Quill | Blog Which Hosting Platform Should You Sign Up For?

When you’re ready to publish your podcast you can’t upload a podcast directly to distribution platforms. To publish your podcast onto major platforms such as Spotify, Apple, and Google Play, you must sign up for a media hosting site. A media hosting site does two things:

It stores your final podcast audio files that go live, and creates a library of your content.
It generates an RSS feed (Really Simple Syndication) which you need to submit to platforms such as Apple, Spotify and Google Play.

As a new podcast creator, there are a lot of options on places to host your podcast which can sometimes result in choice fatigue. Each platform has pros and cons based on bandwidth and price.

Here are some platforms we recommend:

Platform

Price

Pro’s

Con's

Anchor

Free

Easy to use
Automatically distributes your podcast to major platforms.
Embed media player.
Great if podcasting is a
side hobby

Very basic editing
Since it’s a free tool, you don’t have full control over the monetization of your podcast.
Not the right platform for people taking podcasting seriously

Buzzsprout

Free for 2 hours of content per month

‍

$12 for 3 hours per month

‍

$18+ for 6 hours and up

Very user-friendly
Caters to both long term and beginner podcasters
Advanced analytics
Easy distribution of your episodes
They measure their size requirements to hours not megabytes
Bonus: get a free $20 Amazon gift card when you sign up for any paid hosting plan!

Advanced features like dynamic ad insertion need some work

Libsyn

$5/month for Monthly Storage 50mb

Oldest podcast hosting site.
Easy distribution to major platforms and great for scaling once your podcast gets bigger.
Hosted over 35,000 podcasts.
An iTunes Podcast partner.
Allows you to publish your podcast to specific directories.
Embed media player.

Price is based on storage
50mb storage for $5 won’t be enough if you are publishing weekly so you’ll end up with a higher price point

Podbean

Unlimited audio package: $9/month

‍

Storage space:

Unlimited

Great support & customer service features
Unlimited audio.
Pages are easy to customize
Can schedule podcast release dates.
Easy to use.
Uploads and changes to podcast titles and/or descriptions are automatic to Spotify.
Embed media player.
Simple Analytics

Analytics aren’t as advanced as other platforms
Upload and changes to podcast titles and/or descriptions take a day to change on iTunes.
Not an iTunes podcast partner.
The process to send a podcast to iTunes is more tedious. But, you will still be able to get on the platform.

Blubrry

Classic

$5/month
‍

Monthly Storage

50mb

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Podcast Wordpress plugin and management.
If you want to record a new introduction or conclusion, add in a sponsored ad or upload a new version of a podcast, it doesn't count towards your storage usage per month.
Blubrry allows a 25% storage overage each month

Prices are based on storage.
Usability is okay.

SimpleCast

Starting: $15/month

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Recommendation: $35/month
‍

Monthly Storage: Unlimited

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Hosts your audio files no matter what the size!
Dynamic insertion for podcast ads or edits.
Incredibly detailed analytics including number of episodes completed and listener location tracking.
Embed media player.
Easy to use.
Great distribution! Easy access to all major podcast platforms.
Customizable podcast
website.

Prices are slightly higher than other platforms, but well worth it especially if you have a branded company podcast!

Which Hosting Platform Should You Sign Up For?

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