Best Media Databases (2026), Prices, Trials and Who Each Fits

The best media database depends on what you need it to do. If you want real journalist emails you can test before you pay, plus podcasts and YouTube creators in the same search, Media List is the place to start. If the lowest price is all that matters, JournalistDB and Reporters.io cost less, and if you need monitoring or global reach, the big suites still lead.

Prices and facts checked October 9, 2026. See something wrong? Tell us.

We checked every price below on October 9, 2026, on the vendor's own site wherever it publishes one. Prices change often, so each one carries its date and a link to the page we read.

The best media databases compared (checked October 2026)

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Why Media List is our pick for most small teams

A media database is only worth the money if the emails work. So the first question to ask any vendor is simple. Can I see real contacts before I pay?

With Media List you can. The 3-day trial costs $0 today. You search everything, build lists and export up to 25 real contacts. You pay by card or PayPal, and you can cancel before the trial ends. Several tools on this list hide contact details during their trial, or have no trial at all.

Every contact shows its verification status before you export it. You can filter to verified emails only. If an email you exported bounces, send it to support and we replace that export at no cost.

Re-downloads are free. Once you export a contact, it never counts against your allowance again. That matters when you rebuild the same beat list each month for a new pitch.

Media List also covers more than newsrooms. Every plan includes 31,000+ journalists, editors and producers, 22,000+ of them in the US. The same search also reaches 189,000+ YouTube channels and 1.2 million podcasts. A consumer launch can pitch a reporter, a podcast host and a YouTuber from one list.

On Professional you can send from your own mailbox. Campaigns go out with automatic follow-ups and open and click tracking. Professional includes up to 3 seats, and Scale includes up to 10.

Media List

Best for founders, solo publicists and small agencies who pitch US media and want monthly billing.

Price as of October 2026 is $99 a month for Basic with 2,500 exports, $399 for Professional with 10,000 exports, and $999 for Scale with 25,000 exports. There is no contract and no demo, and you can start the same day.

It also connects to the tools you already use. There is an MCP server for AI assistants, a read-only API, Zapier (beta), a Google Sheets add-on, Send to Notion and Send to Webflow. Public newsroom and journalist pages let you check the data before you buy.

Cheap media databases, tool by tool

These are the small, self-serve tools that come up when people search for a cheap media database. Each one does something well. We say where each beats Media List, including on price.

JournalistDB

Best for a budget buyer who wants a large list of names at the lowest yearly price.

Price as of October 2026 is $79 a month or $299 a year for Pro, according to its pricing page.² Its FAQ says Pro users can export unlimited journalists, with no daily or monthly limits.²

JournalistDB wins on price. No other subscription here is cheaper for a year of access. Its US page lists 80,359 journalists.¹⁶ Pro also lists phone numbers. There is no Pro trial, so you see masked emails until you pay. It does not send email, so you will need a separate tool to pitch.

Reporters.io

Best for a founder with one small launch who needs a few hundred contacts.

Price as of October 2026 is $35 a month for Connect with 200 exported rows, and $85 a month for Professional with 1,000 rows.¹ Its plans page says there is no free trial.¹

Reporters.io wins on entry price. If 200 contacts is enough, $35 is less than any plan we sell. Keep two things in mind. Every exported row counts again, even a reporter you exported before.¹ And there is no sending tool, so outreach happens elsewhere. Reporters.io has no plan above 1,000 rows a month.

JournoFinder

Best for digital PR teams who find journalists through recent articles and news search.

Price as of October 2026 is $189 a month, or $119 a month billed yearly.³ The Team plan for 3 users is $349 a month, or $229 a month yearly.³

JournoFinder has strong discovery tools, such as article search, live news search and finding journalists from a list of URLs. It sends alerts for journalist requests, and paid plans now include email outreach with follow-ups.²⁴ Its AI connector for Claude and ChatGPT comes with annual plans.¹⁹ The trial hides contact details, so you judge the emails only after you pay.³ Each list holds up to 500 contacts.²⁴

Press Ranger

Best for a founder who wants a CRM, AI pitch help and press release distribution in one account.

Price as of October 2026 is $79 a month for Pro and $149 a month for Pro+.⁴ Distribution is sold per release, from $299.⁴

Press Ranger claims 500,000+ journalist profiles and 200,000+ podcast profiles.²⁰ It wins if you want writing, pitching and a wire in one place. If you want the list in a spreadsheet, note that Pro has no CSV export and Pro+ exports 750 records a month.⁴

Medialyst

Best for a publicist who works one story at a time and wants AI to rank reporters by fit.

Price as of October 2026 is $149 a month for Starter with 1,000 credits, $299 for Pro with 3,000 and $800 for Scale with 10,000.⁵ A verified email costs one credit, and misses are free.⁵

Medialyst is not a database you browse. You paste a release or a topic, and its AI agents read articles relevant to your story and score reporters by fit. Every plan has unlimited seats, and the first list is free with no card. Its terms ask you to cancel at least 30 days before your next billing date.¹⁸ If you build lists by beat, city or outlet for many clients, a searchable database fits better. On volume, Media List Professional gives 10,000 exports for $399 a month, where Medialyst Scale gives 10,000 credits for $800.

Anewstip

Best for a buyer who wants a global index and search by what journalists post on social media.

Price as of October 2026 is $200 a month for Standard, billed monthly, and $400 a month for Professional, billed yearly.⁷ Solo pros and early startups can apply for a $99 special plan.⁷

Anewstip says it holds around 1 million journalists and media outlets, most with email and phone.⁷ It has a real free tier with 2 lists of 100 contacts, and a 7-day trial on paid plans. Standard caps each list at 1,000 contacts and allows 20 lists. To change plans you email support.

Pressfarm

Best for a startup that wants someone else to write and pitch one launch.

Price as of October 2026 is $280 one time for Launch, $480 for Campaign and $1,080 for Enterprise.⁶

Pressfarm is part agency and part database. Its packages include a media kit, a release, distribution and, from $480, staff pitching to 100+ journalists. That is work a database does not do for you. Database access lasts 12 months, unlocks are capped, and its FAQ says it does not offer CSV downloads.²¹ If you plan to pitch again next year, you will want a list you can keep.

The big three, briefly

Muck Rack, Cision and Meltwater are full PR suites. They are the right buy for large teams that need monitoring and reports. For a small team that only needs contacts, they are a lot to pay for.

Muck Rack

Best for agencies and in-house teams who want deep US journalist coverage plus monitoring.

Muck Rack publishes no price and sells by demo.⁸ One buyer on Reddit reported paying $4,400 for a one-seat agency starter plan in March 2026.¹⁷ Vendr reports a median of $13,000 a year across its deals.⁹ Plans are annual, and its terms say fees for the current year are not returned if you cancel.²³ It is free for journalists, not for PR teams.

Cision

Best for big comms teams that want a database, monitoring and PR Newswire in one contract.

Cision's pricing page is a form, not a price list.¹⁰ Its agreement says fees are invoiced a year ahead and cannot be cancelled unless the order says otherwise, and licences end when the contract ends.¹¹ Vendr reports a median of $12,625 a year.²⁷

Meltwater

Best for global brands whose main need is monitoring and social listening.

Meltwater's own blog says indicative prices start from $10,000 a year for Starter.¹² Its renewal FAQ says contracts renew unless cancelled at least 60 days before the end of the term.¹³

Semrush AI PR Toolkit (formerly Prowly)

Best for teams already on Semrush who want AI pitch drafts and sending in the same login.

Price as of October 2026 is $149, $279 or $499 a month.¹⁴ Base includes 0 contact exports, Pro 150 and Business 500.¹⁵ Its trial disables viewing and exporting contact information.¹⁴ Older pages still show a $258 starting price for Prowly, which is no longer current.

What a year costs

Here is what a year looks like at list prices, using only the prices each vendor publishes.

• A solo publicist on Media List Basic pays 12 payments of $99. Billed yearly, it is 10 times the monthly price.
• The same publicist on JournalistDB Pro yearly pays $299, which is less.²
• On Reporters.io Professional, 12 months at $85 is $1,020 for up to 1,000 rows a month.¹
• On JournoFinder billed yearly, 12 months at $119 is $1,428.³
• A 3-person agency on Media List Professional pays $399 a month with up to 3 seats included.
• The same team on Meltwater starts from $10,000 a year by Meltwater's own figure.¹²

Price is only half the sum. Count what you can export, whether re-downloads cost extra, and what happens when an email bounces.

How to pick the right media database

• If you run an agency with several clients, pick a tool with seats and volume. Media List Professional or Scale fits if you pitch US media. Pick Cision or Meltwater if clients expect monitoring reports.
• If you are a solo publicist, test the emails first. A trial with real contacts tells you more than any review.
• If you are a founder with one launch, a small plan may do. Reporters.io is cheapest for a short list, and Pressfarm will do the pitching for you.
• If your audience listens to podcasts or watches YouTube, choose a tool that covers creators as well as reporters.
• If you need phone numbers or global coverage, look at Anewstip, JournalistDB or the big suites.

How we checked

We read each vendor's pricing page, plans page or terms on October 9, 2026, and quote them as written. Where a vendor hides its price, we used its own published figures or a dated buyer report, and we say which. We wrote this page, and Media List is one of the tools listed, so every rival fact links to its source. If a price has changed, tell us and we will fix it.

Questions, answered

What is the best media database in 2026?

It depends on your team. For a small team pitching US media, Media List is a strong start because the trial shows real contacts and includes podcasts and YouTube creators. Large teams that need monitoring usually pick Muck Rack, Cision or Meltwater.

What is a cheap media database?

JournalistDB at $299 a year and Reporters.io at $35 a month were the lowest prices we found in October 2026. Media List starts at $99 a month with free re-downloads, bounce replacement and creators included.

What is a good cheap alternative to Cision?

A self-serve database with a published price, such as Media List, JournalistDB or Reporters.io. Cision sells through a pricing form and an annual agreement, while these tools let you buy online and pay monthly or yearly.

Is there a free journalist database?

There are free tiers, such as JournalistDB browsing with masked emails, Anewstip's 2 lists of 100 and Qwoted's free media database. Free tiers limit contact details or volume, so a paid plan is usually needed once you pitch often.

Is JournoFinder a good media database?

It has strong article search, and paid plans now include email outreach. Its trial hides contact details and its AI connector comes with annual plans, so you only see the emails after you pay.

How much does Muck Rack cost?

Muck Rack does not publish prices. A Reddit buyer reported $4,400 for one seat in March 2026, and Vendr reports a median of $13,000 a year.

What is a media database?

A media database is a searchable list of journalists, editors, producers and creators with their outlets, beats and contact details. PR teams use it to build pitch lists instead of hunting for emails by hand.

What is the best podcast media database?

Rephonic lists more than four million podcasts with audience data, so it is the deeper choice for podcast booking alone. Media List includes 1.2 million podcasts alongside journalists and YouTube channels in every plan.

Sources

1. Reporters.io plans and FAQ, checked 2026-10-09
2. JournalistDB pricing and FAQ, checked 2026-10-09
3. JournoFinder homepage, pricing and FAQ, checked 2026-10-09
4. Press Ranger pricing, checked 2026-10-09
5. Medialyst pricing, checked 2026-10-09
6. Pressfarm pricing, checked 2026-10-09
7. Anewstip plans, checked 2026-10-09
8. Muck Rack pricing page, checked 2026-10-09
9. Vendr, Muck Rack, checked 2026-10-09
10. Cision request pricing, checked 2026-10-09
11. Cision Master Subscription Agreement, checked 2026-10-09
12. Meltwater blog, Meltwater Pricing (9 Jul 2026), checked 2026-10-09
13. Meltwater Community, Renewing Your Meltwater Subscription, checked 2026-10-09
14. Semrush KB, AI PR Toolkit Pricing and Plans, checked 2026-10-09
15. Semrush KB, Checking Usage and Limits, checked 2026-10-09
16. JournalistDB, United States journalists, checked 2026-10-09
17. Reddit r/PublicRelations, Muck Rack Rates and Pricing (Mar 2026), checked 2026-10-09
18. Medialyst terms, checked 2026-10-09
19. JournoFinder MCP, checked 2026-10-09
20. Press Ranger journalist database, checked 2026-10-09
21. Pressfarm homepage and FAQ, checked 2026-10-09
22. Rephonic pricing, checked 2026-10-09
23. Muck Rack Terms of Service, checked 2026-10-09
24. JournoFinder help, email outreach plans and limits; limits explained, checked 2026-10-09
25. Cision, Journalist Outreach, checked 2026-10-09
26. Meltwater, Media Database, checked 2026-10-09
27. Vendr, Cision, checked 2026-10-09
28. Qwoted, Free Media Database, checked 2026-10-09

Product names are trademarks of their owners. Media List is not affiliated with them. Prices and features change; check each vendor's site before you buy.