Best Podcast Hosting Services in 2025: A Complete Guide

So you've decided to become a podcaster - you have the equipment, you have the script, you're ready to record. And then what? To actually deliver recorded episodes to your audience, you're going to need podcast hosting. While you could technically try to host the podcast on your own website, you'll quickly run out of storage with how much storage space good quality podcasts take.

The upkeep costs of infrastructure needed to host such amounts of data - and with good performance - would most often far outgrow regular podcast hosting.

What is podcast hosting and what are the best podcast hosting sites to use? That's exactly what we're here today to find out.

What exactly is podcast hosting?

You need some sort of hosting to launch your podcast - we've already established that. Podcast hosting sites offer hosting services, giving you access to potentially unlimited storage space, often at a set price. Most services, however, allow you to create a free account with limited storage space, giving you some room to start before you'll run out of space and have to upgrade your account.

There are several reasons to use a podcast hosting service. First of all - as we already mentioned - it's expensive to host a podcast on your own website. As you upload more and more episodes, your storage needs will increase, and so you'll have to expand your infrastructure time after time. It's not only expensive, but also time-consuming to manage everything on your own.

Self-hosting also won't give you easy access to the hundreds of millions of podcast listeners that make use of platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Google Podcasts. Podcast hosting services provide a ready-made podcast RSS feed that's submitted to streaming platforms - in addition to a range of tools that can be used to easily create and grow your podcast.

Doing all of that on your own is possible, but time-consuming and resource heavy, and promoting your podcast through your own website won't be easy, as you'll have to first direct your listeners to that website - it's a long and complicated process, which you can pretty much skip by using a hosting service.

Podcast hosting companies have years of experience and massive infrastructure for data and media storage, and provide listeners with an easy-to-use app that's intuitive and offers access to millions of podcasts. Using their services, you get plenty of storage, guaranteed performance, and easy access to a growing audience. When used in combination with analytic tools like Hintech, which give you access to ready-made statistics to consider in your podcasting strategy, you can easily keep up with the latest podcasting trends and keep your audience growing.

Can you find podcast hosting for free?

Yes! Many podcast hosting services offer either a trial premium account, a limited free account, or both.

If you want to avoid paying money upfront for something you're not sure will catch on, sites that offer free accounts are the perfect way to start. Once you'll upload a couple of episodes, you'll see how the listeners will react (of course, it might take a while to get the attention of an audience). When you reach your storage space limit, you'll decide if you want to upgrade and continue.

If you're planning on releasing daily episodes, you'll very quickly hit the storage space limit of a free account. If that's the case, a premium account trial might be better for you - you'll get access to unlimited storage space, but for a limited time only. There's a catch, however - if you still want access to your storage after the trial is over, you'll have to purchase a subscription.

On average, podcast hosting won't cost you more than $20 a month when you're just beginning - that price can of course increase with time, as you upload more and more episodes. Depending on your storage space, total episode length, or bandwidth, your specific pricing for a podcast hosting service might change.

The 5 Best Podcast Hosting Services

There are tons of options available when searching for podcast hosting services - let's compare the most reliable available companies and see which one offers the best tools, support, and pricing:

1. Buzzsprout

If you're just starting out and don't have much technical knowledge of media hosting and RSS feeds, Buzzsprout will be perfect for you. It is one of the easiest to use and most approachable podcast hosting services available, and has over 10 years of experience in providing high-quality hosting at a very reasonable price.

All you have to do to have your podcast ready for publication is upload the file - Buzzsprout takes care of all the rest, and then self-submits each episode to selected podcast platforms like Apple Podcasts or Spotify. With just a few clicks, you can have your recorded podcast available to hundreds of millions of listeners.

If you're running your own website on WordPress and want your podcasts to be directly playable, Buzzsprout provides a free WordPress plugin that makes embedding simple and straightforward. You can even have Buzzsprout make you a website from scratch - at a price, of course.

You can get a free limited plan for 90 days, after which plans start at $12 a month.

2. Podbean

In contrast to Buzzsprout, PodBean offers plans with unlimited storage and bandwidth. It's also intuitive and easy to use, and provides a range of tools to use when creating your podcast's website. Similarly to Buzzsprout, Podbean also allows automatic uploads to multiple podcast directories.

What's unique about Podbean is its advertising marketplace, giving content creators the opportunity to make money on their podcasts with ease.

Podbean offers a free plan with limited storage but no time limit, and plans with unlimited storage space start at $9 a month - very money-efficient.

3. Libsyn

Libsyn is well-known for hosting a range of high-profile podcasts like The Joe Rogan Experience. It's also the oldest podcast hosting service, with over 18 years of experience.

The advantage of Libsyn is its access to literally hundreds of podcast directories which most other companies don't support. This makes Libsyn great for growing your audience, as your podcasts will be available to listen on many more websites and applications.

Unfortunately, Libsyn is quite expensive. You get unlimited bandwidth, but space storage is limited - you can receive 50MB of storage a month for $5, which isn't much.

4. SoundCloud

Filled with self-made musicians and all kinds of content creators, SoundCloud is one of the largest players in the streaming industry. Millions of users use SoundCloud for listening to podcasts, giving you easy access to immediate audience, even without using external directories.

SoundCloud is reliable and easy to use, and provides a host of useful tools. For free, you get 3 hours of upload time and access to basic functionality. SoundCloud Pro is available for $90 a year.

5. RSS.com

RSS.com is minimalistic, simple, and effective. They also offer great customer support and additional functionality for finding sponsors, making monetization much easier.

The company offers simple pricing plans - the educational plan, which costs $4.99 a month but is only available to teachers and students, and the RSS Podcast Plan, which costs $12.99 a month, but offers unlimited storage.

There's also some scheduling, social media integration, and analytics tools available for users. Overall, it's a great platform if you want to grow your audience quickly. You can also receive a free website with your plan, but it's extremely limited and only offers a list of episodes.