Podcasting is prevailing at a pace that challenges every other medium of interaction. With the power to capture the attention of millions, podcasting is making its way through all odds.

What is Podcasting?

Remember the radio? Radios were prevalent from the 1920s to 1960, and then came television as an audio-visual mode followed by the Internet in the 2000s, and now it’s about podcasting. Resembling the past and reviving the future of audio mode of interaction, these podcasts overwhelm everyone.

What is Podcast?

A podcast is an episodic recording or a series of discussions shared in a digital audio file and is made available for download to any personal device via the Internet. Podcasting is simply speaking thoughtfully to convey your message. These audios can be educational, instructional, entertaining, religious, etc., depending upon your interests. The question comes… where to post these videos? You need a web host to run your websites…right? Similarly, you need a podcast host to run and store your podcasts. Now, if you have some awesome podcasts and you are looking for a podcast hosting platform to give way to your podcasts, let’s walk through some of the highly recommended Podcast Hosting Sites.

What is Podcast Hosting?

Podcast hosting service offers space to store and deliver media files for a particular podcast. It’s similar to web hosting, but it stores podcasting files. Wondering if you could store podcasts on a web hosting platform? Possibly, it can be done, but then it would hamper the quality of podcast and website speed. The reason is that the size of the podcast episode is large, and multiple users start downloading a podcast at the same time, it’s more likely to get thwarted as the hosting service provider will block the process that affects the server resource. A podcast hosting server is all it takes to run podcasts without affecting download speed with sufficient server resources. These servers are meant to store and deliver hefty media files and are endowed with effective tools. Podcast hosting services are backed by professionals who are apt in handling podcast hosting for better performance and results.

Top 5 Podcast Hosting Platforms in 2021

Want to share the audio content that you have created with the world? Know that podcasting isn’t simple as recording a video and uploading it on YouTube. You have to host your audio files. Here are my top picks for the best podcast hosting platforms:

1. BuzzSprout
2. Transistor
3. Simplecast
4. Captivate
5. Castos

BuzzSprout

Buzzsprout is for beginners. There are a number of reasons that got us to put it on number one. With over one lakh podcasters, it’s almost a decade old and is loved by all. Key Features:

• Easy-to-use and intuitive analytics dashboards to determine the results of marketing strategies, podcast performance, user base, demographics and audience type, etc.
• Instant episode chapter glances can be added for listeners to let them see episodic details.
• It makes it easy to publish podcast episodes to all podcast channels, and you can even feature just one episode or a whole playlist of episodes.
• Accounts with unlimited team members can enjoy free plans on it.
• Allows users to embed a podcast player directly on your website.

These tools are the best feature to count and make it a standalone podcast hosting platform. Besides, you can upgrade the audio quality to 128k stereo optimization for uncompromised sound quality. It even provides podcast transcription services as an add-on. Schedule and upload your podcasts, edit title and description and submit them to relevant directories to get maximum users. Note: This platform can be used for free, and you can upload two hours of audio content on a monthly basis for 90 days, though it comes with ads. Its paid plans range from $12, $18 and 24$ along with unlimited storage.

Transistor

• The Transistor is known for its professional services and practically built-in podcast analytics.
• Serving an audience of up to 50-80K, it’s the second most popular podcast hosting platform in 2021.
• It provides plenty of tools to help you grow your podcast audience and look into other aspects of your performance.
• With Transistor, you can integrate marketing service-providing platforms and generate a branded website to distribute your podcasts to renowned platforms.
• In-depth analytics can help you trace your strategy and hone it accordingly. Give your analytics a check before continuing your strategy. Aspects that you can analyze using Transistor are the number of subscribers, average downloads per episode and overall download time.

One major feature is that it doesn’t constrain your hosting limit, i.e., you can host an unlimited number of shows and manage multiple users on a single account. Pricing varies as per the monthly users and downloads- the approximate cost is around $19 for 10,000 downloads and two users.

Simplecast

Simplecast powers a renowned brand with its matchless features. Being an industry-leading podcast hosting platform, it comes with tools that stabilize podcasting performance.

• All it takes is one-click publishing
• Supports multiple podcasts and web players
• Advanced analytical tools
• Fully-functioning website
• A single account to collaborate with multiple team members.

One of its stand-alone features is ‘Recast’ that allows users to create, share and schedule snippets of your episodes for promotional purposes on social media. You will get unlimited storage with this. It can come at $15 for 20,000 downloads/ month. You can manage, distribute, share, and grow your podcast.

Captivate

Captivate is a podcast hosting brand that is focused on growing podcast audiences. They put their years of experience into it to bring about an effective podcast hosting service. Unique Features

• Automatic and built-in call-to-action for website and podcast audio player
• Bespoken and mobile-friendly website with built-in donation support
• Unlimited number of podcast team and team members
• Advanced analytics and marketing tools
• Automatic link generation for streaming podcast players
• The call to action feature would readily generate leads and email lists via an opt-in form.

Captive works in association with Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) for in-depth performance analysis and to provide ads that you can use to monetize your podcast. Those who want to try can try with the one-week free trial version. The starter pack comes at $19 for 12,000 downloads and ranges between $49 and 60,000 downloads.

Castos

Seeking something more advanced and feature-packed?

• Castos is an exceptional podcasting plug-in and podcast hosting site for WordPress users.
• It automatically publishes podcast episodes on all major distribution channels.
• Another feature to count is automatic transcription. Castos creates a transcription on the dashboard instantly as soon as you upload the podcast episode.
• What’s new with Castos? Video podcast hosting can help you re-publish your episodes to Youtube. Thereafter, it can be downloaded or saved in different versions. Users can even utilize their podcast editing service or get additional discounts.

This is how it works for a WordPress website:

• Visit Castos's website and take a 2-week trial,
• Install the WordPress plugin,
• Add them to the new Podcast section to host the episodes,
• Upload the podcast in an audio file format with a title and description.

After doing all this, your podcast will go live on your site with a customizable media player. You can use this hosting platform to upload and download unlimited podcasts. Pricing varies as per the usage, and the starting price is $19 per month. With every advanced package, you will get an additional benefit.