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Method and sources
- Monthly cost = plan price (monthly, or the annual per-month equivalent) + paid extra podcasts where a host sells them (Fireside).
- A plan fits when its stated caps hold your podcasts, downloads and upload hours and, if you need video, it lists video podcast hosting. 'No cap stated' counts as fitting.
- Buzzsprout's annual plans give 72 (or 180) upload hours a year; we count that as 6 (or 15) a month. Podbean's upload caps are in GB; we use the audio hours Podbean states.
- Annual prices are used where shown as numbers (Transistor, Fireside: yearly total ÷ 12). Castos and Acast show no annual number, so the monthly price is used and flagged.
- Not counted: transcription and AI add-ons, private-podcast subscribers, dynamic ads, overage fees, taxes. Buzzsprout's free plan and Acast's 5-episode Starter are listed but not ranked.
- Every number has a verbatim evidence snippet; a daily refresh re-renders each pricing page (including the monthly/annual toggle) and logs any mismatch for a human. Data is never changed automatically.
- Rankings are by total monthly cost, then name. Affiliate status is never read by the calculator (tested).
Sources
- https://www.buzzsprout.com/pricing (render)
- https://www.captivate.fm/pricing (render)
- https://transistor.fm/pricing/ (render)
- https://www.podbean.com/podcast-hosting-pricing (render)
- https://rss.com/pricing/ (render)
- https://castos.com/pricing/ (render)
- https://www.simplecast.com/pricing (render)
- https://fireside.fm/pricing (render)
- https://www.acast.com/pricing (render)
- https://riverside.com/pricing (render)