In simple English
This tool lets you host your own podcast website on your own server. You can upload audio files, publish episodes, and manage your RSS feed without paying a third-party service. Listeners can leave comments and interact with you directly on your site. It connects to decentralized social networks so your audience can share your episodes easily. It costs you nothing in software fees, but you need to pay for a web server and spend time setting it up.
What it is
Castopod is an open-source (code that anyone can inspect, copy, and modify) podcast hosting platform built on PHP and the CodeIgniter framework. It provides a complete content management system designed specifically for audio creators.
What it is good for
Solo podcasters who want full control over their audio files, listener data, and RSS feeds without paying monthly fees to commercial podcast hosting companies.
- Full ownership of your podcast feed and listener analytics.
- Built-in social features let listeners comment and interact with episodes.
- Supports modern podcasting standards for enhanced metadata and chapters.
- Requires manual setup on a web server with PHP and a database.
- Uses the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (a licence that forces you to share your modified source code if you run it as a public service).
- Maintenance requires handling your own server updates, backups, and audio storage limits.
Paid commercial podcast hosting services like Buzzsprout or Transistor.
An Nginx or Apache web server with a MySQL or PostgreSQL database.
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Visit https://castopod.org/getting-started/ to download the package and follow the web installation wizard.