It’s no secret that podcasts have started to take over popular media.
Almost everybody who is a celebrity, was a celebrity, or wants to be one in the future has started a podcast sometime in the last 10 years, and if you haven’t jumped on the bandwagon, then you’re in the minority.
Did you know that in a study conducted in 2021, Edison Research found that 59% of Americans aged 12 and above listen to a podcast during the year, and that more than 100 million Americans tune into a podcast at least once a month.
There are podcasts for everybody, no matter what your interests, hobbies, or age, there is a podcast that will suit you and your wants. Yes, podcasts are here to stay, and there is a plethora of people waiting to hear them.
Maybe you think that you’ve got an idea for the next big podcast, or you’re just wanting to start a fun little hobby with a couple of friends.
Whatever the reason, if you’re looking to start a podcast, then you want to find the best place to host your podcast, and for that you’ll need a hosting site.
What Is A Hosting Site?
A hosting site is basically the digital equivalent of owning a shop front or a warehouse. The files and code that make up your website need to be hosted somewhere, on some server somewhere.
Therefore, a hosting provider offers a place on their server to store your files as well as the responsibility of delivering your files to the user trying to access your site.
Paying for a hosting service is like renting out space on the internet so that people will actually be able to access and download your podcast.
Why Do I Need A WordPress Hosting Site For My Podcast?
You need a specialized hosting provider because a site that is not equipped for the large files and heavy traffic that come with running a podcast isn’t going to be able to handle it.
Audio field (that are sometimes an hour long at a time) and images take up a lot of space on a server, and if multiple people are trying to access and download it all at the same time, then the website might just crash, or block the access all together, depending on the damage done to the server.
This is why you can’t just host your podcast on any random website, it has to be one that is dedicated to hosting podcasts so that it has the resources and server space available.
If you want to ensure that your audience is going to have an easy time accessing and listening to your podcast then you need a podcast hosting site.
What Are The Best Hosting Sites For Podcasters?
If you already have a WordPress website and are looking to upgrade it and be able to host more content, then you’re going to want a specialized hosting site.
Luckily, there are several options that offer a range of features including disk space, lower site loading times, migrations and WordPress installation.
If you want to figure out which one is going to suit you, your budget, and your podcast the best, then here is a brief rundown of some of the best options for WordPress hosting sites that we can find.
Kinsta Podcast Hosting
Kinsta is a premium WordPress hosting site that offers a massive range of services, for a massive range of prices.
They are able to work with a lot of different clients to suit whatever needs you may have. They are dedicated to working with their clients to make sure that their sites run as smoothly as possible.
Kinsta Features
There are a couple key features that you’ll see from hosting your site with Kinsta, even on the cheapest plan.
First of all is the speed: they boast that their customers typically see up to a 200% performance improvement, 30% improved latency, and 50% better bandwidth.
This means that audiences will be able to access your site easily, without delay, and download your podcast with ease.
Kinsta also features a great amount of security, including a hack-free guarantee and automatic backups. Not only will your site be protected from hacks and malware, but if anything does go wrong then all of your stuff will still be there.
Kinsta Pricing
Kinsta offers a large range of plans that start at $30 a month, all the way up to $1,500 per month, depending on the number of sites that you have, how popular they are and how much disk space you require.
If you’re just a small business looking to host a single site for your podcast, then you’ll probably be fine with the $30 a month plan – which is discounted to $300 a year.
Kinsta Plans
Speaking of which, the $30 per month plan features one WordPress install, allowing up to 25,000 visits to your site per month, 10GB disk space and Free SSL, CDN, and Staging as standard – this last part means that they can deliver your images and assets quickly and efficiently.
Kinsta Backups
As previously mentioned, Kinsta offers free backup for all of your sites, even on the smallest plan. You have the option to get automatic daily backups with hourly and external backup add-on options.
Kinsta Privacy Policy
You retain full control and ownership over your domain and website, and Kinsta do not have access to any of the information provided by users on your site. If you would like to know more about Kinsta’s privacy policy, you can read it all here.
Bluehost Podcast WordPress Hosting
Where Kinsta is certainly a premium hosting site for professionals, Bluehost offers a much more accessible, cheaper alternative.
Bluehost Features
All of the plans that you can buy from Bluehost include a free domain name for one year, getting you verified on Google Business, automatic WordPress Updates and Installation. These features will make it easier for your audience to find you.
They also make it super easy to edit your website and offer custom themes for your WordPress site.
Bluehost Pricing And Plans
Compared to Kinsta, Bluehost’s prices are much more affordable, starting at just $9.99 a month for the basic plan that is perfect for a blog or small site.
For a small business you could get the plus plan for $13.99 a month, or upgrade to the Choice plus plan for $18.99 to leave room to grow your business. Then for a high traffic blog or business you might need the Pro plan, which comes in at $28.99.
All of these plans cover a growing amount of storage and integration so you’re able to improve your site as you go, and keep an eye on how much server space you use/require.
Bluehost Server Response Time
As with any hosting site, sometimes the server gets overloaded from the traffic going through all of the sites that they host causing slow speeds. However, unfortunately Bluehost has a bit of a reputation for being slow quite frequently, which can be a big issue for a lot of people.
Although there are ways to increase your speed or minimize the frequency with which your website runs slow, this could be something that puts you off this hosting provider.
Bluehost vs. Kinsta
There are some significant differences between these two hosting sites, and it all comes down to money. With both servers you get what you pay for, and with Kinsta you pay an awful lot for a premium product.
Bluehost on the other hand only costs a fraction of the price of Kinsta, but obviously you don’t get as much quality assurance or as many benefits. If you’re a professional looking for the best and you have the budget to match, then you need Kinsta.
If you’re just starting out and want something that’s a little unreliable at times but generally does everything that you need it to, then you can’t really go wrong with Bluehost.
Bluehost Privacy Policy
Bluehost follows the European policy of GDPR, which stands for general data protection regulation, and supports online privacy as a human right.
This means that you as the customer can question and request access to anything that Bluehost might have stored in relation to you and the right to restrict what data the site is able to save about you.
If you would like to read more about the GDPR or Bluehost’s relationship to it, then you can find that information here.
BigScoots Podcast WordPress Hosting
BigScoots sits somewhere in the middle between the other two hosting sites that we’ve mentioned and therefore is great for business that have an established budget, but not something that’s super high like you’d need for Kinsta.
BigScoots Features
As standard, all of BigScoots’s plans are fully managed, offer free backups, and enhanced security.
You also get access to their fantastic customer service in case anything goes wrong. Another great feature offered by BigScoots is a 10G personalized email account with unlimited emails.
BigScoots Pricing And Plans
As stated, BigScoots sit in the middle between Bluehost and Kinsta. Although the starting price of their basic plan is higher than either of the previous sites at $34.95 a month, BigScoots only goes up to $248.95 per month.
For the starter plan you’ll be able to install one site, have up to 10G storage, and get estimated 250k monthly visits, which is 10x the amount of monthly visits you could receive with the basic Kinsta plan.
Alternatively, the Business plan at the top end of the range allows you to install 20 sites, have 200G of data and receive about 1.5 Million visits per month.
If this still isn’t enough, BigScoot also has a personalized Enterprise plan that would basically give you unlimited access, but you have to talk to them about the price.
BigScoots Backups
BigScoots offers 30 days of backup in an offer server backup appliance so you know that your data and website are safe, even if something goes wrong.
BigScoots Privacy Policy
BigScoots has a privacy policy that is available on their website. They are committed to protecting your data and do not share your data with any third-party clients, as per the GDPR.
Bottom Line
There are several different WordPress hosting sites that would be perfect to help grow the audience of your preexisting podcast, or get you started on a brand new podcasting adventure. You just need to look at your budget and the amount of storage that you’re going to need, and go from there.
