When Chartable shut down in December 2024, it left more than 1.1 million customers searching for an alternative podcast analytics provider. It’s been months since the sunset, but even so, many podcasters are still looking for a Chartable replacement. The good news is that you have lots of options to choose from.
Key takeaways:
- No direct replacement: Most former Chartable users now combine 2+ tools to replicate functionality
- Budget-friendly option: Buzzsprout offers IAB-certified analytics starting at $0/month
- Trackable links: Only Captivate ($17-90/month) currently offers SmartLinks/SmartPromos alternatives
- Enterprise solution: Megaphone ($99+/month) provides advanced ad analytics for large shows
- Free analytics: Spotify for Creators offers robust audience segmentation at no cost (Spotify-only data)
If you haven’t found a Chartable alternative yet, you can use this guide to explore some of the best options. We explore the prices, features, and limitations of each provider, then explain how to pick the perfect platform for your needs.
- What Happened to Chartable?
- Top Chartable Alternatives for Podcast Analytics
- How to Choose the Right Chartable Alternative
- Setting Up Analytics for Better Podcast Performance Tracking
- The Bottom Line on Chartable Alternatives
What Happened to Chartable?
Chartable was sunset in December 2024 after being acquired by Spotify in 2022. All existing clients lost access to Chartable features on December 12, 2024, unless they had a show hosted on Megaphone (Spotify’s enterprise business arm).
The reasoning behind Chartable’s shutdown was published as follows:
“This decision is part of Spotify’s larger efforts to prioritize the products we believe are most impactful to creators and ensure that those products are scalable and sustainable for everyone. For us, that means investing in giving you measurement tools and valuable first-party insights all in one place so you can make more informed choices that help take your show even further.”
Many people believe this was due to Spotify’s ‘dogfeeding’ of the product. It moved Chartable’s functionality into the Spotify platform and then discontinued the service to save on costs.
So what makes Chartable so difficult to replace? For many past users, it’s Chartable’s wide range of features and analytics tools. There’s still no direct replacement even all these years later, and many long-term podcasters have ended up switching to two or more tools.
Some of Chartable’s most memorable analytics features included:
- Track chart performance across multiple podcast distribution platforms (think Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, etc.).
- Track the number of clickthroughs to your podcast via SmartLinks
- Track the long-term impact of podcast-to-podcast promotions, including downloads, conversion rates, and frequency with SmartPromos
- Download and RSS tracking via Trackable, which was Chartable’s old tracking prefix
- Audience demographics, including age, income, gender, and more.
- Tracking audience consumption data across platforms like Spotify or Megaphone (more on this later)
Some of these features may still be available to legacy Megaphone users.
Note: Megaphone plans to launch their own version of SmartLinks and SmartPromos “sometime” in 2025. At the time of writing, this has not yet been released. You’ll need to look for an alternative solution to get trackable links for episodes or promotions.
If you’re a past Chartable user looking for a new partner platform, or if you’re a brand-new podcaster frustrated that you missed the boat with Chartable, you can use this guide to evaluate a few new analytics alternatives.
Keep reading for a breakdown of their prices, features, and limitations below.
Top Chartable Alternatives for Podcast Analytics
We’ve collected a list of the best Chartable alternatives for tracking podcast analytics for your show. First, we tested all 20 major analytics platforms on the market. Then, we whittled them down to the ones that were best compared to Chartable.
We made special allowances for platforms offering:
- Easy Integrations: We looked for platforms that are compatible with other hosting providers and marketing tools (or at least can act as a host and distributor).
- Privacy Compliance: We selected platforms that maintain GDPR and CCPA compliance, which is especially useful if you’re running a branded show or marketing your podcast to international listeners.
- Custom Reporting: That way, you have total control over creating reports that are clean, exportable, and specific to your needs.
Now, let’s dive into the contenders.
Spotify for Creators: Best for Audience Segmentation
- IAB Certified: ❌
- Starts at: $0 per month
Spotify for Creators is the number one podcast publisher in the United States, with millions of episodes published each year. It also provides access to podcast analytics such as impressions, demographics, and streams, although keep in mind these numbers aren’t IAB-certified.
One of Spotify’s biggest claims to fame is setting up audience segmentation, which allows you to drill down into the relative value of your listeners based on their level of engagement with your show. For example, you can compare your active audience to your previously active audience. You can also explore your programmatic audience to see who streamed what from programmatic ads.
Of course, Spotify for Creators doesn’t offer trackable links for podcasts or promotions, so it’s not a direct comparison to Chartable’s platform. But it still offers plenty of analytics and segmentation features, so it might make a perfect comparison with another tracking tool.
Features of Spotify for Creators
- Audience demographics: You can track age, gender, and location directly in the app, which might make it easier to know who you’re speaking to. It might also be easier to create a proof-of-concept for monetization purposes (like sponsorships).
- Best episodes: Revisit which episodes had the highest number of downloads, then look for ways to replicate its success.
- Impressions data: This can help you see where people discover your podcast on Spotify. For example, you might show up more often on Spotify Home, or notice that Spotify Search makes up a bigger portion of your traffic.
Spotify for Creators Pricing
Spotify for Creators is 100% free. And yes, this includes its analytics platform.
Just keep in mind it only tracks these specific metrics inside the Spotify ecosystem — you’ll need a different tool if you want to monitor more detailed analytics elsewhere.
Spotify for Creators vs Chartable
| Spotify for Creators vs Chartable | Spotify for Creators vs Chartable |
| Video support | Trapped in the Spotify ecosystem |
| Hosting and distribution | No IAB-certified analytics |
| Built-in monetization | No tracking links available |
Buzzsprout Analytics: Best for Free Podcast Analytics
- IAB Certified: ✔️
- Starts at: $0 per month
Buzzsprout is a free podcast hosting provider offering advanced stats (aka podcast analytics) on every plan. With it, you can track all the basics of your podcast, from performance and downloads to apps, technology used, and listener location.
There are four different categories of Buzzsprout ‘stats’: trends over time, episode downloads, apps/technology, and listener location. They might not be as robust as other podcast analytics platforms, but with a price that low, it’s hard to argue the difference.
Just keep in mind Buzzsprout’s free forever plan might become restrictive as you grow. Your episodes are only hosted for up to 90 days, and you can’t import podcasts before upgrading your plan. You’re also limited to a max of two hours of podcast content per month, which might be fine as a small and growing podcast, but may not be a fit for fast-growing shows.
Features of Buzzsprout Analytics
- Podcast performance: For example, you can look at a list of your top episodes and their downloads over time, which can help you make informed decisions about what content to focus on next.
- Total listeners: Buzzsprout can help you determine ‘unique listeners,’ which are an estimation of audience size based on how many unique downloads you’ll receive over 90 days.
- Top apps and technology: For example, you might realize you’re performing better on Apple Podcasts than Pocket Casts. Or maybe you see more listeners are engaging via mobile than desktops, tablets, or mobile phones.
Buzzsprout Analytics Pricing
All Buzzsprout plans come with podcast statistics, plus a few other bells and whistles depending on your tier. There are four to choose from:
- $0 per month for 90-day hosting for up to two upload hours per month, advanced stats, and limited team members
- $12 per month for three upload hours per month, monthly payments, premium content, hosted websites, the ability to import podcasts for free, and access to Magic Mastering ($6 extra per month) and CoHost AI ($10 extra per month)
- $18 per month for six upload hours per month, plus Magic Mastering ($9 extra per month) and CoHost AI ($20 extra per month)
- $24 per month for 12 upload hours per month plus Magic Mastering ($12 extra per month) and CoHost AI ($30 extra per month)
Buzzsprout Analytics vs Chartable
| Buzzsprout Analytics Pros vs Chartable | Buzzsprout Analytics Cons vs Chartable |
| Ads available | The free plan isn’t free forever |
| Distribution network | May not be as robust as other platforms |
| Customer support in 27 minutes | No tracking links available |
Simplecast Analytics: Best for Hour-by-Hour Tracking
- IAB Certified: ✔️
- Starts at: $15 per month
Simplecast is a scalable podcast hosting platform that offers granular analytics, the more you upgrade your plan. It comes with everything you might expect from a Chartable alternative, such as episode reports and top listener apps, plus some extras, like hour-by-hour download reports.
Keep in mind that the most expensive plan is 2.5x the cost of Megaphone (more on this later). You can always start with the entry-level plan, then upgrade to new tiers as you start to need more.
But Simplecast doesn’t make it easy to see everything you get on each tier. Plus, most of its marketing information around analytics is three to five years old.
This means you’ll have to contact the sales team for a full breakdown of its analytics features. But there is a 14-day free trial available if you’re interested in testing the platform first.
Features of Simplecast Analytics
- Popular time of day: See what dates and times get the most engagement from listeners so you can adjust your publishing schedule to their preferences.
- Metro areas: While most podcast analytics platforms track the state or countries of your visitors, you can use Simplecast to track the closest approximate metro (like Richmond, VA, or NYC).
- Day-by-day tracking: Keep in mind this requires the most Professional plan, which starts at $250 per month.
Simplecast Analytics Pricing
Each tier of Simplecast’s pricing comes with a different level of analytics. The more you pay, the better your analytics get.
Here’s what you’ll get in exchange for your dollars, according to a recent blog post:
- Basic: $15 per month for basic analytics (show and individual episode reports, top episodes chart, top listening apps, top countries, popular time of day, and total recasts shared)
- Essentials: $35 per month for essential analytics (customizable download charts, popular day/time matrix, two-episode comparisons, interactive location data with states and provinces, detailed apps and browsers, and device types)
- Growth: $85 per month for growth analytics (four-episode comparisons, listening device details, and the cities and metro areas of your listeners)
- Professional: $250 per month for expanded analytics (audience metrics day by day, hour by hour across devices, locations, and times, and more)
Simplecast Analytics vs Chartable
| Simplecast Analytics Pros vs Chartable | Simplecast Analytics Cons vs Chartable |
| Hosting and distribution | Better analytics require upgrades |
| Subscriptions and ads available | Analytics tiers are confusing |
| Expensive at the highest tier |
Captivate Analytics: Best for Trackable Links
Using the Analytics Dashboard | Captivate Podcast Hosting Tutorial
- IAB Certified: ✔️
- Starts at: $0 per month
Captivate is a podcast host and distribution platform that offers trackable links on every plan. Like Chartable, you can set up links for tracking podcast clicks and podcast-to-podcast promotions. This makes it easy to monitor both from the same podcast metrics dashboard.
You can also use Captivate to track:
- Daily trends
- Download averages
- Downloads overview
- Episode overview
- Episode performance comparison
- How they listen
- Listener behavior and drop off
- Month to month
- Promotional link analytics
- Today’s trending episodes
- Unique listeners
- Web player analytics
- Web player listener coverage
- Where they listen
Just keep in mind, Captivate isn’t the cheapest platform on this list, especially compared to free platforms like Buzzsprout. It may also be difficult to learn the ropes, so prepare for a relatively steep learning curve.
Features of Captivate Analytics
- Trackable links: Captivate offers attribution links (the same as SmartTrack) and promotional links (the same as SmartPromo).
- Listener behavior: You can track daily trends, evaluate devices and apps for downloads, and also see where in the world your downloads came from.
- Network analytics: This allows you to track metrics by episode, a single podcast, or multiple podcasts under your brand label.
Captivate Analytics Pricing
All Captivate plans come with the same analytics features, as well as unlimited podcasts, upload storage, and distribution lists. Upgrading your plan simply upgrades the number of downloads you can support for your podcast(s).
There are three plans to choose from:
- Personal: $17 per month for 30,000 downloads
- Pro: $44 per month for 150,000 downloads
- Business: $90 per month for 300,000 downloads
If you need more than 300,000 downloads per month, you’ll need to email support@captivate.fm to request an enterprise plan.
Captivate Analytics vs Chartable
| Captivate Analytics Pros vs Chartable | Captivate Analytics Cons vs Chartable |
| Trackable links (promotional and attributional) | May be confusing or difficult to use |
| Audience behaviors and demographics | More expensive compared to Chartable and its alternatives |
| Podcast network analytics |
Megaphone Analytics: Best for Ad Reporting Analytics
- IAB Certified: ✔️
- Starts at: $99 per month
Megaphone is a podcast host and distribution platform designed for enterprise shows. You don’t need to have more than 20,000 downloads per month (as its old marketing suggests), but many of its features are designed for larger podcasts.
You can use Megaphone to track the following podcast analytics:
- Total Streams
- Confirmed Reach
- Download Reach
- Total Consumption Time
- Average Consumption Time
- Total Watch Time
- Average Watch Time
- Total Listen Time
- Average Listen Time
- Watch Time Percentage
- Listen Time Percentage
- Completion Rate (by quartile)
- Audience Retention (by episode)
And the following ad-based analytics:
- Streaming Ad Impressions
- Confirmed Reach
- Average Frequency
- Ad Completion Rate
- Audience Insights
Just keep in mind that Megaphone was built on the Spotify platform, so it can only measure performance on your Spotify account. This means you’ll have to connect with other third-party tools if you want to measure your entire podcasting footprint.
Features of Megaphone Analytics
- Content performance analytics: You can track features like audio and video performance, total reach, total streams versus downloads, and more.
- Ad performance analytics: This can help you track the success rate of your ads, including which methodologies bring in the most income.
- Streaming-based campaign metrics: Rather than tracking downloads alone, you can use Megaphone to track audience streams.
Megaphone Pricing
Megaphone starts at $99 per month for the Professional plan. The next tier up, the Custom plan for enterprise brands, requires a custom quote.
Keep in mind you won’t have access to the Megaphone API or Metrics Export Service unless you upgrade. This may inadvertently trap your metrics inside the Megaphone platform unless you’re willing to pay extra.
Megaphone vs Chartable
| Megaphone Pros vs Chartable | Megaphone Cons vs Chartable |
| Monetization features | No trackable links available (yet) |
| Podcast hosting | Designed for shows with 20,000+ downloads |
| Podcast distribution | Exporting data requires an upgrade |
| Support for video podcasts | Must activate streaming-powered tools (only available upon invite and approval) |
💡Related: Choosing a Podcast Hosting Platform
How to Choose the Right Chartable Alternative
You’ll be hard-pressed to find a 1:1 Chartable replacement. That said, there are many alternatives offering similarly robust features. The question is, how do you choose the most effective platform?
It mostly comes down to your specific needs.
That said, the best Chartable alternative for your growing podcast may be one that:
- Integrates with your podcast hosting platform. There should be documentation available to help answer your questions here.
- Fits your budget considerations. You don’t necessarily need the most expensive platform on the market. Sometimes, even cost-effective ‘budget’ tools can help you bridge the gap. Just keep in mind you get what you pay for — and ‘cheap’ isn’t always the answer.
- Lets you customize reporting features. You should still get some value from the default dashboards, but the ability to customize specific reports may serve you well as you grow.
- Helps you export data. That way, you can share reports with your team, submit records to your supervisor, or show stakeholders your profit or potential profit over a period of time.
Setting Up Analytics for Better Podcast Performance Tracking
Regardless of the podcast platform you choose, you should know how to configure and customize your podcast metrics dashboards. And no, you can’t necessarily recapture Chartable’s magic, but you can still get fairly close with a little customization.
You might start by setting up baseline measurement strategies that track your podcast’s growth trend. Downloads and streams are two of the best ways to do this. But if you’re using a platform like Buzzsprout, you might track another metric like ‘unique listeners.’
Next is establishing a regular reporting schedule so you have a better idea of how your podcast looks from month to month. For example, if you publish weekly content, you might benchmark your performance monthly. You can easily audit all episodes at once using Simplecast’s four-way comparison feature (available on the Growth plan for $85 per month).
The final step is using said data to improve your content, which may help to improve your engagement and retention rates over time. Let’s say you look closer at listener demographics in Spotify for Creators and realize a large portion of your audience is located in Mexico. Knowing this, you start creating Spanish transcripts of each episode, which creates a steady rise in listenership for your show.
💡Related: How To Analyze and Improve Your Podcast Performance
The Bottom Line on Chartable Alternatives
Losing access to Chartable hasn’t been easy, but many seasoned podcasters have found ways to fill the gap. Whether you’re replacing tracking links, consumption data, or chart performance across multiple platforms, there are many podcast analytics tools here that can help you do so quickly.
Just starting your journey into podcast analytics?
You can learn more about measuring metrics here:
- Top Tips to Grow Your Podcast
- The Ultimate Guide to Podcast Marketing in 2025
- Blubrry: Robust Podcast Hosting and Analytics
Spotify acquired Chartable in 2022 and sunset it on December 12, 2024, as part of consolidating their analytics tools. They moved key features into Spotify for Creators and discontinued the standalone service to reduce costs and centralize their creator ecosystem.
The most difficult features to replace are SmartLinks (trackable episode links), SmartPromos (podcast-to-podcast promotion tracking), cross-platform chart tracking, and comprehensive audience demographics that worked across all podcast platforms. Most alternatives only offer partial functionality.
Captivate is currently the only major alternative offering trackable links similar to Chartable’s SmartLinks and SmartPromos. They provide attribution links and promotional links on all plans starting at $17/month.
IAB certification is essential if you plan to work with advertisers or sponsors, as it provides standardized, verified metrics. Buzzsprout, Simplecast, Captivate, and Megaphone offer IAB certification, while Spotify for Creators does not.
Buzzsprout offers the most cost-effective solution with IAB-certified analytics on their free plan (limited to 2 hours/month with 90-day hosting). For unlimited hosting, their paid plans start at $12/month. Spotify for Creators is completely free but only tracks Spotify data.
Yes, many former Chartable users now combine 2-3 tools. A common setup is using a hosting platform with built-in analytics (like Buzzsprout or Simplecast) plus Spotify for Creators for platform-specific data, and potentially Captivate for trackable links.
Megaphone announced plans to launch their own version of SmartLinks and SmartPromos sometime in 2025, but no specific release date has been confirmed. Until then, Captivate remains the only alternative for trackable links.