Podcastle (now Async) vs ICONS DIY: which should an agent use?

Podcastle (now Async) vs ICONS DIY is a choice between an all-in-one creator app and a free podcast workspace. Podcastle’s site now redirects to Async, whose plans start at $19.99 a month or $11.99 billed yearly (October 2026), and which records, edits and hosts. ICONS DIY is free and connects recording, review and hosting with team roles.

How do Podcastle (now Async) and ICONS DIY compare at a glance?

Async and ICONS DIY both cover recording and hosting, but Async adds AI editing inside one app, while ICONS DIY adds team roles across ICONS tools. Facts in the table come from Async’s own pages (October 9, 2026 versions) and from the ICONS DIY page.

	Podcastle (now Async)	ICONS DIY
Price	Free; Essentials $19.99/mo or $11.99/mo yearly; Pro $39.99 or $23.99; Teams $84.99 or $49.99; Business custom	Free
Trial	7-day free trial on annual plans only	No billing
How you get it	Sign up	Ask for an invitation on the ICONS DIY page
Recording	Separate tracks per speaker; 720p/44kHz on Free and Essentials, 4K/48kHz on Pro and Teams	ICONS Live: each person recorded separately in the browser
Recording hours	Free 1 hr lifetime; Essentials 2, Pro 20, Teams 50 hrs	None stated
Editing	Chat-based AI editing; filler and silence removal; Magic Dust on paid plans	No video editor
Review	Reviewer role in Teams workspaces	ICONS Review: comments on a recording before publishing
Hosting	Hosting hub: RSS feed and show page	ICONS Podcast hosting: show, RSS feed, publishing, stats
Team	Teams plan for 2 to 5 users; roles Owner, Admin, Creator, Reviewer	Five roles: Owner, Co-host, Editor, Assistant, Reviewer
AI voices	1000+ voices in 15+ languages	None

What does Podcastle (now Async) cost?

Async, where podcastle.ai now redirects, starts at $19.99 a month, or $11.99 a month on yearly billing (October 2026). The figures below come from the Async pricing page and help center as published on October 9, 2026:

• Free: $0. It includes 1 lifetime hour of remote multitrack recording, 2 lifetime hours of transcription, 720p video export, 160kbps MP3 audio, 2 GB of storage and a watermark.
• Essentials: $19.99 a month, or $11.99 a month billed yearly ($143.90 a year). It adds 2 recording hours, 10 transcription hours, Full HD export, 450 AI credits a month and Magic Dust.
• Pro: $39.99 a month, or $23.99 a month billed yearly ($287.90 a year). You get 20 recording hours, 25 transcription hours, 4K at 48kHz recording and export, 1,200 AI credits a month and voice cloning.
• Teams: $84.99 a month, or $49.99 a month billed yearly ($599.90 a year). It suits small teams of 2 to 5 users, with 50 recording hours, 100 transcription hours and 3,000 AI credits a month.
• Business: custom, through sales.

Async says “Save 40% with yearly plans.” Its help center says the 7-day free trial “is available for annual plans only.” On Teams, each Admin, Creator or Reviewer you add adds a seat to the owner’s subscription.

The free plan’s AI credits are listed two ways: the pricing grid says 10 lifetime credits, and a help article says 150. Check in the app.

What does ICONS DIY cost?

ICONS DIY is free, with no billing and no plan to pick. Invitations are requested on the ICONS DIY page, where there is a form for it, and sign-in links go only to people already on a show’s team or invited by ICONS.

ICONS DIY is a podcast workspace for agents, brokers, investors and lenders who host their own show. You sign in with an emailed link, with no password. The top menu opens the ICONS tools your role allows: ICONS Live to record, ICONS Review to comment and ICONS Podcast hosting to publish.

Recording and editing: what does each app do?

Async records and edits in one app, while ICONS DIY records but has no editor. Async says you can “Record in crisp 4K video and uncompressed WAV audio, captured as clean, separate tracks for every speaker.” Its pricing grid limits quality by plan: up to 720p and 44kHz on Free and Essentials, and up to 4K and 48kHz on Pro and Teams.

Async’s editing tools include:

• Chat-based editing. You describe changes to Async in a chat.
• Clean-up. Filler, pause and repeat removal, with AI silence removal and auto leveling on paid plans.
• Magic Dust. An “AI-powered audio enhancer that clears away background noise,” on Essentials and above.
• AI voices. More than 1,000 voices in 15+ languages, with voice cloning on Pro and above.

ICONS DIY opens ICONS Live, where each person is recorded separately in the browser. Its page says “There is no video editor in ICONS DIY.” To price editing as a service instead, see how much podcast editing costs.

Hosting, review and teams: where do they differ?

Async and ICONS DIY both include hosting, but they handle review and teams differently. Async’s hosting hub says you can “Get an RSS feed and dedicated show page,” and its help center says each episode you publish is added to your RSS feed automatically.

ICONS DIY handles the same jobs through ICONS tools:

• Hosting. Your show, RSS feed, publishing, download stats and listing status sit in ICONS Podcast hosting; the feed apps read is audio.
• Review. ICONS Review holds comments on a recording before it is published.
• Roles. Owner, Co-host, Editor, Assistant and Reviewer are checked on every action, not just hidden on screen.
• Several shows. One sign-in can belong to several shows, each with its own team.

Async’s team features sit on Teams and Business plans. Its help center says adding members is available only on those plans, with roles of Owner, Admin, Creator and Reviewer.

Where Podcastle (now Async) does more

Async does more as a single app that takes you from recording to a finished episode. These are real advantages:

• Editing built in. Chat-based editing and AI clean-up save a separate editor.
• Audio enhancement. Magic Dust cleans noise and evens volume on paid plans.
• 4K recording and export on Pro and Teams.
• AI voices. The voice library covers 15+ languages, with voice cloning on Pro.
• Hosting included. An RSS feed and show page are part of the same account.
• No waiting. Sign up and the free plan is yours today.

Where ICONS DIY does more

ICONS DIY does more as a team workspace for a real estate show. Its advantages:

• Free, with no recording-hour or credit caps stated.
• Five enforced roles. An assistant can’t do an owner’s job by finding the right link.
• Several agents’ shows under one sign-in, for brokerages and agencies.
• Review before publishing in ICONS Review.
• No passwords. Sign-in links work once and expire after 15 minutes.
• A route to done-for-you. If you stop running the show yourself, ICONS podcast production can take over.

Which should you choose?

Choose Async to record, edit and host in one app; choose ICONS DIY for a free team workspace, editing elsewhere or handing it off. For three kinds of host:

• Solo agent, first show, editing alone: Async. Try Free, then Essentials when the 1-hour recording limit runs out.
• Team or brokerage running shows with assistants and reviewers: ICONS DIY, for enforced roles and several shows under one sign-in.
• Agent already on Async with a paid plan: stay if you edit there. ICONS DIY doesn’t add an editor.

Format matters as much as tools; solo vs interview vs co-hosted helps you choose. If you’re in your first year, read should a new real estate agent start a podcast. The other DIY comparison, Descript vs ICONS DIY, covers the editing-app route, and hiring a producer vs DIY puts a time cost on doing it yourself. The pillar, how to start a real estate podcast, covers the whole path, and ICONS Podcast Production is the hands-off option, with editing and publishing done for you.