Captivate.fm was formed in 2018 by Mark Asquith and the team behind Podcast Websites. It quickly grew, backed by a strong brand and a focus on podcast marketing.

The content management system is easy to use – with its UI getting a big facelift in the spring of 2021 – and it boasts IAB certified metrics. Each podcast includes a reasonably-customisable website, and for those using WordPress, a plugin that makes integrating podcast content into an existing website easier.

Where Captivate differentiates itself in its messaging and, to some extend its toolset, is around podcast growth. Trackable subscription links make it easier to share your podcast and push listeners to follow your show in their favourite apps, and the CMS can generate press kits you can use to pitch your podcast to newsletters and other media outlets.

If monetisation is on the horizon, you can generate a “one-click sponsor kit”, and rely on those IAB certified metrics to give your advertisers confidence your numbers are legit.

LibSyn is almost literally the first name in podcast hosting. They provide a rock-solid infrastructure and every possible feature you would expect from a mature platform. They have a huge user-base and run regular community events, many of whom are experienced podcasters who rely on LibSyn to run reliably.

LibSyn differs from most hosts in that it provides different RSS feeds for different apps and directories (as it calls them “destinations”) which is perhaps unnecessarily confusing, however when new directories and markets are opened up, LibSyn is almost always first in-line to adopt them.

The company is conservative in its development, often taking multiple years to roll out interface updates. This has meant they’ve fallen behind modern hosts whose designers and developers value user experience, however they offer support via email and they’ve been around for so long and have so many customers, that answers to most questions can probably be found in Facebook groups and Reddit threads.