WordPress podcast website - everything you need to know about the best WordPress podcast plugins, templates, players
WordPress is one of the most popular choices for building a podcast website - the reason is that WordPress was launched 20 years ago, there was 0 competition at that time, and it was an obvious choice for early podcasters to choose WordPress for creating an online presence for their shows. Over the years it got a snowball effect, with more and more podcasters building their podcast websites on this platform, and it's worth mentioning that WordPress is not a bad platform to build websites - it's really powerful, there are tons of useful plugins and templates for any type of website. As we've already discussed the cons and pros of using WIX website builder - same issue with WordPress - it was built in the way that you can build any website, and the cost of this is - extra complexity. You can also read a more detailed article about why WordPress isn't the best and only choice when looking for a platform to build your podcast website.
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We've added many different links to different external resources and other related articles to bring you a complete context on how to build a podcast website with WordPress, just to be clear - we have NO affiliate links which means that there are only helpful links and not the ones that are there just for generating commissions for article publisher like it's on many similar articles you can find online.
How to build a website for your podcast on WordPress?
Creating a podcast website WordPress isn't just a few clicks process, so you need to plan your time accordingly. Multiple steps are required to create and publish your website for your podcast on the WordPress platform. We will write down and describe each step to help you deal with it.
1. Choose and set up your web hosting
- Go to Bluehost and sign up.
- Choose a new domain (preferably .com like YourPodcastWebsite.com) and buy it together with a hosting service. Do not choose expensive VPS or Dedicated hosting plans, as shared hosting is perfect while you're starting and you can always upgrade later on when it's needed. Shared WordPress hosting Basic plan is the perfect starting point if you're about to establish 1 website, or the Choice Plus plan if you want to build multiple websites (up to 3)
- That’s it; you now have a working home for your podcasting website!
2. Pick and install podcast podcast-oriented template
When you've found the template you want to move forward with, the next step is to install it. Go to Appearance -> Themes in the WordPress admin area, and click on Add New. From there, use the search bar to find your template by name, click on Install and activate it.
3. Install plugins and import your podcast episodes
Or you can install the PowerPress Podcasting plugin by Blubrry plugin, some podcasters are happy with it, but don't be surprised if you have issues with it, you can find quite a lot of disappointed users WordPress platform reviews section. 
So many steps... Are there any easier options to build a podcast website?
As you can see, there are multiple steps and several different tools/service providers involved if you want to get your podcast website up and running on the WordPress platform. Today there are easier ways you build a website for your show - we're biased in referring you to podcast website builder OnPodium but all that complicated workflow for creating a podcast website on website builders like WordPress was our motivation to build a better solution, that is dedicated for podcasters and it just works. So if you go with OnPodium as your podcast website tool, it will save you time - it's just one click to create your website and a few more minutes to customize it and make it yours. Everything is in one place, no need to look for third-party templates, plugins, or anything.
Seriously Simple Podcasting - another popular podcast plugin
Another popular plugin for importing your podcast into a WordPress-based website is Seriously Simple Podcasting built by Castos. Many podcasters use it within their sites, but there are also many issues that you may face down the road. And it's not that plugins are bad or crapy, it's not even about WordPress - all those issues are happening because WordPress is a big and powerful platform that involves over time, getting updates, and all those plugins, and templates are 3rd parties developed by different other companies and agencies, so there are always incompatibilities in between, and after each major version release some bugs appear and you need to deal with it. 
You can read more reviews here.
Using the WordPress for creating your podcast website – Pros
- There are plenty of different podcast-oriented templates - free and premium.
- You can easily find a developer who may help you to deal with various issues you may have.
- At least a few different plugins that help with adding a podcast to your website
WordPress website for the podcast - Cons
- WordPress is an ane-size-fits-all solution, which leads to a clumsy and complicated platform. You need to invest your time to learn how to use it.
- You need to use multiple different tools and service providers, which may cause incompatibility issues over time as new versions of WordPress are released almost every month: https://wordpress.org/download/releases/.
- Manual work is necessary to get started and connect all moving parts into one working podcast website.
- Customer service - it could be tricky to get answers to your podcast-specific questions, answers are usually very generic and WordPress customer support usually refers you to plugin or theme developers if you're facing any issues with those integrations.
What's the conclusion, is WordPress a good platform to build your podcast websites?
WordPress is a very powerful one-size-fits-all website builder, it's complex and has so many features that you don't need as a podcaster. At the same time, it doesn't have some key podcast-oriented features built-in, therefore you need to deal with third-party plugins that may lead to incompatibility issues, as it was explained above. There are great alternatives like OnPodium - a website builder for podcasters - our honest proposal would be, to try OnPodium as it takes only one click to create your podcast website and a few more clicks to customize and make it yours. If you aren't satisfied with the result, you can plan accordingly, dedicated your time to website creation, and move forward with WordPress.
WordPress.org acts as a resource center, offering WordPress software for download and deployment by yourself. You get WordPress for free, but you need to get a hosting service, install WordPress, and handle and maintain everything by yourself. It may sound complicated, but if you move forward with a WordPress-recommended hosting solution it will be hassle-free.
WordPress.com offers a managed WordPress hosting service, allowing users to build a website using the pre-installed WordPress software, so you don't need to look for a website hosting provider.
Which option is better for me as a podcaster? It's better to move the pick WordPress.org because you will have more flexibility and you could install necessary podcasting plugins with the cheapest website hosting plan (that may be something like $5/month). If you choose WordPress.com - you can't install third-party plugins or templates unless you use the pricier “Business Plan” that costs $40/mo!
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