Nowadays, podcasters can easily win new audiences thanks to their access to amazing platforms that continuously upgrade their technologies.
If you’re a budding podcaster looking to share interesting content with people, then you ought to be using the greatest podcast hosting platform of all. But which one is that: Buzzsprout or Captivate?
Who Wins Buzzsprout or Captivate
Here is a quick overview of the features available or not depending on which hosting platform works best for your podcast.
Feature | Buzzsprout | Captivate |
---|---|---|
User Interface | ✅ | ✅ |
Setup Ease | ✅ | ✅ |
Navigation | ✅ | ✅ |
Free Plan | ✅ | ❌ |
Lowest Paid Plan | $12/month | $19/month or $17/year |
Highest Paid Plan | $24/month | $99/month or $90/year |
Major Directories | ✅ | ✅ |
Automatic Distribution | ✅ | ✅ |
Affiliate Marketplace | ✅ | ℹ️ (Not Specified) |
Monetization Guides | ❌ | ✅ |
Dashboard Stats | ✅ | ✅ |
Detailed Analysis | ✅ | ✅ |
Website Building Platforms | ✅ | ✅ |
Hours of Uploads | Varies by plan | 🚀 Unlimited |
Extra Hours Cost | Varies by plan | N/A |
Customer Service | ✅ | ✅ |
Community Group | ✅ | ✅ |
Free Website | ✅ | ✅ |
Auto-Transcription | ✅ | Only Support |
Unrestricted Collaboration | ❌ | ✅ |
Buzzsprout
Buzzsprout (see also our comparison of Buzzsprout and Castos) is among the most popular podcast hosting platforms currently available. It can be used to host and store any podcast episode.
Moreover, by using Buzzsprout’s audience analytics tools and insights you can gain valuable knowledge that can help you with growing your podcast revenue and get better at marketing your work.
The platform went live in 2009 and is still expanding to this day.
Apart from being an excellent podcast hosting platform, it also excels at RSS feed maintenance, secure hosting, and seamless social media integration.
Free Website
When you work in the podcast industry, you need more than just a podcast hosting platform. You must also have a website where visitors can try out your podcasts.
Specifically, Buzzsprout can provide you with a free website to promote your podcast episodes. By directing your listeners to this professional site, you can significantly raise your podcasting funds.
Your website can also lead visitors to their favorite directories, such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify (see also ‘How Many Users Does Spotify Have Vs. Apple Music?‘).
In the meantime, keep in mind that the free website is just a standard landing page to get your business going.
If you wish to upgrade your podcast site, you can use a specialized website building platform such as Weebly, Wix, or WordPress.
Buzzsprout also includes a plugin for integrating podcast episodes. The plugin allows you to create posts that advertise your podcast episodes.
Monetization
Buzzsprout is ideal if you are a hobbyist or professional podcaster. The platform may offer an affiliate marketplace through which you can link up with specialized affiliate marketing programs.
Join an affiliate initiative by going to the ‘Resources’ section on the dashboard. You can use this to work collaboratively on brands such as Allswell, Instacart, and others.
Once you have received the necessary approvals, the system adds the affiliate links to the appropriate links in the episode notes.
This means that users of any platform can reach your podcasts. These links are also always effective and waiting to bring you money in.
Auto-Transcription
To significantly boost the number of listeners you have, make sure your content is searchable on search engines.
Transcribing all of your content is one of the smartest things you can do to increase your chances of getting noticed by search engines.
Buzzsprout offers automatic transcription services. Because Buzzsprout sends your file types to Temi, an automated transcription platform, your content can be transcribed.
Once the task is finalized, you will receive an email containing the full transcription text.
Dashboard-Based Stats
Buzzsprout’s dashboard is practical, tidy, and has an easy-to-use interface.
It is the central location from which you access information on critical metrics such as listener statistical and geographical data, download quantity, and so on.
The data are ordered by the most recent episodes first, followed by the most famous episodes. You can get a detailed analysis of the effectiveness of your most recent episodes using the service’s metrics.
Buzzsprout’s algorithm also records the number of listeners for each episode during the first 90 days.
Customer Service
Buzzsprout can provide you with top-notch customer service.
They have a team that is attentive to your concerns, and a Facebook group where you can get guidance on promotional activities and other topics.
Hosting Cost
Buzzsprout (see also ‘Buzzsprout Vs Anchor‘) offers a variety of pricing plans, including the ones listed below.
- Buzzsprout is recommended by Podcasters from beginners to experts.
- Podcast Hosting made easy!
Free Plan
Buzzsprout offers a free plan that allows you to access 2 hours of audio uploads per month. The episodes are available to listeners for 90 days before being automatically removed.
In addition, you can view advanced user statistical data and collaborate with as many people of your team as you want.
$18 Per Month
You get 6 hours of uploads monthly, and you can upload extra hours of content at a cheaper rate of $3 per hour.
$12 Per Month
The plan includes 3 hours of audio uploads per month, and you can benefit from indefinite hosting. If you reach the podcast limit, you can choose more content for $4 per hour.
$24 Per Month
The $24 Monthly Plan includes 12 hours of audio uploads every month.
This plan is perfect for high-quality audio projects and daily podcasts. If you require more bandwidth, you can spend an extra $2 per hour.
Captivate
Captivate is also one of the best podcast hosting platforms available today. It also has more creative tools that will make your podcasting experience enjoyable.
Captivate also has great features on which you can depend for your podcasting requirements.
Free Website
Captivate hosts your free website with responsive design and a landing page.
Unrestricted Group Collaboration
Captivate’s pricing plans allow for an unlimited number of contributors and teammates.
Analytics
Another distinctive characteristic of Captivate is that it provides simple podcast data analysis. It can provide additional insight into what you ought to improve in order to please your listeners.
Monetization
Captivate can provide you with guides, toolkits, and clips to help you monetize your podcasts. So, if you want your podcast work to bring some money in for you, then you definitely need this help from Captivate.
Hosting Cost
Captivate does not have a free plan like Buzzsprout, but it does offer a free trial for 7 days. Therefore, you need to choose from one of these plans:
Every tool you need to start, manage and monetize
your podcast
Unlimited Podcast Hosting
Professional
This plan costs about $44 per year and $49 per month. It allows for 500 community podcast subscriptions and 60,000 monthly downloads.
Personal
The personal plan costs about $19 per month and $17 per year. It has 150 private podcast subscriptions and 12,000 downloads per month.
Business
This plan costs around $99 per month and $90 per year.
It includes 1000 private podcast subscriptions, 150,000 monthly downloads, network-level analytic tools, host client content unlocking, network site, personalized analytic categorizing, and analytics API access.
The Bottom Line
Buzzsprout is obviously the way to go for any podcaster, as it provides a free plan option and far more advanced features that can assist with improving your podcast experience.
They also offer various pricing options based on your specific requirements.
Although both Captivate and Buzzsprout provide excellent customer service, we prefer Buzzsprout due to its more advanced capabilities for producing a successful podcast. It is also suitable for both newcomers and seasoned podcasters.