Riverside vs Zoom (2026): Zoom records your call, Riverside records your show
Everyone already has Zoom, and for meetings it is the default for a reason. The question is narrower: should the recording your audience hears be a Zoom recording?
By Jean Luc, Riverside Reviews · Updated August 7, 2026
Quick verdict
If you are recording a podcast, interview show, or anything your audience will judge on quality, Riverside is the purpose-built tool: each participant is recorded locally in up to 4K with uncompressed 48 kHz audio on separate tracks, so a guest's bad Wi-Fi never touches the final files. Zoom records the compressed live stream, capped at 720p on Free and Pro plans, with 1080p reserved for Business accounts by support request and no separate video tracks at all. But Zoom wins real cases: internal meetings, quick calls where content beats fidelity, guests who refuse new tools, and anyone whose Pro subscription already covers recording at no extra cost.
Try Riverside free ↗At a glance
| Riverside | Zoom | |
|---|---|---|
| What gets recorded | Each participant's local camera and mic, unaffected by connection | The compressed live meeting stream; connection glitches are burned in |
| Max recorded video | Up to 4K per participant | 720p default on Free/Pro; 1080p only on Business+ by support request; no 4K |
| Audio | Uncompressed 48 kHz WAV per participant | Compressed M4A/AAC of the processed call audio |
| Separate tracks | Video and audio per participant, by default | Audio-only per participant, a local-recording setting; no separate video tracks |
| Price | Free plan; Pro $24/mo billed annually ($35 monthly) | Free (40-min group cap, no cloud recording); Pro $16.99/mo monthly |
| Post-production | Text-based editing, Magic Clips, show notes, audio enhancement built in | Raw files; AI Companion summarizes meetings but does not edit media |
| Trustpilot | 3.8 (486 reviews) | 1.3 (about 1,500 reviews) |
| G2 | 4.8 (1,751 reviews) | 4.5 (about 55,800 reviews, as Zoom Workplace) |
| Company | RiversideFM, Inc., founded 2020, $47M raised, Spotify partner | Zoom Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZM), San Jose, ~$4.7B revenue FY2025 |
Prices and figures checked 2026-08-07, from each vendor's own published pages. Both change; verify before you buy.
The architectural difference that decides everything
Zoom's recording is a byproduct of its real job, running the live call on any connection. It records what was transmitted: compressed video that drops to whatever the worst moment of the call allowed, and processed audio with noise suppression baked in. That resilience is why Zoom calls survive hotel Wi-Fi, and why Zoom recordings sound like Zoom.
Riverside inverts the trade. The live call is an ordinary web call, but the recording is captured on each participant's own device at full quality and uploaded progressively in the background. In our review corpus this is the single most praised feature: podcasters in rural areas and hosts with international guests describe studio-quality output from connections that would have wrecked a Zoom recording.
What the resolution numbers actually mean
Zoom's cloud recordings are capped at 720p on Free and Pro plans. Recording at 1080p requires a Business, Education, or Enterprise account, and the setting is enabled by Zoom support on request. There is no 4K option on any plan, and there are no separate video tracks per participant, which rules out the layout changes and per-speaker cleanup that multi-camera editing depends on.
Riverside records up to 4K video per participant with separate 48 kHz WAV audio on every paid plan, and 720p on the free plan. For a talking-head clip on social media the gap is visible; for a show you hope to grow, it compounds with every episode.
Where Zoom is honestly the right call
Recording an internal meeting, a client call, or research interviews where the content matters and the fidelity does not: use Zoom, especially if you already pay for it. Its 40-minute free cap disappears on Pro at $16.99 a month, cloud recording included. Guests who will not install or trust anything new already have Zoom. And if your sessions routinely run on terrible connections, Zoom's live-call resilience is unmatched, just know the recording degrades with the call.
One more honest data point: Zoom's Trustpilot score is 1.3, driven by billing and support complaints at consumer scale, while its G2 score from business users is 4.5 across some 55,800 reviews. Read platform scores as what each audience experiences, not as a single truth.
Where Zoom wins
- Zero guest friction: everyone has Zoom installed and knows how it works
- No extra cost if you already pay for Zoom Pro; recording is included
- A full meeting platform: 30-hour meetings, 100+ participants, calendar integrations, webinars
- Best-in-class live-call resilience on poor connections (about 0.6 Mbps for 1:1 calls)
- AI Companion included on paid plans for meeting summaries and notes
Frequently asked questions
Can I record a good podcast on Zoom?+
You can record a podcast on Zoom, and shows have done it for years. It will be capped at 720p on Free and Pro plans with compressed, single-stream audio unless you enable per-participant local audio files. If audio and video quality matter to your audience, a local-recording tool like Riverside produces visibly and audibly better source files.
Is Riverside more expensive than Zoom?+
Month to month, Riverside Pro is $35 against Zoom Pro's $16.99, though Riverside's annual rate is $24 a month. They are different purchases: Zoom Pro buys a meeting platform with recording included; Riverside buys a recording and publishing studio. Many podcasters keep both.
Does Zoom record separate tracks for each person?+
Zoom can produce a separate audio file per participant when the host enables it in local recording settings, and cloud support is inconsistent per user reports. It never produces separate video tracks per participant. Riverside records separate video and audio tracks for every participant by default.
Why is Zoom's Trustpilot rating 1.3?+
Consumer complaint sites concentrate billing and support grievances, and Zoom operates at enormous scale. Its G2 rating from business users is 4.5 across roughly 55,800 reviews. Neither number alone describes Zoom; together they show a product people rely on and a support experience consumers often rate poorly.
More comparisons
Riverside vs DescriptRiverside vs StreamYardRiverside vs ZencastrRiverside vs PodcastleBest remote recording softwareRiverside alternativesRiverside free vs paid