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The 8 Best WordPress Plugins for Podcasting
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Podcasting, also called ‘Audioblogging’ is becoming more and more popular day by day. In the last 15 years, podcasts have gone from mainly a niche market to mainstream. There are more than 1 billion people who listen to over 800k podcasts daily.
If you are looking to create your podcasting site and share your content with people then WordPress is the best option to start with. It helps you to grow your audience and increase your podcast revenue easily.
There are lots of WordPress podcasting plugins out there, so it is difficult to find the best plugin that suits your requirements. Don’t worry, We have created this article for the same purpose. We will look at the 8 best podcasting plugins that help you to build an affordable podcasting website on WordPress.
The plugins we are going to see are:
- PowerPress
- Libsyn Podcasting
- Fusebox
- Seriously Simple Podcasting
- Simple Podcast Press
- Podlove Podcast Publishers
- Buzzsprout Podcasting
- Podcast Player – Read full Podcast Player guide
All the plugins in this list provides their own solutions. Different plugin will suit the different requirements. We will go through general information regarding the plugin as well as important features a specific plugin provides. Let’s get started with the first plugin from the list.
1. PowerPress
PowerPress is the most popular and easy-to-use plugin in the market. You can manage and publish your podcast right from your wordpress site. Its features are supported by the top podcasting apps like Amazon Music, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and many more.
The plugin allows you to integrate the subscribe tool, so any new audio will show up in your subscription feed and users can easily reach your podcast.
If you are a blueberry hosting customer, you can use more plugin functionality like keeping an eye on statistics and easily uploading content. Although, the plugin works with any hosting provider.
PowerPress includes an extensive player option to display your audio on your site. You can pick an audio player from the blubrry player if you are a blubrry hosting provider customer. You can also use players from other plugins and themes.
Features overview
- Integrated audio and video players
- Create subscriber page using shortcode
- Podcast importing and migration
- Multiple podcast feed on one website
- Multiple language support
Powerpress is a completely free plugin. But, some features work only if you use a blubrry podcast hosting service.
2. Libsyn Podcasting
Libsyn podcasting is the simple and reliable podcast hosting solution for your site. The name suggests that the plugin helps you to connect your site to your Libsyn account.
You’ll be able to upload podcast files straight to Libsyn from wordpress, which means they won’t take up any space on your wordpress hosting server. The plugin’s powerful integration connects you and your audience on their favorite platform like Spotify, google podcast, pandora, and many more.
You didn’t worry about the wordpress server down issue because all your podcast feed will remain on the Libsyn server. Subscribers will be able to download episodes directly from their podcast apps.
Features overview
- Integrated over 20 podcast platform
- Can host video and PDFs also
- Statistics analysis
- External cloud hosting
- HTML5 compatible media player
- User-agent stats
The plugin comes with 4 pricing plans depending on how much storage you use. The most popular plans are the $15, and $20/month options in which you use 250MB and 400MB of storage respectively.
3. Fusebox
Fusebox is an elegant solution for your website that helps you grow your business online. Its powerful features help thousands of podcasters to engage their audience.
Unlike other plugins, Fusebox provides the best front-end user experience with a well-designed HTML5 player. The plugin allows you to choose your customizable color from a color palette with a light and dark theme.
Fusebox offers three display options in which you can add a full podcast player, a single-track player, and a sitewide sticky player to your site. You can integrate the plugin with popular transcription services like ‘Rev’ and ‘Temi’. It is also possible to integrate with ‘ActiveCampaign’, ‘Mailchimp’, ‘ConvertKit’ for email listing.
You can boost your SEO ranking by adding transcripts to your site. Users can download transcripts as well.
Features overview
- Works on any platform, no matter what software you use
- design customization feature
- Download tracks straight from the player
- Automatically adjust for mobile viewers
- Show entire episode catalog
- Pop-out playback control
The plugin pro version available for $19/month but if you billed annually then it goes down to $15/month. You can also use the Fusebox free version with limited features.
4. Seriously simple podcasting
Seriously simple podcasting is the handy podcasting solution that enables podcasters to broadcast the different shows from the same site. Using its powerful features and customization options, the plugin powers over 30k+ podcasts.
The plugin was developed by Castos podcasting hosting service, so we recommend using its service for a better experience, but it is not necessary to use its service to use the plugin.
You can use any wordpress post type to store your podcast episodes. By default, the plugin creates its own post type for podcasting audio or video, but you can change it to regular wordpress blog posts.
It generates a unique RSS feed for each podcast show which is compatible with google play, iTunes, and many more. You can import your old podcast into your wordpress site and also, import from wordpress to Castos.
Features overview
- Manage your RSS feed from wordpress
- Manage multiple podcast from the same site
- Use custom widgets to create playlists
- Free analytics add-ons and integrations
- Integrated with Castos podcast hosting
The seriously simple podcast is a completely free plugin. You can also use add-ons and transcribe for free. Of course, you can pay for the hosting service. As I said before, the plugin is a Castos product so you can use Casto’s hosting service for $19/month or you can use any other hosting service as well.
5. Simple Podcast Press
Simple Podcast Press is the easiest way to add an attractive podcast player to your website. All you have to do is add the iTune URL into the plugin setup, it will automatically create a unique page for each episode and add a mobile responsive player with a full description and image from your podcast feed.
The plugin allows you to add custom buttons, social sharing buttons, URL shortener, email opt-in, and more for all your episode pages. Listeners can also skip back and change the playback speeds.
You can manually add the player by adding a shortcode to the post. The plugin compatible with any podcasting service
Feature overview
- Clutter-free transcripts
- Automatic URL shortener
- One-click tweetable
- Clickable timestamps
- Auto publish episodes to your site
The plugin comes with 3 pricing plans including single, multi, and professional licenses. You can simply start with a single license plan for one website. It offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.
6. Podlove Podcast Publishers
Podlove podcast makes it easy to create highly expensive and super-compatible podcast feeds.
The plugin helps you to save time, complexity, and provide a most advanced listening experience for your audience.
The plugin’s powerful analysis allows you to access code related to your podcast data. So you can modify the content according to modern data. The plugin supports multiple audio and video players, customizable templates, and is compatible with enhanced HTML5 players.
The plugin front-end looks very detailed in terms of providing options to listeners. The visitor can forward/backward the chapter, skip the chapter, view the title, and more.
Additionally, it provides six buttons at the bottom of the player to open distinct area which is:
- Detailed description
- Chapter listing
- The episode transcript
- A share button
- Download button, and
- Volume button
The plugin has an online community where you can feel free to ask any questions about the plugin.
- Powerful analytics
- Subscribing with ease
- Custom templating
- Optimized web player
- Multi-format publishing
The Podlove podcast publisher is a 100% free plugin. it’s an organization, so you can also be part of the organization.
7. Buzzsprout Podcasting
Buzzsprout is the easiest way to host, promote, and track your podcast. Its feeds are compatible with top directories, so your podcast will appear wherever people searching for it like
Spotify, Google Podcast, Apple Podcast, and more.
The plugin advanced podcast statistics analyze total download over time, where people are listening to your podcast, and what apps people are using to listen to your podcast.
You don’t worry about file types and ID3 tags, just upload your audio file and buzzsprout will do the rest. You can transcribe your episode to make your podcast more accessible to everyone.
Feature overview
- Advanced podcast statistics
- Magic mastering tool to sweeten audio file
- Automatic episode optimization
- Dynamic content
- Manage multiple podcasts with unlimited team members.
Buzzsprout comes with hourly-based plans. The free plan allows you to upload 2 hours of podcasting a month. Other plans are $12, $18, $24/month which allow you to upload 3hrs, 6hrs, and 12hrs respectively.
8. Podcast Player
Podcast Player is a simple way to show your podcast episodes using a podcasting feed URL. It allows the listener to access all your episodes from all pages of your website. It offers an option to modify fetch detail of your podcast, show/hide the individual player element, share your podcast episode, and more.
The plugin is completely mobile responsive. You can customize the page layout according to the width of your podcast player. Also, you can create multiple podcast players on a single page.
The front-end looks very clear, intuitive, and easy to use. It provides buttons like skip, forward, backward, and share on social media.
Feature overview
- Showcase your podcast using the unified player
- Powerful filter options
- Ajax live search
- Add an audio episode within your podcast episode
- Customize color and fonts to personalize podcast display
Podcast player is a completely free plugin to use.
Conclusion: So, These are the best 8 WordPress plugins for Podcasting. All of the plugins provide different features for different requirements. We have listed the most important features along with the plugin description. We hope this tutorial helped you decide a plugin for your use case when it comes to Podcasting on WordPress. Let us know in the comment section if you have any questions. We are very happy to help!