Podcast Hosting Bandwidth & Break-even Calculator
Podcast hosts do not price the same thing. Some charge per download over an included amount, some cut you off hard at a cap with no way to pay more, and some charge one flat rate no matter what. Every "best podcast hosting" page we could find lists these prices side by side as if they were comparable. They are not comparable until you know your own numbers — this works out what each plan actually costs at your show's volume, and where that ranking flips.
Why three billing models can't be compared at face value
A "$15/month" plan capped at 10,000 downloads with a per-download overage rate, a "$39/month" plan with no cap at all, and a "$20/month" plan that hard-stops at 3,000 downloads and simply will not serve more without an upgrade are three different shapes of cost, not three points on one price list. The cheapest sticker price can be the most expensive plan once your actual downloads are in it — and the hard-capped plan can be cheaper than either right up until the month it silently isn't an option anymore.
That last case is deliberately not modelled as "free bandwidth past the cap." A plan with no overage rate does not get cheaper by exceeding its limit — it stops working, and the honest output for that case is "you'd need to upgrade," not an invented number.
What this does not include
- Plans billed by total storage uploaded rather than monthly downloads — rarer today, but a few hosts still price this way. Enter your own downloads-equivalent estimate, or skip comparing that plan here.
- Setup fees, annual-billing discounts, and bundled extras (video hosting, custom domains, dynamic ad insertion) that some plans fold into the headline price.
- Back-catalogue downloads growing over time as older episodes keep getting streamed — this takes one monthly download total, not a per-episode breakdown.