Riverside.fm Reviews

Summary: TERRIBLE.
So many better tools, and cheaper ones, to use.
Avoid this one.
Read other reviews, many similar and other issues.

Positive: Is okay to use.
You can have different studios.
Fancy design.
A lot more cons than pros. Don't use this tool.

Negative: - cant add logo in the corner during the recording
- even premium subscription downloads with watermark unless you go through additional steps to tick REMOVE watermark
- support is useless, the only thing they can do is send links, but cannot help anything
- ruined 2 of my scheduled events that audience couldn't attend, and I couldn't record to upload to other platforms
- lost so much time going back and forth with useless support
- their ask was: you and your guests need to turn off all VPNs, add-ons, extensions, ad blockers, close all other tabs and then it might work HAHAHH - worst support ever.
- also: we recommend you check the link before going live, okay and so what do I do when the event is scheduled days in advance.

Summary: Terrible. Massive waste of time. Laggy video. Video and audio tracks not synched for host and guest. Call dropped in the middle of interview. The worst.

Positive: Free to try? Except that it cost me time so not even 1 pro. They want 100 characters in this field so I’m going to have to keep saying how there were ZERO pros until I get to 100 characters. Free is never free. But I wanted to try before signing up. Glad I did.

Negative: Tech support took over 48 hours to get back and when they did they didn’t know how to answer the simplest tech questions. I had to explain editing terms to them!! This company is all hype, no substance.

Summary: Riverside.fm is a work in progress it drops connections in the middle of recordings bringing on guests is even worse we had one on and the connection drop 7 times throughout the recording. Honestly, riverside.fm will only work if they change their system from web-based to application-based I believe these issues will be corrected. And most importantly for podcasters to only have a chat option to contact support is awful. At this point anyone that wants to podcast I can not recommend riverside.fm.

Positive: Studio quality audio.
Easy platform.
Editing software.
Separate recording for each person.
Easy audio and video controls for host.

Negative: Laggy.
Drops connections.
The magic editor does not function.
Audio issues.
Support is unresponsive.
Chrome only.

Summary: Abysmal. The program doesn’t work and customer service is bad.
I look forward to working with audio but I dread having to use Riverside.

Positive: It does video, was one of the first to do it which is why we went with it.
The software looks good and for the first month it worked without a hitch.

Negative: Every time I record a podcast the audio and video are out of sync. I thought it was to do with settings on the guests we had on our podcast. Maybe they had the wrong sample rate or they had firewalls up which prevented the software working properly?

After recording 30+ podcasts on here with different guests each time it is most certainly something to do with their software.

After fighting to get through their online chat and communicate with them that all the solutions they gave me to try on the next recording didn’t work (and waiting for days for a reply) I received an email saying that they had resynced my most recent recording. Once I downloaded them I found them to be even more out of sync!? Why would they not check before sending to me?

Summary: While they seem to offer good features, they are let down by their attempt to scam unsuspecting customers.

Positive: Seemingly records good quality audio and video but nothing special. You would get better quality using a separate camera / audio set up.

Negative: Once you sign up you are forced into a recurring monthly payment. There's no option to cancel membership and even having contacted them about this and confirming I didn't want to renew my subscription, money has been taken from my account each month.

Summary: I have been using Riverside for our podcast for more than a year now. The software has its appeals, but when you rely on getting a recording done, you need something that's bulletproof. Unfortunately, I've spent a lot of time with Riverside support to resolve lost recordings and technical glitches. I guess there's a reason why they also publish backup tracks alongside the main recording, because sometimes (more often that it should) things go wrong.

Very stressful experience. If there was a more reliable alternative out there, I'd switch us over in an instant.

Positive: - Recording on separate tracks locally is great for getting good sound quality (when things work)
- The app is easy to understand and work with.

Negative: - Too many technical glitches make using Riverside very stressful.

Summary: Unreliable for the thing that needs the most reliability in a podcast. Developers seem focused on adding a new feature before finishing the existing ones on the platform.

Positive: The vision to have a 1-stop-shop for uploading and capturing footage/audio is nice. No other service exists to capture these things at a high-resolution all-in-one.

The service is feature heavy, with lots of fun options like iPhone recording, a producer menu, audience viewing of tapings.

Negative: Oh lord, this thing is buggy AF.

Upload a file? Says it's complete? sorry, AWS servers can't find your "XML file" so you're screwed. Guess you won't be able to access your podcast recordings after all. It's especially irritating after booking guests, reserving time, and then finding out that you don't have the recording you thought you had.

None of the advertised livestream features work.

Documentation often feels 80% complete. It may describe 2 out of the 3 features.

If a guest has limited memory, storage, or slower internet bandwidths, they're highly prone to errors on the platform, which may leave the episode dead in the water. There's no documentation or indication on what minimum system requirements are - so you're not able to guide guests on how much space they should reserve on their cache or local storage in order to upload later.

UI/UX seems very jerry-rigged together, where features seemed added on without a cohesive/comprehensive vision for how they would all streamline together. Accessing features and functions requires jumping through multiple windows in ways that are nonintuitive.

Summary: I am new to riverside.fm, but I have enjoyed what the platform has to offer and at a good cost. I have not had a chance to use the Clips feature yet but I am looking forward to it!

Positive: Ease of use (Recording Solo or Multiple Interviewees).
Built-in Editor.
Affordable (favorable cost to any other comparable competitor).

Negative: Flexibility (use of product outside of Chrome or phone app).
Support took a few days to respond but were incredibly helpful and, upon responding, immediately resolved my issue.

Summary: Because it is always reliable and dependable, my experience has been nothing but favorable. I did contact customer service once when I first started using, they solved the problem immediately.

Positive: I have used Riverside for a year, it is reliable and dependable in every way. Always excellent. I get a solid video and audio every time.

Negative: Honestly, nothing. I wish I could write something they need to improve upon, but because it meets every expectation, I simply have no improvement recommendations.

Summary: A very good product for making podcasts, video podcast and streaming. Sound and video is really good recorded and exported. Different options for output. Different options to publish very quickly and easy on social media.
Best decision to go with riverside when creating podcasts and video podcasts.

Positive: Easy to handle.
Even as it is in English and I am not a mother-tongue speaker.
Easy to use.
Once I recorded a video podcast with another person and we had a very poor connection but Riverside.fm made it possible that we had an excellent recording without any losses or poor screen. Still very good quality.

Negative: Up until now there was no con I couldn't recognize.

Summary: The quality of the 48khz audio and up to 4K video recording. Good tech support, complete feature set for producing end to end video podcasting, be it solo, remote or multiple guests. Was of use and consistent quality of the tech stack is the reason I highly recommend Riverside.fm

Positive: The interface, tech support, fast workflow from record to export is very good. The ability to make reels and clips for other social media platforms is also great. The transcript based editing is very helpful and allows web based editing to be a breeze.

Negative: I would phrase this more of feature request rather than a con, a few more screen layout and overlay options for e.g in StreamYard would be nice to have.

Summary: Overall, I like the platform and will be sticking with it. It's great for recording podcast and pretty user friendly. The price point feels appropriate for the services it includes.

Positive: I like how user friendly the platform is. Everything is pretty intuitive. They also have a lot of videos on YouTube to teach you other things. The customer service is pretty responsive. They back everything up on their own drive so even if you have issues with a recording they can retrieve it for you, which is clutch.

Negative: I've had a few issues with glitches in videos, initially. I was told to use other platforms, which didn't make sense to me but eventually the issue was resolved.

Summary: Riverside has become my recording method of choice - even above meeting up and recording in person! The audio quality has been fab (just make sure your guests aren't using Bluetooth earphones!), and it has all the features you could ask for. Highly recommended.

Positive: Great audio quality!
Easy to use.
Easy to send links to collaborators.
Features developed (e.g. synced recordings) that make the editing process after recording incredibly easy.
Innovative team who are always looking to improve the platform and add new features
As good as (if not better than!) recording episodes together in person!

Negative: Pricing may be on the steeper side for people just starting out in podcasting - but it is definitely worth it for the audio quality and ease of use!

Summary: Seamless experience, easy to use, and overall great resource! There are other platforms I've tried and Riverside is by far the best!

Positive: Makes recording audio (and video) of remote guests and/or co-hosts a breeze! Haven't had any issues.

Negative: There's really nothing that I can think of that's a negative.

Summary: Riverside.fm is the solution you need if you record a virtual podcast or virtual video interviews. All other virtual meeting apps simply can not compete. Do your production team a favor and use Riverside.fm for the next recorded interview you plan to host.

Positive: Riverside.fm allows me to record separate, high quality audio and video tracks for each participant, making video and podcasting editing a breeze.

Negative: There's not much to dislike here! Since Riverside.fm is still relatively new, I'm sure they'll be working out whatever kinks exist at this point.