Last updated: 2026-01-12

For most teachers in the US, StreamYard is the easiest place to start and grow a classroom or faculty podcast, thanks to browser-based recording, simple guest links, and strong audio/video quality. If you have very specific needs around in-person multi-mic or 4K studio workflows, Riverside can be a helpful alternative to pair with dedicated editing tools.

Summary

• StreamYard gives teachers a browser-based studio with automatic cloud and local recording, solid audio/video, and simple guest onboarding. (StreamYard podcasting)
• On paid plans, there are no monthly caps on local recording hours, and you can capture separate per-participant audio for flexible editing. (Local Recording)
• Riverside emphasizes local multi-track capture with higher audio sample rate specs and more detailed in-person/hybrid workflows, but with monthly multi-track hour limits. (Riverside pricing)
• Pair either tool with a dedicated podcast host for RSS feeds and distribution; StreamYard intentionally focuses on recording, live production, and repurposing rather than all-in-one hosting.

What do teachers actually need from podcast recording software?

Let’s set aside marketing language and look at what most teachers care about when they say, “I need podcast software.”

You usually want:

• High-quality, reliable audio/video. Students need to hear clearly, admin and families shouldn’t struggle with garbled sound.
• Low-friction setup. No tech headaches for guest speakers, co‑teachers, or students—ideally, they click a link and they’re in.
• Automatic recording. When the bell rings or the meeting ends, you want the file waiting for you.
• Basic customization. Enough branding to represent your school or program without becoming a full-time design project.
• Simple clip creation. Quick highlights for LMS pages, social posts, or parent newsletters.

StreamYard was built around exactly this kind of workflow: browser-based, invite-first, with cloud and local recordings you can download in familiar formats like MP4, MP3, and WAV. (Can I use StreamYard to create a Podcast?)

For teachers, that means less time troubleshooting software and more time focusing on content and students.

How to choose podcast recording software for remote guest interviews

Remote guests are where podcasting software either feels magical—or painful.

StreamYard for most teaching scenarios

If you regularly:

• Bring in guest speakers via Zoom‑style sessions
• Record panels with multiple teachers or students
• Run live events (parent nights, program Q&As) that double as podcast episodes

StreamYard is usually the most straightforward choice.

Key reasons:

• No installs for guests. They join from a browser link, which is ideal for busy administrators, parents, or community partners.
• Multi‑participant support. You can record with up to 10 people on paid plans, and 5 other guests on the free plan. (Podcasting page)
• Automatic recording of live sessions on paid plans. When you go live, recordings appear in your library without extra steps. (Recording limits)

When to consider Riverside instead

Riverside is a strong option if your priority is:

• Maximizing per-participant audio specs (up to 48 kHz WAV) and up to 4K video
• Using its desktop/mobile apps rather than a pure browser flow
• Leaning into its built-in AI editing and hybrid in-person workflows

Riverside records each participant locally and uploads those files, which can be useful if you’re building a media program around very detailed post-production. (Riverside podcasting use case)

For most teachers, the practical difference in everyday use is small. The bigger deciding factor is whether you want a live-first, guest-link studio (StreamYard) or a recording-first app with more emphasis on built-in editing (Riverside).

Getting separate audio tracks for easier editing

Separate tracks are one of the first “advanced” features teachers hear about. The idea is simple: if each voice is on its own track, you—or your media students—have more control when editing.

How this works in StreamYard

At StreamYard, we focus on two layers:

1. Local recordings per participant.
   • Each participant can be recorded directly on their device, giving you per-person video and audio files.
   • On the free plan, this is capped at 2 hours of local recording per month; on paid plans, local recording hours are unlimited, constrained mainly by storage. (Local Recording)
2. Separate cloud audio tracks on higher tiers.
   • On more advanced plans, you can capture individual audio tracks in the cloud as separate WAV files.
   • This gives you both the safety of cloud recording and the flexibility of multi-track editing. (Cloud individual audio tracks)

Those files drop into a simple downloads workflow: cloud recordings as MP4/MP3, local recordings as MP4 and WAV, which you can bring into GarageBand, Audacity, or any editor you already use. (Podcast formats)

How this compares with Riverside

Riverside also records each participant locally and generates individual tracks. That’s helpful when you want very detailed editing or student-led audio production projects. (Riverside hybrid sessions)

However, Riverside’s multi-track hours are tightly capped per month by plan (for example, 5 or 15 hours), so a busy teacher podcast can run into those limits quickly. (Riverside pricing)

In practice, if you:

• Record episodic shows weekly with guests
• Occasionally need multi-track edits, but not for every single episode

StreamYard’s unlimited paid local recording and separate cloud audio options typically give you more breathing room without worrying about burning through a specific multi-track quota.

Free and low-cost podcast recording options for teachers

Budgets are real. Let’s talk about what you can do with little or no spend.

StreamYard’s free option

On the free plan you can:

• Host remote sessions in the browser with a smaller group of guests
• Use up to 2 hours of local recording per month (recording-only, not live) for higher-quality source files
• Start building workflows your team can later scale on paid plans without switching tools (Podcasting page)

There are trade-offs—such as branding limits and recording caps—but for a pilot series, student club, or limited-term project, it’s a practical way to test your podcast concept.

How Riverside’s free plan fits in

Riverside’s free plan includes unlimited single-track recording and editing, plus separate tracks for the first two hours you record. (Riverside podcasting use case)

That can be attractive if you:

• Are experimenting with post-production
• Want to try its AI-based tools before committing to a paid plan

For ongoing, semester-long shows with recurring guests, many educators find the predictable, browser-first flow in StreamYard easier to roll out across colleagues and students.

Recording classroom or in-person podcasts with multiple mics

Not every school podcast is fully remote. You might have a roundtable in the library, a student journalism project, or a department show recorded in person.

A simple approach with StreamYard

A common pattern teachers use:

• Connect your multiple microphones to a single computer via an audio interface or classroom mixer.
• Route that mixed signal into StreamYard as one input.
• Use StreamYard as the recording “engine,” capturing both a cloud backup and local recordings in high quality, including 4K local recordings and uncompressed 48kHz WAV audio per participant when available. (Local Recording)

This keeps setup manageable while still giving students exposure to real audio hardware.

When Riverside’s hybrid features help

Riverside publishes specific guidance for recording in-person and hybrid sessions, including arrangements where some guests are in the room and others join remotely. (Riverside hybrid sessions)

If your program leans heavily into complex hybrid setups with many local mics and detailed technical routing, Riverside’s documentation can be useful. But that complexity can also be overkill for a typical teacher podcast.

For most educators, a single-computer setup with StreamYard plus a basic audio interface is a solid balance between quality and simplicity.

Export formats and editing workflows for classroom podcasts

Once you’re recorded, the real work starts: editing, publishing, and sharing.

File formats that play nicely with school workflows

From StreamYard you can:

• Download cloud recordings as MP4 (video) and MP3 (audio).
• Download local recordings as MP4 (video) and WAV (audio) per participant, which are ready for most editors and DAWs. (Podcast formats)

Those files slot neatly into:

• Free tools like Audacity or GarageBand
• District-approved editors
• LMS uploads or private drives

Why StreamYard doesn’t try to be your podcast host

At StreamYard, we intentionally avoid bundling an RSS host or full distribution layer.

Instead, we encourage pairing your recording workflow with dedicated podcast hosting services for:

• RSS feed management
• Distribution to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other apps
• Analytics and potential monetization

This “best-in-class tools” approach means you can:

• Swap hosts later without re-learning your recording studio
• Keep your recording, live production, and repurposing consistently inside StreamYard

Riverside similarly expects you to export files for distribution elsewhere, but leans more heavily into in-app editing and AI summarization.

For a busy teacher, using StreamYard as the dependable capture studio, combined with a simple host for publishing, usually keeps the tech stack understandable for colleagues and student collaborators.

What we recommend

• Default choice: Start your teacher or classroom podcast in StreamYard to get reliable browser-based recording, automatic cloud backups, and flexible local multi-track options without managing complex caps.
• Remote-first shows: If you run a lot of live Q&As, parent sessions, or panel discussions that later become episodes, StreamYard’s live-first design and simple guest links are a strong fit.
• High-spec or hybrid edge cases: Consider Riverside when you have very specific needs around 4K-focused studio capture, detailed in-person/hybrid mic setups, or when you want its built-in editing tools as part of a media curriculum.
• Long-term workflow: Whichever tool you choose, plan to pair it with a dedicated podcast host, and treat your recording software as the engine for capturing, branding, and quickly clipping your content—not as an all-in-one replacement for publishing.