Podcast Editing Software Battle: Descript vs Riverside

You’re about to start a podcast and you’ve decided you want to edit it yourself.

At first, this seems like it should be fairly straightforward.

Get the audio/video, make a few adjustments, cut a bit of the nonsense out and you should have something that’s good enough to release.

But then you start researching online what software you should use to edit your show and everybody and their dog has an opinion on what software to choose.

And for some reason, the editors of the world are quite adamant that their tool is the best one to use. There can be no other winners. 

Unfortunately, a lot of the information you find online may lead you down the path of complex editing tools that make you want to throw your computer out a window. 

And as a long-time editor myself with almost two decades of experience working with audio and video, I can sometimes be a bit of a snob too. 

I do have clear favourites and if I’m amongst other seasoned editors, no doubt we would have a healthy debate about why what we use is supreme. 

But that’s not the purpose of today dear reader.

Today, I want to help distil the endless possibilities that you’re presented with as a DIY podcast editor, into a comparison of two tools that there has been quite a lot of discussion about online. Descript vs. Riverside.fm.

You’ve probably heard of Riverside.fm with its super convenient virtual meeting capabilities. It’s been a trusty sidekick for recording interviews remotely. It wasn't long ago that Riverside started offering editing capabilities too. Smart, right? If you're already using Riverside, you might think, "Hey, why not just edit here too?" 

But is it as good as it sounds?

On the flip side, there's Descript – an editing tool that, truth be told, had a rough start years ago as it was a pretty bad user experience. But time has been kind to Descript, and now it’s a pretty solid choice in the podcasting world. 

So, let’s see how these two stack up against each other based on a few key factors: ease of editing, customisation, speed, AI tools, and learning curve.