Transistor Review (2023): How Good is It?

Transistor Is a Straightforward Podcast Publishing Platform

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In this Transistor review, we’re going to be exploring the features, functionality, pricing, and capabilities of the Transistor.FM podcast publishing platform.

Quick verdict:

Overall, Transistor offers an excellent selection of features to business owners, and entrepreneurs looking to leverage the video content landscape.

With Transistor, innovators can easily create immersive live or on-demand events, connect privately with colleagues across the globe, and even share valuable content online.

The easy-to-use environment combined with the wide selection of features makes this platform a great choice for all use cases.

Of course, Transistor is far from the only platform available for podcast creators. So, how do you know if it’s the right tool for your needs? In this review, we’ll be exploring the platform, its features, and pricing options, to help you make the right choice.

What is Transistor.FM?

transistor review homepage

There’s more to podcasting than simply recording audio content. You need a place to host your podcasts, and a solution for sharing them across the correct platforms. That’s where Transistor FM comes in. Transistor is among the most reputable podcast hosting platforms on the market, with phenomenal ratings across the board.

The solution provides companies and individual freelancers with an all-in-one platform where they can build a website for their podcast, host as many audio streams as they like, and share their content directly to a range of channels.

The solution integrates with all of the top distribution tools, including:

  • Apple Podcasts
  • Pocket Casts
  • Overcast
  • Spotify
  • Google Podcasts

As an added bonus, the solution also makes it easy to track your Podcast performance, with detailed analytics outlining everything from your number of downloads per episode, to your most popular podcast apps, trends, and number of subscribers.

Transistor Pricing

transistor review pricing

When you’re choosing a new software solution for your podcasting needs, one of the most important things you can do is look at pricing. As with most hosting solutions, Transistor offers a range of pricing packages to choose from, depending on your specific needs. There’s a 14-day free trial available, as well as a discount if you choose the annual plan instead of the monthly alternative.

The annual plan essentially gives you two months free when you pay for all 12 months at once, so you really only pay for 10 months of access.

Packages paid monthly include:

  • Starter: $19 per month: Unlimited podcasts, live customer support, advanced analytics, a built-in podcast website, and 2 additional team members. You can also have up to 50 private podcast subscribers, and 20,000 monthly downloads.
  • Professional: $49 per month for all the features of Starter, plus 5 additional team members, 500 private podcast subscribers, and 100,000 monthly downloads. You’ll also be able to set dynamic ads for pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll, as well as dynamic show notes.
  • Business: $99 per month for all the features of Professional, plus up to 10 additional team members, 3,000 private subscribers, unique branding, and 250,000 monthly downloads.

Features

Transistor is a relatively feature-rich podcasting solution, with phenomenal ease of use for beginners. The versatile offering is widely considered one of the top podcast hosting platforms online, as it allows you to not only publish your podcasts, but also build an effective brand.

Outside of the primary features of Transistor, mentioned below, there are also some additional capabilities to explore.

For instance, you can access newsletter integrations with email marketing tools like HubSpot and MailChimp, to help spread the word about your podcast.

There’s also the option to set up accounts for other members of staff on your team, so they can handle things like content creation, distribution, and website management for you.

Transistor FM has embeddable players, so you can pin your podcast’s episodes to your website. However, this feature may require a little technical knowledge.

Let’s take a closer look at what you can do with this platform.

Transistor Podcast Hosting

Perhaps the core of Transistor’s service revolves around the ability to host your podcasts conveniently and quickly in a single environment. Unlike other podcast hosting leaders, Transistor gives you unlimited access to hosting services, for as many podcasts as you like.

With other companies, you would generally have to pay one price for a certain number of podcasts, then pay extra for every additional stream you wanted to host.

When you sign up with Transistor, you pay a single monthly price no matter how many podcasts you host, and each podcast you create will include:

  • A unique RSS feed
  • Advanced analytics
  • A basic web page for your podcast
  • The ability to invite other admins to manage your podcast

Transistor notes there are unlimited options for how you create and share your podcasts too. For instance, you can create multiple shows with different target audiences or topics to expand your reach.

You can also experiment with new concepts, and choose the option with the most followers to double-down on. There’s even the option to experiment with podcast formats.

For instance, you could try producing extra-long podcasts lasting multiple hours, and quick 30-minute shows to see which one generates the best results. Because your analytics come built in for every podcast, it’s easy to track which strategies are paying off.

Transistor Website Builder

First and foremost, Transistor isn’t just a podcast hosting service, it also ensures companies and freelancers can build a dedicated environment where they share their audio content.

The built-in web page builder on the platform allows users to create:

  • homepages
  • landing pages
  • about pages

Plus, you can create a subscription form which automatically links users to all of the podcast apps they use.

You can create a website for every podcast you design on Transistor. Although the sites are relatively straightforward, they come with most of the features content creators need to get started, as well as a range of beautiful templates, so you don’t need to build from scratch.

Each template includes:

  • A homepage where you can describe what your podcast is about and showcase a single episode (whether it’s your top episode or the most recently released).
  • A landing page for each of your episodes, with notes from your shows.
  • An “About” page which introduces your hosts and gives your listeners an insight into your background, vision, and brand story.
  • A “Subscribe” page which allows users to easily open your podcast in any app they choose, to start listening straight away.

The website builder gives you plenty of space to customize your online presence with your own brand colors, logos, and fonts. Plus, there are various languages to choose from, allowing you to automatically convert your Podcast site content into the language your customers use.

Interestingly, Transistor allows users to access the website builder even if they’re not a Transistor company. The site builder will still work regardless of where you host your podcast. So, if you’re using Buzzsprout, Anchor, Soundcloud, or Libsyn, you can still create a site with custom artwork, colors, pages, links, and of course, a custom domain.

Analytics and Reports

If you really want to generate results from your podcasts, you need to be able to track their performance, and make data-driven decisions on how to proceed. This means choosing a hosting platform with integrated analytics to guide you. Fortunately, Transistor is constantly rated as one of the top tools for podcast analytics, as you can access reports for every podcast you produce.

The analytics section on the Transistor app provides a clear and straightforward overview of all the metrics you might want to measure, including total listens per episode, monthly listens, average downloads per episode, and the most popular listening apps used by your customers.

You can even track which devices your customers are using, to ensure you’re producing content that’s perfectly-tuned to the operating system your listeners use most. Here are some of the handy analytics included on the platform are:

  • Average download per episode: Check how well your podcasts are performing 7, 30, 60, and 90 days after being published. This will help with attracting advertisers too.
  • Number of subscribers: Often, it’s hard to get a clear view of your number of subscribers when you’re using a podcasting tool built on top of RSS. However, Transistor can give you an estimate based on the average 24 hours of downloads from your most recent 3 episodes.
  • Listener trends: Track your download history over time, to see how many people you’re attracting on a daily, monthly, or yearly basis.
  • Listener breakdown: The episode breakdown table gives you an insight into which of your podcasts are most popular, with reports you can export as a CSV file for Microsoft Excel, Apple Numbers, or Google Sheets.
  • Episode comparison: If you’re wondering how one episode compares to another, you can take a look at the details for each option side-by-side with visual graphs.
  • Podcast app insights: If you’re wondering how your audience is listening, you can see how many people are using different podcast tools to tune in. You’ll even be able to track things like how many people use a mobile browser to listen in. This data can also be exported as a CSV file to share with stakeholders.
  • Listener device and operating system: Transistor.FM offers a useful visual chart to show you how many people are listening to your podcast from a mobile, smart speaker, smartwatch, desktop, or a specific operating system, like iOS, Android, or Windows.
  • Listener map: The Transistor map shows you exactly which countries the majority of your listeners are from. You can also track whether you’re gaining more followers from different countries over time. There are also state breakdowns for the USA, Australia and Canada.

Overall, Transistor effectively goes above and beyond most other podcast hosting solutions when it comes to helping you understand your podcast progress and your listeners.

Podcast Distribution

Ensuring your podcast reaches all of the right distribution channels is crucial for ensuring you can connect with a wide audience. If you were publishing your content manually, you’d need to spend significant time uploading and submitting your content to all the different directories.

Fortunately, Transistor makes this process quick and simple. Whenever you submit a new episode to the Transistor platform, the app will automatically distribute the content to all of the major platforms, including the podcast search engines. There are 1-click submission options for:

  • Spotify Podcasts: With daily analytics
  • Apple podcasts: With regular information from Apple
  • Google podcasts: With management via the Google podcast manager
  • Podcast Addict: with simple Android features
  • Breaker: With access to podcast commenting
  • Player FM: With convenient multi-platform performance

You can also submit your podcasts directly to the most common search engines, including Listen Notes, and the Podcast Index. This boosts your chances of getting your audio content in front of the right audience, wherever they choose to search for podcasts.

Private Podcasting

As podcasts have grown more popular, companies are beginning to use these tools in a range of different ways. For instance, business leaders can use private podcasts to share information specific to the company with their team and employees.

The private podcast feature on Transistor allows you to restrict access to your podcast RSS feed however you choose.

Private podcasts aren’t publicly discoverable or accessible. Instead, every subscriber receives a unique RSS feed they can add to their podcast player.

This means subscribers can still subscribe to the podcast in their podcast player if they’re permitted to listen. Plus, they can get new episodes directly uploaded to their phone, and download podcasts for offline listeners.

Private podcasts are great for onboarding new employees, offering regular audio training to employees, and sending weekly messages out to your staff.

You can even create audio books for your team members to listen to wherever they are. Educational institutions can use this service too, to share podcast lessons directly with students.

Transistor Review: Verdict

Hopefully, this Transistor review has given you a good idea of what you can expect from the podcast hosting, webinar, and video event platform.

You can always use the 14-day free trial to get a taste of the service before you commit to anything.

Rebekah Carter

Rebekah Carter is an experienced content creator, news reporter, and blogger specializing in marketing, business development, and technology. Her expertise covers everything from artificial intelligence to email marketing software and extended reality devices. When she’s not writing, Rebekah spends most of her time reading, exploring the great outdoors, and gaming.

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