The best Muck Rack alternative depends on what you use Muck Rack for. If you need monitoring and a full PR suite, look at Cision, Meltwater or Agility. If you mainly need journalist contacts at a price you can see, look at Media List, JournoFinder, Reporters.io or JournalistDB.
We make Media List, so we list it first. Every other price below comes from the vendor's own page or a named source, checked in October 2026.
The 9 Muck Rack alternatives at a glance
| Tool | Best for | Starting price, October 2026 | Free option or trial | Buy online without a demo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Media List | Solo publicists, founders and small agencies | $99 a month | 3-day trial, $0 today, 25 exports | Yes |
| Cision | Large comms teams that need monitoring and distribution | Not published. Vendr median $12,625 a year8 | None found29 | No |
| Meltwater | Teams that need monitoring and social listening | From $10,000 a year for Starter9 | No self-serve trial24 | No |
| Semrush AI PR Toolkit (was Prowly) | Marketers who already use Semrush | $149 a month for Base12 | 7-day trial with contact details hidden12 | Yes |
| Agility PR Solutions | In-house teams that want support and monitoring | Not published16 | None found | No |
| JournoFinder | Digital PR and link building in the UK and US | $119 a month billed yearly, or $189 monthly17 | Free tier for journalist requests. 7-day trial without contact details17 | Yes |
| Reporters.io | Founders who need a few hundred contacts | $35 a month18 | Guest access without contact data18 | Yes |
| JournalistDB | The lowest yearly price | $299 a year, or $79 a month19 | Free browsing with masked emails19 | Yes |
| Qwoted | Experts who answer journalist requests | Free tier. Pro is $149 a month21 | Free tier with 2 pitches a month21 | Yes |
Try Media List for 3 days, $0 today, then from $99 a month. No contract. No sales call.
Start 3-day free trial →Why people look for a Muck Rack alternative
Muck Rack has a strong reputation for its journalist data. The reason most people leave is price. Muck Rack does not publish prices, and its pricing FAQ says sporadic users "may find alternatives better suited".1
Buyers on Reddit reported paying "$4,400 USD" for one seat on an agency starter plan in March 2026.4 Vendr puts the median Muck Rack deal at $13,000 a year.3 Billing is yearly, and fees for the current year are kept if you cancel.2
One PR pro put the frustration plainly in January 2026. "I feel like I am stuck paying a lot for Muck Rack because nothing else is better, but I only use it for media contacts."5 That buyer is who most of this list is for.
The alternatives, one by one
1. Media List
Best for solo publicists, founders and small agencies that want journalists and creators at a published monthly price.
Basic is $99, Professional is $399 and Scale is $999 a month. You can cancel anytime from your billing page, and there is no demo or sales call.
Every plan includes 31,000+ journalists, editors and producers, 22,000+ of them in the US. You also get 189,000+ YouTube channels and 1.2 million podcasts in the same search. Every contact shows its verification status before you export, and bounced exports are replaced at no cost.
Professional adds 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. An MCP server, a read-only API, Zapier (beta) and a Google Sheets add-on connect it to the tools you already use.
Where it wins against Muck Rack. A 3-day trial that shows real contacts, month to month billing, seats included, and about $0.04 per exported contact at full use.
2. Cision
Best for large comms teams that want monitoring, press release distribution and a global database in one contract.
Cision does not publish prices. Its pricing page is a request form.29 Vendr reports a median Cision deal of $12,625 a year.8
Cision says it has "over 500,000 media profiles across 225 countries and territories".6 Its agreement says fees are "invoiced annually in advance, and are non-cancellable" unless the order says otherwise.7 It suits teams that also want PR Newswire distribution and broadcast monitoring from one vendor.
Where it beats Media List. Global depth, monitoring, release distribution and phone numbers on profiles.
3. Meltwater
Best for teams whose main need is monitoring and social listening, with a media database on the side.
Meltwater's own blog says "Indicative ranges start from $10,000/year for Starter".9 It does not offer a self-serve free trial.24
Its database page claims "800,000+ global journalists, bloggers, and media contacts".10 Contracts auto-renew unless cancelled "at least 60 days before the end of the term".11 One Reddit user wrote "Meltwater for monitoring and Muckrack for the journalist database."30
Where it beats Media List. Monitoring across news, broadcast, podcasts and social, plus a much larger global contact list.
4. Semrush AI PR Toolkit (formerly Prowly)
Best for marketers who already pay for Semrush and want AI-drafted pitches and sending in the same login.
Prowly's own site now says "Prowly is now the Semrush AI PR Toolkit".25 Plans are $149 a month for Base, $279 for Pro and $499 for Business.12
Exports are tight. Base exports 0 contacts a month, Pro exports 150 and Business exports 500.13 The 7-day trial switches off "Viewing and exporting contact information".12 Semrush says its database holds "over 600,000 journalists".14
Where it beats Media List. AI pitch drafting, sending from a connected Gmail or Outlook inbox, and monitoring on Pro and Business. Where Media List wins is volume. Basic exports 2,500 contacts a month for $99.
5. Agility PR Solutions
Best for in-house teams that want a database, monitoring and a hands-on account team.
Agility does not publish prices. It says "we'll be in touch to provide detailed pricing".16 Its FAQ says "Our standard billing cycle is annual".16
Agility claims "Access to 1.1M+ media contact and outlet profiles".15 Buyers on Reddit praise its support, and one wrote "Their customer service is kickass too."30
Where it beats Media List. Monitoring, AI writing help, and dedicated account managers with phone support.16
6. JournoFinder
Best for digital PR teams and link builders who search by article and react to journalist requests.
JournoFinder costs $189 a month, or $119 a month billed yearly.17 A free tier covers journalist request alerts but not the database.17
It claims "over 1,000,000 contacts".17 Its 7-day trial does not show contact details, and its connector for Claude and ChatGPT comes with annual plans.1727
Where it beats Media List. Article and Google News search, reactive PR alerts per client, and a cheaper yearly price per seat on its 3-person Team plan.
7. Reporters.io
Best for founders who need a small list once and want the lowest monthly price.
Connect costs $35 a month for 200 exported rows. Professional costs $85 a month for 1,000 rows.18 The site says "We do not offer a free trial", and "Every exported row counts again".18
Its US directory pages list 59,995 names in total.26 There is no built-in sending or campaign tool.
Where it beats Media List. Price at small volume. If 200 contacts is enough, $35 is less than $99. Reporters.io has no plan above 1,000 rows a month. If you need more, Media List Basic gives 2,500 exports for $99, about $0.04 per exported contact at full use.
8. JournalistDB
Best for buyers who want the lowest yearly price and do not need sending.
Pro costs $299 a year, or $79 a month.19 Its FAQ says of Pro exports, "There are no daily or monthly limits".19 A free tier lets you browse names with masked emails.19
The homepage claims "142,458 journalists indexed".20 It is CSV only, with no sending, API or MCP, and its terms bar using "a single account for multiple users".32
Where it beats Media List. Price. At $299 a year with no export cap, it is the cheapest tool on this list. Pro also lists phone numbers.19
9. Qwoted
Best for experts and publicists who want journalists to come to them through requests.
Qwoted has a free tier with 2 pitches a month. Pro costs $149 a month for 35 pitches.21 Pitches to Qwoted requests must stay inside Qwoted.22
Qwoted is a different job from Muck Rack. You answer a reporter's open call, rather than pitch your own story. Many teams use both kinds of tool.
Where it beats Media List. Inbound requests from reporters who are writing now, and a free way to start.
Is there a free Muck Rack alternative?
Muck Rack itself is free for journalists, who "never pay for Muck Rack access".1 For PR teams, there is no free version and no trial.1
A few tools on this list have a free tier. Qwoted gives 2 pitches a month.21 JournalistDB lets you browse names with masked emails.19 JournoFinder's free tier covers journalist requests.17 Check what each free tier lets you see and export before you rely on it.
Media List starts with a trial instead. Its 3-day trial costs $0 today, needs a card or PayPal, and lets you export up to 25 real contacts.
Cheaper alternatives to Muck Rack, by price
Here is the order by entry price, from the vendors' own pages in October 2026.
- JournalistDB is $299 a year.19
- Reporters.io starts at $35 a month.18
- Media List starts at $99 a month, with 2,500 exports.
- JournoFinder is $119 a month billed yearly.17
- Qwoted Pro and Semrush Base are each $149 a month.2112
- Meltwater starts at $10,000 a year.9
- Cision, Agility and Muck Rack do not publish prices.
Price per contact tells a different story than price per month. Semrush Base exports no contacts, and Reporters.io charges again for every re-export. Check what each plan lets you download before you compare.
Platforms similar to Muck Rack
The closest all-in-one platforms are Cision, Meltwater and Agility. Each sells a database with monitoring and reports on a yearly contract.
The closest database-first tools are Media List, JournoFinder, Reporters.io and JournalistDB. They cost less and focus on finding contacts. Semrush sits in between, and Qwoted is mainly a platform for answering journalist requests.
When to stay with Muck Rack
Muck Rack is still the right buy for some teams. One Reddit user asked in November 2025 if anything is "truly" comparable, and one reply called Muck Rack "the most up to date and accurate database."23
- Stay if your agency uses its monitoring and coverage reports every week.
- Stay if you pitch many countries. Its ads claim contacts in 60 countries.31
- Stay if your team relies on its verified badges and journalist-run profiles.
- Stay if you would miss pitching from Gmail or Outlook inside the app.
How to choose in 10 minutes
Write down the 3 searches you run most in Muck Rack, such as US health reporters or tech podcasts. Then run them in two or three tools from this list.
Count how many of the contacts you would really pitch. Check whether you can export them, and what it costs per contact at your volume. One freelancer on Reddit set a budget of "under $300 per month".28 Pick the tool that fits that number and your list.