Podcast.co Review: The Easiest Way to Start a Podcast

Why Podcasting Still Feels Harder Than It Should

Podcasting has been around since 2004 — Adam Curry, the self-proclaimed "podfather," helped kick the whole thing off — yet starting a podcast in 2019 still feels unnecessarily complicated. The core technology is simple: an audio file paired with an RSS feed. But for years, the RSS side of things meant hand-coding XML, submitting to directories one by one, and troubleshooting feed validation errors that made no sense.

Today there are tools that handle all of that for you, and Podcast.co is one of the more polished options available as a lifetime deal. The promise is straightforward: upload your episodes, and the platform handles hosting, RSS generation, and distribution to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts with minimal effort on your part.

What You Get with the Lifetime Deal

The AppSumo lifetime deal for Podcast.co runs at $79 per code. A single code gets you one show with five collaborators. Stacking a second code bumps you up to three shows total, and a third maxes you out at five shows with five collaborators per show — so up to 25 collaborators across everything.

Each podcast gets 500 gigabytes of bandwidth, which Podcast.co estimates at roughly 25,000 downloads. That sounds generous, but there's a caveat worth understanding. That estimate assumes a specific file size per episode. If you're recording long-form interviews — say 90 minutes or more — or uploading in stereo (which nearly doubles file size), your actual download ceiling could be significantly lower. If you do exceed the 500 GB limit, overage runs 20 cents per gigabyte, which is reasonable but worth budgeting for if your show gains traction.

The bandwidth is allocated per show, not pooled. So two shows on a double stack means 500 GB each, totaling 1.5 TB, but you can't borrow from one to cover the other.

Setting Up Your First Podcast

Getting started with Podcast.co is refreshingly quick. You're given the option to either import an existing podcast or create a new one from scratch. Creating a new show involves entering a name, selecting categories (you can choose multiple, like Tech News and Marketing), setting the language, and writing a description.

Next, you choose a URL for your podcast's web presence and upload cover artwork. The recommended size is 1200×1200 pixels — standard for podcast directories — though the platform doesn't explicitly state this. There's a nice cropping tool that lets you zoom and reposition your image before saving. Once that's done, you hit "Create Podcast" and your RSS feed is generated instantly.

Uploading episodes is just as streamlined. You drag in your audio file, add a title and description, set the author, and choose the episode type — full, trailer, or bonus. You can also assign episode and season numbers and flag explicit content if needed. The platform doesn't force you into mono or compress your files, which is a welcome detail for anyone who cares about audio quality.

Publishing and Distribution

Once your episode is uploaded, you have three publishing options: publish it immediately to your RSS feed, schedule it for a future date, or leave it unlisted. The scheduling feature is particularly useful if you want to batch-record episodes and release them on a weekly cadence without logging in each time.

The real time-saver is distribution. Under the "Share and Publish" tab, Podcast.co gives you your raw RSS feed URL for manual submissions, but more importantly, there's a single button that submits your podcast to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts simultaneously. No signing into three separate portals, no copying and pasting feed URLs, no waiting for email confirmations from each platform.

Keep in mind that approval isn't instant — each directory runs a review process that typically takes a few days. They check for copyright issues and terms of service compliance. But once you're approved, new episodes publish automatically across all platforms.

Embeddable Player, Web Page, and Subscribe Button

Podcast.co includes three sharing tools that make it easy to promote your show on your own website or social media. The embeddable player drops into any site via an iframe and comes in light and dark themes. You can customize the accent color, toggle rounded or square corners on the share buttons, and control whether listeners can download episodes, share them, or subscribe directly from the player.

If you don't have a website, the platform generates a hosted podcast page with all your episodes, social links, and donation options for Patreon or PayPal. It's a decent landing page for linking from Twitter or Instagram bios. There are light and dark themes here too, along with customizable colors.

Finally, there's a standalone subscribe button you can embed anywhere with a small snippet of HTML. It's a simple touch, but it gives you one more way to convert casual visitors into subscribers without sending them off to a directory first.

Analytics and Podcast Metrics

Podcast analytics have always been a murky area. The fundamental problem is that downloads don't equal listens — people subscribe on multiple devices, auto-download episodes they never play, or start an episode and bail after two minutes. Podcast.co provides the metrics it can: total downloads, most popular episodes, listener geography, and top clients (meaning which platforms your audience uses to consume your show).

For most podcasters, Apple Podcasts will dominate the client breakdown. iPhone users have historically consumed more podcasts than Android users, and that trend has held for years. Knowing your geographic distribution and platform split can help you tailor content and decide where to focus promotional efforts, even if the numbers aren't perfectly precise.

Advanced Settings and RSS Control

Under the settings tab, you'll find the same configuration options from initial setup plus some advanced RSS controls. You can set a subtitle, website URL, copyright holder (defaulting to your name but easily changed to a company), time zone, and author details. There's also a toggle between episodic and serial episode formats and an overall clean/explicit content flag that applies to the entire show — with the flexibility to override it on individual episodes.

These granular controls matter if you're running a professional show or managing multiple podcasts for clients. The ability to customize what goes into your RSS feed without touching XML directly is exactly the kind of abstraction that makes a hosted platform worth using.

Final Verdict: 9.2 Out of 10

This one came as a surprise. Going into the review, the expectation was that a dedicated WordPress setup with a podcasting plugin would be the better route — more control, more flexibility. But Podcast.co genuinely delivered a frictionless experience. The setup took minutes, not hours. Episode uploads worked without the platform trying to re-encode or compress files. Stereo audio stayed stereo. And one-click distribution to major directories eliminated what used to be the most tedious part of launching a podcast.

At $79 for lifetime hosting, it's hard to argue with the value — especially if you're just getting started and don't want to wrestle with self-hosted infrastructure. The bandwidth limits are fair and the overage pricing is transparent. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, Podcast.co earns a strong 9.2 out of 10 and is genuinely worth considering as your hosting platform.

Watch the Full Video

Prefer watching to reading? Check out the full video on YouTube for a complete walkthrough with live demos and commentary.