GetClipMachine vs Riverside: recording studio vs clipping tool

This is the comparison where the honest answer is most often "use both".

Riverside is primarily a remote recording studio, it captures high-quality, separate local tracks for each participant so a remote interview doesn't sound like a video call. Magic Clips, its AI clipping feature, is a post-production add-on to that core job.

GetClipMachine doesn't record anything. It takes a finished video and finds the clips.

On the numbers here. Read from Riverside's public pricing page on 2 September 2026, linked at the bottom. Since our first check the meter changed: recording is now unlimited on every paid plan, and what is capped is separate-track download hours (the studio-quality per- participant files). Pro also went from 5 to 15 hours.

The pricing

Plan	Price	Separate-track downloads	Studios
Free	$0	2 hours multi-track (one-off), 720p, watermarked	–
Pro	$24/mo billed annually ($29 monthly)	15 hrs/mo	1
Grow	$34/mo billed annually ($39 monthly)	20 hrs/mo	2
Webinar	$79/mo billed annually ($99 monthly)	25 hrs/mo	3
Business	Custom	Unlimited	Unlimited

Recording itself is unlimited on paid plans; the cap is on downloading the individual per-participant tracks. Hit it and you can still use your content in Riverside, but can't pull new separate tracks until the next cycle.

Free exports up to 720p; paid tiers up to 4K with no watermark. All paid plans include Magic Clips and unlimited text-based editing.

GetClipMachine is €15/month flat, unlimited videos and clips, no recording.

How to actually decide

If you record remote interviews, you need something like Riverside regardless. Local track recording is a real technical capability and no clipping tool replaces it. The question isn't whether to use Riverside, it's whether its clipping is good enough that you don't want a second tool.

If you already have finished video, you record in person, you stream, you have an existing production pipeline, or your podcast is published already, Riverside's recording hours are irrelevant to you and you'd be paying for the part you don't use.

If you use both, the split is clean: Riverside records and produces the master, we take the master and produce the clips. At €15 on top of a Pro plan that's a modest addition for a meaningfully different clipping engine.

What Riverside does better

• Recording. Separate local tracks per participant, which is the entire reason it exists and something we don't attempt.
• An integrated pipeline, record, edit and clip without moving files.
• Text-based editing, unlimited on paid plans. We have no editor.
• AI B-roll, eye contact correction, filler-word and silence removal.
• 4K on Pro at $24/mo, comparable to our Pro.

What's different here

• No hours meter. Riverside's clipping sits behind plans built around recording and separate-track download hours; if you're clipping video you recorded elsewhere, you're paying for a studio you'll never open.
• Unlimited source length and clip count at a flat €15.
• Published boundary measurements, 7 of 10 clips were cut mid-sentence before we fixed it.
• A scored, explained shortlist rather than an editing surface: you get clips ranked with reasons, not a timeline to work in.

Where we're the weaker pick

• You need to record remote guests. Use Riverside.
• You want recording, editing and clipping in one tool.
• You need eye-contact correction, filler removal or B-roll.
• Your clipping needs are light and Magic Clips already covers them: a second subscription isn't worth it.

Short version

Riverside if you're recording remote conversations; its clipping may well be enough on its own.

GetClipMachine if your video already exists, or if you record in Riverside and want a dedicated clipping engine on top. For the podcaster workflow specifically, see AI clipping for podcasters.