Three podcast setups: free audio, weekly audio, and remote video

Write down how a recording becomes an episode: capture it, edit it, publish it, and help someone find it. A tool can cover several of those jobs. A separate subscription for each step is useful only when it improves a specific part of your process. Start with your next recording, not an imagined studio with every possible feature.

The three setups below are deliberately small. They cover the software needed to finish and publish an episode. They do not include a microphone, headphones, computer, music license, domain, or a paid promotion budget. Those depend on your equipment and creative choices. A show with original voice and artwork can start without a stock library or a separate website builder.

Use Audacity to record your voice, cut mistakes, balance tracks, and export an episode. It is a free desktop audio editor. Upload that file to Spotify for Creators, which offers free hosting. You can publish without joining a monetization program. This is a practical combination for a first season or a show with a straightforward edit. Audacity and Spotify hosting.

Publishing to Spotify is automatic when it hosts the show. Reaching other podcast apps takes another step: enable RSS distribution and submit that feed to the destinations you want. Keep those accounts in your own name and save your original recordings locally. This setup does not include a remote guest studio, so an interview format may require a different recording tool. Spotify distribution.

The cost you will notice first may be time. You choose the cuts, check the export, and correct your notes. If that work becomes the bottleneck, identify the particular step that needs help before buying an all-in-one suite. Your first upgrade might be an editing template or a better recording environment.

Choose REAPER when you want a flexible multitrack editor and are willing to create a reusable session. The discounted license is $60 for personal use, qualifying educational or nonprofit use, or commercial use with yearly gross revenue no greater than $20,000. Otherwise the commercial license is $225. The fully functional 60-day evaluation is a trial, not a permanent free plan. REAPER purchase terms.

Buzzsprout's annual Audio plan for one podcast is $180, with 72 upload hours over the year. Four one-hour episodes a month total 48 hours over a year, leaving room for some extras. Five long interviews, bonus episodes, and multiple shows need their own calculation. The month-to-month Audio option is $19 with six upload hours per month. Annual plans and monthly plans.

With the discounted editor license and annual hosting, the first-year software total is $240. That is $180 paid for the year plus a $60 license purchase, rather than a $20 subscription you can stop every month. Use the included host website initially. Add a separate website when you can name the pages or features that make the extra bill worthwhile.

Riverside Pro combines remote recording with editing tools. Its annual price is $288, equivalent to $24 per month, while the monthly option is $29. The current plan card and FAQ describe 15 hours of separate-track downloads per month; that is different from a universal recording cap. Check what you can export and how your expected sessions use that allowance. Riverside pricing.

This setup uses Spotify for Creators for the audio feed, while you keep the video originals for Spotify and YouTube publishing. Riverside also offers hosting, so review its included features before maintaining two publishing workflows. Confirm Apple video availability and the account setup required for your chosen host. A platform announcing wider video distribution does not establish that every account has the same workflow today. Spotify video expansion.

Try Riverside's editor and clip tools before adding a separate editing or clipping subscription. Run a short guest session, wait for uploads, download the files you need, and finish an export. The useful result is a repeatable path through your own production work. If a guest cannot join or the required export is outside the plan, adjust the setup before an important interview.

Open recommended setups and choose Customize this stack. The planner opens those tools and pricing choices as an editable setup. Swap tools, remove a subscription, or change a free option to a paid one. Save the result to My stack when it fits. Opening a recommended setup does not replace the tools you previously saved.

The planner estimates catalog starting prices. It does not calculate every seat, add-on, commercial-license requirement, or usage charge. Check the named plan before purchasing and use the hosting calculator for your publication volume. Revisit the stack after a few episodes: remove tools you never opened and pay for an upgrade when it solves a problem you actually encountered.