Choosing A Podcast Hosting Platform

The Podcast Life is a newsletter by Deanna Chapman that helps you create a great podcast.

This week’s episode!

I’ve been thinking a lot about what needs to be considered before launching your podcast, aside from figuring out what your podcast is about. I feel like one thing people don’t think too much about is where they’re going to host their podcast. So I talked about a few things you want to consider before you make your choice in this week’s episode. You can find the audio version here and the YouTube version below.

My Preferred Podcast Hosting Platform

I’ve had experience with hosting podcasts on Libsyn, Megaphone, Spotify for Creators, Acast, and Transistor. Through that, I’ve learned which platforms offer the best support, are easy to use, and have what I need for my podcasts. Today, I want to go over my experiences with them and determine which I prefer the most.

(Note: all prices shown are for monthly, not yearly plans. Discounts are typically available if you opt to pay yearly, which I don’t recommend doing until you know you’ve found a platform that works for you.)

Spotify for Creators

Spotify for Creators is by far my least favorite on that list. People love it because it’s free, but I find the user experience to be subpar with it. And there’s no option to upgrade to a different feature set if needed, you would need to migrate your podcast to an entirely new platform. My advice: avoid this one if you can.

Megaphone

Megaphone (also owned by Spotify) is very robust. I only used this in a podcast network setting as that seems to be what the platform is best suited for. It is absolutely overkill for any solo podcaster, unless you’re planning to start your own podcast network or you have enough disposable income to not care about the steep monthly pricing ($99/month to be exact). Overall, it’s good for networks who need to monetize at scale.

Libsyn

Libsyn is the one I probably have had the briefest experience with as the show that I worked on that used it was moved off of it fairly quickly after the show’s launch. At that time (about 4 years ago), it was a pretty dated website. I believe it’s had a refresh since then, but from what I’ve heard, much of the functionality is the same. Which is to say that it works and is a consistent platform. Overall, not a bad option.

Acast

Acast is my latest experience as I’m currently hosting The Podcast Life there. It got off to a bumpy start because even though I had my own login, when I created a new show, it tied it to a previous client’s account. It took weeks of going back and forth with support to sort it out. In that time period, they changed their free tier to have a limit of 5 episodes. That’s great for people who think they want to start a podcast, but then wind up in that “doesn’t make it past 3 episodes” category, I suppose.

I know I just suggested not using the free Spotify option, but this is a bit different, because Acast has multiple paid tiers. So the option is there to upgrade should you need those features. I’ll be honest, I’m not 100% sure I want to continue hosting my show there because of how much of a hassle it was to get in touch (and on the same page) with their support team.

I’m also not a huge fan of the way the analytics are displayed, but I am curious if the paid tier ($25/month) does come with some upgrades in that department.

Transistor

My friend Jacob Tender is the one who got me on board with Transistor. You could say we have a sort of friend network of shows there as it hosts both his various ones over the years as well as mine. We’re on a grandfathered plan from the early days, but $19/month for their starter tier is a great value IMO.

Plus, it functions a lot better than the others as far as locating everything with ease. They also have a higher paid tier that offers dynamic ad insertion (at $49/mo, which is half the price of Megaphone’s offer).

An extra plus for me: if clients of mine use Transistor, they can add me as an admin and I can use my existing login to access the podcast.

It’s been a great option and I highly recommend it if it sounds like it’ll fit your needs.

If you enjoyed this newsletter and really want to level up your podcast, I interview the smartest people in the business. I’m always looking for the best ways to help you grow your podcast. So be sure to subscribe and share this with a friend! And if there’s something you’d like to see covered, reply to this email.