Where to Host Your Podcast For Free? The 2 Best Solutions
Starting your very own podcast can be a lot of work, but it can also be a lot of fun! Podcasting allows you a massive amount of freedom, and you can find whatever niche interests you the most. Once you decide you are ready to host a podcast, one of the first major decisions you will be faced with is where do you want to upload it to. There are dozens of places that will allow you to record and upload your podcast.
Some of these services can cost upwards of $100 a year, while others are completely free. If you are just starting, you will almost certainly want to pursue one of the free options. Here, I will outline a couple of the best options for websites where to host your podcast for free and on which you might get your podcast to grow.
But first, you need to learn about podcast accessories. It is impossible to record a podcast without microphones. They need as many as people say in the podcast. It is important to understand that content is more important in podcasts than the cost of a microphone and a sound card. Therefore, the initial recommendations are either not to buy additional equipment at all, or to invest in microphones of the initial cost.
Accordingly, it would be appropriate at first to host a podcast for free, and spend the income on improving the equipment and the quality of the content produced.
Podbean: Free Podcast Hosting
Podbean is one of the larger and most well-known sites for hosting podcasts. It offers a wide range of tools and features that are great for podcasters that are just starting.
Some of the most helpful features include options to transfer audio files from a third-party source, a large built-in audience, and an app that is great for recording straight from your mobile device. In addition to being a good place to begin, podbean will help you scale your podcast as you get a larger audience. They help provide the tools and the support you need to grow and will be with you every step of the way.
The only real negatives to podbean is that under the free version, you are only allowed 5 hours of storage, and you are unable to monetize your podcast. The five hours of storage is quite limiting, but the monetization is not too important for a brand new podcast anyway so that one is less of a big deal. However, if those sound like deal breakers you may want to look at Anchor.
Anchor.fm
Anchor is pretty new to the scene and does admittedly come with some unknowns. The site claims to be 100% free and has none of the storage restrictions found on podbean or other sites.
In addition to this, Anchor provides the resources to let you monetize on their site right away. Anchor also allows you to import recordings from other sources (including mobile devices) which helps make Anchor accessible. The benefits of Anchor are apparent for beginners, though the downside is that as you scale, it may be hard to stay on the site.
Anchor does not provide the same support and tools to grow with, and as such may only serve as a starting point for your podcast, and not as a permanent solution.
Anchor provides podcast analytics, starting with the global number of listeners of your podcast, your regular listeners, and the money you made in case you activated the podcast sponsorship option.
There are two ways of earning money online with your podcast on Anchor.fm either by activating the sponsorship, in which case you'll have to wait for a potential sponsor to offer to pay you to be featured, and you'll have to record a short 30 seconds audio add that will be included in your podcasts episodes, or at least in the ones for which you've activated the sponsorship.
The second way of getting money for your podcast creations through anchor.com is to activate the listeners support, that will allow your listeners to donate you money to continue your work through the Stripe payment system.
The next analytics are the listeners geographic locations, and the platforms on which they listened to your podcast.
This data is actually agregated from the other platforms on which Anchor.fm automatically shares your podcast, which will depends on the other platforms acceptance. For example, my podcast has been shared on the following platforms:
- My podcast International Consulting on Anchor.fm
- My podcast International Consulting on Breaker
- My podcast International Consulting on Google Podcasts
- My podcast International Consulting on Pocket Casts
- My podcast International Consulting on Radio Public
- My podcast International Consulting on Spotify
The platform also shares podcasts on Apple podcasts, but the latest has the hardest verification procedures and might be complicated to get in.
Summary: Where to host your podcast for free
While these two are some of the best options where to host your podcast for free, they are by no means the only options. The best thing to do is decide on what your priorities are, and choose the best service for your needs. The best thing to do is to look at the features being offered by each site, and try it out for yourself!
After having selected where to host your podcast for free and once you’ll be ready to start recording, make sure to create an open source jingle that you will use to create your podcast audio identity, simply by managing to play music during recording at the beginning of your recording. Get ready to podcast and share it with the world!