15 Best Podcast Hosting Sites of 2022 (Plus Free Options)
Marlon Marescia | Updated April 6, 2022
Choosing the right podcast hosting software is crucial when starting a podcast. From pushing your podcast to iTunes and Spotify to storing your files and marketing your show, the best podcast hosting can help grow your audience. In this guide, I ranked and reviewed the 15 best podcast hosting, along with our top 5 choices, so you can pick the best one for you.
Best Overall
Buzzsprout
With Buzzsprout podcast hosting is made easy with powerful tools, free learning materials, and remarkable customer support.
Best for Monetization
Spreaker
Growing a podcast business made easy. Spreaker is the one-stop-shop for podcast hosting, creation, distribution, and monetization.
Best for Growing
RSS.com
Get detailed stats for your podcast such as total listens per episode, average downloads, most popular listening apps, and more.
Best for Analytics
Transistor
With Buzzsprout podcast hosting is made easy with powerful tools, free learning materials, and remarkable customer support.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
Are you dreaming of starting the next hugely successful podcast and sharing your audio content with the world?
Podcasting isn’t as simple as recording some audio and uploading it to iTunes.
With as many as 850,000 podcasts in the world right now, you need to have a solid plan of action.
First, you have to host your audio files.
So how do you pick the best podcast hosting service?
This guide covers the best options based on price, reliability, technical support, monthly upload volume, compliance, storage, monetization, ease of use, marketing features, integrations with apps, and more.
Listen while you read: Here’s a video on the best options (and how to use them):
Let’s get started.
What is the Best Podcast Hosting?
Here are my top picks for the best podcast hosting platforms:
- BuzzSprout
- Spreaker
- RSS.com
- Transistor
- PodBean
The Best Podcast Hosting Service for Beginners (Free – $24/month + $20 Amazon Gift Card).
Marlon’s Take
If you’re looking for an overall excellent podcasting platform, then I would definitely recommend Buzzsprout. They offer helpful free learning material that helps you get started, along with powerful tools that help you make the most out of your recorded podcasts. Their customer support is also another plus when using Buzzsprout, so they are my overall #1 choice when you’re creating a podcast.
- Best For
- Price Free
- Annual Discount
- Promotion
Key Features:
Buzzsprout allows you to embed a podcast player right on your website – and you can feature just one episode or a whole playlist of episodes:They offer an easy-to-use analytics dashboard with an algorithm that estimates how many listeners each episode receives within the first 90 days. You can also view which countries your listeners are tuning in from to help you understand your audience.
These analytics features are super helpful and better than most other tools on this list.
Audio quality is also great as you can upgrade to 128k stereo optimization for better sound. Not only that, but they also offer podcast transcription services as an extra add-on.
They make it super easy to upload and schedule your podcast too. You simply upload your audio file, change the episode title and description, and submit your podcast to all significant directories
Pricing:
Their free plan allows you to upload two hours of content hosted for 90 days. If you’re serious about podcasting, you can scale up and upgrade your plan based on how many hours of content you need to upload per month.- Free: upload 2 hours each month and episodes hosted for 90 days.
- $12/month: upload 3 hours each month, hosted indefinitely, unlimited storage.
- $18/month: features above, plus upload 6 hours each month.
- $24/month: features above, plus upload 12 hours each month.
Best Content Management System and Monetization (Free – $120+).
Marlon’s Take
If monetizing your podcast is crucial for you, then Spreaker is the platform to look at. With the ability to integrate advertising into your podcast from the beginning, I think this platform is a great choice for those wanting to be heard by their audience while simultaneously making money.
- Best For
- Price Free –
- Annual Discount
- Promotion
Key Features:
- Content management system – allows podcasters of any “level” to automatically enable the distribution of new episodes to the major listening platforms (Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, iHeartRadio, Alexa, Deezer, etc.)
- Manage and schedule multiple podcasts under the same account, and to
- Strategically set your monetization (provided via dynamic ad insertion) at the episode and show level.
- Team management features and can add collaborators.
- Statistics certified by the IAB.
Pricing:
- Free Speech (Free): 5 hours of audio storage, up to 10 episodes.
- On-Air Talent ($8/month): 100 hours of storage.
- Broadcaster ($20/month): 500 hours of storage.
- Anchorman ($50/month): 1,500 hours of storage.
- Anchorman ($120/month): Unlimited storage.
Best for having the most features for growing your podcast.
Marlon’s Take
RSS.com is my go-to recommendation when it comes to three main features. If you’re looking for unlimited storage, powerful analytics, and a podcasting website that goes along with your recording, then look no further than RSS.com. These features ensure that your podcast platform can handle any business growth you experience as you scale.
- Best For
- Price
- Annual Discount
- Promotion
- Unlimited Podcast Episodes & Duration
- $4.99/mo – $99/mo
- Yes – Save 35%
- Get Started For Free
If you’re serious about growing your podcast, RSS.com is the way to go. This service has unlimited storage and bandwidth, perfect for more prominent podcasts.
RSS.com also offers a wide range of tools, such as episode scheduling and social media integration, making it easy for you to manage your podcast and engage with your audience.
Podcasters using RSS.com seem to appreciate the ease with which their platform enables them to get started – in fact, in just five minutes, most users can be up and running.
Key Features:
- Automatic and guided distribution to the major podcast directories including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts.
- Monetization options including sponsorship opportunities via Podcorn and a donate button on your free public podcast website.
- There are multiple ways to monetize your podcast when using RSS.com, including the ability to enable a donation button.
- A professional-looking podcast website will give your content an added level of legitimacy, while episode transcription can make it easier for fans to follow along.
- If you are using another platform provider right now, it is seamless to export your current podcast to RSS.com and benefit from their service right away.
- Create custom embed players compatible with any platform, allowing you to showcase your podcast in unique ways.
- With an exceptional NPS (net promoter score) of 63 and an average star rating of 4.9, podcasters are thrilled with RSS.com’s service.
Pricing:
Signing up and hosting your first episode is free, allowing you to test out the service without any financial commitment or credit card required.
If you’d then like to switch to their paid service, the price plans are as follows:
- Educational: $4.99/Month
- RSS Podcaster $12.99/Month
If you have a .edu email, you’ll get automatic approval for the Educational plan.
When it comes to the RSS Podcast plan, you can switch to annual billing and get a 35% discount.
Finally, if you are part of a non-profit organization, get in touch with their sales team to discuss special discounts that might apply.
✨Get an entirely free month (rather than just an episode) when you get started with RSS.com today. Use the coupon code: RSSMARLON.
Best Built-In Podcast Analytics ($19.99/month).
Marlon’s Take
The success of your podcast depends on how far-reaching the platform you choose is. I like Transistor because it not only gives you detailed stats for your shows but also helps you distribute your content to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts. Transistor might just be the podcast platform to check out if you want to reach the widest audience possible.
- Best For
- Price
- Annual Discount
- Promotion
- Ensuring vast reach of your podcast
- $19/mo – $99/mo
- Yes – Get Two Free Months
- Get Started With A Free Plan
Transistor.fm is a high-quality, professional service that hosts some popular podcasts including Drift, Honeybadger, and Cards Against Humanity.
They are known to provide their podcasters with built-in analytics and absolutely everything you need to grow your podcast audience.
Key Features:
- Host unlimited shows.
- Manage multiple users per account.
- Generate branded websites with your own domain name
- Distributing your podcast to major networks.
- View advanced analytics and reporting.
Their analytics tools are where they stand out. Their dashboards show you trends and stats like average downloads per episode, the number of subscribers, and downloads over time.
Additionally, if you use another hosting platform like Libsyn or Anchor, you can easily import your existing feed into Transistor with simple migration tools.
Pricing Plans:
- Starter Plan ($19/month): Provides unlimited podcasts and episodes, up to 2 users, and 10,000 downloads per month.
- Professional Plan ($49/month): Everything in the starter plan, but now with up to five team members and 50,000 downloads per month.
- Business Plan ($99/month): All features in the previous plans, but with up to 10 team members and 150,000 downloads per month.
Transistor allows you to scale your podcast (and pricing) as your audience grows.
In the end, your plan choice will most likely depend on the number of downloads you need per month, so you can get started with their Starter Plan and upgrade when you need to.
If you take podcast analytics seriously, start your 14-day free trial of Transistor (and get two months free when paid annually).