Episode 107
Buzzsprout vs Captivate: Podcast Hosting Platforms Reviewed
Here at Bamby Media, we’ve been producing podcasts for clients for almost a decade and I’d say at this point we’ve worked with almost every podcast hosting platform out there.
From Omnystudio to Simplecast, Podbean, Libsyn, Blubrry, Acast to name a few.
But do we really need that many podcast hosts?
Don’t they all largely do the same thing?
The short answer is yes, they do all largely have the same basic functions.
But I do feel that not all podcast hosting platforms are created equally.
There are definite advantages to some hosts over others, and after years of experience in this space, there are two hosts that I’ve found to be the standouts in the field.
Buzzsprout and Captivate.
I’m going to give you the breakdown as to why I’ve chosen these two, and who ultimately wins in a battle between the two.
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Transcript
Here at Bambi Media, we've been
Speaker:producing podcasts for clients
Speaker:for probably almost a decade.
Speaker:And I'd say at this point we've
Speaker:worked with almost every single
Speaker:podcast host that there is.
Speaker:So we've got the likes of Omni
Speaker:Studio, Simplecast, Podbean,
Speaker:Libsyn, Blueberry, Acast.
Speaker:There's just no shortage of them.
Speaker:There are so many different
Speaker:hosts to choose from.
Speaker:And I know that that's something that
Speaker:can really be confusing for people.
Speaker:Cause they're like, well,
Speaker:what's the difference?
Speaker:don't they all largely do the same thing?
Speaker:And the short answer is yes, they do all
Speaker:largely have the same basic functions.
Speaker:But I do feel that not all podcast
Speaker:hosting platforms are created equally.
Speaker:And after so many years working
Speaker:with podcasters and looking at
Speaker:what they actually need, there are
Speaker:two clear standouts for me that
Speaker:I'm going to chat through with
Speaker:you today here on the podcast.
Speaker:My two favorites currently at time of
Speaker:recording are Buzzsprout and Captivate.
Speaker:Buzzsprout is a U.
Speaker:S.
Speaker:based company and Captivate is a U.
Speaker:K.
Speaker:based company.
Speaker:They both charge in U.
Speaker:S.
Speaker:dollars and I'm going to give you
Speaker:a bit of a breakdown as to why I've
Speaker:chosen these two and give them kind
Speaker:of a bit of a battle here because
Speaker:there are definitely differences
Speaker:even between my two favorites.
Speaker:So let's start with
Speaker:first the price point.
Speaker:So at this time of recording Captivate
Speaker:starts at about US 19 per month.
Speaker:You get 30, 000 downloads per month.
Speaker:At that price point, uh, with unlimited
Speaker:shows and storage, meaning you can
Speaker:have multiple podcasts on that same
Speaker:platform on that same plan without you
Speaker:accruing extra, account fees, right?
Speaker:So that's really good if you're
Speaker:thinking about maybe starting a network
Speaker:of your own where you have multiple
Speaker:shows that you look after And you're
Speaker:not imagining that you'll go past
Speaker:that 30, 000 download a month realm.
Speaker:So it's really good
Speaker:for a newer podcaster.
Speaker:That's probably not going
Speaker:to be hitting those numbers.
Speaker:Buzzsprout has a base plan that
Speaker:slightly cheaper at us 12 per month.
Speaker:that gives you three hours
Speaker:of uploads monthly, but.
Speaker:It doesn't cap you at the amount
Speaker:of downloads that you actually get.
Speaker:This is something from
Speaker:Buzzsprout that I really like.
Speaker:So if you're getting really good numbers,
Speaker:your downloads are really quite high.
Speaker:It's not penalizing you
Speaker:for having a popular show.
Speaker:It's just saying, Hey, that's awesome.
Speaker:But you can only do up
Speaker:to three hours per month.
Speaker:So that can be limiting if you
Speaker:have a show that Often runs longer
Speaker:than an hour or even just shy of an
Speaker:hour and you're releasing weekly,
Speaker:you're not gonna be able to get
Speaker:that amount of, hours in that plan.
Speaker:The US $12 plan, the next one up, I
Speaker:believe is around us, 18 or something a
Speaker:month, which gives you six hours a month
Speaker:and then that would cover you just fine.
Speaker:So from a price point perspective,
Speaker:I do believe that Buzzsprout is
Speaker:slightly cheaper because even if
Speaker:you went up to the US 18 per month
Speaker:for the second pricing tier of
Speaker:Buzzsprout, you're not penalized
Speaker:ever for the amount of downloads.
Speaker:So that is a good thing
Speaker:to be made aware of.
Speaker:If we then now look at the basic user
Speaker:experience and the interfaces for both
Speaker:of these platforms, they both have a
Speaker:really nice back end where you actually
Speaker:upload your podcast, where you look at
Speaker:your statistics, all that sort of stuff.
Speaker:There's been a great deal of care
Speaker:on both of the platform sides here.
Speaker:Buzzsprout I find to be a lot different.
Speaker:Cleaner like a lot simpler to look
Speaker:at it's got some nice really bright
Speaker:green that is easy to navigate around
Speaker:and it sort of makes other things
Speaker:pop and that's really good if you
Speaker:are a little bit overwhelmed by
Speaker:tech or having too many functions.
Speaker:Then Buzzsprout is going to be a platform
Speaker:that makes a lot of sense to you.
Speaker:It's so easy to upload an episode.
Speaker:you could know absolutely nothing and
Speaker:you'd be totally fine using Buzzsprout
Speaker:from a user interface perspective.
Speaker:So this is the platform that we
Speaker:definitely recommend for newbie
Speaker:podcasters that don't want to
Speaker:be overwhelmed with all this
Speaker:like hosting backend stuff.
Speaker:It's very simple.
Speaker:Captivate on the other hand is a lot more
Speaker:detailed in its user experience on the
Speaker:backend, which I personally really like
Speaker:because it gives you a lot more features.
Speaker:There's a lot more things that you
Speaker:can do in Captivate that you can't
Speaker:do in Buzzsprout, even just like.
Speaker:Doing your research and putting in your
Speaker:show notes and booking in your guests
Speaker:You can send them booking links through
Speaker:the actual back end of captivate.
Speaker:You can link it up to the place that
Speaker:you're going to actually have your
Speaker:Episodes recorded on whether that's
Speaker:Riverside or whatever you can embed
Speaker:the links into your captivate sort
Speaker:of back end Like it's just quite
Speaker:seamless from that side of things,
Speaker:it's a nice experience there, putting
Speaker:in your research links, putting in
Speaker:your affiliates, any sort of codes,
Speaker:any attribution links that you want
Speaker:to include, and actually tracking
Speaker:how they're going, how many people
Speaker:are clicking on those links, like
Speaker:that sort of stuff from Captivate.
Speaker:It absolutely blows
Speaker:Buzzsprout out of the water.
Speaker:Like it's nowhere near the amount of
Speaker:advanced kind of depth that you can go
Speaker:into from a user experience and interface
Speaker:back end, part of these platforms.
Speaker:But I do absolutely recognize and
Speaker:understand that not all people need all
Speaker:the things that Captivate has there.
Speaker:So That's a tricky one for
Speaker:me to weigh in on personally.
Speaker:I think Captivate wins in this section
Speaker:because I like that it does all those
Speaker:things, but if you're a newbie podcaster,
Speaker:Buzzsprout would be totally fine and much
Speaker:easier and simpler for you to understand.
Speaker:Now, if we look at monetization and
Speaker:membership options, here's where it gets
Speaker:a little bit interesting because both
Speaker:platforms offer ways to monetize your
Speaker:podcast through memberships and tips.
Speaker:But Buzzsprout takes a cut.
Speaker:It takes a 15 percent cut of all
Speaker:subscriptions while Captivate
Speaker:Doesn't take any cut at all.
Speaker:That is a pretty big defining feature,
Speaker:especially as more and more people,
Speaker:uh, want to monetize their shows.
Speaker:They want to get like a bit of
Speaker:crowdfunding, crowdsourcing going.
Speaker:you know, that's a pretty big deal
Speaker:to have a 15 percent cut, go to
Speaker:Buzzsprout and no cut to Captivate.
Speaker:That's a no brainer for me.
Speaker:If you're wanting to monetize
Speaker:and you want to do it
Speaker:through the actual platform.
Speaker:So Buzzsprout or Captivate.
Speaker:Which you can do, you can set
Speaker:up everything through the back
Speaker:end of both of those platforms.
Speaker:Captivate would have to win because
Speaker:they're not taking any of your cash.
Speaker:Now we're rolling into dynamic
Speaker:content and actual ad insertion.
Speaker:So both platforms enable dynamic content.
Speaker:So Captivate though, allows For
Speaker:more precise control, because
Speaker:they let you actually decide where
Speaker:exactly your mid roll ads are
Speaker:going to go into each episode.
Speaker:So what this essentially means is,
Speaker:is that when you upload an episode
Speaker:or when you're editing an episode,
Speaker:like our audio editors do here, as
Speaker:you're going along, you're deciding,
Speaker:Oh, that's a really good breakdown.
Speaker:Like they've said something there that
Speaker:really wraps up that section and they're
Speaker:going to move into something else now.
Speaker:So now I'm going to put the ad
Speaker:role that I've been planning in
Speaker:this bit, in this break point.
Speaker:So really good place to put it.
Speaker:We've decided that.
Speaker:And then in the backend of
Speaker:Captivate, you can actually select,
Speaker:put the ad role here, right?
Speaker:Whereas Buzzsprout doesn't give you
Speaker:that option at time of recording.
Speaker:It just says.
Speaker:Yep, put your midroll in and then from
Speaker:with its AI stuff, they assess the
Speaker:waveform and then the AI decides where
Speaker:the best place is for that actual ad.
Speaker:I don't love that.
Speaker:Personally, I really want to be
Speaker:in control as a podcast producer,
Speaker:uh, where those ads are placed
Speaker:and where I feel like the best
Speaker:junction point is going to be.
Speaker:So Captivate absolutely
Speaker:wins for me in this section.
Speaker:the thing that I will say though, is that
Speaker:neither platform actually lets you select
Speaker:any dates for the ads to run to and from.
Speaker:that's a silly feature, I think, not to
Speaker:have, because if you're running a more
Speaker:detailed campaign, if you're working
Speaker:with a sponsor and they want that, that
Speaker:sponsor campaign to run from X date
Speaker:to the X date for this time and that
Speaker:time, you can't actually specify any of
Speaker:those things in Captivate or Buzzsprout.
Speaker:There are no dates associated.
Speaker:You have to physically
Speaker:go in and turn them off.
Speaker:And I think that's quite silly.
Speaker:the absolute standout for me that
Speaker:does this really well from an ad
Speaker:insertion is actually Omni studio.
Speaker:And for our podcasters that have
Speaker:campaigns that run, that have, higher
Speaker:level sponsors, or they want more
Speaker:targeted, I guess control over that,
Speaker:then Omni Studio is where we host
Speaker:those shows because of that, but you
Speaker:do pay through the teeth for Omni
Speaker:Studio, especially if you want to
Speaker:run ads through their tap platform.
Speaker:And so it's not something that everyone
Speaker:can afford or would want for just the,
Speaker:the sort of one off campaigns, or if
Speaker:you're running campaigns for your own,
Speaker:courses, platforms, your own services,
Speaker:that feels like that might be a bit.
Speaker:debilitating from a price
Speaker:point point of view.
Speaker:So then from that aspect, I guess that's
Speaker:why Captivate and Buzzsprout win there.
Speaker:But OmniStudio is absolutely a front
Speaker:runner for me personally, for anything
Speaker:that needs more campaign control.
Speaker:If we dive now into just the actual
Speaker:analytics and how these things
Speaker:operate on Buzzsprout and Captivate,
Speaker:it's a very similar situation here.
Speaker:In fact, every podcast host that we've
Speaker:ever worked with is pretty similar in
Speaker:the way that it delivers statistics.
Speaker:everyone gives you where people are
Speaker:listening, like as in the actual
Speaker:countries, the geography, what cities
Speaker:they're in all the way down to that
Speaker:kind of more targeted information.
Speaker:It gives you the platform that they're
Speaker:using, whether that's Apple Podcasts,
Speaker:or Castbox, or Overcast, or you know,
Speaker:there's so many of those that people
Speaker:prefer to listen to their podcasts on.
Speaker:and it even gives you data around, you
Speaker:know, whether they're using it on a
Speaker:desktop, or they're using it on a phone,
Speaker:like all that sort of data is really
Speaker:across the board, it's all there for you,
Speaker:no matter what platform that you use.
Speaker:One of the things that I think is better
Speaker:at this time for Captivate is that it
Speaker:does give you the unique listeners.
Speaker:So instead of just giving you an
Speaker:overall, like, this is how many
Speaker:downloads you're getting, it's actually
Speaker:giving you a little bit more targeted
Speaker:information about the actual amount of
Speaker:unique listeners that you're getting.
Speaker:That's some good data.
Speaker:You can also get that kind of data from
Speaker:the backend of Spotify for podcasters.
Speaker:So if you sign up for Spotify for
Speaker:podcasters, even if your show is
Speaker:not hosted on Spotify, you can get
Speaker:a more strategic kind of data around
Speaker:your show just for people that
Speaker:listen to it or watch it on Spotify.
Speaker:Buzzsprout I find a bit simpler to look
Speaker:at from a statistical point of view.
Speaker:You can see things laid
Speaker:out a little bit easier.
Speaker:Captivate is just a little bit.
Speaker:the experience of it isn't as
Speaker:nice, like just to understand
Speaker:what your data is telling you.
Speaker:I find just a little bit more convoluted.
Speaker:And it also has this area where you
Speaker:can kind of compete, like you could
Speaker:compare one episode to another.
Speaker:you know, I don't really need
Speaker:that information as much.
Speaker:I guess if you had two guests on that
Speaker:was similar and then you could see how
Speaker:those two guests were, or if you were
Speaker:putting similar content together, then
Speaker:maybe you would do that compare feature.
Speaker:But there are some features that I think
Speaker:in the statistics point of view, probably
Speaker:don't need to be there from captivate.
Speaker:And that's why it feels a little
Speaker:bit clunkier from that perspective.
Speaker:So Buzzsprout probably wins in the
Speaker:statistics point of view there.
Speaker:It used to not because you couldn't
Speaker:actually even customize the dates when
Speaker:you wanted to search how your show was
Speaker:going on, like through specific dates.
Speaker:It just wouldn't let you do
Speaker:that, which I thought was really
Speaker:dumb, but now it does do that.
Speaker:So Buzzsprout has made some
Speaker:improvements in the statistics.
Speaker:And if we look at website integrations
Speaker:and like customization, when it comes to
Speaker:that kind of thing, like the actual embed
Speaker:players that you get from both of those
Speaker:platforms, it's a similar experience.
Speaker:Although, uh, the captivate embed
Speaker:looks much nicer in my opinion.
Speaker:If you went to the bambumedia.
Speaker:com slash podcast page, and
Speaker:then you clicked on one of our
Speaker:podcasts sort of episodes there,
Speaker:you'd see that there's an embed.
Speaker:Player in there so you can just
Speaker:hit play and then it will start
Speaker:playing the actual episode.
Speaker:That looks nicer.
Speaker:It looks nice.
Speaker:It looks like it's just
Speaker:always been on the website.
Speaker:It doesn't look like it's something
Speaker:that's brought to you by Captivate.
Speaker:It's simple.
Speaker:It's clean.
Speaker:You can make it look a little bit
Speaker:more like you want it to look.
Speaker:I just like more of the customization
Speaker:features in Captivate there from
Speaker:the embed player perspective.
Speaker:But Buzzsprouts is totally fine as well.
Speaker:The other thing I'll say on this is
Speaker:that Both Buzzsprout and Captivate
Speaker:also have a feature where you don't
Speaker:necessarily have to have a website
Speaker:of your own, like BambiMedia.
Speaker:com.
Speaker:You can just direct people to
Speaker:your own website, like your
Speaker:web page for your podcast.
Speaker:that's, that's kind of fun, but
Speaker:the Buzzsprout one kind of sucks.
Speaker:Like, I don't like that at all.
Speaker:It just looks bad, really.
Speaker:I would not direct people to that.
Speaker:Whereas the Captivate one, if you just
Speaker:click on a few things, customize it a
Speaker:little bit, that looks really quite good.
Speaker:You could just give that to someone.
Speaker:If you didn't have a podcast, actual
Speaker:website, you could direct them to your
Speaker:Captivate version for your podcast.
Speaker:And it just displays really
Speaker:nicely, all the information.
Speaker:It's kind of like a little blog.
Speaker:And I really like the way that looks.
Speaker:So if we think about all this,
Speaker:who actually wins this battle?
Speaker:I mean, it honestly does depend
Speaker:on what you're looking for.
Speaker:I think if you're a newbie that's
Speaker:aiming for a simple and clean
Speaker:interface to get started quickly,
Speaker:Buzzsprout's going to be your best bet.
Speaker:It's really straightforward.
Speaker:The features are easy to understand.
Speaker:It doesn't have too many features.
Speaker:It's a lower price point and
Speaker:it doesn't penalize you for
Speaker:having too many downloads.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:buzzsprout is really good for the newbie
Speaker:that doesn't need it to be kind of
Speaker:feature rich for me personally, for the
Speaker:podcasters that we have on our client
Speaker:roster that we know we're going to need
Speaker:a little bit more, we always put them on
Speaker:captivate because they are more seasoned,
Speaker:or we can see that they're really
Speaker:going to be needing some extra things.
Speaker:They want maybe more control,
Speaker:or we want more control.
Speaker:Uh, we want to be able to dial
Speaker:in their dynamic ads more.
Speaker:We want deeper analytics.
Speaker:We want better monetization
Speaker:options for them.
Speaker:We want to track their attribution
Speaker:links better, all that sort of stuff.
Speaker:These are the clients that are on quite
Speaker:large packages with us, and we can
Speaker:see the benefit of Captivate for them.
Speaker:And that is a clear winner for us.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Yeah, that's my kind
Speaker:of roundup of the two.
Speaker:Both are really, really good platforms.
Speaker:Either way that you go here, you're
Speaker:going to get a very good outcome.
Speaker:Buzzsprout has really good
Speaker:customer service as well.
Speaker:Captivate does too.
Speaker:They both have great resources online.
Speaker:They both have really
Speaker:good founders as well.
Speaker:So it's, it's going to be a good
Speaker:experience either way you go.
Speaker:But for me today, for what we need for
Speaker:our clients, Captivate is the winner.
Speaker:Because of the extra things that you
Speaker:get within the platform, that Buzzsprout
Speaker:doesn't quite have a handle on.
Speaker:Let me know if you agree,
Speaker:uh, who you're hosted with.
Speaker:Would you consider migrating?
Speaker:That would be something that would
Speaker:be interesting to think about.
Speaker:We do have affiliate links to
Speaker:Buzzsprout and Captivate, and we
Speaker:also do have a migration service
Speaker:that will migrate you from your
Speaker:host that perhaps you're not happy
Speaker:with to a host that you really like.
Speaker:Well, after reviewing this,
Speaker:maybe you want to go with
Speaker:one of these ones instead.
Speaker:So you can reach out to us if
Speaker:you'd like us to migrate you to
Speaker:one of these other platforms.
Speaker:The other thing I will say as well
Speaker:about Captivate, which is really
Speaker:cool, is that they actually have a
Speaker:legacy feature for your statistics.
Speaker:So if you were, because a lot of
Speaker:people are concerned about migrating
Speaker:and they're going to lose all their
Speaker:statistics from their other hosts, which
Speaker:is completely valid and absolutely fine.
Speaker:Absolutely, is the case like
Speaker:you have to export all your
Speaker:data from your other host.
Speaker:The cool thing about Captivate
Speaker:is yeah, they have this legacy
Speaker:feature for statistics now, which
Speaker:means that you can now download
Speaker:all the data from your other host.
Speaker:Upload that data to Captivate and it
Speaker:will put all that legacy data in so
Speaker:that you can have more of an actual
Speaker:running total of how your show is going.
Speaker:That's a fairly new
Speaker:feature for Captivate.
Speaker:When I say new, maybe it's
Speaker:about four or five months or so.
Speaker:I can't remember, I think that's
Speaker:a pretty big game changer for me.
Speaker:if you're interested in either of
Speaker:those platforms, click on the links.
Speaker:If you want us to migrate you, go for it.
Speaker:Other than that, I hope this really helps
Speaker:you make a decision or just be sure of
Speaker:this decision that you already made.
