Last updated: 2026-01-20

For most marketers in the US, StreamYard is the most straightforward podcast recording studio for running branded live shows and turning them into reliable audio and video content. If your team is heavily focused on post-production with strict 4K/48kHz specs and in-app AI editing, Riverside can be a useful secondary option alongside a dedicated editor.

Summary

• StreamYard offers browser-based recording, live production, and repurposing that fits how most marketing teams actually ship content.
• Paid plans on StreamYard include unlimited local recording hours, automatic recording of live streams, and 4K local capture for high-fidelity masters. (StreamYard)
• Riverside emphasizes local multi-track recording with monthly hour caps and built-in AI editing tools, which can suit teams that live inside a single recording environment. (Riverside)
• The most resilient workflows pair StreamYard with specialist tools for editing and distribution, instead of relying on any one platform to do everything.

What do marketers actually need from podcast recording software?

When marketers talk about “podcast software,” they rarely mean just a recording app. They’re thinking about:

• High-quality, reliable audio and video that doesn’t embarrass the brand.
• A simple way for guests and internal stakeholders to join without downloading software.
• Automatic recording so nothing gets lost when a live session is over.
• Custom branding so the show looks like your company, not a generic webinar.
• A way to clip highlights quickly for social without rebuilding the edit from scratch.

StreamYard was built around exactly this list: live-first production with automatic recording and local multi-track capture, custom branding, and lightweight repurposing tools. On paid plans, live streams are automatically recorded, and you can store up to 50 hours of content before adding more storage. (StreamYard)

For marketers, that means fewer moving parts: one studio for webinars, live launches, and podcast interviews, all feeding the same content pipeline.

How does StreamYard support high-quality, reliable podcast capture?

Quality is table stakes for modern brands, and it’s not a useful differentiator between StreamYard and Riverside. Both are capable of very strong results when your mic, camera, and environment are dialed in.

StreamYard focuses on giving marketers high-end capture plus reliability:

• 4K local recordings on advanced plans, so you walk away with high-fidelity source files that hold up in professional edits. (StreamYard)
• Uncompressed 48kHz WAV audio per participant via local recording, giving audio editors clean, flexible files to work with. (StreamYard)
• Per-participant local multi-track recording, captured at the source so internet hiccups don’t ruin the final file. (StreamYard)
• Color presets and grading controls to help your hosts match brand aesthetics across different offices, homes, and lighting setups.

On paid plans, there is no monthly cap on local recording hours; instead, you work within session limits (typically up to 10 hours) and storage caps, which are expandable. (StreamYard) That model tends to fit marketing calendars better than hard monthly quotas—you can record full-day summits, long-form interviews, and recurring shows without worrying about burning through a small multi-track allowance.

How simple is StreamYard for guests, execs, and marketing teams?

If you’ve ever tried to walk a busy executive through a software install five minutes before going live, you know why simplicity wins.

StreamYard is entirely browser-based. Guests and internal subject-matter experts join via a link, with no install required. Once they’re in, marketing can:

• Add brand colors, logos, and overlays.
• Switch layouts on the fly.
• Display comments, CTAs, and lower-thirds.
• Multistream to several social channels at once on paid plans. (StreamYard)

Everything is designed for teams that might not have a full-time technical producer. A marketer can run the show, record the session, grab local files for post-production, and cut quick clips—all from the same studio.

A quick scenario: your demand gen lead hosts a live LinkedIn show with a customer CMO. You multistream to LinkedIn and YouTube, the session auto-records in StreamYard (paid), and local tracks give you clean audio. Within an hour, you’ve exported clips for sales enablement, social, and the podcast feed—without asking IT for help.

How does StreamYard compare to Riverside for multi-track and AI workflows?

Both tools support local multi-track recording, but they make different trade-offs.

On StreamYard, paid plans include unlimited local recording hours (within storage and per-session limits), and advanced tiers add 4K local recording and separate cloud audio tracks. (StreamYard) That means a marketing team can run a weekly show, quarterly virtual events, and ad-hoc interviews without constantly checking a monthly meter.

Riverside offers local multi-track recording as well, with clearly defined caps on multi-track hours: 2 hours on the free tier, 5 on Standard, and 15 on Pro per month. (Riverside) For teams recording many long-form episodes, those caps require planning or an upgrade path.

Where Riverside leans in is AI-assisted editing. On certain plans, you get AI tools such as Magic Audio, transcription, and features to remove silences and filler words directly in-platform. (Riverside) That can be appealing if your entire editing workflow lives inside a single browser tab.

At StreamYard, we take a different approach: AI Clips focuses on fast, intentional highlight creation from your recordings, not full-blown editing. You can quickly surface and export moments for:

• Short-form social promotion
• Sales follow-up assets
• Quick recap content between releases

For deep editorial work—multi-track mastering, structural edits, frame-level refinements—we assume you’ll pair StreamYard with a dedicated editor like Premiere Pro, Descript, or DaVinci Resolve. This keeps StreamYard fast and focused, while letting your team use the best tool for each job instead of relying on a one-size-fits-all editor.

How do StreamYard and Riverside differ on plan limits and pricing for marketers?

For a fair comparison, it’s helpful to look at constraints rather than just features.

On StreamYard:

• Free includes basic streaming with a logo and 2 hours/month of local recording, but live streams are not saved to your library on the free tier. (StreamYard)
• Paid plans offer unlimited streaming and recording over the month, bounded by per-session limits (often up to 10 hours) and storage caps (5 hours on free, 50 hours on paid tiers, with options to add more). (StreamYard)
• Local recording hours on paid plans are unlimited; the constraint is how much you choose to store and download. (StreamYard)

Riverside’s pricing model is built around multi-track hours:

• Free offers 2 hours of separate audio and video tracks for testing. (Riverside)
• Standard and Pro increase multi-track hours to 5 and 15 per month respectively, with higher tiers for heavier use. (Riverside)

For marketing teams with a consistent, recurring show and occasional long recordings, StreamYard’s unlimited local hours on paid tiers tend to be easier to reason about than a fixed monthly multi-track pool. For teams that produce fewer episodes but lean heavily on in-app AI editing, a Riverside plan can complement a wider stack.

How should marketers think about editing, hosting, and distribution?

A common trap is expecting any single platform to handle recording, deep editing, hosting, and analytics equally well.

At StreamYard, our view is simple:

• Use StreamYard as your system of record for recording, live production, and quick repurposing.
• Use specialist tools for RSS hosting, distribution, and analytics—platforms built for Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and long-term monetization.
• Use your favorite editor for heavy-lift cuts, mastering, and creative storytelling.

This modular approach usually reduces friction for marketers. You’re not locked into one vendor’s idea of a “podcast suite,” and you can evolve pieces of your stack—editor, host, clipping tools—without migrating everything at once.

What we recommend

• If you’re a US-based marketer building a repeatable podcast or live show, start with StreamYard as your primary recording and live studio.
• Pair StreamYard with a dedicated editing tool and a podcast host to handle deep edits and distribution.
• Consider adding Riverside if your workflow revolves around in-platform AI editing and you can comfortably manage multi-track hour caps.
• Revisit your stack every 6–12 months, but bias toward tools that keep recording simple for guests and stakeholders—your content cadence matters more than any single spec on the feature list.