Transistor vs ICONS Podcast hosting: which should an agent use?

Transistor vs ICONS Podcast hosting comes down to multiple shows, private feeds and price. Transistor starts at $19 a month or $190 a year after a 14-day trial (October 2026), with unlimited shows and private podcasts, so it suits agents or teams running several feeds. ICONS Podcast hosting costs nothing, publishes audio only and links to ICONS production.

Transistor next to ICONS Podcast hosting

Transistor and ICONS Podcast hosting each give a show its RSS feed and website. Transistor prices by monthly downloads and also publishes video. Cells below come from Transistor’s pricing page and help center, read October 9, 2026, plus ICONS Podcast hosting’s own page.

	Transistor	ICONS Podcast hosting
Price	Starter $19/mo or $190/yr; Professional $49 or $490; Business $99 or $990; Enterprise $199+	Free
Free plan	None shown; 14-day free trial	No charge at all
Access	Self-serve sign-up	Ask for access through the form on the product page
Plan limits	20K, 100K or 250K monthly downloads; no episode or storage limits; 1000MB per file	8 GB per file; the page states no download cap
Shows and team	Unlimited podcasts and team members	Team roles: owner, admin, editor, analyst, viewer
Video	Publishes video to YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify; Apple HLS rolling out	Audio only; video files converted to audio
Private podcasts	All plans: 50, 500 or 3K subscribers	Public or private episodes
Stats	“Compliant with IAB guidelines”; not certified	Published counting method; not IAB-certified
Transcripts	Paid add-on: $5/mo for 5 hrs or $20/mo for 20 hrs	Automatic, English, editable, added to the feed
AI show notes	Not listed on the pages checked	Drafted titles, summaries, takeaways, keywords and chapters
Website	Included with every plan	Episode pages, about page, contact form, blog and subscribe page

What does Transistor cost?

Transistor costs $19 a month or $190 a year to start, after a 14-day free trial, as of October 2026. The Transistor pricing page, in its October 9, 2026 version, lists prices in USD, with “12 months for the price of 10” on yearly billing:

• Starter: $19 a month or $190 a year. It covers 20K monthly downloads and 50 private podcast subscribers.
• Professional: $49 a month or $490 a year. You get 100K monthly downloads and 500 private subscribers, plus dynamic ads and auto-posting to YouTube.
• Business: $99 a month or $990 a year. It allows 250K monthly downloads and 3K private subscribers, and removes Transistor branding.
• Enterprise: $199+ a month or $1990+ a year.

Every plan includes unlimited podcasts and unlimited team members. There is no limit on the number of episodes or total storage, Transistor says, and individual audio files can be up to 1000MB. If a show passes its download limit, Transistor says there’s no “automatic shut off”.

Transcription is extra: $5 a month for 5 hours, or $20 a month for 20 hours.

How much is ICONS Podcast hosting?

ICONS Podcast hosting costs nothing to use for an agent’s show. Instead of a checkout page, you ask for access on the product page, using its form, so there’s no trial clock or download tier to manage.

What you get, per that page: a Podcasting 2.0 RSS feed that carries transcript and chapter tags, a health check before you submit, and a submission tracker for 8 directories. Episodes are transcribed in English, show notes are drafted by AI, and each show gets its own website and listener surveys. Single uploads can reach 8 GB.

Download stats and directories

Neither Transistor nor ICONS Podcast hosting is IAB-certified. Transistor’s help center says: “Yes, we are compliant with IAB guidelines. However we do not pay for the annual IAB certification.”

On the ICONS side, a play only counts as a download after a listener has requested a minute of audio, and the same listener counts once per day. Bot traffic, data-centre hits and tiny test requests are filtered, and the rules are published for anyone to read. Why numbers differ across hosts is explained by how podcast downloads are counted.

As for directories, Transistor says you can submit to the Apple Podcasts directory “with one click” and also lists Spotify and YouTube. With ICONS hosting you work through a checklist of 8 directories and submit on each one yourself, ticking each off as it goes live. The walk-through for the two biggest apps is getting your show into Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

How do they compare on video, private feeds and transcripts?

Transistor publishes video and private podcasts, and ICONS Podcast hosting does neither in the same way. Transistor says: “Add your video episode, and we’ll automatically publish it to YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RSS, and more.” Apple’s HLS video is rolling out gradually with a waitlist. ICONS hosting is audio-only; a video upload is converted to a podcast MP3.

Private feeds differ too:

• Transistor includes private podcasts on every plan, with subscriber caps by plan, and can email private subscribers when you publish.
• ICONS hosting lets you mark individual episodes public or private. The page does not describe private subscriber feeds.

On transcripts and notes, Transistor’s AI transcription is a paid add-on, and its pages checked didn’t list AI show notes. ICONS hosting includes English transcripts and drafts a title, summary, takeaways, keywords and chapters for each episode.

Where Transistor does more

Transistor does more for agents or brokerages running several shows. These are real advantages:

• Unlimited podcasts on one plan. A brokerage can run a team show, a market update and a recruiting show without extra fees.
• Room for a team. Every plan includes unlimited team members.
• Private podcasts. Subscriber management and email notices suit agent training or a client-only feed.
• Video publishing. Episodes go to YouTube, Apple Podcasts and Spotify, with auto-posting to YouTube on Professional and up.
• Dynamic ads. Pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll inserts come with Professional and up.
• No hard stop. Transistor says it keeps serving audio if you pass your download limit.

Where ICONS Podcast hosting does more

ICONS Podcast hosting does more for a single audio show where you want the writing done for you. Its advantages:

• No bill. There’s nothing to pay and no download ceiling on the page.
• Transcripts at no extra cost. Each upload gets an English transcript you can edit, which also goes into the feed. Transistor charges $5 or $20 a month for transcription.
• Drafted show notes. Titles, a summary, takeaways and chapters are drafted, and drafts never overwrite text you wrote.
• Surveys on the show site. You can ask listeners up to 10 questions.
• Breakdowns by app and device. Stats split by country, by region, by app, by device and by operating system, with a weekly email on Mondays.
• Leaving is simple. One ZIP holds all your data, and you have 7 days to restore a deleted account.
• Recordings flow in. For shows ICONS produces, an ICONS Live recording becomes a draft episode.

So which is it: Transistor or ICONS hosting?

Transistor if you run several shows, private feeds or video; ICONS Podcast hosting if you want one free audio show with transcripts and show notes included. Three cases from the field:

• Solo agent with one audio show: ICONS hosting is free and includes transcripts. Transistor Starter costs $190 a year before the transcription add-on.
• ICONS-produced show, or a team with a producer: ICONS hosting, because finished recordings arrive as draft episodes.
• Brokerage running several shows or a private training feed on Transistor: stay. Unlimited shows and private subscribers are what you pay for.

Transistor is one of eight hosts scored in the hosting round-up for real estate agents. Feed ownership and the rest of the host checklist are covered in the podcast hosting guide for real estate agents. If you want someone else to publish every episode, look at done-for-you podcast production.