RIVERSIDE ALTERNATIVE

shortshort vs Riverside.

shortshort cuts one long video into vertical shorts that end where the sentence ends, frames the face with automatic zooms, and costs €0.05 per minute of video. Below: the numbers first, then 18 criteria with a check or a cross, then the plans of both.

Try it on a video · free See the 18 criteria

60 free credits, no cardUp to 3 hours per videoMP4 · 1080 × 1920

shortshort vs Riverside: the short answer

shortshort turns one video of up to 3 hours into 9:16 shorts that end where the sentence ends, framed on the face on screen with automatic emphasis zooms, captioned word by word, for €0.05 per minute of source video. 60 minutes are free, no card.

Riverside records podcasts and interviews and repurposes them into clips. It may fit better for bigger files, longer videos, translation or dubbing; the table below says where, with the source.

Price per minute of video: €0.05 here, $0.04 at Riverside
Free plan: Permanent on both sides

Facts checked against the product on 20 September 2026. Prices before VAT.

Why shortshort

Four things the product does by design; the table below checks the rest, both ways.

Priced by the minute, not by the short

€0.05 per minute on Starter, whatever the number of shorts. 60 minutes are free at sign-up, no card.

Cuts that finish the sentence

The AI reads the whole transcript and keeps complete, quotable passages: a short opens and closes on a sentence, never mid-thought.

Framing that follows the face, with motion

The 9:16 crop tracks the face on screen and adds emphasis zooms between x1.0 and x1.6; slides and wide shots stay whole. Framing is automatic; cuts, title and captions stay editable.

One page, nothing to learn

Drop the file, choose how many shorts and how long, check the proposals, export the MP4s. No timeline, no template to configure.

18 criteria, side by side

One line per criterion, the same shape on both sides. The Riverside column is derived from Riverside's own site: the number after a cell points to the source, and the exact wording is under the table.

Reading note. Riverside is first a recording studio for podcasts and interviews; clip generation applies to what it recorded or to an upload.

Criterion	shortshort	Riverside
Getting the video in
Longest video	3 h per videoOne file of up to 3 hours, on every plan.	4 h per uploaded file^[1]Up to 240 minutes per uploaded file and no time cap on studio recording, but AI translation only takes videos under 60 minutes.
Largest file	2 GB per fileMP4, MOV or WebM.	25 GB per uploaded recording^[1]Media added inside the editor is capped at 500 MB per file, and uploads top out at 4096 by 4096, with no AV1 codec and no HDR.
How the video gets in	File upload onlyNo YouTube or Drive link import; the file leaves your disk.	Record in browser or app, or upload a file^[1]Browser, Mac and mobile recording plus in person multicam, or upload WAV, MP3, MP4, WEBM and MPEG, including from Google Drive; no link import into the studio.
What comes out
Crop follows the speaker	Face and scene trackingThe 9:16 crop moves with the speaker; slides and wide shots stay full frame; framing set automatically.	Yes, smart layouts and auto crop on all plans^[2]Smart layouts follow the main speaker, auto crop centres the face in a tile, and a clip can focus on one speaker; auto crop fails on recordings before 2026.
Automatic captions	Word by word, 4 stylesSpotlight, Impact, Karaoke, Minimal; timed on the audio; SRT import.	Yes, 100+ languages with styling^[3]Automatic captions with a claimed 99% accuracy, editable font, colour and position, SRT download; saved presets start at Pro and captions stay in the spoken language.
Aspect ratios	9:16 only	16:9, 9:16 and 1:1^[4]The editor switches between full width, vertical and square, and Magic Clips carries a ratio preset plus an audio only option.
Export	MP4 1080 × 1920, 30 fpsH.264, rendered in the browser or on the server on Creator and Studio.	Up to 4K, 720p on the free plan^[5]Exports reach 4K on paid plans, mobile apps cap at 1080p except on Business, the studio records 720p by default, and editor exports are always 24 FPS.
Editing and export
Manual editor	Yes, free, no account neededBounds, caption words, caption style and title.	Yes, full timeline plus text based editing^[5]Cut, split, trim and drag tracks, add overlays, music and b-roll, edit by editing the transcript, and fine tune or rebuild any Magic Clip.
Brand presets	One preset, Studio planCaption colour and font, preselected on every new video.	Brand kit from Pro, saved clip presets^[6]Logo, colours and text styles applied in one click, plus clip presets for ratio, layout and length; locking the brand kit and custom fonts are Business only.
Edit export	JSON edit plan, Studio planFor rendering on your own server; no Premiere or DaVinci export.	Premiere, Final Cut and AAF, Business only^[7]A non destructive timeline export carries trims, chapters and comments as XML or AAF with aligned media; AI tools, media inserts and overlays do not carry over.
Extras
Translation or dubbing	Not offeredCaptions are in the language spoken in the video.	Yes, 30+ languages with voice cloning^[8]Translated audio with optional lip sync, up to 4 speakers and under 60 minutes; their pages disagree, Business only on one, AI credits from Pro on the other.
Virality score	None, by designThe AI keeps complete, quotable sentences; you choose what goes out.	Not stated on their site
B-roll, music, titles	None addedThe short is your video, reframed and captioned.	Yes on paid plans, AI b-roll costs credits^[9]Image and video b-roll generated from a text prompt on Pro and above, paid with AI credits; stock media, music, overlays and text sit in the editor too.
Publishes to social	Download and post yourselfOne MP4 per short, or one ZIP with every short with and without captions; nothing is published from the studio.	Scheduling from Grow up, publishing from Pro^[10]A content planner schedules posts to TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook and X on Grow and above, while Pro can publish to YouTube, Spotify and Apple.
Team and price
Team seats	One account, one login	1 seat per plan, multi seat only on Business^[11]1 seat on Free, Pro, Grow and Webinar; the extra editor seat is a paid add-on on Pro, Grow and Webinar only; roles, invites and collaborative editing are Business only.
API	None	Business only, gets media out and deletes it^[12]The Business API lists and downloads recordings, transcripts and timeline exports and deletes them, but cannot build integrations or apps; access via your CSM.
Free plan	60 credits, no cardPermanent: up to 3 shorts per video, watermarked, exports join the public community.	Yes, with a watermark and a 720p cap^[11]Hidden on the pricing page but still advertised elsewhere: 2 hours of multitrack recording, 720p exports, a watermark. Paid plans add a 14 day free trial.
How you pay	1 credit = 1 minute of videoWhatever the number of shorts. Plans from 12 EUR a month for 240 minutes.	Subscription, 3 paid tiers plus AI credits^[11]Monthly or yearly plans, Business on quote; recording hours are unlimited but downloads and uploads are metered, and AI credits are bought on top.

Offered
On some plans, or with a limit
Not offered
A fact, not a yes or no
Not stated on their site

The exact wording of each Riverside cell, as read on their site

Longest video: For an uploaded video, "Duration limit: Up to 240 minutes (4 hours) per file." Monthly upload volume is capped by plan: "Pro plan: 15 hours of external uploads / Grow plan: 15 hours / Webinar plan: 15 hours / Mobile Plus: 15 hours / Business plan: Unlimited external uploads" (https://support.riverside.com/hc/en-us/articles/27728436340125-What-are-the-limits-for-uploading-external-files). Recording itself is not time-capped: "Unlimited Recording Time: You can record without time constraints in the Riverside studio" (article 22296539458973). A tighter limit applies to AI Translation only: it works on uploads and recordings "as long as they're under 60 minutes, which is the current limitation on recording length" (riverside.com/ai-translation).^[1]
Largest file: For an externally uploaded recording, "File size limit: Up to 25 GB." For media assets added inside the editor the limit is smaller: "File size limit: Up to 500 megabytes per file."^[1]
How the video gets in: Two routes into the studio and editor. (1) Record inside Riverside: a "4K video and audio recorder" for remote guests in the browser, plus a Mac App and mobile apps, in-person multi-cam and screen recording. (2) Upload your own file: "Upload a recording and we'll separate audio and video tracks per speaker for easier editing", with help-centre routes "Upload video or audio file for editing", "Upload multiple files to timeline" and "Upload your video from Google Drive to Riverside". Accepted formats: audio WAV, MP3, OGG ("Use AAC, MPEG, or OPUS codecs"); video WEBM, MP4, MPEG with "4096 x 4096 maximum resolution size", "Use H264, VP8, H265, or VP9 codecs. AV1 codec is not supported", "Files in ISO format are not supported", "HDR (10-bit) is not supported". On importing from a link their own pages disagree: the help centre answers "Can I transcribe a YouTube video from its link?" with "At the moment, no. However, you can download the YouTube video and get a transcription via our free transcription tool" (article 28916031725597), while riverside.com/tools/youtube-transcript-generator says "Just paste a YouTube link and turn any video to text", "Upload it just pasting its link" and "Link-friendly YouTube transcriber" - so a link gets you a transcript from that standalone free tool, not a clip or an edit in the studio. Integrations named on the pricing page are HubSpot, Salesforce and Marketo (CRM, not video sources), plus "Riverside MCP", "a connection between Riverside and AI assistants like Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor" that can "search your transcripts, make edits, cut clips, and publish to social media" (Grow and above).^[1]
Crop follows the speaker: Yes, on three levels. Automatic multicam switching: "Smart layouts identifies the main speaker, based on speech and head nods, to automatically apply scenes and layouts to capture key moments in your video", with a control panel for Style ("Smart, Full screen, Picture in picture, Split screen, Grid"), switching "Frequency", "Cutaway" choice and "Fill crops the video to fill the frame" versus Fit; listed as "Plan: All plans". Face framing inside a tile: "click Auto-crop to automatically center and scale the speaker's face to fill the tile in one click", also "All plans", with the caveat "Auto-crop cannot be applied to recordings created before 2026". And in clip generation you "Choose a speaker(s) for the clip to focus on, based on the participants in the recording", with the clips page saying "Select your highlights or the speaker and topics you want to focus on." The comparison table also lists "Speaker detection" from Pro upward.^[2]
Automatic captions: Yes, automatic. "99% accuracy guaranteed and more than 100 languages supported" (the languages are not listed). Styling: "Pick a style, font, and color to make your captions 100% on brand", you choose "how to align and where to position them on screen", and on the clips page "Font, color, size, placement, and movement? It's all up to you." Magic Clips ship with captions burned in by default: Riverside "set the pace, add animated captions, and a background image (for audio only), all of which you can tailor in the editor". Separate caption files can be downloaded as SRT for use elsewhere. Animated captions are on all plans per the comparison table, while "Captions saved presets" start at Pro; transcription is "Unlimited transcriptions" from Pro upward (the Free column shows no transcription hours). One stated limit: "Currently, you can only add captions in the same language spoken in the recording" (riverside.com/ai-translation), so there are no translated subtitles.^[3]
Aspect ratios: Three in the editor, chosen from the top bar: "16:9 Full width, 9:16 Vertical, or 1:1 Square" (on mobile you tap the ratio to cycle through them). For clips the marketing page says "platform-ready presets for YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, switch between vertical, widescreen, and anything in between", and the Magic Clips defaults panel lets you set "Ratio" from a drop-down "or select Audio only". Live streaming additionally supports streaming "in multiple aspect ratios".^[4]
Export: Up to 4K, with conditions. Export: "Once you're done editing, you can export and download your videos in up to 4K resolution", and for clips "Create clips in up to 4K resolution, even when recorded on mobile"; the homepage shows 4K as "3840 x 2160". The pricing comparison table qualifies this: export quality and clip export quality are "Up to 720P" on Free and "Up to 4K" on Pro and above; "Video quality - desktop" is up to 4K on paid plans; "Video quality - mobile apps" is "Up to 1080P" on Pro, Grow and Webinar and only "Up to 4K" on Business. Recording resolution defaults low: "the standard resolution of recorded video tracks in the Riverside studio is 720p HD", and you raise it in Studio settings to "Up to 1080p" or "Up to 4K HD" ("Plan: Pro, Grow, Webinar, and Business"), or in-session to "720p HD, 1080p Full HD, or 4K Ultra HD". Frame rate is fixed on export: "The default frame rate for participant tracks recorded on a computer is 24 FPS" and "Videos exported from the editor are always in 24 FPS, despite the studio's FPS setting"; only Business can set the studio to "25 FPS or 29.97 FPS", and that affects the raw and aligned high-quality track files only.^[5]
Manual editor: Yes, a full timeline plus a transcript-based editor, not just clip tweaks. "Timeline editing: Cut, split, trim, and more, right in the timeline for ultimate control" and "Full timeline control: Cut, split, trim, drag tracks around, and add overlays, music, b-roll, and more. Right in the timeline." Alongside it, "Text-based editing: Edit your recordings by editing a transcript, just like a document", multi-track editing per speaker, chat-based editing with an AI agent, search in transcript, an audio equalizer, per-speaker color adjustment, transitions, overlays and animations, plus mobile editing in the app. For clips specifically you can "fine-tune or create from scratch" and "Adjust clip length, choose a focus speaker or keywords, change backgrounds, or pick layouts"; in the Made for You panel, "To customize your Magic Clip click Edit." The now-hidden Free card advertised the "Full suite of editing tools", and the FAQ says "Editing on Riverside is free ... Both the recorder and editor are included in all plans, from free to Enterprise."^[5]
Brand presets: Yes, a brand kit plus saved clip presets. Editor: "Custom branding: Add your logo, color palette, and text styles once, and from then on apply it all in just a click", with custom brand fonts and "Keep every video on brand by locking your team's brand kit". For clips: "Save your default ratio, layout, branding, and length as a preset so every clip screams 'this is me'", and the Magic Clips defaults panel has a "Brand" toggle "to automatically apply your branding to Magic Clips" (that panel is "Plan: Pro, Grow, Webinar, and Business"). Per the pricing comparison table the brand kit itself starts at Pro, while "Lock brand kit" and "Custom fonts" are Business-only. Enforcing a brand across a whole production is Business: "Manage a whole production's brand kit, including locking individual elements", where "Editors and directors can apply a locked element to their edit, but can't modify or delete it."^[6]
Edit export: Yes, and it is one of their selling points, though Business only. "After making rough cuts and adding contextual comments in Riverside, export the timeline as a synchronized package formatted for easy import to Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro or any AAF-supported editor", listed as "Plan: Business" ("Who: Account owner, Admins, Directors, and Editors"). The editor page phrases it as "exporting non-destructive timelines to Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro as XML files", and the Business plan line reads "Non-destructive timeline exports". What survives the round trip is limited: "Trims and cuts, including those made with Remove filler words and Remove pauses, as well as chapters and comments, are included in the export. Other AI tools, media inserts, and overlays added in the editor do not carry over." The ZIP contains "the timeline file (XML or AAF) and all aligned media" and its download link "expires after 7 days". DaVinci Resolve is not named. The Business API can trigger the same export via "Create Timeline Export" and download it via "Get Timeline".^[7]
Translation or dubbing: Yes, full dubbing rather than just subtitles: "Translate, voice, and lip sync your recordings in 30+ languages with a little help from AI" (languages not listed). "AI Translation uses speaker-specific voice cloning to create natural-sounding translations that closely match each person's original voice and tone." Lip sync is optional. Limits they state: "AI translation will do all of that for up to 4 speakers per video - host or guests - for now"; it works on uploads and recordings "as long as they're under 60 minutes"; "Translation takes roughly 20 minutes per 1 minute of video"; and captions stay in the original spoken language. Availability contradicts across their own pages: this page answers "Will this be available on all plans?" with "At this stage, it's exclusive to Business plans", while the pricing page's comparison table lists "AI translation" as "AI Credits" on Pro, Grow, Webinar and Business alike, and its FAQ gives Pro "2000 free credits" for exactly such features.^[8]
Virality score: Not stated on their site.
B-roll, music, titles: Yes, and it is generated, not only stock. The Pro plan lists "AI B-roll, eye contact, remove silences & filler words", and the editor page lists "B-roll generation: Generate image and video b-roll with AI to make your content more engaging." The help centre's "Generate AI B-roll videos" describes text-to-video from the editor's "Stock" panel: you "Type a text prompt to describe your video", can toggle "Add audio", and can "convert images to video, insert yourself into generated scenes, and enhance storytelling using guided prompts, customizable visuals, and built-in stock options". It is metered and gated: "Plan: Pro, Grow, Webinar, and Business", "This feature uses AI Credits", and "Each Veo3 generation costs produces ~8 seconds of high-quality video per prompt" (a Pika model is the alternative, and "Veo3 supports text prompts only"). For clips: "It's super easy to use custom backgrounds, your branded color palette, and add text, music, and image overlays to any clip." The editor also offers stock media, overlays with entry/exit animations, transitions and an extended 1k-track music library (Pro and above).^[9]
Publishes to social: Yes, publishing and scheduling both. The "Content planner" schedules posts to TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook and X (Twitter) - each has its own help-centre article - with a calendar to "manage upcoming posts in one calendar", multiple connected accounts per platform, thumbnail frame picking and a "Generate caption" button; the TikTok article states "Plan: Grow, Webinar, and Business" and "Who: Account owners, admins, directors, and editors". The pricing comparison table puts "Social media scheduling" on Grow and above, while Pro already includes "Publish to YouTube, Spotify, Apple, Instagram, LinkedIn & more" without scheduling. Podcast distribution and multistreaming to "YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Twitch" are separate features.^[10]
Team seats: Yes, but one seat per paid plan and real multi-seat work is Business-only. The pricing comparison table publishes the cap: "Seats: Free 1, Pro 1, Grow 1, Webinar 1, Business Custom packages", and "Editor role: 1 editor (Free), 1 editor available as paid add-on (Pro, Grow, Webinar), Unlimited editors (Business)"; "Roles and permissions", "Inviting collaborators", "Collaborative editing", "Private chat" and "Productions: Multiple" are Business-only. The FAQ agrees: "On Pro, Grow, and Webinar, an additional editor seat is available as an add-on. Business is the only plan with collaborative editing and custom roles built in." Inviting members is a Business flow ("Plan: Business"): "Add another person to your Riverside for Business account so they can join as a host or producer in the studio, or use the editor", assigning each a role and a production; the help centre names the roles "Account owners, admins, directors, and editors".^[11]
API: Yes, but not a public self-serve one. "The Riverside Business API helps save manual effort by programmatically allowing your team to get recording media out of your Riverside account and delete what's no longer needed." Access: "Plan: Some Business plans, contact your CSM", owner-only, with the key generated under Settings > Team > API ("You can only generate 1 API key and only 1 API key can be active at once"). It supports listing productions/studios/projects/recordings, retrieving a recording, "Downloading the media file of a track", "Downloading the transcription file of a track", deleting recordings, listing and downloading exported edits, triggering and downloading timeline exports, and webinar registrant endpoints. It explicitly "does not support: Developing new functionalities or apps built on top of the Riverside platform (i.e. integrations and apps)." The pricing comparison table lists "Content Management API" under Business only. Separately, Grow and above include "Riverside MCP", an assistant-facing connector rather than an API.^[12]
Free plan: Yes, but it is no longer shown on the pricing page. The Free card is in the page HTML ("Free", "$0 /month", "Jump in and create something", button "Get Started") yet renders with display:none, because the page's own script sets showFreePlan = false under the comment "Free plan privremeno sakriven" (Free plan temporarily hidden), and the rendered comparison table shows only Pro, Grow, Webinar and Business. Every other page still advertises it: "*No credit card needed. Free plan available." appears on the homepage, /captions, /magic-clips and /video-editor, whose FAQ says "Editing on Riverside is free" and "Both the recorder and editor are included in all plans, from free to Enterprise", and /magic-clips says "Magic Clips is free but feels like a Hollywood-grade producer". What the hidden Free card lists: "2 hours" of multi-track recordings, "Full suite of editing tools", "Up to 720p video quality", "44.1 kHz audio quality", "Unlimited single track recording and editing", "Magic Clips", "Video calls. As long as you want!", and a watermark ("Riverside watermark on all your things"). Paid tiers offer a separate "14-day free trial".^[11]
How you pay: Subscription per plan, billed monthly or yearly, banner "Up to 20% off Yearly plans" (the live figures are actually 31% off on Pro, 24% on Grow, 20% on Webinar). Three paid tiers are displayed today (Pro, Grow, Webinar) plus Business at "Contact Sales for pricing and more info"; the Free card exists in the page but is hidden. Metering is on downloads and uploads, not on clips: "Recording hours: Unlimited" on every plan, while separate-track downloads are 15 hours/month (Pro), 20 (Grow), 25 (Webinar), Unlimited (Business), and external uploads are 15 hours/month on Pro, Grow and Webinar and unlimited on Business. A second currency sits on top: "AI Credits power select features like AI Translation, AI B-Roll, and Animated Clips", with "Pro users start with 2000 free credits; Business starts with 12000. Once credits are used, you can purchase more. Core AI features like Magic Clips, Magic Audio, and the AI Co-Creator don't require credits." Their pricing API prices credit packs at 100 for $2, 1000 for $20, 3000 for $60, 8000 for $160, 10000 for $200 and 20000 for $400. Extra editors are an add-on: "On Pro, Grow, and Webinar, an additional editor seat is available as an add-on" (their pricing API lists the editor seat at $19/month or $168/year, and a Live Studio add-on at $15/month, $10/month on yearly). The currency symbol follows the visitor's country; the API returns the same numbers for usd, eur and gbp.^[11]

Sources for the Riverside column, read on 20 September 2026

Their pages can change after that date; the table does not update itself.

What a month costs

shortshort prices before VAT, from the product. Riverside plans as listed on their pricing page^[11].

shortshort

Free€0, no card60 welcome credits, one hour of videoUp to 3 shorts per videoWatermarked exportExported shorts join the community
Starter€12 a month240 min of video a month, 4 hoursUp to 5 shorts per videoNo watermarkPrivate exports: nothing posted to the public community gallery
Creator€29 a month800 min of video a month, 13 h 20Everything in StarterUp to 10 shorts per videoRenders on our servers: close the tab and come back to finished shorts
Studio€79 a month3,000 min of video a month, 50 hoursEverything in CreatorUp to 20 shorts per videoOne brand preset: your caption colors and font, preselected on every new video

Annual billing: Starter €115 a year, Creator €278 a year, Studio €758 a year. Full detail on the pricing page.

Riverside

Free0 USD, hidden on the pricing page2 h of multitrack, recording unlimitedUp to 720p video and a watermark on everythingFull editing tools and Magic Clips included1 editor, up to 3 scheduled sessions, no transcription
Pro35 USD a month, 24 billed yearly15 h of separate track downloads a monthUp to 4K, no watermark, unlimited transcriptionsAI b-roll, eye contact, filler word removalMagic clips, show notes, podcast hosting, 1 studio2000 AI credits to start, 14 day free trial
Grow45 USD a month, 34 billed yearly20 h of separate track downloads a monthEverything in Pro plus social media scheduling1080p live streaming and multistreamingNewsletter, creator website, AI thumbnails, MCP2 studios, video hosting, custom overlays
Webinar99 USD a month, 79 billed yearly25 h of separate track downloads a monthEverything in Grow plus webinars for 100 registrantsLead capture, branded registration, HubSpot syncQ and A, polls, call ins, webinar analytics3 studios, recurring webinars, no time limits
BusinessContact sales, no figure publishedUnlimited downloads, uploads and studiosOnly plan with collaborative editing and rolesTimeline export to Premiere and Final Cut, API accessUnlimited editors, SSO, SOC2 and ISO2700112000 AI credits, up to 10000 webinar registrants

As written on their pricing page

Free: $0/month, but the Free card is NOT displayed on the pricing page today: From the (hidden) Free card: "2 hours" of multi-track recordings (Separate audio and video tracks), "Full suite of editing tools", "Up to 720p video quality", "44.1 kHz audio quality", "Riverside watermark on all your things", "Unlimited single track recording and editing", "Magic Clips", "Video calls. As long as you want!" The page's own comparison-table data for the Free column adds: no studios, "2 hours (one-off)" of separate-track downloads, "Recording hours: Unlimited", export and clip quality "Up to 720P", no transcription, no brand kit, "1 editor", "Up to 3 sessions" of scheduled recordings.. CORRECTED. The Free plan card is present in the HTML but rendered with display:none. The page's own script sets `var showFreePlan = false;` under the comment "Free plan privremeno sakriven" (Free plan temporarily hidden), and the rendered comparison table has only four columns: Pro, Grow, Webinar, Business. I confirmed this in a real browser: the first visible card is Pro. A free plan is still advertised everywhere else on riverside.com ("*No credit card needed. Free plan available." on the homepage, /captions, /magic-clips and /video-editor; /video-editor's FAQ says "Both the recorder and editor are included in all plans, from free to Enterprise"), so it appears to exist but is no longer merchandised on /pricing.
Pro: $35/month on monthly billing; $24/month on yearly billing, "Billed $288 annually": "Studio-quality video & sound", "Up to 4K video", "48kHz audio", "No watermark", "Teleprompter for host", "In-person multi-cam recording", "Unlimited text-based editing", "AI editing & repurposing agent", "AI B-roll, eye contact, remove silences & filler words", "Unlimited transcriptions", "Magic clips & show notes", "Audio enhancement", "Podcast hosting & analytics", "Publish to YouTube, Spotify, Apple, Instagram, LinkedIn & more", "1 studio", "15 hrs of separate track downloads". PRICE CORRECTED from $29 to $35 monthly. The $29 figure exists only in stale static markup (the collapsed comparison table and the FAQ answer "Pro drops from $29 to $24/month"); the plan cards are empty in the HTML and are filled at runtime from riverside.com/api/v1/plans/pricing, which returns Pro month 35, year 24 for usd, eur and gbp alike. Rendered live, the card reads 35/month on Monthly and 24/month on Yearly. Button: "Start 14-day free trial". FAQ: "Pro users start with 2000 free credits" of AI Credits.
Grow: $45/month on monthly billing; $34/month on yearly billing, "Billed $408 annually": "Everything in Pro, plus:" "Social media scheduling", "Newsletter", "Creator website", "Podcast hosting for 2 shows", "Publish video to Apple Podcasts", "Video hosting", "AI thumbnails", "Riverside MCP", "Full HD 1080p live streaming", "Multistream to unlimited destinations (YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Twitch)", "Custom RTMP to stream to custom platforms", "Omnichat", "Custom studio overlays & lower thirds", "Backstage speaker management (hide/show participants)", "2 studios", "20 hrs of separate track downloads". PRICE CORRECTED from $39 to $45 monthly, same reason as Pro (API returns Grow month 45, year 34). Yearly total $408 confirmed as rendered. Labelled "Best Value". "Start 14-day free trial".
Webinar: $99/month on monthly billing; $79/month on yearly billing, "Billed $948 annually": "Everything in Grow, plus:" "Host webinars with up to 100 registrants", "Pre-record & stream the session as live", "Recurring webinars", "No time limits", "Unlimited sessions", "Lead capture tool", "Custom branded registration form", "Embed webinars on your site", "Branded email reminders & follow-ups", "Q&A, live call-ins, polls & reactions", "Webinar analytics", "HubSpot integration to sync leads in your CRM", "3 studios", "25 hrs of separate track downloads". ANNUAL TOTAL CORRECTED. The previous record reported a contradiction ("Billed $408 annually" for Webinar, same as Grow). That $408 is only in the static markup; the script overwrites it with yearly price x 12. Rendered live the card reads "Billed 948 annually", which matches the FAQ's "Webinar from $99 to $79". There is no live contradiction here.
Business: "Contact Sales for pricing and more info" (no figure published): "Everything in Webinar, plus:" "Unlimited studios", "Unlimited separate track downloads", "Up to 10,000 webinar registrants", "Unlimited video storage", "Custom branding", "Async recording", "Simultaneous recording", "Unlimited video & podcast hosting", "Private podcast hosting", "Producer mode", "Control guest input & output", "Teleprompter for host & guests", "Presentation recorder", "Custom frame rates: 24, 25, 29.97 FPS", "Production workspaces & custom roles", "Collaborative editing", "Non-destructive timeline exports", "Producer on demand", "Salesforce & Marketo integrations", "API access", "SSO (Okta, Azure)", "SOC2 & ISO27001 compliance", "Dedicated CSM", "24/7 live priority chat support". Added "Control guest input & output", which the previous record omitted from the card. FAQ: "Business starts with 12000" AI Credits. Call to action is "Book a demo".

The verdict

shortshort for the price per minute, the cuts and the framing; Riverside when you need bigger files or longer videos. Both lists come from the table.

Where shortshort comes out ahead

Cuts on complete sentencesEach short opens and closes on a sentence boundary, with a 25% margin around the target length; nothing ends mid-thought.
Framing that follows the face, with emphasis zoomsFace and scene tracking move the 9:16 crop; zooms between x1.0 and x1.6 add motion; slides and wide shots stay whole.
One page, nothing to learnDrop, choose the count and the length, check, export. No timeline or template to set up.
A free manual editor, no account neededBounds, caption words, caption style and title; the MP4 export works without signing in.
A public before-and-after galleryEach short next to the video it came from, with the transcript, so the result can be judged before trying.

Where Riverside may fit better

Bigger files^[1]25 GB per upload against 2 GB here. Media added inside the editor is capped at 500 MB per file, and uploads top out at 4096 by 4096, with no AV1 codec and no HDR.
Longer videos^[1]4 h per uploaded file against 3 h here. Up to 240 minutes per uploaded file and no time cap on studio recording, but AI translation only takes videos under 60 minutes.
Translation or dubbing^[8]Yes, 30+ languages with voice cloning. Translated audio with optional lip sync, up to 4 speakers and under 60 minutes; their pages disagree, Business only on one, AI credits from Pro on the other.
B-roll, music, titles^[9]Yes on paid plans, AI b-roll costs credits. Image and video b-roll generated from a text prompt on Pro and above, paid with AI credits; stock media, music, overlays and text sit in the editor too.
Publishes to social^[10]Scheduling from Grow up, publishing from Pro. A content planner schedules posts to TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook and X on Grow and above, while Pro can publish to YouTube, Spotify and Apple.
Team seats^[11]1 seat per plan, multi seat only on Business. 1 seat on Free, Pro, Grow and Webinar; the extra editor seat is a paid add-on on Pro, Grow and Webinar only; roles, invites and collaborative editing are Business only.
API^[12]Business only, gets media out and deletes it. The Business API lists and downloads recordings, transcripts and timeline exports and deletes them, but cannot build integrations or apps; access via your CSM.

What shortshort produces, on a real video

A published transformation from the community: the original on top, the shorts it became below. Click one to see it with its transcript.

Frame of the original video: The Sun Doesn't Stop for Anyone

23 sStarting Before the Sun Rises

25 sYour Life Is a Book

26 sThe Sun Doesn't Stop for Anyone

3 of 10 shorts shown · The Sun Doesn't Stop for Anyone · watch it in the community, with the transcript

How shortshort cuts, frames and captions

Three things the table can only name. The passage, the frame and the captions below are illustrations; the community shows the real thing.

1 · The cut ends on the sentence

Cut at the target

The reason most clips fail is that they stop before the idea lands, and a viewer who never hears the end of the sentence has no reason to share it.

Cut at the sentence

The reason most clips fail is that they stop before the idea lands, and a viewer who never hears the end of the sentence has no reason to share it.

Same passage, same 30-second target. shortshort keeps going to the end of the sentence, 37 seconds here, which is inside the 25% margin it allows.

2 · The 9:16 crop follows the speaker

The face is tracked; the 9:16 window moves with it, zoomed between x1.0 and x1.6.

A slide, a shared screen or a wide shot is detected and kept whole in the 9:16 short, with bands above and below.

3 · Captions timed word by word

Spotlight, one of the four caption styles. Impact, Karaoke and Minimal use the same word timing.

Questions people ask

Is shortshort a good Riverside alternative?

It depends on what you need. shortshort turns one video of up to 3 hours into vertical shorts, 3 per video on the free plan and up to 20 on Studio, cut on complete sentences, framed on the speaker and captioned word by word in one of four styles. If that is the job, try it with the 60 free credits and compare the result with what you get from Riverside.

How does shortshort pricing compare with Riverside?

shortshort charges 1 credit per minute of source video, whatever the number of shorts. Starter is 12 EUR for 240 credits, Creator 29 EUR for 800 and Studio 79 EUR for 3,000, and every account starts with 60 free credits. Riverside's own plans, as written on their pricing page, are listed on this page under "What a month costs".

Can I try shortshort before leaving Riverside?

Yes. The 60 free credits cover a one-hour video with up to 3 shorts, no card needed. Your source video stays private; only the shorts you export join the community, and every paid plan lets you keep them out of it.

Cuts that finish the sentence, at a price by the minute.

The fastest comparison is your own video: 60 minutes are free, no card. Your source video stays yours; the shorts you export join the community, and any paid plan keeps them out of it.

Open the studio See the plans