The Best Podcast Hosting Tools Reviewed: 2023

 

Hey, can I ask you a question?

Have you noticed that every podcast hosting platform does AND says the exact same thing?

“We have the bestttt distribution.”

“We are a GrOwTH FOcuSed HoStIng platform.”

It reminds me of browsing Netflix horror movies late on Sunday nights: Every single movie looks the same and starts with the word “don’t”.

Don’t breathe. Don’t listen. Don’t (insert whatever). I bet “don’t watch” is next.

I feel like these movies are all the same BS over and over…

Podcast hosting sites are kind of like that…on the surface at least. Most are exactly the same at first glance—they all do the same basic stuff and use the same messaging on their landing pages.

SO…

Here’s What I’ve Learned After a Full Week of Researching the Best Podcast Hosting Platforms

Most podcast hosting sites do the same core things.

They:

• Distribute your podcast to all of the podcast directories (Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, etc.)
• Let you monetize your podcast
• Give you some basic marketing features
• Give you some basic analytics
• Limit your bandwidth in some way

It’s like those Netflix movies again: they all claim to be groundbreaking, but it’s literally just Lionsgate repurposing the same story with a new can of paint and a few pretty actors/actresses.

What Really Matters When Choosing a Podcast Hosting Platform

What REALLY MATTERS are the things that most new podcasters don’t think about. So let’s make sure you get started on the right foot.

How Easy Is It to Get Started and Operate?

Think of this like, “What do I get right out of the box?”

You want a podcast hosting provider that makes it easy to start a pod, build a site, distribute, and monetize as quickly as possible. And all without paying a ton of money upfront before you even know what the hell you’re doing.

This includes things like free or cheap plans, guided setup, tutorials, easy site building, and platform-assisted monetization (more on this in a second).

A good example of this is Buzzsprout. The reason Buzzsprout is so popular is because it’s podcasting made easy. There’s a free plan, your site is free, and you can even place ads within your pod from Buzzsprout’s ad network to start making a little bit of money relatively quickly.

That ease of use and setup go a long way.

What Does This Host Have That I Can Leverage?

It’s one of the most important factors in building a legit online business.

It all boils down to: What leverageable assets does this podcast hosting provider offer that you can take advantage of?

In simpler terms: Can this platform help turn this podcast into a full-time income?

Is there a thriving Facebook group where you can make partnerships and learn valuable knowledge?

Is there a pre-built affiliate or ad network that shortcuts all the hard work of pitching sponsors?

Is there free education that keeps you going in the right direction instead of screwing up and starting at square 1 again (for the 5th time)?

Are there growth tools that actually help with branding, marketing, and optimization?

That last one is one of the main reasons why I could not include basic podcast streaming services like “Spotify for Podcasters” here. Sure, it hosts your pod and distributes it for free.

But then what? How do you grow? How do you learn? There’s literally nothing else of value.

Think of it this way…

A good analogy here is to imagine you’re trying to choose between 3 universities that all teach the exact same curriculum.

Well, what would you look for next in order to make a decision?

You’d probably start by checking out what else they offered beyond teaching. Sports, scholarships, payment plans, clubs, an alumni network—things like that.

That’s what you need to consider with podcast hosting, too. Think beyond just the core features and take a long hard look at what you’re getting to support your new business beyond just hosting.

This is why Buzzsprout, Captivate, and Kajabi are far and away the best podcast hosting platforms: you get so much more than just podcast hosting.

Does This Platform Treat Me Like a Human Being?

Most hosting platforms have a pretty bad customer service reputation.

It helps to have:

• A community of experts
• A helpful knowledge center
• Real human beings
• Chatbots to help find answers

For example, Buzzsprout has a contact form. Thanks, Buzzsprout. I waited all day for an answer. Podbean is even worse…

They are 100% never getting back to you in a reasonable amount of time.

Captivate, however, has real human beings that actually get back to you within 1-2 hours.

Nothing much more to be said here. When something breaks, you want an answer. The best platforms respond in an hour or two. Others don’t respond at all.

Are Their Plans a Pain in the *** or Simple?

I’m a major fan of simplicity. The more thinking I have to do, the crankier I get.

I don’t want to spend hours of my time researching different pricing plans and comparing them (except for when I have to write an article like this). I’d rather things just be simple and straightforward.

For example, some podcast hosting companies have strict limits on hours of audio, downloads, bandwidth, and features. It’s just frustrating.

“Ok, it’s $9 for all these features. Great. Oh wait, only 3 hours of audio. OK, let me upgrade. Now it’s $20 for 8 hours…but I can’t remove custom branding and can’t customize my site…”

Simplicity is why Captivate is clearly the best podcast hosting platform out there.

You pay per download, and it’s so many downloads that you don’t have to worry about upgrading for a long time.

And when you upgrade from 30,000 to 150,000, you don’t have to worry about running over.

You aren’t getting 150,000 downloads a month any time soon. And if you do, you won’t be worrying about $17 per month…AND I’ll probably be contacting you for a consultation on how to grow a podcast.

Compare that to something like Lisbyn with a super constricting pricing model:

So, I can only upload 10 hours of new pods per month maximum? What if I have a pod network? What if I upload twice a week?

And I pay 3x more ($5 vs $15) for only 2x the bandwidth?

And who orders their pricing plans lowest-highest-middle? It’s wonky.

And it’s even more confusing with the level of features you get:

The $5 plan comes with stats snapshot and the $20 plan has “advanced stats”—whatever that even means. It makes me feel like a second-class citizen.

With Captivate, however, you get every feature on every plan:

You’re only limited by the number of downloads. And 30,000 downloads is HUGE. You don’t need to worry about that any time soon.

It’s just so much simpler. No confusion. No endless analysis. No frustration at not being able to do something. Just plain, straightforward, and business-friendly pricing plans.

By the way, if your podcast averages 50,000 downloads, that puts you in the top 1% of all podcasts worldwide (according to Income School). See why I love Captivate’s business model?

It’s super simple for 99% of people.

Marketing And Growth Features

One last thing…

Every single podcast hosting platform claims they have marketing features to help you “be seen” and “grow an audience”.

It’s true. They all offer the same basic BS stuff like “analytics” and “websites” and things like that.

But do they really help you grow?

Check this out. Buzzsprout claims to give you a free website to grow your brand. But is THIS REALLY a website?

This looks like an RSS feed with your logo on it.

Is it helpful? Yes. Is it a “website”? No.

Compare that to Kajabi:

Now that looks more like a real website.

Another good example of podcast hosting platforms claiming to offer helpful features without actually offering them is this one with Spotify for Podcasters offers.

Here are the marketing features you get to build your followers…

That’s about as basic as it gets.

Now, compare that to Captivate:

And:

Captivate takes it to the next level by helping you make ads and get more bookings and by giving you a marketplace (coming soon) and email integration.

These are all things you need to consider NOW before you choose a podcast hosting site.

Let me reiterate them quickly before you make a decision, so they’re fresh in your mind:

• Ease of Use: It matters a lot, and not just getting set up. How about creating a website, finding sponsors, and running ads? If a platform lacks a feature or requires an integration, that’s just one more major disadvantage for you (unless it’s MailChimp with Captivate—that’s dead easy and effective).
• Get a Platform You Can Leverage: Forget basic podcast hosting platforms. What else does your host offer? A network of advertisers? A Facebook group? Education? Everyone can host a podcast and distribute a podcast episode to popular podcast directories. It’s all of the extras that count.
• Support Matters—A Lot: It’s the internet. Things will break. When they do, you’ll want an answer. Imagine you’re charging $1,000 for a sponsored ad and your podcast episode won’t upload or the audio is scrambled. Now what? Pay for extra support. It’s worth it.
• Prioritize Marketing and Growth: I put a heavy emphasis on Captivate and Buzzsprout because they make it so easy to grow your podcast. Again, ANYONE can host a podcast and share it to social media platforms or distribute it to podcast platforms. I probably could do that now. It’s all of the growth that really matters. How are you going to find new listeners and generate a full-time income? Any platform that helps with that is head and shoulders above the rest.

The 5 Best Podcast Hosting Platforms of 2023

#1 Captivate – The Best Overall Podcast Hosting Platform For Professional Podcasters

Best For: Pros, big brands, creative agencies, producers and editors

My Take

Captivate is my top podcast host for pro podcasters, producers, and creative agencies. I really wanted to put Buzzsprout here because of the free plan and how dang easy it is but when I really compared them side-by-side, Captivate was just clearly better in every way (other than simplicity).

Captivate not only hosts your pod, it helps you grow a legit full-time income and run a real business. You get all the standard hosting features plus growth features like live Q&As, marketing courses, workshops, and email marketing integrations. So, it’s one part podcast host and one part podcast marketing university. If you’re serious about growing a legit brand, Captivate is your best bet.

Unique Selling Points

• Free courses and workshops for acquiring listeners, running ads, pitching sponsors, and more
• Next-level marketing features like trackable promos, email, and playlists
• Next-level analytics like network stats, episode performance comparison, geographic information, and more
• All features available on all plans plus unlimited storage
• Transcription support for better SEO
• One-click media kits
• Fast and responsive human support plus live chat
• Customizable website features with email plugin, section editing, team bio elements, pinned podcast episodes, and even extra monetization avenues
• Manage multiple shows and client pods
• Run a private podcast

Price: Starting from $17 for 30,000 downloads

Why Captivate is Best For Professional Podcasters And Agencies

It really all comes down to one thing: Captivate is more of a podcast growth service than just a regular podcast host.

No other podcast hosting tool I researched had near this level of marketing features and education.

If you want to grow your own pod, run a podcast network, or do client work, then Captivate was made for you.

The goal of the platform is to give you all the tools you need to start, run, and grow a successful podcast and teach you how to do it.

So, you get all of the standard podcast hosting solutions like:

• Podcast hosting
• Unlimited podcasts
• Distribution
• IAB-certified podcast analytics
• Downloads
• A website
• Marketing
• Monetization tools

But most of their basic features go the extra level beyond what other podcast hosting platforms provide, especially basic competitors like Buzzsprout, Lisbyn, and Podbean.

For example, with Captivate, you can expect:

• Marketing: email opt-in embeds, marketing integrations, etc.
• Podcast Websites: More customization options than the competition, email embed, customer tip monetization, team bios, SEO options, and extra custom layouts (and they’re mobile-friendly, so they’ll look great on a smartphone!).
• Analytics: Customer behavior, link analytics, episode performance and comparison, and trend analysis.

Here’s a good example of what I mean. Captivate’s sites actually have different layouts, so it looks like a real site instead of an RSS feed.

That, and you get access to Captivate Growth Labs. This is a collection of marketing courses and workshops that teach you how to grow and market your business.

So, instead of just hosting your podcast, Captivate helps you:

• Learn how to run ads
• Learn how to grow an audience
• Learn to pitch sponsors
• Learn search engine optimization for podcasts (read the note below for more information)
• Analyze link and episode performance to optimize your business
• Create symbiosis between your website, email list, and podcast
• Build a legit website that doesn’t just look like a basic RSS feed

I think when you combine all the basic hosting features, ease of use, and marketing education, Captivate is clearly the best podcast hosting site.

Let me cover a bit more about the marketing and education, so you can get a feel for why Captivate is the best podcast hosting platform for growing a business.

Captivate Growth Labs

Growth Labs is a continuously expanding library of courses and workshops teaching you all of the most up-to-date podcast marketing techniques. It comes 100% free when you sign up for Captivate.

You’ll learn everything you need to actually grow an audience like:

• Pitching sponsors
• Creating Facebook ads and running campaigns
• Search engine optimization for podcasts (how to rank in Google)
• Repurposing content to bring in listeners from different channels
• How to brand your pod
• Building a coaching program alongside your pod
• Earning more revenue with Patreon

Here’s the part that really struck a chord with me though—it’s also a thriving community of podcast creators with discussions, podcast spotlights, growth challenges, and masterminds hosted by leading podcast experts within the community.

Here’s a good example…

Mark Asquith is the founder of Captivate. He also runs Rebel Base Media out of the UK. He’s grown hundreds of podcasts with his company, and he runs 7 of his own pods.

This guy has been there and done everything with podcasts.

And he sits down and runs Q&A sessions from time to time with Captivate subscribers.

This is the type of guy you want to talk to about marketing. And you can with Captivate. You can literally pick his brain about anything.

It’s really hard to overstate the value of this. On top of getting great podcast hosting with excellent marketing features, you’ll also have:

• A community to bounce ideas off of
• Training materials to teach you how to grow
• Challenges to motivate you to grow
• Likeminded entrepreneurs helping you and keeping you motivated
• Peace of mind knowing that you’re actually doing the right thing, thanks to its great community (because there’s a lot of bad advice out there)

That’s why I think Captivate Growth Labs is such a powerful resource.

Also, setting up your podcast and uploading episodes is fairly straightforward—talk for 40 minutes about something, send it to an editor, and click “upload” when it’s done.

But then what?

How do you get more listeners?

How do you understand analytics and use them to make better business decisions?

How do you run ads without breaking the bank and having nothing to show for it? Where should you promote your podcast? How do you get more sponsors?

With Captivate, you won’t hit any of those roadblocks. It’s not going to do the work for you, but you’ll know everything you need to do to actually build a real business WITHOUT struggling, second-guessing, or wasting money.

No other podcast hosting platform gives you all of the tools you need to grow, shows you exactly how to grow, and plugs you into a thriving growth-minded community.

That’s why Captivate is #1 in my book.

Next-Level Marketing And Growth Features

Here’s something very important that I’ve learned while researching this article: data, measurement, and analysis are literally everything as a podcaster.

These are the 3 pillars of building a full-time income with a pod.

And that’s exactly what Captivate delivers.

With measurable short links, you can create a short, memorable link that’s easily trackable within the platform. So, you can track links like sponsored links, your own product links, and links to other episodes. All of that data is then stored and analyzed within Captivate.

Captivate’s analytics are some of the most in-depth and powerful of any podcast hosting platform. All of this data is right at your fingertips at all times:

Plus, you get granular data like direct episode performance comparison:

And listener behavior:

And promotional performance:

This gives you a 360-degree view of:

• The types of content that perform best
• The promotions that perform best
• Who is listening, where they’re listening from, and how they listen

All of this data can then be used to optimize your business by doubling down on what’s working, and trimming the fat where things aren’t going so well (because you’ll know how to analyze this data from Growth Labs training!).

And lastly, Captivate makes it easier to grow revenue from an email list with AWeber and MailChimp integration:

With this, you’ll be able to add an email capture directly to your website.

From there, you’ll be able to send listeners promotional emails, show reminders, or key takeaways. You can even sell products or offer affiliate products directly in your email.

If you really want to take things to the next level, you can create a weekly or monthly newsletter where you talk about your industry, list new episodes, and sell products.

You can even get companies in your industry to sponsor your newsletter, which could easily bring in a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars per month in extra income.

Podcast Networks

Captivate is also ideal for any agencies or large brands running multiple podcasts. Their podcast network features are pretty much one-of-a-kind.

Mark Asquith runs all of his pods with Captivate and ties them all into a single network with analytics, team members, cross-promotions, and a fully customized network website.

You can even host client sites on their top-tier plan, which is ideal for agencies doing client work.

With Captivate, you can host a client pod and use all of its marketing features to help grow that client’s pod—and it’ll all be in one interconnected network for ease of use, analytics, and team access.

Amy Woods, founder of Content10x (a creative marketing agency), uses Captivate to host and market her client’s podcasts.

The support, marketing features, and ease of client access have saved her countless hours and gotten some amazing results for clients.

The Bottom Line on Captivate

Next-level marketing features, the best podcast growth education, and agency-level network features make Captivate my top pick for anyone serious about growing a podcast. No other podcasting hosting platform has anywhere near this combination of features, support, and education. Add in the community and regular masterminds, and it’s a no-brainer. The only downsides are the slight learning curve and slightly higher price point.

#2) Buzzsprout – Podcast Hosting Made Easy

Best For: Beginners and people on a budget

My Take

Buzzsprout is the simplest, fastest, and most popular podcast hosting platform out there.

It really is podcast hosting made easy.

You can get your podcast online, distributed, downloaded, and monetized quickly—and all for free or relatively cheap. That’s why over 100,000 people use it to run their pods.

You can start small without a learning curve or large investment, start making money, and grow an audience for just a few bucks a month. And all with great support and enough analytics and marketing features to help you grow.

Plus, with their magic audio enhancement, you don’t need super expensive equipment for good-quality audio.

Unique Selling Points

• Simple features and easy-to-use dashboard
• Free—but limited—plan
• Audio enhancement
• Massive network of affiliates, advertisers, and podcasters to help you learn
• Decent support (but not Captivate level)

Why I Recommend Buzzsprout for Beginners and Anyone Looking for an Easy Solution

I spent a lot of time researching Buzzsprout and hearing what real podcasters had to say about it.

Here’s my conclusion:

Buzzsprout is insanely popular because it’s so cheap and easy to get started.

Beginners love the easy dashboard, simple setup, and helpful community. You can be up and running in no time, and most people get started for free. However, you’ll eventually run into limitations.

If you just want a fast, cheap, and easy way to set up a podcast and start cranking out episodes, Buzzsprout is 100% fine. It’s better than that actually. It’s great.

I spoke with Niall Mackay, the founder of the Seven Million Bikes podcast. He said pretty much exactly what I thought he was going to say:

And check out how easy it is to get started.

You just choose “I’m a new podcaster”:

Add a title and description:

Then add some artwork and play around with some settings like category and time zone:

That’s pretty much it. You’re ready to go.

And you can get started for free to check everything out and learn the industry before committing. And, if you want the more advanced features, the basic plan is only $12 per month:

Just know that the free plan DOES NOT include a website and severely restricts your storage limitations.

That’s why my verdict for Buzzsprout is:

If you want to get started quickly, easily, and cheaply, Buzzsprout is for you. You’ll have a pod that’s available everywhere, a website, nice audio, and a thriving community of like-minded podcast show hosts helping you out. You can always upgrade or switch to a new podcast hosting platform later if you get tired of Buzzsprout’s handcuffs.

Just give me a minute to cover a few of the other key features that make Buzzsprout the best podcast hosting platform for beginners.

Magic Mastering – Crisp, Clear Audio on a Budget

This might be the best part about Buzzsprout, especially for new podcast hosts

Normally, you’d need some pretty expensive equipment and high-end editing software to get a perfect-sounding podcast.

But with Buzzsprout’s Magic Mastering, you’ll get close to perfect audio without expensive equipment. If you’re new to the game and don’t have $200+ to invest in a microphone, this is a godsend.

This feature includes things like leveling to keep everyone’s voices at the same level, removing unwanted audio and background noise, and perfect loudness and peak targeting. Long story short, your podcast will sound studio-quality without needing super expensive equipment.

Note: Buzzsprout does charge for this. It starts at $6 per month. That’s NOTHING for this level of audio quality. You can’t get away with poor-quality audio, so this is worth every penny.

The Buzzsprout Dashboard – As Clean And Easy As It Gets

It really doesn’t get much cleaner than this. I love how everything is super simple to access, and everything is very intuitive/straightforward.

You don’t have to be tech-savvy at all to run your podcast with Buzzsprout. That’s the whole idea of the platform. Other platforms like Kajabi or Captivate have a slight learning curve. Buzzsprout is ready to go out of the box without needing to learn a confusing piece of software.

Really nothing much else to be said here. It’s all self-explanatory, in my opinion.

Buzzsprout Marketing and Monetization

Sorry to repeat myself, but this is also as easy as it gets.

Buzzsprout makes marketing and earning money from your pod super simple.

Buzzsprout makes it easy to start advertising your podcast to targeted listeners for relatively cheap.

Buzzsprout Ads is a network of 100,000 Buzzsprout podcasts where you can advertise your show exclusively with other Buzzsprout podcasters within the network.

This is available ONLY to Buzzsprout customers. And it’s a HUGE advantage for getting new listeners, especially in the early stages of your show.

You record a 40-second promo, and Buzzsprout places your ad in other Buzzsprout podcasts within the network that match your audience.

Think about how big of an advantage that is. Instead of running ads on your own and finding the right audience, you get exclusive access to other pre-established podcast audiences.

And it’s only $100 for 5,000 impressions.

And on the flip side, you can run ads for other podcasters in the network to start earning money quickly and easily. If you’ve got an audience, you’ll make money from other podcasters placing their ads with you.

The Bottom Line on Buzzsprout

I can’t stress this enough: Buzzsprout makes starting, growing, and monetizing a podcast as easy as it could possibly be.

It’s dead simple to start a quick website, upload episodes, get perfect audio, and start advertising your pod in-network. It’s also relatively simple to start making money by opting into the Buzzsprout Ads network.

There will eventually be some limitations, and the educational materials aren’t nearly as in-depth as Captivate’s, but if you’re just looking for something quick and easy, Buzzsprout is 100% the best podcast platform out there.

#3) Kajabi – The Best Podcast Hosting Platform For Businesses And Brands

Best For: Big personal brands, influencers, and online businesses

My Take

Kajabi is an all-in-one online business platform for courses, services, coaching, and communities. If you’re a coach, consultant, influencer, or large online business selling products or services, Kajabi is the ideal platform for your entire ecosystem—including a podcast.

Kajabi lets you have a complete website, products, services, app, community, and podcast all in one place. And it includes funnels, marketing, analytics, payment processing, customer relationship management, and even email marketing.

If you just need a podcast, it’s overkill. But if you want to build a complete brand and business, Kajabi is the only platform I recommend.

Unique Selling Points

• Sell products, courses, consulting packages, and services
• Build marketing funnels to bring in more listeners
• Build a complete website with targeted landing pages
• In-depth analytics to improve your business
• Contact management for offering targeted products/services
• Connect your podcast to the rest of your brand

Why I Recommend Kajabi for Online Businesses with a Podcast

Kajabi is an ideal platform for any business, coach, consultant, or influencer that already has an online business and wants to integrate a podcast into their ecosystem.

So, if you plan on starting a podcast to grow your existing brand, or your eventual goal is to have an online business with:

• Physical or digital products
• Courses
• Coaching packages
• An app
• A community

Kajabi is the best podcast hosting platform out there. Bar none.

Instead of having just a podcast, Kajabi empowers you to grow a connected business with the following:

A fully functional website:

Downloadable lead magnets (free products that bring in more leads):

A newsletter:

Digital products:

A blog:

And a podcast:

And the best part is that it’s all in one fully connected ecosystem. That makes it way easier to run, analyze, and grow your business. You won’t need any duct tape, extra subscriptions, or confusing new software. It’s all in one place for one fixed price.

You can even build complete marketing “funnels” with Kajabi. Funnels are a step-by-step sales process where you bring in new customers at the top and slowly guide them towards a sale with a series of different content, pages, and offers. You can do this all within Kajabi without needing more integrations.

As someone who already has a writing course and offers consulting services, Kajabi is a godsend. And most of the serious digital entrepreneurs I know use Kajabi. Having a podcast is just the icing on the cake.

The Bottom Line on Kajabi

Kajabi is ideal for anyone wanting to run a complete online business on one platform. You can have your whole site, app, funnels, blog, and podcast in one place. It’s much, much more than just a podcast hosting platform—it’s an entire business platform. If you just want to have a podcast, then it’s way too much. But if you’re running an online business WITH a podcast, it’s the best platform money can buy.

#4) Podbean – The Best Free Podcast Hosting Platform

Best For: Absolute beginners and anyone just testing the podcasting waters (I hate that cliche)

My Take

Podbean is a free podcast hosting site with the most generous free plan out there.

It’s not much, but other podcast hosting providers don’t offer as much bandwidth, upload hours, or other features as Podbean. When you’re ready to invest money into your pod, you can just migrate to other podcast hosting sites.

Unique Selling Points

• Fully functioning podcast platform that’s totally free
• Website included
• 100GB bandwidth on the free plan
• Basic stats available

Why Podbean Is the Best Free Podcast Hosting Platform

I was tempted to just leave Buzzsprout as the best free podcast hosting platform, but Podbean really surprised me.

Unlike Buzzsprout, Podbean lets you build a podcast website that looks not terrible included in their free plan. That, and you get 5 hours of upload time on the free plan compared to just 2 with Buzzsprout. Hard to argue with that. More hours of podcast time and a free basic website—not too shabby for a free podcast hosting service.

Podbean includes pretty much everything you need to start a pod totally for free. On top of the website and storage, you get:

• Basic analytics
• An embeddable podcast player
• Access to the IOS/Android app
• Podcast distribution

The limitations are pretty strict, though. You won’t get any of the next-level features that you need to grow. For example, the free plan doesn’t give you access to:

• Ads marketplace or Podads dynamic insertion
• Advanced analytics
• A customizable website
• Live chat support

I really don’t recommend Podbean for anything other than starting a free podcast. If you aren’t sure about things and don’t want to start paying every month, Podbean is totally fine. You’ll have pod episodes, a site, and basic stats to see how things are evolving. But that’s it. Once you’re ready to really take things seriously, migrate your pod to one of the top 3 platforms above.

The Bottom Line on Podbean

Podbean is ideal for just testing the waters and seeing if podcasting is for you. You’ll get all of the basics totally for free. If I were you, I’d set up an account, record your first pods, and get a feel for the industry. If you like it, then try Captivate, Buzzsprout, or Kajabi after. You’ve got nothing to lose, so why not?

#5) StreamYard – The Best Video Podcast Hosting Platform

Best for: Anyone streaming recorded video podcasts or live streaming to Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, or elsewhere.

My Take

StreamYard is a simple, affordable, and high-quality video recording and streaming service. It allows you to record video interviews or livestream across multiple platforms at once, all with high-def studio quality.

My favorite thing about StreamYard is how simple they make it to produce high-quality video podcasts with your own branding, user comments, and extras like giveaways.

It takes ZERO tech knowledge to create a video pod and distribute it to major social platforms. I mean, come on, Gary Vaynerchuk uses it. Kind of hard to argue with that!

Unique Selling Points

• Ultra high-quality videos
• Excellent streaming up time
• Easy to stream across multiple platforms at once
• Extra podcast audience engagement like guests on screen and highlighted comments
• Free plan available to get started

Why I Recommend StreamYard as the Best Video Podcast Hosting Platform

StreamYard is the industry standard for video podcasts and the most popular video podcast streaming service.

It’s simple, reliable, and great for audience engagement and branding.

I did a lot of research into video streaming software and spoke with a few podcasters in my network, and they all raved about StreamYard.

My friend and co-host of the Blabbit video pod, Glen Ingram, said StreamYard was perfect for his podcast because it was so simple and easy to organize and distribute:

I was recently at a conference in Manila, Philippines with him, and he loved StreamYard. Here’s what he had to say:

There it is straight from the horse’s mouth…not that he’s a horse or anything. It was just a phrase…Thanks, Glen!

And he’s right. It’s dead easy.

Check this out:

Once you log in, you’ll see Broadcasts and Destinations:

Pretty easy, huh? Just create a broadcast, then select your destinations.

These are all the platforms that you can stream directly to with StreamYard:

That’s what video podcasters will love most about this tool: with just a few clicks, you can stream to multiple destinations at the same time all in 1080p video quality.

But the main reason I had to put StreamYard above Riverside and other video podcasting platforms is the added engagement features for your videos.

StreamYard offers:

• Listener commenting
• Text banners
• Personalized branding
• Private chat

This is game-changing stuff that will help to keep your audience engaged and grow your video pod.

For example, you can add calls to action to all of your videos with a text banner. Say you want to offer a lead magnet like an eBook to your listeners, you can just type something like “get your free eBook here at mysite.com” and it’ll appear onscreen with a clickable link.

Just select “Banners” from the sidebar:

And type in whatever you want to appear on the screen:

That’s it.

The Bottom Line on StreamYard

StreamYard is a simple, powerful, and reliable video podcasting platform with the best audience engagement features of any podcast hosting platform. Just create a broadcast, choose which platforms you want to stream to, and you’re ready to go. If you’re creating a video podcast, it’s 100% the best choice available. By the way, it’s totally free to get started.

The Best Podcast Hosting Platforms: What’s Next?

Hey, still with me?

Thanks for reading this mega-guide on podcast hosting.

I can’t stress how important it is for you as a podcast host to choose the right hosting platform. Without a good one, you won’t be able to run a successful podcast.

Sure, you’ll be featured in Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts, but then what? How will you grow? How will you learn? How will you earn money?

If you’re serious about podcasting beyond just being featured in podcast apps, then hear me out.

To put it all in one easy place, here’s what I went over and, ultimately, recommend:

• Captivate: For people serious about becoming professional podcasters and who want to master marketing to grow a full-time income.
• Buzzsprout: New podcasters and enthusiasts who want the simplest, easiest way to get started.
• Kajabi: For existing brands and businesses who want to add a podcast to their online ecosystem.
• Podbean: For anyone just testing the waters before upgrading to a real hosting tool.
• StreamYard: For video podcasters. It’s really the only option in the podcasting world. Anyone not using it is a step behind.

Editorial Process:

Our reviews are made by a team of experts before being written and come from real-world experience. Read our editorial process here.

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