Are you looking for an easy, streamlined way to host and share your podcasts? Look no further! With Anchor, you can easily create an , distribute it and monetize your free of charge.
With uploading tools to make publishing that much easier, you can distribute your content to some of the biggest listening apps outside Spotify – which already has millions of listeners worldwide.
Anchor believes everyone should share their voices, which is why they made it free for anyone anywhere.
Are you excited to grow your podcast? Read on!
Table of Contents
Best for Beginner or Advanced Podcasters
Anchor’s tagline is “ made easy” and emphasizes that it’s one of the easiest hosting platforms to use, as stated on their website.
The platform has built-in uploading, recording, and editing tools to better your episodes without getting confused in the content publishing process.
Distribute your to all major listening apps globally with a couple of clicks to expand your .
Keep in mind episodes will publish immediately on the Anchor app, but it could take up to 6-10 days for listening apps to have your podcast up, which is not great if you like to stay on a weekly schedule for your uploads.
Integrated Plugin
Unlike other podcast hosting websites, Anchor does not currently have a WordPress plugin. However, don’t worry – this means that you need to manually embed an audio player into WordPress using the RSS feed code.
Simply paste the code into the designated field of your website and hit save, and your listeners will be able to listen to your latest episodes right on your site!
Editing
Anchor offers a wide range of features that make it easy to get your message heard. Perhaps the most helpful feature of Anchor is its intuitive editing software. You can easily trim or split any unwanted sections from your episode with just a few clicks on your phone or tablet.
This feature saves you time and hassle in post-production and helps ensure that your podcast always stays on-message and sounds great.
Storage Limits
As a podcaster, you want to be well-informed about storage limits and restrictions. With Anchor, you can upload recordings up to 250MB in size. While this might not be enough for some, it does allow for high-quality recordings that won’t be compromised by huge file sizes.
Additionally, you will need to be cautious about the format of your recordings since a WAV file that’s longer than 15 minutes might be difficult to work with. To avoid any issues, use some of these formats instead:
- mp3
- m4a
- wav
- mpg
Bandwidth Limits
Furthermore, another notable feature of Anchor is its unlimited bandwidth for all users, which sets it apart from many other podcasting platforms.
This means that regardless of the number of listeners or downloads your podcast generates, you can rest assured that you won’t be hit with any surprise overage charges on your bill.
This makes it an ideal choice for podcasters who are just getting started and are unsure how their audience will grow over time.
Time Limits
Although Anchor doesn’t set arbitrary limits on the length of your episodes, it is recommended to limit episodes to an hour for listeners to stay on board. Remember that the longer an episode is, the more likely it is for connection or technical issues to arise during the recording.
With solo recordings, the limit depends on your online browser or device. Chrome web recordings have a 30-minute limit, Safari exceeds at 5 minutes, and for a mobile app recording, the limit is 2 hours max.
Similarly, if you’re collaborating with a friend and uploading an episode together, the limit is 2 hours.
For voice messages, the limit is up to 1 minute. You can still have full-on conversations through messages and add them to your altogether.
Also, keep in mind that Anchor is not video supported as it’s created by a music and listening Spotify. hosts can always record a video version of the and upload it to their website or on a video platform such as YouTube.
Statistics
As a top podcast hosting website, Spotify offers a wealth of valuable statistics that can help you optimize and improve your content and reach.
- IAB 2.0 certified metrics. Receive insightful directly from Spotify in one dashboard
- geolocation. Engagement tracking to help plan your goals around the best content the engages in most.
- Demographical statistics. breakdowns on age and gender. This includes listening apps to help you learn about listeners and better your content for the audience’s needs.
Listing/Integration into P Directories
Designed with beginners in mind, Anchor makes it easy to host, distribute, and promote your show without little to no experience or technical knowledge.
Using their easy-to-use one-click distribution feature, your show can be instantly listed on these platforms and be made available for listening everywhere. Plus, every episode you create is supported by an RSS feed that other listening apps can easily read.
That is, Anchor will distribute your episodes on the following apps:
- Spotify
- Breaker
Other directories include Castbox, Overcast, Pocket Casts, and RadioPublic. As a bonus, you can distribute your content if you know how to copy and paste your RSS code onto other websites not listed above.
Add Spotify Songs to Your Episodes
Anchor has a music tool that allows you to add your Spotify songs to your podcast. This is great if you have a music podcast and want to include snippets or even whole songs for your listeners to hear.
This is also an excellent tool if you want to use a snippet of a song for the introduction theme song to your podcast. Any episodes that you included with Spotify songs will need to be reviewed before being published on Spotify.
Monetization
Anchor allows users to make money from their podcasts through monetization. However, this is only currently available to US creators.
Anchor does take a 30% cut from your monetization along with the Stripe service fee, which is $0.25, which would be quite a large chunk if you’re trying to use your podcast as a serious form of income.
People with larger or growing audiences tend to gain the most sponsorships and therefore make the most money. CPM is around $10-15, so you’ll need a few thousand downloads of your episodes to make some cash.
Anchor also has a feature called Listener Support, which allows your audience to set up a monthly donation to support your podcast.
User Impression/Reviews
Overall, Anchor has been rated 4.5 stars. An Anchor user stated that it makes it easy to start a This started in 2006 and was “spoiled” by how easy Anchor made it in 2021.
It helped improve efficiency in recording, distributing, and monetizing has gone up by at least 80%.
However, they wish it would allow two to share the same account for ad revenue.
Other podcasters agreed they liked how Anchor distributes their completed episodes to Spotify and other platforms for free.
Although there are some slight connection and compatibility issues, it is easy to create content in the form of for businesses and networking, which can build brand traction.
Another review stated they’ve been doing for a decade, and there’s never been an easier process than what Anchor offers.
However, this user emphasized that they wish there were a few more metrics available to see.
What’s It Lacking?
Anchor is limited in its capabilities to provide full metrics and analytics of your episodes if you automatically distribute across various platforms. Anchor shows you how many downloads you have on an episode, and that is just about it.
You also won’t have access to Apple’s Podcast Connect, which allows you to monitor how many people listen to the complete episode and where and when people click off from the episode.
Other podcasting platforms allow you to have closer analytics into where your listeners are coming from and what apps they use to listen to your podcast.
Another major limitation of Anchor is that it only allows you to attach your episodes to one category to be found by users.
This is a massive letdown for creators who discuss various topics across episodes and try to draw in as big an audience as possible.
Pricing
This hosting website is perfect for you if you’re a podcaster on a budget.
It enables you to start for free, with no monthly or annual fees. Just put your content out there to maximize your listeners to gain their financial support!
And if you want financial support from listeners, direct them to your Anchor profile, where they can subscribe to your channel monthly.
In addition, Anchor allows subscribers to donate just $0.99, $4.99, or $9.99 per month, depending on their preference.
Final Words
As seen from the review above, Anchor is a popular hosting website ideal for beginner podcasters. Still, there are some limitations to it.
The Anchor file size restrictions may be too small for some users, and the analytics and metrics provided by Anchor are not as detailed or comprehensive as those offered by other platforms.
Despite these drawbacks, Anchor remains a top choice for many podcasters looking for a user-friendly way to share their audio content online. And let’s not forget it’s completely free of charge!
Finally, if you’re new to podcasting, Anchor might be precisely the platform you need.