Open consumer reviews; the most critical pool, heavy on billing and support complaints.
Trustpilot is where Riverside's unhappy customers post. Five-star reviewers, often first-time podcasters, call it easy to use and a time saver. Its one-star reviews describe failed or lost recordings, bugs at bad moments, slow support, and auto-renewal charges that reviewers say were hard to cancel.
Trustpilot rates Riverside 3.8 across 544 ratings
Free plan, no credit card required
A must try partner for podcasters
I have been using Riverside for half a year now. Before Riverside, I had zero experience in recording and editing and, for these reasons, zero confidence in my capabilities to launch my podcast. I took courage, and I gained some more along the path, discovering how Riverside made the process easy. Furthermore, their community is incredibly active and helpful. It is a must try!
So happy I made the switch! A must-have for podcasters.
I was with a different platform for recording remote podcast episodes, and had such a difficult time and received minimal help from the company. Since switching to Riverside.fm I've recorded so many episodes with international guests and the video and audio quality is fantastic, setting up the meetings is easy, and the site is user friendly for a technophobe like myself. I've recommended this platform to so many people. It's a must-have for podcasters.
Good tool for remote recordings
Good tool for remote video or audio recordings. The tracks are recorded individually and saved locally on the user's computer until they are saved (with a time delay) in the Riverside cloud. This ensures that the recording is uninterrupted even in the event of minor Wi-Fi transmission errors. It is easy and intuitive to use, even for guests. Unfortunately, the help center can only be contacted in English, but it is very helpful.
Easiest Purchase I made
First and foremost, I liked the quality of recordings. Then the options of editing video post recording, with the tools provided to cater for different needs is awesome. I could use AI features to cut insta reels or manually frame people and enhance voices. We did not use it yet, but live video to multiple platforms is another great feature. It was the most easy decision for me to buy.
High quality recordings, AI tools, human touch!
Locally created files ensure full quality without broadband-related problems. Cool AI tools are speeding up postprocessing. They also have customer-oriented support. Some time ago, I accidentally paid the full-year subscription, even though we had a planned break a month later. I've been refunded, even though it was clearly my mistake. After the break, we happily came back to the Riverside.
Best Podcast editing tool
Best Podcast editing tool I use it for EVERYTHING. The transcripts are very accurate, and it's one of the best tools of its kind. Having had a few hurdles on how to use riverside when I first started, I reached out to customer service, and they got back to me right away to help resolve my issue
Riverside is by far the best podcasting tool...
Riverside is by far the best podcasting tool on the market. As a podcast producer, I've tried all of them, and Riverside is the one I recommend to my clients. It's intuitive, and records great sound and video. When there is a random issue, the customer service is always top-notch.
I avoided making videos for such a long time
I avoided making videos for such a long time because I found the process too complex. (1) Getting set up with a teleprompter to record things, and (2) most especially, editing the output to look and sound reasonable. Riverside solves both of those problems for me, to the point that I actually enjoy making videos now!! Thanks.
The BEST software for podcasts
Riverside has met every expectation and exceeded them! Starting a podcast was a little bit intimidating at first, but with software like Riverside it couldn't be easier to make my podcast dreams come true. The editing software is fantastic and the recording software is phenomenal. The recording software is compatible with the whole setup which is awesome for me.
Hit the ground running
The software is so clean and easy to use. It makes you feel like a professional editor even when you are simply a layperson! There is enough 'stuff' to help professionalise your recordings without feeling overwhelmed and it's intuitive interface means that you can hit the ground running.
Zero experience, Extremely impressed
Zero experience in film editing and have only been used to making videos from my phone. The system has so much to it but is easy to use and understand, and with the help of all its tools and AI, my videos look professionally done!
Remote UHD video - Yay!
They made a product that makes recording high quality remote videos doable. While the interface could be better and more intuitive - it does exactly what I need it to. And that is record UHD and HD video with clients around the country.
Riverside made my experience of podcasting
Riverside made my experience of podcasting so easy, I love all the resources available for improving every step of the process and the final result, it’s just amazing!
The best podcast recording software
The best podcast recording software, and I tried a lot of others. Reliable tech support team, so if something happens to your files, there's somebody who will help you.
Great Experience!
I have used Riverside for nearly 18 months now. Overall experience is great. They keep adding new features which makes a lot of difference to the general experience. It is not 100% all the time but who is? Certainly great experience all round 👍🏾
Incredible recording tool
Incredible recording tool. My favorite feature is the text preview that you can highlight and it takes you to the exact spot in the video to edit. Great tool!
LOVE this software and their customer service team!
LOVE this software, so easy to use as a first time podcaster, only had two issues and the customer service team was great! They answered promptly, kindly and did everything they could to solve my issues!
Simply the Best!
I have tried several platforms for my podcast, and I have found each lacking — except Riverside. It is a powerful tool, with amazing customer service to boot. Thank you for all you do for us creative types!!
Outstanding, brilliant, very frustrating
In many ways it's absolutely wonderful. It makes creating and editing videos ridiculously easy. The AI features are amazing. Clearly built by an absolute genius. I'd thoroughly recommend it. The only problem is that it's SO SLOW. Of course uploading and downloading takes time. But the recording studio and editor often run at a glacial speed as well, and I sometimes spend more time waiting for them than I do actually working on the video -- literally. Hours get wasted. And it's not like I have time to waste. So it's brilliant, but also very frustrating.
Overall a good platform
Overall a good platform. Recording is easy and good quality, but the editing is buggy and not always intuitive. If they continue to invest in the user-friendliness of editing, it'll only get better.
Good but glitchy tool, poor technical support
I have mixed feelings about Riverside.fm. On the positive side, once you get past the initial learning curve, the platform is relatively straightforward to use. I leaned on a friend’s tips and advice early on, which helped significantly. After that, things clicked. I’ve consistently received compliments that my podcast both sounds professional and looks polished, which is a major win and one of the primary reasons I’ve stuck with the platform. That said, there are some meaningful drawbacks. The platform can be quite glitchy, particularly when it comes to uploading videos and making edits. …
Great when it works as expected
Great when it works as expected. It can save a lot of time and effort on editing. The issue I have is with support. I've run into two issues and the response is underwhelming. Being sent links that's the equivalent of saying it's not us it's you is not remotely helpful. Especially when after back and forth they end up having to acknowledge the issue on their end.
Painfully slow support, incapable of fixing tech issues (11 days later)
I'll keep it super super short, but despite all the good reviews, my experience has been terrible. I signed up and was excited to use Riverside, but holy moly. Today is day 11 after I first wrote their support. Every email takes at least two days to get a response. Whenever you do, it's either boilerplate "we're looking into this", or blaming it on your setup. Specific issue: screen recordings are incredibly low quality, despite 5K display, and camera being 4K and sharp. I've given them plenty of examples, full access to my account, offered to talk directly to their support to let them debug on my system. …
Fine software, but NOT reliable.
Fine software. But allways has bugs, problems, sudden video dissapearing, and lots of back and forth with support.
Cost me money and reputation
I had an interview lined up with a New York Times Bestselling author for my radio show/podcast. The system sent out dead links and I could not get it fixed at the scheduled time. Fortunately the guest was kind enough to agree to reschedule the following morning. I contacted tech support to try to get the problem fixed. After looking into it for about 3 minutes, the agent said the team needed to look into it further and would email me when they had an answer. Again...the system was totally unusable. …
$20,000 to produce 15 YouTube Videos
We ended up spending $20,000 to produce 15 YouTube videos with this service. After a year and a half, we found that it was too much for what we need. We tried working with the company to downgrade to a more suitable plan for our small business, but they were unwilling to work with us. Their contract has absolutely no “out” clause, so they can strong-arm you into staying. In a year, we’ve had 3 different account managers. Perhaps the way they treat customers who have spent quite a large sum of money with them, is also how they treat their team internally. We CANNOT recommend them.
Recordings not uploaded and lost, can't trust this platform
After having painstakingly found a guest, prepped for hours, recorded a great session, then only to find that the last 10min of the recording was lost in the upload, is so crappy. They did offer me 1 month free (not really worth it now, as I can't trust riverside). Once you loose the trust that your recording is going to record you can't really use the platform again.
So many technical issues that cause…
So many technical issues that cause recordings to fail mid-way through. Technical support have a super annoying bot and it takes too long to speak to an agent. When you do get through, they never seem to help right away, but go away and reply on email. Not good enough when you are relying on getting videos out quickly. I would not recommend them on my experience
Be aware
Be aware, they put you on auto-renewal and then do not send any reminder messages. When you ask for a refund they quote hidden terms and conditions. Eventually, under threat of chargeback, they refund but deduct more than pro-rata. Video is laggy when using the iPhone as a camera but despite tech requests, there’s no solution forthcoming.
The Mac app is unstable
The Mac app frozen and shut down part way into a live presentation - with many of the audience leaving as we tried to re-enter via the browser. Won't be using it again!
Cancel button doesn't exist. Designed to trap you.
Signed up for a free trial in February 2025. Was charged $288 USD annually with NO way to cancel the plan. Tried to cancel. The cancel button shown in their own help documentation does literally NOT EXIST in the actual app. Not hidden... literally absent. Clicking "Switch to Free" takes you to an article explaining what the free plan is. No button to switch. Clicking "Get Started" on the Free plan in the upgrade modal just redirects you to the dashboard. no plan change, no confirmation, nothing. This isn't a bug. Every single exit point is deliberately broken. …
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