Podbean Review: The Perfect Tool to Monetize Your Podcast in 2024

Result of our test: 4,7/5

One of the most complete platforms to host and monetize your podcast. Easy to use and affordable, Podbean is an essential tool for making a living from podcasts!

Discover PodBean

If you own or want to create a podcast, you are probably wondering how to host it and distribute it on the different streaming platforms.

To do all this at the same time, there are many services to host a podcastand monetize it!

Today we’re introducing you to Podbean, an all-in-one platform designed to host a podcast and make money with it. Thanks to this tool, you will be able to create a real audience thanks to your audio contents.

Of course, Podbean comes at a price and you may be wondering if the platform is worth it and what the alternatives are. Don’t worry, we have tested this tool extensively to give you our opinion. Discover it now!

Presentation of Podbean

Podbean is a platform designed to host and distribute a podcast. In short, it allows you toimport audio content for distribution on streaming services such as Apple Podcast, Amazon Music, Spotify, Deezer, etc.

More than 600,000 users work daily with this platform. The reason so many podcasters love this software is because it does so many things at once. Thus, this platform allows you to create a podcast, broadcast it and monetize it, but also to make livestreams.

Above all, Podbean offers several monetization plans to help creators make a living from their audio content. It is possible to ask for donations from listeners, place ads or sell premium podcasts.

Next to that, it will be possible to follow in real time the performance of your podcasts in a precise way. In fact, we will even be able to see the listening time, the number of listeners of each podcast episode. Podbean’s marketing tools make it a great ally in building your audience.

In short, Podbean is an all-in-one service that makes life easier for podcasters!

Who is Podbean for?

Podbean is primarily for podcast publishers. Simply put, anyone who owns a podcast or wants to start one can use Podbean on a daily basis. In both cases, this platform allows you tohost your podcasts and broadcast them much more easily.

Besides that, it is also a way to monetize your podcast. Thus, the platform is suitable for both beginners and experienced podcasters.

For beginners, Podbean is an easy-to-use solution for starting a podcast. Thanks to the platform, a novice will be able to directly import his audios and broadcast them on all streaming services(Amazon music, Apple Podcast, Deezer, Spotify, etc.).

For existing podcasters, Podbean will be the most effective way to analyze their audience. Thanks to the various statistical tools, a podcaster will be able to see precisely the performance of each podcast episode.

In short, Podbean is the essential platform for all podcasters who want to make a living from their audio content.

Podbean’s services

As mentioned above, Podbean is a very comprehensive service. We will present you its main features so that you can get an idea of the potential of this tool.

Hosting and broadcasting of podcasts

This platform is primarily designed to host audio content, cut it into episodes and distribute them on streaming services. To explain you how the software works, we will see how to add a podcast.

For each episode, you will have to import a file (mp3, m4a or srt), then write a title and a description. Then you can put this episode in a particular podcast. Each time, it will be possible to publish the episode instantly, or to schedule it for a specific date.

Then, you will be able to integrate your podcast directly on the different streaming services. Here the process is simple, just go to the distribution part, then “applications“.

As you can see, you can embed your audio content on many platforms. Note that some of them are not displayed, but you can still embed your podcast. This is notably the case of the French platform Deezer.

Each integration will be different depending on the requirements of an application. For most of them, you will have to create an account and integrate an RSS feed. This way, the platform will directly integrate an episode as soon as it is uploaded to Podbean.

In addition to the classic podcast applications, you can automatically publish your episodes on social networks(Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.), as well as on YouTube.

For each streaming platform, Podbean has a tutorial on how to integrate your podcast.

In addition to podcasts, we will also be able to host livestreams. The live function is quite simple to use. You just need to connect a microphone and a webcam(optional). Then you’ll have a link to share directly with your audience.

Website creation

To promote a podcast, Podbean offers the ability to create a website . Thanks to many templates, we can design a website of a few pages to present our podcast.

To carry out a site with PodBean, nothing simpler. Just go to the distribution section, then Podcasts Websites. Once on this section, you can see some examples of templates:

On this site you will find a description of the podcast as well as all the episodes already published. Note that the domain name will be the name of the podcast + podbean.com. The page editor is quite complete and it is possible to add several pages.

This solution is free and allows you to create a nice single-page site to present your podcast. Listeners will be able to listen directly to audio content on this site thanks to an integrated player. Otherwise, it will be possible to place a link to Apple Podcast, Spotify, etc.

Monetization

In this section, we’ll look at the different options for monetizing your podcast using Podbean.

Advertising

This platform offers the possibility of placing advertisements within its audio content to generate revenue. Here you can choose to place ads in one or more podcasts. It is also possible to select slots within the podcast itself to integrate them.

For example, you can tell the platform to only add ads at the beginning, middle or end of an episode.

Note that it is also possible to add your own ads in the podcasts of other creators.

Premium Podcasts

Podbean also offers paid podcasts. To do so, you just have to create a premium channel, which will be accessible to Internet users in exchange for a payment.

On this premium channel, we will be able to add one or more podcasts. Each time, you can add description, logo, category and others. You are also asked to choose a price, in US Dollars, to access the podcast.

To receive the generated revenues, you will have to provide a PayPal address.

Donations

This platform also offers to raise funds for its podcast, like a crowdfunding campaign. To do this, simply go to the “Patterns” section and create a form that presents your project.

Here, you will have to indicate a collection amount as well as a description of your podcast. We can also offer rewards to contributors, such as free podcast episodes or others. Finally, you will need to connect your Stripe or PayPal account to receive the money from the donations.

Statistics

Podbean allows you toanalyze your podcast audience in detail. To help creators see which episode is working or not, the platform provides many statistics.

To begin with, the platform shows the number of downloads and views over the last 15 days. It is of course possible to display these statistics in another time period.

Then we can see which countries our listeners come from. Next to this, Podbean displays the times when the most downloads occur, as well as where they come from(Apple Podcast, Podbean app, etc.). The top 10 most downloaded episodes are also displayed.

Just below, the software displays the retention rate per week:

Here you can see the “loyalty” of our podcast listeners. Simply put, Podbean displays the percentage of users who will listen to a podcast episode in the next few weeks after their first listen.

This statistic is ideal to know the attractiveness of its podcasts and thus work to make them more addictive.

The rates

Podbean offers several price points as well as a free version:

Depending on the version, not much will change except the amount of storage. Note that to access the monetization plans, it will be mandatory to have at least the Unlimited Audio version($9/month).

The free version allows you to store 5 hours of audio content with 100 GB of monthly bandwidth.

Advantages & Disadvantages

After testing Podbean for several weeks, here are the strengths and weaknesses that stand out:

The advantages

✅ Easy to use

✅ Different monetization plans to make money with your podcasts

✅ Unlimited storage

✅ Free version quite complete

✅ Detailed statistics tool to track your performance

The disadvantages

❌ Lack of customization in design

In summary: our opinion of Podbean

All in all, Podbean is clearly a tool that all podcasters, beginners or not, should use. It is one of the easiest solutions to create, host and distribute your audio content.

The big plus is the fact that you can monetize your podcast directly through this platform. This eliminates the need to go through third-party services and pay for another subscription. With podbean, you can sell podcasts or monetize them through advertising very easily.

The tool offers a good number of features, but above all is very easy to use. Even if you’re just starting out in the podcast world, you’ll be able to easily create audio content and integrate it into the various streaming platforms.

As for the choice of the formula, we advise you to chooseone of the premium versions. The free version is quite complete and allows you to host a podcast and broadcast it easily. However, it does not provide access to monetization plans. If you only want to host a podcast, the free version will be enough.

In summary, we highly recommend Podbean. This is in our opinion one of the easiest solutions to host and distribute a podcast. This platform is above all a huge time saver and a shortcut to live from your audio content.

The alternative to Podbean

There are now many solutions to create, host and monetize a podcast. However, not all platforms offer as many features as Podbean. Therefore, we are going to present you the serious alternatives to this platform.

Libsyn is an all-in-one platform that allows you tohost your podcasts and broadcast them on streaming services(Apple Podcast, Spotify, Deezer, etc.). With this tool, we will also be able to place ads to earn money.

Otherwise, it is possible to create private podcasts accessible by subscription. It is surely one of the tools that offer the most ways of monetization. Prices are similar with packages ranging from $5 to $20 per month.

Anchor Fm is a platform owned by Spotify. It is in fact entirely free and allows you to host and broadcast a podcast. However, this service is also designed to monetize its audience. Indeed, there are several sponsorship offers to recommend to earn money with his podcasts.

Castos is also a very complete service, which allows you to host and distribute your podcasts on streaming platforms. Besides that, Castos offers many tools to track the performance of a podcast. In terms of monetization, it is possible to create a private podcast, accessible through a subscription.

How do I use Podbean?

Podbean works quite simply. All you have to do is import your audio files on the platform and then broadcast them on the different streaming services. The same goes for cutting up your audios and creating episodes.

However, the big plus of this service is the monetization part. If you have a podcast and use this platform, we really recommend you use them. This way, you will be able to earn money with your audio content without having to use other software.

To monetize its podcasts, two means are proposed on the platform, ads, and the sale of private podcasts.

In order to place advertisements on your audio contents, you must go to the “Ad marketplace” section. Then you will have to choose at which point in the podcast the ads should be integrated.

If you want to add ads to your podcasts via Podbean, here is a video tutorial that explains the process:

To create a private podcast and sell it, you will have to go to the “Premium” section and then “Premium channels“. Then, you will have to create a new channel and several podcasts. Right after, it will be necessary toindicate a price as well as its type(single payment or subscription).

Once all the settings and options have been configured, you can start promoting your private podcast.

To learn more about creating premium podcasts, we leave you with this explanatory video: