Acast

Acast is a host with an advertising business attached. You upload episodes, it builds the feed, and it distributes to the apps like any other host. The difference is the marketplace. Acast sells ad slots into shows on its platform and drops them into episodes dynamically, which means an ad can be swapped after the episode is published.

Advertising demand depends on audience, location, topic, and advertiser requirements. Dynamic insertion can place current campaigns into older episodes, but hosting a show on Acast does not guarantee ad fill or income.

The gotcha is that the price is not the price. You pay a plan fee, and then the ad revenue is split. Read the split before you assume the ads are free money, and check whether your show is opted into categories you would rather not run.

If you are big enough that a sales team matters, Acast earns its place. If you are still building the audience, a plain host and your own sponsor emails will keep more of the money.