6 Best WordPress Podcast Plugins For Your Website In 2023

Media companies that once ruled the world have finally realized the importance of platforms. For example - You couldn’t just post a baby shark dance video on a platform 20 years ago and expect 8 Billion views in return. Today, you can. 

Building a new website from scratch and zeroing in on complete ownership of its audience is unarguable (if you’ve got the resources and a ‘Plan B’). But in case you’re planning on saving time and money and dodge the risks at the same time with your podcasting, using WordPress might actually be better.

Now let’s check out more reasons as to why you should choose WordPress for podcasting. Always typecasted as a platform that’s all about blogging, WordPress really has a lot more to offer when it comes to podcasting. It has a variety of Podcast themes. You can have a look at them, here. It’s got great community support. And last but never the least, it gives you access to a lot of exciting podcasting features via its plugins. 

Here are the most recommended ones -

6 Podcast Plugins That’ll Best Suit Your Needs - 

Seriously Simple Podcasting

Seriously simple podcasting is free of cost and one of the best podcasting plugins out there. It is specially built and designed for podcasting beginners by Castos (a podcast hosting service provider). But it also gives you the option to sync up with the other hosting providers.   

Features -

• It lets you record both audio and video podcasts.
• You can have more than one podcast on a WordPress website.
• It has one-click submission that easily submits your podcast to Spotify.
• Easily import and export podcasts from LibSyn, Buzzsprout, Podbean, Soundcloud, or Simplecast.
• Customizable media player to change colors and add your podcast image
• It has turbo-charge RSS feeds that increase the no. of episodes displayed and speeds up the feed’s load time.
• It lets you use shortcodes to add your episodes, playlists, and archive anywhere on your WordPress site.

Active installations - More than 20,000 websites have installed Seriously Simple Podcasting

Price - All features including the advanced add-ons are free of charge. But in case you are a high volume publisher and wish to save time, you can go for the actual solution named ‘Castos’ that made the free SSP plugin. Here’s the pricing -

• Starter - $190/year - Perfect for podcasters just getting started who need all the essentials.
• Growth - $490/year - Great for podcasters who want more features to market and promote their show.
• Pro - $990/year - Ideal for podcasters who produce video content and want access to more analytics.

Blubrry PowerPress

PowerPress is a preferred plugin for podcasters focusing on organic growth through SEO. A preferred WordPress podcasting plugin since 2008, PowerPress is consistently maintained and upgraded. It is simple to install & integrate. 

Features -

• It includes audio and video with embedded player support.
• It lets you jump to a given timestamp in the episode.
• You can create subscribe page with their subscribe shortcode embed and subscribe sidebar widget that is specifically optimized for responsive websites, high-res screens, and Apple Retina displays.
• Lets you import your podcast from SoundCloud, Libsyn, PodBean, Squarespace, Anchor, or any valid RSS feed. 
• It lets you create separate podcasts by category or podcast format through its ‘Category Podcasting’ or ‘Podcast Channels features’.
• Has emoji you can use for your podcast feed.
• It offers Danish translation, French translation, Simplified Chinese, Italian translation, Romanian translation, Russian translation, and Brazilian Portuguese translation.

Active installations - 75,000+ websites have installed PowerPress

Price - While the basic features are free for everyone. The plugin charges for podcast hosting. Here are the plans -

• Small - $12/mo - 100MB of monthly storage
• Medium - $20/mo - 250MB of monthly storage
• Large - $40/mo - 500MB of monthly storage

Libsyn’s Publishing Hub offers a perfect workflow for publishing podcast episodes right from WordPress to directly into your Libsyn show. For those podcasters that often go on and off WordPress, this might be a great .option as the hosting remains with Libsyn. If you don’t wish to use the hosting, you’d have to use a different plugin.

Features -

• It lets you create an episode draft and post it from your WordPress site.
• It offers external cloud hosting, so your episodes won’t take space on your WordPress hosting platforms and are safe even if the site goes down.
• It lets you use Apple Podcasts optimization tags. 
• It lets you creating ID3 tags.
• It has an automated feed/show for migrations
• It offers advanced scheduling options for your episodes.

Active installations - 4,000+ websites have installed Libsyn Publisher Hub

Price - Although the plugin is free to install and use. Libsyn like all other podcast plugins charges for the hosting. If you wish to use the hosting from the same plugin provider, here are the pricing -   

• Classic 50 - $5 for 50 MB
• Classic 250 - $15 for 250 MB
• Advanced 400 - $20 for 400 MB
• Advanced 800 - $40 for 800 MB

FuseBox is a podcast plugin with a great UI and designed specifically for power users. It doesn’t offer any hosting services and doesn’t give any option to manage your podcast episodes. This basically means you’ll need a different plugin for that. It is ideal for podcasters who don’t publish a lot.

Features -

• Has an Archive Player that displays your entire podcast catalog to your listeners.
• Lets your listeners continue the podcast while surfing your website.
• It offers support for all MP3-based podcast feeds and has speed-up and slow-down playback.
• Keeps your transcripts in a fixed window on the podcast page (saves scrolling time and helps boost your SEO)
• Lets your listeners download any episode they want directly from the podcast player.

Active installations - 1,000+ websites have installed FuseBox

Price - The FuseBox plugin is free for a limited period. You’d have to upgrade to a premium plan post that. Here’s the pricing -

• Free trial - Up to 10k views/mo with up to 3 free shows on one account.
• FuseBox Pro - $15.83/mo (billed annually). It also gives you 2 months free with annual billing. Up to 100k views/mo with the unlimited number of pro players on one account. 

Simple Podcast Press is a podcast player designed to grow your audience. It is well suited for users looking to expand their reach via a website. It can be used either as a standalone plugin with a different hosting service provider or can get integrated with a different plugin

Features -

• It displays iTunes podcast reviews right on the podcast page.
• It has customizable CTAs to drive more traffic
• It can be integrated with most of the podcasting platforms including BlogTalkRadio, PodBean, Soundcloud, etc
• It offers competition automation so you just set up the workflows and focus on publishing your podcasts. 
• It has a simple integration with Clammr that makes promotion easier.
• It has an automatic URL shortener
• It offers clickable timestamps

Active installations - 1,000+ websites have installed Simple Podcast Press

Price - Simple Podcast Press only comes in premium plans. The license fee starts with -

• Single License - $67 (usually $97 - over 30% off) - up to 1 website
• Professional License - $97 (usually $197 - over 50% off) - up to 3 websites
• Multi License - $147 (usually $297 - over 50% off) - up to 10 websites

It is a premium solution with a free plugin and is ideal for podcasters that don’t publish too often. The plugin fetches the episodes from the feed URL and lets you choose to either embed the episodes in your podcast page or simply post on the go.

Features -

• It is easy to integrate with your WordPress dashboard
• It offers complete iTunes support including iTunes podcast specifications support, byte-range request support, optimized show description and tagging, etc
• It works fine with all self-hosted WordPress accounts
• Just drop your podcast feed URL in Buzzsprout for migration and it’ll take care of the rest
• It offers play-by-play analytics.

Active installations - 5,000+ websites have installed Buzzsprout Podcasting

Price - The plugin is free. Podcast hosting service is paid. It is free for the first 90 days. Here’s their complete pricing model - 

• Free - Upload time - 2 hrs/mo and episodes can be hosted for 90 days
• $12/month - Upload time - 3 hrs/mo and episodes can be hosted indefinitely. You can upload more content for $4/hour
• $18/month - Upload time - 6 hrs/mo and episodes can be hosted indefinitely. You can upload more content for $3/hour
• $24 /month - Upload time - 6 hrs/mo and episodes can be hosted indefinitely. You can upload more content for $2/hour