Today in this post, we are going to review Spreaker. Spreaker is one of the top podcast hosting platforms available today.

If you are looking for an affordable yet feature-rich podcast hosting solution, you can consider Spreaker. Also, it offers powerful monetization strategies that help you make money from podcasting.

The main USP of Spreaker is its mobile app for podcasters. If you travel more and you need all the features to record, edit, publish or broadcast the episodes on the go, Spreaker would be the best bet.

Without further ado, let’s get started with the Spreaker review.

Features	Spreaker
Free plan available?	Yes. It supports only 10 episodes
Premium pricing starts at 💲	$6.67/mo
Has a mobile app? 📲	Yes. It has an app for both listeners and podcasters. The app is available for both iOS and Android.
Spreaker studio app	Allows you to record your show at home or on the go. The app includes – voice mixing tools with music and sound effects. This studio app also supports Skype podcast recording
Podcast monetization options 💰	Programmatic ads Selling the merchandise, products, and services
Explore more	Explore more on Spreaker

What do we like about Spreaker?

• Spreaker comes with a mobile app for both listeners and podcasters. For podcasters, it has a studio app where you can record, edit, and broadcast the episodes live in real-time.
• It integrates with a Headliner app for creating visual soundbites, known as audiograms. You can share these on social media sites to gain more traffic. This is a great way to repurpose the content to share across various platforms.
• For transcribing your episodes, Spreaker integrates with YouTube Studio, Temi, and Descript tools. Adding the episode transcriptions helps in search engine visibility and even you can repurpose the transcriptions and sell them as eBooks.
• For podcast monetization, it has built-in programmatic ad monetization. This helps you insert the pre-rolls, mid, and post-rolls automatically. So, no manual work is needed.
• Also, Spreaker has native integration with Patreon where you can sell access to your premium memberships and podcast subscriptions.
• On its Publisher plan, you will get an ad campaign manager. With this, you can create, manage, monitor, and analyze all the advertising campaigns you run on your podcasts in one place.

What we don’t like about Spreaker?

• Speaker doesn’t come with a podcast hosting website, unlike Buzzsprout (important for SEO). You need to make use of third-party services like WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace to build your own website and make your podcasts appear on SERPs.
• Spreaker lacks an affiliate program for you to promote other brands and earn money. You need to find the affiliates yourself outside of Speaker and promote them. If you are a beginner, you will find this a bit difficult.
• Unlike Buzzsprout, Spreaker doesn’t provide any integration with design tools like Canva for designing podcast artwork. This is not a serious downside though.
• It has restricted the advanced statistics only to its higher plans. On its lowest plan, you will get only the downloads and the listener’s statistics. So you will end up going with a higher plan to avail complete statistics. The lowest plan only gives statistics for six months, while the highest plan gives statistics for 24 months.

Upfront bottomline:

If your main focus is on monetizing the podcasts, Spreaker won’t disappoint you. For this, it has programmatic ad monetization, premium podcasts, integration with Patreon, etc.

Also, it comes with features like –

• Customizable RSS feeds
• Private podcasts
• Ad campaign manager
• In-app support
• Etc.

All these features make it worth your money.

User interface and ease of use

Spreaker has a modern interface. All its features are arranged in the right sidebar and you can access them within 3 to 4 clicks. The interface loads very quickly.

Unlike Buzzsprout, Spreaker needs some learning curve. If you are a beginner, you need some technical knowledge in running ad campaigns, creating audiograms, integrating with Hedalier, creating Patreon pages, etc.

Podcasts creation in Spreaker

While creating the podcasts, Spreaker allows you to import the podcasts with RSS Feed Importer. Also, you can create podcasts from scratch.

Importing the episodes is very easy. You can do this with just a click of a button. That’s it!

Spreaker supports mp3, mp4, WAV, aac, amr, flac, ra, ogg, and asf file formats. You can upload the episodes with a maximum file size of 300 MB.

For each episode, you can add tags for easier categorization, add season numbers, set the permalink, add descriptions helping listeners know what they can expect, etc.

The best thing with Spreaker is you can record the episodes directly from the tool. Spreaker has a Studio app, specifically created for podcasters. So you can record and upload the episodes from anywhere, at any time on the go. The app is available for desktop, iOS, and Android devices.

Note that you can make the episodes private, public, or limited. Limited access means you can restrict the access making it a paid subscription. For this, you can use Patreon integration.

Bottomline: Spreaker has made it very easy to create podcasts. It supports various audio files with a file size of up to 300 MB. If you need, you can restrict the podcast access for premium members.

Editing the podcasts

If you know Buzzsprout, you could have definitely heard its magic mastering feature. This helps podcasters to edit and process the audio files directly within the tool, eliminating the need for external audio editing tools.

In case of Spreaker, it has a Studio app where you record and edit the audio files. The app includes voice-mixing tools with music and sound effects. You can cut the noise, trim the audio, adjust the episode length, replace the audio files (even after publishing it), etc.

To know more about this Spreaker’s recording software, you can click here.

Let’s look at the other notable features.

Chapter markers

With Spreaker, you can add chapter markers inside the episodes to help listeners easily navigate across the content. You can also use chapters to provide additional information by adding images, texts, or links.

These chapters are also accessible on Spreaker’s mobile apps as well.

Audiograms (Visual soundbites)

With Spreaker you can create audiograms to share on social media platforms. For this Spreaker integrates with Headliner, an audiogram creator. Headliner comes with pay-as-you-go pricing.

Audiograms are a great way to bring traffic to your podcasts with social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc. As per The Infinite Dial study, 82% of Americans use Social Media. So, sharing the audiograms matters a lot if you want to bring additional traffic to your podcasts.

To create an audiogram, you need to

1. Select the episode and share it on the Headliner app.
2. Select the aspect ratio.
3. Trim the audio clip and enable the audiogram transcription.
4. Customize the audiogram using the editor.

If you want to learn in detail how to create an audiogram with Spreaker, you can refer to this guide.

Audio transcriptions

With Spreaker, you can add transcriptions to the episodes to help listeners understand the content easily and take notes. For this, it integrates with Temi, Descript, and YouTube Studio.

If you are publishing your podcasts as videos on YouTube, you can add the transcriptions using YouTube Studio. In the YouTube Studio, you can paste in the transcripted text.

If you are using Temi or Descript, you need to create accounts and transcribe the episodes. Later you can export and add them on Spreaker.

Bottomline: Spreaker provides good podcast editing options. You can add chapter markers, create audiograms to share on social media channels, add transcriptions to increase search engine visibility, etc.

Podcast player

You can customize the Spreaker player’s primary color, change the visibility of certain elements of the widget player, use photos as a background for the player’s top part, and much more. Also, you can choose either the dark or the white themes.

You can embed the podcasts on your own websites built with WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, etc. Spreaker provides both Javascript and iframe codes to embed on the websites.

Note that you can customize these embed codes for specific needs. For example – If you want to display only the episodes with certain tags, you can do this by altering the custom code.

Do you want to know how the podcast player looks on the front end for your listeners?

The interface looks neat and minimal. You can like, share, add comments, pause/play, and there are forward and rewind features. You cannot add any customized CTAs like – Join our newsletter or Join our community. If you want to add any CTAs or links to your resources, you need to add them to the episode description.

Unlike Buzzsprout and Podbean, Spreaker doesn’t provide a podcast website. Having a dedicated podcast website helps you boost your podcast’s SEO. You can use tools like WordPress to build your website.

Bottomline: Spreaker’s podcast customization features are very simple. You can embed the podcast players on the websites using either the Javascript or iframe codes.

Storage and hosting

Spreaker’s storage varies based on the pricing plans. On the lowest plan, you will get up to 100 hours of storage. On its Broadcaster plan, you will get up to 500 hours of storage. If you need more hours of storage you can consider going with higher plans.

On its highest plan i.e. Publisher plan, you will get unlimited hours of storage. If you run multiple podcasts and need more storage to upload the episodes more frequently, this plan would be the best choice.

Also, all its paid plans support unlimited bandwidth which means they handle all the traffic load on your websites.

Bottomline: Spreaker’s storage varies based on the pricing plans you choose. It gives unlimited storage only on its highest plan (Publisher plan) which costs $120/mo.

Monetization

With Spreaker, mainly there are two strategies available to monetize your podcasts – Programmatic ads and selling services & products with Patreon.

Programmatic ads

Spreaker’s main podcast monetization strategy is built-in programmatic ads. With this, you can automate the placing of pre-rolls, mid-rolls, and post-rolls and start earning the revenue 24/7, without your manual interference.

In case you need it, you can even manually review the ads, approve, and delete them if they are irrelevant to your niche.

Spreaker has simplified ad management and monitoring as it offers a dedicated ad campaign manager. This is available only on its Publisher plan that costs $120/mo. You can create the ad campaigns, manage & track them, and monitor and analyze the performance, all within the platform.

Selling the merchandise, products, and services

For this, Spreaker integrates with Patreon. You can create a premium membership page or a podcast subscription and charge for it. It is just like creating pay walls where users need to pay in order to consume the content.

With this, each time you add a new episode or premium content you can charge for it. This is the best way to monetize your podcasts and earn recurring revenue.

Note: If you are selling podcast subscriptions, make sure to set the visibility of the podcast to limited access.

If you want to know in detail about this, I recommend you go through this post.

Bottomline: Spreaker’s monetization strategies are very simple yet powerful. If you mainly depend on ads for monetizing the podcast, I recommend you go with its Publisher plan, as the ad campaign manager saves you a lot of time.

Mobile apps

Spreaker offers mobile apps for both creators and listeners. For podcasters, Spreaker has a Studio app. The mobile app is available for desktop, mobile, and iOS users.

This Studio app includes podcast editing software and live podcast recording tools. With this, you can record the episodes on the go, anywhere, at any time, and broadcast them live in real time.

Also, you can edit and process the audio files inside this app. The app comes with voice-mixing tools with music and sound effects.

Note: Spreaker integrates with Skype as well. This makes it really easy to invite guest podcasters to your show. With this Skype integration, you can easily record the guest shows, process the audio, and make it highly professional, all right inside the tool. No more integrations are needed!

To know more about how the Studio app works, you can click here.

Spreaker app for listeners:

With this app, listeners can easily listen to their favorite shows, save them, find new podcasts, create personalized playlists, etc. all at their fingertips. Additionally, new episodes will be notified instantly when they are available. This helps stay in touch with listeners and increase their engagement.

There are also some other features available like –

1. Sleep timer
2. Listen via Chromecast and AirPlay – Spreaker is highly compatible with Chromecast and Apple’s AirPlay.
3. Control the playback speed.
4. Download the podcasts and listen offline.

Bottomline: Spreaker has a feature-rich mobile app for podcasters. This will come in handy if you are a traveling podcaster and want to edit the podcasts on the go.

Analytics

Spreaker gives you various analytics on podcasts –

• Downloads
• Listeners
• Likes
• Followers
• Sources
• Geolocation
• Devices
• Evolution

The analytics you will get varies depending on the plan you are in. As you can see in the screenshot, if you are on the On-Air Talent plan, you will get only the downloads and the listener’s statistics. I really don’t like this as you need to shell out more money to get advanced analytics.

Also, on the lower plan, you will get only 6-months statistics. Decide how much analytics and how long you need the statistics before selecting a plan.

It doesn’t offer user retention graphs unlike you get in tools like Podbean. These graphs help you analyze how your listeners are consuming the podcasts, and where they are dropping. By referring to this data, you can create strategies to improve your podcasts and make them more engaging.

To know more about the Spreaker podcast analytics, you can click here.

Bottomline: Spreaker offers good analytics to analyze your podcast performance. But it is very disappointing that it restricts advanced stats only to higher pricing tiers. Also, the duration of the stats also varies based on the plans.

Podcast distribution and integrations

With Spreaker you can distribute your podcasts to all the major platforms using the RSS feed. Spreaker syncs with various distribution platforms like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and much more.

If you are a Pro plan user, you can customize the metadata further in comparison to the standard RSS feed Spreaker automatically create.

Spreaker also supports social media sharing. You can automatically share the new episodes on Facebook, once they are published.

When it comes to other integrations, it has integrations with Patreon, Headliner, Temi, YouTube, and much more. We have already covered these integrations previously.

Bottomline: Spreaker has made podcast distribution really simple and straightforward. Also, it has quite a good number of integrations with third-party tools as well.

Pricing

Spreaker has four premium plans. The lowest plan starts at $8/mo. It lacks features like ad campaign manager, collaboration, in-app support, and private podcasts. To avail these features you need to go with higher plans.

See the screenshot above to know what features are available on what plans.

You can get started with a free account first and later when you are all set, you can switch to paid plans to avail its premium features.

Spreaker alternatives

Spreaker vs Buzzsprout

Compared to Spreaker, Buzzsprout is very simple to use. Buzzsprout provides more ways to monetize the Podcasts than Spreaker. With Buzzsprout you have show support links, selling premium subscriptions and podcasts with Patreon integration, ads, affiliate marketplace, sponsors, etc. While Spreaker mainly has ads and a Patreon program for monetization.

Spreaker excels over Buzzsprout with its mobile apps. Spreaker comes with a mobile affiliate program for both listeners and podcasters. If you want to know more on Buzzsprout, you can go through this review.

Spreaker vs Podbean

Compared to Spreaker, Podbean has some unique features. For example –

• It offers 18+ free plugins and services giving more flexibility and making the tool feature rich.
• It has integration with Podads for finding the sponsors and running the ads for you.
• The Podbean app supports in-app purchases.

But unlike Spreaker, Podbean lacks a dedicated app for podcasters, and also it doesn’t come with programmatic ad monetization features.

Wrap up

If you need a podcast hosting platform with powerful monetization features and you need a feature-rich mobile app as well, Spreaker is the best bet.

If you are an advanced podcaster and you host multiple shows, Spreaker also provides unlimited storage on its higher plans.

You can leverage its transcription and visual soundbite services to repurpose your content and get more traffic.

I hope you have found this post on the Spreaker review helpful.