PodBean is a unique hosting service that is highly focused on publishing and monetizing podcasts. Its friendly user interface makes it a lot easier to create, publish, and manage your podcasting website within a short period. The company has been in operation for more than ten years now.
Who is it for?
As you can guess, this hosting is specialized for podcasters. If you have a podcast and are looking for a reliable host for creating your podcasting website, PodBean should be one of your top choices. There are several pricing plans to accommodate different levels of podcasters.
Features/Benefits
- There are lots of ready-made themes that can be fully customized according to your requirements.
- The inbuilt site builder will let you create personalized layouts for your website.
- Thanks to the embeddable player, you can easily embed the podcast player on any place of your website.
- Reliable cloud hosting will make sure that your site and the podcast files are always accessible to the visitors.
- Own branding options will make it a lot easier to use your branding principles on the website.
- Unlimited storage and bandwidth will ensure that you have the necessary resources to build up a massive podcast network.
- You can monetize your podcast by integrating third-party ads
- The handy premium content feature can be another way to earn some extra revenue
- If you have a passionate group of followers, crowdfunding could be another effective monetization option
- Dedicated iPhone and Android apps will allow the listeners to keep up with your episodes.
- The powerful analysis tools will help you to keep track of the major KPI’s of your podcast.
- The business plan allows you to remove the PodBean branding and use multiple podcasting channels.
Pricing & Support
PodBean has several pricing packages for podcasters, which are –
Advanced: Priced at $5 per month, the Advanced plan offers 100MB storage and 100GB bandwidth per month, embeddable players, iPhone and Android apps, professional podcast themes, basic stats, etc.
Unlimited Audio: For $14 per month, this plan includes all the benefits of the Advanced plan. What’s more, it offers unlimited audio storage and unmetered bandwidth, domain mapping, and premium podcasting features.
Unlimited Video: At $39 per month, this plan comes with all the features of the Unlimited Audio plan. As an additional bonus, this plan offers unlimited storage for all file types.
Business: For an eye-watering $129 per month, the Business plan offers all the benefits of the Unlimited Video plan. Besides, it also allows multiple admins, premium bandwidth, priority support, private podcast, and options to remove the PodBean branding and operate multiple channels.
There are lots of basic and advanced level tutorials along with video tutorials to help you get started. It is also possible to get support by using the live chat or support ticket features.
Pros
- Dedicated podcasting features
- Several monetization options for the podcasts
- Built-in player for embedding podcasts on website
- Ready-made themes and site builder
Cons
- No support hotline for the customers
- No mention of SSL or other security options