Frequently asked questions

PodSignal℠ is HiddenPod's quality score for podcasts — a single 0–100 number reflecting how well an episode is made. It's computed from a show's publicly available data (its RSS feed, episode audio, and metadata), so a show can be scored without its creator lifting a finger. It measures craft, not reach: a show's PodSignal has nothing to do with its download numbers.

The score is built from six dimensions. Three measure production — Audio Quality, Consistency, and Vitality — and three measure content — Topic Relevance, Content Structure, and Clipability. Open any scored episode to see all six in its Signal Breakdown, plus Why this score?, a written explanation of each one. Higher means a stronger, more polished, more coherent episode on those measures.

Two details worth knowing: audio quality combines loudness (40%) and background noise (60%), and consistency needs at least 5 published episodes to measure how steady a show's schedule is. A newer show shows consistency as not scored, and its total is built from the dimensions it does have.

Read it as a measure of craft, not a recommendation and not a rating of the show's views. A high PodSignal means a show is well-produced, consistent, and on-topic — not that you'll agree with it or that its claims are accurate. It's a starting point for finding shows worth your time, especially ones too small to appear in the charts. Think quality signal, not verdict.

Everything starts on Rankings: the search tuner at the top, then Today's Signal, Best in Category, and sections like Fresh This Week, Hidden Gems, and Most Topical. Once you're signed in, Rankings also shows Your Interests and My Shows, and the button at the top right opens My Dashboard. Here's how each part works.

Signing in and logging out

To sign in, click Sign up / Log in at the top right of any page. Enter your email address and password, then Sign in →. If you've forgotten your password, use Forgot password? and we'll email you a reset link.

New here? Choose Create free account →. One account works for listeners and creators — you can pick a plan and claim your show afterward. You don't need an account to browse: anyone can search, explore Rankings, and see scores.

To log out, open My Dashboard and scroll to the bottom of any tab, then click Sign Out. On a shared device, Sign in with a different account → signs you out and lets someone else sign in.

Switching between list view and card view

On a computer, each section on Rankings — Best in Category, Your Interests, Fresh This Week, Hidden Gems, and Most Topical — has a small list icon next to See all →. Click it to switch that section between a compact list and larger cards. Cards add the score's three content bars and a View breakdown → link. Each section remembers its view on that device.

On a phone, the Rankings sections always show as lists, which are easier to read on a small screen. When you search, a list icon appears at the top of the screen next to Aa; tap it to switch your results between list and cards.

The See all → view has its own Cards and List buttons on every screen size.

Increasing the font size

Click Aa at the top of the page, next to My Dashboard, and choose Default, Large, or Larger. The change applies right away and is saved on that device. Headlines and score numbers keep their size so the page layout holds together. Close the panel with ✕ or by clicking anywhere outside it.

You can also change it from My Dashboard → Preferences → Display, or from the Text size link in the site footer.

My Dashboard: what it includes and how to get to it

Getting there: sign in, then click My Dashboard at the top right. You can also go straight to hiddenpod.com/dashboard. To leave, click Rankings just below the logo.

What's inside depends on your account. Everyone has the first two tabs; the others appear when they apply to you:

• My Shows — your Shows I Listen To and Saved Shows lists, with + Add and ✕ to add or remove shows. See My Shows.
• Preferences — your categories, the shows you listen to, your listening habits, update settings, and text size. See changing your preferences.
• Claimed Shows — appears once you've claimed a show. Your show's recent episodes with their scores and explanations, your plan, and ownership settings.
• Pre-Publish — on the Creator plan. Upload an episode before you release it and get an estimated score.
• Billing — on a paid plan. Manage billing opens the billing portal, where you can update payment details or cancel.

The + Claim a show button sits at the top of every tab, and Sign Out at the bottom.

Card overlays

Click or tap any episode — a row, a card, or its › arrow — to open its card overlay, the full picture of that episode:

• The show at the top: artwork, name, and category, with i for more about the show and a share button.
• The episode: title, date, length, and a description (use Show more to read it all).
• The PodSignal Score and its Signal Breakdown across all six dimensions.
• Why this score? — a written explanation of each dimension.
• Actions: + Save to add the show to My Shows, Play to listen here, Listen on Apple ↗, and Claim this show → if it's yours.

Close it with ✕ or by clicking outside it. Without an account you can open 5 detailed score breakdowns a month; a free account makes them unlimited, and the scores themselves are always free to see.

Your Interests

Your Interests sits in the band at the top of Rankings. Once you're signed in, it's labeled “personalized to your taste” and picks well-scored episodes from the categories you chose and from shows you've saved. Use See all → for more, or the i button for a reminder of how it's chosen. It follows your preferences rather than the search tuner, so it stays put while you tune the sections below.

Before you sign in, the same spot is called Make this yours: tap a few categories to see what it picks for you.

To change it, go to My Dashboard → Preferences and choose Edit next to Categories. Saving shows you like also shapes what appears.

My Shows

My Shows keeps the podcasts you care about in one place, in two lists:

• Shows I Listen To — the shows you already follow. It starts with the ones you picked when you signed up.
• Saved Shows — anything you've saved with + Save while browsing.

On Rankings, My Shows appears once you've added a show, with each show's newest episode; See all shows the full list. We check these shows for new episodes about every 30 minutes. To add or remove shows, go to My Dashboard → My Shows and use + Add or ✕. Saving a show is just a bookmark — it isn't the same as claiming it.

Yes, for listeners. Anyone can search the catalog, browse Rankings, and see every show's PodSignal. Without an account you can open 5 detailed score breakdowns a month; a free account makes them unlimited and adds Your Interests and My Shows. There's no listener plan to buy.

The Creator plan costs $5/month or $50/year. While you're subscribed, you get:

• New episodes scored as you publish. For shows you've claimed, we check your feed about every 30 minutes and score each new episode, and we score your five most recent episodes when you subscribe. Early evidence: in our first measured run, new episodes were scored about 36 minutes after publishing.
• In-depth analysis and recommendations. Open any scored episode for specific recommendations on what to change first, alongside the full analysis of every dimension.
• Pre-publish analysis. Upload an episode before you release it and get an estimated score on its three content dimensions, usually within 2–5 minutes. Includes 5 uploads per calendar month, and it works as soon as you subscribe, even before you've claimed a show.

Claiming your show is free on its own (see below) and scores your latest episode at no cost. The creator guide explains how each of these works.

Anytime, from My Dashboard → Billing → Manage billing, which opens the billing portal. If you cancel the Creator plan, you keep access until the end of the period you've already paid for, and then your account returns to free.

The tuner sits at the top of Rankings. Use any combination of its controls:

• Search — type a show or episode title and press Search. Results list episodes, with a count such as “85 episodes from 74 shows.”
• Category — pick one to focus on a subject.
• Min score — drag to set your quality floor, from 40 up to 95.
• Length — drag to cap episode length to the time you have; it reads “No limit” until you move it.

As you adjust, Fresh This Week, Hidden Gems, and Most Topical update to match, and Best in Category follows your minimum score. The line underneath shows how many PodSignal Verified episodes fit your settings, alongside the size of the whole catalog. Your Interests and Today's Signal don't change with the tuner.

Don't feel like deciding? Hit Surprise me → and it hands you one PodSignal Verified episode that fits your current settings.

It's the part of My Shows for the podcasts you already follow. It starts with the shows you picked when you signed up, and you can add more anytime. For each show on the list, we show its newest episode in My Shows, and we check those shows for new episodes about every 30 minutes.

Add or remove shows from My Dashboard → My Shows, or edit the list from My Dashboard → Preferences → Shows you listen to.

Yes, anytime, from My Dashboard → Preferences:

• Your interests — Categories and Shows you listen to.
• Listening habits — When you listen, Episode length, and How you consume.
• Updates — New picks.
• Display — text size.

An episode earns its PodSignal once we can analyze its content and measure its audio. For most shows in the catalog, analyzing the content means the show publishes a transcript in its RSS feed. When a creator claims a show, we transcribe its episodes ourselves, so no feed transcript is needed.

Shows we can't score yet are still in the catalog and fully searchable — they're marked “Not yet scored” and never shown a quality number. Occasionally you'll see “Measuring audio…” on a newly scored episode: its audio check is still running, and the score updates when it finishes. As more shows add transcripts and creators claim theirs, the scored set keeps growing.

Most likely it doesn't publish a transcript in its RSS feed yet, and that's what we need to score the content. Less often, we couldn't measure its audio. It'll still turn up in search as “Not yet scored.” If you're the creator, claiming your show is the fastest way to get it scored: we score your latest episode for free, transcript or not.

Find any episode of your show and open it, then choose Claim this show →. In search results, look for Own this show? Claim it. If you're already signed in, you can also start from My Dashboard → + Claim a show.

To prove you control the show, we give you a short token. Paste it into your show's description or summary in your podcast host (or add it as a <podcast:txt> tag), wait for your feed to update (it can take up to an hour), then choose Check verification →. The token is valid for 24 hours.

Claiming is free, and we score your latest episode at no cost — separate from any paid plan. The Creator plan then adds scoring of new episodes as you publish, in-depth analysis and recommendations, and pre-publish analysis.

Already claimed? The creator guide explains how scoring works, when to expect scores, and how to use Pre-Publish.

It depends on the show. For shows people have in My Shows and shows their creators have claimed, we check for new episodes about every 30 minutes. On the Creator plan, each new episode goes straight into scoring. Early evidence: in our first measured run, new episodes were scored about 36 minutes after publishing. We'll update this figure as we measure more.

Other shows are checked on a regular schedule. New episodes appear in the catalog as we find them, and a show earns its score once we can analyze one of its episodes.

The score is computed from the actual audio and content a show publishes, so the way to raise it is to make a better-produced, more consistent show — which is the point. We also watch for manipulation, and attempting to game or reverse-engineer the scoring is against our Terms.

No. We don't sell personal information. We use a small set of standard providers to run the site — hosting, authentication, email — and that's spelled out in our Privacy Policy. Scoring itself runs on shows' public podcast data, not on anything personal about you.

Email us at mail@hiddenpod.com and we'll take care of it. Some records tied to payments have to be kept for legal reasons, but we anonymize the link to you and remove the rest. The details are in our Privacy Policy.