PodBean Review: An In-Depth Look Into This Very Versatile Podcasting Software
Is PodBean a good choice for your podcast hosting needs?
Podcasts are absolutely becoming more and more popular these days.
The number of podcast listeners has doubled since 2015. Due to the emerging trend of Podcasts, there have been quite a few hosting platforms to create podcasts on popping up.
This is our review of Podbean.
Disclaimer: We may receive a small compensation from some of our partners that we feature. This may influence the products that we write about but it does not influence our unbiased assessment of the product.
The good news is that starting a podcast has really never been easier. And companies like Podbean are striving to make the experience an even easier process.
Their goal is to give you everything that you need to start a podcast with no complicated technology to learn.
This is what makes Podbean stand out a little bit. And that is because it has emerged as a popular podcast hosting platform due to its easy-to-use-interface, and affordable pricing options for podcast creators.
It also has cool and unique features so that you can publish, promote, and monetize your podcast.
In this review, I will walk you through the Podbean Podcast Hosting interface, and I will also review many of the unique features and functionalities.
If you are looking to get more in-depth reviews of other podcast hosting companies, follow the links below
What is Podbean?
Podbean is a podcast publishing hosting platform and monetizing service that provides free and premium hosting packages for businesses and individuals.
It is an all-in-one online platform where users can sign up and start a successful podcast easily from their home or business location.
Their hosting packages are geared for beginners, intermediate and professional podcasters alike.
The flexability of their packages makes their hosting platform a great choice that beginners can grow into.
Podbean offers a very user-friendly interface that works with publishing, syndication, management, and analysis tools to an easy-to-use podcasting package.
No technical knowledge is needed
Podbean also allows all of its users to publish, manage, and promote podcasts with a single click without requiring technical knowledge.
Easily Embed your podcasts onto your website or social platforms
You can also share your podcasts on your websites, blogs, and social networks like Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Youtube, and WordPress with the easy to use embedding tools offered through Podbean.
The Podbean app is a popular app on IOS and Android. You can play podcasts through Amazon Alexa.
Podcasters can also record and publish right from the Podbean app.
All Podbean accounts come with a customizable podcast site, a feed for iTunes, Google Play, (and other platforms), and it it all comes with the ability to integrate itself with other websites.
Features of Podbean
PodBean offers a bunch of robust features
With PodBean, you’ll discover all of the features that you can use to publish, promote, and monetize your podcast.
Let’s examine some of the features that PodBean offers to its podcasters.
1. Podcast Publishing
Podcast Publishing is the most essential features to get your podcast up and running. PodBean gives you all the essential tools that you need for managing a podcast and getting it published live.
Here are six features included with their Podcast Publishing that we really like:
- Easy Publishing
- Unlimited Hosting
- Professional Podcast Website
- Own Domain Integration
- Scheduled Publishing
- Mobile Podcast Publishing
- Easy Publishing
Get started with publishing your podcast without having to go through a huge learning curve. The user-friendly interface makes publishing a podcast as simple as few clicks. - Unlimited Hosting
There are no limits on downloads, episodes, or recording time. You will get flat-rate affordable plans for worry-free podcasting. (Please note that the free hosting plan is limited to 5 hours of storage space). - Professional Podcast Website
Podbean gives you a free podcast website when you sign up. You can choose from a variety of professional themes that you can customize to fit your needs. - Own Domain Integration
With Podbean domain Integration, you can use your own branded domain for your podcast website. - Scheduled Publishing
Schedule publishing allows you to publish conveniently on your timetable and at your convenience. You can upload your video and schedule your episodes to post at designated times. - Mobile Podcast Publishing
With their mobile podcast publishing, you can publish podcast episodes right from your phone without any hassle
2. Distribution and Promotion
Podbean tools help get your podcast in front of all of your potential listeners, helping you to grow your audience. You can distribute and promote your podcast with these six features:
- All Destination Podcast Distribution
- Embedded Players
- Social Media Auto Sharing
- Amazon Alexa
- PodBean App
- Email Integration
- All Destination Podcast Distribution
Quickly get your podcast on all the places people listen to, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify Podcasts, and many other podcast apps. PodBean is a Spotify partner, so you can easily connect to Spotify through the PodBean settings in the PodBean backend. - Embedded Players
In PodBean, you will get professional-looking, customizable players to embed your podcast on your website and blogs. This is areally important and nice touch to share your media elsewhere on the web. - Social Media Auto Sharing
Podbean helps you to automatically post your new podcast episodes to social networks once you connect them with your Podbean account. Another great geature of Podbean is that it also helps you to create audiograms (videos) for you to use on Facebook, Youtube and other platforms. - Amazon Alexa
As you publish a new episode, it will be available on Alexa Devices. - Podbean App
The Podbean App is the most popular podcast apps on Android and IOS. All your new episodes are instantly available in the Podbean apps for Android and IOS. - Email Integration
Collect all email addresses and automatically share your new episodes to your subscribers via Podbean’s exclusive email Integration.
3. Podcast Statistics
Podbean’s comprehensive statistics will give you all of the insights that you need to track how your podcast performs.
Here are six unique features of Podcast Statistics.
- Download and Trends
- Top 10 episodes
- Listener Geographics
- User-Agents
- Downloads by Time of Day
- User Retention
- Download and Trends
Podbean not only provides you download numbers for each episode but also shows you the trends to better understand your audience. - Top 10 episodes
Podbean automatically summarizes all of the download data and presents you with the top 10 episodes for various date ranges. You can quickly identify which episodes get the most listeners which can in turn help you to grow your audience. - Listener Geographics
With Podbeans Geographic statistics, you can see where your listeners come from on the map. Very cool! 🙂 - User-Agents
The User Agents chart tells you which devices and apps your audience uses to get your podcast. The more insights like these that you have, the easier time you will have marketing your podcast. - Downloads by Time of Day
Downloads by the time of day show you which days of the week and at what times your podcast gets the most listens. - User Retention
PodBean provides unique user retention data to let you know how attractive your podcast content is to your listeners.
4. Monetization
Their built-in tools help you with monetization where you can make money from your podcast. You have to choose the monetization methods that fit best for your podcast. The PodBean platform is integrated with an advertising marketplace that offers up some great advertising opportunities.
Here are some ways you can monetize your podcast
- Podcast Advertising Marketplace
- Premium
- Patron
- PodAds
- Podcast Advertising
In the Podcast Advertising Marketplace, you can list your podcasts for free to get matched with potential advertisers. - Premium
With Podbean Premium, you can get paid for Podcast content with your subscription or single-episode sales. - Patron
Patron feature helps your fans to support your podcast with recurring, monthly donations. Podbean lets you publish patrons-only content just like you would any podcast episode. - PodAds
You can use the PodAds SAAS for ads management or to run ads like a pro to try to maximize your revenue.
5. Live Streaming
With the Live Streaming feature, you can expand your podcast with live audio shows and engage your audience in new ways.
- Listener Engagement
- Guest Call In
- Revenue Opportunities
- Listener Engagement
With Podbean live stream, your listeners can send you instant messages and call into your live shows. With this feature, you can interact with your fans on a whole new level. - Guest Call In
You can Invite remote co-hosts or guests to call in from anywhere in the world using the live stream in the free Podbean app. - Revenue Opportunities
You can sell virtual tickets for your live stream and receive virtual gifts from your listeners.
6. Podbean Podcast App
The popular Podbean app has over a million active users. The App provides tools and opportunities to take your podcast further to the next level.
- Podcast Recorder
- Audience Engagement
- Secure Delivery of Premium/Patron Content
- Podcast Recorder
With Podcast editor, you can record, edit, and publish your videos right from your phone. Powerful app recording features include background music, sound effects, and post-production tools. - Audience Engagement
PodBean’s community tools help you engage with your audience and make connections in the app. - Secure Delivery of Premium/Patron Content
The PodBean app seamlessly and securely delivers your premium or patron-only content to the right users.Visit the PodBean website for more information.
PodBean Podcast Pricing
Podbean has affordable and straightforward pricing with no surprises.
All of their plans (except the free plan) come with unlimited storage, bandwidth, and comprehensive podcast stats.
There are four different pricing plans in podcast Hosting that fit best for your needs
- Basic
- Unlimited Audio
- Unlimited Price
- Business
- Basic
The Basic Plan of Podbean is free for all the beginners who are looking to start a podcast. The open plan supports the mp3 file format and provides 5 hours of total storage space. You don’t have to pay anything in the basic plan as it is all free for all podcasters. - Unlimited Audio
The cost of an Unlimited Audio Plan is $14 if you are looking to pay on a month to month basis. This option would end up costing $168 per year. If you pay annually (all together at once) the Unlimited Audio plan costs $108 which comes out to $9 a month. By doing this, you will save 35% by paying annually. If you are just starting out and want unlimited storage space, this is the way to go. - Unlimited Plus
The unlimited Plus Plan costs at $348 if you are looking to pay annually, which comes out to 29$ per month. If you are looking to pay monthly, then the cost will be $39 per month or $468 per year.The only three main differences between the Unlimited Plus plan and the Unlimited Audio plan is…A. You can do video podcasts with the Unlimited plus.
B. You get full custom design abilities.
C. You get access to their PodAds marketplace.The Unlimited Plus Plan is the best choice for video podcasts and podcast monetization.
- Business Plan
The PodBean Business Plan is best for podcast networks and business podcasts. The cost of a Business Plan is $99 per month billed annually which comes out to a total of $1,184 per year. When paying each month, the price is $129 per month which ends up costing $1,548 a year.This plan offers extra features like private podcasting, multiple podcast channels, multiple admins, live chat support and the PodBean Pro App.
PRO’S and CON’S of using PodBean Podcast
PRO’S
- They are very beginner-friendly which allows users to set up and start recording their podcasts quickly.
- You can easily add your favorite episodes to famous podcast apps like iTunes, Spotify or Google Play.
- Even the Free Plan of Podbean helps you to create a free attractive site for your podcast.
- Built-in monetization options.
- Unlimited Bandwith and Storage (on all plans except free).
- PodBean does not own your content.
- User-friendly interface with a neat design.
CON’S
- Only offers live chat support on their most expensive business plan
- It Does not contain any backup feature
- The refund period of Podbean is limited.
- Podbean offers its PodAds Marketplace to monetize your podcasts on their two top plans only.
- You have to pay for the most expensive plan to remove the PodBean branding.
Check our the PodBean website and decide for yourself.
Podbean’s Advanced Podcasting Features
Podbean has a few premium features on its higher-tier plans
1. Video Podcast
Besides creating audio for your podcast episodes, video podcasting is also available on Podbean. To get access to Video Podcast, you need to be on the PodBean Unlimited Plus Plan or higher-tier to access it .
With Podbean, you can create professional podcasts in minutes without any programming knowledge. Best of all, everything is mobile-ready right from the start.
2. Private Podcasting
Podbean offers a user-friendly interface that integrates publishing, analysis, user management, and mobile apps into an easy-to-use podcasting package. Now any organization or enterprise can launch a successful private podcast program quickly and easily.
3. Premium Podcasting
With Podbean Premium Content, Podbean offers four exclusive features
- Completely Customizable
- Unlimited Premium Channels
- Sell More
- Easy Secure Access
- Completely Customizable
Everything can be set up and managed intuitively from your PodBean dashboard. You pick which content to monetize, how to sell it, and set pricing for an ongoing series of episodes, for a complete season/course/package. - Unlimited Premium Channels
You can create and sell as much premium content as you want. No costs for storage or downloads; fees are only taken as a percentage of your sales. - Sell More
Buyers spend 20% more on in-app purchases. The Podbean Premium platform helps you maximize this opportunity and convert listeners into buyers. - Easy Secure Access
Take advantage of “in the moment” purchasing power: listeners can purchase content in a couple of clicks when they’re listening in the PodBean app. They can securely access purchased content via the PodBean app or online for convenient listening anytime.
4. Podbean Patron Program
PodBean also runs its version of Patreon that lets you collect recurring revenue from your listeners. It enables the “Be a patron” button on the PodBean app so that you can gather ongoing financial support. For setting up the crowdfunding page, you’ll need to submit your podcast feed URL. For this feature, you’ll need to need to be on the Podbean Unlimited Plus plan or the Business plan.
FAQ
1. Is Podbean really free?
Yes, Podbean does offer a free podcast hosting service. It is limited to 5 hours of total storage space. It is also limited to 3 episodes per day and the maximum file size is 100 MB.
2. Does Podbean own your content?
No, Podbean only hosts your content.
3. Can I get my podcast on Apple Podcasts?
Yes. Simply publish your podcast, fill out your Apple account information on your feed and then submit your feed to Apple Podcasts.
PodBean Review Summary
If you are looking to start a podcast, you should definitely consider Podbean. It comes as a complete package with a lot of features. It has a small learning curve, offers an easy comforting setup, and besides hosting, it is a great tool to get your podcast to run flexibly and hassle-free.
Podbean allows you to create professional podcasts within minutes without any need for technical knowledge. It gives you a variety of unique themes to choose from that will help you to customize your domain and website to your liking
Overall I am delighted with this product, and I would recommend it to all the new podcasters. If you are looking to start with Podbean, give it a free shot by selecting the Basic Plan free. It will help you to know what Podbean is all about and how it works.