Media List is built for one job. It helps you find the journalists, producers, YouTubers and podcast hosts for your story, then export them or pitch them, for $99 a month with no contract. If your job is different, another tool may fit you better. This page says which one, and why.
Quick guide to when another tool fits
Find your main need in the left column. Prices and claims are from each vendor's own page, as of October 2026.
| If your main need is | Consider | Why it fits |
|---|---|---|
| You track coverage, mentions and share of voice | Meltwater, Cision, Muck Rack or Agility PR Solutions1456 | These are monitoring suites with a database inside. Media List is the contact database and outreach part. |
| You pitch in many countries at depth | Meltwater or Cision13 | Both sell global coverage. Media List is built around US journalists. |
| You book podcast guests and need audience numbers | Rephonic78 | Rephonic shows listener estimates and audience data for most shows. Use it to vet the show. |
| You want AI to pick reporters for one story | Medialyst9 | You paste a release and it scores reporters by fit. Media List is a database you filter yourself. |
| You want the cheapest yearly list | JournalistDB, or Reporters.io for small lists1011 | JournalistDB Pro is $299 a year. Reporters.io starts at $35 a month. |
| You want journalists to come to you | Qwoted or HARO1214 | Both send you journalist requests. Media List is for pitching first. |
| You only need the odd email for a person you already know | Hunter15 | Its free tier gives 50 credits a month. |
| You want press release distribution in the same account | Press Ranger or Cision163 | Both sell distribution next to contacts. |
Try Media List for 3 days, $0 today, then from $99 a month. No contract. No sales call.
Start 3-day free trial →When another tool fits better
You need media monitoring and coverage reports
Best for in-house teams and agencies that report coverage to a boss or a client every week.
Meltwater, Cision, Muck Rack and Agility PR Solutions all sell monitoring next to their databases. Meltwater's own blog says Starter starts from $10,000 a year.2 Cision tracks print, online, TV, radio, podcasts and social in one place.4 If clipping and share of voice are the core of your week, start with one of these. Some teams keep a suite for monitoring and use a separate list tool for outreach.
You need deep coverage in many countries
Best for global brands with press teams in several regions.
Meltwater claims 800,000+ journalists, bloggers and media contacts across North America, EMEA and APAC.1 Cision claims over 500,000 media profiles across 225 countries and territories.3 Media List is strongest for US outreach, with 22,000+ US journalists, editors and producers. If most of your pitches go outside the US, a global suite is the better buy.
You book podcast guests and need audience data
Best for podcast booking agencies and authors on a podcast tour.
Rephonic estimates listeners per episode for most active shows and shows a gender split for most podcasts.8 Its Light plan is $99 a month with 100 searches, and it has a 7-day trial.7 Media List includes 1.2 million podcasts in every plan, so you can reach the hosts. A good setup is Rephonic to choose the show and Media List to reach the press and YouTube side of the same campaign.
You want AI to match reporters to one story
Best for a founder with a single launch and no time to build a list.
Medialyst asks you to paste a press release, a website or a topic. Its AI agents read articles relevant to your story and score reporters by fit.9 It offers a free first list with no card, and Starter is $149 a month.9 Media List works the other way round. You filter a database by beat, outlet, state and media type and choose the people yourself. Pick Medialyst if you want the choice made for you.
You want the cheapest list you can find
Best for a buyer on a tight budget who sends from another tool.
JournalistDB Pro costs $299 a year, and its pricing page says there are no daily or monthly export limits.10 Reporters.io starts at $35 a month for 200 exported rows.11 Both cost less than Media List. If price is the only test, start there.
You would rather answer requests than pitch cold
Best for experts who want to be quoted, with no list to build.
Qwoted's own help page describes it as "No cold outreach, no guessing who covers what."13 Its free tier allows 2 pitches a month, and Pro is $149 a month.12 HARO sends free daily emails of journalist requests.14 These tools wait for a reporter to ask. Media List is for the days when you want to pitch first, on your own launch date.
You only need an email for someone you already know
Best for a publicist who has the name and the outlet and needs one address.
Hunter finds and checks work emails by company domain. Its free tier gives 50 credits a month, and paid plans start at $49 a month.15 If you already know exactly who to pitch, an email finder may be all you need.
Who Media List is best for
Media List is the right pick when you know your story and need the right people to tell it to. It fits three kinds of buyers best.
- Solo publicists and freelancers who want a monthly plan with no annual contract. Basic is $99 a month with 2,500 exports, and contacts you already exported never count again.
- Small agencies that build lists for many clients. Professional is $399 a month with 10,000 exports, up to 3 seats and campaigns with follow-ups and open and click tracking. Scale adds up to 10 seats and private-label client reports.
- Founders and startups who want to pitch this week. You reach 31,000+ journalists, editors and producers, plus 189,000+ YouTube channels and 1.2 million podcasts, from one search.
A few things make it easy to check before you commit. Prices are on the page, and there is no demo or sales call. The 3-day trial costs $0 today with a card or PayPal, shows real contacts and lets you export up to 25. Every contact shows its verification status before you export, and you can filter to verified emails. If an exported email bounces, we replace it at no cost. Cancel anytime from your billing page.
It also plugs into the tools you use. There is an MCP server and a read-only API, plus Zapier (beta), a Google Sheets add-on, Send to Notion and Send to Webflow. Public newsroom and journalist pages let you look at the data before you buy.
Using Media List with another tool
Some teams do not pick one tool. They pair two. A monitoring suite tells you who wrote about you, and Media List finds who to pitch next. Rephonic vets a podcast, and Media List adds the journalists and YouTubers for the same launch. Qwoted brings inbound requests, and Media List covers the stories you want to start yourself.
See the full table of tools on our comparison hub.