Many of the big media databases hide their price behind a demo. Media List puts it on the page. Plans start at $99 a month, you can start a 3-day trial today, and you see real contacts before you pay a full month. This page puts 14 tools side by side so you can see what each one costs and who it fits, with every rival fact dated and linked.
Media list tools compared, October 2026
Prices below are quoted from each vendor's own page where one exists, as of October 2026. Where a vendor publishes no price, we show buyer reports or procurement data and say where they come from.
| Tool | Starting price and billing | Trial | Demo needed | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Media List | From $99 a month, billed monthly. Cancel anytime from your billing page. | 3 days, $0 today with a card or PayPal. Real contacts and up to 25 exports. | No. Buy online the same day. | Solo publicists, small agencies and founders who want US journalists plus YouTube and podcast creators, with the price on the page. |
| Muck Rack | No published price. Buyers on Reddit report about $4,400 to $6,000 a year for one seat. Vendr reports a median of $13,000 a year. Billed by the year.13425 | None for PR teams. Free only for journalists.1 | Yes. Every button is a demo or contact request.1 | Teams that want deep US journalist data with monitoring and coverage reports. |
| Cision | No published price. A 3-step form. Fees are billed a year ahead and cannot be cancelled unless the order says otherwise. Vendr median $12,625 a year.567 | None found.5 | Yes. Sales-led.5 | In-house and agency teams that want monitoring, release distribution and global reach in one contract. |
| Meltwater | From $10,000 a year for Starter, per Meltwater's own blog. 12-month minimum.89 | No self-serve trial. A guided demo instead.8 | Yes. Every tier says Contact Sales.8 | Brands that need monitoring and social listening across many countries. |
| Agility PR Solutions | No published price. Standard billing is annual.11 | None on its site. | Yes. Speak to an expert.11 | Teams that want a database plus monitoring with hands-on support. |
| Semrush AI PR Toolkit (formerly Prowly) | Base $149, Pro $279, Business $499 a month. Base includes 0 contact exports.1213 | 7 days. Viewing and exporting contact info is off during the trial.12 | No. Card checkout. | Teams already on Semrush that want AI pitch drafting and monitoring in one login. |
| Medialyst | Starter $149 a month, or $1,162 a year.14 | A free first list with 100 credits and no card.14 | No. | Matching reporters to one story with AI, with unlimited seats. |
| JournoFinder | $189 a month, or $119 a month billed yearly.15 | 7 days. Contact details are hidden during the trial.15 | No. A short founder demo is optional. | UK and news-led digital PR that needs article and Google News search. |
| Reporters.io | Connect $35 a month with 200 exported rows. Professional $85 a month with 1,000.16 | None.16 | No. | Small lists at the lowest monthly price. |
| JournalistDB | Pro $79 a month, or $299 a year. No stated daily or monthly export limit.17 | No trial. A free tier to browse names with masked emails.17 | No. | The cheapest yearly list for a buyer who sends from another tool. |
| Press Ranger | Free tier without contact details. Pro $79 a month with no CSV export. Pro+ $149 a month with 750 exports.18 | Free tier instead of a trial.18 | No. | A built-in CRM, AI-written pitches and paid press release distribution. |
| Qwoted | Free tier with 2 pitches a month. Pro $149 a month for 35 pitches.19 | Free tier instead of a trial.19 | No for Basic and Pro. Team is a quote. | Answering journalists who post requests for expert sources. |
| Featured and HARO | HARO is a free email of journalist requests. Featured has a free tier and Lite at $39 a month.2021 | Free tiers instead of trials.21 | No. | Experts who want inbound quote requests rather than cold pitching. |
| Rephonic | Light $99 a month with 100 searches.22 | 7 days. A card is asked for.22 | No. | Podcast guest booking with listener estimates and demographics. |
Try Media List for 3 days, $0 today, then from $99 a month. No contract. No sales call.
Start 3-day free trial →What Media List does best
Media List is a contact database and outreach tool for people who pitch the press. Its strengths are simple to check.
- Prices on the page. Basic is $99 a month, Professional is $399 and Scale is $999. There is no demo and no sales call.
- Monthly billing with no annual contract. You cancel from your billing page.
- A trial with real contacts. You pay $0 today, search everything and export up to 25 contacts in 3 days. A card or PayPal is needed.
- 31,000+ journalists, editors and producers, with 22,000+ in the US. Every plan also includes 189,000+ YouTube channels and 1.2 million podcasts.
- Verified emails you can filter to. Every contact shows its verification status before you export.
- Bounced exports replaced at no cost. Contacts you already exported never count again.
- Campaigns with follow-ups and open and click tracking on Professional and up. Private-label client reports on Scale.
- Up to 3 seats on Professional and up to 10 on Scale, included in the price.
- An MCP server and a read-only API, plus Zapier (beta), a Google Sheets add-on, Send to Notion and Send to Webflow.
Who each tool fits best
The right tool depends on the job. Here is how we would route each kind of buyer, including the cases where another tool is the better pick.
Solo publicists and freelancers
- Choose Media List if you want a US list every month without a year-long contract. Basic gives 2,500 exports a month for $99, and re-downloads are free.
- Choose Reporters.io if you only need about 200 contacts a month. Its Connect plan is $35 a month.16
- Choose JournalistDB if price matters most and you send from another tool. Its Pro plan is $299 a year with no stated export limit.17
- Choose Qwoted or HARO if you would rather answer journalist requests than pitch cold. Both have a free way in.1920
Agencies
- Choose Media List if your team builds lists for many clients and wants seats included. Professional gives 10,000 exports a month and up to 3 seats for $399. Scale gives 25,000 exports, up to 10 seats and private-label client reports.
- Choose Muck Rack if you need deep US journalist coverage, monitoring and coverage reports in one tool. Expect an annual contract priced per seat.12
- Choose Cision or Meltwater if clients expect broadcast and print monitoring, release distribution or coverage in many countries. Cision claims over 500,000 media profiles across 225 countries and territories.24 Meltwater claims 800,000+ global journalists, bloggers and media contacts.23
- Choose Agility PR Solutions if you want a database and monitoring with a dedicated account manager.11
- Choose Rephonic alongside your database if you book podcast guests and need listener numbers.22
Founders and startups
- Choose Media List if you want to pitch your own launch this week. You reach journalists, YouTubers and podcast hosts from one search, and you can start the same day.
- Choose Medialyst if you have one story and want AI to pick and score reporters for it. It offers a free first list with no card.14
- Choose the Semrush AI PR Toolkit if your marketing already runs on Semrush and you want AI-drafted pitches in the same login.12
- Choose Press Ranger if you also want to buy press release distribution from the same account.18
What a year costs
Here is a simple cost example. It uses each vendor's own figure, or buyer reports where no price is published.
A solo publicist
Assume one seat and a few hundred new contacts a month. On Media List that is Basic, which is twelve payments of $99. Paying for the year costs the same as 10 months. On Muck Rack, Reddit buyers report about $4,400 to $6,000 a year for one seat, billed by the year.425 On Meltwater, the Starter tier starts from $10,000 a year.9 On JournalistDB, Pro is $299 a year, which is less than Media List.17
A 3-person agency
Assume 3 seats and several client lists a month. On Media List that is Professional at $399 a month, with all 3 seats included and campaigns with follow-ups. On Muck Rack, Vendr reports that teams of 1 to 5 users pay $10,000 to $25,000 a year.3 On Cision, Vendr reports a median of $12,625 a year across deals of all sizes.7
Price per contact, where the math is fair
Media List Basic gives 2,500 exports for $99. That is about $0.04 per exported contact. That is well below the per-contact cost of the Semrush AI PR Toolkit and Medialyst plans, and Muck Rack, Cision and Meltwater start in the thousands of dollars a year. It also beats Reporters.io once you need more than its 1,000 rows a month.131416
It is not the cheapest everywhere. Reporters.io costs less in dollars for a small list. JournalistDB costs less on almost any measure. Pick those if price per contact is the only thing that matters to you.
Contracts and how to leave
- Muck Rack contracts are annual and renew on their own. Its terms say you cancel by emailing your Customer Success Manager.2
- Cision bills fees a year in advance, and its agreement says they cannot be cancelled unless the order says otherwise. Notice terms are set on each order form, so check yours.6
- Meltwater renews for the same length unless you cancel at least 60 days before the end of the term. Its community FAQ also says to expect a rate rise at each renewal.10
- Semrush, Medialyst, JournoFinder, Reporters.io, JournalistDB, Press Ranger, Qwoted and Rephonic offer monthly plans. Read each one's cancellation terms before you buy.
- Media List is monthly. Cancel anytime from your billing page, and your plan stays active until the end of the period you paid for.
Every comparison and alternatives page
Each page below goes deeper on one tool, with a full table, a cost example and switching steps.
- Media List vs Muck Rack
- Media List vs Cision
- Media List vs Meltwater
- Media List vs Medialyst
- Media List vs Prowly (Semrush AI PR Toolkit)
- Media List vs Agility PR
- Muck Rack alternatives
- Meltwater alternatives
- Prowly and Semrush AI PR Toolkit alternatives
- Agility PR Solutions alternatives
- HARO alternatives
- Rephonic alternatives
- Hunter alternatives for PR
- Media List alternatives
- Muck Rack pricing
- Cision pricing
- Meltwater pricing
- Cision vs Muck Rack
- Muck Rack vs Meltwater
- Meltwater vs Cision
- Cision alternatives
- Free media database options
- Best media databases
How we checked these facts
We read each vendor's pricing page, terms and help pages on October 9, 2026. Where a vendor shows no price, we used Vendr data or buyer reports on Reddit and labelled them. Prices change, so every fact has a review date, and we recheck them on a schedule. If you spot something out of date, tell us and we will fix it.