Podbean vs. Substack

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Podbean
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Podbean is presented as an easy but powerful platform for podcast hosting and monetization, from the company of the same name in New York. Additionally, the Podbean Pro edition is for business enterprises, supporting internal communications by enabling users to create, publish, manage and measure corporate audio and video podcasts at scale, to meet enterprise podcast needs.
$14
per month
Substack
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Substack is a subscription-based newsletter publishing platform.N/A
Pricing
PodbeanSubstack
Editions & Modules
Unlimited Audio
$14
per month
Unlimited Plus
$39
per month
Business
$129
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
PodbeanSubstack
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Best Alternatives
PodbeanSubstack
Small Businesses
Anchor by Spotify
Anchor by Spotify
Score 9.0 out of 10
Anchor by Spotify
Anchor by Spotify
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Pexels
Pexels
Score 9.2 out of 10
Pexels
Pexels
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
Pexels
Pexels
Score 9.2 out of 10
Pexels
Pexels
Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
PodbeanSubstack
Likelihood to Recommend
8.8
(4 ratings)
8.7
(6 ratings)
User Testimonials
PodbeanSubstack
Likelihood to Recommend
Podbean
Podbean is the best podcast hosting service I have seen so far outside of hosting your own podcast server. It has many tools built in that make hosting and sharing your podcast simple. If you are technically minded, there is good software based on WordPress to create a cheap solution for hosting multiple podcasts, but you don't get as many features and you have to do all the work yourself. If you want a solution to quickly and easily get a podcast off the ground and out into the world without having to worry about lots of technical issues, then Podbean is a good way to go.
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Substack Inc.
I think Substack is better for people who want to set up a personal-facing branded website vs people who just want to post random musings every so often. Monetization is better there than any other collective publishing platform as well as organic reach via email. Substack also allows you to build direct relationships with your readers via emails and own them 100% which is great long-term if you use it to pivot to another site or another form of writing/content creation. Substack would be less helpful for someone wanting to write as a part of a group, not individually, or someone who's unwilling to put their personal brand behind their content. It's less optimized for SEO (which other platforms allow you to do) and can be harder to curate content based on your interests (you really have to go in knowing what you want vs finding it on the fly).
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Pros
Podbean
  • Good user interface
  • Good sound quality
  • Nice design
  • Desktop version easy to navigate
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Substack Inc.
  • Because it has a very high Domain Authority ranking relevant backlinks in a published article will help make my store more searchable.
  • Substack is very easy to work in. The toolset they provide may not be as extensive as other platforms but it is certainly enough to create a meaningful, interesting post.
  • Substack is very focused on creating a community of writers that support each other. They run an ongoing email campaign that reinforces their focus on building a community of writers.
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Cons
Podbean
  • The UI looks a bit dated
  • The plugin we use for WordPress was broken for years and we had to manually post, but they've fixed it recently.
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Substack Inc.
  • editor is on the primitive side - it's wysiwyg, but missing some embed options
  • integrate with google analytics
  • percentage cut that Substack takes can become a burden as your revenue grows. Problems scaling.
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Alternatives Considered
Podbean
For a personal podcast, I host on WordPress with a plugin called Seriously Simple Podcasting. This solution is a bare bones solution, good if you know how to manage a WordPress website and are able to submit your podcasts manually to different apps and services. If you can afford Podbean I would suggest using it because the WordPress route takes a lot more time and technical knowledge. Podbean takes so much of the hassle and work away from the process.
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Substack Inc.
Medium is not so good for running newsletter. I find the mail that a user gets is very easily readable. Also as a creator it's very easy for me to track the analytics and monetise my blogs unlike Medium. Blogger is a very old technology. The kind of integrations and the support for Markdown / different media is very great in Substack.
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Return on Investment
Podbean
  • I can say that since we have used this tool we have not found any negative aspects or that it has generated us.
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Substack Inc.
  • I haven’t made any money from it
  • Can be disheartening when you realise you’re putting in maximum effort for minimum audience
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