Breaking Down Podcast & Site Hosting Options
After almost two years of podcasting one of the more common question we get is around what we use for hosting our podcasts. As with most thing that answer is changing now in 2019 and likely in the future. So while our setup may or may not work for you we highly suggest you dig into the write up below and give a listen to the episode.
Podcast Hosting Questions
Things to ask when you are starting your podcast or looking to compare podcast hosting solutions, offerings, and overall podcast hosting options:
- How often will you podcast – daily, weekly, monthly?
- How long will your podcast be?
- How many hosts will you have?
- Do you have a domain?
- Do you want to host it on a site/folder or its own domain?
- Does ad insertion and ads in general matter?
- How many plays do you have or expect?
- What bandwidth do you require or expect to need?
- Do you need players for 3rd party sites?
- Do you need a way to plug into a WordPress site?
- How much do podcast stats matter to you?
- What do you want to spend monthly on hosting?
- Business goals
- Pros and Cons for the hosting type, specific provider
Breaking Down Podcast & Site Hosting Options
So what does The Business of Digital currently use? We use our web host to host the podcast files and leverage a series of plugins from Seriously Simple. There are many sites like say Anchor.fm that force you to create a “about me” page and that is your “website”. If you want to have full control over the site, have limits or need your own site – there are certain solutions that may make sense and some that don’t.
Podcast Hosting Types
To further break out the three types above and that we discussed on the episode here are the ways we see them:
- Self hosting with Traditional Web Hosting Provider
- Using a Podcast Hosting Provider
- Using a file hosting company like AWS or Soundcloud (SC actually fits into many provider types)
Popular Podcast Options
While there are many out there worthy of being on a short list, for what we are looking at, need, and what fits some of our own goals here is our short list: Podbean, Blubrry, Libsyn and Buzzsprout. At time of press for this episode we are exploring these and others vs current web host solution and still have a fair amount of research to do but it is fairly likely we will end up with one of these solutions at some point in 2019.
We STRONGLY suggest you look at all providers and find your own short list that matches your own needs.
Podcast Hosting Costs
The million dollar question, or in this case the Free to $20 question is how much is hosting my podcast going to cost? The answer is – it depends. But there are some typical ranges that you will find:
- Starter – Free to around $6 for entry. This gets you started but often limits the uploads, files and such.
- Entry – $6 to $12 – still some limits here but you start to get some good stat options
- Middle – this range is $12-20 and once you get going or if stats and ad insertion really matter this is likely your range.
- Heavy Hitter – there is quite a jump to $29-50 (and quickly goes higher) and honestly if you are here reading about Podcast Hosting 101 we want to know how you lasted on lower tiers for so long!
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