Podcasting · checked 2026-10-19Can I vibecode Transistor?
KINDA· weekend project
Hosting one show is a feed, a pile of audio files and a counter. An agent builds that in a day: a valid RSS feed with the iTunes and podcast tags, audio in a bucket, and a redirect that logs each download. The weekend goes to what listeners and sponsors notice: stats with bot filtering that advertisers believe, a server that is up whenever any app fetches an episode, and the odd failures of directories. Dynamic ads, private feeds at scale and video stay out of reach. Castopod covers the same ground self-hosted, with a podcast site and audience features included.
$19/moprice
$228you'd save a year
weekendbuild time
—people replaced it
What you need on hand.
DifficultyIntermediate · Some system setup or keys.
TimeA weekend; the feed and the first upload are quick, stats and hosting take longer
- Claude Code, Codex or CursorAny of them can run the prompt.
- Node.js 22better-sqlite3 compiles a native module, so build tools must be installed.
- An S3-compatible bucketCloudflare R2 has no egress fees; check its current free allowance and prices.
- A domain and HTTPSPut the feed on your own domain so it can follow you if you move host.
- Your current episodesDownload every MP3 from Transistor and keep each episode's GUID.
Before you buildTransistor has no free plan. For a first show with few listeners, running Castopod yourself costs less than $19, but you take on the uptime.
- 1. Install one agent: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor.
- 2. Make an empty folder and open it in the agent.
- 3. Paste the prompt below, press enter, and answer its questions as it builds.
The prompt
Build me a podcast host for my own show to replace Transistor. Requirements: - Node.js 22 + TypeScript: a Fastify server with server-rendered admin pages (Eta). `npm start` serves http://localhost:4850: admin at /admin, feeds at /feed/<show>.xml, audio at /m/<episode-id>.mp3 and a plain page per show at /<show>/. - Storage: better-sqlite3 in ./data/host.db for shows, episodes (title, notes, season, number, pubDate, duration, explicit, guid) and download events. Audio lives in an S3-compatible bucket (`@aws-sdk/client-s3`, bucket and keys in .env) or in ./data/audio/ when none is set. - Upload: an admin form that sends audio to the bucket through a presigned URL, reads duration, size and cover art with `music-metadata`, and supports a scheduled publish time. - Feed: RSS 2.0 built with `xmlbuilder2`, with iTunes tags, the podcast: namespace (guid, season, transcript, chapters) and an enclosure with url, length and type. GUIDs never change, and FEED_BASE_URL in .env lets the feed sit on my own domain so the host can move later. - Downloads and stats: /m/<id>.mp3 logs one row and then answers 302 to the file. Count a download once per salted IP hash plus user agent per 24 hours, skip HEAD requests and known bots, and store no raw IPs. Show downloads per episode per day, the listening apps from user agents, and a CSV export. - Private feeds: one tokenised feed URL per subscriber, with a revoke button. - Single user. No accounts, no telemetry, local-first. - Out of scope: dynamic ad insertion, video, transcription, directory submission, a website builder. - README: submitting the feed to Apple Podcasts and Spotify by hand, setting a 301 redirect when moving hosts, and a warning that every listener's app breaks when this server is down.
Opens your agent with the prompt filled in, you press enter. Or copy it and paste it into an empty folder.
Then keep going
Next prompts, same folder.
The first prompt builds the core. Run these one at a time in the same folder to grow it into your own Transistor.
Add a feed importer to the podcast host in this folder. Requirements: - A command `npm run import:feed <rss-url> --show <slug>` that reads the existing feed, downloads each enclosure into the bucket, and creates episodes with the original title, notes, pubDate, GUID, season, number, explicit flag and cover art. - Never change a GUID, and print a table of imported, skipped (already present) and failed items. - Show the new feed URL and the exact steps for putting a 301 redirect on the old host. - Run in dry-run mode unless --write is given. - Update the README.
Add transcripts and chapters to the podcast host in this folder. Requirements: - Per episode, upload a .vtt or .srt transcript and a chapters JSON in the podcast namespace format; store them in the bucket and reference them from the feed with `podcast:transcript` and `podcast:chapters`. - Validate files on upload: parse the transcript timestamps and reject chapters that overlap or exceed the duration. - Show the transcript on the episode page with timestamps that link to the audio position. - Update the README with the file formats.
Add a weekly stats email to the podcast host in this folder. Requirements: - Every Monday at 08:00, email me downloads for the last 7 days per episode, the top five listening apps and the change compared with the previous week, from SQLite. - Use nodemailer with SMTP settings from .env and a plain-text version of every message. - A "send now" button in admin and a switch to turn the email off. - Update the README.
What you lose
- Download counts that sponsors accept, with bot and duplicate filtering maintained for you
- Dynamic ad insertion for pre-, mid- and post-roll spots
- Live support from real people when something breaks
- Private podcasts for teams or paying listeners at scale, and video podcast hosting
- A fast global network that keeps episodes playing when you are asleep
Why people still pay
A podcast host is infrastructure listeners never think about: if the file doesn't load, the episode doesn't play. People pay for the feed that always works, stats they can show a sponsor, and live support when something breaks, at a price that stays small next to what a show earns or costs to make.
Transistor or your own copy?
Over
Your usage
12h ×$/h
Transistor, 1 yr$228
Your own copy, 1 yr$68running + build session
You keep$161pays for itself in the first month
Estimate · A small VPS is about $5; audio storage for a show of a few dozen episodes is cents to a few dollars. Bandwidth is free on some object stores, not all. The build is token usage on your agent plan.
Take your data, then cancel.
1 · Take your data out of Transistor
- 1Analytics: take an export of your podcast stats from the Analytics tab before you cancel.
- 2Private podcasts: export the list of subscriber email addresses.
- 3Episodes: the help center names downloading each episode MP3 as a step before the billing end date; we found no bulk export button.
- 4Feed: on the Settings tab, under RSS Feed, paste the new host's feed into Permanent Redirect (301) and save.
2 · Cancel Transistor
- 1Open dashboard.transistor.fm/account and scroll to the bottom.
- 2Click the I'd like to cancel my subscription button and read the confirmation screen, noting the date your account stays active until.
- 3Confirm with I understand. Cancel my subscription; no further charges follow.
- 4Until the billing end date you can still reactivate your podcasts.
- Set the 301 redirect before the billing end date: Transistor says a redirected feed stays active even after the account is cancelled.
- After the end date your feeds are disabled, episodes stop playing in apps and the content is queued for deletion; directory listings go inactive over time.
- Spotify and Apple don't store your audio, they link to your feed, so an unredirected feed means a dead show.
- Once the date passes, restoring a show isn't guaranteed: check with support at once if you change your mind.
The escape hatch
Don't feel like building it? These are already free.
CastopodOpen sourceAGPL-3.0 podcast hosting platform for your own server with RSS feeds, a podcast site, analytics and fediverse features; no recording or editing.★ 876 · active Jun 2026 · docker to self-host
WebVisit ↗Podlove PublisherOpen sourceMIT WordPress plugin that adds podcast feeds, shownotes, chapters, transcripts and download analytics without tracking listeners; you bring the WordPress host and the file storage.★ 310 · active Oct 2026 · one-click install
WebVisit ↗
WebVisit ↗Podlove PublisherOpen sourceMIT WordPress plugin that adds podcast feeds, shownotes, chapters, transcripts and download analytics without tracking listeners; you bring the WordPress host and the file storage.★ 310 · active Oct 2026 · one-click install
WebVisit ↗
The numbers
Transistor pricing
| Plan | Monthly | Annual, per month | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $19 | $15.83 | Unlimited shows and team members, 20K downloads a month, 50 private-podcast subscribers, advanced analytics, API, built-in podcast website and network website, live support. |
| Professional | $49 | $40.83 | 100K downloads a month, 500 private-podcast subscribers, dynamic ads (pre-, mid- and post-roll), dynamic show notes, auto-post to YouTube. |
| Business | $99 | $82.50 | 250K downloads a month, 3K private-podcast subscribers, everything in Professional plus branding removal. |
| Enterprise | $199 | $165.83 | For more than 250K downloads a month or more than 3K private subscribers; custom limits. |
- Billing
- Monthly or yearly, in USD. The help center says plans are sized by monthly downloads, private subscribers and storage. A 14-day trial comes first.
- Hidden costs
- Transcription is an add-on: $5 a month for 5 hours or $20 a month for 20 hours. Going over a limit brings an email asking you to upgrade; there are no overage fees and no automatic plan change. Video files draw on a storage allowance, and a single audio file can be up to 2 GB, video up to 30 GB.
- Source
- transistor.fm
Also on the list
Related apps
No free plan; every plan starts with a 14-day free trial.
Kinda. The core is a weekend build with the prompt on this page, but real gaps remain: Download counts that sponsors accept, with bot and duplicate filtering maintained for you, Dynamic ad insertion for pre-, mid- and post-roll spots.
About $19 a month on the Starter plan, $228 a year (checked 2026-10-19).
Download counts that sponsors accept, with bot and duplicate filtering maintained for you; Dynamic ad insertion for pre-, mid- and post-roll spots; Live support from real people when something breaks; Private podcasts for teams or paying listeners at scale, and video podcast hosting; A fast global network that keeps episodes playing when you are asleep. If any of those matter to you, keep paying.
Yes: Castopod (open source), Podlove Publisher (open source).