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24 Comments

Which Podcast Hosts do you prefer and why?

So, it's time for me to upload my first episode somewhere.

Which podcasts host do you prefer and why?

Thank you all for your input!

  1. 2

    I'm the Founder of Megafono, a podcast hosting for Brazilian producers.

    My recommendation for you is the Transistor (https://www.indiehackers.com/product/transistor) from the indie hackers @mijustin and @jonbuda, because It's friendly interface and I, as a podcast hosting founder, trust in the way there are building a podcast hosting.

    1. 1

      Thanks for recommending us @emersonalmeida. 👍

      👋 @Madamdo one of the big differentiators with Transistor.fm is we don't charge you extra for creating new podcasts. Almost all of the other providers charge you when decide you want to create an additional show.

      Here's a demo video:

      https://youtu.be/hUugNVgsXvk

      1. 1

        Loved seeing your SaaS stats in that video. Consistent 30-day downloads, and oh man, what a grand total number! Props on starting it early and keeping a consistent cadence.

  2. 1

    Pinecast is free for up to three podcast shows, it's indie hacker-run by an ex-Stripe and I've been happy with the UX.

  3. 1

    I host one of my podcasts with Simplecast.com, and have been with them for a few years. The tools are just like any other tools, but their support team is phenomenal and will always respond within 24 hours and help you along.

    That said, it's hard for me to advise against Anchor.fm because they have all the tools, and now they have all the money too. They can offer hosting for free, for a very long time.

    Truth is, podcast hosting is dirt cheap. Most of us don't have 1M followers, so for every $20 you're paying for hosting, it is costing them 20 cents. ¯\(ツ)

    Pick your favorite podcast team and invest in their success, that's my best advice.

    1. 2

      It's not so truth than "podcast hosting is dirt cheap", the storage can be cheap, but delivery the audios/videos is expensive.

      1. 1

        It's not just truth, it's a fact. Hosting is basically free.

        Take Amazon S3 pricing for example:

        storage - $0.023 per GB
        delivery - $0.0000004 per request + $0.0007 per GB

        All gets cheaper with volume.

        If your average episode is 100MB and you have 100 episodes, with 10,000 listeners per episode, that will cost you a $1 to both store, and to deliver. Most podcasts won't have this many episodes, or this many listeners.

        You have to be Michael Jackson level popular for this pricing to even begin to have an effect of any kind.

        1. 1

          Amazon prices egress bandwidth ridiculously expensively. I wouldn't go with them for a media server.

          The fact that it's doable with them just goes to show how cheap audio streaming is these days.

        2. 1

          It's price seems wrong man, I don't know how much you know about how the Amazon S3 works but take a look.

          About the storage price($0.023 per GB) it's correct, dirt cheap.

          About the delivery, I don't know where you found the price $0.0000004 per request, I'll use the AWS S3 pricing page(https://aws.amazon.com/s3/pricing) as reference, maybe you are using the "GET, SELECT and all other Requests" price but with more 3 zeros after the coma, the correct is $0.0004, this price is about http requests to AWS S3 API, it's not about the requests to your file, it's not about delivery file, with $0.0007 per GB maybe you are using the "Data Returned by S3 Select" price, the S3 Select feature to you make query in S3 (https://aws.amazon.com/s3/features/#Query_in_place) it's not about delivery too.

          If your average episode is 100MB and you have 100 episodes, with 10,000 listeners per episode, you have 100 megabytes * 100 = 10 gigabytes in storage just $0.23, let's get just one episode download, 10000 * 100 megabytes = 1 terabyte, as the listeners are out of the AWS network, we should use "Data Transfer OUT From Amazon S3 To Internet" price, $0.09 per GB, with that 999 GB * 0.09 = $89.91, it's not so cheap man, this is just 1 episode with 10000, maybe you can get a better price using Cloudfront, but will not make the price cheap, and this is a basic calculation, you'll have another costs given you are in another AWS region.

          You don't have to be the Michael Jackson, you just need make the calculation correct.

          If you have a cheap solution to podcast delivery, please tell me, I'm the founder of Megafono, a podcast platform and the delivery costs is painful.

          1. 1

            You are right, I did not take Transfer Out pricing in account, so it does get more expensive once your show gets popular.

            How much do Megafono customers cost to deliver, on average, vs how much do you charge them?

            Have you tried helping them shrink the file size? Most new podcasters literally don't know they don't need to deliver Grammy-quality audio. Do you optimize their audio on export?

            Besides obviously missing the elephant in the room, I do like this question because if a cheap solution isn't available yet, it should. It's just the matter of how, and whoever solves the question first, will end up taking up all the users.

            1. 1

              How much do Megafono customers cost to deliver, on average, vs how much do you charge them?

              I need calm down and take this numbers clear for me, I know in the end of month the bills will be paid, but my profit is not so great.

              Have you tried helping them shrink the file size? Most new podcasters literally don't know they don't need to deliver Grammy-quality audio. Do you optimize their audio on export?

              I don't optimize the audios, this is "rule" in podcast hosting about "don't touch in the producers files".

            2. 1

              p.s. Btw, if transfers out are expensive, why do we still insist on direct downloads? I mean, as a host, do you get anything out if it but analytics?

              Wouldn't you rather send that file once to Apple , Spotify ..etc., let them all cache it, and be done, so long as you could get some analytics data back from those services?

              1. 1

                I believe no one podcast host today are doing direct download, all service use a CDN or something like a super cache in front of the files. This is cheaper than a simple s3 solution but still expensive.

                About the analytics the hosts put a analytics service on front the CDN.

                [podcast app] --- request the mp3 ---> [count download (analytics service)] ---> [cdn]

              2. 1

                Ideally yes, that would be nice if the those platforms sent back the data and was open, but they are not. All of them are closed ecosystems.

                Either way, someone has to eat the cost.

          2. 1

            Thank you for this lol. Someone who knows their stuff. People do not know that podcast hosting can cost a lot as shows get bigger.

            Thanks for doing your homework lol

    2. 1

      Thanks for your take on it.

  4. 1

    Hey @Madamdo, i'm pretty biased here but I would love to introduce you to my podcast platform (https://audiostaq.com). As a fellow Indie Hacker, i'd love to help with your podcast journey even if you don't choose us.

    It depends on what you are looking for, there are free options like Anchor which is the new hotness right now but limited features. You have legacy platform like Libsyn which have proven to get the job done but become pretty bloated for newcomers.

    I've never used Pincast, but i hear great things about Transistor. They are pretty dope group of dudes.

    We are pretty hands on with new podcasters and like to engage with them through the process. This is important for us to learn every step of the journey and create the best customer experience.

    Anyway, let me know or email me at gabriel[at]audiostaq.com

    1. 1

      Thanks for the answer. I just looked at your website. Looks great. I couldn't find any prices though. I'll drop you an email.

      1. 1

        Sent you an email! Also here is the link https://audiostaq.com/pricing

        1. 1

          Yes, thank you! I have replied.

  5. 1

    I like Pinecast. It's easy to use, the (coincidentally ex-Stripe engineer) founder who runs it is a bootstrapper and has good insight into what we need, the price is right and the support is excellent.

    1. 1

      Thanks a lot for sharing your experience.

      I'll look into that. Now, I remember you told me about it one month ago 😄

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