Prowly Is Now Semrush AI PR Toolkit, Prices and Alternatives

Prowly is now the Semrush AI PR Toolkit. The old prowly.com site sends every visitor to a Semrush sign-up page, so the plans, limits and trial rules are all Semrush's now.¹ The entry plan, Base, costs $149 a month and exports zero contacts.³ If you mainly need journalist emails you can see and export, Media List starts at $99 a month with 2,500 exports, billed monthly.

Prowly alternatives at a glance

Prices below are what each company publishes, or what buyers report when a company publishes none. All were checked in October 2026.

What changed when Prowly became Semrush

Prowly used to be its own product with its own sales team. Today the brand points to the Semrush AI PR Toolkit, and a Semrush account is part of signing up.¹ Three things changed for anyone who used Prowly or is pricing it now.

• The plans are new. Semrush sells Base, Pro and Business, each with a monthly cap on exports, list adds and email sends.³
• The trial changed. Semrush offers a 7-day trial, but contact details are hidden during it, so you cannot judge the data before you pay.²
• Old prices still float around. Prowly's own magazine still says plans start at $258 a month, billed yearly.¹¹ Capterra and TrustRadius show other figures. Per search results, not checked on those sites, they list $369 and $478.²⁸³³

Some long-time users noticed the move in other ways too. In January 2026 a Reddit poster wrote that the person who helped them sign up was gone and that support chat said no one was available.¹⁵ That is one account, not a company statement, but it explains why many people now search for what replaced Prowly.

Prowly pricing in 2026, plan by plan

Semrush publishes these prices and limits in its knowledge base. They are monthly list prices as of October 2026.

Extra export packs cost $149 for 200 contacts on every plan.³ Semrush says annual billing saves up to 17%, paid for the whole year up front.⁷ We did not find a yearly price for the PR toolkit on any Semrush page, so we do not show one.

The export cap is the number that matters most. At list price, a Pro export works out to about $1.86 per contact, and a Business export to about $1.00. Media List works out to about $0.04 per exported contact, and a contact you exported once never counts again.

Semrush AI PR Toolkit and Media List side by side

The best Prowly alternatives, tool by tool

Media List

Best for freelancers, small agencies and founders who want a list they can export today.

Basic costs $99 a month, Professional $399 and Scale $999. The price is on the page and there is no demo to book.

You get 31,000+ journalists, editors and producers, with 22,000+ in the US. The same plan includes 189,000+ YouTube channels and 1.2 million podcasts. You can filter to verified emails, and every contact shows its verification status before you export. If an exported email bounces, we replace it at no cost. Professional adds campaigns with follow-ups and open and click tracking, plus 3 seats.

Semrush AI PR Toolkit

Best for teams already paying for Semrush who want PR in the same login.

Plans run $149, $279 and $499 a month.² It is the direct successor to Prowly.

It beats Media List on monitoring, on AI pitch drafting, and on a much larger global journalist base. It also sends from a connected Gmail or Outlook inbox.⁵ The catch is the export cap. Base exports nothing, and Business tops out at 500 a month before add-ons.³

Muck Rack

Best for agencies and in-house teams that pitch national US press every day.

Muck Rack publishes no price and sells by demo.²⁹ One Reddit buyer reported about $4,400 a year for one seat in March 2026, and Vendr puts the median at $13,000 a year.¹⁸²⁴

Muck Rack beats Media List on journalist depth and coverage reports. It is a yearly contract, so it suits steady users more than people who pitch a few times a year.

Cision

Best for large comms teams that want a database, monitoring and wire distribution from one vendor.

Cision shows a quote form instead of prices. Vendr reports a median of $12,625 a year.²⁵ Its agreement says fees are invoiced yearly in advance and are non-cancellable.¹⁹

Cision beats Media List on global depth and on monitoring. It is a heavy buy for a solo publicist, and the yearly invoice is due up front.

Meltwater

Best for brands whose main job is listening, monitoring and reporting.

Meltwater's own blog says Starter begins at $10,000 a year.²⁰ Its renewal page says contracts renew unless cancelled at least 60 days before the term ends.²⁶

It beats Media List on monitoring and social listening, and it claims 800,000+ global media contacts.³⁰ If you only need the list, much of that price pays for monitoring and listening tools.

Agility PR Solutions

Best for teams that want training and a named account manager.

Agility publishes no price and asks you to speak to an expert. Its plans page says the standard billing cycle is annual.²¹

It beats Media List on monitoring and on hands-on support. Our full write-up is on the Agility PR alternatives page.

Prezly

Best for teams that need a branded newsroom and a PR CRM.

Essential costs $120 a month billed yearly, or $175 billed monthly.²² It offers a 14-day trial with no card.

Prezly holds the contacts you import. It does not sell a journalist database. You can use both, finding contacts in Media List and importing the CSV into Prezly.

Reporters.io

Best for people who need a few hundred contacts a month on a tight budget.

Connect is $35 a month for 200 exported rows, and Professional is $85 for 1,000.²³

It beats Media List on the lowest monthly bill. Per contact it costs more, since Connect works out to about $0.175 a row. It also caps out at 1,000 a month.

Prowly vs Muck Rack

This was the most common Prowly question, and the answer has not changed much. On Reddit, users have long said Muck Rack has more data and Prowly costs less. In a 2022 Reddit thread one user ran the same search in both and wrote "MR pulled 174 results. Prowly pulled 2."¹⁴ In 2025 a nonprofit buyer said Muck Rack offered $5,000, against about $3,500 with Prowly.¹⁶ Today the Semrush plans are monthly, while Muck Rack is sold by the year. If you want Muck Rack-style depth, pay for Muck Rack. If you want a lower bill and real exports, compare Media List.

Prowly vs Cision

Cision is the bigger, older platform with wire distribution built in. Prowly was the cheaper pick. A 2022 Reddit reviewer called Prowly low cost against Meltwater and Cision, and said you can negotiate.¹⁴ Cision still has no public price, and its fees are billed a year in advance.¹⁹ The Semrush toolkit shows prices on its help pages. For list building alone, neither is as cheap per contact as Media List.

Prowly vs Meltwater

Meltwater is a monitoring suite first. Semrush now sells monitoring too, with 3,000 mentions a month on Pro and 50,000 on Business.³ Meltwater's floor is $10,000 a year.²⁰ Semrush Business at $499 a month comes to about $6,000 a year. For monitoring on a budget, Semrush is the lighter option. For a media list without monitoring, Media List is lighter still.

Who each tool fits best

Choose Media List if

• You are a solo publicist who needs to export hundreds of contacts a month without paying for add-on packs.
• You run a small agency and want 3 seats and campaigns on one monthly bill.
• You are a founder pitching US reporters, podcast hosts and YouTubers in the same week.
• You want to see real contacts during the trial before the plan starts.

Choose the Semrush AI PR Toolkit if

• You are an agency that needs media monitoring and share of voice reports for clients.
• You are a founder already inside Semrush who wants AI-drafted pitches sent from Gmail or Outlook.
• You pitch outside the US often and need a worldwide journalist search.
• You care which outlets AI assistants cite, which Semrush scores and Media List does not.

What a year costs, two examples

These use list prices from October 2026. Taxes and discounts are left out.

A solo publicist who exports about 200 new contacts a month

• Semrush Base is $149 a month with no exports. One 200-export pack adds $149, so the bill is $298 a month, or $3,576 a year.³
• Semrush Pro is $279 a month for 150 exports, or $3,348 a year, still short of 200.
• Media List Basic is $99 a month for 2,500 exports. Pay yearly and you pay for 10 months instead of 12.

A 3-person agency that exports about 1,000 new contacts a month

• Semrush Business gives 500 exports for $499. Three extra 200-packs add $447, which makes $946 a month and 1,100 exports.³
• Two extra users may add $20 each, per Semrush's rule for accounts without the SEO toolkit.⁷ That brings the total near $986 a month, or about $11,800 a year.
• Media List Professional is $399 a month with 3 seats and 10,000 exports included.

The Semrush seat rule for a PR-only account is not spelled out on its PR pages, so check your own quote.

What buyers say about Prowly

• "They have very good customer service and training" (Reddit, 2022, before the Semrush move)¹⁴
• "It very easy to use and unlike some other tools that I am using there is one on one training available." (Trustpilot, read October 2026)¹²
• "most of the contacts either don't exist or result in bounce-backs." (Trustpilot, June 2026, a user of nearly 4 years)¹²
• "They have canned their sales and support team, so the person who helped us sign up has disappeared." (Reddit, January 2026)¹⁵

Prowly's Trustpilot page shows 2.7 out of 5 from 4 reviews.¹² Per search results, not checked on G2, Prowly holds about 4.2 out of 5 there from 112 reviews.¹³

How to switch from Prowly or Semrush

• Export what you own first. Contacts you imported yourself are not counted against Semrush's export limits.⁶ Database contacts do count, so plan around your cap.
• Keep your projects safe. Semrush says projects are deleted 90 days after you unsubscribe.²
• Cancel the right way. Semrush asks for a form while you are logged in, and it may deny a form with blank answers.⁸ The cancel takes effect at the end of your paid term, and Semrush says month-to-month plans get no money returned.⁸
• Start your Media List trial a few days before your Semrush renewal date. You get 3 days and up to 25 exports to test the contacts you pitch most.
• Rebuild each list with filters. Pick a beat, an outlet, a US state and a media type such as TV, newspapers or podcasts. Save it as a list and export a CSV, or send from a campaign on Professional.

Your Semrush lists stay with Semrush. In Media List, you rebuild a working list for one beat and state with search filters.

Is Prowly free?

No. Semrush has no free tier for the PR toolkit. It offers a 7-day trial of Base, Pro or Business, and the trial turns into a paid plan unless you cancel.² During the trial you cannot view or export contact details, and the trial cannot be restarted after you cancel.²⁷