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Are you are a podcaster and want to use the best podcasting host on the market? In this article, we are going to share with you a comparison between two of the leading hosting service providers in the game. Using the best hosting platform will ensure that you publish your episodes quickly, making your workflow seamless and maximizing your production budget. Truth is, there are hundreds of podcast hosting service providers to choose from, which can be quite daunting to choose the one. And that is why today we are to look at the two great options on the market. Continue reading for a comprehensive comparison of Libsyn vs Buzzsprout. We cover key features, pros, and cons, as well as pricing plans among other categories. By the end of the review, we hope that you would have gotten all the information you need to decide which is the best between the two for distributing your content. What are Buzzsprout and Libsyn and how do they work for podcasting Both Buzzsprout and Libsyn are podcast hosting service providers with each commanding a huge market share of the industry. They help content creators host, promote and monetize their podcasts with ease using built-in features. Although they both allow podcasters to create, host, promote, and monetize their shows, each platform has its own approach for getting from publishing to promoting. Buzzsprout Review Although Buzzsprout was launched slightly over a decade ago, it is considered by many as the number one podcast hosting platform on the market. Part of the reason for the platform’s popularity is its free plan as well as ease of use. Features Buzzsprout Storage All of the paid plans that come with Buzzsprout have unlimited storage. In the case of the free version, the platform only keeps episodes for up to 90 days. The platform also has upload limits, starting with three hours a month. In addition to that, Buzzsprout also imposes a bandwidth limit – 250GB per month. This restricts the number of listeners who can consume your episodes. In case you exceed the bandwidth limit, listeners cannot listen or download your new episodes. Chapter Markers If record longer episodes, you may consider adding chapter markers to help your audience navigate to specific sections of your episodes. Adding chapters is super easier with Buzzsprout – just choose an episode and click on Add Chapter Markers and then select Add New Chapter. After that, enter the starting point of the chapter and chapter title. Buzzsprout also lets you add a photo to accompany each chapter. Just keep adding chapter markers until each section of your podcast has a label. Once you are finished, simply select Save and Update. Note that you need to add chapter markers before you publish the episode. If you add them after the show goes live, there is a possibility your listeners would download the show without them. Transcription You can also attach a transcript to your episode or add it physically. Having transcripts for your episodes help search engine to understand what your show is about. If listeners use search terms associated with your episode, your will show will come up in the search results. Buzzsprout collaborates with a transcription platform to help podcasters transcribe episodes, meaning you will have to pay for this feature. However, given how much transcriptions can boost the searchability of your podcast, it might be worth all the penny. But remember, Buzzsprout does not force you to use any of their third-party partners, you can use whatever transcription service of your choice. Visual Soundbites Also known as an audiogram, visual soundbite is a way Buzzsprout uses to make podcasts stand out when you share on social sites. Moreover, the platform also allows you to create a soundbite in a few steps. All you need to do is choose the episode you want to add visual soundbites, set the time, and preview it. If you like your selection, click Continue. You can also customize the appearance of your visual soundbite by changing the colors, size, text, and background. The visuals will display sound waves when listeners play the episode. However, you can just toggle it off in case you just want the artwork to show. Once you customize your visual soundbite, the platform will create the file that you can download and upload to your social media provided the social platform allows video submissions. Pros Free trial for podcasters to test first before purchasingEasy to use for beginnersPriced competitively compared to other platformsTop-rated audio hostingQuality support teamHas up to 99.9 percent uptimeWide-ranging podcast directoriesEpisode transcription and embedding Cons The free plan expires in 90 daysThe pricing structure is a bit complex Growth and Marketing Tools Buzzsprout provides podcasters with lots of innovative ways to grow and market their podcasts. First, Buzzsprout lets podcasters create podcast transcriptions to make their podcast more accessible to the audience as well as helping Google and other search engines find their content and increase listener engagement. If you host your show with Buzzsprout, you can easily add transcriptions to your episodes using the third-party transcription toolset or any transcription tool of your liking, including Trint, Descript, Scribie, Temi, and Rev. Buzzsprout also lets users share their content on social media to attract new listeners. Just find the social media site that your listeners like the most and share your content there. This platform lets podcasters share content on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and Facebook among other social media platforms. Another way Buzzsprout helps podcasters grow and market their content is through its customizable website. If you don’t have a website for your podcast, you can quickly create one with Buzzsprout and add a bog as well as other features for the purpose of SEO. Create a blog on your site whenever you upload a new episode and add keywords related to your episode topic. Buzzsprout allows you to sprinkle those keywords in the post’s H1 heading, H2, H3, as well as H4 subheadings and ALT descriptions, meta descriptions, and throughout the content. The email newsletter is another way Buzzsprout allows podcasters to grow and market their content. Buzzsprout has a host of third-party integrations including email marketing tools like MailChimp and HubSpot Email Marketing. Just create a landing page to build or grow your email list. This landing page will be linked to your website but is separate from the rest of the pages. Landing pages help podcasters build an email list or grow subscribers list and often offer listeners a free incentive. Last but not least, Buzzsprout has a wide range of podcast directories where podcasters can distribute their content for listeners to access. From Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts to Spotify and Stitcher, you can list your podcast to as many directories as you wish to widen your audience reach. Analytics on Buzzsprout Buzzsprout's advanced analytics offers podcasters a new simple way of accessing comprehensive, at-a-glance data about the growth and reach of their podcast. Whether it is a free plan or paid account, you can access these advanced analytics to help you measure your episode downloads, podcast trends and performance over time, apps and technology used by your listeners, and listener location. Objective measurement of your podcast’s growth offers an insight into what is and what isn’t working so you can customize your podcast. By fine-tuning your podcast based on the analytics and statistical feedback, podcasters can consistently enhance their podcasts, generating more listener engagement and downloads. Buzzsprout is known for placing a high value on offering podcasters useful feedback within an intuitive dashboard. These analytics are comprehensive, actionable, accurate, and intuitive and users can access them in a perfectly-designed interface. Monetizing Buzzsprout Buzzsprout offers a variety of ways in which podcasters can monetize their content and make money. Affiliate marketing is the first method of promoting content on Buzzsprout. You can promote a client’s product or service and then receive a cut of each sale. Or you can just sell your services or products and keep the entire proceeding. For instance, you could put together a course or write an e-book and sell it directly to your listeners. Last but not least, Buzzsprout allows podcasters to ask their listeners to help support their show by making small monthly donations. Hosting Price Buzzsprout Buzzsprout has currently four plans, namely: Free Plan – 2 hours per month but expires after 90 days$12 per month – 3 hours monthly$18 per month – 6 hours monthly$24 per month – 12 hours monthly An important thing to note is that a free plan comes with some limitations. For instance, episodes will be removed after 90 days, so it may not be an ideal option for the long term. Libsyn Review Libsyn was established in 2001 and it stands for Liberated Syndication. It is one of the oldest podcast hosting services providers in the game and is designed to help podcasters grow their audience. It publishes directly to Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Pandora as well as numerous other podcast directories. Libsyn hosts many of the most popular podcasts in the world and distributes to over 25 destinations worldwide to more than 130 million monthly unique audiences. However, this success is also one of the platform’s downfalls as many users think the team behind Libsyn stopped innovating and designing new tools to compete with the new entrances such as Buzzsprout and Podbean. New podcast hosting service providers have shown up and reinvented the wheel, leaving Libsyn behind. Nevertheless, Libsyn is a great podcast hosting platform and still many people choose it over its contemporaries. Features Libsyn Here are some of the features that attract users to Libsyn. Storage Space Storage simply means how much new content podcasters can upload per month. With Libsyn, your MBs don’t roll over to the next month, but rather your quota resets every month. Monthly storage with Libsyn depends on the plan you buy, and you can upload as much content as your plan allows before the next circle begins. Distribution Libsyn offers whoever signs up a secure RSS feed that will distribute your content to a number of podcast directories and streaming services such as Google Play Music, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. Unlimited Listeners All plans include access to unlimited listeners, meaning you don't have to pay extra dollars when your audience starts growing. Multi-Media Hosting When you sign up for a Libsyn account, you can host more than just your media files. You can also host PDFs, videos, as well as texts. Podcast Website If you don't have a website for your podcast, Libsyn will give your podcast a place to go live on the web, thus increasing your show exposure. You can customize this mini-podcast website as you wish and insert any relevant links. And if you have an existing WordPress site, you can integrate the WordPress Publisher Hub plugin from Libsyn. Customizable Domain Libsyn lets podcasters use their domain to emphasize their unique brand, although you will have to pay an additional $2 every month. Pros Easy to upload even for beginnersTracks analytics for podcastersEasily edit or update episodesMini-site for podcastsMulti-media hostingCustomizable domain name Cons No free planLack of innovation and new tools Growth and Marketing Tools Libsyn works with podcasters to find the best solution that works for their podcast and business model. There are a number of ways podcasters can market their content on Libsyn and grow their podcasts. For instance, Libsyn has handpicked ad slots, live-read advertisements, and stitched advertisements. Some podcast advertising tools in Libsyn require live testimonials or reviews as a part of the episode production. But live-read advertisement can work perfectly for you if the product is right for you and not just your audience. Analytics on Libsyn Libsyn provides a wide range of statistic and analytics tools to podcasters. User Agent Stats lets users know what platform delivers the most downloads as well as where the audience listens to your podcast. Geographic Heat Map gives podcasters an instant glance at their podcast’s global popularity and listener concentration. The Social Media States is linked to social media platforms and traces the basic performance of your podcast. Monetization Libsyn All Libsyn’s monetization options are opt-in, which means podcasters decide what brand to collaborate with and which ones to avoid. Ad stitching tools place advertisements in your files to target specific geographic locations for custom advertisement delivery per campaign. Hosting Price Libsyn Libsyn does not have a free plan, and all its plans require a monthly fee. Its hosting pricing is as follows: $5 per month with 162 MB of storage$15 per month with 324 MB of storage$20 per month with 540 MB of storage$40 per month with 800 MB of storage$75 per month with 1500 MB of storage$150 per month with 3000 MB of storage Our Pick: Buzzsprout We hope this Libsyn vs Buzzsprout review helps you make the right decision. But if you want our help picking between the two, Buzzsprout edges out Libsyn in almost all categories. Buzzsprout has a free plan that lets podcasters try out the platform before committing. Overall, Buzzsprout is the best podcast hosting service on the market.

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