Balto: Real-time AI guidance and agent-assist platform that coaches contact-center and sales agents live during calls. Riverside: Browser-based podcast and video recording studio with AI transcription, captions, and text-based editing that also handles interviews and remote meetings. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Balto when guiding agents live through objections and compliance requirements matters most, and Riverside when running and documenting remote interviews or small group conversations matters most. Try them side by side on real calls before deciding — needs vary by team.
Real-time AI guidance and agent-assist platform that coaches contact-center and sales agents live during calls.
Browser-based podcast and video recording studio with AI transcription, captions, and text-based editing that also handles interviews and remote meetings.
Balto is a contact-center AI platform centered on real-time guidance during live customer and sales calls. Rather than focusing on post-call review, Balto listens to conversations as they happen and surfaces dynamic prompts, objection-handling cues, compliance checklists, and knowledge-base answers to the agent in the moment. Its Agent Assist pulls relevant information so reps can respond to customer questions instantly, while real-time QA automatically scores interactions across all calls and flags compliance risk early, maintaining an audit trail for supervisors. Coaching automation tailors recommendations to each agent's performance, and real-time note generation produces call summaries without manual write-ups. Balto also offers voice AI agents to handle high-volume, repeatable calls and supports omnichannel context across voice and digital channels. It integrates with CRMs and telephony systems such as Salesforce and RingCentral. The platform is used across industries including healthcare, insurance, banking, collections, and home improvement, and is aimed at contact centers and sales teams that want in-the-moment guidance, compliance assurance, and automated quality management at scale. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Riverside is a web-based recording and editing studio built primarily for podcasters and video creators, with capabilities that extend to remote interviews and meetings. Participants join through a browser link without signing up, and Riverside records each person's audio and video locally on their own device before uploading the high-quality files after the session, which avoids the compression and dropout problems of standard video-call recording. Once a session is recorded or an existing file is uploaded, Riverside automatically generates a transcript using AI speech recognition, detects and labels separate speakers, and supports transcription across more than 100 languages. The transcript can be downloaded as plain text or as SRT/VTT caption files, and it powers text-based editing, where users trim or rearrange the recording by editing the transcript rather than a waveform. Riverside also offers AI clip generation for short-form social video and a teleprompter. It is aimed at podcasters, content creators, marketing teams, and anyone running recorded interviews or small group conversations that need clean transcripts and captions. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Balto is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Riverside is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Balto | Riverside |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Real-time, in-call guidance with dynamic prompts and objection cues | AI-generated transcripts with automatic speaker detection and labeling |
| Standout feature | Agent Assist that surfaces knowledge-base answers live | Transcription support across more than 100 languages |
| Team usage | Automated quality assurance scoring across 100% of calls | Caption and subtitle export in SRT and VTT formats |
| Integrations | Real-time compliance monitoring with audit trails | Text-based editing that lets users cut and rearrange recordings by editing the transcript |
| Languages & capture | Automated call summaries and coaching recommendations | Local high-quality recording of each participant's audio and video track |
| Best-fit workflow | Integrations with CRMs and phone systems such as Salesforce and RingCentral | AI clip generation for short-form social video |
Balto
Choose Balto if you need guiding agents live through objections and compliance requirements — strengths include guides agents during the call rather than only analyzing afterward.
Riverside
Choose Riverside if you need transcribing and captioning recorded podcast episodes and video interviews — strengths include records each participant locally, producing cleaner audio and video than typical call recording.
Balto
Riverside
It depends on your workflow. Balto is strong for guiding agents live through objections and compliance requirements, while Riverside is strong for transcribing and captioning recorded podcast episodes and video interviews. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Balto is a free tier with paid upgrades and Riverside is a free tier with paid upgrades. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
You can — some teams pair them when each covers a different part of the meeting workflow.
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