What do I need before I can use Benecaster?

Question

Accepted Answer

A self-hosted WordPress site. Benecaster is a WordPress plugin, so it needs a WordPress site you can install plugins on. WordPress.com plans that don’t allow plugins can’t run it. Plans that do allow plugins haven’t been tested, so a self-hosted site is the supported route. Benecaster doesn’t run on other platforms.
Audio hosting. Benecaster manages your RSS feed and subscriber access; it doesn’t store or serve audio files. You’ll need an existing podcast host (Buzzsprout, Libsyn, Transistor, Captivate, S3, etc.) or file storage that produces a stable URL per episode.
Hosting with room to grow. Benecaster is lightweight for most shows, but a few hosting choices make a meaningful difference:

Object caching (Redis or Memcached) — strongly recommended for any show with active subscribers. Most managed WordPress hosts include it. Feed requests with a warm cache add minimal server load; without it, each request hits the database.
A host that allows PHP-FPM — important at Growth tier and above where concurrent feed requests compound.
Adequate disk space — minimal for most shows, but the optional download proxy generates log data that grows with subscriber count and episode frequency. See How much disk space does Benecaster need? →

Shared hosting works fine for Launch and Starter. A managed WordPress host (Kinsta, WP Engine, SiteGround) is worth the investment from Growth onward.

Name	Set by	What it does	Kept for
`wordpress_logged_in_*`	Benecaster	Keeps you signed in to your Benecaster account.	Until you sign out, or two weeks with "Remember Me".
`wordpress_sec_*`	Benecaster	Secures your signed-in session over HTTPS.	Until you sign out, or two weeks with "Remember Me".
`wp-settings-*`	Benecaster	Remembers your admin screen preferences.	One year.
`benecaster_ls_purchase_sign_in`	Benecaster	Signs you in to your new account on the page you bought from, once your purchase has gone through.	Thirty minutes, or until you are signed in.
`benecaster_ls_cookie_consent`	Benecaster	Remembers the choice you make on this banner, so we do not ask again.	One year.

Name	Set by	What it does	Kept for
`__stripe_mid`	Stripe	Lets Stripe recognise the device across payment attempts to detect card fraud.	One year.
`__stripe_sid`	Stripe	The same fraud check, for the current visit only.	Thirty minutes.