Independent · sourced · Updated June 2026
Best Podcast Recording (2026)
The cheapest podcast recording is Async (formerly Podcastle) at $0/mo. 6 offer a free tier (Async (formerly Podcastle), Cleanfeed, Descript). This page compares 6 options on entry price, free tier, HIPAA/SOC 2 and best-for — every figure linked to its source, updated June 2026.
6 options compared on price, free tier, compliance and fit — ranked cheapest-first. Every figure links to the vendor's own page and the date we captured it; quote-only tiers show “—”, never a guess.
Key takeaways
- Cheapest: Async (formerly Podcastle) at $0/mo (Basic).
- Typical paid price: from $11.99/mo, median $20/mo, up to $24/mo — across 5 with published pricing.
- Free tier: Async (formerly Podcastle), Cleanfeed, Descript, Riverside, Zencastr, SquadCast (now part of Descript).
- Tracked: 6 vendors, data current through 2026-06-18.
Comparison
| # | Podcast Recording | Entry price | Free | HIPAA | SOC 2 | Best for | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Async (formerly Podcastle) | $0/mo Basic | Yes | — | — | solo podcasters | async.com |
| 2 | Cleanfeed | $0/mo Lite | Yes | — | — | radio production | cleanfeed.net |
| 3 | Descript | $0/mo Free | Yes | — | Yes | podcast editing | descript.com |
| 4 | Riverside | $0/mo Free | Yes | — | Yes | remote podcast recording | riverside.com |
| 5 | Zencastr | $0/mo Hobbyist | Yes | — | — | remote podcast recording | zencastr.com |
| 6 | SquadCast (now part of Descript) | — | Yes | — | Yes | remote podcast recording | quote-only |
Prices are the lowest published self-serve monthly rate as captured on the linked source. Annual-billing and usage details are on each vendor's record in our open dataset.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest podcast recording?
Async (formerly Podcastle) has the lowest published entry price at $0/mo (Basic), as of 2026-06-18.
How much does podcast recording cost per month?
Across the 5 podcast recording with published paid pricing, the median starting price is $20/mo, ranging from $11.99/mo to $24/mo, as of 2026-06-18. 6 also offer a free tier. 1 are quote-only.
Which podcast recording have a free plan?
Async (formerly Podcastle), Cleanfeed, Descript, Riverside, Zencastr, SquadCast (now part of Descript) offer a free tier.
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How we compiled this
Official pricing pages were fetched directly where they render in HTML: riverside.com/pricing, descript.com/pricing, cleanfeed.net/pricing. zencastr.com/pricing and async.com/pricing are JavaScript-rendered and do not expose price numbers in static HTML; plan structures were extracted from the rendered HTML (names/limits) and prices corroborated across multiple independent third-party sources (web search, aichief.com, talks.co, keevee.com). Zencastr's four paid tiers (Standard $20, Grow $30, Scale $50, Business $100/mo) were confirmed by converging search results. Async (formerly Podcastle, rebranded 2026-01-28; podcastle.ai redirects to async.com) current monthly prices were corrected to Storyteller/Essentials $11.99 and Pro $23.99 per converging sources (aichief.com, G2, web search); the draft's $14.99/$24.99 reflected stale corroboration and were inflated. SquadCast (squadcast.fm) was acquired by Descript in 2023; squadcast.fm/pricing now shows Descript plans and routes subscriptions to descript.com, so it has no independent pricing — retained as an informational entry mirroring Descript, not a separate priced product. Monthly prices shown are month-to-month; annual-equivalent per-month figures are noted in plan notes. accessedAt 2026-06-18.
Last verified 2026-06-18. We re-check published prices and compliance on a recurring cadence and update this page when they change.
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