PodBean

What do you like best?

I upload several long podcasts every week. Before Podbean, I chose managed my own site. In doing that I had complete freedom in presenting my materials, but it took a lot of my time. I went looking first for a host that offered -unlimited space-, a modest price, great ease and timeliness of uploading, a simple interface, the ability to share to social media sites and a large and ready group of downloaders. Podbean has all of those features plus automatic uploads to the podcast giants like Itunes and Google Podcasts. Podbean has all of these features. I have been on Podbean for nearly a year now and have gained new followers - more than I expected - and my podcast has the potential of being heard all over the world, and very easily at that. OK - Podbean is EASY use and podcasts are Easy for a listener to find. And EASY for a newbie to get started fast and maintain with limited effort. I like all these features.

What do you dislike?

I do not like the way my podcasts appear. There are a few templates - and though my podcast falls into a major category (82% religion and spirituality), there are no templates that have anything to do with this vastly popular topic. Filling out the template is not WYSIWYG - it can appear to the podcaster one way and to the user another quite differently, especially in the "fill-in sections (fields)" - for me the default text often gets published with a background that obscures the text and/or text and background conflict. I guess I could build my own template; that is what I have done in the past which I wish to avoid. I would also like to be able to set the order of the podcasts, grouping them by subject matter, but there is little I can do about that. Of course, the uploads display in chronological order, but a great feature would be to implement a SQL service so they can be ordered as the author deems appropriate. Finally, the monthly price is a little steep at $29.

Recommendations to others considering the product:

If you need SPACE and you have limited FUNDS and/or EXPERTISE, I would recommend Podbean. I looked at many other alternatives before choosing Podbean. It was what I needed at the time because I needed to MIGRATE +- 1,000 audios, which I am still doing a year later. Podbean has taken the difficulty out of that.

What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

Because I usually do 3 - 4 50-minutes shows per week, with Podbean I'm saving loads of time in posting them. That was my biggest problem before, which is now solved. And I'm actually saving a little money by abandoning the prior company I used for this purpose - after 18 years on, that company really did my wrong, and I had to find an alternative fast. In a very short time with little preparation I was able to make the switch.