Harrison and I record The Main Deck from two different states, and the first time my connection hiccuped mid-sentence I braced for the usual Zoom damage. There wasn’t any. The file was already sitting on my drive at full quality, because that’s where it had been recording the entire time.
That’s the whole argument for Riverside if you record interviews you intend to publish. Zoom captures a compressed stream of your internet connection, so a bad five minutes on either end becomes a bad five minutes in the finished episode. Riverside captures each person locally at up to 4K video and 48kHz audio, on separate tracks, and uploads in the background. Pro runs $24 a month on annual billing, roughly ten dollars more than a Zoom Pro seat. I went looking for something better than Zoom for interviews. I stayed for a handful of tools I didn’t know I needed.
What Riverside does that Zoom can’t
Riverside records every participant on their own device rather than capturing the call. Your guest’s audio and video are written to their machine at full resolution, then pushed to the cloud progressively while you’re still talking, with a backup copy sitting on their hard drive if the upload stalls. You end up with separate tracks per person, which is the difference between cutting an episode and salvaging one.
The guest side matters more than the spec sheet suggests. They click a link in a browser, no install, no account, no seat to pay for. Riverside charges per host, so a show with rotating guests costs the same as a solo one. I’ve put people on camera who describe themselves as bad with technology and the setup has never been the bottleneck.
Run the math on a weekly hour-long episode and Pro works out to a little over $5 per recorded hour in year one. Against the cost of re-recording one ruined interview, that stops being a real decision.
The tools I didn’t expect to use
Riverside’s editor works off the transcript, so cutting a section means deleting the text, and the video follows. I edit in DaVinci Resolve and I still do, because color, multicam timing, and anything with real motion belong there. What the built-in editor actually earns is the first pass: pulling the dead air, cutting a tangent that went nowhere, and getting a rough assembly out before I ever open Resolve.
Magic Clips is the one that surprised me. It scans the session, finds the moments with a hook in them, and spits out vertical cuts with captions already burned in. It isn’t as good as I am at picking the moment. It’s considerably faster, and for a show that needs social pieces every week, faster wins more often than I expected. Magic Audio handles noise and leveling, transcription covers more than 100 languages, and the AI show notes give me something to react to instead of a blank page.
Riverside also shipped an MCP server in August 2026, which means the account connects to Claude and other AI assistants directly. Ask for clips, edits, or posts without opening the app. That’s the direction all of this is heading, and Riverside got there earlier than most.
Where Riverside gets complaints, and what to warn your guests about
Riverside’s ratings split hard depending on where you look, and any honest review has to say so. G2 shows 4.8 out of 5 across more than 1,700 verified reviews, with 94 percent of them five stars. Trustpilot puts it at 3.8 across 484 reviews, with recurring reports of freezing during recording, tracks slipping out of sync, and support that answers slowly with scripted replies. G2 reviews skew positive because they’re often solicited. Trustpilot skews toward people with a problem. The truth lives between them.
The failure mode worth actually preparing for is the guest upload. Tracks finish uploading after the recording stops, and a guest who closes the tab early can take their track with them. I now tell people the same thing before every session: stay on the call until the upload bar finishes, even if we’re done talking. Riverside also behaves best in Chrome or Edge. Safari and Firefox work with gaps.
In 20 sessions on Riverside, I’ve hit the sync issue just once, yet never lost track. The one minor hiccup was quickly resolved by reaching out to their support team, which were very helpful. Since that one problem, I’ve yet to have any other issues.
Which Riverside plan you actually need
Pricing as of September 2026, billed annually:
- Pro, $24/mo ($29 monthly). One studio, 4K, 48kHz, no watermark, unlimited transcription, AI editing, podcast hosting, 15 hours of separate-track downloads per month.
- Grow, $34/mo ($39 monthly). Two studios, adds live streaming and multistreaming to YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, X and Twitch, plus social scheduling, overlays and a creator site. 20 hours.
- Webinar, $79/mo ($99 monthly). Three studios, webinars up to 100 registrants, branded registration, polls, Q&A, HubSpot sync. 25 hours.
- Business, custom. Unlimited studios, SSO, API, producer mode.
Pro is the right plan for most podcasters, and the download cap is rarely what forces an upgrade. A weekly hour-long show uses under a third of the 15 hours. Live streaming is what pushes you to Grow, and that’s the only reason I’d move. Verify the number at checkout before you subscribe, because Riverside’s own pages have been inconsistent lately and the free tier’s status is genuinely unclear right now.
Who should skip Riverside
If everything you record happens in one room with your own cameras, you’re paying for a remote-guest problem you don’t have. If the live broadcast is the product rather than the edited file, StreamYard does live production better. If you already live inside Descript, SquadCast recording is bundled in there and switching buys you less than it costs. And if you publish audio only and don’t care about video, Zencastr gets you most of the way for similar money.
Everyone else recording remote interviews they plan to publish should be on this instead of Zoom, and I’d make that argument even without the link above.
I’ve got a few episodes of The Main Deck coming that were recorded entirely in Riverside, and I’ll report back if anything breaks. If you want to hear what the separate-track workflow actually sounds like on the other end, that’s the easiest place to check my work.
Questions people ask about Riverside
Do guests need a Riverside account to join a recording?
No. Guests click a browser link and join with no account, no download, and no charge. Riverside bills per host, not per participant, so the price is the same whether you record alone or bring someone new on every week. Guests can also join from the iOS and Android apps if they’d rather use a phone.
Does Riverside work in Safari or on a phone?
Riverside is built for Chrome and Edge, where every feature works. Safari and Firefox support is partial, and some tools drop out. There are iOS and Android apps plus a Mac app, and the mobile app was rebuilt in July 2026. If a guest is on Safari, ask them to switch browsers before the session starts rather than mid-recording.
Can Riverside record an in-person interview with two cameras?
Yes. Riverside added in-person recording in July 2026, which captures multiple cameras and microphones in one room during a single session and delivers them as synced separate tracks. It removes the usual chore of lining up two devices in post. You still supply the cameras and mics, since Riverside handles capture and sync rather than hardware.
How many people can be in a Riverside recording at once?
A standard session supports roughly eight participants, each recorded on their own local track. Screen sharing and producer tools are available during the session. For anything larger, webinar formats on the Webinar tier scale to 100 registrants, and Business accounts go to 10,000.
