Castos: A Soundcloud Alternative

Researching your podcast hosting options? Do you want to see exactly how Castos and Soundcloud stack up? We’re giving you a straightforward look at how Castos could be the Soundcloud alternative you’ve been looking for.

At the most basic level, Castos was designed for and built by podcasters. We didn’t rework an existing product to enter the industry, we purposefully created it to solve problems we were facing when producing a podcast. Soundcloud was built for musicians, not podcasters. Using Soundcloud for podcasting creates unnecessary hurdles, making your workflow more time consuming.

Castos lets you host multiple shows for one low price so you can podcast until your heart’s content. With Soundcloud, that’s not possible.

Castos doesn’t believe in limiting your creative process. All of our plans include hosting multiple podcasts under one account, period. Upload as many episodes as you want and rest easy knowing your audience will always be able to download your latest content.

You’ll have the freedom to experiment with new concepts, produce multiple shows, and podcast until your heart’s content with Castos. We prefer that you grow your podcast without worrying about limitations and unexpected costs.

With Soundcloud, you’re unable to host multiple podcasts under one account. This forces you to pay extra for an additional plan. You’ll spend more to manage your podcasts and waste time toggling between multiple accounts.

For a better look at how features and costs compare, here are a few scenarios:

• Publish 4x 60-minute episodes per month + custom RSS domain: Castos Essentials at $19/month includes both. Soundcloud’s higher-tier plans do not support hosting your RSS feed on your own domain name.
• Manage two podcasts: Castos Essentials at $19/month covers both shows. With Soundcloud, you would likely need two separate paid plans.
• Republish to YouTube automatically: Castos Growth Plan handles audio-to-video conversion with a static background image. Castos Pro Plan lets you host both video and audio files and republish to YouTube. Neither feature is supported by Soundcloud.

Automatically republish your podcast to YouTube with Castos and be discovered by their 2 billion monthly users. With Soundcloud, you’ll have to do it all manually.

Many podcasters choose to film video while recording new episodes to repurpose their podcast for YouTube. With Castos’ Pro Plan, you can host your video and audio files for one low price.

If you haven’t started filming videos alongside your episode recordings, try our Growth Plan. Each time you upload a new episode to Castos, we’ll convert the audio files into a video format and add a static background image. Then we’ll republish the episode to your YouTube channel automatically.

Neither of these features are available with Soundcloud, requiring you to do everything manually. For those repurposing podcasts into video content, Castos’ automatic YouTube republishing tool saves you time and headaches.

See how easy it is to set up Automatic YouTube Republishing with Castos’ Growth Plan.

Castos makes podcasting with WordPress seamless with our Seriously Simple Podcasting plugin. With Soundcloud, that option doesn’t exist.

With Seriously Simple Podcasting, you can manage your podcast directly from the WordPress dashboard you know and love. With robust features and an intuitive interface, there’s a reason over 20K+ podcasters trust Seriously Simple Podcasting.

Here’s everything you can do directly from your WordPress dashboard using Seriously Simple Podcasting:

• Upload audio and video podcast episodes directly to WordPress
• Files are automatically synced with your podcast hosting provider (like Castos)
• Display podcast episode lists, single episodes, or playlists anywhere on your site
• Change embedded player settings with customized colors and episode images
• Feature custom subscribe links to any podcast listening platform
• View episode analytics within WordPress dashboard

Soundcloud doesn’t have a WordPress plugin so you’ll have to find a workaround and spend more time managing your show.

Learn how Castos and Seriously Simple Podcasting work together to make your workflow more efficient. No more toggling between multiple platforms so you can focus on the fun stuff.

Use Castos’ built-in transcription feature to get a word-for-word transcript of every episode — included free with your plan. With Soundcloud, you’ll have to pay for a third-party service.

Making podcasts accessible is a priority for our team. Easily transcribe each episode, download the PDF, and publish it to your podcast’s website for your hearing-impaired or ESL listeners. As an added bonus, you’ll unlock SEO benefits and have an easy way to repurpose episodes into written content.

Transcriptions are included free with every Castos plan — 10 episodes per month on Essentials, 25 on Growth, and 100 on Pro. There are no per-minute charges or surprise line items.

Soundcloud doesn’t offer transcription services directly from your dashboard, so you’ll need to pay for a third-party service or freelancer.

See how easy it is to generate an episode transcription from your Castos dashboard.

Already have a domain name for your brand? Castos will generate your RSS feed link using your website URL for free. Soundcloud doesn’t offer that.

Using your own domain name for your podcast’s RSS feed allows you to keep your podcast under one cohesive brand name.

With Castos, your RSS feed will look like https://www.mybrandname.com/feed instead of https://soundcloud.com/yourpodcastname. Your branding stays consistent and all written, video, and podcast content is in one place. This makes it easier for your fans to discover everything you have to offer.

If you don’t have a website yet, don’t worry. Castos provides a customizable podcast webpage that houses all of your podcast episodes for free. Your audience can listen to your show and subscribe on their preferred listening platform from your podcast webpage.

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Compare Castos With Other Podcast Hosting Providers

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