Looking for a Castos alternative? Hubhopper is the smarter podcast hosting platform in 2025. Unlike Castos, Hubhopper offers a free plan, more Team members, Simpler UI, AI-powered editing tools, YouTube video podcast distribution, and wider reach with Indian platforms like JioSaavn and Gaana. With built-in monetization, enhanced analytics, and a user-friendly interface, Hubhopper is ideal for creators who want to scale without high upfront costs.
Castos is a popular choice among podcasters due to its plethora of features. However, some podcasters face issues with the podcast hosting platform. Whether it is the pricing structure or the learning curve, you might be out here looking for a Castos alternative.
Keep on reading to find out how Hubhopper is a reliable Castos alternative, that overcomes the challenges you might be facing and also gives you what Castos offers.
Feature Comparison: Castos vs. Hubhopper
| Feature | Castos | Hubhopper |
| Free Plan | ❌ | ✅ |
| Video File Hosting | Only on $99 plan | ✅ |
| Exclusive Apple Category | ❌ | ✅ |
| YouTube Distribution | Only on $99 plan | ✅ |
| One-click Apple Podcasts Distribution | ❌ | ✅ |
| Advanced Analytics Dashboard | Only on $99 plan | ✅ On all paid plans |
| AI audio editing tool | ❌ | ✅ |
| Wider distribution | ❌ | ✅ |
| Private Podcasts | ✅ | ✅ |
| Unlimited Storage and Bandwidth | ✅ | ✅ |
| DAI | ✅ | ✅ |
| Private Podcasting | ✅ | ✅ |
| Podcast Website (Microsite) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Embed players | ✅ | ✅ |
What Makes Hubhopper A Better Castos Alternative
No free plan
When you’re trying out a new platform, one wants to try the platform first before they make the investment. Castos doesn’t have a free plan, which can be a barrier to beginner podcasters who want to explore the platform before they put their money down.
Hubhopper has a free plan making it a flexible and creator first Castos alternative. It helps you explore the platform, get familiar with it, and see if it fits with your needs. If you want to explore advanced features, we also give you the ability to start a trial to further see if the platform is according to your liking.
Video Podcasting & YouTube Distribution
Castos offers two types of video podcasting. On their Growth plan ($49/month), you can republish your audio episodes to YouTube where the podcast cover art is used to create the video from your audio. The Pro plan ($99/month) lets you upload video podcasts.
Hubhopper offers you YouTube distribution and video podcasts on the Growth plan ($24/month). YouTube has now overtaken Spotify and Apple Podcasts in terms of podcast consumption. Being on YouTube as a podcaster can increase your reach drastically.
Plus, Hubhopper makes distribution to audio platforms easy. It extracts the audio file and distributes it to audio platforms making the distribution of your podcast quick and seamless. When it comes to video podcasting Hubhopper is a better Castos alternative.
Simpler UI & Onboarding
Castos can be a bit complex to understand especially for podcasters who are not tech savvy. With its features like WordPress plugin, the platform can confuse podcasters and make it difficult for them to navigate the platform.
Hubhopper on the other hand, is simple and easy to use. It has been built in mind that not many podcasters are tech savvy and want an easy to use platform to get their journey started.
We have ample resources that you can use to understand the platform deeply and use our other features as you progress in your podcasting journey. If you’re looking for a simpler Castos alternative, try Hubhopper.
No tools for editing episodes on the platform
Castos has no in-built recorder or editor within the platform. Which means you as a podcaster need to rely on external tools. You either need to pay for these tools or figure out complex open-source softwares. Planning and producing the episode itself is difficult to figure out, you don’t need the headache of learning how to edit.
Hubhopper has an in-built recorder that you can use. Once you upload the episode, you can use our AI audio editor that automatically removes silences and filler words. It also generates a transcript of your episode, which you can edit and it will edit your audio.
Audio editing becomes as easy as editing a document. This tool comes in really handy for podcasters who just want to focus on creating content and don’t want to learn audio editing. If you want a Castos alternative that helps you streamline your creation flow, Hubhopper is a good choice.
AI Tools
Castos gives you AI generated transcriptions of your episodes. Transcriptions are very useful when you’re repurposing your content into blogs, newsletters, clips for social media, captions for social media posts, etc. But it lacks other AI tools that can help and streamline your content creation process.
Hubhopper gives you AI tools not just for transcription but for SEO titles and show notes, social media captions, and audio editor. These tools take away the mundane and routine tasks necessary for episode creation and promotion.
Our transcription tool supports 20+ languages, making it accessible for people who create content in languages other than English.
Team Members
As a podcaster who has scaled their operations and has a team, a robust team feature is crucial. Castos has a team feature in their Growth plan ($49/month) which allows 5 team members and their Pro plan ($99/month) which allows up to 10 team members.
Hubhopper gives you 8 team members at ($24/month). On top of that you can also assign roles to each team member to control the access they have. Team roles range from the Owner (which can only be one), Manager, Editor, and Analyst.
Wider automatic distribution
Castos distributes your podcast to global podcast apps like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, etc. These can be limiting especially because there is high competition on these platforms since everyone distributes their podcasts here.
Hubhopper gives you the advantage of not only distributing these global platforms but also on emerging markets podcast apps like JioSaavn and Gaana. Here the competition is low since the majority of podcasters are not distributing their podcasts here.
Why? Because they simply don’t know about these platforms. Hubhopper also allows you to distribute your podcast manually to many other platforms, expanding your reach significantly.
Advanced analytics
Castos only gives you advanced analytics on the Pro plan ($99/month). The access to advanced analytics for podcasters is crucial to shape their strategy and gauge whether those changes worked or not.
Hubhopper gives you access to advanced analytics on the Pro plan ($12/month) and Growth plan ($24/month). Within your analytics dashboard you can see:
- The listens and downloads data of your podcast
- The best time to post your episode
- Episode comparison
- Locations of your listeners both country wise and city specific
- Unique listeners of your podcast
- Device type your listeners are tuning in from
- Operating systems your listeners use
- Platform wise breakdown of your listens and downloads
You can also choose custom date ranges, add tracking code for analytics servers like Chartable and Podtrac, and download your data as a CSV file. The analytics are also real time excluding Spotify data (it takes 48 hours for Spotify data to reflect in your analytics).
Hubhopper gives you holistic and IAB compliant data so you have the ability to make data-driven decisions.
Pricing Comparison: Castos vs Hubhopper
| Plan | Castos | Hubhopper |
| Free | ❌ | ✅ |
| Entry-Level | $19/month | ₹0 |
| Second-tier plans | Essentials plan ($19/month) | Pro plan ($12/month) |
| Video Podcasting | Pro ($99/month) | Growth plan ($24/month) |
Don’t miss out with Hubhopper
If you’re migrating from Castos, we understand you may miss some features, but Hubhopper takes care of that too. Here are some features that Hubhopper and Castos share.
Unlimited storage and bandwidth
Hubhopper gives you unlimited storage and bandwidth. You don’t have to stress about running out of storage or hitting a certain number of downloads. Every plan has this feature so you can create and manage your podcast worry free.
Podcast website
A podcast website is necessary to establish your brand and showcase your awesome podcast. Hubhopper gives you a fully customizable website and we don’t charge for website hosting. The website is responsive and indexable. It means listeners can find your website on search engines and play episodes on it, giving your more listens and downloads.
Embed player
Already have a website? We give you three different types of embed players so you can pick and choose which one to embed on your website. Adding an embed player can do wonders for your content and make it more accessible for people. It also increases your listens and decreases the bounce rate on your website.
DAI
Dynamic audio insertion is a monetization tool that you can use to stitch a branded ad and host-read ads to your episodes’ pre and post roll. You can also track the impressions your audio receives and once it hits the mark, you can remove it. No need to hard burn the ad into your episodes. You can do this at scale with only a few clicks.
Private Podcasts
Want to monetize your content with exclusive content? Try out private podcasts. You can put exclusive content behind a paywall and only give access to the private podcast to your paid subscribers. It is a great way to monetize without the pressures of finding the right sponsors.
Use Cases Where Hubhopper Wins
- Solo creators who want zero upfront cost, can get started with Hubhopper for free. Try out the platform and if you want to check out the premium features, you can opt for a free 7-days trial.
- If you’re a brand who wants distribution for their audio content and also upload video podcast directly to YouTube, our Growth plan will be your best choice
- Creators focused on leveraging SEO via YouTube can benefit from our video podcast distribution at a much lower cost than Casto.
Final Verdict
Castos is a solid choice but not ideal for everyone since the plans are expensive especially for podcasters who are focusing on video podcasts. Hubhopper is a robust Castos alternative offers a more flexible, creator-first experience. Beginners can start with our free plan while Castos has no free plan.
Hubhoppe is especially strong for those looking to scale or monetize without high upfront costs.
