How to Create Your Own Podcast: Comparing Major Podcast Hosts

When evaluating podcast hosts, there are five major issues you need to consider: cost, features offered, bandwidth limits, storage limits (also known as disk space), and RSS feed creation. The following is a comparison of the major podcast hosts. In most cases, it is advisable to choose a host or plan that offers no bandwidth with the most storage that will do all the RSS encoding for you.

The following are some basic information about the most popular podcast hosts. Information was accurate at the time this article was written, but may have changed.
AudioAcrobat
AudioAcrobat is very similar to Hipcast, although slightly more expensive at $19.95 a month. However, it does offer a few features that most other podcast hosts do not such as a "testimonial line" that will allow listeners to call a phone number and leave you message at your extension. It does provide unlimited bandwidth and storage. AudioAcrobat also automatically creates RSS feeds and syndicates to the major podcast networks, including iTunes.

GoDaddy
Many are familiar with GoDaddy's web hosting and domain name registration. However, they also offer podcast hosting. They have three price plans, but none of them have unlimited storage or bandwidth. The economy plan starts at $4.99 and allows only 1GB of storage space and 100GB of bandwidth. The deluxe plan starts at $9.99 a month and allows 5GB of storage space and 300GB of bandwidth. The premium plan starts at $19.99 a month and allows 10GB of storage space and 500GB of bandwidth. Amazingly, this is quite a bit less bandwidth and storage space than most website hosts provide. GoDaddy does generate and publish podcast RSS feeds and automatically notifies podcasts directories, but so do most other podcast hosts. Also, they make no mention of what you will be charged should you exceed the limits, which it would be easy to do should your podcast become popular.

HipCast
Hipcast is the new name for Audioblog.com. Although they advertise four different price plans, they actually have five. The first is a seven-day free trial, which will transfer to the basic service that costs $4.95 a month and provides you with 5GB of bandwidth and unlimited storage space each month. Extra bandwidth costs $1 per gigabyte. All other plans offer unlimited bandwidth but vary in storage space. The standard plan costs $9.95 a month and provides 500MB of space. The advanced plan costs $19.95 a month and provides 1000MB of space. The PRO plan costs $29.95 a month and provides 2000MB of space. The corporate plan costs $49.95 a month and provides 5000MB of space. HipCast does offer support to help you integrate your podcast into most of the major web blog software including MovableType, Blogware, Typepad, WordPress, Blogger, pMachine, LiveJournal, and many others.

Libsyn
Libsyn, which stands for Liberated Syndication, has been around for quite a while and is one of the most popular podcasting hosting service. All of its four plans offer unlimited bandwidth but vary in storage space. The basic plan costs $5 a month and provides 100MB of storage. The standard plan costs $10 a month and provides 250MB of storage. The advanced plan costs $20 a month and provides 525MB of storage. The supreme plan costs $30 a month and provides 800MB of storage. It also helps create the RSS feed file for you, which is iTunes friendly. It also allows you to use your own domain name if desired. As far as expense and reliability goes, Libsyn is probably the best around.

Ourmedia.org
Ourmedia is one of the only free hosts that provide unlimited storage and bandwidth. There is just one small catch: posting there means that you agree to license your podcast under the Creative Commons license. This license specifies that others may use your content for free if they give you credit. If this does not bother you, then Ourmedia.org is the perfect option for you.

Podbean
Podbean is an integrated video, audio, and blog hosting service. It has five different plans, including a free account. The basic account is free, but only provides 5GB of bandwidth and 100MB of storage space. The basic plus plan costs $2.99 a month and provides 100GB of bandwidth and 1GB of storage space. The next three price plans offer unlimited bandwidth and have storage "growth" plans. This means that they give you a basic starting storage and each month add to the space. The longer you stay with them, the larger your storage space. The advanced plan costs $4.95 a month and provides 250MB of start storage space, which grows 100MB each month. The professional plan costs $9.95 a month and provides 1GB of start storage space, which grows 250MB each month. The premium plan costs $19.95 a month and provides 2.5GB of start storage space, which grows 500MB each month. All plans will automatically generate an RSS feed for you.

Podbus
Podbus offers 300MB of storage space and 10GB of bandwidth for $5 a month, with a charge of $0.66 per gigabyte of bandwidth should you exceed that. Nothing is mentioned about creating RSS feeds or any of the other features that podcast hosts frequently have. Considering that the storage space is much smaller than what the other hosts provide at the same price without the options that the other podcast hosts have, Podbus does not to seem to offer much for your money.

Podlot
Podlot advertises itself as a "cheap place to park your podcast" and essentially that is all it is. For $5 a month, you get 150MB of storage space and unlimited bandwidth. As with Podbus, nothing is mentioned about creating RSS feeds or any of the other features that most of the other podcast hosts have.

Switchpod
Switchpod offers four accounts, all with unlimited bandwidth. A free account provides 200MB of storage space, but does not have all the options that the other accounts do. A mega account costs $5 a month and provides 500MB of storage space. A giga account costs $10 and provides 1000MB of storage space. A tera account costs $30 and provides 2000MB of storage space. They do include automatic RSS creation, which is iTunes friendly, and provide subscribers with a free blog.

No matter which podcast host or plan you choose, you should keep in mind that most hosts will allow you to upgrade to more expensive plans as your needs increase. Save a little money by choosing the smallest account necessary and then upgrade it as necessary.