If you are running a podcast website with WordPress, or planning to create one, you are probably worried about how to create, upload, distribute or publish your precious podcast episodes into the real world. WordPress podcast plugins can help with all of the above and keep you out of manually doing the dirty work. When managing your own podcast website, you’ll save dozens of hours by using dedicated WordPress podcast plugins and themes. In this article we’ll dive into the different features and info about the best WordPress podcast plugins available. Below you’ll find a list of the best WordPress plugins for podcasters in 2022, so make sure to review the list and choose the right ones for your podcast website!

What to look for in WordPress podcast plugins?

Fortunately, since WordPress is so popular (and runs on nearly 40% of all the websites on the internet!), there are many WordPress podcast plugins that are well known and well tested so you’re in good hands. There are plugins for almost any aspect of podcasting – Many podcast hosts offer their own WordPress plugins that connect their podcast hosting platform. This can help publishing your episodes directly from the podcast hosting provide into the website.

There are plugins that allows you to create and host your own podcast RSS feed directly on your WordPress servers, so you can submit it yourself to Apple Podcasts or any other podcast publishing platform. Other plugins may offer sleek podcast audio players, with podcast-specific features such as control of the playing speed, quick rewind or forward, and more. Furthermore, there are plugins that can help you import your existing podcast to WordPress by pulling the RSS feed, or display beautiful podcast subscribe buttons in WordPress.

In addition to WordPress podcast plugins, it’s always important to have a matching WordPress Podcast Theme. Our themes are fully compatible with all WordPress podcast plugins. Most importantly, the themes offer advanced podcasting functionality that could help you not only display your podcast on your website, but display it beautifully and with full control on the technical, visual and aesthetics areas.

The Top 11 WordPress Podcast Plugins for 2022

1. Podcast Importer (Free)

The Podcast Importer plugin, developed by SecondLineThemes is the best tool to import your podcast into WordPress. This plugin will take any podcast RSS feed and import it directly into your WordPress website. The plugin is especially helpful when you want to automate the process of cross-posting the episodes from your feed to your WordPress site – you can set it to check for updates automatically and import your future episodes.

There are separate settings you can choose from, like importing the episodes into a certain category, import an embed audio player, featured images, and more. The plugin can import more than one podcast, so you can easily aggregate your different podcasts on the same website!

The Pro Version of the plugin includes unlimited scheduled imports, import categories and tags into custom taxonomies, setting the intervals for scheduled imports, applying a global image to all imported episodes, and much more.

You can use the plugin to import several separate podcast shows/series into WordPress and this feature works great with our Podcast Network themes (like Tusant and Bolden)

To learn more about the Podcast Importer plugin, we’ve gathered a few key features –

• Create separate imports for different podcast shows.
• Continuously import your podcast episodes from an external RSS feed – no need to manually create the episode post in WordPress.
• Many additional import options like setting up different categories, append the episode number to the title, import images and more!

2. Castos / Seriously Simple Podcasting (Free)

Seriously Simple Podcasting – a well designed, feature rich WordPress plugin from Castos. Just like the name point out, Seriously Simple Podcasting (SSP) is simple to configure and easy to use on any website.

SSP works with Castos’ premium podcast hosting plans, but it’s free if you upload the MP3 files to your server. If your podcast is already hosted with a different provider, you can still use the SSP plugin, but it’s not as important if you do want to host the podcast on your WordPress server or if you are already hosting with Castos.

SSP offers a nice HTML5 player you can display on any post. Seriously Simple Podcasting also handles RSS feeds and publishing for you. You can link the feed create by Seriously Simple Podcasting directly to Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcast aggregator and publish your new episodes directly from WordPress.

Castos works best with themes that support podcasting and the plugin itself right out of the box. You can use our Podcast Themes for an optimal experience.

3. Blubrry PowerPress (Free)

PowerPress, just like Seriously Simple Podcasting, is a “do it all” plugin that handles everything you need for your Podcast within WordPress. You can connect to the premium Blubrry podcast hosting plans. In other words, you can upload your own MP3 files to WordPress for free, and you can also or connect your premium Blubrry account so your WordPress server isn’t inflated with audio files and traffic.

You can use PowerPress to create your podcast RSS feed and submit it to plaftorms such as Apple Podcasts.

Like SSP, PowerPress works best with themes are built for podcasting and support the PowerPress plugin. Check out our own Podcast Themes for to enjoy PowerPress even more.

4. Simple Podcast Press (Paid)

Simple Podcast Press, a premium WordPress podcast plugin brought to you by Hani Mourra is one of the best WordPress podcast plugins out there.

Not only it offers a really powerful import tool that would automatically create posts from existing podcast feeds, Simple Podcast Press is also built to improve conversions of your podcast. That means downloads, subscribers, and engagement rate are a heavy focus of this plugin.

Simple Podcast Press offers a complete audio player full of features, which is also working beautifully within our WordPress podcast themes. Additionally, SPP can integrate with both the Smart Podcast Player plugin and with Blubrry’s PowerPress plugin and display SPP’s player while still using either one of the other plugins. The plugin imports all your episodes and uses the SPP player to display your episodes.

5. BuzzSprout (Free)

Buzzsprout Podcasting is a free WordPress podcast plugin offered by a premium Podcast Hosting service. (therefore fees may apply if you are signing up as a customer on their website.)

The plugin offers a custom audio player, integration with iTunes and other aggregators, statistics etc.

You’ll have to use shortcodes for each episode, but the plugin can display Buzzsprout podcasts on your website.

6. Fusebox (Free/Paid)

Fusebox (previously known as Smart Podcast Player) enables you to use a custom designed HTML5 audio player that is dedicated for podcasting.

You can create a playlist or display shownotes within the audio player. The plugin is also responsive and looks great on any device. You can easily customize the colors and layouts, and much more.

Fusebox isn’t available on the WordPress plugin repository, you have to have an account on their platform and only then download the plugin and connect to your site. You can read more about their monthly fees and documentation on their website.

7. Auto YouTube Importer (Free)

The Auto YouTube Importer plugin helps video creators and/or podcasters to import entire YouTube channels to WordPress. This plugin is a great tool for automating the import process (including past and all future videos, as they are released) so you don’t have to worry about any manual work.

The plugin also includes a Pro version that can help you import categories, set a featured image for all posts, import tags, and much more.

8. Podlove Podcast Publisher (Free)

Podlove Podcast Publisher helps creating podcast feeds and display episodes in a audio player. The plugin supports the Podlove Web Player and you can easily create audio or video podcast episodes with it.

9. Libsyn Podcast Plugin (Free)

Libsyn is among the most poplar Podcast Hosting services. They offer multiple plans for Podcasters who wish to host their MP3/audio files with them.

While this plugin is free, you may need to have a paid subscription for Libsyn’s service in order to properly enjoy all of the features. This plugin connects your WordPress website with your account on Libsyn and allows you to display episodes published on your Libsyn account into your WordPress website. It also allows you to upload new episodes directly via WordPress, so the link can go both ways.

Libsyn also have an Embedded audio player. You can display it on your WordPress website, without any plugin or additional configuration.

10. Podcast Subscribe Buttons (Free)

The Podcast Subscribe Buttons plugin, developed by SecondLineThemes, is a completely free plugin that allows you to easily create different subscribe buttons for your podcast and display them with a shortcode on any page or post in your WordPress podcast website. To clarify, we initially developed the Podcast Subscribe Buttons plugin as a core part of our WordPress podcast themes.

Additionally, the Podcast Subscribe Buttons plugin offers 3 different layouts –

1. You can display a pop-up modal with buttons in it.
2. Display a vertical list that can fit your sidebar or content area.
3. Add a simple row of inline subscribe buttons for your favorite platforms.

11. Presto Player (Paid)

The Presto Player is an all around video player plugin for your WordPress website. It has some powerful features that can help you feature your video content in different ways and offer a better experience for your visitors.

Here’s a quick recap of their top features –

• Multiple Video Sources
• Sticky Video Player
• Video Chapter Support
• Analytics & Reports
• Email Optin Gate

Conclusion

In conclusion, with so many options, the best WordPress podcast plugin for each user depends on the user’s needs. You can connect some of the above plugins with specific Podcast Hosting services. (Libsyn, PowerPress, Castos, BuzzSprout)
This means that if you already use of one of those platforms, it would make sense to their respective plugin. If you want to import an existing podcast into your site, Simple Podcast Press would be our top recommendation.

Lastly, but nonetheless a very important note to keep in mind is – all of our WordPress podcast themes are fully compatible with all the plugins above. Whether you just want to display a list of your existing that are hosted elsewhere, import an existing podcast into a new website, or host your own podcast on a WordPress website, our themes work simply great with all of the above solutions!