Podcast hosting
The limits that actually decide your hosting bill
Upload hours, monthly downloads, unlimited plans and free tiers: what each model means for a show that grows.
Independent podcast tool guide
Podcast tools, priced and explained with sources
Hosting limits, billing terms, audio requirements and first-year costs, read from the vendors' own pages and dated. So you can choose your tools before you pay for them.
Start with the decision in front of you
Most guides to starting a podcast are written by the companies that sell the tools. That makes it hard to compare plans on equal terms, and the details that decide your real bill are often left out: upload caps, download caps, what happens when you go over, and which free plans expire your episodes.
Pricing comparison
Ten hosts, entry prices side by side
Price as listed, billing basis and main limit, with monthly and yearly billing kept apart.
Recording and editing
Which jobs you can cover for free
Record, edit, host, distribute: the free tools that exist and when paid software earns its place.
Publishing workflow
Files every directory accepts
Loudness, formats, cover art and music rights, from what Apple and others document.
Budget planning
What your first year really costs
A private, in-browser planner and three starting points priced from official pages.
Three ways to start, priced from official pages
A first podcast can run on zero subscriptions or cost several hundred dollars a year. These examples add up only the prices that vendors publish: Audacity is free and open source, Spotify for Creators offers free hosting, Buzzsprout lists its Audio plan at $15 a month when billed annually, Transistor lists Starter at $19 billed monthly, and Descript lists Hobbyist at $24 on monthly billing.[1][2][3][4][5]
Monthly price multiplied by 12, from the vendors' pricing pages read on November 11, 2026. Hardware is left out on purpose: enter what you actually pay in the planner.[3][4][5]
Open the budget planner
Enter your own prices. The planner runs in your browser and nothing you type is sent anywhere.
How Episode Ledger works
Official sources only
Every price, limit and requirement links to the vendor's own pricing page or help center.
Dated, every time
Each source shows the day it was read, currently November 11, 2026. Prices are re-checked before a page is updated.
Billing basis made explicit
Billed monthly, monthly equivalent of a yearly payment, or free: always labeled, never blended into one number.
No invented testing
We document what vendors publish. We never claim to have tested a product we have not tested, and we publish no star ratings.
No ranking for sale
Tables include vendors with or without affiliate programs, and their order is never set by commission. There are no affiliate links today.
Corrections welcome
Found an outdated price? Our methodology explains how we fix and date corrections.
Sources
Official pages read for this guide. Prices change: always confirm on the vendor page before paying.