Riverside vs Wistia

Riverside

• Podcasters and interviewers recording remote guests in high quality
• Marketing teams turning long recordings into social clips
• Hosts who want recording, editing, hosting and live streaming in one tool

Wistia

• Marketing teams embedding branded, ad-free video on their own site
• Companies that want leads and viewing data from video in their marketing tools
• Teams running webinars and reusing the recordings as on-demand video

Riverside

• The Free plan allows 2 hours of multi-track recording, tops out at 720p and puts a Riverside watermark on exports.
• Separate-track downloads are capped each month: 15 hours on Pro, 20 on Grow and 25 on Webinar.
• Live streaming starts on Grow, and registration, Q&A and polls for webinars need the Webinar plan.
• Collaborative editing, custom roles, SSO and API access are limited to Business; the desktop app is listed for Mac only.

Wistia

• The Free plan is limited to 1 user, 25 GB of storage and 200 GB of bandwidth, and keeps Wistia branding on the player.
• Marketing automation integrations and lead scoring need Business + Signals, a webinar plan or Enterprise.
• Business includes 3 users and each extra user costs $25; SSO and playback protection are Enterprise-only.
• Dubbing and AI audio descriptions are a paid add-on below Enterprise, and cancellations are not refunded.

Riverside

Local multi-track recording

Audio and video are recorded on each participant's own device and uploaded in the background, giving a separate track per person in up to 4K.

Text-based editor

Edit a recording through its transcript, with AI tools that remove silences and filler words. Paid web plans include unlimited transcriptions.

Magic Clips and AI show notes

AI selects short clips for social media and drafts show notes. Magic Clips is also listed on the Free plan.

Live streaming and webinars

Grow adds Full HD live streaming to multiple destinations. The Webinar plan adds registration, Q&A, polls, email reminders and analytics.

Podcast hosting and publishing

Each studio has its own podcast hosting, analytics and website, and can publish to YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Mac and mobile apps

The Mac app records a shared screen locally as its own track. The iOS and Android apps can record, invite guests and serve as a second webcam.

Wistia

Hosting and embedding

Videos are stored in one library and played through an ad-free, customizable player that embeds on any site. Paid plans add collections, channels and playlists.

Recording studio

Record the screen, a webcam or both in the browser, or invite guests by link. Each participant is recorded locally on a separate track with a cloud backup.

Editing and AI clips

A timeline editor plus transcript-based editing, AI background-noise removal and silence trimming. Remix turns a prompt into highlight reels, cut-downs and social clips.

Analytics and lead capture

Paid plans add heatmaps, engagement graphs, A/B testing and CSV export, along with calls to action and in-video forms that collect leads.

Webinars

Webinar plans cover live, simulive and pre-recorded events with registration pages, chat, Q&A and polls, and up to 9 presenters on screen.

Automation Suite

Puts video and webinar engagement on contact records in HubSpot, Adobe Marketo Engage and Pardot for lead scoring, segmentation and triggered campaigns.

Riverside

• Free$0

  2 hours of multi-track recording, unlimited single-track recording, 720p video and a Riverside watermark.

• Mobile Plus$9.99

  per month

  For the mobile apps only: removes watermarks and exports up to 4K video and WAV audio.

• Pro$24

  per month, billed annually at $288 ($29 monthly)

  Up to 4K video and 48 kHz audio, no watermark, 15 hours of separate-track downloads a month and 1 studio.

• Grow$34

  per month, billed annually at $408 ($39 monthly)

  20 hours of separate-track downloads a month, 2 studios, and Full HD live streaming with multistreaming.

• Webinar$79

  per month, billed annually ($99 monthly)

  25 hours of separate-track downloads, 3 studios, and webinars with up to 100 registrants, Q&A, polls and analytics.

• BusinessCustom

  Unlimited studios and separate-track downloads, up to 10,000 webinar registrants, API access, SSO and a dedicated CSM.

Wistia

• Free$0

  1 user, up to 25 GB of storage, 200 GB of bandwidth, basic video analytics and Wistia branding on the player.

• Business$79

  per month, billed annually ($99 billed monthly)

  3 users with more at $25 each, 250 GB of storage, no Wistia branding, collections and playlists, CTAs and forms, heatmaps and A/B testing.

• Business + Signals$329

  per month, billed annually ($412 billed monthly)

  Business plus the Automation Suite: HubSpot, Marketo and Pardot integrations, lead scoring, triggered campaigns and revenue attribution.

• Webinars$429

  per month, billed annually ($537 billed monthly)

  Everything in Business plus live webinars for up to 500 attendees, 1.5-hour streams, registration pages and the Automation Suite.

• Webinars Plus$829

  per month, billed annually ($1,037 billed monthly)

  1,000 attendees, 3-hour streams, webinars embedded on your own site, simulcast to social platforms and Wistia branding removed.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Storage from 1 TB, custom users, team accounts, SSO, video playback protection and a dedicated customer success manager.

Riverside

• Annual discount

  Save up to 20% with yearly billing

  Annual billing drops Pro from $29 to $24 per month, Grow from $39 to $34 and Webinar from $99 to $79, which Riverside describes as saving up to 20%.

Wistia

• Annual discount

  Save 20% with annual billing

  Wistia's pricing page labels annual billing as saving 20%: Business is $79 a month billed annually against $99 billed monthly, and Business + Signals is $329 against $412.

• Nonprofit

  Discount for nonprofit organizations

  Wistia's help center says it offers a discount to nonprofits that email its support team with documentation of their status. The size of the discount is not stated.