Plesk has been around for a long time and is supported by many hosts. You also have the option to migrate to cPanel should you decide that Plesk isn’t for you. Plesk also supports a wide array of Linux and Windows operating systems, so you have a lot of options for installing it on various server setups.
Plesk has a straightforward and fair pricing model - you pay for how many websites you use. This makes it great for average web hosters who need the flexibility of Plesk and don’t plan on hosting tons of websites. It is also a good choice for web agencies who plan on hosting websites on behalf of their clients and want predictable pricing. If you plan on hosting lots of websites all for your own use, then cPanel or sPanel offer cheaper plans.
Ease of use
Plesk has the most cohesive user interface of all the admin panels, combining the server-side administration into the same user interface as the website management interface. This has benefits and drawbacks. On the one hand, it’s nice to have the server management presented in a manner that is friendly to non-technical users, but at the same time, it feels a little frustrating to use if you are technical. There’s considerably less of the underlying technical details exposed to users, which is great if you’re worried about breaking things, but if you’re a tinkerer, then you might prefer the more raw experience that cPanel provides. Plesk not only works great on mobiles but even provides a dedicated mobile app so you can manage your websites on the go.
Support
Web server support
It supports a wide array of different web servers and languages. Apache is installed by default, with the option to install Nginx as a reverse proxy, which gives you the best of both worlds. Litespeed is supported, but there’s no support for the free alternative, OpenLitespeed, so expect additional costs.
Database support
Microsoft SQL, MySQL, and PostgreSQL are all supported, making Plesk a great choice for those who need more powerful database options.
Language support
Support programming languages include PHP, Javascript/Node, Perl, Ruby, Python, .NET. There’s even docker support via an official extension, which means effortless support for virtually any language and setup.
Backups
Plesk offers a pretty standard array of backup options with good support for remote backup providers. FTP, Amazon S3, Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive are all supported.
Extensions and apps
Plesk has the most impressive extensibility out of any of the admin panels we’ve tried. Along with the usual one-click installers such as Softacolous, you can also install extensions to manage your social media, page speed, harden your WordPress installations - it really does have it all. There’s even a pretty powerful site builder included, meaning you can build your website with zero coding knowledge.
Security
Not only does Plesk come with the usual security software, but it also goes the extra mile to make them more user-friendly. We particularly like how user-friendly the web application firewall is, providing an extra layer of security against malicious requests without overly complicating it. Plesk includes both VirusTotal and Imunify for virus scans with an option for paid upgrades. Kernelcare and other paid security hardening services are available.
Final verdict
Plesk is truly leading the way with the admin panel. It has remained fresh and up-to-date, offering a lot of the latest and greatest software. Everything is easy to use and packaged in a way that isn’t intimidating to non-technical users. It would be nice to see better out-of-the-box performance optimisation, something that sPanel really excels at, but Plesk offers a more broad set of capabilities. It does an incredible job of being both extremely powerful and customisable, without being overwhelming for non-technical users. The bottom line is that if you want an admin panel that does everything and packages it up nicely into a very user-friendly package, then it might be worth splashing a bit more on Plesk.
Operating system support: AlmaLinux, CloudLinux, Rocky Linux and Ubuntu
Portability to different platforms
cPanel is probably one of the most popular admin panels, so it’s no surprise that it’s supported by many hosts. They also include migration tools to migrate between servers and even from a Plesk control panel. Since cPanel is so popular, most alternative admin panels have a migrato,r meaning that if you decide cPanel isn’t for you, you can still easily switch to other admin panels such as Plex or sPanel.
Instead of charging by website, cPanel offers unlimited websites and chargers based on the number of users you have. If you’re planning on hosting a lot of websites, but all for your own use, then it can make it slightly cheaper, although not as cheap as SPanel. However, if you plan on hosting just a few websites or having lots of user accounts, then it will be more expensive than the alternatives. Reselling is available for their plans starting at 46.99/mo, making it slightly cheaper than Plesk for reselling.
Ease of use
cPanel’s ease of use is a mixed bag. It has areas that can be a little daunting for new users, but once you’re familiar with it, it becomes pretty easy to work out where things are. There’s no mobile-specific app, but that’s not required since the web version works well on mobile. The server admin part of cPanel is a lot more daunting than the individual website management section, and the server admin part definitely feels like it would be daunting to non-technical users - although it is nice to have the additional flexibility you get from exposing the raw, technical, internals. The beauty of cPanel’s popularity is that there are plenty of tutorials and videos you can watch if you’re not quite sure how to do something.
Support
Web server support
Nginx is supported via free plugins and some command line dabbling, but we’d expect to see a server as popular as Nginx to be supported out of the box. Lightspeed is available but that is a commercial application and requires an eye-watering $25/month license. It would be nice to see support for the free alternative OpenLightSpeed, which is available in sPanel. Overall, cPanel doesn’t offer the breadth of web server support that Plesk does, and it doesn’t provide the performance-optimized web server support that sPanel offers. It does offer clustering, meaning you can join multiple servers together and split the load between them, but that’s quite an advanced feature and not something the vast majority of users will need.
Database support
Supports both MySQL/MariaDB out of the box. Postgres is supported but involves running a command line script, which, again, isn’t ideal for less-technical users - although once it’s installed, then the user interface has very good support for it.
Language support
Supports PHP, Java, and Ruby out of the box, with support for more if you’re willing to install and manage them yourself. We’d expect a mature admin panel such as cPanel to support many more languages.
Backups
Supports offsite backups. Has a good selection of remote backup providers: S3, BackBlaze, FTP, Google Drive, Rsync and WebDAV.
Extensions and apps
Supports Softaculous. It also has a number of paid extensions but nothing that isn’t supported by Plesk. It is very extensible if you’re willing to dabble with the command line, and there’s lots of documentation provided on how to tweak things, but really, an admin panel as mature and expensive as cPanel should have more click-and-play extensions to justify its cost.
Security
Clam AV virus scanner, which is a good virus scanner, with support for more advanced ones such as ImunifyAV (at a cost). 2 factor auth, which is good. Automatic updates are an additional $3/month. This includes ModSecurity as a web application firewall, which I personally trust over an AI solution.
Final verdict
Hosting has changed a lot in the last decade, with new performance-focused web servers, advanced databases and powerful new languages becoming increasingly popular. Unfortunately, cPanel has done little to keep up with these advances, supporting pretty much the same setup it has for the last decade or more. Whilst there is plenty of documentation covering how to install these newer alternatives, it’s really something that cPanel should be supporting out of the box by now. Given the increase in pricing cPanel has seen over the years, it costs just as much as considerably better alternatives such as Plesk. cPanel is historically a very popular and well-known admin panel, so it will be familiar to a lot of seasoned hosters and, despite its shortcomings, its familiarity is often enough to make it people’s go-to admin panel. The bottom line is: unless you already feel most comfortable in cPanel or you plan on reselling, there’s no real reason to choose it over sPanel or Plesk.
Operating system support: CentOS, Linux and Windows
Portability to different platforms
Whilst SPanel is a purpose-built admin panel by ScalaHosting, it is actually available as a standalone tool. It claims to support any virtual or private server and can even be managed by ScalaHosting on Digital Ocean, AWS, and, of course, ScalaHosting itself. The panel is cPanel compatible, which means migration to the platform should be easy, and if you need to migrate by hand, Scala also offers “unlimited migration.” Since it’s a fairly niche admin panel, not many other admin panels have automated importers, so in the rare case that you want to switch to another one, you may have a bit of extra work on your plate.
SPanel offers a no-nonsense pricing structure, which we really appreciate. Instead of holding back features for more expensive plans, it offers the kitchen sink, including unlimited websites, on all plans and instead charges per user. This makes it great if you’re looking for a budget-friendly control panel and have lots of websites to host, but primarily for your own use. Even for reselling, it works out slightly cheaper than the alternatives. However, reselling often demands a more flexible control panel to match customers’ varied demands, so we’d still recommend resellers splash slightly more money on a more mature control panel such as Plesk or cPanel. All plans also include 24/7 server management and support, which can be worth the monthly fee alone for those who need a little extra hand-holding.
Ease of use
When software is designed for both technical and non-technical users, there’s always a risk that an overly simplified user interface can limit the control you have over the underlying software. Thankfully, SPanel does a great job explaining the technical parts without removing any control. SPanel’s creators, ScalaHosting, have a wealth of experience dealing directly with hosting customers, and that really shines in their user interface. Whilst the user interface does work on mobile, it would be nice to have it optimized so there’s less zooming involved.
Support
Web server support
Supports the usual Apache but has a single-click setup for faster drop-in replacements like Lightspeed. It also supports nginx as a reverse proxy, meaning you can have the best of both worlds - using nginx’s lightning-fast performance for static files such as images and CSS files whilst retaining Apache’s flexibility. SPanel really stands out here. There are a lot of easy to setup options and a clear focus on PHP performance.
Database support
Currently, it only supports MySQL/MariaDB, which is enough to host a lot of the most popular apps (WordPress, Magento, Joomla, and Drupal, to name a few), but it would be great to see support for alternative databases such as Postgres, which is gaining in popularity due to the more powerful features they offer. Again, it’s clear that SPanel is laser-focused on traditional PHP & MySQL setups, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing if that’s your preferred tech stack.
Language support
Supports PHP and nodejs/Javascript, which is pretty essential. Languages such as Python require manual setup.
Email support
Includes Spam Assasin which is a pretty standard anti-spam tool.
Backups
Every account gets automatic offsite backup.
Extensions and apps
Being an admin panel that is focused on being optimized, SPanel understandably doesn’t boast a huge range of extensions. Like most other panels, there’s support for Softaculous so you have a whole host of apps you can install, but if you’re looking for extensibility in the admin panel itself, then it might be worth looking into cPanel or Plesk.
Security
Automatically set up SPF, DKIM & DMARC for emails, which are special anti-spam records to help prevent your emails from ending up in other people’s spam boxes. It includes 2-factor authentication, which is essential for a high-value target like a server. Regular automatic updates are a welcome addition, even if it does increase the risk of another CrowdStrike debacle. Built-in Let’s Encrypt support means free and easy SSL certificates. It includes a built-in web firewall called SShiel, which uses “AI” to determine malicious visitors. This means potentially more malicious visitors blocked but opens up more scope for false positives.
Final verdict
SPanel is a welcome new player to the market. It clearly has a narrower focus than some of the more traditional admin panels like Plesk and cPanel, but that narrow focus allows it to offer a considerably more optimized experience. Performance has been greatly enhanced with SPanel, which provides very easy options to speed up your website, which is vital for potentially computing-hungry applications such as WooCommerce. It also comes with a fantastic support offering, borrowing expertise from SPanel’s hosting company, ScalaHosting. While you will sacrifice a bit of flexibility with a simpler admin panel like SPanel, if you want to host a standard PHP and MySQL/MariaDB application and you want it to be fast, then your best bet is SPanel. I'd recommend this to people who are hosting their own PHP & MySQL/MariaDB apps and care about performance. It could also be a good option for seasoned hosters who want something easy but aren't afraid to install system packages directly when they need something not supported out of the box.
With RSS.com having a stable 4.9 rating on all major review platforms, we put it to the test to see how it works.
For this RSS.com review, we began with the mindset of a complete beginner to see how easy the features are to use, how easy it is to set up and monetize our podcast, and how much it costs.
Our results? A “complete” podcast hosting provider with all the features you need to easily start and keep your podcast running within a few minutes.
Advantages of RSS.com (Pros)
Beginner’s Best Friend
If there is one thing I love about a podcasting hosting service, it's a clean UI. This, together with features that are not only easy to find but also use, makes setting up a podcast easier.
From uploading your audio file to the description, you can make your podcast live within a minute, even without any experience.
(Image credit: Rss.com)
Affordable Plans With Unlimited Uploads
With RSS.com, you get more for your money. Their plans start at just $11.99/month ($4.99/month for students and NGOs), offering unlimited episode hosting—a feature that many competitors, like Buzzsprout and Podbean, limit by capping upload hours. This means you can create and publish as many episodes as you want without worrying about hidden costs or overage fees, making RSS.com a cost-effective and scalable solution for podcasters of all levels.
Free Podcast Website
As soon as your podcast is live, your episode will be listed on your own website, which is desktop- and mobile-friendly. The website is free and has a media player embedded in it so your visitors can listen to your podcast directly on your site.
Automatic Distribution To Major Podcast Directories
RSS.com automatically distributes your episodes to the majority of its directories and offers guided options for the ones that don’t support automatic requests.
Easy Social Media Sharing
Easily share your podcast episodes across different social media platforms with a click of a button.
Who Is RSS.com For?
After thoroughly testing RSS.com, I found that it is good for beginners. If you’re completely new to the podcasting world, you don’t have to stress out where to start if you choose RSS.com. From signing up until you upload your podcast, the hosting provider will walk you through its visible option and easy-to-understand interface.
It also takes care of the majority of your tasks, like distribution, podcast website, etc., so you can focus on recording your podcast. All it takes is less than 2 minutes to have your podcast up and running.
Using RSS.com: Super Easy User Interface
One thing that stood out about RSS.com was its user interface.
The interface is clean, minimal, and clutter-free. The best part? There is zero learning curve, and the support bell is right at the top-right corner in case something gets difficult (but I doubt you’d find anything too confusing to understand).
If it’s your first podcast, RSS.com helps you navigate the entire process with the options visible on your screen.
After you’ve made your podcast live, the dashboard looks like this:
RSS.com interface
Think of this dashboard as your complete podcast ecosystem that allows you to access any episode/show and helps you create your public website for your show. It shows scheduled podcasts with their date. In the header, you can navigate through the analytics, distribution, monetization, and settings of your podcast, and it also shows scheduled podcasts and the date they’re due to go live.
You can publish new episodes or start a new podcast series from the dashboard.
When it comes to publishing your podcast, RSS.com allows you to either create a separate page (website link) or share a direct link through social media.
RSS.com (Image credit: Future)
You can check analytics and distribution at the click of a button, too. Overall, I’m quite impressed with RSS.com, which is extremely easy to use and understand for non-tech users.
Features Breakdown
1. Auto Transcription
When you upload your podcast, RSS.com gives you the option to generate a free transcript for your podcast. This powerful AI-powered feature supports 14 languages and generates SEO-friendly transcripts for your podcast for better accessibility.
2. Podroll
Love a show and want to share it with your audience? Pin up to 4 shows directly on your profile and let your listeners also tune into them. The feature is available in both plans.
3. Easy Scheduling & Publish URL
For people who love batch creation and busy individuals, you can schedule your episodes in advance. You also get a sharable public URL of your scheduled episode, allowing you to plan promotions and campaigns across social media ahead of the release.
RSS.com (Image credit: Rss.com)
4. Convert Audio to YouTube Video Podcasts
RSS.com uses PodViz to convert your audio podcast to automatically turn into engaging videos that you can share on YouTube. The video podcast contains dynamic visual elements and supports high resolution. Moreover, if you use chapters inside your audio podcast, they will be added atomically in your video, making it easier for your viewers to see them.
5. Embeddable Podcast Player
RSS.com offers a customizable podcast player that you can embed on your website to boost your podcast. This player is fully responsive across all devices, so even if your audience views your website on their mobile or desktop, they can still enjoy the experience.
Furthermore, you can even customize the color palette to meet your brand guidelines. For instance, I embedded my podcast in my blog post, and this is how it looks:
RSS.com (Image credit: Rss.com)
How to Get Started With RSS.com?
Once you set up your RSS account, use the steps below to make your podcast live!
Step 1: After signing up, your blank dashboard will appear. Click on “New Podcast.”
Step 2: Add your podcast title, description, and cover art. Next, set up your custom URL.
Add title (Image credit: Future)
Step 3: Add categories, primary categories, and author details. You’re all set with your podcast. It’s time to add episodes inside, and surprisingly, it’s easy too.
Step 4: Click on “New Episode” from your dashboard.
New episode on RSS.com (Image credit: Future)
Step 5: Add your audio file. Following this, fill in all the details of your episode.
Adding details of epsiode (Image credit: Future)
Step 6: Choose whether you want to publish the episode right away or want to schedule it later. You’ll be able to track the process either way.
Podcast Distribution
RSS.com makes podcast distribution easy with automatic to majority podcast directories. You can publish your episode in one place and let RSS.com take care of the rest.
For instance, once you upload your episode, head over to “Distribution” and click on “Submit now.”
RSS.com (Image credit: Future)
The submission usually takes up to an hour, but my first episode was submitted within 30 minutes.
RSS.com automatically submits your podcast on:
Spotify
Amazon Music
Podcast Index
Listen Notes
RSS.com Community
For other directories that don’t support automatic submissions, such as Apple Music, iHeartRadio, etc., RSS.com offers a complete guide on how to do it. You can automatically submit your podcast to these directories using the guided methods.
On the other hand, if you want to submit your podcast manually, you can directly copy the RSS feed.
Migration From Other Podcast Hosting to RSS.com
Migrating from one podcast host to another is tricky, but RSS has really made it easy, along with 6 months of free access.
All you need to do is enter your podcast name/RSS feed and submit your email. RSS.com will verify your email and import your show automatically. And the best part of migrating? Your shows will still be available despite being under migration, allowing your followers to not miss out on anything.
(Image credit: Future)
Note: To be eligible for a 6-month free offer for migrating, your show must have at least one episode, and it must be a minimum of 30 days old.
Monetization Options
RSS.com provides plenty of monetization options for your podcast, such as:
Apple Podcasts Subscriptions
Sponsorship opportunities
Donation and Funding
For sponsorships, you need a minimum of 1,000 downloads per month. RSS.com regularly partners with potential sponsors who might be interested in funding your show.
It’s important to note here that sponsorships are not guaranteed despite your meeting the eligibility criteria. The team will reach out when they find the right opportunity for you, and you can decide if you want to proceed with the same.
On the other hand, Apple subscriptions and donations are available for everyone, irrespective of the number of downloads.
RSS’ “Value 4 Value” stood out for me and caught my attention. Through its direct partnership with Alby, you can receive real-time payments in bitcoins through ‘bootstagram’ from your listeners.
Simply set up a free account on Alby, and you’ll be able to activate Value 4 Value monetization option.
Lastly, RSS.com is also releasing dynamic ad insertion for larger shows. However, there is still no update on the official release yet.
Analytics and Data By RSS.com
RSS.com has detailed analytics that you can see from your dashboard. The analytics gives you data for up to the last 180 days. You get data for:
Downloads
Listeners
Apps, Directories & Browsers (downloads by countries)
Data & analytics by RSS (Image credit: Future)
You also get a heatmap that showcases unique downloads by week and day.
The data and analytics are clearly displayed and are easy to read. Let’s say you’re a complete beginner. The analytics given by RSS.com will definitely not give you a tough time understanding how your episodes are performing, your audience demographics, etc.
RSS.com Pricing Plans & Options
The pricing and plans of RSS.com are extremely affordable and come with 30 days refund policy.
Compared to other podcast hosting providers that put limits on how much content you can upload in a month (upload hours), all the plans of RSS.com offer unlimited episodes, audio, and unlimited podcast shows (for the top-tier plan).
RSS.com comes with a free trial that lets you set up your account and publish one podcast episode. You don’t need to enter your card details to get the free version. Additionally, it even includes distribution for the first episode as a part of their free basic version.
For the paid versions, it comes with three plans:
Student & NGO at $4.99/month: Applicable only for students and NGO’s globally
All in One Podcasting at $11.99/month: Best For beginners and small businesses
Podcast Network at $18.75/month: Ideal for large businesses or podcasters to host multiple shows
Note: All prices are in USD and for the annual plan. The monthly plan is 25% higher.
RSS.com pricinng (Image credit: Future)
Free vs Paid Plan: Do You Really Need to Pay?
The free version of RSS.com sounds great if you’re just testing out the features of the hosting provider before committing to the paid plan. However, you’ll be able to upload only one episode on the free version, and this even restricts you from trying out its scheduled feature (if you’re hitting the publish button for your first one).
Our tip is to thoroughly use the free version to its best and explore all the available features. Once done, go with the monthly plan before committing to the annual one. Although you can cancel your plan anytime without being bound by contracts, we’d still want your money to fall into the right hands that align with your needs.
You can enter your query, and RSS will automatically show up all the related guides. If the DIY option doesn’t solve your issues, you can submit a ticket to the customer support team with a turnaround time of a few hours to business days, depending on the complexity.
However, I received a response within 23 minutes to my query since it was a short question.
RSS.com customer support response (Image credit: Future)
Final Verdict: Is RSS.com Worth It?
RSS.com is a value-for-money podcast hosting packed with all the necessary and stellar features you need to start your podcast. From having your custom podcast page to one-click distribution, it’s a great pick for anyone who is entirely new and wants to start a podcast without any technical know-how.
Podbean comes at an affordable price and includes all the necessary features you need from a podcast host. So, we decided to put it to the test and explore its features, value for money, customer support, migration process, etc.
For this Podbean review, we tested its basic version and researched other people’s experiences with the platform.
Find out our results and how well Podbean performed in our real-time podcast hosting test below!
Advantages of Podbean (Pros)
1. Easy to Use & Set up
Podbean is beginner-friendly, and setting up everything will take you less than 5 minutes (if you have your audio files ready). Even if you’re a complete novice in podcasting, you will find Podbean quite easy to begin with and host your first podcast.
2. Unlimited storage and bandwidth
Except for the free plan, all Podbean plans come with unlimited storage and bandwidth, meaning they can host an unlimited number of podcasts. And it will even cope with thousands of downloads without hampering your podcasts’ performance.
3. Free podcast recording app
Available on the App Store and Google Play Store, you can download the podcast recording app Podbean, which lets you record, edit, and publish your podcast right from your mobile device. Through the app, you can also invite guest speakers without needing to use your laptop.
4. Excellent monetization tools
Podbean is packed with powerful monetization tools without putting you under restrictions. You can earn money through subscriptions, sponsorships, advertisements, fan clubs, etc., via Podbean.
5. Budget-friendly
Podbean stands as our top pick when we speak about podcast hosting providers due to its value for money. The free plan lets you test out its features, and once you’re enjoying it, you can upgrade to the paid plan, which starts at $9/month.
Who is Podbean Right For?
Podbean is great for people looking for a budget podcast host and video podcasters.
The plan starts at $9/month and includes all the essential features you need from a podcast host. Within a fair price, you get AI-powered features, unlimited storage and bandwidth, advanced statistics, a blog to podcast, video to podcast, etc.
Similarly, certain plans are tailored for video podcasters, and you can easily record or convert your existing video to a podcast with a few clicks. You can also record a new video podcast and upload it on YouTube directly through Podbean.
Using Podbean (Interface)
Podbean has a clean and easy-to-understand user interface, making it easier to publish your episodes.
One-click import audio makes it easier to upload your audio without any learning curve.
User interface of Podbean (Image credit: Future)
Setting up your account and publishing your first episodes took us less than 2 minutes. Similarly, the dashboard comes with all the options to view your podcast, distribute, monetize, etc., at the sidebar.
Upon publishing your episode, you get a free custom landing page that you can share with your audience and even customize as per your branding colors.
Podbean interface (Image credit: Future)
Lastly, you can directly manage (install or deactivate) plugins at the click of a button through your dashboard.
Overall, we’d rate Podbean's interface as beginner-friendly, packed with all the necessary features that are easy to access.
Features Breakdown
Podbean AI
The Podbean AI turns your bad-quality audio into the highest quality automatically, but that’s not all it does. The AI-driven solution allows you to optimize, edit, and generate within a few clicks. Podbean AI will cut extra noise, remove filler words, and take care of the filtering.
On the other hand, it can automatically generate titles, notes, transcripts, etc.
Livestreaming & Live Podcasts
Start live streaming and conducting live podcasts where you control everything. Through this feature, you can directly interact with your audience by answering them live. Moreover, your audience can send you virtual gifts that you can monetize and also allow you to create a fan club for recurring revenue.
Convert blog posts into a podcast
Podbean lets you repurpose your blog posts into podcasts easily with the support of 150+ languages and 500+ different accents. You can choose the AI voice, and Podbean will automatically convert it into an audio format, boosting accessibility and repurposing. Note that you get a limited number of credits to use this feature, depending on the plan you pick.
YouTube Video To Podcast
If you already have YouTube videos, you can convert them into podcasts and upload them directly. This is actually great if you want to repurpose your videos for your listeners to hear on the go and diversify your revenue streams through podcasts.
How to Get Started With Podbean?
RSS.com's Super Easy User Interface
Once you’ve signed up with Podbean, you can use the following steps to make your episode live.
Step 1: Go to episodes and click on “Publish Episode.” Now, import your audio file or simply generate one from AI with Podbean.
Step 2: Once you import the audio file, add your title and description of the episode.
Using Podbean (Image credit: Future)
Step 3: Once you’re done, click on publish now.
Podcast Distribution With Podbean
Podbean helps you submit your episodes/podcasts to multiple directories, but the process isn’t entirely automatic. Whether you’re on the free plan or the paid one, your podcast will be automatically submitted to Podbean's own directory. However, for other directories, such as Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, etc., you need to manually submit them.
Podcast distribution (Image credit: Future)
Podbean offers a centralized dashboard to simplify submissions to major podcast directories. So, with one click, you can manually submit them.
Note that if you’re on the free plan, you won’t be able to submit your podcast to any directory (except Podbean’s own) unless you upgrade to the paid one.
While submission is one-click, the distribution feature could have been improved with automatic submissions, even for the free plan users. For example, BuzzSprout, its competitor, offers automatic submissions to all major directories, even for free users. In the same way, Podbean could use some fine-tuning here.
Migration from Other Podcast Hosting to Podbean
Step 1: Click on Import Existing Project
Step 2: Tap on Import Existing Podcast and enter your RSS feed URL.
Import existing podcast to podbean (Image credit: Future)
Step 3: Now, select your import option. Note that this process may take some time, depending on your existing podcast size.
Step 4: Once your import is completed, set 301 redirect. You can also customize the URL to fit your requirements.
set 301 redirect (Image credit: Future)
Step 5: Wait for the email, as RSS will update you as soon as the final import is done.
Note here: If you only have a couple of episodes, it’s faster to migrate to Podbean. For instance, we had one episode up, and it took us less than 5 minutes to migrate.
Monetization Options
Podbean has multiple monetization options to make podcasting an active revenue stream, such as:
Podcast Advertising
Apple Podcasts Subscriptions Integration
Dynamic Ad Insertion
You can list your podcast on the Podbean marketplace and allow potential advertisers to find you. Further, you can also charge subscriptions to your readers to access your podcast through Apple podcasts subscription integration, making it easier to make extra money from your podcast directly.
Analytics & Data
Podbean offers quite detailed analytics into how your podcast is performing and also gives detailed insights into your listeners. You can find your analytics under the “statistics” tab on the left side of the dashboard.
Analytics (Image credit: Future)
Through analytics, you can also track your downloads up to the last 24 months. Other than that, you can get:
Where Your Audience Comes From
Downloads by Time of Day (GMT)
Download Sources
Most downloaded episodes
User Retention
Listeners data
Further, you can review the performance of episodes and compare performances from a set period. However, complete insight is only available to paid users. The free version can only have a small overview of their overall analytics.
Podbean Pricing & Plans
Podbean offers a range of pricing plans catering to different types of podcasters, from beginners to large networks.
The free plan offers basic features to test the podcast hosting service, but it comes with limited features. You only get 5 hours of total storage and 100GB monthly bandwidth with the free plan. You also don’t get access to directory submissions. So, if you’re serious about podcasting, you’ll have to upgrade to its paid plan.
Coming to its paid plan, they start at $9/month, offering unlimited storage and unmetered bandwidth. It’s affordable and offers amazing features, including Podbean AI, blog posts to audio, videos to podcasts, etc.
If you’re working with both audio and video, the Unlimited Plus (at $29/month) is a great option that adds 20GB of monthly uploads, though it might feel a bit pricey for those who don’t need video.
Lastly, the Network plan, priced at $79/month, is great for large podcasters and packed with essential scaling features.
Overall, Podbean offers competitive pricing plans with unlimited storage. It’s great for anyone looking for an affordable yet robust podcast hosting provider.
Customer Support & Resources
Podbean has excellent customer support and resources and has positive feedback from people. One of its users also shared their experience (screenshot below), highlighting their prompt response, and we had a similar experience.
Customer support review via TrustRadius (Image credit: Future)
Whether you’re stuck somewhere and need a DIY solution or are starting your first podcast, you can join its dedicated Podcast Academy. This academy contains:
24 tutorials
8 webinars
57 events
18 interviews
And all of these are free to check out. You can also check out their separate 70+ articles for help.
Lastly, if DIY doesn’t work, you can raise a ticket with the customer support team, and the average turnaround time is 2-3 business days.
Verdict: Is Podbean Worth It?
Overall, Podbean is worth paying for people looking for an affordable yet feature-loaded podcast hosting provider. It’s especially an excellent option if you want to do video podcasts since it comes with a dedicated plan that offers the same.
You can try its free version to see if it aligns with your requirements before upgrading to the paid version.
The new Pi Terminal from Elecrow integrates a 7” IPS touchscreen, a Raspberry Pi CM4 module, and sockets for mini-PCIe cards into one platform. The module packs so many connectors and onboard peripherals that there is no need to add anything else. The acrylic case provides antenna slots for Wi-Fi and GSM, while a small fan ensures the CPU always works within its recommended temperature.
The module's main selling point remains the bright 7” HD display with a five-point touchscreen. With a 400cd/m2 light intensity, it easily outshines similar displays, and at 9W, the module does not consume more than a regular Raspberry Pi board. Targeting the IoT industry, the screen is IP65-rated and comes with optional stereo speakers. The display uses one of the CM4 HDMI outputs, leaving an extra HDMI connector for an external screen.
(Image credit: Future)
Elecrow Pi Terminal: Price and availability
Elecrow sells displays to connect to embedded platforms such as the Raspberry Pi through the HDMI port. The Pi Terminal costs $179.90 without the processor module or accessories. Other cheaper displays support only USB peripherals.
Elecrow Pi Terminal: Design
The Pi Terminal ships between two foams that protect the glass panel. Accessories include four antennas, one 12V 24W power supply, and block connectors with screws. The acrylic panel surrounding the display protects the screen's top and bottom. Four metal spacers hold the unit, providing a robust feeling to it. A small fan at the back can be loud at times. The unit measures 19.2 cm x 12.5 cm x 4.6 cm and weighs 665 grams.
Five screws secure the screen to the acrylic back panel. Four antenna connectors, in the form of SMA connectors, are located at the top. The bottom case has laser engravings showing connector pinouts, which is handy if one needs to quickly find where to insert the Raspberry Pi SD card, for example.
Unfortunately, Elecrow has not provided a schematic for the main PCB. The user manual states that the power supply can range from 12V to 18V, while the engraving on the case shows a maximum of 36V. An on/off switch on the left allows powering down the unit while not in use. A push button on the top helps to wake or sleep the OS. Three LEDs on the left give status such as power or Ethernet activity, or can act as a user-actionable indicator.
The PCB design is straightforward under the hood, with the Pi CM4 module located off-center to the left. Two mini PCIe sockets fully utilize the Pi’s high-speed interfaces. A small 5V fan provides airflow to the CPU. A buzzer and a battery holder for a CR1220 lithium cell are present, avoiding time loss when power is removed. Finally, a 40-pin header makes the PI’s GPIOs accessible to the end-user.
(Image credit: Future)
Elecrow Pi Terminal: Use
The terminal power consumption depends on the peripherals to which it is connected. With only the Pi connected, the unit consumes about 10W. A complete system with two mini PCIe cards, a USB keyboard, and a mouse brings the total to 15W. The supplied power adapter should be sufficient for doing software development on an IoT product. Deploying the unit in a production environment will require a more robust power adapter. Elecrow has included an option for installing a PoE module next to the Ethernet connector.
We recommend replacing the small fan with something less noisy. The stock 5V fan buzzes a lot, reaching 45 dBA at one meter. A passive cooling solution is superior in all aspects for an industrial setting and should provide a longer lifetime. Screen control for brightness and contrast is nonexistent, and IO voltage protection is unavailable on the Pi’s 40-pin header.
Elecrow does not provide any source code for the UI demo on the micro SD card. Even though the Raspberry Pi compute module has plenty of applications to demonstrate its use as a graphical unit, having example code for peripherals such as the LoRaWan module or the 4G module to test right out of the box would have been great. The newer CM5 compute module provides an easy upgrade to the CM4 since it is almost pin-compatible in the same footprint. The CM5 improves from the previous generation by having over twice the processing power.
(Image credit: Future)
Elecrow Pi Terminal: The competition
Elecrow’s Pi Terminal does not lack competitors. Seeedstudio’s Pi screen, the reTerminal, offers similar characteristics, with a multitouch 5” screen powered by the CM4. It provides passive cooling but costs $200, slightly higher than the Pi Terminal. It also lacks a standard PCIe interface like the mini PCIe connector available on the Pi Terminal.
Elecrow Pi Terminal: Final verdict
The Pi Terminal is an excellent example of integrating off-the-shelf parts into a product. Elecrow has extensive experience building embedded displays, which is evident in this product. The CM4 module provides ample processing power, while the abundance of connectors will cover many IoT use cases. The board layout is small, well-organized, and solid. The only drawback is the tiny but noisy fan. Documentations such as the schematic or project source code are also lacking, making repairing or troubleshooting the unit harder.
Buy the Pi Terminal if you need a robust screen and a CPU with excellent support and documentation.
Don’t buy the Pi Terminal if you need an economical, simple-to-use display.
This review first appeared in issue 350 of PC Pro.
Zyxel’s SCR 50AXE will appeal to small businesses and home offices that want secure wireless networks without the added expense of separate devices. This desktop router delivers tri-band Wi-Fi 6/6E services, combines these with an integral firewall and Zyxel’s threat management services, and delivers them all at a tempting price.
It looks particularly good value as the price includes a lifetime subscription to Zyxel’s Security Cloud, which enables (deep breath) a firewall, ransomware and malware prevention, VPN proxy, intrusion, dark web and ad blockers, application monitoring, GeoIP country restrictions and protection against mail fraud and phishing. An SCR Pro Pack license adds the Trellix-powered real-time threat intelligence and web filtering services, with a one-year subscription costing around £40.
The router comes with a magnetic desktop base or it can be wall-mounted with the supplied bracket. It sports a WAN and four LAN ports – all of the gigabit variety – while on the wireless side its AX5400-rated access point (AP) claims speeds of 575Mbits/sec on the 2.4GHz radio and 2,400Mbits/sec each for the 5GHz and 6GHz radios. The latter two both support the high-speed 160MHz channels, but with gigabit ports all round you won’t see their full performance potential.
The SCR 50AXE is designed to be managed from Zyxel’s Nebula cloud portal. We found it simple to add it to our account. After logging into the Nebula app on an iPad, we selected our predefined site, scanned in the QR code on the label on the device’s side and added it to our site with one tap.
The portal presents a customizable site dashboard with extra sections for the SCR 50AXE. You can check its uptime and firmware status, see the top ten apps identified by the application identification service and view threat management activity. A second table shows total detections for each category.
You can manage the 50AXE from Zyxel’s Nebula portal and mobile app(Image credit: Future)
Up to four cloud-managed SSIDs are supported, each with their own authentication scheme, including the mandatory WPA3 for Wi-Fi 6E. You can decide which of the three radios are to be active, create custom captive portals for guest networks with click-through, voucher, Facebook or Nebula authentication, enable L2 isolation to stop guest users seeing other devices and apply upload and download rate limits.
You should use Zyxel’s application identification service with extreme caution, as its overheads will reduce wireless performance by up to 50%. We tested this using a Dell Windows 11 Pro workstation equipped with a TP-Link Archer TXE75E Wi-Fi 6E PCI-E adapter and saw close-range file-copying speeds between the client and a server on the gigabit LAN of 112MB/sec, dropping to a respectable 87MB/sec at a distance of ten meters.
Running the test again with application identification enabled saw close range and distance speeds tumble to 48MB/sec and 32MB/sec. While the copy test was running we enabled and disabled the service from the Nebula portal and could see its impact almost instantly.
Threat management is simple to apply, with six slider bars for enabling or disabling each individual component, and you can add exception lists for specific clients and IP addresses plus blocked or allowed web domains. Clicking on the main chart takes you to a monitor page with a map showing where threats are emanating from, and the affected clients with the SCR Pro Pack license extending its reporting period from 24 hours to 30 days.
This license enables content filtering, which offers 103 URL categories to block or allow, and you can fine-tune access by applying custom policies to all or selected clients. We also ran our copy tests with each threat management component progressively enabled and can confirm they have no adverse impact on performance.
The SCR 50AXE is an affordable all-in-one wireless security router for small offices. The fly in the ointment is the application detection service, which hits wireless performance hard, but otherwise the router is easy to manage from the Nebula cloud portal and offers strong threat protection measures for the price.
This review first appeared in issue 350 of PC Pro.
Veritas Backup Exec (BE) has always been one of our top choices for on-premises data protection. It delivers a comprehensive range of backup and recovery services. The BE Simple licensing plans make it very affordable for SMBs, and BE 22.2 on review introduces plenty of new and welcome features.
Microsoft 365 (MS365) backups now support SharePoint and Teams as well as Exchange Online and OneDrive. Microsoft Azure Object Lock provides ransomware-protected immutable cloud storage, backups to ReFS volumes can be accelerated, anomaly detection protects backup scripts from tampering, and BE now uses the FIPs-compliant deduplication engine from Veritas’ enterprise NetBackup product.
The simple yearly subscription service is based only on compute instances, which can be a physical system, a virtual machine or ten MS365 users. The starter five-instance Simple Core Pack costs an agreeable £489 per year, and Veritas generously includes a bonus instance for an extra ten MS365 users.
Deployment is swift; we installed BE on a Dell PowerEdge R760xs Windows Server 2022 host in 20 minutes. After declaring our physical servers using their IP addresses, BE pushed the remote agent to them while for our Hyper-V systems, we just needed the agent loaded on the host to secure all its virtual machines.
Adding our VMware vSphere host was simple, and we only had to provide its IP address and credentials. MS365 couldn’t be any easier, either: we added our tenant using the link provided by BE and entered the unique device code it generated for us.
All four components of MS365 can be secured(Image credit: Future)
Backup job creation is simple, too: you just select sources from the list presented and choose from a range of predefined strategies. These include backup to disk or cloud, and you can add extra stages in the job for local and offsite backup, replication to other disk stores or conversion to VMs, and add an essential air gap by migrating backup data to tape drives attached to the BE host.
BE supports plenty of storage locations, including physical and virtual disks, cloud, tape, deduplicating stores and network shares. For our tests, we created a local store on the BE server, used a multi-TB share on a Synology NAS appliance and added immutable cloud storage using an Amazon S3 bucket with Object Lock enabled.
Veritas takes data protection very seriously, and the job wizard always advises you to enable encryption. You can choose from 128-bit or 256-bit AES encryption and, if required, only allow the user that created the key for a job to recover data from it.
Data restoration is another pleasant experience: you select a source, view its files, folders or volumes, pick a recovery point and decide where to send them. Creating a simplified recovery disk brings bare metal recovery into play, BE’s Instant GRT (granular recovery technology) is used to restore items such as SQL databases and the Instant VM Recovery feature takes seconds to create a new VM from a backup set. MS365 backups require a deduplicating store, and the best practice is to apply encryption at the store and not the job level otherwise data reduction may not be as efficient. We created one job to protect our Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint sites and Teams data and used the restore wizard to recover data by choosing a component and selecting a time point.
SMBs that want every data backup and recovery angle covered will love Backup Exec 22.2. It offers a superb range of features, is a strong candidate for protecting virtual environments, cloud support is excellent and it’s very competitively priced.
This review first appeared in issue 350 of PC Pro.
We hoped to include the MultiSync E274FL in our annual group test of “everyday” monitors, but NEC has kept us waiting for this enterprise-friendly screen.
Especially friendly when the E274FL combines three alluring properties: a low price, USB-C docking and integrated wired networking.
As immediately became clear when I put it on my desk, it also produces excellent whites. It’s this, rather than a huge color gamut, that’s most important to office workers after all. The panel’s evident quality was backed up in our tests, where it covered 95% of the sRGB gamut with an average Delta-E of 1.08 and maximum of 3.03. Those are strong figures, even if film lovers won’t be wowed by DCI-P3 coverage of 75%, or print designers by 70% of the Adobe RGB gamut.
A measured contrast ratio of 3,493:1 also confirms that this is an MVA panel rather than IPS. MVA stands for multidomain vertical alignment, and it’s far more commonly found in curved, gaming monitors than monitors aimed at enterprises. Its use here shows that Sharp (maker of the panel and co-owner of the NEC brand) has matured the technology enough to rival IPS. For instance, the faint yellow bias that used to be seen in MVA screens isn’t visible here.
Connect over USB-C and the display supplies 60W of power(Image credit: Future)
I’m also used to seeing high refresh rates and low response rates on MVA panels, but the E274FL’s 60Hz and 6ms are bog-standard times. Office workers hoping for a speed advantage in after-hours gaming sessions will be out of luck.
IT departments, on the other hand, will be delighted. While the RJ-45 port gives users fast and secure access to the office network, it gives administrators a way to track their assets and even take control of the OSD without needing to touch the device itself. For example, they may decide that rather than allow the screens to hit their peak brightness – stated as 250cd/m2, but 297cd/m2 in our unit’s case – that the monitor stays in one of its two Eco modes. These lock it to either 30% or 70% brightness, and while the former is dim I found the latter mode to be more than bright enough.
End users should find the OSD relatively easy to navigate. It uses a joystick, with its one quirk being that you need to press right to select an option rather than pressing down as people may be used to. But I don’t expect many calls to the support team to check; trial and error is your friend, and the OSD is extremely quick to respond to commands.
Naturally, this monitor ticks all the ergonomic boxes. There’s a low blue light mode, TCO certification and superb flexibility: 120mm of height adjustment, 170° of easy swivel in both directions, and a pivot mode. Often the latter is pointless owing to a lack of contrast and viewing angles in a vertical orientation, but that definitely doesn’t apply to the E274FL.
With height adjustment, swivel and pivot, the E274FL is supremely flexible(Image credit: Future)
I mentioned right at the top that this is a docking monitor, and if you connect over USB-C then it supplies 60W of power to connected laptops; plenty for all the machines in our Labs this month, but I would have liked to see 100W to feed more powerful MacBooks. There are three USB-A ports, and it’s reassuring to see a USB-B port as well; this means you can share peripherals between a laptop on USB-C and a PC that uses the HDMI or DisplayPort inputs.
NEC also provides a pair of reasonable 1W speakers. As their power output suggests, these aren’t going to rock your world, but they’re fine for the occasional YouTube clip and video calls. Before you buy, there’s one final thing to consider. This is a 1,920 x 1,080 panel, and across a 27in diagonal that means text isn’t crisp. There’s a fuzziness to character edges in Word and Excel. This may not have a tangible effect on most workers’ productivity, but a new generation of employees used to pixel-sharp displays on their phones and tablets may not be impressed.
Still, that resolution is reflected in the price. A price that includes a three-year warranty, which covers backlight failures too. If the MultiSync E274FL had arrived in time for our group test, it would have blown away the similarly priced competition for its quality and its connectivity – which is why it walks away with a Recommended award.
This review first appeared in issue 350 of PC Pro.
Many business backup solutions require a dedicated Windows Server host, but Nakivo’s Backup & Replication (NBR) is far more amenable as it can be deployed to just about any platform you care to name. It will run happily on a Windows host, but also supports Linux, VMware vSphere, Nutanix AHV, AWS EC2, Raspberry Pi and all the main NAS appliance vendors, including Qnap and Synology.
On review is NBR 10.9, which includes bare metal recovery where you use its new Bootable Media Wizard to restore physical Windows and Linux servers from selected backups. Malware protection is now available, with NBR integrating with a range of third-party antivirus products, and all MS365 components, including Teams, can be protected.
Licensing is equally versatile. There are five versions available, with options for perpetual licenses or per-workload subscriptions. Nakivo cuts through any confusion with a cost calculator on its website. We’ve shown the price for an Enterprise 10-server perpetual license with a two-year 24/7 support contract here.
For testing, we chose Qnap’s TS-855eU-RP short-depth 8-bay rack NAS and used the QuTS Hero App Center to load the NBR package. NBR comprises three service components, with a Director for browser-based management, Transporters to handle backup, replication and recovery operations, and Repositories for storing backups.
After adding protected systems to NBR’s inventory, it pushed the transporter service to our physical Windows servers and workstations; note that Mac clients are still not supported. For Hyper-V, the service just needed loading on our host, while for our VMware vSphere host, we only had to provide its credentials for agentless VM backups.
Our Qnap appliance received a default local repository but this was on its system SSDs, so we created another on a large-capacity RAID5 pool. During creation, you must enter the absolute path, which can be found from an SSH session using the Linux List command.
Other possibilities for repositories are local storage, network shares or cloud stores. Ransomware protection comes into play with NBR supporting immutable cloud storage from Amazon EC2 and S3, Microsoft Azure Blob, Wasabi and Backblaze B2.
Services can be extended to MS365 Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams(Image credit: Future)
Creating backup jobs is simple as options are based on the systems in your inventory. Just choose those you want to protect, assign a repository, set a schedule and decide how daily, weekly, monthly and yearly recovery points you want retained.
For our Hyper-V host, we chose the VMs to be included, and protecting our VMware vSphere system only required the host to be selected so any new VMs would be automatically added to the schedule. To use malware protection, you declare a “scan server” to NBR, which has the required antivirus software running on it.
MS365 licensing is separate, with ten users costing £252 per year, and it requires a special SaaS repository to store backups, which we found isn’t currently supported by QuTS Hero 5.1. Nakivo’s attentive support suggested creating an iSCSI target on the appliance and mapping it to a Windows system running the transporter service – hardly elegant, but it does work.
Recovery features are outstanding. Along with files and folders, granular restores can be used for MS365 items, SQL databases and on-premises Exchange objects. Disaster recovery is just as good, with Flash Boot jobs creating new VMs directly from the backup repository and facilities for replicating VMs as clones.
SMBs that don’t want their backup software tied to a Windows Server host will love Nakivo’s Backup & Replication 10.9 as they can run it on almost any hardware platform and OS they want. It’s good value, MS365 protection is handled well and it provides extensive data recovery services.
