Primcast has been in hosting since 2004 and runs stations on hardware it owns. Their Premium radio plan and CloudRadio's One plan both sit at $39/month, so this comparison is mostly about what you get inside that price: bitrate ceiling, storage, HLS, listener limits, and the tools around the stream.
Both are single-station plans at $39 a month. Primcast Premium stops at 2,500 listeners at once; CloudRadio One has no listener cap. The rest of the difference is below.
| Feature | Primcast Premium · $39/mo | CloudRadio One · $39/mo |
|---|---|---|
| Bitrate ceiling | Up to 128 kbps, one stream | HLS ladder: 64 / 128 / 256 kbps AAC + Icecast MP3 |
| Listener cap | Up to 2,500 at once | Unlimited listeners |
| Listener hours | 500,000 a month; once used up, new listeners wait for the 1st | Unlimited |
| Storage | 20 GB | 750 GB |
| Adaptive HLS | Not advertised | 3-tier HLS, every plan |
| AutoDJ | Auto DJ with hour clocks, a fallback playlist, and syndicated shows | Layered priority stack: live → schedule → rotation → fallback |
| DJ logins | 5, each with its own hours on air | A personal login for each booked DJ, valid only during their shows |
| Go live from the browser | ✓ | ✗ (use any Icecast encoder, on a computer or a phone) |
| Station app and podcasts | ✓ (own iPhone and Android app, shows as podcasts) | ✗ |
| Embeddable player | Web player with rewind and listen again on Premium | Free player widget, 16 designs |
| Royalty reports | Airplay log and report layouts for SoundExchange, ASCAP, BMI, PRS and more | SoundExchange Report of Use and a Spins export |
| Stream monitoring + dead-air alerts | Off-air email on every plan, silence alert on Premium | Free monitoring every minute from 4 locations; email, Slack, Discord, or webhook alerts |
| Free trial | 14 days | ✗ |
| Support | Chat and phone |
Bottom line: At the same $39, Primcast Premium gives you 20 GB of storage, a 128 kbps stream, up to 2,500 listeners at once and 500,000 listener hours a month, plus a browser studio, a station app, and podcasting. CloudRadio One gives you 750 GB, a full HLS ladder up to 256 kbps AAC, and no cap on listeners or listening hours. Primcast also offers chat and phone support and a free trial, which CloudRadio does not.
Each Primcast radio plan stops at a fixed number of listeners at once, and the paid plans add a monthly allowance of listener hours. Past 5,000 listeners, you ask them for a quote.
| Plan | Price | Listeners | Storage | Bitrate cap | Streams |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo + $5 setup | Up to 1,000 | None (live only) | 32 kbps | 1 |
| Premium | $39/mo | Up to 2,500 | 20 GB | 128 kbps | 1 |
| Platinum | $79/mo | Up to 5,000 | 100 GB | 320 kbps | 3 |
| Larger stations | Quote | 5,000+ | Custom | Custom | Custom |
Source: primcast.com/radio, checked October 2026, USD. Yearly billing: $390 for Premium, $790 for Platinum. Premium includes 500,000 listener hours a month, Platinum 1.5 million.
Primcast structures their plans so bitrate scales with the tier: 32 kbps on Free, 128 kbps on Premium, 320 kbps on Platinum. CloudRadio One delivers a 64 / 128 / 256 kbps AAC ladder on the same $39 price, so listeners on slower networks fall back to 64 kbps automatically while desktop listeners get the full 256 kbps.
Primcast stops at 1,000 listeners at once on Free, 2,500 on Premium, and 5,000 on Platinum. Premium and Platinum also include 500,000 and 1.5 million listener hours a month; when they run out, people already listening stay, and new listeners can tune in again on the 1st. Past 5,000, you need a quote. CloudRadio One does not cap concurrent listeners or listening hours.
Listeners are routed to our nearest edge automatically. We don't ask you to pick a city for your station the way Primcast does (New York or Bucharest), because our HLS edges already serve listeners from the closest region.
Primcast's radio plans run on Icecast, or a SHOUTcast server if you switch, and its radio page does not mention HLS. Platinum adds lighter copies of the stream for phones. CloudRadio runs a 3-tier HLS ladder on every plan, which is ideal for mobile listeners on flaky connections.
Our Classic Shoutcast/Icecast hosting starts at $5/mo for 25 listeners when you already have playout software and only need a stream URL (Primcast Free is $0 after a $5 setup fee, at 32 kbps). If you want more than a stream URL, CloudRadio One at $39/mo adds an AutoDJ fallback that fires automatically when your encoder disconnects (so the stream never goes silent), unlimited concurrent listeners, silence alerts, and HLS output, without changing your workflow. Your encoder stays the primary source; AutoDJ only kicks in when you go offline.
Same $39/month, but with 750 GB storage, HLS up to 256 kbps, and no listener ceiling.