new content in your feed, and downloads the file and displays the latest episodes to its audiences.
For example, when a podcast app (like Apple podcasts) detects a new episode in your RSS feed, it downloads the audio file from your podcast hosting server and push it to your listeners (their users).
Can I host a podcast on my website?
If you’re a web host for your website, it can only accept images and the text content. Storing a podcast on your website is not a good option.
Podcasts consist of audio or video files with lot of data. Many web hosts offer restricted unlimited storage and bandwidth that doesn’t accept the kinds of files that would consume too much hosting resources.
It’s not advisable to host your podcast on your website. If you’re looking for a streamline experience, you’re going to need podcast hosting.
How much does podcast hosting cost?
The average pricing for podcast hosting ranges from $5 to $99 per month. However, pricing varies and depends on which company and essential features you are paying for, how many download and how many episodes you publish.
Is Anchor a good podcast host?
Anchor is a fantastic podcasting service if you’re just looking to publishing audio content into the world. Anchor lets you publish your podcast on Spotify, Apple and major podcasting services with one-click of a button.
Where can I host a podcast?
Ready to start your podcast, podcasting isn’t just recording some audio and uploading to iTunes. You’ve to host your audio content files with a podcast hosting.
Choose the right podcast hosting service to help your podcast succeed, grow and engage with your audience.
Here are my top picks best podcast hosting for beginners in 2019 and 2020.
- Buzzsprout
- Castos
- PodBean
- Spreaker
- Transistor
- Captivate
- Simplecast
- Blubrry
What do I need to host a podcast?
Podcasting is extremely exciting and fun, but there is equipment you must have before you start a podcast. This is one of the biggest setbacks for beginners.
Here are the top technology items or equipment you’ll need to start a podcast.
- A microphone
- Headphones
- A pop filter
- A suspension boom
- A skype account
- Recording and editing software
- ID3 Editor
- A podcast hosting account
- Design software
- A vanity URL
- A professionally designed website.
Conclusion
A podcast host provides a link between you and your audience. As a beginner you need to make a choice for the hosting platform based on its features.
You now have a curated list of the best podcast hosting for beginners that will help you to grow your audience and monetize your podcast.
Which of the podcast hosting sites will you pick when you’re ready to start a podcast?
