Simplecast

Simplecast is one of the leading podcast hosting platforms available in 2020. This platform made it to our list of overall best podcast hosts and this post is a detailed guide and review of Simplecast. Simplecast is used by popular brands such as Facebook, Dax Shepard, Politico, Shopify, TechCrunch, Harvard, Twitter, and Fast Company, among others.

First, let’s start with some basics. Simplecast was founded in 2013 by Brad Smith and Josh Long.
The company’s HQ is in NY and according to their Linkedin page, they have 11-50 employees.

Table of Contents

Simplecast Pricing and Promo Code

Unlike Podbean and Buzzsprout, Simplecast does not have a free plan but you get a 14-day free trial. Their paid plans are as follows:

Basic Plan – The cheapest:

This plan goes at a monthly fee of $15. The plan also has an option for an annual prepay at $13.50 per month. Below are some other features of this plan
2 team member seats
Unlimited storage & uploads
Distribution to everywhere your audience listens
Customizable show website with a custom domain
Manage multiple shows with one account
Embeddable episode web player
Recast for you (and your listeners)
A secure (HTTPS) site and RSS feed
20K downloads included per month
Email support

Essential: $35/month plan

Essential costs $35 if paid monthly and if prepaid annually, the plan costs a mere $31.50 per month

In addition to the features in the basic plan above, Simplecast Essential Plan has the following features:

It can support up to 4 team member seats
Additional web players(Mini & Show)
Compare analytics across 2 episodes
Location analytics(country & state/region)
Unique Listener reports
Web Player analytics
Technology analytics(apps, browsers)
50K downloads included per month
Chat & email support

Growth – $85/month plan

This plan costs a monthly fee of $85 which translates to $76.50 if prepaid on an annual basis. The Growth plan has extra collaboration tools and provide more insights to your listerners. This Growth plan has all the features in the Essentail plan and the following:

This plan can support up to 9 team member seats
Compare metrics across 5 episodes
Location analytics(+ detailed metro areas)
Detailed Device analytics
Web Player Embed Location analytics
Network (ISP) analytics(home, office, mobile)
Technology analytics(+ device details)
120K downloads included per month

Below is a snaphot showing a comparison table of all the three plans:

simplecast podcast hosting 3 pricing plans

The number of downloads increases to certain soft-limits, Simplecast alerts the user in context with a request to upgrade. At the moment, the first plan, Basic, has a soft limit of 20,000 downloads with Essential following at 50,000 downloads per month and finally Growth at 120,000 downloads per month. Simplecast also offers an enticing 50% off for the first 2 months with a promo code ONSIMPLECAST.

Simplecast Features

Simplecast has a wide variety of features that get updated regularly. Among these amazing features are the following:

They offer show websites that are customizable with a custom domain.
One account can manage multiple shows.

Unlimited storage and uploads.
Recast offer for the users and their listeners.
Email support on Basic and Email + Chat support on both Essential and Growth Plans.
An importation search tool that enables users to move their shows from other platforms onto Simplecast.
Their advanced setting feature for adding a Google Analytics ID and Facebook Pixel.
An embedded player with customizable themes
Management of team members that allows the show owner to give different team members different access levels.
Unique functionalities for social sharing.
With the above features and many more in mind, Simplecast has its pros and cons that we will discuss below.

Simplecast Pros

It allows multiple users who have different access levels.
They offer unlimited storage and uploads.
They have astonishing precision on their Analytics and their incorporation of graphical interface makes analyzing much easier.
It’s easy to start with Simplecast and they guide you through the basic steps for setting up.
Their support team is reputedly fast and efficient.

Simplecast Cons

This platform does not lack its share of cons, no matter how few. These are:

Their pricing options are somewhat biased with the highest paying users getting better. Features such as API Publishing.
Their Webinars are a bit disorganized and might confuse a novice.

Simplecast API

If you need to customize your podcasting experience the API is the solution for you. Simplecast’s set of functions and procedures are self-describing. The endpoint for Simplecast’s API can be accesssed at https://api.simplecast.com/v1/.
If interested in the API and you need help, CLICK HERE.
To get started, the following are valid:
URL
You can access the API at the link provide above.
Authentication
First you need to get an API token from your page that contains Private Apps. Then in the authentication header, set your bearer token by including it as your API token with each request encountered.
Paging
Use ‘limit’ and ‘offset’ parameters as queries to page responses on list endpoints.
Versioning
Current endpoints hit a version of 2.0 that is available as of this moment.
Endpoints
Options for actions are described on Simplecast’s website with inputs, a URL and HTTP method. These options for actions are returned in the form of Json with each endpoint. Of course, relies on the user’s or client’s access.
Podcasts
Here is a screenshot that illustrated this. It simply entails a list of podcasts that have are available for access to a user or client.

Episodes
A screenshot that illustrates the concept of a list of episodes for a podcast shown below

Analytics
Podcast analytics have their links here as illustrated by the screenshot below

Simplecast Recast

Simplecast has a unique feature called Recast that allows the user to shared short clips of the episodes present with the general public. This built-in and user friendly feature is on the episode dashboard. As far as the option to use Recast is concerned, once you add an episode to a Simplecast account, you can launch Recast Editor and creating a video from it. For on this and more on how to customize the Recast video, CLICK HERE.
Having gone through what Simplecast has to offer, let us compare Simplecast with some of the most popular hosting platforms for podcasts.

Simplecast vs Libsyn

One of the most outstanding differences between these two is when it comes to storage. Whereas Simplecast offers unlimited storage on the lowest plan, Basic Plan, Libsyn doesn’t offer any unlimited bandwidth and storage on any of its price models except their highest tiers.
And migration from any platform is free and simplified on Simplecast whereas Libsyn charges a fee of $25 for every 10MB of the user’s show. Show migration past this requires users on Libsyn to contact a specialist for a quote.
However, like Simplecast’s Recast, Libsyn has a feature they call OnPublish that allows their users to share their entire podcasts on social media pages. So it’s up to the user to decide which platform best suits their sharing needs.
And the most amazing feature this two share is that they support Sportify.

Simplecast vs Buzzsprout

For those that like to kick start their hosting with a sweet free-trial period, here’s something that might peak your interest as we take this two for a match. Simplecast offers a free 14-day period whereas Buzzsprout has a 90-day free trial period.
Buzzsprout not only offers a longer free trial period but it is relatively cheaper than Simplecast. Buzzsprout offers their first plan Free with a monthly upload limit of 2 hours. Plus they have a built-in service for transcription that is absent in Simplecast.
However, whereas Buzzsprout allows for unlimited team members on their plans, Simplecast has the advantage of their team members having different levels of access. And when it comes to statistics, tools on Simplecast are more advanced and they offer far better display.

Simplecast vs Podbean

Simplecast and Podbean share several similarities. For one, both of these platforms are relatively easy to use and they offer beautiful themes for customization plus incorporating powerful tools for statistics.
However, their pricing is slightly different. Whereas Simplecast starts at $15, Podbean’s Basic Plan is free so starters don’t have to worry about raising fees. Plus, their Unlimited Audio Plan comes at only $9 billed annually and includes unlimited storage and unmetered bandwidth. And on top of support on EMail and Chat, Podbean has phone and forum supports too.
However, based on responses from people that have used Podbean before, their customer support is reputedly slow and sometimes inefficient. Also some of the features that are supposedly present in the lower tiers aren’t accessible until users move to higher tiers.
Simplecast so far hasn’t had much problems with the reputation for holding their end of the bargain. The features you see for the plans availed on Simplecast are what you’ll get on purchasing the plans.

Simplecast vs Anchor

The most outstanding feature that Simplecast has over Anchor is its in-depth and much detailed analytics that help users monitor the performance of their shows. Anchor, however, doesn’t go further than showing overall plays by date and the episode’s number of download.
Anchor, however, offers free hosting for those interested.
You should note that free hosting, as illustrated by most platforms, is sometimes costly in the long run. For instance, for monetization, Anchor will offer to place ads on user’s episodes that will require thousands of downloads to even come close to hitting expectation.
Plus when Anchor posts a show to Apple Podcasts, that show won’t appear under the user’s account but under Anchor’s account. This is unhelpful for users who would wish to see how theirs show resonates with the intended audience.

Simplecast vs Transistor

The first and most important aspect that differentiates these two is pricing. Whereas Simplecast has a monthly fee of $15 per show, Transistor charges $19 a month for unlimited shows. However, for the same $15 a month, Simplecast offers 20,000 downloads whereas Transistor offers 10,000 downloads for the $19 package.
These two, however, are similar in most ways. They, for example, both offer free 14-day periods and include live and email customer support.

Simplecast vs Captivate

Captivate, for a start, offers unlimited shows for each of its plans while each of Simplecast’s Plans only incorporates a single show each. Captivate, just like Simplecast, offers free migration of its users and they include a WordPress plugin that has perfect synchrony with sites on Captivate.

Simplecast vs Soundcloud

Soundcloud too, unlike Simplecast, has an a free. This plan, Soundcloud Basic, comes with free 3 hours upload time, embedded player customization and real time stats. All these are available on Simplecast but Simplecast’s lowest tier is $15 per month.
And free trials for Soundcloud last up to 30 days as compared to the 14-day trial period that Simplecast offers.
Soundcloud, however, doesn’t offer customer support that comes anywhere close to Soundcloud. The fact that Soundcloud was not primarily designed for Podcasting partly explains this.
And when it comes to importing existing episodes to either of these two, Simplecast offers users automatic importation whereas Soundcloud users have to do it manually, episode after episode.

Simplecast vs Blubrry

Blubrry just like Simplecast offers such features as free migration, Pro statistics and a modern player. Blubrry also includes a free WordPress site.
Blubrry starts its paid plan at $12 a month and offers 100GB storage as compared to Simplecast that starts at $15 a month and offers unlimited storage.
For unlimited storage on Blubrry, the user has to upgrade to Enterprise plan and talk to a sales representative.
Blubrry, however, offer a free Basic Plan that includes Managed WordPress website.

Simplecast vs Fireside

Fireside is a platform that also shares much of its basic features with Simplecast. However, unlike Simplecast that has 3 plans, Fireside has only one tier that costs $19. This plan includes 1 podcast with unlimited episodes, downloads and storage. To add extra podcasts, users on Fireside are required to pay $8 per month for each.

To download a Simplecast episode file;

Open you Simplecast dashboard
Locate navigation bar and click on Episodes
Tap on the card of the episode you want to download
Scroll down to where you’ll find a button with ‘Copy Direct Mp3 Download’ and click it. Once you do this, copy the link to your clipboard
Open a browser window and paste the copied link and your download should initiate.

Simplecast to Spotify

To get your show to spotify, follow the following steps:

Open your web browser and go to https://podcasters.spotify.com

The tap on ‘Send Code’. This will initiate the sending of an 8-digit code to the email address listed in the RSS feed of your show

Check the email account for the code from Sportify then copy it and paste into the website’s verification box

You will receive a ‘select your country’ prompt. Select it.

Tap on the +Add Category if you wish to add them. Then click ‘Next’

Then review the information present and then click ‘Submit’ if satisfied. That’s it.

Simplecast can be contacted via their email [email protected] The company at the moment doesn’t offer support via phone.

Nate R. Reiner

My name is Nate Reiner and I am the editor here at 10Webtools. I have 8 years of experience using 50+ different web tools ranging from podcast, web hosting, email marketing, and much more. I previously managed a team offering support services to a large conglomerate that utilized tens of software solutions. I now run this blog full-time and when I am not reviewing or testing software, I enjoy riding bikes and supporting my clients achieve internet success. You can reach me directly at [email protected]