Riverside

Remote video interviews

Local recording is Riverside's whole identity, and it actually delivers — separate 4K tracks per guest, the file is on the device whether or not the Wi-Fi cooperates. The editor has improved but still trails Descript when you need real post. Pick it for video interviews with brand-name guests; if you're audio-only and solo, you're paying for capabilities you'll never touch.

Riverside is a browser-based studio built around one stubborn idea: don't stream the actual audio and video, capture it locally on each device and upload in the background. So when your guest's hotel Wi-Fi melts down mid-sentence, the master files are already safe on their laptop. Pro tier sits at $24/mo annual ($29 monthly) with 15 hours of recording and 4K at 48kHz audio. Free gives you 2 hours, 720p, and a watermark — enough to test, not enough to ship. Over the last couple years they've stacked on AI editing, clip generation, live streaming, transcription, and even hosting, all in a single tab. The expansion has made it slightly busier but the recording engine is still the reason anyone is here. Where it falls down: the text-based editor works fine for basic cuts, but if you're doing real post-production with music beds and intricate cuts, you'll end up exporting to Descript anyway. Hours-based pricing also bites long-form shows hard. If you've used Riverside, the parallel to SquadCast is obvious — same core local-record-with-cloud-backup pattern, Riverside just polishes the experience around it. Best for podcasters whose primary output is remote video interviews with people they'd be embarrassed to lose recordings of. Skip if you're an audio-only solo show recording at your desk; you're buying horsepower you won't use.