Podbean vs Riverside Comparison 2026
Both cover audio & podcasting. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
Podcast hosting with the money side built in
Remote recording captured locally in full quality
At a glance
- Podbean starts cheaper, at $12.
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
Podbean | Riverside | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $12 | From $29 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | 14 days |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | None |
| Runs on | Web, iOS, Android | Not stated |
| Covers |
Shaded rows are where the two answers disagree and both listings have answered. A row where one side has not stated a fact is left plain, because silence is not a difference.
Podbean
Podcast hosting with the money side built in
Podbean hosts a show and then tries to pay for it: a patron programme, dynamic ad insertion against its own advertiser marketplace, and premium episodes sold per episode or by subscription. That is a different shape from hosts that stop at the RSS feed, and it suits a show whose audience is small enough that a network will not call back. The free account exists to get a first episode published; the paid bands lift storage and open the monetization tools.
Our note
Read the terms on the ad marketplace and the patron programme before treating the quoted monthly fee as the whole cost, since neither cut is published beside the plans. As hosting alone this is mid-priced; the reason to pick it is wanting the monetization side switched on.
Only on this side
- Covers monetization & payments
Riverside
Remote recording captured locally in full quality
Riverside records every participant on their own machine, so a bad connection during the call does not ruin the file. Up to 4K video and separate audio tracks. Guests need a reasonably modern browser and some patience with the upload.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.