Guide 2026
Starting price: $19 per month
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: No
Paid plans: Standard, Pro
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Pricing: $0 (Freemium)
Best for: Individuals who want to try out Riverside’s core features with limited recording time and basic video quality
Riverside’s Free plan is best for newcomers who want to see how remote recording works without needing a credit card. You get basic editing tools like Magic Clips and text-based edits, plus up to 2 hours of separate audio and video track recordings in decent quality (720p video, 44.1 kHz audio). It’s a simple way to try out solo or small group recordings before deciding if you need extra features like watermark removal or higher resolution. Keep in mind that your final exports will include Riverside branding, which is fine for practice runs, internal use, or casual projects.
Main features
2 hours separate track recording
720p video quality
Watermarked exports
Pricing: $19 per month
Best for: Creators seeking higher-quality video, watermark-free exports, and essential editing tools for regular podcasting or video projects
The Standard plan is a good fit for creators who are producing content regularly and want clear, professional-looking recordings without jumping straight to a big investment. It bumps you up to 4K video and 48 kHz audio, removes watermarks, and gives you up to 5 hours of multi-track recording each month. You can stream live to social platforms, share your screen, and collaborate with your team in one shared space. If you’re a podcaster or video host with an audience and you want your work to look polished while staying manageable, this plan covers the essentials nicely.
Main features
5 hours/month separate track recording
4K video quality
No watermarks
Pricing: $29 per month
Best for: Professionals who need advanced AI tools, more recording hours, and full editing capabilities for high-volume or studio-level production
The Pro plan is designed for serious creators, freelancers, and small production teams who need more time, extra tools, and automation to handle multiple shows or longer sessions. With up to 15 hours of separate audio and video tracks each month, you’ll have plenty of room for interviews, panels, or extended episodes. Pro users also unlock Magic Audio, AI transcriptions, show notes, a teleprompter, and call-ins — handy if you want to speed up editing and repurpose your recordings. It’s a smart choice if you’re balancing production volume with the need for studio-quality output and don’t want to waste hours on tedious edits.
Main features
15 hours/month separate track recording
Magic Audio & AI tools
Unlimited AI transcriptions
Pricing: Custom pricing
Best for: Organizations or teams requiring custom solutions, advanced collaboration, and enterprise-level support
The Business plan works best for larger teams, agencies, or companies that rely on recording high-quality video and audio content at scale. You get everything from Pro plus unlimited hours, advanced team management, roles and permissions, and single sign-on for secure access. There’s support for multiple studios and productions, remote guest control, and compliance certifications to meet enterprise standards. A dedicated customer success manager and priority support mean you’ll never feel stuck. If you’re producing branded content, webinars, or client deliverables with multiple stakeholders involved, this plan makes it much easier to stay organized and deliver professional results reliably.
Main features
Unlimited separate track recording
Custom seat packages
SSO & enterprise security features
When you look at Riverside’s Free and Standard pricing plans side by side, the biggest difference comes down to how often you plan to record and how polished you want your final content to be. The Free plan gives you up to 2 hours of separate audio and video tracks with 720p video quality, which is perfectly fine for trying out the basics or doing a one-off interview, but every export will have a Riverside watermark and you’ll run into limits quickly if you’re creating content on a regular basis.
The Standard plan, on the other hand, is better suited for people who are publishing episodes or videos more than once in a while and want them to look clean and professional. You get up to 5 hours of separate track recordings each month, much sharper visuals with 4K video, and your content won’t have any watermark attached. Plus, features like screen sharing, live streaming, and a shared workspace make it easier to collaborate with guests or a small team.
So, if you’re just curious about how Riverside works, the Free pricing plan does the job for short, casual recordings. But if you want more control over your production quality and the flexibility to grow your audience with better-looking videos and podcasts, the Standard pricing plan is worth it for the extra recording time and the freedom to publish without brand marks holding you back.
When you compare Riverside’s Pro and Business pricing plans, you’ll notice they’re both built for people who take their production quality seriously, but they’re meant for very different team sizes and workloads. The Pro plan is great if you’re a professional podcaster, producer, or freelancer who needs advanced tools without worrying about hitting limits too quickly. You get up to 15 hours of separate audio and video tracks each month, Magic Audio for quick sound cleanup, unlimited AI transcriptions and show notes, plus extras like a teleprompter and live call-ins that make more complex shows easier to run. For most independent creators and small teams, this pricing plan has all the essentials to keep your content looking polished and your workflow efficient.
The Business plan, on the other hand, really steps things up for larger teams or companies managing multiple shows or clients. With unlimited separate track recording, you’re not counting hours every month, and features like custom seat packages, multiple studios, and advanced user roles make it much easier to keep everyone organized. It’s also set up for companies that need tighter security, with single sign-on and compliance certifications, plus you get a dedicated customer success manager and priority support when you need help fast. If you’re running an agency, a media company, or a corporate content team that can’t afford downtime or technical headaches, the Business pricing plan is the one that’s going to give you the scale and reliability you need to keep production smooth.
Deciding which Riverside pricing plan is right for your company really comes down to how big your team is, how much content you want to produce, and how much flexibility you need as you grow. If you’re a small team just starting to create podcasts or remote video interviews, the Standard pricing plan usually covers the basics well. You’ll get crisp 4K video, watermark-free exports, and enough recording hours each month for regular publishing without feeling limited.
If your team plans to put out content more often or you know you’ll benefit from tools that speed up your workflow, like Magic Audio, unlimited AI transcriptions, and live call-ins, the Pro pricing plan might make more sense. It’s a good match for production companies, agencies, or in-house media teams that want professional results without jumping straight into enterprise-level costs or admin.
For larger companies or organizations managing multiple shows, client work, or big internal productions, the Business pricing plan is built to handle higher demands. You won’t run into recording caps, and you’ll have more advanced user management, security features like single sign-on, and the reassurance of dedicated support if something goes wrong. It’s worth weighing where you see your team six months or a year from now — choosing a plan that leaves you room to grow will save you the hassle of switching later when your production picks up momentum.
Which alternative tool to Riverside is better really depends on what you’re actually trying to create and how you prefer to work.
Descript’s audio and video editing platform is a favorite for people who want to edit their audio and video like they’re editing a document. You can easily remove “ums” or entire sections just by deleting text, which saves a lot of time in post-production. It’s a good fit if you spend more time editing than recording. Camtasia’s screen recording software, meanwhile, works well for those who mostly need to record their screen for tutorials, training videos, or presentations.
If you’re focused on short-form video content for social media, VEED.IO is a handy option. You can trim, add subtitles, and brand your clips right in your browser, which is great for marketing teams or freelancers who want to move quickly. And you can save 20% on a VEED subscription if you pick it up through our marketplace.
Lastly, Fathom AI’s smart meeting recorder automatically captures, transcribes, and summarizes calls so you have clear, searchable notes instead of raw footage.
Riverside does a lot of things really well for people who care about remote recording quality, but these other tools each have an edge in areas like editing, screen recording, social clips, or meeting notes. It’s all about matching the tool to the type of content you want to make.
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Yes — Riverside does have a free plan, which is a good way to see how its remote recording actually works without paying upfront. It gives you access to the core features you need to record audio and video calls, including separate audio and video tracks that are captured locally on each guest’s device, so the final quality is clearer than a standard video call.
You can invite guests, use the basic editing tools, and even try out things like Magic Clips to quickly turn longer recordings into shareable highlights. For anyone thinking about starting a podcast, recording interviews, or just wanting a simple way to test the platform’s workflow, the free pricing plan is a low-pressure way to see if Riverside’s setup fits your style.
While there are limits — like the watermark and a cap on recording hours — it’s often enough to get a feel for the platform and decide if it’s worth upgrading when you’re ready to create more polished content or work with a bigger team.
Riverside’s free plan is a good way to see what the platform can do, but it does come with a few limitations that are worth knowing about upfront. One of the biggest is that you only get two hours of separate audio and video track recording — and that’s a one-time allowance, not something that resets each month. So if you’re planning to do multiple interviews, long episodes, or test different formats, you might run out of time faster than you expect.
Another thing to keep in mind is that any recordings you export from the free plan will have a Riverside watermark on them. This probably isn’t a big deal if you’re just practicing or sharing internally, but if you want to publish your content publicly and keep it looking professional and on-brand, the watermark can be a drawback.
The free plan also caps video at 720p and audio at 44.1 kHz. This is decent for casual use, but if you’re aiming for a polished podcast or video that stands out, the higher-quality options in the paid plans make a difference. Overall, the free pricing plan is helpful for trying out Riverside’s local recording and editing tools, but if you know you’ll be creating content regularly or want full control over branding and quality, moving up to a paid plan is usually the better fit.
Record, edit, and go live with studio quality
20% off your first payment for any monthly or yearly plan
Save up to $189
VEED.IO
Used by 314 members
Create pro-level videos in the blink of AI
25% off the first year of annual Pro subscriptions
Save up to $336
Descript
Used by 4417 members
Video and audio editing, as easy as a doc
35% off annual plans
Save up to $240
Jessica Linwood
“I use Riverside every week for my podcast and I feel the pricing is fair for what I get out of it. I actually started with the Free plan just to see if remote recording would even work for my guests and me, and once I got comfortable, moving up to the Standard plan made sense. Getting 4K video and no watermark on my episodes really helped me take the show up a notch. I also like that they don’t hide all the useful features behind a huge paywall — you don’t feel forced to jump to the highest tier right away.”
Amir Patel
“I run a small creative agency, and for us the Pro plan has been worth it. The amount of recording hours included easily covers our client interviews and internal videos each month, and the built-in AI tools like Magic Audio and auto-generated show notes save us hours in post-production. Sure, it’s not the cheapest tool out there, but for how reliable it is and the quality we get back, the price feels fair. It’s also nice to know there’s room to scale up as our projects grow, instead of needing to switch platforms down the line.”
Diana Nguyen
“We compared a bunch of remote recording options before choosing Riverside, and how they price things was honestly a big part of our decision. It works well for me when I’m doing solo projects, but we can also add people if we need to record bigger sessions with clients or partners — that flexibility helps since our production schedule changes so often. I also like that you can try the Free plan first without losing your work when you upgrade. It just makes budgeting and planning our podcast expenses a lot simpler than some other tools we looked at.”
What’s the monthly cost to use Riverside for recording?
Riverside’s monthly cost really comes down to how much recording you plan to do and which features you actually need to make your workflow easier. For most people starting out or producing content regularly, the Standard plan runs about $19 a month. That covers 4K video, watermark-free exports, and enough recording hours to put out consistent episodes without feeling squeezed for time. It’s a good fit for creators who want their videos and podcasts to look clean and professional but don’t need a huge toolbox of extras yet.
If you’re recording more often, working with multiple guests, or just want to save time on editing, the Pro plan bumps the price up to around $29 a month. What you get in return is usually worth it for busy podcasters or teams — you unlock extra recording hours, tools like Magic Audio to fix up sound quickly, unlimited AI transcripts, and a teleprompter. It’s handy if you’d rather not pay for separate apps to do all that.
Teams or businesses producing content at a larger scale usually go for the Business plan. That one doesn’t have a set price because it’s designed around what you actually need: extra seats, more security options like SSO, and dedicated support if you’re managing lots of shows at once. In that case, you’d need to reach out to Riverside to figure out what makes sense for your team and budget.
The nice thing is you don’t have to stick with one plan forever. Plenty of people start small and upgrade once they see how much content they’re creating or when they land bigger guests. It’s pretty easy to move up a tier without worrying about losing your past recordings or having to start over.
Why should I use Riverside?
Using Riverside can make a big difference if you care about recording clear, professional audio and video without setting up a full studio at home. Unlike a regular video call tool where everything depends on the quality of your internet connection, Riverside saves each person’s recording locally on their own device. So even if someone’s Wi-Fi hiccups during the conversation, you still get smooth, high-res files you can actually use.
A lot of creators appreciate how Riverside records separate tracks for everyone on the call. This means you’re not stuck trying to clean up overlapping audio or background noise all in one messy file. You can adjust each track individually, fix small mistakes, or pull clean clips for short videos without losing quality.
It’s not just about the recording, either. Riverside builds in extras like basic editing tools, AI transcriptions, and Magic Clips, which help you turn a long conversation into short highlights without juggling other apps. The teleprompter feature can also help if you’re hosting or presenting and want to keep things on track.
Everything runs right in the browser, so guests don’t have to download anything complicated, which makes life easier if you’re recording with people who aren’t super tech-savvy. If you’re putting out podcasts, interviews, or remote video content on a regular basis, Riverside gives you a way to get studio-level quality with fewer headaches and less time wasted fixing messy recordings afterward.
Who typically uses Riverside the most?
Riverside tends to attract a wide mix of creators and teams, but you’ll see it used most often by podcasters, marketing teams, and media producers who care about putting out work that looks and sounds sharp — no matter where their guests are. What really draws people in is the way Riverside records each participant’s audio and video locally, which means you don’t have to worry about a bad internet connection ruining your final product. That level of quality control is a big deal for anyone producing content they plan to publish or repurpose.
Big brands, startups, and independent creators all use Riverside in different ways. Well-known names like TED, Spotify, Marvel, and Apple have used it to handle remote interviews and high-profile conversations, and it’s also become popular with entrepreneurs and thought leaders like Tim Ferriss and Gary Vaynerchuk. For teams, you’ll find companies like Chess.com or Chili Piper using Riverside for client stories, webinars, or even internal training sessions.
Its flexibility is a big reason people stick with it — it doesn’t matter if you’re a solo podcaster, a growing agency, or a larger company managing multiple shows. If you want to keep your recordings clear, your workflow simple, and your editing under control, Riverside is one of those tools that just fits into the process without causing extra headaches.
Do people feel Riverside is worth the price they pay?
Whether people feel Riverside is worth the price really depends on how much they care about the quality of their remote recordings and how often they’re creating content. A lot of podcasters, video producers, and teams say that once they try local recording, it’s hard to go back — being able to capture each guest’s audio and video straight from their own device means you’re not stuck with glitchy files just because someone’s internet dropped for a second. That alone can save you hours of frustration later when you’re editing.
Plenty of users also like that Riverside rolls recording, editing, and even quick clips into one place. For people putting out weekly episodes or hosting big-name guests, having fewer tools to juggle can make the whole process run smoother and take some stress off your plate. The extra features, like Magic Audio and AI transcriptions, aren’t just bells and whistles — they can really cut down on how much time you spend polishing up an episode before it goes live.
That said, no platform is perfect. Some people wish more advanced tools were included in the cheaper plans, and there have been a few complaints about response times from support when technical problems pop up. But for most creators who want reliable, high-quality recordings that don’t feel like a gamble every time they hit “record,” Riverside’s price usually makes sense once they see the difference in their finished content.
Which Riverside pricing plan do creators tend to choose most often?
Out of all the Riverside pricing plans, the Pro plan is the one many creators choose once they know they’ll be producing content regularly. It just gives you more breathing room — 15 hours of multi-track recording every month is a good bump up from the Standard plan’s five hours, which can feel tight if you’re doing longer interviews or multiple shows.
The extra features are a big reason people stick with Pro, too. Tools like Magic Audio, unlimited AI transcriptions, and the built-in teleprompter help cut down on post-production time and make it easier to get clips ready to share without bringing in a bunch of other apps. For podcasters, video producers, or small teams who want to put out professional-quality content without jumping to a full-scale business contract, it’s often the plan that makes the most sense.
Most people like that it strikes a good balance between cost and flexibility. You don’t feel boxed in by recording limits or missing features when you’re trying to experiment or grow your audience. It’s a comfortable choice if you’re serious about what you’re creating but still want to keep things manageable for a small team or solo setup.
Is there any way to spend less on Riverside each month?
Spending less on Riverside each month is definitely possible if you pay attention to how you’re using the platform and make the most of what’s available. Here are a few realistic ways to cut costs without giving up the features that matter:
Little adjustments like these can help you get the best value out of Riverside while making sure you’re not paying for things you don’t really use.
How does Riverside track the recording hours I use?
Tracking your recording hours on Riverside is pretty simple and doesn’t feel like you’re constantly watching the clock. The way it works is that Riverside counts only the total time you spend actually recording — it doesn’t multiply your usage by the number of guests or tracks in the session. Here’s how Riverside keeps tabs on your recording time:
One thing to keep in mind is that if you upgrade or downgrade your pricing plan, your available hours will adjust based on that tier’s limits. For busy creators or teams, it’s good to check your dashboard now and then to make sure you won’t run short — but overall, the way Riverside tracks recording hours feels fair and straightforward, so you can focus on your content instead of micromanaging every minute.