Did you know that in America alone, 67 million people listen to podcasts on a monthly basis? Would you also believe when I say this number was half of what it is now in 2013? Clearly, it is a spectacular growth in terms of user base. Additionally, podcast advertising revenues grew by as much as 70% each year between 2015 and 2017.
With those numbers, it would be safe to say that podcasting is a massive growth industry right now in terms of both audience and revenue.
But if you’re thinking of creating a podcast, you will need a website to help promote it. As is usually the case, WordPress is a great option to make a podcast website – but you’re going to need the right WordPress podcast plugin for a list of things, like:
- Publishing your podcast feeds
- Creating a user friendly player
- Viewing the download statistics
To help you out, I have looked into some of the best WordPress podcast plugins in this post.
Best WordPress Podcast Plugins For 2018
1. Blubrry PowerPress
Blubrry PowerPress is the most popular WordPress podcast plugin available at WordPress.org. Beyond raw popularity, it also has great reviews – it has maintained a 5-star rating over 130 reviews.
Blubrry PowerPress is packed with lots of helpful functionality, but here are some of the most important features:
- Automatically imports podcast feed from SoundCloud, LibSyn, PodBean, Squarespace or other services
- Creates iTunes compliant podcast feeds
- Subscribes page shortcode to help you get more subscribers
- Has built-in social share buttons
- Has built-in “show notes” link to provide listeners with more information
- Visitors can change playback speed or skip forward/backward
Best of all, the Blubrry PowerPress plugin is free. Blubrry makes its money by selling access to advanced statistics and/or dedicated podcast hosting. Both subscriptions are helpful, but not required to use the plugin.
If you want to see Blubrry PowerPress in action, you can check out the popular WordPress podcast, Matt Report.
2. Smart Podcast Player
If you’re a blogger, you’ve probably heard about Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income website, as well as its associated podcast.
Smart Podcast Player is Pat’s own creation that he uses to manage the actual Smart Passive Income podcast. And, if you’re willing to pay, you can get it for your own podcast.
Here are some things that are unique about Smart Podcast Player:
- It includes an email capture feature built into the player
- Visitors can skip forward or backward by chunks just like on most smartphone podcast players
- Visitors can also change the speed of your podcast
- You can display unlimited podcast episodes, including pagination and search
- It includes built-in social sharing buttons to help boost your social shares
- The player follows responsive design principles and looks great on mobile devices
Additionally, Smart Podcast Player has the best out-of-the-box design of any option on this list.
The only potential downside of Smart Podcast Player is that it uses SaaS-style monthly billing. That means you’ll need to pay to continue to use the plugin.
Smart Podcast Player costs $96 per year or $12 per month.
3. Seriously Simple Podcasting
After Blubrry PowerPress, Seriously Simple Podcasting is the second most popular podcast plugin at WordPress.org. Like Blubrry PowerPress, it boasts a 5-star rating across 130 reviews.
While Blubrry PowerPress comes packed with a boatload of features, Seriously Simple Podcasting is, as its name suggests, more focused on creating a simple way for you to share your podcasts.
Here are some of its notable features:
- Integrated podcast hosting via Seriously Simple Hosting
- Free basic stats add-on
- Option to use any post type for your podcasts
- RSS feed supports iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, and more
- Shortcodes and widgets for displaying episode lists and single episodes
- Support for both video and audio podcasts
What about the downside of Seriously Simple Podcasting,you may ask. Here it is. It uses the native WordPress media player on your own website, which isn’t a very good experience for visitors.
If you’re mostly concerned with syndicating your podcast to other sources, Seriously Simple Podcasting is a good option. But if you plan to have a lot of people listening via your website, Blubrry PowerPress’ player is much nicer.
4. Simple Podcast Press
Simple Podcast Press is a plugin that you can either use by itself or in combination with other podcast plugins.
That is, while you can use it as a standalone plugin, it also integrates with:
- Blubrry PowerPress
- Smart Podcast Player
While Simple Podcast Press does include a stylish and functional podcast player (pictured above), it also includes a bunch of separate functionalities like:
- Automatic publishing from your podcast feed
- Clickable timestamps in show notes – these will even integrate with Smart Podcast Player and Blubrry PowerPress
- iTunes review showcase
- Click-to-tweet functionality for show notes
- Collapsible transcripts
- Podcast playlists
Simple Podcast Press costs $67 for a single site license and one year of support/updates.
5. Podlove Podcast Publisher
Podlove Podcast Publisher is another plugin that helps you with:
- Managing your podcast feeds
- Showcasing your podcast episodes with a web player
While the included Podlove Web Player isn’t quite as stylish as Smart Podcast Player or Blubrry PowerPress, it is definitely more functional than Seriously Simple Podcasting. It also offers chapter support, which is helpful if your podcast has distinct “sections.”
Another thing nice about it is you can view the download statistics right inside your WordPress dashboard.
Finally, Podlove Podcast Publisher includes a helpful template system that lets you easily customize how the plugin displays your podcasts.
6. Libsyn Podcasting Plugin
Libsyn is one of the most well-known podcast hosting services. To help make it easier for users of their platform, Libsyn created the Libsyn Podcasting Plugin.
While the plugin is still technically in beta, it seems to have good reviews thus far.
With the plugin, you can upload media files directly to Libsyn via your WordPress dashboard, and you can also generate episode drafts and schedule posts.
If you’re already using Libsyn, this plugin is a good option to connect your podcast to your WordPress site. Just remember that it is still technically in public beta so there’s a chance of some bugs.
7. Buzzsprout Podcasting
Buzzsprout is another standalone podcast hosting service. Like Libsyn, the Buzzsprout team created the Buzzsprout Podcasting plugin to make it easy for WordPress users to integrate podcast episodes into their site.
Buzzsprout helps you:
- Upload and optimize your podcast episodes
- Publish compliant RSS feeds
- Create web players
- View stats for all your podcast episodes
The Buzzsprout Podcasting plugin also helps you easily embed your podcast episodes into WordPress posts or pages.
While Buzzsprout does offer a limited free plan, you’ll need one of the paid plans starting at $12 per month if you’re serious about podcasting.
Which WordPress Podcast Plugin Should You Choose?
If you’re looking for a free solution, your best options are either Blubrry PowerPress or Seriously Simple Podcast. Blubrry PowerPress is more popular, offers a better player, and has more functionality. But Seriously Simple Podcasting is good if you just want something lightweight that can help you manage and publish your feeds.
As for premium options, Smart Podcast Player offers the best podcast player design of any plugin on this list. And Simple Podcast Press offers both a stellar standalone system as well as the option to integrate with some both Smart Podcast Player and Blubrry PowerPress.
If you’re planning to use a dedicated podcast hosting platform (or already are), then the Libsyn and Buzzsprout plugins offer helpful integrations with WordPress.
And finally, if you’re using something like SoundCloud to manage your podcast, you can use the built-in WordPress oEmbed functionality to easily embed the SoundCloud player into your posts without the need for a plugin:
If there is a better WordPress podcast plugin you know about or want to share your experience of using one of the plugins mentioned above, please feel free to connect with us using the comment section below.
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