Riverside pricing in 2026: plans, the free trial and what you actually pay

Riverside sells three self-serve paid plans: Pro, Grow and Webinar. Billed annually, they work out at about $24, $34 and $79 a month. Billed month to month, Webinar is $99, and published figures for Pro range from $29 to $35 and for Grow from $39 to $45.

There is no longer a free plan for new sign-ups. Riverside's own blog says the free plan has been replaced with a 14-day free trial, a change made around September 2026. Plenty of reviews and comparison pages still describe a free tier, so check the date on anything you read.

We checked these figures against Riverside's blog and two independent reviews on 27 October 2026. Riverside changes its plans often, so confirm the numbers on riverside.com before you pay.

Pro is the plan most podcasters land on. It covers the thing Riverside is known for: recording remote guests in the browser, with a separate local track for each person, so a bad connection does not ruin the audio.

Grow sits above Pro and raises the allowances that start to bite once you publish every week, such as recording time and AI editing. If you only record a couple of episodes a month, Pro is usually enough. Check the current comparison table for the exact limits, because they move more often than the prices do.

Webinar is built for live events with an audience, registration and streaming. Most podcasts do not need it. Larger teams that need contracts, security reviews or many seats are pointed to Riverside's sales team instead of a public price.

Two things cause most of the confusion. First, Riverside's pricing page leads with the annual price expressed per month, which is the lowest number. The month-to-month price is higher, and it is easy to compare one site's annual figure with another site's monthly one.

Second, the plans changed in September 2026, and not every review has caught up. Riverside's own blog lists Pro at $35 a month, or $29 billed annually. Independent reviews from October list the annual Pro price at $24. When sources disagree like this, the live checkout page is the only number that counts.

Annual billing saves roughly a fifth to a third, depending on the plan. It only saves money if you are still using Riverside in month seven, so commit to a year after the trial has convinced you, not before.

Not any more, for new users. You get a 14-day free trial of a paid plan instead. A card is required up front, and reviewers report that the first charge lands on day 15 unless you cancel before then.

Use the trial on purpose. Book a real interview for the first week, record it, edit it and export it, so you know whether the workflow suits you before the card is charged. Put a reminder in your calendar for day 12.

If you opened a free account before the change, log in and check what your account still includes rather than relying on an old feature list.

Two plans with a $10 difference can end up costing the same once you hit a limit. Before choosing, write down how many hours you record a month, how many people are on a typical call, and whether you need video at all.

Then check each plan for recording hours, transcription and AI editing allowances, export resolution, the number of hosts or seats, and whether podcast hosting is included. Riverside includes hosting on its paid plans, which matters if you would otherwise pay a separate host.

Riverside is a recorder first, with editing and hosting added on. If capture quality for remote guests is your priority, it is hard to beat. If the trial shows you mostly use it as a call recorder, a lighter tool may do. We rank the options in our Riverside alternatives guide.

The usual head-to-head is Riverside vs Descript. Descript is an editor first that also records, through Descript Rooms, which Descript says will eventually replace SquadCast. Pick Riverside if the recording is the hard part, and Descript if the edit is. See Descript alternatives and SquadCast alternatives for both sides.

If the recording is fine and the slow part is everything after it, Hilite records in the browser and takes the episode through cleanup, transcript editing, show notes and publishing in one place. Here is how Hilite compares with Riverside.