Buzzsprout is one of the most popular podcast hosts in the podcast eco-system. They helped more than 100,000 creators distribute their podcasts across online platforms and podcasting apps. Buzzsprout offers several plan tiers for podcast hosting. They’re offering basic podcast “mini-sites” for all shows hosted on their platform. While those sites could be good enough to start with, many podcasters are looking for a more complete solution and integrating Buzzsprout with a better website platform. In this article, we’ll review Buzzsprout’s default site, and compare it with other popular podcast website builder platforms like WordPress, Podcastpage.io, and Squarespace.
Buzzsprout – Podcast hosting overview
Buzzsprout is well known among podcasters. Their podcasting tool-set can help you host, promote, distribute and track your podcast. Their pricing plans starts with a free tier, which includes up to 2 hours of audio recording per month. (Keep in mind here that the free plan only hosts your episodes for 90 days.)
The paid plans start at $12, $18 and $24 per month and include 3, 6, and 12 hours respectively. You can add additional content hours for a fixed price.
All of Buzzsprout’s paid plans come with podcast statistics (analytics), beautiful custom embed audio players which can be used on any website, 250GB bandwidth, and a basic podcast mini-site.
Buzzsprout podcast website
If you are new to Buzzsprout, and don’t have an account yet, start by creating a free account. It’s a quick process – just insert your name, email and password, and you’re all set.
Next, you’ll need to select whether you’re working on a new podcast or if you already have one. If you start a new podcast, you’ll need to upload your podcast audio files in order to create your first episode or first few episodes. In case you already have an existing podcast that lives elsewhere, you can import it into your Buzzsprout account by using your podcast RSS feed URL (or by searching your existing podcast information on iTunes).
Customize your “mini” podcast website
Once you have a podcast on your account, click on the Website tab in your Buzzsprout control panel. There you will be able to customize your Buzzsprout mini-site, and modify basic options like the main color, change the background image.
Your site is already published with a Buzzsprout subdomain, which you can always modify. (by default, the subdomain is a random set of numbers, but you’d be better off changing it to something that better represents your podcast)
You can also set the Buzzsprout mini-site to work with your own custom domain, if you have one. This is great in terms of SEO and brand promotion, even if the website itself is somewhat limited. Additionally, you can add social links to a few social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube).
As you can see in the screenshots included above, there is not too many customization options you can modify on your Buzzsprout website.
If you are looking for a quick solution just to display a list of episodes, it can work for you. With that said, for more flexibility and customizability, you’d be better off with a full podcast website builder. Buzzsprout’s solution is similar to many other podcast hosts, and it offers a very basic web page.
Looks great, but is it good enough for your podcast?
While the Buzzsprout website tool can be great to begin with, if you really want your podcast to grow, we recommend going building professional looking podcast websites.
You’ll need to add some custom pages, more content wrapped around your podcast, modify your episodes, add a blog, integrate marketing and automation tools and so on.
There is so much to gain from having a good website. From improving your Podcast SEO and letting potential listeners find you more easily, to having one online hub that contains everything about the podcast, and then some. When you share your podcast on social media, you’ll be finally able to promote your own brand’s credibility and SEO by sharing your custom domain, rather than promoting other platforms.
Create your podcast website with Buzzsprout & Podcastpage.io
Podcastpage is the best website builder for podcasters. It is tailored for podcasters specifically and comes with tons of podcast-related features right out of the box. It’s easier to use and less bulky when comparing to WordPress, Wix and Squarespace. Additionally, it really offers so much more flexibility when comparing to podcast mini-sites often offered by podcast hosting companies.
It works perfectly well with any podcast host, including Buzzsprout! You can create your podcast website in just a few clicks. Start by choosing your website name, add podcast feed by searching the Apple Podcasts directory or add the feed URL manually, pick a theme and your site is ready!
Podcastpage comes with several sets of podcast website templates/designs, supports unlimited custom pages, and a full blog. Podcastpage also offer integrations with popular marketing and analytic tools, and much more.
You can customize everything – there are 150+ different customization options – from colors and fonts, to layouts, audio player appearance, and more.
So why is Podcastpage so much better than any mini-site, and why is it the ideal solution for your Buzzsprout podcast? We got the answers here below –
4 Key advantages of using Podcastpage.io
- Fully customizable – Customize the entire design, from top to bottom. Choose your colors, add a logo, or change the layouts. With Podcastpage you can truly make your website unique.
- Flexible audio player – You can control almost everything in your audio player. Add social sharing, speed control button, download button. Change all colors of the audio player controls. Change the play icon/button, or add a border around the player, and more. You can use an embed audio player from multiple podcast hosts (including Buzzsprout) and/or apply a sticky audio player that keeps playing continuously when you navigate across pages.
- Additional pages & blog posts – It’s easy to create and add pages and blog posts. Easily add custom pages into your site navigation and display different pages around your site.
- Social & podcast icons – While Buzzsprout limit you to share only your profile on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter, on Podcastpage you can add almost any other social media icon. Additionally, you can add icons to 40+ podcast publishing platforms to ensure your listeners can listen and subscribe wherever they prefer.
To get a full grasp of Podcastpage powerful features, click here.
Integrating Buzzsprout with WordPress or Squarespace
If you prefer to go with another website building solution, WordPress or Squarespace are two very popular platforms that could work relatively well for any podcast website.
Creating a WordPress podcast website
WordPress runs on 37% of the websites in the world (according to WordPress.org). It’s an Open Source CMS (content management system) platform that serves multiple use cases in the website creation process. WordPress is very popular in dozens of website segments/types; restaurants, bloggers, eCommerce, small businesses, magazines, enterprise and so on.
It can also work great for podcasters, but it usually requires some customization and set up since podcasting is a little different than those other types of websites. First of all, you will need to get a dedicated podcast website template to get your podcast site designed appropriately (the premium ones cost around $60 per year). Furthermore, you’ll probably need a few plugins to get your podcast displayed properly on the website – First, you’ll need a podcasting plugin that gives you the ability to display and customize audio player. Then, you’ll also need to find a way to import your podcast to WordPress and get this import to run continuously to import your future episodes. Additionally, there are some other capabilities like podcast subscribe buttons, email opt-in forms, and more.
The main benefit of WordPress is flexibility. It’s an open source platform that exists for 15+ years, and so it’s very well documented online with thousands of 3rd party plugin, themes, tools and more that can be all easy to find on the internet.
You can easily add additional aspects to your websites like galleries, eCommerce pages with merchandise, and more. Those endless possibilities can also make WordPress a bit intimidating for beginners, but it’s still one of the most popular website platforms out there.
Creating a Squaresapce podcast website
Squarespace is another popular website builder. They heavily invested in ads on dozens of podcasts, so it’s pretty well known among podcasters and podcast listeners.
Their plans already include the website hosting (like Podcastpage.io and as opposed to WordPress.org). In terms of pricing, Squarespace can be more expensive than other solutions (starting at $16 per month when paying monthly).
They do have some limitations in regards to podcasting so you may want to look into those. There is a limit to a maximum of 300 episodes. Your audio files size of up to 160 MB, and no support of video podcasting.
Conclusion
To conclude, we’ve reviewed Buzzsprout and several options of creating a podcast website on a Buzzsprout hosted podcast. Buzzsprout is a great podcast hosting provider. They can help you start your podcast and distribute it to all the popular platforms. In addition, Buzzsprout provides additional tools like insights and stats.
Creating your podcast website
While Buzzsprout do offer a free website for their podcasters, it’s a bit too basic for most podcasters. You can create a beautiful, complete podcast website with Podcastpage.io. We integrated it perfectly with Buzzsprout. Podcastpage is the perfect tool to use with your Buzzsprout podcast and create a full podcast website.
Why is Podcastpage.io the right solution for your podcast website?
- Fully customizable – change and edit the design and layout easily.
- Flexible audio player – control everything in the audio player. You can also change and use Buzzsprout’s embed player or use the sticky audio player.
- Add blog posts and additional pages.
- Add social media and subscribe buttons easily to any social media or podcast directory or app.
