Do I need to switch podcast hosts to use Benecaster?

Question

Accepted Answer

No — with a few exceptions worth knowing about.
Benecaster gates the RSS feed, not the audio. Your audio files stay wherever they are. Benecaster generates an RSS feed pointing directly at your existing hosted audio URLs. No migration, no bandwidth cost to your WordPress server.
Platforms you’ll need to move off:
Spotify. Spotify creates two separate problems for private podcast setups:

Spotify for Podcasters as your audio host — If your audio is currently hosted through Spotify for Podcasters (formerly Anchor), moving to a private subscriber model requires switching audio hosts first. Spotify for Podcasters bundles hosting and distribution in a closed platform; the audio URLs it generates aren’t designed to be used independently in another feed.

Spotify as a distribution platform — Spotify only accepts open, public RSS feeds. Private subscriber feeds — Benecaster’s or anyone else’s — can’t be submitted to Spotify. Your public free episodes can still be listed on Spotify; your private subscriber content can’t. This is a Spotify platform decision, not a Benecaster limitation, but it’s worth knowing before you commit to a subscriber model.

Patreon. If your audio is currently hosted through Patreon, you’ll need to move it to a standard podcast host before switching to Benecaster. Patreon bundles audio hosting with its membership platform — the audio URLs it generates aren’t portable to an independent feed. Any major podcast host (Buzzsprout, Libsyn, Transistor, Captivate, Podbean, S3, etc.) works as a replacement.
A platform that works, but ties you to the subscription:
Castos. Castos-hosted audio sits at ordinary URLs, so a Benecaster feed can point straight at them and everything works normally — no migration needed to get started. The catch is that those URLs stop resolving when your Castos account closes. So you can run Benecaster alongside Castos indefinitely, but you can’t cancel Castos and keep the audio. If your goal is to leave Castos entirely, move your audio files to a host you control first and update the audio URLs on your episodes before you cancel. If you’re keeping Castos for hosting and only using Benecaster for private subscriber feeds, nothing needs to move at all.
Every other major podcast host works without changes.