Prices and facts checked October 8, 2026. See something wrong? Tell us.
Prowly is now the Semrush AI PR Toolkit. So this comparison is really between Semrush's newer PR product and Muck Rack's established PR suite.
Muck Rack is the stronger choice for a team that needs broad journalist coverage, a guided rollout and coverage reporting.
Prowly is easier to price from its public plan page. It may fit a small team that wants monitoring and pitching in one Semrush account.
So the real question is simple. Do you need Muck Rack's deeper research and reporting setup, or are Prowly's published price and smaller export allowance enough for the campaigns you run?
How Prowly and Muck Rack compare
Prowly publishes prices from $149 a month. Muck Rack sells through a demo and bills by the year.
| Buying question | Prowly, now Semrush AI PR Toolkit | Muck Rack |
|---|---|---|
| What happened to Prowly | Prowly says it is now the Semrush AI PR Toolkit. Its homepage has one sign-up button for the Semrush product.1 | A standalone PR platform with tiered PR plans.9 |
| Published monthly price | Base $149, Pro $279 and Business $499 a month.2 | No list price. Pricing depends on factors specific to the team, including users.9 |
| How buying starts | Choose Base, Pro or Business and start a seven-day trial.2 | Contact Muck Rack or request a custom demo.9 |
| Trial access to contacts | The trial disables viewing and exporting contact information. Useful for the product flow, not for judging a specific list.2 | No PR-user trial on its pricing page.9 |
| Journalist database claim | Two figures on Semrush pages, over 600,000 and over 1 million journalist profiles.320 | No headline count. Its Google ads say "400K+ Contacts in 60 Countries."21 |
| Search and filters | Topic, region, country, city, role, media type or targeted audience, plus natural-language prompts.4 | Topics, titles, date range, domain authority, languages, locations and verified-only. An AI Search Agent turns plain English into a Boolean search.10 |
| Contact exports each month | Base 0, Pro 150, Business 500. A 200-export add-on costs $149 a month.5 | Starter is "Limited." Standard and Premier are unlimited.9 |
| Contact fields | Paid plans can reveal email addresses, phone numbers and social profiles.6 | Email, phone, social accounts and the journalist's contact preferences.10 |
| Pitch sending | Send from an authenticated domain or a connected Gmail or Outlook inbox. Automatic follow-ups on Pro and Business.7 | Pitches go through the user's own Gmail or Outlook inbox. Follow-ups are manual, with no sequences.10 |
| Media monitoring | Pro and Business cover online news, blogs, discussions and YouTube, with alerts and AI summaries.8 | Online news on every tier, podcasts from Standard. Print, broadcast and social listening are add-ons.9 |
| Reporting depth | Business adds share of voice, sentiment, reach, backlinks versus competitors and custom reports.20 | Coverage reports in tiered packs, with custom dashboards and interactive presentations on Premier. The stronger setup for client work.10 |
| AI-specific research | AI-Cited Media ranks outlets by how often several AI search products cite them, with an AI authority score.11 | Generative Pulse for AI-answer visibility, as part of the broader PR suite.10 |
| Billing and cancellation | With annual billing "you pay for the entire year upfront." No refunds for month-to-month plans.1216 | Billed by the year. Terms say "We do not provide refunds or credits for partial years of service."13 |
| Likely budget range | Public plans make a small team's monthly spend clear. Exports start at zero on Base.2 | Vendr reports a $13,000 median annual buyer spend across 59 deals. A guide, not a list price.14 |
See each product side by side
Who should choose Prowly or Muck Rack
Prowly suits a team that wants a Semrush PR workspace. Muck Rack suits PR work that is broad and ongoing.
Choose Prowly if
- You already use Semrush and want journalist search, pitching and monitoring in one login. You can connect a Gmail or Outlook inbox, with automatic follow-ups on Pro and Business.7
- AI-cited outlets matter to your digital PR plan. AI-Cited Media is designed around outlets surfaced by ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI products.11
- A published monthly price matters more than high export volume. Pro costs $279 a month and includes 150 exports, so check that matches how many new contacts you need.2
Choose Muck Rack if
- You run a larger agency or in-house program and need monitoring, coverage reporting and a customer-success path that supports a rollout.
- Your team needs more than a small export allowance. Its Standard and Premier tiers have unlimited monthly exports.9
- Freelancers, trade writers and hard-to-find reporters are central to the job. A PR community commenter said it has more freelancers and contacts overall.15
What each costs for a solo publicist and a three-person agency
Prowly comes to $3,348 a year for one publicist on Pro and $5,988 for an agency on Business. Muck Rack has no published price for either.
There is another cost hidden in the export limits. A team that needs 500 new contacts a month can reach that level on Prowly Business.
A team that needs a much larger fresh list should ask Muck Rack about the Standard tier, or confirm the price of Prowly's export add-ons before it signs up.
Solo publicist
- Prowly Pro at $279 a month is $3,348 over 12 months before any extra exports. That plan includes 150 exports per month.
- Muck Rack has no published solo price. Buyer reports on Reddit from 2025 and 2026 put one seat at roughly $4,400 to $6,000, billed by the year.2223
- Those reports are not a quote for your team, so ask for a written scope before comparing it with Prowly.
Three-person agency
- Prowly Business at $499 a month works out to $5,988 across a year before additional-user charges.
- Semrush says extra users can cost $20 each on plans without the SEO Toolkit. Its PR pages do not state which user rule applies to a PR-only account.12
- Muck Rack's price changes with users. Vendr's reported range for one to five users is $10,000 to $25,000 annually, which makes the sales conversation important for an agency.14
What to ask in a trial or a demo
Ask about limits before price. Exports, seats and onboarding change what each tool really costs your team.
Questions for Prowly
- Which user rule applies to a PR-only account, the $20 flat rate or another one?12
- How many new contacts will we export each month, and do we need the 200-export add-on?5
- How will we judge the list, given the trial hides contact information?2
- Do we need monitoring? It comes on Pro and Business, not Base.8
Questions for Muck Rack
- How many named users does the quote cover, and how does the price change as we add users?9
- Which onboarding comes with our tier? Its pricing page lists Starter onboarding as "self-led" and Standard and Premier as "instructor-led."9
- Do we need print, broadcast or social listening, which are add-ons?9
- What happens at renewal, given there are no refunds or credits for partial years?13
What buyers say about both tools
Buyers praise Prowly's training and Muck Rack's accuracy. These are single buyers, not a verdict. Read together, they show why the choice comes down to fit.
- "It very easy to use and unlike some other tools that I am using there is one on one training available." A Prowly user on Trustpilot.17
- "most of the contacts either don’t exist or result in bounce-backs." Another Prowly reviewer on Trustpilot, June 2026.17
- "Its accuracy is far superior to its competitors." A Muck Rack reviewer on Capterra, January 2026.18
- "It's expensive for we small biz owners." A small-business reviewer on Software Advice, about Muck Rack.18
Take the Prowly complaints in context. Prowly changed into the Semrush AI PR Toolkit, and some comments describe the older service or the transition.
Take the Muck Rack praise in context too. Its price is negotiated, and its annual terms make a short test less simple than a month-to-month purchase.
How to change tools without losing the useful work
Start with the renewal date, not the last day of access.
- Check renewal. Semrush says its subscription automatically renews for the same period on the then-current terms.19
- Check cancellation. Muck Rack tells customers to cancel by emailing their Customer Success Manager, and says the annual cycle in which you cancel is not refunded.13
- Give yourself time to compare a few real beats and outlets before that point.
- Keep a copy of your own campaign notes, approved pitch copy and consented contact lists. In Semrush, imported contacts are "not subject to export limits," so your own uploaded lists can leave with you.5
- Do not treat a vendor's database as a file to move between services. Rebuild the working list in the new tool, then compare the names you would actually pitch.
- For Prowly, test the topic, country, city and media-type filters. For Muck Rack, have the sales team show the beats, trade outlets and reporters that matter to you.
If you leave either suite because it does more than your small team needs, start with the smallest plan that proves the list on a real campaign.
A cheaper option for small teams
Media List starts at $99 a month for a team that mainly needs a self-serve list at a published monthly price.
- Basic includes 2,500 exports a month. At volume, that is about $0.04 per exported contact.
- Filter journalists by beat, outlet, state and media type. Each contact shows its verification status before export.
- A 3-day trial costs $0 today with a card or PayPal and permits up to 25 exports.
- You can start on your own, and monthly plans can be cancelled from the billing page.
- 1.2 million podcasts and 189,000+ YouTube channels come in the same plan, which can help a founder build a press and creator list together.
That option is for a different job. Pick Prowly when monitoring, connected inboxes and AI-assisted PR work are the priority.
Pick Muck Rack when the team needs its deeper PR operations and reporting. Pick Media List when the first requirement is a lower-cost way to build and export a focused outreach list.
