Transistor.fm : Full Review, Testing, and Presentation (2024)

With a user-friendly interface, advanced analytics, and an affordable price, Transistor.fm will guide you through the confusing podcasting landscape. Contrary to RSS.com and Buzzsprout, it does not allow recording and editing a podcast from scratch. It offers a free 14-day trial to give you time to test the software and determine if you can trust it.

Transistor has powerful integrations with email marketing software and social media apps like MailChimp, Drip, Twitter, Youtube, Zapier, etc. Read the full review to learn about Transistor's main features and what sets it apart from the rest.

What is Transistor.fm?

A podcast hosting site for small teams with big dreams.

Transistor is a host built by two podcasters who decided to sign an agreement in 2018. Since then, they've built Transistor to be the one-stop shop for podcasters looking for a reliable host????. The hosting site has a ton of premium features ✨ and a very generous 14-day free trial.

While there's no free plan here, Transistor offers 53 blog posts that will help you set up your podcast. You'll find a combination of guides and informative articles about their blog page.

Who is Transistor.fm for?

I'm going to start by saying that Transistor has a lot of customers like : Unbox Therapy, IBM (yes, the big machine company), and Taylor Otwell - the creator of Laravel.

Podcasters will find an unlimited download plan with Transistor, which is always a plus. Unlimited plans are great for securing future episodes, especially if you become big enough to release several hours per month. Apart from its excellent analytics, free podcast website, and private podcast packages, Transistor has an advantage as a host.

Live customer support. All of Transistor's pricing plans offer live customer support, so you don't have to worry about waiting for a response or sitting back and talking to an automated robot.

I'll tell you more about the live support system and other features in the dedicated pages below.

Features

Transistor is much more than a simple podcast hosting platform. Let's look at the benefits you get in addition to storage space:

Podcast website

If you don't have a website yet, you can create one with Transistor. Choose a subdomain or define an optional custom domain.

Design your website by adding favicons, social sharing images, text and reader colors, etc. Add your Google Analytics ID and Fathom Analytics to track the number of page views. You can also include custom CSS style sheets to replace the default styles on your site.

Embedding Podcast

All of your episodes have a sharing and integration option by default. Click on the three dots on the side of each episode and select the integration option. Copy the link and paste it onto your website.

There are two-player themes: Light and Dark. Choose the theme that best fits the overall style of your podcast. Readers are intuitive and each has three buttons: subscribe, share, and more information, making mini readers more responsive and easy to share.

Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc. are podcast players and not hosting platforms. When you click download or subscribe in these applications, they send the request to Transistor (host). The podcast player will then download the MP3 file from the server.

Support for multiple users

Transistor's pricing plan supports up to 2, 5, and 10 connections for your podcast.

This is a definite disadvantage if your podcast has a lot of members. Other hosting sites offer an unlimited number of team members. The cap on collaboration members by Transistor therefore seems a bit restrictive.

You can give each person a different role, namely: Owner, Admin, and Member.

• landlords - There is only one owner per paid account. This role is in charge of billing, subscription settings, credit card information, and can cancel accounts. The Owner is also the only one who can add a new show to an account.
• Administrator - Administrators can edit shows, manage episodes, view stats, and manage team members. Each paid account can have multiple administrators.
• Members - This role is much simpler, limited to the addition and modification of episodes as well as the consultation of analyses. They can't delete episodes or manage team members.

Analytics

Transistor.fm has by far the best analysis section. It draws data from all the podcast directories each morning. Access to such data helps you understand the gaps and reach a larger audience.

If you have little or no idea about evaluating the tests, Transister deconstructs it for you in a way that even a baby could understand. Okay, that was a bit of an exaggeration, but you get what I mean.

It shows you the number of downloads, the number of estimated subscribers, the number of estimated subscribers, listener trends, etc. It also allows you to filter your episodes according to their popularity in order to know what type of content your listeners enjoy. In addition, you can also find out which podcast application most of your listeners use and visualize where they live by looking at Transistor's map.

Additionally, you can set up third-party analytics tools like Chartable, Podtrack, Podsights, Polycom, etc. in the advanced settings.

Transistor.fm follows IAB guidelines. That means they eliminate duplicate downloads, downloads from search indexes, and any robot downloads in the analysis you see on Transistor.

Private podcasting

As I mentioned at the beginning, this podcast hosting application allows you to create a private podcast. This is a useful feature if you want to have a select audience or if you run a business and use podcasting as a way to communicate with your employees.

The process for creating a private podcast is the same except for additional details. Add domains to invite links and embeddable readers.

Since it's a private podcast, you can always remove listeners you don't want to have as an audience and deny them access. In addition, Transistor.fm allows you to have full ownership of your podcast and keeps 100% of the rights reserved even in the public podcast. So you can show your own ads there.

It is also possible to transfer ownership.

Importing your podcast

If you already have a podcast on other platforms, Transistor.fm needs a link to your Apple podcast's RSS feed or you can search for your podcast directly.

Before importing your podcast, you will receive an email from Transistor.fm for validation. If the validation is positive, you will find your podcast on Transistor.

Pricing

Transistor.fm offers three price levels as well as a 14-day trial period. Unlike Alitu and other podcasting services, it doesn't have a free plan. Nevertheless, the subscription price is quite affordable.

• Beginner: $19/month
• Professional: $49/month
• Business: $99/month

Keep your credit card handy when you sign up for the trial. Unlike Buzzsprout and Alitu, you have to provide credit card details to access its trial version.

The most surprising and interesting part of all of these pricing plans is that each of them allows you to create an unlimited number of podcasts, access advanced analytics, receive customer support, and more.

The difference is in the number of downloads per month, private podcasts and subscribers, the ability to eliminate players' brands, and additional users per podcast.

Even if you exceed the download or subscription limit, instead of automatically closing your account, the team will contact you to discuss the upgrade plan. Transistor will not remove your podcast from other directories and you will always have access to the analysis section.

How to create a new show with Transistor.fm?

Since the interface was intuitive and easy to navigate, it took me less than ten minutes to create a new show. Transistor.fm offers you three options: Create a new podcast, import an existing podcast, or create a private podcast.

If you already have the required information, such as show name, logo, copyright description, pre-recorded audio (for episodes), etc. you can stream your show in minutes.

Like other podcast hosting services like Alitu and Buzzsprout, Transister has the same requirements when it comes to downloading artwork.

• The image must be in JPG or PNG format, with a maximum size of 15 MB.
• It should be 3000 by 3000px.

If you want to save all your future episodes on Transister, you can choose the date of publication and number the episode.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could host an unlimited number of shows with Transister.fm, with a single subscription and multiple user accounts.

As a podcaster, you want to make it easier for your listeners to access your channel. To do this, you can submit your podcast to several hosting services like Apple, Spotify, Google podcasts, etc. This will make you more visible and increase your reach.

Submit your show to various platforms

As with all other processes, Transistor makes this process as easy as possible. Just be sure to download your audio files in mp3 when recording an episode and the following options will be offered to you in the distribution channel.

The main directories like Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Breaker, Player FM, etc. are easily accessible and just waiting for the send button. Transistor also lists 12 other apps and aggregators, including Amazon Music and Stitcher.

Once your podcast is submitted to these directories, it can take more than a day before it is fully indexed and ready to be released. You can also embed a reader on your website. We'll talk about this in detail later in this section.

Customer support

One of the many nice features of Transistor is its customer support. The Help center himself documents numerous articles to solve your problems. I liked how they categorized issues and color coded them, making the process fun.

Some of these categories are:

• Use of the transistor,
• Submission to directories
• private podcasting,
• Your podcast website
• itunes
• Spotify
• Promote your podcast, etc.

If you have a specific problem and can't find anything in their documents, contact a customer service manager using chat support or emailing them.

If no members of the chat support team are online, they will ask you to enter your email address and wait for their response. In the meantime, you can play a game if you want to.

FAQs

How much does it cost to publish a podcast?

You can expect to pay between $20 and $100 for a premium podcast plan. When it comes to podcast production, $200 to $500 is enough to start producing high-quality podcasts. Professional podcast studios are worth around $5,000 in hardware alone.

What are the best platforms for podcasts?

The best platforms for podcasts depend on your needs. Currently, the best podcast hosting sites are:

1. Buzzsprout
2. Captivate
3. Transistor
4. Castos
5. Podbean

How are you going to monetize Transistor?

You can monetize with Transistor through traditional means, like writing ✏️ a book, creating a private podcast, and requesting support through Patreon. You can also sell products or do affiliate marketing if that's your field.

Does Transistor have an application?

Transistor does not have a dedicated application. The website works like the mobile application on listeners' devices.

For podcasters, the Transistor website is comprehensive and simple enough to act as an app.

Does Transistor support video?

No Transistor does not support videos. Currently, you can only submit audio files to Transistor.

Final Verdict

Apart from the lack of a recording function, Transistor has a lot of key features like unlimited podcast creation, collaboration options, advanced analytics, an integrated website, easy distribution, 100% channel ownership, etc. that don't exist in most other podcasting services.

Even the price is affordable for podcasters or businesses, whether new or established. With so many benefits, it's easy to overlook a few flaws. It is a simple, effective and easy to use tool. Don't hesitate to try it out, you might like it more than your usual podcasting service.