Best Free Podcasting hosting platforms

 Read this article called “Best free podcast hosting.” But I take issue with several of the suggestions within. I wrote this article a while ago, or I at least started it a while ago, but I think the content within is still good. Here is the article.

https://discoverpods.com/best-free-podcast-hosting/ 

It lists Buzzsprout as the best free plan… problem is.. It's not free. They only offer a 90 day trial.

They list strengths as “250 GB of bandwidth each month for paid plans, even less for the free version.”

They also apparently don't know what a strength is. Now I don't want to hate on Buzzsprout itself. Pat Flynn, someone I follow, really likes the service. But clearly this site is just affiliating for them with a very seo friend title. 

The article also lists Podbean.

“Weaknesses: Free version is limited to 5 hours of storage

Cannot use your own domain name for a podcast through free subscription”

Again, this is such a strict limitation. Podbean is just a trial not a true free platform

Next they mention Spreaker, which is the first real free option. 

"Unlimited bandwidth on all subscriptions including the free version" 

And Oops, I spoke too soon, this also has a 5 hours of storage limit. 

Last is Anchor, which in the original article was the only truly free option (well, on the original list). It has some interesting weaknesses according to the site. It looks like these have changed since, but the original language is amusing enough to me that I will share it. 

Weaknesses

May not have the esteemed connections of some of the other hosting services yet still works with Apple Podcasts, Google, and Spotify

Basic analytics yet a small price to pay for all the other great features provided for free

May not be the best podcast host to scale as you grow

Future of the service may be questionable after the Spotify acquisition

I really don’t know what “esteemed connections” are. Sounds like nonsense to me. Really though, this is the only podcast on the whole list that is actually free.  I have personally used Anchor and enjoy it pretty well. It does have a few quality of life updates that could be made. 

For example, when numbering your show episodes, Anchor doesn’t just tell you what the next sequential number should be , you need to look it up yourself. 

Also, myself, and many others have not seen much by way of Anchor ads. I had only Anchor itself as a sponsor, and that ended after I earned $25. I actually got some more ads after the initial run, but the service has ended, there are no longer host read ads.

I’m glad to see in the new version of the article Acast is mentioned, which is a free service I also used, Ricky Rambles is hosted there. Also not listed here is Redcircle, which I think is free as well. I have yet to try it though.