⚡ Quick Verdict:
- Pricing: Riverside paid plans start at $24/month. Castr pricing starts lower at $12.5/month.
- Best for: Riverside fm for recording podcasts and video interviews. Castr for live streaming to multiple platforms.
- Key difference: Riverside uses local recording technology for high quality audio and video. Castr is a live streaming platform built on Akamai CDN.
- Our pick: Riverside for most content creation. It records speakers locally and handles editing in one place.
Riverside and Castr both work with audio and video.
But they solve two different problems.
Riverside fm is built for recording podcasts and video interviews.
Castr is built for live streaming to many sites at once.
One captures clean files. The other pushes a live stream to viewers.
This guide shows you which tool fits your work.
Overview
This Riverside vs Castr comparison covers pricing, key features, and ease of use.
It also breaks down who each tool works best for.
Our writers spent hands-on time with both Riverside and Castr.
Those notes appear in the “What Our Team Noticed” sections below.
By the end, you will know which one to choose.
What is Riverside?
Riverside is a browser-based recording platform for podcasts and video.
It runs in a web browser, so there are no complicated downloads.
The platform uses local recording to capture each person on their own computer.
That keeps recordings sharp even on a weak internet connection.
You can record audio and video with up to 8 participants.
Each person gets separate video tracks for cleaner editing later.
🏆 Winner: Riverside
Record high quality audio and video in your browser. Local recording keeps every track clean for editing.
Riverside Pricing
Here is what Riverside costs in 2026. Let’s break it down.
| Plan | Price | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Pro | $24/month | Solo podcasters and creators |
| Live | $34/month | Live stream hosts and shows |
| Webinar | $79/month | Webinar and audience events |
| Business | Contact Sales | Teams on Business plans |
Pricing verified June 2026.
Free trial: Riverside has a free plan. It lets you record up to two hours of separate audio and video tracks.
Money-back guarantee: Riverside bills monthly or yearly. Annual billing lowers the monthly rate on each plan.
📌 Note: Each paid plan adds more monthly recording hours. The Pro plan unlocks AI tools, the teleprompter, and unlimited transcriptions.
⚠️ Warning: The free plan adds a watermark and caps your hours. Test it on a real project before you upgrade your account.
Key Benefits of Riverside
Here is what makes Riverside worth considering:
- Local Recording: Riverside uses local recording technology to record speakers locally on each computer. The result is high quality video even with a weak connection.
- Separate Tracks: It records separate audio and video tracks for each person. This makes editing podcasts much easier in post.
- Magic Clips: The AI-powered Magic Clips feature finds short highlights. You can turn them into YouTube Shorts in minutes.
- Accurate Transcriptions: Riverside transcribes speech to text in over 100 languages. It also lets you add captions and download a transcript.
- Virtual Studio: The virtual studio invites guests to your calls with no sign-up. You can record audio and video from remote locations.
- Editing Tools: A built-in editor and teleprompter sit next to the recording. You edit and export files without other apps.
What Our Team Noticed
Our writer signed up for Riverside and recorded a few test podcasts. Here is what stood out from that hands-on time:
Riverside Pros & Cons
✅ Pros
- Local recording keeps quality high on a bad connection
- Records up to 4K video and lossless audio
- Magic Clips and AI tools speed up content creation
- Transcribes audio in over 100 languages
❌ Cons
- Costs more than Castr at the entry level
- Some users report app bugs and guest management issues
- Live stream tools are lighter than a dedicated platform
What is Castr?
Castr is a live streaming platform for broadcasting to many sites.
It connects to streaming software like OBS through your dashboard.
From there, Castr live streaming pushes one broadcast to over 30 platforms.
The service runs on the Akamai CDN for stable video streaming.
That setup helps keep latency low and cut buffering for viewers.
You can also stream pre recorded videos as if they were live.
Castr
Stream live to multiple platforms at once. Castr runs on the Akamai CDN for stable, low-latency broadcasts.
Castr Pricing
Here is what Castr pricing looks like in 2026. Let’s break it down.
| Plan | Price | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $12.5/month | First-time live stream hosts |
| Standard | $33.5/month | Regular multistream creators |
| Professional | $62.5/month | Growing channels and brands |
| Premium | $104.5/month | High-volume live streams |
| Ultra | $250/month | Large media production teams |
Pricing verified June 2026.
Free trial: Castr offers a free 7-day trial on the Starter plan. It includes a limited amount of bandwidth and video storage.
Money-back guarantee: You can upgrade or downgrade plans at any time. There is no long contract or commitment.
📌 Note: Higher tiers add more concurrent streams, multistream destinations, and TB upfront bandwidth. A custom plan is available on request.
⚠️ Warning: Plans differ on bandwidth and video storage. Pick a tier that matches how many live streams you run each month.
Key Benefits of Castr
Here is what makes Castr worth considering:
- Multistream: Castr streams to multiple platforms at once, including Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch. One broadcast reaches every channel.
- Akamai CDN: Streams run on the Akamai CDN with adaptive bitrate. Viewers get stable video and less buffering.
- Cloud Recording: Castr records live video streaming in the cloud for up to 72 hours. You keep a copy for video on demand.
- Monetization: The paywall standard on paid tiers and in-stream advertising let you charge your audience. You earn from the same live streams.
- Flexible Ingest: Castr accepts RTMP, HLS, and an HLS URL output for OTT players. You can even stream from an IP camera.
- Embed and Schedule: Embed a player on your website and schedule streams ahead of time. Scheduling keeps your broadcast on time.
What Our Team Noticed
Our writer set up Castr with OBS and ran a test broadcast. Here is what stood out from that hands-on time:
Castr Pros & Cons
✅ Pros
- Streams to over 30 platforms at the same time
- Runs on Akamai CDN for stable, low-latency streams
- Lower entry price than Riverside
- Paywall and advertising tools to monetize streams
❌ Cons
- Needs encoder software like OBS to work
- No local recording for high quality source files
- Cloud recording storage lasts only 3 days
Feature Comparison
Ready to dive into a detailed comparison of Riverside vs Castr? We will walk through the key features that matter for recording and live streaming.
This table gives you a fast side-by-side look before we go deeper.
| Feature | Riverside | Castr |
|---|---|---|
| Starting Price | $24/month | $12.5/month |
| Free Plan / Trial | ✅ Free plan | ✅ 7-day trial |
| Local Recording | ✅ | ❌ |
| Multistream to Platforms | ✅ (Live plan) | ✅ 30+ |
| Separate Audio & Video Tracks | ✅ | ❌ |
| Transcription & Captions | ✅ 100+ languages | ❌ |
| Paywall & Monetization | ❌ | ✅ |
| IP Camera Streaming | ❌ | ✅ |
| Best For | Recording podcasts | Live streaming |
1. Recording Quality & Local Recording
Riverside: Riverside leads on audio recording. It uses local recording technology to record speakers locally on each person’s computer. You can record audio and video in up to 4K, and even capture high quality audio with just a microphone and a browser.
Castr: Castr does not record source files locally. It captures your live stream in the cloud instead. Sound and picture depend on your encoder and connection, not on a local recording.
⚠️ Warning: If you need clean master files for editing podcasts, only Riverside records each person locally. Castr saves the broadcast, not separate tracks.
2. Live Streaming & Going Live
Riverside: Riverside adds a live stream studio on its Live plan. You can host sessions, go live to YouTube and Facebook, and record at the same time. It is built for shows that record first and broadcast second.
Castr: Castr is a live streaming platform first. You connect your encoder and broadcast a live stream to viewers across many platforms. It also supports multistreaming in 1080p and handles livestreaming for creators who run regular livestreams.
3. Multistreaming to Multiple Platforms
Castr: Castr can broadcast to over 30 platforms at once, including Facebook pages, YouTube, and Twitch. Adaptive bitrate adjusts to varying internet speeds, so a live broadcast stays stable. The service uses the Akamai CDN to cut buffering for your audience.
Riverside: Riverside can also stream to several social media platforms on the Live plan. But it sends fewer destinations than Castr. Choose Riverside here only if you also want a clean recording of the same session.
4. Editing, Clips & YouTube Shorts
Riverside: Riverside includes a video editor and the Magic Clips feature. It finds short highlights and turns them into clips for YouTube Shorts and various social media platforms. You can edit and export files without a second app.
Castr: Castr is not built for editing. Its focus is delivery, not post-production. You would still bring a separate tool to make a clip for social media.
5. Transcription & Captions
Riverside: Riverside transcribes speech to text in over 100 languages. It produces accurate transcriptions right after recording and can tell speakers apart automatically. You can add captions, download a transcript as SRT or TXT, and get unlimited transcriptions on paid plans.
Castr: Castr does not transcribe your stream. If captions matter for your content, you would add them with another service. This is one area where Riverside is a huge help.
6. AI Tools & Show Notes
Riverside: Riverside uses AI across content creation. It writes show notes automatically and helps you create clips for a podcast. For solo podcasters, that automation is a huge help when you review what happened in a session.
Castr: Castr keeps its tools focused on broadcast and delivery. There is no AI writer or show notes feature. Its strength is getting your live video streaming out to people fast.
7. Monetization & Paywall
Castr: Castr lets you charge viewers through a paywall and in-stream advertising. You can sell access to a live stream or video on demand. This makes it a fit for broadcast media production teams that need to earn revenue.
Riverside: Riverside has no built-in paywall. You earn by publishing podcasts and videos elsewhere. Monetization is not part of the platform itself.
8. Video Hosting & Storage
Castr: Castr offers video hosting and an embeddable player for your website. It gives you an HLS URL for both live and on-demand content. Cloud recording stores a stream for up to 72 hours before it clears.
Riverside: Riverside provides cloud storage for your recordings through automatic uploads. Its progressive uploading sends files to the cloud during recording. There is less risk of losing footage if the app crashes.
9. IP Camera & OTT Delivery
Castr: Castr can stream directly from an RTSP IP camera. It also delivers an HLS URL to OTT players like Roku and Apple TV. For entertainment and broadcast media, that reach is hard to match.
Riverside: Riverside records through a web browser, microphone, and camera. It does not connect to an IP camera or push to OTT. Its job is clean source footage, not broadcast delivery.
10. Webinars & Ease of Use
Riverside: Riverside has a Webinar plan for live events with audience members. Its user friendly interface feels like Zoom, so there is no steep learning curve. You can log in, invite guests from remote locations, and record video interviews. There is even an iPhone app to record on the go, and you do not need a developer to set it up.
Castr: Castr runs from a clean dashboard, and users call its setup simple. It is a step up from streaming over Skype, though you still manage an encoder. The support team gets amazing marks for being responsive.
11. Pricing & Cost
Let’s compare the pricing plans side by side.
| Tier | Riverside | Castr |
|---|---|---|
| Entry | Pro — $24/month | Starter — $12.5/month |
| Mid | Live — $34/month | Standard — $33.5/month |
| Higher | Webinar — $79/month | Professional — $62.5/month |
| Top | Business — Contact Sales | Premium $104.5 / Ultra $250 |
Riverside: Riverside starts at $24/month on the Pro plan. You pay more, but you get recording, editing, and unlimited transcriptions in one account. For podcasting, that bundle earns its price.
Castr: Castr pricing starts lower at $12.5/month and scales by bandwidth and video storage. The Ultra plan at $250/month suits large media production teams. You can upgrade as your live streams grow.
Different Scenarios
| If You Need… | Choose | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Tight budget | Castr | Lower entry price |
| Podcast recording | Riverside | Local recording, clean tracks |
| Live streaming to many sites | Castr | 30+ platforms at once |
| Transcription and clips | Riverside | AI tools built in |
| Monetized streams | Castr | Paywall and advertising |
| Beginner-friendly | Riverside | Easier interface |
💰 Your Budget
Castr starts cheaper at $12.5/month. Riverside costs more but bundles recording and editing in one account.
🔌 Your Tech Stack
Castr needs an encoder like OBS and a stream URL. Riverside works in a browser on almost any device.
📝 Your Content Style
For example, a podcast or video interview fits Riverside. A live church service or entertainment show fits Castr.
🎓 Your Experience Level
New creators find Riverside easier to learn. Castr asks you to manage more streaming software elements before you go live.
🆓 Free Trials and Demos
Explore both first. Riverside has a free plan, and Castr offers a 7-day trial so you can test bandwidth limits.
🛟 Support Options
Castr offers responsive live chat support. Riverside has a help team plus a community group on Facebook for users.
🔒 Data Privacy and Security
Both store recordings in the cloud. Castr adds paywall and access controls for security on paid streams you sell.
Switching Guide
Already using one of these tools? Here is what to expect if you are switching.
🔄 Switching from Riverside to Castr?
✅ What you’ll gain:
- Broadcast to 30+ platforms at once
- Paywall and advertising to monetize live streams
- IP camera support and an HLS URL for OTT
❌ What you’ll lose:
- Local recording and separate video tracks
- Transcription, captions, and Magic Clips
- The built-in editor for podcasts
📋 How to switch:
- Download your past recordings and files from Riverside
- Create a Castr account and install OBS
- Add your stream key and go live
🔄 Switching from Castr to Riverside?
✅ What you’ll gain:
- Local recording for high quality audio and video
- Transcription in 100+ languages and captions
- Magic Clips and an editor for content creation
❌ What you’ll lose:
- Multistream to 30+ live streaming destinations
- Paywall, advertising, and IP camera streaming
- OTT delivery through an HLS URL
📋 How to switch:
- Save any cloud recordings from Castr before they clear
- Create a Riverside account and open the studio
- Invite guests and start to record in your browser
What Our Review Didn’t Cover
This comparison focused on individual creators and small teams. We did not test large enterprise broadcasts or custom Ultra-tier setups in depth. Our notes are based on the June 2026 versions of both tools, and features may change. If you run a 24/7 broadcast media operation, your priorities may differ from what we cover here.
Final Verdict
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| 💰 Pricing | Castr |
| 🎙️ Recording Quality | Riverside |
| 📡 Live Streaming | Castr |
| ✍️ Transcription & Editing | Riverside |
| 👶 Ease of Use | Riverside |
| 💵 Monetization | Castr |
| 🏆 Overall Winner | Riverside |
🏆 WINNER: RIVERSIDE
Riverside wins for most content creators who record audio and video.
Best for: Podcasting, video interviews, and clips for social media platforms
Riverside and Castr serve two different jobs. Riverside is for recording, editing, and transcription. Castr is a live streaming platform for reaching a big audience.
Castr is excellent for live video streaming and monetized broadcasts. If a live stream to many platforms is your main goal, Castr is the better pick.
But for most podcasters, choose Riverside. It records speakers locally, so everyone sounds clear even on a weak connection. You also get clips, captions, and editing in one place.
Explore both with their free options before you commit your money.
More of Riverside Compared
Here is how Riverside stacks up against other recording and streaming tools:
Riverside wins on: 4K video recording, Magic Clips, and a built-in editor
Zencastr wins on: Audio-first simplicity, lower price, and a faster setup for podcasters
Riverside vs Restream
Riverside wins on: Local recording, separate tracks, and transcription
Restream wins on: Pure multistreaming reach, live chat tools, and scheduling broadcasts
Riverside vs StreamYard
Riverside wins on: Recording quality, AI clips, and 100+ language transcription
StreamYard wins on: Branded live overlays, guest comments on screen, and easy go-live flow
Riverside wins on: Multi-guest video, higher resolution, and stronger live tools
Podcastle wins on: AI voice cleanup, text-based editing, and a friendly free tier
More of Castr Compared
Here is how Castr measures up against other streaming platforms and its peers:
Castr wins on: Akamai CDN delivery, IP camera streaming, and an HLS URL for OTT
Restream wins on: In-browser studio, guest invites, and built-in live chat across platforms
Castr wins on: 30+ destinations, paywall monetization, and pre recorded videos played as live
StreamYard wins on: On-screen branding, guest management, and a simpler dashboard for beginners
Castr vs Streamlabs
Castr wins on: Multi-platform reach, video hosting, and white-label OTT delivery
Streamlabs wins on: Gamer overlays, alerts, and a tight tie-in with desktop streaming software
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Riverside.fm used for?
Riverside fm is used to record high quality audio and video for podcasts, video interviews, and live streams. It records each speaker locally, then helps you edit clips and transcripts.
What is Castr used for?
Castr is a live streaming platform used to broadcast to multiple platforms at once. It runs on the Akamai CDN, supports IP cameras, and lets you monetize streams with a paywall.
Is Riverside.fm free?
Riverside has a free plan. It lets you record up to two hours of separate audio and video tracks, though it adds a watermark. Paid plans start at $24/month.
How much does Castr cost?
Castr pricing starts at $12.5/month on the Starter plan. Higher tiers cost $33.5, $62.5, $104.5, and $250 per month, scaling by bandwidth and video storage.
Does Riverside use AI?
Yes. Riverside uses AI to transcribe speech, write show notes automatically, and create short clips with Magic Clips. These tools speed up editing and content creation.
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