Prices and facts checked October 10, 2026. See something wrong? Tell us.
Critical Mention does not publish a price. Its pricing page asks what you need and then builds a package for you1.
Public buyer reports for small teams cluster between about $2,500 and $8,000 a year, and Vendr reports a median of $7,9502.
Below is every public figure we could find as of October 2026, where each one comes from, and what pushes the bill up. At the end we show what a small team gets from Media List at $99 a month if the job is pitching rather than tracking coverage.
Critical Mention pricing at a glance
| Question | Critical Mention | Media List |
|---|---|---|
| Published price | None. "we will create a package to meet those needs"1 | $99, $399 and $999 a month, on the pricing page |
| Typical yearly cost | Vendr median $7,950, buyer-reported2 | $1,188 for 12 months of Basic, or $990 paid yearly |
| Lowest and highest Vendr deals | $5,920 to $15,400 a year2 | Plans step from $99 to $999 a month |
| How you buy | Demo with a platform consultant3 | Checkout on the site, no sales call |
| Trial | None found. A rival vendor says "you can only request a demo call"4 | 3-day trial, $0 today, card or PayPal, up to 25 exports |
| Term | 12-month renewals with an annual uplift, per a Vendr buyer2 | Monthly, cancel anytime from the billing page |
| Nonprofit pricing | "Special rates for nonprofits"1 | Same published prices for everyone |
| Main job | Media monitoring, owned by Onclusive5 | Finding and pitching journalists and creators |
| TV and radio monitoring | 2,500+ stations, clips from every US Nielsen DMA6 | Journalist and creator search |
| Online news languages | 90+ languages7 | Journalist and creator search |
| Support | 24/7/365 support team8 and a dedicated account manager9 | Self-serve, start the same day |
| Contact database | "millions of records" for reporters, bloggers, producers and influencers, no journalist count10 | 38,000+ journalists, editors and producers, 28,000+ in the US |
| Creators | Influencers and bloggers listed10 | 189,000+ YouTube channels and 1.2 million podcasts in every plan |
| Sending pitches | Not described on its site | Campaigns with follow-ups and open and click tracking on Professional and Scale |
| Reviews | 221 on G2 and 13 on Capterra, per search snippets, not checked on those sites1112 | Try it yourself in the trial |
See each product side by side
Every public Critical Mention price we found
The Vendr median is $7,950 a year. None of these numbers come from a Critical Mention price list, because there is none.
They are what buyers and third parties have reported. Treat them as a guide for budgeting, not a quote.
- Vendr, buyer data. "Median buyer pays $7,950 per year." The range runs from $5,920 to $15,4002.
- A long-time user, July 2024. After three years on the platform, one Reddit user wrote, "I only pay $2500/year"13.
- A small agency, June 2024. One buyer with a single seat was "Paying about $7100 a year now, and it is increasing to $7600"14.
- An in-house team, May 2024. After two months of calls, a buyer said "we’ve been given offers between $6K to $8K" across Critical Mention, Meltwater and Muck Rack13.
- A nonprofit, December 2024. A reply to the $2,500 post said they asked for a discount and "still pay substantially more"13.
- A rival's estimate. Prowly, a competitor, wrote that Critical Mention "costs between $2,500 and $10,000 per year", an estimate from third-party data4.
Put together, the reports cluster between about $2,500 and $8,000 a year for small teams.
- The lowest figure came from a user who tracks broadcast and online news.
- Larger packages reach the top of the Vendr range at $15,400.
What drives the cost up
Each module you add widens the package. Critical Mention's menu lists broadcast, online news, social media, podcasts, licensed content, the contact database, AI Brand Visibility, AP Planner and an API.
Each part below is something a package can include or leave out.
- Broadcast depth. TV and radio is the core. It covers more than 2,500 stations, with clips from every US Nielsen DMA and unlimited cloud storage6. Markets outside the US, such as Europe and the Middle East, are available too.
- Licensed and paywalled news. The licensed content add-on opens paywalled and print-only sources15.
- Social listening. Basic social tracking covers Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter. Deeper listening is sold as Onclusive Social16. The nonprofit buyer above tried to cut cost by dropping social listening.
- Account type. The pricing page names four kinds of package. They are large agencies with many clients, growing firms, single brands, and API partners1.
- Renewal uplift. One Vendr buyer was offered "an 8% uplift for a 12 month flat renewal". They talked it down to about 4.5%2.
Contract and renewal terms
Your order form sets the rules. Critical Mention does not publish its terms of service or a sample order form. We checked its site map and footer on October 10, 2026, and found none.
What buyers report is consistent, though.
- The Vendr buyer describes "a 12 month flat renewal" with "a standard annual uplift"2.
- A Reddit reply about getting out of a contract advised that the agreement "should have a clause" giving 30, 60 or 90 days to give notice17. That is one user's memory, not a published rule.
Read your own order form before you plan a switch. Then ask three questions.
- Ask for the notice date in writing before you sign.
- Ask whether the uplift is capped at renewal.
- Ask which modules you can drop at renewal without starting a new contract.
Is Critical Mention worth it?
For the job it was built for, many buyers say yes. It has run as a US media monitoring service since 20025, and Onclusive bought it in May 202218.
Reviewers praise the reports and the people. The doubts come when buyers expect it to be their main contact database.
- "CM makes easy beautiful reports with data and analysis built in." An agency on Reddit.13
- "I've had the same dedicated customer support person for the last three years." A Reddit user.13
- "great for monitoring" but "Not so great for pitching." A Reddit user.13
- "Very outdated media list" was among the problems a paying agency listed, June 2024.14
Those are the reviewers' words, so test the database yourself in the demo.
Choose Media List if
- You are a solo publicist. You want US journalists and producers to pitch this week, for $99 a month, without a demo.
- You are a founder. You need a launch list of reporters, podcasters and YouTubers, and you would rather not sign a 12-month deal.
- You run a small agency. You want lists plus sending with follow-ups for up to 3 people on Professional.
Choose Critical Mention if
- Your clients live on TV and local news. Agencies that must prove broadcast hits need clips, and Critical Mention offers search across every US DMA.
- You report coverage to a boss or a board. In-house teams get share of voice, publicity values and white-label reports in one place.
- You want a person on call. Brands that value a named account manager and round-the-clock support will find that here.
- You need to know what AI tools say about you. AI Brand Visibility tracks ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, Claude and Perplexity19.
What a year costs, side by side
Media List Basic is $1,188 over 12 months. Critical Mention buyer reports from small teams ran about $2,500 to $7,600 a year in 2024.
| Buyer | Critical Mention (labelled evidence) | Media List |
|---|---|---|
| Solo publicist, one seat | About $2,500 to $7,600 a year in 2024 buyer reports1314 | Basic, $1,188 over 12 months or $990 paid yearly |
| 3-person agency | Vendr median $7,950, deals up to $15,4002 | Professional with up to 3 seats, $4,788 over 12 months or $3,990 paid yearly |
- The solo line assumes one person who mostly builds lists and sends pitches from their own inbox.
- The agency line assumes three people who share lists and run email campaigns.
Critical Mention's figures include monitoring, so this is not a like-for-like swap. It shows what each budget buys.
What $99 a month gets you at Media List
Media List is a media database for people who pitch. It helps you find the right people and reach them.
- 38,000+ journalists, editors and producers, with 28,000+ in the US.
- 189,000+ YouTube channels and 1.2 million podcasts, in the same search and the same plan.
- 2,500 contact exports a month on Basic. Contacts you already exported never count again.
- A verification status on every email before you export, and a filter for verified emails.
- If an exported email bounces, we replace it at no cost.
- Campaigns with follow-ups and open and click tracking on Professional, at $399 a month.
- An MCP server, a read-only API, Zapier (beta), a Google Sheets add-on, Send to Notion and Send to Webflow.
You can start the same day. The 3-day trial costs $0 today with a card or PayPal, and you can export up to 25 contacts to test the data.
Keeping Critical Mention and adding a list tool
Many teams do not pick one. The same split works with Media List at a lower monthly cost.
- "Critical mention is the better monitoring and reporting software. Muckrack is the better database and pitching tool. We use both for those reasons." A buyer on Reddit.13
- Keep Critical Mention for clips, alerts and coverage reports.
- In Media List, filter by beat, outlet, US state and media type, such as TV, newspaper, podcast or YouTube.
- Save the list, export it, or send a campaign with follow-ups from Professional.
- When a story airs, your monitoring tool catches the clip for the report.
