Riverside vs StreamYard (2026): record first or go live first?
StreamYard is a live production studio that added local recording. Riverside is a recording studio that added live streaming. After StreamYard's 2025 price increases, the choice is clearer than it used to be.
By Jean Luc, Riverside Reviews · Updated August 7, 2026
Quick verdict
Pick StreamYard if the live broadcast is the product: its overlays, banners, on-screen comments, and multistreaming to as many as 8 destinations remain the smoothest live production workflow in a browser. Pick Riverside if the recording outlives the broadcast: it captures separate per-participant tracks in up to 4K from the $24 a month Pro plan, then feeds them into AI editing, clips, and podcast hosting. StreamYard gates 4K local recordings behind its $68.99 a month Advanced tier, and since the Bending Spoons acquisition its prices have roughly doubled, so it no longer wins on cost either.
Try Riverside free ↗At a glance
| Riverside | StreamYard | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry paid plan | Pro $24/mo billed annually ($35 monthly) | Core $35.99/mo billed annually ($44.99 monthly) |
| 4K local recording | From Pro ($24/mo annual), separate track per participant | Only on Advanced ($68.99/mo annual) and above; Core tops out at 1080p |
| Live streaming | 1080p multistream to YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Twitch + custom RTMP (Grow plan) | 1080p to up to 8 simultaneous destinations, richest overlay and branding tools |
| Free plan | 720p with watermark, 2 hrs multi-track, no streaming | 720p with StreamYard branding, 1 destination, 6 on-screen participants |
| Post-production | Text-based editing, Magic Clips, show notes, audio enhancement built in | Basic trimming; the mixed cloud export stays at stream resolution |
| Webinars | Registration, reminders, Q&A, polls, HubSpot sync (Webinar plan, $79/mo annual) | On-Air pages with registration and paid webinars; registration now unlocked via support for new accounts |
| Podcast hosting | Included from Pro | Not offered |
| Trustpilot | 3.8 (486 reviews) | About 4.2 (roughly 500 reviews) |
| G2 | 4.8 (1,751 reviews) | 4.8 (about 295 reviews) |
| Company | RiversideFM, Inc., founded 2020, $47M raised, Spotify partner | Owned by Bending Spoons (Milan) since April 2024; founded 2018, sold to Hopin for $250M in 2021 |
Prices and figures checked 2026-08-07, from each vendor's own published pages. Both change; verify before you buy.
The price story changed in 2025
StreamYard's Basic plan was $25 a month for years. After Bending Spoons acquired it in April 2024, plans were restructured, and in June 2025 the entry tier became Core at $44.99 monthly or $35.99 annual, with Advanced at $88.99 monthly or $68.99 annual. That is an increase of roughly 80 percent at the entry level, and it moved StreamYard from cheaper-than-Riverside to more expensive at every comparable tier.
Bending Spoons is known for acquiring products and raising prices, and StreamYard's own Trustpilot reviews since 2024 increasingly mention billing surprises. If you are choosing today, price the plan you would actually need: for 4K recordings that means Advanced at $68.99 a month against Riverside Pro at $24.
Live production: StreamYard still leads
For running a polished live show in a browser, StreamYard remains excellent: branded overlays and banners, viewer comments on screen, backstage management, and native multistreaming to up to 8 destinations including YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Twitch, and Kick, plus custom RTMP. Riverside's streaming, on the Grow plan, covers the major destinations with overlays and backstage control but is the younger, simpler implementation.
If your content is live-first and the replay is an afterthought, StreamYard is the better fit, and its G2 score of 4.8 reflects how much users like that core workflow.
The recording: what happens after you stop being live
StreamYard's cloud recording is the mixed program feed at stream resolution, capped at 1080p. Local per-participant recordings in up to 4K exist but require the Advanced plan. Riverside records separate up-to-4K tracks per participant on every paid plan and then does something StreamYard does not attempt: text-based editing, AI clips, show notes, audio enhancement, podcast hosting, and publishing from the same account.
For creators who stream once and repurpose all week, that pipeline is the decisive difference. In our review corpus, repurposing speed is one of the most cited reasons users pay for Riverside.
Where StreamYard wins
- The smoothest browser-based live production: overlays, banners, on-screen comments, backstage flow
- Multistreaming to as many as 8 simultaneous destinations, more than Riverside's native list
- Slightly higher Trustpilot score (about 4.2 vs 3.8), with praise for ease of use and support
- On-Air webinar pages with paid webinar support built into the streaming workflow
- A genuinely usable free plan for casual streaming to one destination
Frequently asked questions
Is StreamYard or Riverside cheaper?+
Riverside, since StreamYard's 2025 price increases. Riverside Pro is $24 a month billed annually; StreamYard Core is $35.99. For 4K local recordings StreamYard requires Advanced at $68.99 a month, nearly three times Riverside's price for the same capability.
Can StreamYard record in 4K?+
Yes, but only local per-participant recordings on the Advanced plan and above. Live streams and the standard cloud recording are capped at 1080p. Riverside records up to 4K per participant from its $24 a month Pro plan.
Which is better for a live show with a podcast version?+
If the live production is elaborate, run StreamYard for the broadcast. If the podcast version is the priority, Riverside records broadcast-quality separate tracks while streaming and then edits, clips, and hosts the result in one place. Some producers stream with StreamYard and record a parallel Riverside session, but that doubles cost and complexity.
Who owns StreamYard now?+
Bending Spoons, the Milan-based company that also owns Evernote and Meetup, acquired StreamYard in April 2024. The acquisition was followed by plan restructuring and price increases in 2024 and 2025.
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