Podcast Hosting and Distribution Comparison Report

What a good one includes

• A clear breakdown of monthly and annual pricing tiers, including hidden costs like bandwidth overages, storage limits, and extra seat fees.
• An assessment of distribution reach, verifying which directories are automated and which require manual submission.
• A deep dive into analytics capabilities, specifically highlighting whether the platform is IAB-certified for accurate sponsor reporting.
• An evaluation of monetization features, such as built-in programmatic advertising, premium subscription paywalls, and dynamic ad insertion.
• A migration feasibility score for each platform, outlining the complexity, downtime risk, and potential costs of transferring an existing feed.
• A review of website integrations and player customizability to ensure the embedded audio matches your brand's aesthetic.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Choosing a platform based solely on free or cheap entry-tier pricing without calculating how costs scale as listener downloads grow.
• Overlooking RSS feed ownership terms, which can lock you into a platform and make migrating your show to a competitor incredibly difficult.
• Ignoring IAB compliance in analytics, resulting in inflated download numbers that sponsors will reject during advertising negotiations.
• Failing to check if the host supports dynamic audio insertion, forcing you to hardcode ads into your episodes permanently.

Frequently asked questions