Simplecast Essentials
Independent Podcasters
For Networks & Shows
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Developing content can be difficult and time-consuming. Finding a podcast host that fits your needs and budget shouldn’t be. You're here because you're pretty close to making a decision on your hosting provider, so we'll do our best to take you over the finish line.
Platform focus
Spreaker offers a wide buffet of features to a podcast creator: podcast hosting, basic analytics, and live streaming plus a live chat. The buffet is great, but what happens when you only want one or two dishes? We find that only a very small amount of podcast creators are actually doing live broadcasts, so it may not make sense to choose a platform that has this as a big focus. After all, if Spreaker is so focused on live broadcasting, that must be pulling resources away from something else. Both business tiers on Spreaker offer unlimited audio storage, 5 hours of live broadcast time, 24/7 live stream option, and analytics.
Analytics
Spreaker's analytics on their Enterprise platform offers the following, "Plays and Downloads, Listening Sources, Listeners’ Geolocation, Episode Likes, Followers Trend, Audience Demographics, Devices, and Episode Evolution." A lot of these are tethered to the live-streaming features. For instance, their Play Details doesn't offer anything like Simplecast's retention and drop-off rates, just if a Spreaker user's audience prefers to tune in when they're live-streaming, versus after the fact. Additionally, Spreaker does not allow you to compare episode and show performance, or offer anything similar to Simplecast's Unique Listeners metric. Again, this analytics suite seems mostly built for people who do a lot of live-streaming, not typical podcasters.
Support
As of September, 2019, a LinkedIn search shows that Spreaker only has one dedicated support person. We always recommend that people looking for a podcast host (or any software, really) try to see what kind of support infrastructure they'll have. It looks like Spreaker mostly does its support over email, and regularly pulls in engineers to answer support questions. At Simplecast, we think having a dedicated support team is key–after all, our engineers are busy engineering! We know when things go wrong with podcasting, time is of the essence–that's why the overwhelming majority of our tickets are closed within an hour, and we have 7-day live chat support from Toby, Aaron, Addy, and Mike.
Simplecast
The main takeaway here is that if you value analytics and support over live-streaming, Simplecast is the platform for you.
Instead of capping audio storage based on monthly cost, Simplecast offers all pricing tiers unlimited storage space and unlimited uploads. While Simplecast does not provide a free option, even the most basic plan starting at $15 per month gives beginning podcasters access to useful features and tools often available only to the seasoned, professional podcaster.
Regardless of how much you invest into your podcast, on top of unlimited storage and uploads, Simplecast also offers distribution on all major podcasting platforms, including Apple, Android, and Spotify. As you grow, Simplecast puts a premium on team management, as we understand the importance of having a robust team behind a promising podcast. Choosing the right podcast hosting platform can be difficult given the many options available. Simplecast makes the decision easy by offering services available to even the most professional of ‘casters at a cost that won’t break the bank.
Reach out to us today to learn more!