PodbeanReviews of podbean.com

Missing $395.78 payout — Four support tickets and still no resolution. (Finally 16 days after my first email for me to receive a reply) I am extremely disappointed with Podbean's customer service and lack of accountability. My advertising revenue payout of **$395.78** was marked as paid around September 20, 2026, but the money has never reached my PayPal account. I have been trying to resolve this for weeks and have now opened **FOUR support tickets: #487058, #487227, #487333 and #488654**. Despite repeatedly escalating the issue, I have received nothing beyond generic responses saying the matter has been forwarded to another department or is being investigated. Nobody has provided an explanation, proof of payment, or any indication of when this will be resolved. Trying to contact Podbean outside its support system is equally frustrating. - Call their published telephone number, and an automated recording simply directs you back to their support website before disconnecting. - Message their Facebook business page, and they direct you back to the support website. - Contact their LinkedIn business page, and there is no response. - Submit further support tickets, and the issue remains unresolved. **It is an endless circle of being directed back to the same support system that has failed to resolve the problem.** I have even contacted PayPal, which confirmed that there were no restrictions on my account and no record of the missing payment. Podbean has been asked repeatedly to provide a transaction ID so that the payment can be traced, but has failed to do so. As a podcaster who uses and pays for Podbean's services, I find this level of customer service completely unacceptable. I am not asking for anything unreasonable. I simply want the money owed to me. After four tickets and weeks of trying, I am still waiting for someone at Podbean to take responsibility and actually resolve this.

I am currently experiencing an issue with the Tipalti payout setup in my Podbean account. When I try to access the payout setup page, I receive an “Error 2” message. I have contacted Podbean Support, and they have created a support ticket for my issue. I am waiting for their response and hope the problem will be resolved soon. I will update my review based on my overall experience and the support I receive.

It is so unfortunate that I don’t believe that you promote all podcast equally as I’ve been on your program and I’m going to continue to use your tools as the only way to get out to my people, but freedom has never been free and I understand where you’re coming from but it’s just me. Have a blessed day.

I upgraded to Podbean Unlimited Plus for video hosting, only to discover they completely fail to disclose a major limitation: Spotify does not support video via external RSS feeds. I requested a cancellation and refund within hours of the upgrade, before using any bandwidth or features. Instead of acknowledging the lack of disclosure, they refused a direct refund and insisted on locking my money as account credit. To make matters worse, after their management sent a rigid refusal, they completely stopped answering my emails and cut off communication entirely. Refusing immediate refunds for undisclosed limitations and ghosting paying customers is unacceptable practice. Take your podcast hosting elsewhere.

Podbean has decided not to let customers listen to podcasts on their computers. I'm not sure what idiot in the company did this, but all the people I know are dropping podbean like the plague. What's behind this: They have put in place an app advertisement that you can't block or get around. I actually do have the podbean app on my phone, but I don't want it on my computer. No matter what I try to do, Podbean won't let me listen. So here's the thing. I'm never using this piece of crap site again. If you are like the many other people on Reddit complaining about this, the thing to do is shut those aholes down. Complain constantly online, so everyone knows how crappy their company is and not to every use it.

★☆☆☆☆ (1 Star) RUNNING AWAY! I rarely leave negative reviews, but Podbean has been the single most damaging software decision I’ve made while launching my podcast. I invested over $100,000 producing and editing a professional video podcast and purchased the Unlimited Plus for Business plan—the highest tier Podbean offers—because I expected a platform built for serious creators. Instead, my launch was thrown into chaos. The biggest issue is Spotify video support. Podbean heavily promotes Spotify integration through its RSS feed, but what isn’t made sufficiently clear is that Spotify video podcasts cannot be distributed through a third-party RSS feed. If you connect your Podbean RSS feed to Spotify, your video episodes are delivered as audio-only, meaning your audience doesn’t receive the video version and you cannot access Spotify’s video monetization. If you’re investing in video, this is a major limitation that should be disclosed prominently—not discovered during launch. The Apple Podcasts experience has been just as frustrating. Podbean markets support for Apple HLS video podcasts throughout its website, yet provides virtually no practical documentation explaining how to actually publish a video podcast to Apple. I expedited approval on Apple’s side, but Podbean became the bottleneck because there were no clear setup guides, walkthroughs, or knowledgeable support available when I needed them most. Even something as basic as podcast artwork became an unnecessary ordeal. Podbean’s uploader enforces a 2 MB artwork limit, while Apple’s podcast artwork requirements encourage much larger, higher-resolution images. That mismatch cost me nearly three hours of troubleshooting before I realized the issue wasn’t my artwork—it was Podbean’s outdated upload restrictions. Customer support only made things worse. When I reached out with technical questions during launch, I waited nearly 48 hours for a response. The “solution” was a link to a six-year-old generic setup webinar that didn’t answer my questions. For customers paying for the highest business tier, that’s simply unacceptable. The platform feels behind the times. The interface is dated, the workflow isn’t designed for today’s video-first creators, the AI capabilities are minimal compared to competitors, and documentation is surprisingly sparse for features that are heavily promoted. I chose Podbean because it consistently appeared on “Best Podcast Hosting” lists. In hindsight, many of those recommendations seem disconnected from the realities of launching a modern video podcast. If you’re creating a simple audio podcast, Podbean may still work. If you’re investing serious money into a professional video podcast, especially if Apple Podcasts video and Spotify video are part of your distribution strategy, I would strongly recommend looking elsewhere. I genuinely wish I’d read a review like this before committing my entire launch to Podbean.

Liked them before they broke GDPR by sending spam emails. Shame.

Tech support is a joke. If you pay for a no-ads subscription, it only works for a few months before it stops. Video ads begin to interrupt the podcast. If you ask for tech support, they ask you to record the incident. It's random, people! Am I supposed to 'watch' an audio podcast then with my finger randomly over a record button just to do your job? When my subscription ends, I am moving over to another platform that doesn't hire jokers to assist people. Scam. Run as fast as you can.