BlaBlaScribe vs Riverside: record it, or transcribe what you already have?

Riverside is where you record; BlaBlaScribe is where you turn any recording into text, subtitles, translations and dubs.

In Riverside, remote guests join a session and each participant can be downloaded as a separate track. Plans add editing seats, AI credits and, on the Webinar plan, webinars. Transcription of what you record is unlimited on Pro and up, in 100+ languages, exported as SRT or TXT.

BlaBlaScribe starts after the recording, wherever it was made. Upload a file from Zoom, a phone, a camera, a podcast host or Riverside itself, or paste a link, and get a speaker-labeled transcript in 120+ languages — then summarize, translate, style subtitles, dub and export.

For transcribing existing files, BlaBlaScribe is cheaper up to about 10 hours a month; Riverside Pro is cheaper above that, if you record in Riverside anyway.

Riverside’s price buys a studio: if you record there, unlimited transcription comes with it and nothing else on this page is cheaper per hour. If you only need transcripts or subtitles of files you already have, you’d be paying $24–35 a month for recording you don’t use.

AI translation is where the numbers turn. Riverside charges 100 AI credits per minute, and Pro starts with 2,000 credits that don’t renew monthly — about 20 minutes of translated video before you buy a top-up. BlaBlaScribe includes subtitle translation in the plan and sells dubbing minutes in packs from $1.50 down to $1.00 a minute, which never expire.

Riverside suits people who record conversations; BlaBlaScribe suits people who publish what was said.

• Podcasters: record in Riverside, then use BlaBlaScribe for translated transcripts, captioned clips and an embeddable transcript player. See BlaBlaScribe for podcasters.
• YouTubers and video creators: BlaBlaScribe’s subtitle generator for six caption styles, word-by-word reveal and vertical 9:16 MP4s.
• Researchers and journalists: BlaBlaScribe for interviews recorded anywhere — phone, Zoom or a field recorder — with DOCX and PDF exports. Riverside if you run remote interviews and want separate tracks.
• Course creators and marketing teams: BlaBlaScribe for subtitle translation into 50+ languages, AI dubbing in 27 and client approval links; Riverside for webinars.
• Non-English speakers: both cover most languages — BlaBlaScribe lists 120+, Riverside 100+.

Using both is common: Riverside for the recording, BlaBlaScribe for text, subtitles and dubs.

1. Record the episode or interview in Riverside, with each guest on a separate track.
2. Download the mixed audio or video — separate-track downloads are capped at 15 hours a month on Pro.
3. Upload it to BlaBlaScribe. Speaker detection works on every plan, and the glossary keeps guest and brand names consistent.
4. Export what Riverside doesn’t: VTT, DOCX, PDF, XLSX or JSON, an MP4 with burned-in subtitles, translated subtitles or a dub.

Riverside Pro plus BlaBlaScribe Creator costs $35 a month billed yearly ($24 + $11). For more on the workflow, see how to transcribe a podcast and repurpose it.

BlaBlaScribe exports nine text formats to Riverside’s two and includes subtitle translation; Riverside offers lip-synced video translation.

Riverside exports transcripts as SRT and TXT. BlaBlaScribe exports SRT, VTT, ASS, TXT, DOCX, PDF, CSV, XLSX and JSON from the $14 Creator plan, plus an MP4 with burned-in subtitles — so the same transcript can go into a document, a spreadsheet, a web player or a social video.

Riverside’s AI Translation turns a video into 30+ languages with optional lip sync, at 100 credits per minute, and can take up to 10 hours to process; Riverside’s own pages differ on which plans include it. BlaBlaScribe translates transcripts and subtitles into 50+ languages with timestamps kept, and dubs into 27 with a library voice or a clone of the original speaker (with consent), each line fitted to its original timing. It has no lip sync. A 15-second dub preview is free.

BlaBlaScribe never trains AI on your recordings; Riverside does unless you are a Business customer who opts out in writing.

Riverside’s privacy policy says it may use content to train its AI and machine-learning models, and stores data in the US, Canada, the EU, the UK, Israel, Mexico, Argentina, the Philippines and other countries. Its Business plan adds SOC 2, ISO 27001 and SSO. BlaBlaScribe transcribes on its own servers in Germany and never uses files or transcripts for training; translation and AI tools use the Google Gemini API and dubbing uses ElevenLabs, as its Privacy Policy lists.

You don’t have to leave Riverside to switch transcription — move the files you need text from.

1. Download the SRT or TXT transcripts you want to keep from Riverside.
2. Download the recordings you want transcribed, translated or dubbed, within your plan’s track-download limit.
3. Sign up for BlaBlaScribe Starter and test one recording with the 30 free minutes.
4. Upload the rest — no length limit on paid plans, up to 8 GB per file — and invite colleagues on Pro (3 seats) or Business (5).