Captivate vs Podbean Comparison 2026
Both cover audio & podcasting. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
At a glance
- Podbean starts cheaper, at $12.
- Only Podbean has a free tier.
Side by side
Captivate | Podbean | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $17 | From $12 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free trial, then paid | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier (they differ) | No | Yes |
| Billing | Not stated | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | 30 days | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on (they differ) | Web | Web, iOS, Android |
Shaded rows are where the two answers disagree and both listings have answered. A row where one side has not stated a fact is left plain, because silence is not a difference.
Captivate
Podcast hosting priced by downloads
Captivate hosts shows on download bands rather than storage or episode counts, so a back catalogue costs nothing to keep and a viral episode is the thing that moves you up a tier. Every plan carries the full feature set, which is unusual here: analytics, a website, dynamic ad insertion and a listener signup tool are not held back for the dearest band. Unlimited podcasts sit on one account, so a second show does not mean a second bill.
Our note
The thing to check before signing up is your actual monthly download number rather than your subscriber count, because that is the only number the pricing responds to. If a single old episode still pulls traffic, the dynamic ad insertion is what makes this pay for itself.
Only on this side
- Covers analytics
Podbean
Podcast hosting with the money side built in
Podbean hosts a show and then tries to pay for it: a patron programme, dynamic ad insertion against its own advertiser marketplace, and premium episodes sold per episode or by subscription. That is a different shape from hosts that stop at the RSS feed, and it suits a show whose audience is small enough that a network will not call back. The free account exists to get a first episode published; the paid bands lift storage and open the monetization tools.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.