If your podcast is already up and running, changing hosts just to get better analytics can feel like an incredibly daunting task.
That’s where analytics prefixes come in. With just a short URL, you can begin answering questions like:
- Who’s listening?
- Which episodes convert?
- Which marketing channels deserve more dollars?
For brands and agencies, this means tying content to business outcomes like pipeline, retention, and brand lift. For podcasters looking to monetize, it’s the difference between “we think our audience looks like X” and “we can prove it.”
Prefixes work across most major hosts, they’re stackable, and they centralize data. In other words, prefixes let you level up your measurement without migrating your entire podcast to a new host.
Below, we’ll cover the 6 best podcast analytics prefixes, their price, key features, and who they’re best for.
What is a podcast analytics prefix?
First things first, what is a podcast analytics prefix?
A podcast analytics prefix is a unique URL that’s added to your existing RSS feed. Typically, you can simply integrate the third-party prefix into your existing hosting provider.
Once done, the prefix gathers data on the overall show and episodes, sending that data and insights to the podcast analytics provider that you signed up for.
Podcast analytics prefixes are valuable tools for any creator, whether you’re a brand, independent podcaster, network, or agency. Depending on the platform you go with, they allow you to gather deeper insight into audience demographics, download and unique listener tracking, campaign attribution, and more, all in one consolidated dashboard.
Creators typically sign up for analytics prefixes when their podcast hosting platform doesn’t offer them the level of insights that they need to measure the performance of their show.
Podcast analytics prefix comparison
The best podcast analytics prefixes
1. CoHost Podcast Analytics Prefix
Price: Plans start at $15/month
CoHost’s Podcast Analytics Prefix allows brands and podcasters to uncover who their listeners are, what content is resonating, and what marketing campaigns are driving audiences.
Top features:
- Tracking Links: Trackable promotional links so you can see what marketing channels are driving downloads (and which ones aren’t).
- Advanced Audience Demographics: Discover your listeners’ income, age, family makeup, interests, and social media habits to shape content and align target audiences.
- B2B Analytics: See which companies are listening to your podcast, along with the industries, employee job roles, seniorities, and location. Use this data to understand the content that resonates with your target audience and fill your pipeline.
Who it’s best for:
- Brands: With such in-depth insights into who audiences are and B2B data, CoHost is best suited for brands that want to align shows with target markets, fill their pipeline, and measure podcast ROI.
- Agencies: Marketing or podcast agencies that are looking for more in-depth podcast analytics and ROI to report back to clients.
- Serious Podcasters: For podcasters either monetizing or looking to monetize their show and need to understand their audience better or pitch sponsors.
2. Podtrac
Price: Free with the first paid plan starting at $20/month
Podtrac is a podcast analytics prefix that allows users to track traffic (downloads and unique audiences) and launch listener surveys.
Top features:
- Traffic Measurement: Explore your podcasts’ download and unique audience performance across rolling 30-day timelines.
- Audience Surveys: Get detailed listener demographics such as age, gender, education, income, job function, company size, industry, listening behavior, and more through your choice of 40 survey questions.
- Audio & Link Promo Attribution: Measure unique audiences and downloads from promotional channels (including promos in podcasts) to understand which channels drive growth.
Who it’s best for:
- Podcasters: For podcasters who want more in-depth audience insights and engagement.
- Networks: For networks that are managing numerous podcasts and want to receive an easy dashboard to view and analyze data across shows.
3. OP3
Price: Free
OP3 (Open Podcast Prefix Project) is a free and fully open-source podcast prefix analytics service. But note that by using OP3, your podcast data will be public for anyone to view (while maintaining listener privacy, of course).
Top features:
- Download Data: View your show’s downloads over an hourly, daily, 7, and 30-day period, along with monthly unique audiences.
- Location Data: Explore your podcast’s top countries and regions of listeners and spot trends.
- Devices & Systems Data: See the top devices, apps, device types, and browsers of your listeners.
Explore a sample dashboard on OP3.
Who it’s best for:
- Podcasters: For creators looking to gain a unified look at their podcast download performance and geographic data in one dashboard.
- Networks: Networks that want a consolidated view of their shows without switching hosting platforms.
4. Blubrry Statistics Prefix
Price: Free with the first paid plan starting at $5/month
Blubrry’s Statistics Prefix allows customers to get a consolidated view of downloads and listening trends without migrating podcast hosting platforms.
Top features:
- Download Data: See your downloads across today, the last 30 days, and all time. Additionally, track downloads from 30 days to 2 years.
- Retention Data: Explore an at-a-glance breakdown of complete plays and partial plays of your episodes.
- Listener Surveys: Run listener surveys to uncover demographic data about your audience with ease.
Who it’s best for:
- Podcasters: Blubrry’s prefix is great for podcasters who don’t want to switch hosting platforms but are interested in running listener surveys or gathering more in-depth retention data.
5. Podder
Price: Unknown
Podder is a podcast analytics and audience demographics prefix. Gain insight into who your listeners are and traffic analysis, all in one dashboard.
Top features:
- Listener Demographics: Explore age, gender, country, income, children, home data, education, and more, to better understand your podcast audience.
- Traffic Measurement: Discover episode performance, downloads across players and devices, growth comparisons, and chart rankings.
- Smartlinks: Similar to other prefixes above, Podder offers tracking links to measure which marketing channels are driving downloads.
Who it’s best for:
- Podcasters: For podcasters who want to go very deep into who their podcast audience is, maybe using that data to pitch or report back to sponsors.
- Agencies: For agencies that are looking to align clients’ shows with target audiences and need to report on performance.
6. Ausha
Price: Starts at $99/month
Similar to CoHost and Blubrry, Ausha offers a podcast analytics prefix alongside their hosting platform. Ausha makes it easy to discover listening behaviors and podcast audience insights.
Top features:
- Audience Insights: Explore your audience by location, device, source, and browser.
- Traffic Measurement: Gather insights into your downloads, unique listeners, and episode performance.
- Apple Podcast Charts: Get notified when a listener leaves a review and follow along your Apple Podcast Ranking.
Who it’s best for:
- Brands: For brands that are looking to consolidate podcast data and insights without switching from their existing hosting platform.
- Podcasters: For podcasters who want to understand their audience and tailor content as well as sponsorships.
Selecting the right podcast analytics prefix
There are a variety of analytics prefixes out there. But before you select yours, you need to understand the purpose of it, decide what you need to prove in the next 90 days, is it's audience fit, channel ROI, or sales impact, and pick the option that closes that gap fastest.
When you use analytics prefixes to validate audience fit, shape smarter episodes, and attribute growth to the right levers, your podcast stops being a “nice to have” and becomes what it should be: a measurable growth channel that hits your objectives.
To learn more about podcast analytics and audience insights, subscribe to CoHost’s bi-weekly newsletter, Tuned In!
