12 Best Free WordPress Podcast Plugins (Most Popular 2023)

Updated: Jan 03, 2023 By: Dessign Team

If you looking for the Best Free WordPress Podcast Plugins we put together a great collection of the most popular and free podcast plugins available for you to use with any WordPress theme to easily open and create a easy and simple podcast website. Also check out the best free Podcast Hosting services if you want to host your podcast on self host platform. Looking for the Best Free Podcast WordPress themes to open your own hosted podcast website?

Best Free WordPress Podcast Plugins

1. PowerPress Podcasting plugin by Blubrry

No. 1 Podcasting plugin for WordPress, with simple & advanced modes, players, subscribe tools, and more!

Developed by podcasters for podcasters; features include Simple and Advanced modes, multiple audio/video player options, subscribe to podcast page embeds and sidebar widgets, podcasting SEO features, and more! Fully supports Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn and Blubrry Podcasting directories, as well as all podcast applications and clients. PowerPress users who use Blubrry Podcast Hosting may also 

SIMPLE MODE

If you are just getting started or feel overwhelmed with all the settings and options, switch to Simple mode! PowerPress’s Simple Mode will walk you through getting started in 3 easy steps.

1. Setup your Podcast quickly with only the essential settings
2. Create your first Episode
3. Submit your podcast to Apple Podcasts (previously iTunes Podcasts)

When you’re ready you can switch to Advanced mode to tap into all the options professionals would want.

2. AudioIgniter

AudioIgniter offers you an easy way to categorize and display podcasts you create and manage to your listeners. Create a playlist for each podcast which can include an unlimited number of episodes and embed it in posts, pages or even widgets using the provided shortcode. AudioIgniter comes in two flavors, a free one for those who want a simple and elegant solution to display their podcast playlists, and a pro with some more advanced playback and appearance-related features.

AudioIgniter key features

• Unlimited playlists.
• Unlimited tracks per playlist.
• Cover image, track title & artist name per track.
• Responsive, mobile ready player.
• Easily configurable player elements and track info.
• Custom playback starting volume.
• Configurable player width and tracklist height.
• Optional extra track buttons, like the download and buy track buttons.
• Embeddable via automatically generated shortcode.
• Supports popular media formats along with streaming services like ShoutCast, RadioJar etc.
  

AudioIgniter Pro key features

• Drag & drop track rearrange functionality.
• Batch file uploads supported.
• Fixed position player, display a global player in the page footer.
• Custom widget.
• Custom block for the WordPress block editor.
• Elementor widget.
• WPBakery page builder widget.
• Per track info/lyrics.
• Customizer color options & typography override.
• Playback rate control, track skipping, delay between tracks, individual track repeat, custom starting track and more.

3. Seriously Simple Podcasting

Seriously Simple Podcasting is a top-rated podcasting plugin for WordPress for beginners and power-users built by Castos. Using our straight-forward set up instructions, advanced features, and plenty of customization options, Seriously Simple Podcasting powers over 20K+ podcasts.

The plugin will always remain free to use. The only costs associated with using Seriously Simple Podcasting is if you choose to host your audio files with a dedicated podcast hosting provider. Similar to using a website hosting provider to keep your WordPress site fast and running smoothly, we recommend hosting podcast files with a dedicated provider. But remember, this isn’t required!

HOW TO SET UP SERIOUSLY SIMPLE PODCASTING

Getting started with Seriously Simple Podcasting is a seriously simple process. In just four steps, you’ll go from installing the plugin to your WordPress site to submitting a functioning RSS feed to every podcast directory.

1. Install Seriously Simple Podcasting plugin to your WordPress site and link it to your podcast hosting provider.
2. From your WordPress dashboard, go to the “Podcast” plugin. Click “Add New” to upload an episode, and add its corresponding details.
3. Inside the plugin’s “Settings” under “Feed Details”, include details about your podcast to finish creating the RSS feed. Details include the podcast’s name, description, cover art, and category selection.
4. The RSS feed is generated and ready to be submitted to each podcast listening platform.

SERIOUSLY SIMPLE PODCASTING KEY FEATURES

Seriously Simple Podcasting offers all of our advanced features through our free plugin. You’re not required to pay for additional add-ons or use a specific podcast hosting provider.

4. Libsyn Publisher Hub

Libsyn’s Publishing Hub allows for the perfect workflow for publishing podcast episodes straight from WordPress and into your Libsyn show. Features such as episode creation, Apple Podcasts optimization tags, creating ID3 tags, automated feed/show migrations, pulling in previously published episodes, and advanced scheduling bring some of the best of Libsyn’s publishing options to your WordPress website.

Media file uploads direct to Libsyn, as well as by using already loaded WordPress media or access your Libsyn FTP Dropbox all from one place.

The best part is your media files stay hosted with Libsyn, and your RSS feed will still be generated by Libsyn as well, meaning your web hosting server remains unaffected by your podcast and your RSS feed and media files are unaffected by your web hosting server. It’s the best of both worlds.

Blocks

This plugin provides 1 block.libsyn-podcasting-gutenberg/blockLibsyn Publisher Hub

5. Buzzsprout Podcasting

Buzzsprout is the best way to publish a podcast online. From secure and reliable hosting to full iTunes support, HTML5 players, show statistics, and of course, this WordPress plugin, Buzzsprout has everything you need to publish and promote your podcast!

THE BUZZSPROUT WORDPRESS PLUGIN

The Buzzsprout podcasting plugin fetches your podcast episodes from your Buzzsprout feed URL and gives you the option to embed episodes in your page or post on-the-fly. It really is that simple.

• Comes free with all Buzzsprout plans
• Is easy to install into your WordPress dashboard
• Works with all self hosted (WordPress.org) accounts

MORE REASONS YOU’LL LOVE BUZZSPROUT:

SECURE HOSTING DEDICATED TO YOUR PODCAST

Whether you have a large show or you’re just getting started, a hosting provider is an important piece to a successful podcast. Why? It’s built specifically for your podcast. From upload speeds to download speeds, audio optimization, tagging and show statistics, Buzzsprout helps your podcast grow.

COMPLETE ITUNES SUPPORT

A full interactive walkthrough on how to submit your podcast feed to iTunes and get your podcast published in the world’s largest podcast catalog.

• iTunes podcast specifications support
• Byte-range request support
• Optimized show description and tagging
• Upload iTunes artwork

PODCAST MIGRATION TOOL

Want to switch from your old podcast hosting server? Buzzsprout’s podcast migration tool lets you drop your feed URL in Buzzsprout, then takes care of the rest.

6. Podlove Podcast Publisher

We built the Podlove Podcast Publisher because existing solutions are stuck in the past, complex and unwieldy. The Publisher helps you save time, worry less and provides a cutting edge listening experience for your audience.

COMPATIBLE FEEDS

The Publisher makes it easy to create highly expressive, efficient and super compatible podcast feeds with fine grained control over client behavior (e.g. GUID control to replace faulty episodes and for clients to reload) supporting all important meta data.

MULTI-FORMAT PUBLISHING

The Publisher also makes multi-format publishing – embracing all modern and legacy audio and video codecs – a snap. By adopting simple file name conventions, the plugin allows the podcaster to provide individual feeds for certain use cases or audiences without adding work for the podcaster during the publishing process.

OPTIMIZED WEB PLAYER

The Publisher also comes with integrated with the Podlove Web Player plugin (which you do not need to install separately) and fully support its advanced options including multiple audio (MP4 AAC, MP3, Vorbis, Opus) and video (MP4 H.264, WebM, Theora) format support for web browsers. This Web Player is fully HTML5 compatible (but provides Flash fallback for ancient environments) and is ready for all touch based clients too.

CHAPTER SUPPORT

The Publisher also makes it easy to publish chapter information in the player to make access to structured episodes even easier. Full support for linking directly to any part of your podcast on the web with instant playback included.

FLEXIBLE TEMPLATES

To round it all up, a flexible template system enables you to published Podcasts in a defined fashion and change the style at any time without having to touch your individual postings later on.

And this is just the beginning. We have a rich roadmap that will bring even more interesting features: integration with helpful services, much improved timeline metadata support (show notes) and much more.

7. WP Podcast- Easiest Podcasting system

WP Podcast is an user friendly podcasting plugin for WordPress which has lots of options and and functionality to run your podcasting website.

FEATURES

• Podcast mp3, wav, and ogg audio file
• HTML5 compatible so it will play audio files in most of the mobile devices.
• Works on all major browsers – IE7, IE8, IE9, Safari, Firefox, Chrome
• The player is responsive.
• Integrated social share icon .
• Shortcode driven. so that you can publish any podcast anywhere in your wordpress.
• Audio file download button and control over it.
• User can change the audio speed using setting icon in the front end.
• 2 Theme included.
• You can add podcast in widget area too.
• Fully customizable and compact.
• You can create unlimited podcast
• User friendly interface
• Powered by html5

8. Simple Podcasting

Easily set up multiple podcast feeds using built-in WordPress posts. Includes a podcast block for the new WordPress editor.

Podcasting is a method to distribute audio and video episodes through a feed to which listeners can subscribe. You can publish podcasts on your WordPress site and make them available for listeners in Apple Podcasts and through direct feed links for other podcasting apps by following these steps:

CREATE YOUR PODCAST

From wp-admin, go to Podcasts.
To create a podcast, complete all of the “Add New Podcast” fields and click ‘Add New Podcast’.

• Podcast title: this title appears in Apple Podcasts and any other podcast apps.
• Podcast subtitle: the subtitle also appears in Apple Podcasts and any other podcast apps.
• Podcast talent name: the artist or producer of the work.
• Podcast summary: Apple Podcasts displays this summary when browsing through podcasts.
• Podcast copyright: copyright information viewable in Apple Podcasts or other podcast apps.
• Mark as explicit: mark yes if podcast contains adult language or adult themes.
• Podcast image: add the URL for the cover art to appear in Apple Podcasts and other podcast apps. Click “Select Image” and choose an image from the Media Library. Note that podcast cover images must be between 1400 x 1400 and 3000 x 3000 pixels in JPG or PNG formats to work on Apple Podcasts.
• Podcast keywords: add terms to help your podcast show up in search results on Apple Podcasts and other podcast apps.
• Podcast categories: these allow your podcast to show up for those browsing Apple Podcasts or other podcast apps by category.

Repeat for each podcast you would like to create.

9. AWS for WordPress

Create audio versions of your posts, translate them into other languages, and create podcasts. Integrate with Amazon Alexa to listen to your posts on Alexa-enabled devices. Use Amazon CloudFront to accelerate your website and provide a faster, more reliable viewing experience.

10. Dicentis Podcast

Most podcast plugin for WordPress are great but have one weakness: They focus on single podcast sites. It is not easy or impossible to create multiple podcast feeds with on installation. This plugin wants to change that. It is possible to add multiple podcast and support individual feeds for different media types. In addition, you can add series and speaker to episodes for a better archive and to enhance episodes with more meta data.

Key Features

• Create as many podcast you want
• Organize podcast episodes within different series (like categories)
• Assign speaker to episodes
• Provide episode in different formats (mp3, ogg, m4a) and assign it to one episode
• Listen / Watch your episode direct with built-in WordPress media player
• Custom capabilities: Create specific Podcast user
• Full i18n support – Translation Ready

Where to find help

You can either use the support forum or create a new issue on GitHub.

How to contribute

Contributing to Dicentis is easy, please fork the GitHub repository and create new Pull Requests. You can also contribute without the need to code. Dicentis can be translated and also a documentation is meant to be written. 

11. Podcast Player – Your Podcasting Companion

Podcast Player provides an easy way to show and play your podcast episodes using podcasting feed url. It is a must have plugin for your podcast website. Give your listeners an easy access to all your episodes from any page or even from all the pages of your website.

PODCAST PLAYER KEY FEATURES

• Give your listeners an easy access to your podcast episodes.
• Display responsive podcast player just by entering your podcast’s feed url.
• Fetch all required details from feed url.
• Option to modify fetched details of your podcast.
• Option to Show or Hide individual player elements.
• Give your listener an option to share your podcast episodes.
• Ajax live search episodes from the podcast.
• It is possible to have multiple instances of podcast player on single page.
• Self adjusting layout according to width of the podcast player.

PODCAST PLAYER PRO FEATURES

• Professionally showcase your podcast using our unified player, episode list and grid templates.
• Use powerful filter options to choose which episodes or seasons you want to display on your website.
• Make your entire podcast catalogue easily available using our ajax approximate search feature.
• Add an audio message within your podcast episode.
• Add audio mp3 to your WordPress posts and display as podcast episodes.
• Show or hide specific elements and customize color and fonts to personalize your podcast display

12. Sermon Manager

Sermon Manager is designed to help churches easily publish sermons online. Some of the features include:

• Add Speakers, Series, Topics, Books, and Service Types
• Attach images to sermons, series, speakers, and topics
• Attach MP3 files as well as PDF, DOC, PPT (or any other type!)
• Bible references integrated via Bib.ly for easy text viewing
• Completely integrated with WordPress search
• Embed video from popular providers such as Vimeo or YouTube
• Full-featured API for developers (check it out at /wp-json/wp/v2/wpfc_sermon)
• Full-featured iTunes podcasting support for all sermons, plus each sermon series, preachers, sermon topics, or book of the Bible!
• Import sermons from other WordPress plugins
• PHP 5.3+ – you can use Sermon Manager even with older websites!
• PHP 7.2 ready – Sermon Manager is 100% compatible with latest PHP version
• Super flexible shortcode system
• Supports 3rd party plugins such as Yoast SEO, Jetpack, etc
• Quick and professional free and paid support
• Works with any theme and can be customized to display just the way you like. You’ll find the template files in the /views folder. You can copy these into the root of your theme folder and customize to suit your site’s design.

ONE-CLICK IMPORTING

Sermon Manager supports migration/importing from other popular sermon plugins, such as Sermon Browser and Series Engine.

This is a one click process and currently only supports migration/importing within existing WordPress installations.
Soon you will be able to migrate from those 3rd party plugins to Sermon Manager on a separate server. (for example: moving to completely new website & WordPress installation)

13. Compact WP Audio Player

Compact WordPress Audio Player plugin is an HTML5 + Flash hybrid based wordpress plugin which can be used to embed an mp3 audio file on your WordPress post or page using a shortcode. The audio player is cute and compact and will play on all major browsers.

This audio player plugin Supports .mp3 and .ogg file formats.

The audio files that you embed using this plugin will work on all devices.

FEATURES

• The audio player is compact so it does not take a lot of real estate on your webpage
• HTML5 compatible so the audio files embedded with this plugin will play on iOS devices
• Works on all major browsers – IE7, IE8, IE9, Safari, Firefox, Chrome
• The audio player is responsive.
• If you do podcasting then this audio player can be used to embed the audio files on your WordPress posts or pages
• If you are selling audio files from your site then you can use this plugin to offer a preview
• Add the audio player to any post/page using shortcode
• Use autoplay option to play an audio/mp3 file as soon as the page loads
• Ability to specify both the mp3 and ogg version of your audio files. The plugin will play the appropriate one based on the device.