Deciding which one to choose when comparing Buzzsprout vs PodBean boils down to knowing your jobs to be done and which tools help you do them the most.
Here is why: Both Buzzsprout and Podbean have been on the market for some time, and they’ve had time to build functionalities upon functionalities, most especially what their users want.
This means you are more than likely to find what you need with both of them, except that one will satisfy that goal more than the other.
If that’s your case, I will do my best to review the topmost features of each one of them here, the benefit of each feature, and the subsistence features that make one better than the other.
Here is the most comprehensive review of BuzzSprout vs PodBean on the web.
A Quick Overview of Buzzsprout and Podbean
If you’d like to take a glance at some basic features before diving into the piece, this table places Buzzsprout vs Podbean side by side for your easy viewing.
| Feature | Buzzsprout | Podbean |
| Storage space | Limited | Unlimited |
| Analytics | Has analytics and stats | Has analytics and stats |
| Social sharing | Has social sharing | Has social sharing with visual sound bites |
| Ease of use | Very easy to use | Easy to use |
| Monetization | Multiple streams of income | One way of monetization |
| Pricing | 90-day free trial | Freemium |
Buzzsprout vs PodBean: PodBean review
PodBean is a podcast hosting site for producing, publishing, live-streaming, analyzing, and monetizing podcasts. It has over 600,000 users across the globe and offers everything you need to take your podcast from zero to thousands of users and monetization without hassles.
This includes podcast recording, live streaming, audience engagement, and analytics. Let’s break this down by taking the features one after the other.
PodBean features
These are the core features of BuzzSpring:
Bandwidth and storage
Overall, this is one of the essential things you should look for in a podcasting platform. You ought to be able to choose a hosting platform with enough storage to ensure that your audio files don’t disappear with time, and Podbean does that for you.
PodBean offers unlimited storage space and unmetered bandwidth, which store your content indefinitely. You can upload as much as you want, as long as your subscription covers it.
Social sharing and third-party integration
You can link your social media pages to your Podbean account and promote your podcast episodes on the social media platforms of your choice.
Some of the social media platforms you can link to are:
- Tumblr
It also integrates with YouTube and WordPress.
These integrations allow you to promote your podcast to other people outside the podcast directories and grow your subscriber base. If you already have a large following on social media, this enables you to raise awareness about your podcast.
Furthermore, it integrates with some third-party software, such as Mailchimp, Auphonic, and Resonate. This enables you to grow an email list, which is essential to the life cycle of your business.
Your email list can also serve as another revenue stream, one that you can reach whenever you want.
PodBean application
Another great feature of PodBean is the podcast app. You can use it for recording, editing, and publishing your podcast episodes and live streaming.
It’s also an avenue for your listeners to engage you, as they can send in comments and let you know their thoughts during a live stream.
This is available to both iOS and Android users.
Customizable branding
If you are using PodBean, your podcast interface doesn’t have to be bland or generic. You’ll have all the tools you need to customize your podcast to the best of your interest, including the styles, colors, and fonts.
Monetization
Podbean is one of the easiest places to make money as a podcaster. Through its various monetization programs, it allows you to make money from the get-go, as opposed to waiting to reach a particular number of subscribers or listeners before you can monetize.
For example, on Podbean, you can create premium channels—as many as you want—to make money from your listeners, while on most platforms, you can only make money from ads and affiliate marketing, and you’ll have to wait until you have a lot of subscribers.
In that aspect, it’s a lot better than BuzzSprout.
Podcast directories
On Podbean, you’d be able to list your podcast on all popular podcast directories, including Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Tunein, Alexa, Overcast, Castro, Podchaser, and so on.
This will help you reach a global audience and attract as many listeners as you want.
Podbean pricing
Podbean’s basic price is free. It gives you five hours of storage space and 100 MB of bandwidth each month. It will also gives you an RSS feed, lets you distribute to all podcast apps, and build a podcast site.
This is good if you want to test out the platform.
Unlimited audio
This comes at $14 per month or $9 per month if you are paying annually. It gives you unlimited storage and space, everything offered in the basic plan, plus:
- Custom design
- Mapping your own domain
- Ads market place
- Premium sales
- PodAds
Unlimited plus
This costs $39 per month and $29 per month if you want to pay yearly.
It comes with everything in the unlimited plan, plus:
- Full custom design
- Unlimited audio and video storage
- Patron program
- A lot of other monetization options
Network plan
This costs $99 per month or $79 if you prefer to pay on a monthly basis. It’s the perfect fit if you operate a podcast network or own multiple public podcasts.
It will give you access to all the features available in the previous options as well as:
- Access for 50 admins
- Professional network page
- Removal of PodBean branding
- Live chat support
- Several podcast channels
Pros of Podbean
- Affordability
- Availability of its app on iOS and Android
- Consistent and flat rate
- Pricing doesn’t change erratically
- Easy to use
- Livestreaming
- Popular and reliable
- Visual soundbite
- Feedback features
Cons of Podbean
- The audience needs a Podbean account before they can subscribe
- Comments can only be made in the app
Some notable benefits of using Podbean
There ought to be reasons you prefer one piece of software over another.
In this section, I’ll discuss some of the benefits of using Podbean compared to BuzzSprout.
User-friendly interface
Any tool that doesn’t have much of a learning curve and allows you to hit the ground running is a good one.
Podbean isn’t hard to get used to, and as soon as you sign up for a free trial, you’ll be able to identify what to click to do what.
On your dashboard, you’ll see where to:
- Upload a file
- Distribute your content
- Check for statistics
- Customize
- Monetize
And do a lot more. I must admit that it isn’t as intuitive as Buzzsprout, but it’s not that hard to get you confused and not know what comes next.
Podcast app
Rather than recording your episode with another tool and uploading it, the Podbean application lets you record your podcast on the platform or live-stream it.
It also lets your fans and subscribers leave comments on your post, and this fosters engagement between you and boosts trust.
Podcast website
Podbean allows you to create a microsite for your podcast. It also offers all sorts of free and paid themes that you can use to design it to appeal to your audience.
Buzzsprout vs Podbean: Buzzsprout review
Buzzsprout is a podcast management software for creating, editing, designing, and publishing podcasts. It’s one of the most versatile podcast hosting sites on the Internet and is best for large-scale podcasters.
Whether you are a business owner, a professional podcaster, or an entrepreneur, it has every tool you need to succeed. Here, we’ll discuss the major features of Buzzsprout.
Features of Buzzsprout
Let’s look at the main features of Buzzsprout and see if it’s for you.
Ease of publishing
On some podcast hosting platforms, you have to generate your RSS feeds by yourself, adjust the file type, edit ID3 tags, and so on. Buzzsprout, on the other hand, will have all that sorted out for you.
All you have to do is upload your content or schedule it for later publishing, and the rest will be taken care of.
This saves you a lot of stress and time and enables you to focus on other important tasks.
Podcast analytics and statistics
Buzzsprout analytics and stats give you all the tools you need to succeed. The analytics show you stats on your performance in terms of downloads, social shares, views, time of view, region, and so on.
It also updates you regularly on your success. And that way, you’ll be able to tell what’s working and optimize if anything isn’t working as it should.
Transcription feature
Buzzsprout automatically transcribes your episodes so that you can upload them as blog posts. This is especially useful if you have your own separate website and would like your podcast episodes to rank on Google.
Furthermore, you can take the transcription, edit and format it, and then turn it into a blog post. This not only helps you reach a wider audience but also gives you a chance to diversify your audience-building sources.
Multiple user seats
Buzzsprout allows you to add an unlimited number of team members on your team. Together, you can manage the podcast, and you can also assign tasks to each team member.
Pricing
Buzzsprout has four pricing plans. The first one is the 90-day free trial, which gives you 2 hours of storage space each month and hosts your content for 90 days. It also lets you add team members and use advanced stats.
All these will allow you to see if you want to become a paid user, and also become conversant with the tool.
With $12 per month, you’ll have three hours of uploading each month. You’ll also be able to import podcasts for free and access all available features. You can upload more content for $4 per hour.
The $18/month tier gives you six hours of storage space every month as well as access to all available features. This lets you upload more content for $3 per hour.
Last but not least, $24 per month gives you 12 hours of storage space and access to all available features. With this plan, you can upload more content at $2 per hour.
Pros
- Very easy to use
- Transcription
- User friendly
- integrations
- It has unlimited storage
- The free trial time is long enough
- The free trial gives you access to everything except monetization
Cons
- You can only monetize through Buzzsprout Ads
- No live chat
What are some benefits of usingBuzzsprout?
Here are some of the things that set Buzzsprout apart.
Heavy automation
One thing I admire about Buzzsprout personally is the fact that a lot of things you’d want to stress yourself on have been optimized, as I mentioned in the feature section.
No matter what you are doing, easy operation is a very valuable thing, including in podcasting.
Enough time to try and decide
With a 90-day free trial offer, you’ll have more than enough time to try all the available features and decide whether you want to pay or not. You can also upgrade to more plans immediately if you feel the need for them.
BuzzSprout vs Podbean: Which of Them Should You Use?
The difference between Buzzsprout and Podbean is that Buzzsprout has more automations and favors team members, while Podbean is more focused on individual podcasters and would require you to do a few things manually.
If you are podcasting as a professional and want to make money from it and go large-scale, I’d advise you to go for BuzzSprout. If you are trying to promote your business or do some social service, Podbean will be a good fit for you.
And that’s a thorough comparison of Buzzsprout vs Podbean. If you have any questions, let me know in the comment section.
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