Every Captivate plan includes the same feature set. The published difference is the download pool. Personal is $17 a month paid yearly and includes 30,000 downloads a month. Professional is $44 a month paid yearly and includes 150,000. Business is $90 a month paid yearly and includes 300,000. Above that, Captivate asks you to email support. These are annual-billing rates. Captivate also offers monthly billing and a 30-day trial.
Downloads are counted across every show on the account. Unlimited shows and unlimited storage are included, so five quiet shows can share the Personal pool. A single busy show can spend it alone. Captivate says the audio stays online if you cross the cap. If you cross it for a second month in a row, they ask you to move up a tier.
Include archive listening in your forecast. Four new episodes at 2,000 downloads each, plus 8,000 downloads from older episodes, total 16,000 and fit Personal. If the older catalog alone gets 40,000 downloads, the account needs a higher allowance even before the new releases.
Students, schools, registered charities and nonprofits can ask for 25% off after signup.
Every Captivate plan includes private podcasting, IAB-certified analytics, Captivate Sites and dynamic insertion through AMIE. The features table lists unlimited private podcasts and 50,000 private-podcast subscribers in total. Captivate also provides paid memberships with tiers, Stripe payments and encrypted links for exclusive or early-access audio.
AMIE lets you place and replace pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll audio without re-uploading the full episode. It also supports sponsor-link tracking. The core insertion tool is included, while marketplace participation and advertiser demand are separate considerations. This is useful for a podcaster who already sells sponsorships and wants to update ads across the catalog.
Apple HLS video is the exception to “everything is included.” Captivate’s help article, updated in 2026, prices it as an add-on at $12 a month per podcast, including 1,000 HLS downloads. Further video plays are billed as bandwidth, on a separate invoice. Audio from those episodes still counts against the normal download pool. A network pays $12 for each show that turns video on.
Growth Labs, Captivate’s courses and workshops for podcasters, is included on every plan. That is education for the host, not a course product the host sells to listeners.
An editor running eight niche shows that together stay under 30,000 downloads a month pays $17 a month on annual billing for all of them. Private podcasts and AMIE are on that same Personal plan. Beamly’s multi-show plan is $64 a month on annual billing, and it assumes those shows share a membership site. Hosting alone does not justify that price.
Captivate’s IAB-certified analytics are useful when advertisers require certified reports. Beamly follows an IAB-style counting method and is not certified. If you move hosting, agree with your advertiser on an accepted measurement service first. An independent tracking prefix does not automatically meet every certification requirement.
Captivate’s published allowance of 50,000 private-podcast subscribers is much larger than Beamly’s included member tier. Creator includes 1,000 free and paid members combined, with paid upgrades beyond that. A company delivering an internal podcast to a large staff should compare Captivate’s private-podcast tools with Beamly’s actual member-tier quote.
Captivate Sites supplies a website for the show. Its membership tools can sell premium audio without another checkout service. Beamly’s advantage is the wider website, where the same membership can cover episodes, posts, videos and courses.
Beamly Starter is $18 a month billed annually for one hosted or synced show, a custom-domain website, a blog and gated content for 1,000 free members. Creator is $30 a month billed annually and adds paid memberships, unique private feeds, products, one course, video hosting and three team seats.
Captivate’s membership fee is 12% of subscription revenue, plus payment and withdrawal fees. Beamly’s platform fee is 0%, with Stripe processing separate. A hypothetical membership earning $2,000 a month would pay Captivate $240 in revenue share on top of hosting. Beamly Creator would cost $30 before processing, provided the account stays within its included member tier. That is a meaningful difference even if you only need premium audio.
Video is priced apart from the download pool. Captivate charges $12 per show plus bandwidth after 1,000 HLS plays, and the regular plans stay audio-first. Beamly includes website video hosting on Creator. HLS delivery to Apple Podcasts is available for public shows hosted on Beamly, on a plan that includes video, after the show is claimed in Apple Podcasts Connect and Apple approves it. Beamly does not meter those Apple plays as a separate $12 add-on. Growth Labs, Captivate’s courses and workshops for the host, has no Beamly equivalent.
Beamly Business starts at $64 a month billed annually for 10 podcasts on one website, with higher limits available as paid upgrades. Captivate Business is $90 a month billed annually for unlimited shows sharing 300,000 downloads. Beamly has no published download cap. Captivate includes the ad tools and certified analytics, so compare those requirements alongside the audience size.
You can keep the public show on Captivate for AMIE and certified reports, sync it to a Beamly website and host new premium episodes separately on Beamly Creator. Beamly’s download analytics cover media hosted on Beamly. A full public-feed move is optional.
Pick Captivate if you run more than one public show, you want them on one download pool and you will use AMIE for sponsors you already sold. Pick it for a private podcast list that may reach far past a thousand listeners and does not need a course site around it. The Personal plan is enough for most shows under 30,000 downloads. Include all shows and archive downloads when choosing the allowance.
Choose Beamly Creator if you want the membership, website and paid resources in one platform at 0% platform fees. Starter is enough for a public site synced to Captivate. Business covers several shows on one website, while Captivate Personal remains cheaper for low-download multi-show hosting alone.
Keep Captivate if AMIE, certified stats or a large private list matters more than the broader website. You can add Beamly as the site without replacing those services.
Choose Beamly for a member website with 0% platform fees and content beyond the feed. You can trial it for 14 days while your public show stays on Captivate.
Build a complete website for your podcast, private feeds, memberships, videos, courses, and products with 0% platform fees.
