I love podcasts. They are your daily company and help you pass the time when cleaning the house or driving to work. There’s something effortless about them.
That’s just one of the reasons why podcasts are such a great way to connect to your audience and turn cold traffic into warm traffic.
And doing a podcast doesn’t have to be hard. Think about it, like chatting on the phone with a friend in your living room, you don’t even have to dress up.
The trickiest part for some might be the hosting, distribution and payment management. But that’s also easily fixed with a good podcast hosting platform.
Today, in this post, we’ll review two of the most popular ones: Blubrry and Podbean. Let’s get to it, shall we?
Podbean VS Blubrry
Blubrry
Blubrry Podcasting was established in 2005 and now helps more than 100,000 podcasters with hosting, distribution and audience statistics, among other tools.
Founded by Todd Cochrane, it has headquarters in Columbus, Ohio and more than 80 employees.
Podbean
Podbean was born ten years later, in 2015. Since then, they have been chosen by more than 740k podcasters worldwide.
They offer some unique features such as the podcast live stream and Podbean AI.
Key features
Website and podcast player
A custom WordPress blog for your podcast is included in all of Blubrry’s plans, giving your podcast an outstanding online presence. Blubrry also has the option to publish on its website but encourages users to have their own.
The Powerpress plugin is one of Blubrry’s key features. Once it’s set up, you can write your blog post and upload your media without ever coming back to Blubrry. It manages various chores such as channel listing, SEO, migration and imports and inserting the audio player.
The player has many options like subscribe, share, skip forward and back, change playback speed, and more.
Podbean used to offer a WordPress plugin that lets you embed a player on your site. But after not being updated for over 2 years, it’s no longer available.
Its podcast player, an HTML5 player, works on desktops, smartphones and tablets and is also flash compatible.
Artificial intelligence
Podbean and Blubrry have both stayed updated with the AI trend of the last few years.
Blubrry has its Podcast AI Assistant, an all-in-one solution powered by leading-edge artificial intelligence. The AI does several things for you, from providing tailored suggestions for topics and scripting to crafting platform-specific promotional content.
In the future, a clip creator will be available and it will create reels and video clips for all social media platforms with multiple templates and overlay editors.
Podbean AI, although also generates titles and descriptions, goes way beyond the content aspect of your podcast. It handles audio optimization. I’m talking about noise reduction, intelligent levelers and more.
Another advantage of these types of tools is they work for non-English podcasts.
Live Stream
Most of the time, podcasts are recorded and live stream is reserved for video content on YouTube, Twitch or TikTok. However, Podbean invites users to explore the road less traveled and try live audio streaming to engage with their audiences in a new way.
If you use this feature, you’ll be able to take listener calls and get real-time comments. It’s also great for monetization, since you can receive virtual gifts from your audience and earn recurring income from your Fan Club membership.
Sadly, Blubrry is a bit more old-fashioned and it doesn’t offer live-streaming.
Monetization
As we mentioned earlier, podcasts are a fantastic step inside your sales funnel to build an audience and attract new customers. People then usually go to your website and purchase what you’re selling.
However, you can also use the opportunity to monetize the podcast itself.
Podbean, for example, offers built-in tools including Patron, PodAds and a Podcast Advertising Marketplace. The marketplace gives you control over what type of ads appear in your podcast and at what time slots.
Blubrry also offers a monetization tool, Premium Podcasting, but only as an add-on to your plan. You can get it for an additional $10 a month plus 15% of monthly subscription revenue.
Premium Podcasting allows you to offer bonus episodes, early release of content, ad-free episodes, and much more. You’ll be able to create custom podcast feeds with authentication handled by a username and password.
Finally, both Podbean and Blubrry have Dynamic Ad Insertion.
Analytics
Blubrry has top-notch analytics in all of their plans and advanced statistics in their Pro plan. It is the first company to be IAB Certified Compliant with Podcast Measurement Guidelines, so they know what they are doing.
You can find out what device or platform your audiences are listening on, who is linking to you, detailed listener demographics and geographical data with worldwide mapping. Blubrry also has play tracking as part of its Advanced Statistics so you can see if listeners are consistently skipping over a certain segment. What’s even greater is that Blubrry offers free statistics too.
Podbean’s statistic reports include downloads and trending graphs, listener geographies, download numbers, and also top 10 episodes. They are fine but can’t compete with Blubrry’s advanced analytics.
Other features
Blubrry offers free statistics for anyone, you don’t need to have a hosting subscription to access them. The statistics are IAB Certified and display total plays, country or region, and more.
And both Podbean and Blubrry have mobile apps for iOS and Android.
Support and resources
There are plenty of ways to get in touch with Blubrry’s support people to answer your doubts: email, phone or video call. And if you have the time and don’t want to contact anyone, Blubrry has a lot of free resources and guides to help you start both in the world of podcasts.
Podbean has a support center, an Academy, free webinars and a frequently updated YouTube channel.
You can contact Podbean’s support via email or by filling out a customer support form.
Pricing
Podbean offers four plans:
- Basic: free. It provides 5 hours total storage space (500MB) and 100GB monthly bandwidth.
- Unlimited Audio: $9 per month if billed annually. Get unlimited storage space and bandwidth.
- Unlimited Plus: $29 per month. Access the Patreon Program feature.
- Network: $79 per month. Get unlimited podcast channels.
Blubrry doesn’t offer a free plan, but you do get a free trial for one month of one of its two lower plans:
- Standard Hosting: $12 per month. It includes unlimited downloads and listens, as well as standard statistics.
- Advanced Hosting: $20 per month. Access advanced statistics and Apple Premium Episode publishing.
- Professional Hosting: $100 per month. You will get 1 TB of bandwidth, Dynamic Ad Insertion and private podcasting.
Podbean Pros and Cons
Pros
One of the main Podbean pros is its free plan, which makes it easy for beginners to start diving their noses into this new world. Moreover, even the premium plans remain more accessible than Blubrry’s.
Another cool thing about Podbean is you can livestream your podcast and use the AI tool for multiple things, not just coming up with ideas.
Cons
Podbean lacks some podcast player features and advanced analytics.
Blubrry Pros and Cons
Pros
Blubrry is much more prepared for established businesses and big companies.
Inside its Professional Podcast Hosting option, you’ll be able to build a network, so your audience can enjoy all the shows your network has to offer. Add any show part of your Pro Hosting plan or shows hosted with any hosting company.
And let’s not forget Blubrry’s advanced analytics and monetization options.
Cons
Although Blubrry has put a lot of work into staying in tune with changes throughout the years, they lack some cool and modern features available on Podbean, such as a Patreon integration and more AI features.
Verdict
Starting a podcast has never been easier. Podbean and Blubrry are two great podcast hosting platforms that will even help you come up with ideas for your content.
However, which one is the best for you?
Well, the choice it’s hard but all in all, it seems that Blubrry has managed to stay more than relevant throughout the decades and it’s the better option. It has tons of learning resources, a free trial and advanced analytics.
What about you?
Which one do you choose?
Tell us in the comments!
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