Zekast documentation.

§00 · Your Zekast subscription

0.1How it works

Zekast is two things: a plugin you install on your WordPress site, and a subscription that unlocks the paid features. Your podcasts, your episodes and your listeners stay with you, on your own site.

Four plans: Free at €0, Starter at €12/month, Pro at €39/month, Studio at €89/month. The details are on the Pricing page. Cancel anytime, invoices sent by email.

0.2Subscribe to a plan

1. On the Pricing page, choose your plan and click Subscribe.
2. Enter your email and card details on the secure payment page, then confirm.
3. You’re brought back to Zekast. Your account and your license key are created automatically.

0.3Get your license key

Within seconds of paying, you receive a welcome email. It contains:

• Your license key: this is what you’ll paste into the plugin.
• A login link to your account, no password needed (click and you’re in).
• A link to download the plugin if you don’t have it yet.

0.4Paste the key into the plugin

1. Install and activate the Zekast plugin on your WordPress site (see §1.1 below).
2. In the WordPress admin: Zekast → Settings → Licence.
3. Paste the key you received by email into the Licence key field.
4. Click Save. Your paid features are active immediately.

Your plan and your subscription end date appear below the field. The site will also show up under My sites in your Zekast account shortly after.

0.5Manage your subscription

Everything happens in your Zekast account: log in by entering your email. We send you a link to click, no password needed.

• My account: your current plan, what you have left to use (transcription, storage…), your invoices.
• My sites: the sites where your plugin is active. You can deactivate one remotely to free up a slot.
• Downloads: the plugin versions available on your plan.
• Settings: your profile, email change, two-factor authentication (2FA), account deletion.
• Manage my subscription: the button that opens the page where you can update your card, download your invoices, or cancel.

0.6Change plans

You can move to a higher or lower plan at any time, or switch between monthly and annual billing:

1. From your account, click Switch to [plan].
2. The change screen shows the exact amount to pay today: what’s left on your old plan is deducted from the price of the new one. You only pay the difference.
3. Confirm, and the change takes effect immediately.

0.7Account security

In Settings, you can:

• Change your email: a confirmation link is sent to the new address. Until you click it, the change doesn’t take effect.
• Turn on two-factor authentication (2FA): you scan a QR code with a one-time code app (Authenticator, 1Password, etc.). Each time you log in, you’ll be asked for a 6-digit code on top of the email link.
• Delete your account: a confirmation link is sent to your email to prevent any accidental deletion. Clicking the link immediately cancels your subscription, deactivates the plugin on all your sites, and deletes your account. Your invoices are kept for legal reasons.

0.8Didn’t get the email?

The email usually arrives in under a minute. If you don’t see it:

1. Check your spam folder or the Promotions tab.
2. Make sure you completed the payment: a payment abandoned partway through doesn’t send the email.
3. Try logging in to your account with the email you paid with: if the account exists, you’ll receive a new login link.
4. If there’s still nothing, write to contact@zekast.studio from the address you used to pay, and we’ll resend your key manually.

§01 · Getting started

1.1Install Zekast

1. Download the ZIP zekast-vX.Y.Z.zip from your Zekast account. The download is available on every plan, Free included (create a free account if needed).
2. In WP Admin: Plugins → Add Plugin → Upload Plugin. Select the ZIP, then activate it.
3. A new Zekast menu appears. The onboarding wizard starts automatically.

1.2First podcast

From the wizard, choose “Create a new podcast” or “Import an existing feed”.

Create: enter the title, description, language, Apple Podcasts category and cover image. Your RSS feed is available immediately at the URL shown in the plugin dashboard.

Import: paste the URL of an existing RSS feed. The plugin creates your episodes with their metadata and cover art. The audio files themselves keep being served by your current host until you bring them over. That’s a separate step, described in §6.2. See the Migration section for the full process.

1.3Choose a layout

Insert the Episode List block into a page. In the block settings, choose one of the 9 layouts:

• Free: Grid — Cards, List — Standard, List — Progress, Player — Classic
• Starter+: Grid — Spotlight, Grid — Masonry, List — Compact, Table, Player — Split

1.4Publish your first episode

In the WordPress admin: Zekast → Episodes → Add New. Enter the title, description, summary and image, then add your audio file (from your media library or straight to Zekast hosting). Place the Player, Duration and Transcript blocks wherever you like on the page, then publish. The episode goes out automatically in your RSS feed and shows up on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and the other connected platforms within a few minutes to a few hours.

1.5Not using Gutenberg?

Elementor, Divi, Bricks, Oxygen, Breakdance, a classic theme, a PHP template: everything the Zekast blocks do also exists as a shortcode. Paste it into a text widget, an HTML block in your page builder, or directly into a theme file with do_shortcode().

The catalog, to drop onto any page:

[zekast_episode_list]
[zekast_episode_list layout="list-progress" number="20" columns="3"]
[zekast_episode_list podcast_id="42" search="hide" load_more="hide"]

With no parameter on a podcast’s page, it works out which one to show. All nine layouts are available through layout, and the display settings (image, date, excerpt, columns, sorting, search, “load more”, dark mode) each have their own attribute: they are all listed in §1.6.

The others:

Zekast places the last four on the pages it creates at the end of the wizard. To rebuild those pages your own way, reuse them in your layout.

1.6Shortcodes: every attribute

An attribute is written name="value" inside the shortcode. Any attribute you leave out keeps its default value. The number of a podcast, a Mix or an episode is in the address of its edit screen in the admin: post.php?post=42&action=edit.

Episode list — which episodes to show

podcast_id, feed, custom_feed_id and all_mixes pick the source: if you write several, only one counts, in this order: Mix, all Mixes, feed, podcast. With no source, outside a podcast’s page, the list shows every episode on the site. keyword, year, the custom field and sortby apply on top of the source.

Episode list — display

The two Player layouts ignore show_image, show_title, show_date, show_excerpt and columns.

Episode list — search and navigation

The nine layouts

On the Free plan, a Starter layout shows as the closest free one: Cards for the grids, Standard for the lists and the Table, Classic for the Split player.

Episode player — [zekast_episode_player]

It shows the play button of the current episode: on an episode’s page, or in your page builder’s episode template. For a premium episode, a visitor without access sees the subscription card instead.

Subscribe button — [zekast_subscribe_button]

Subscriber pages

[zekast_episode_parent_podcast_link] and [zekast_offline_episodes] have no attributes.

1.7Play an episode from a link

Any button or link on your page can start an episode in the player at the bottom of the screen, without a Zekast block. In the Link field of Gutenberg or your page builder, write #zekast-play- followed by the episode number:

#zekast-play-123

The episode number is in the address of its edit screen (post.php?post=123), and the episode must be published. When the trigger is a link or a button, Zekast adds a play icon to it, which turns into pause while the episode plays.

For a premium episode, a visitor without access sees the subscription bar; if you set up a preview, the preview plays.

The link works on any page of the site, including pages built with a page builder, from Zekast 1.0.0-beta.192. With an older version, put a Zekast block or shortcode on the same page.

§02 · Audio hosting

2.1Zekast managed hosting (all plans)

Available on every plan, Free included. Hosting is already set up: your audio files are hosted on the Zekast server and delivered quickly to your listeners anywhere in the world, through a CDN. Everything is included in your subscription.

Included storage: 1 GB on Free, 10 GB on Starter, 50 GB on Pro, 200 GB on Studio. Monthly bandwidth: 50 GB on Free, 500 GB on Starter, 2.5 TB on Pro, and unlimited on Studio (fair use). Listens are included, for you and for your listeners.

2.2Your own Bunny.net (all plans, one click)

Available on every plan. In the plugin settings, click Connect Bunny.net. You authorize the connection to your Bunny account, and Zekast sets everything up for you. You stay in control of your own storage.

2.3Your own S3 storage

Available on every plan. Works with AWS S3, Backblaze B2, OVH Object Storage, DigitalOcean Spaces, Wasabi, Cloudflare R2, Scaleway, MinIO. In the plugin settings, enter the endpoint URL, bucket name, region, access key ID and secret access key, then the public URL your files will be served from.

2.4Quotas and alerts

Your usage is shown in the plugin dashboard. You get an automatic email at 80% and then 95% of your limit. If you go over, you can’t add new files, but your listeners keep listening to the episodes already online without interruption.

§03 · Monetization

3.1Connect Stripe

From the Starter plan up. In the plugin settings, click Connect Stripe: Stripe walks you through creating your account (or connecting yours if you already have one), which takes a few minutes. Once connected, your listeners' money goes straight to your bank account through Stripe. Zekast takes no commission: only Stripe’s standard fees apply (about 1.5% + €0.25 per transaction for a European card).

3.2Turn on premium subscriptions

In the plugin settings, create a subscription tier (for example “Bonus at €5/month”) and mark the episodes or podcasts that belong to it. Your listeners subscribe from your site, pay through Stripe, and receive a private RSS feed by email to add to their podcast app. If a listener cancels their subscription, their access is revoked automatically.

Works with Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Overcast, Castbox and any app that lets you add an RSS feed manually.

3.3Your subscribers' area

Your subscribers aren’t sent off to a platform: they have their own area on your site. At the end of the wizard, Zekast creates the pages that make it up for you (My account, Manage my subscription, Premium access and Subscription confirmed), already filled in. You can also build them yourself with the matching blocks or shortcodes.

What your subscriber finds there:

• Their private feed, and the button to open it in their app. One button per app (Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Overcast, AntennaPod) that starts the subscription directly, with no copy and paste. The address can still be displayed for other apps, with one-line instructions for each.
• Their login. With email and password, including “Forgot your password?”, or through the private link received by email: they don’t have to remember anything if they’d rather not.
• Their billing. If you’ve entered the address of your Stripe customer portal (§3.1), a button takes them there for their invoices and payment method.
• Canceling on their own. They can stop their subscription from this page, without writing to you. Access is revoked automatically at the end of the paid period.
• A warning about sharing. The page tells them their feed is monitored: if it’s accessed from too many different devices or networks in a short time, the subscription is suspended while it’s checked.

That’s the whole difference from a service that hosts your subscribers for you: the relationship, the address and the account stay with you.

3.4VAT and reverse charge

Stripe can calculate and collect VAT for you based on each listener’s country (an option to turn on in your Stripe account). For sales to European businesses with a valid EU VAT number, the reverse charge applies automatically. You then handle your VAT returns directly from Stripe.

§04 · Transcription

4.1Included tokens (nothing to set up)

Included in your subscription: 100 tokens per month on Starter, 500 on Pro, 1,500 on Studio. One token transcribes one minute. On an episode’s edit page, click Auto-generate transcript. Allow about 30 seconds for a one-hour episode. You get the text and the identified speakers, plus subtitle files for video.

4.2Who speaks: naming speakers

The engine separates the voices in an episode without knowing who they belong to. In the Audio studio, the Who speaks screen lets you name each speaker, move a passage attributed to the wrong person, set aside a voice that isn’t really one (a jingle, a voice-over in the opening or closing credits) and correct the text block by block. A voice you haven’t named stays labeled “Speaker 1”, “Speaker 2”: the split is useful even without names. The names you set go into the subtitles, and from there into the synced transcripts on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

4.3If you run out of tokens

Whatever is left of your allowance at the end of the month rolls over once to the next month, then expires. If you need more, you top up from your customer area in packs, starting at €12 for 100 tokens. Purchased tokens don’t expire and stay yours even if you change plans.

4.4Display the transcript

Insert the Transcript block on the episode page: the text is collapsed by default, and the listener can expand it. The transcript is also sent in your RSS feed, so Apple Podcasts and Pocket Casts (recent versions) can show it right in their app during playback.

§05 · Distribution

5.1Submit to Apple Podcasts

Log in to podcastsconnect.apple.com with your Apple ID. Click “New Show”, then paste the URL of your Zekast RSS feed (you’ll find it in the plugin dashboard). Apple approves your podcast within 24 to 72 hours.

5.2Submit to Spotify

Go to podcasters.spotify.com, click “Get started” then “I have a podcast on a different hosting service”, and paste your Zekast feed URL. Spotify sends a verification code to the email address associated with the feed to confirm that you own it.

5.3Amazon, YouTube Music, Pocket Casts

In the plugin dashboard → Distribution, you’ll find the URL and the submission page for each platform, with live status tracking. YouTube Music goes through YouTube Studio. Pocket Casts adds your podcast automatically as soon as Apple Podcasts has approved it.

5.4Validate your RSS feed

Before any submission, check your feed on podba.se/validate or castfeedvalidator.com. If no errors show up, you’re ready to submit.

§06 · Migration

6.1The process, whatever your host

A migration happens in three stages, in this order: import the catalog, bring over the audio files, then publish the new address to the platforms. That’s exactly the order of the tabs in Zekast → Distribute.

1. Get the URL of your current RSS feed (you’ll find it in Apple Podcasts Connect, or in your host’s settings).
2. Import into Zekast: Zekast → Distribute → Import, then paste the URL. The plugin creates your podcast’s page and one for each episode, with metadata and cover art. Allow about 30 minutes for 50 episodes.
3. Bring your audio files over. This is the step nothing does for you, and the import doesn’t do on its own. See 6.2 just below.
4. Check your new Zekast feed: the URL is shown in the plugin dashboard.
5. Change the feed URL in Apple Podcasts Connect (the “Change Feed URL” option). Apple redirects your subscribers automatically. They have nothing to do and keep receiving your new episodes without having to resubscribe.
6. Do the same on Spotify using the Spotify for Podcasters migration form.
7. Set up redirects for your old web pages: see 6.4.

6.2Bring your audio files over

The import copies the address of your files, not the files. Right after an import, your site is complete and your feed works, but every episode is still served by your old host. As long as that’s the case, three things stay out of your control: you’re still paying for two hosts, your listens aren’t counted on your side, and above all a subscriber who cancels keeps access to your paid episodes. Their address at your old host is public and permanent, and no one can take it back.

The Zekast → Distribute → Host tab moves those files over to you. It lists everything still playing from somewhere else, with the original host next to each episode, and you can filter by podcast, by season, or to take only the paid episodes. Start with those if you sell subscriptions.

• Nothing moves unless it’s checked. You can move one season, look at the result, and come back later.
• One episode at a time. Closing the tab loses nothing: resuming picks up where you left off and skips whatever has already arrived.
• The previous address is kept for each moved episode, in case a file arrives damaged.
• A license key is required, including on the free plan: it’s your hosting quota that receives the files. Check that it’s large enough before starting on a big catalog (§2.4).

Moved files are then served by Zekast: listens get counted, and your paid episodes can truly be protected.

6.3Acast, Ausha, Audiomeans, Anchor…

The process is the same for all of them: an RSS feed is an RSS feed. Two points are worth knowing.

AAC / m4a files are supported. Acast, Anchor and Ausha often publish in .m4a rather than .mp3. Bringing the files over keeps the original format, with no re-encoding.

With some hosts, the feed URL goes through a redirect domain (an audience measurement prefix). Import the feed exactly as it was given to you: Zekast follows the redirects to fetch the files.

A special case, or a question about the host you’re leaving? Write to contact@zekast.studio. This is the kind of migration we’re glad to help with.

6.4Redirects and preserving your SEO

If your old episode pages were public on the web, set up 301 redirects to the new ones (a WordPress plugin such as Redirection handles this). That way you keep the search ranking those pages have already earned.

On the podcast side, there’s nothing more to do: changing the feed address at Apple and Spotify brings your subscribers along with it. Your episode identifiers are preserved on import, so apps recognize your episodes instead of downloading them again as new releases.

6.5Cancel your old host

Last, and only when both conditions are met:

1. the Host tab has nothing left to move;
2. your listens have switched over to Zekast. Allow about two weeks after changing the address at Apple.

Canceling before you’ve brought your files over breaks every episode your old host was still serving. It’s the only step of the migration you can’t undo.

§07 · Listening experience (PWA)

Zekast turns your site into an installable web app (PWA) for your listeners. Available on the Pro and Studio plans.

7.1Install the site as an app

On mobile: your listeners open your site in Safari (iOS) or Chrome (Android), then tap “Share” → “Add to Home Screen” (iOS) or see an “Install” banner appear (Android). On desktop, Chrome and Edge show an install icon in the address bar.

Once installed, the app opens in its own window, without an address bar, with your icon and your colors (configurable in Zekast → Settings → PWA).

7.2Offline listening

Your listeners can download an episode to listen without a connection. Downloads are per episode (not all-or-nothing), and the file lives on their device, not on your infrastructure.

There is nothing to set up: as soon as your plan includes it, offline listening is offered to your listeners, and pages they have already visited stay available without a connection.

7.3Sync across devices

When a logged-in listener (premium subscriber) starts an episode on their phone, their playback position is saved on the server every ten seconds. When they reopen the app on their computer, a “Resume at 2:34?” banner offers to pick up exactly where they left off, in one tap (if they prefer, playback starts from the beginning).

An episode downloaded for offline listening is only available on the device where the listener downloaded it.

7.4Customize the app’s identity

In Zekast → Settings → PWA:

• App name (shown under the icon)
• Accent Color (status bar, splash screen)
• Square icon, 512×512 px (PNG)
• Splash screen (generated automatically from the icon + color)

The app installs straight from your site, and these settings apply to it as soon as you save them.

§08 · Advanced (developers)

8.1REST API

Routes you can call without being logged in, under the zekast/v1 namespace:

GET   /wp-json/zekast/v1/chapters/{id}       # an episode’s chapters
GET   /wp-json/zekast/v1/transcript/{id}     # an episode’s transcript
POST  /wp-json/zekast/v1/play-event          # listen tracking

8.2PHP filters and actions

To adapt Zekast from your theme or a plugin:

// Filters
add_filter( 'zekast_bunny_signed_ttl',           $callable ); // TTL of signed URLs
add_filter( 'zekast_hero_button_palette',        $callable ); // button colors
add_filter( 'zekast_pwa_bottom_nav_items',       $callable ); // PWA navigation
add_filter( 'zekast_auto_preload_first_episode', $callable );

// Actions
add_action( 'zekast_console_enqueue',        $callable ); // console extension
add_action( 'zekast_subscriber_cancelled',   $callable ); // premium subscriber canceled
add_action( 'zekast_subscriber_reactivated', $callable );

8.3Custom Post Types & meta

CPTs: zekast_podcast and zekast_episode. Taxonomy podcast_feed (attached to episodes). Episode metadata uses the _episode_ prefix:

_episode_audio_url        _episode_duration        _episode_guid
_episode_image            _episode_author          _episode_description
_episode_season           _episode_number          _episode_podcast_id
_episode_transcript_url   _episode_transcript_format
_episode_chapters

§09 · Troubleshooting

9.1Import fails

First check that the feed you’re importing is valid on castfeedvalidator.com. The most common causes: artwork that’s too heavy (over 10 MB), an original URL that no longer responds, or a malformed feed at the host you’re leaving. Details of errors from the last few hours appear in a banner on the Zekast screens, and Zekast → Settings → Diagnostics lets you test a feed address to see what Zekast reads there.

9.2Feed rejected by Apple Podcasts

Apple is strict on three points: square artwork of at least 1400×1400 pixels in JPG or PNG, a valid and verifiable owner email address, and at least one episode already published at the time of submission. Run a check on podba.se/validate to find what’s blocking.

9.3Silent player on mobile

iOS blocks all automatic audio playback: the user always has to tap Play once first. The Zekast player follows this rule, so that’s normal. If the sound stays off after that first tap, contact support. It’s most likely a configuration issue on the audio hosting side, which we’ll be able to pinpoint quickly.

9.4Contact support

Email: contact@zekast.studio. Replies within 2 to 5 business days, within 24 business hours on the Studio plan (priority support). To save a couple of back-and-forths, include: plugin version, site URL, and what Zekast → Settings → Diagnostics shows (environment and component status).

§10 · The Zekast Review add-on

Zekast Review is an add-on (a separate paid extension) for collaborative review before publishing. Included free in the Studio plan; available as an add-on for €15/month or €144/year on the other plans. Learn more

10.1Install the add-on

Once you’ve subscribed to the add-on (from your account or the Review page), download the zekast-review ZIP from Account → Downloads, install it as a WordPress plugin alongside the Zekast plugin, and activate it. It then updates automatically. A Zekast → Review menu appears.

10.2How it works

• Create a working file (the audio to review, separate from the published episode) and leave timestamped comments (on a single point or a range) right on the waveform.
• Invite reviewers by private link, with View only, Can comment or Admin access, and no WordPress account needed.
• Discussion threads, @mentions, reactions, and a clear approval decision. Each upload creates a version; unresolved comments from earlier versions stay visible.
• Export markers to your editing software (Audacity, REAPER, Adobe Audition, or generic CSV).

§11 · The Zekast Clips add-on

Zekast Clips turns a passage from an episode into a captioned video clip for social media. Included free in the Pro and Studio plans; available as an add-on for €12/month or €120/year on Free and Starter. Learn more

11.1Install the add-on

Subscribe to the add-on from your account or the Clips page, download the zekast-clips ZIP from Account → Downloads, install it alongside the Zekast plugin and activate it (updates are automatic after that).

11.2Create a clip

Two ways in: the “🎬 Clips” tab in the Zekast console (the bottom panel of the episode editor) or the Zekast → Clips page. Select a passage on the waveform, choose the format (9:16, 1:1 or 16:9) and the style (colors, background image, cover art, title), then start the render. The branded video (animated waveform + burned-in captions) is generated in a few seconds on the server, then ready to download.

11.3Captions

Zekast automatically transcribes the passage and burns in word-by-word animated captions. You can edit the text before rendering, and adjust the color, size and font. All your clips are gathered in the “My clips” library.