About Caster.fm
Caster.fm is an internet radio stream hosting platform. Since 2010, we have helped thousands of broadcasters — community stations, religious ministries, schools, independent DJs, and professional radio operators — launch and run their stations online. Every Caster.fm plan, free or paid, comes with an Icecast-powered streaming server, a built-in radio website CMS, and compatibility with any Shoutcast-protocol broadcasting software.
Caster.fm started in 2010 as a social platform for internet radio. The idea was simple: give every broadcaster — not just the well-funded ones — access to a reliable streaming server and a radio website, at no cost. When we launched, we were among the first services in the world to deliver free internet radio hosting with the quality and features that were previously reserved for paid professional platforms. We pioneered several features that are now industry standards.
As the platform matured, we introduced our Pro plan for stations that outgrew the free tier — stations with larger audiences, higher bitrate requirements, or advanced needs like AutoDJ automation, branded mobile apps, and multi-format adaptive streaming. The Free plan remains a permanent product, not a trial, and it always will.
Our mission is to make internet radio broadcasting available to everyone, everywhere, for free — while delivering the quality and reliability that serious broadcasters demand. We believe that running a radio station should be something anyone with a story, a song, or a community can start today, without a credit card or a studio budget. And we believe the tools that make it possible should match the standard of any commercial broadcaster.
Caster.fm runs on high-performance hardware in a Manhattan, New York data center. Our servers connect to a Tier-1 IP transit network with redundant upstream providers, ensuring that your station streams reliably to listeners around the world. We run Icecast 2.5 for our streaming layer — the latest stable release, configured for low-latency delivery, HTTPS support, and modern codec support including Opus on top of standard MP3 and AAC+.
Everything we run on — from the server hardware to the network routing — is chosen for quality first. We do not cut corners on infrastructure.
We have been doing this since 2010. In that time, a number of notable radio-host services — Radionomy, Live365’s original free tier, and several smaller specialists — have shut down or changed business models, stranding the stations that relied on them. Caster.fm is still here, still operating under the same name, still running the Free plan, still adding features. If you are planning to build an audience over years, not months, that consistency matters.
Why broadcasters choose Caster.fm
We don't oversell our servers
Many hosting providers pack hundreds of stations onto underpowered hardware to maximise margin. When listeners arrive, they hit buffering, latency spikes, or dropped connections. Caster.fm takes the opposite approach: we cap station density on every server well below theoretical capacity, and we provision for peak load, not average load. Your station’s performance is never degraded because another station on the same box is doing something resource-intensive.
We spare no expense on hardware and network
Our servers use enterprise-grade SSDs, high-core-count CPUs, and generous RAM allocations. The Manhattan data center routes over a Tier-1 IP backbone with multiple redundant uplinks. You get commercial-broadcast reliability without paying commercial-broadcast rates.
We innovate on the platform
We have consistently extended the platform’s capabilities over 15+ years — from launching our own-branded Caster.fm Cloud Broadcaster software, to adding native mobile apps, HLS adaptive streaming, an Alexa skill, podcasting support, and a real-time analytics dashboard. We do not sit still; we ship.
We work with the Icecast development team
We maintain a close working relationship with the upstream Icecast project so our users benefit from the latest improvements to the protocol before other hosts. When Icecast ships a new feature or a security hardening, it reaches Caster.fm infrastructure fast.
Ready to start Broadcasting
You can launch your first station on the Free plan in about five minutes — no credit card, no trial clock. If you are migrating from another host, our support team can help you switch without losing listeners.
Start for free on Caster.fm — 400 listener slots, radio website CMS, no credit card
See Pro plans and pricing — from $80/month, up to 1,000+ listeners, AutoDJ, mobile apps
Compare plans — Free vs Cloud Plus vs Pro, side by side
Discount program — reduced pricing for non-profits, religious and community stations, and schools