For creators
Free hosting. Open RSS. And today, we take nothing from what you earn.
Publish a new show or import an existing one with a single RSS link, then set your own subscription tiers. Your listeners pay into your own Stripe account — the money never passes through us.
No credit card. No plan to choose. Import your existing show in one step.
Why creators are switching.
You started a podcast because you had something to say. Not because you wanted to navigate hosting plans, platform restrictions, and confusing revenue splits.
Right now, most hosting platforms charge you €19 to €39 every month just to keep your episodes online. And when you finally build an audience? Spotify takes 30% of what your listeners pay you. Buzzsprout takes 15%. Captivate takes up to 14.9% -- on top of that monthly hosting fee. Apple locks your paying subscribers behind iOS devices and takes 30% in the first year. The math is brutal, especially when only 15% of creators are making money from their content.
Then there is the ecosystem trap. Some platforms offer free hosting but put a pre-roll ad in front of your episodes -- advertising your listeners never asked for. Some go further: put your show in their exclusives or originals programme and the episodes they publish to your public RSS feed come out truncated to a five- or ten-minute preview, so anyone listening outside their app only ever hears a fragment. Your own audience is pushed into their app just to hear your own show. Spotify reserves the right to edit, modify, and remove your content in their terms of service. You publish on their terms, not yours.
And if your show is in Spanish or Catalan? Most platforms were built in English, for English speakers. Discovery tools barely see you. Your content exists, but the platform was not built for it. You made the podcast. You grew the audience. You deserve better terms.
Onion works the other way round. Distribute your work everywhere, on every platform, with a full open RSS feed -- nothing truncated, nothing held back for our app. And your paying subscribers get a private RSS feed, so they can listen to the episodes they paid for in whatever podcatcher they already use, not only in ours.
What you get
Free hosting. No monthly fee.
Upload your episodes, publish your show, grow your audience. No monthly fee and no trial that expires, with limits generous enough that a normal show never has to think about them. Storage is the one thing that costs real money, so a podcast with an unusually large archive may one day need a paid plan -- and if that ever applies to you, we will tell you well in advance.
Your content stays yours.
You keep full ownership of everything you create. Open RSS means your podcast works everywhere -- not just on our platform. No forced ads on your episodes. No content licensing. Leave anytime, take everything with you.
Your listeners pay you directly.
Set your own Stripe subscription tiers -- up to 3 per podcast, with the names and prices you choose. Payments are charged on your own Stripe account and land there directly. No minimum audience required to start earning.
How fees compare
If you monetize your podcast, platform fees matter. Here is how Onion Podcasts compares to the alternatives.
| Platform | Onion Podcasts | Spotify | Apple | Buzzsprout | Captivate | iVoox |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platform fee | Nothing today | 30% + cash-out fees | 15-30% | 15% | 12-14.9% + €0.30/tx | 5% |
| Hosting cost | Free | Free | €19.99/yr enrollment | €12-24/mo | €19-99/mo | Free |
| Forced ads | No | No | No | No | No | Yes (pre-roll) |
Onion Podcasts
- Platform fee
- Nothing today
- Hosting cost
- Free
- Forced ads
- No
Spotify
- Platform fee
- 30% + cash-out fees
- Hosting cost
- Free
- Forced ads
- No
Apple
- Platform fee
- 15-30%
- Hosting cost
- €19.99/yr enrollment
- Forced ads
- No
Buzzsprout
- Platform fee
- 15%
- Hosting cost
- €12-24/mo
- Forced ads
- No
Captivate
- Platform fee
- 12-14.9% + €0.30/tx
- Hosting cost
- €19-99/mo
- Forced ads
- No
iVoox
- Platform fee
- 5%
- Hosting cost
- Free
- Forced ads
- Yes (pre-roll)
A lower percentage isn't the whole price
Your money never touches Onion. Subscriptions are charged straight onto your own Stripe account — we don't hold it, route it, or sit between you and it.
Your audience stays yours. We never cut your public feed down to a teaser to trap listeners in our app — paying subscribers get a private RSS feed and listen in whatever podcatcher they already use. Some platforms charge less and take that freedom instead.
Onion takes nothing from creator revenue today: subscription payments are charged on the creator’s own Stripe account and never pass through us. The first creators to join pay nothing; the plan is to eventually charge a 10% commission to creators who are already earning money. The other figures are each platform’s own published rates and can change -- check theirs.
Spotify, Apple, Buzzsprout, Captivate and iVoox are trademarks of their respective owners. This comparison reflects each service’s own published pages and is for information only.
How it works
Three steps from nothing to published.
Create your account
Sign up in under a minute. No credit card. No plan to choose. Just your email and you are in.
Upload and publish
Add your podcast art, upload your episodes, and hit publish. Already have a show? Import it from your current host with one RSS link. Your episodes, artwork, and metadata come with you.
Grow and earn
Build your audience across the open web. When you are ready, add Stripe subscription tiers so your listeners can support you directly — the payment is charged on your own Stripe account, and we take nothing out of it.
Go beyond the episode.
Attach bonus content to any episode -- documents, videos, audio, notes, and links. Gate each extra by subscription tier so free listeners get a taste and paying subscribers get the full experience.
Full episodes from free trailers.
Publish a free trailer and attach the full episode audio as a subscriber-only extra. Listeners who subscribe hear it seamlessly in their player and private RSS feed.
Up to 10 extras per episode.
Add show notes, source documents, video clips, bonus audio, and links. Each extra can be free or gated to any subscription tier you choose.
No files to send. Ever.
When someone subscribes, every extra they are entitled to unlocks by itself -- in their player and in their private RSS feed. You attach the file once. No emailing downloads, no access codes, no chasing who paid for what.
Built with care. Hosted with integrity.
Onion Podcasts is built independently in Mallorca. No VC funding. No corporate pressure. Just a clear belief: listeners deserve a clean experience and creators deserve fair terms.
Publish your first episode today.
Free hosting, an open RSS feed that works everywhere, and subscription payments that land in your own Stripe account.
No credit card. No monthly fee. Import an existing show with one RSS link.