Just need the media list, not the monitoring suite? Media List gives you a US media database with published prices from $99 a month and no contract. Meltwater is a full media intelligence suite whose own pricing blog says plans start "from $10,000/year", sold on annual terms that renew unless you give 60 days' notice.34
Prices and terms below are quoted from Meltwater's own pages as of October 2026. Where Meltwater is the better buy, the table says so.
Media List vs Meltwater at a glance
| What you compare | Media List | Meltwater |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $99 a month, shown on the pricing page | "Indicative ranges start from $10,000/year for Starter, $25,000/year for Pro, and $130,000/year for Enterprise"3 |
| How you buy | Online checkout, no demo and no sales call | Every plan button says "Contact Sales"2 |
| Trial | 3-day trial, $0 today, card or PayPal, up to 25 exports | No self-serve trial. Meltwater offers "a free, human-guided demo"2 |
| Billing | Monthly, or yearly at ten times the monthly price | "invoiced annually upfront with net 14 payment terms"4 |
| Contract length | No contract. Cancel anytime from your billing page | "minimum contract length of 12 months". Standard term is 36 months24 |
| Renewal | Your plan simply stops at the end of the paid period if you cancel | Renews automatically unless cancelled "at least 60 days before the end of the term"4 |
| Price at renewal | No renewal contract. You pay the price on the pricing page | "customers can expect a rate increase at point of each annual renewal"4 |
| Time to start | Same day | "Most teams are up and running within 2-4 weeks", and there may be a one-time onboarding charge12 |
| Journalists | 31,000+ journalists, editors and producers, 22,000+ in the US | "800,000+ global journalists, bloggers, and media contacts". Meltwater is far bigger1 |
| Global coverage | Built for US outreach | North America, EMEA and APAC. Meltwater wins for global work1 |
| YouTube and podcasts | 189,000+ YouTube channels and 1.2 million in every plan | Influencer Marketing is a separate module on the Enterprise and Agency tiers23 |
| Exports | 2,500, 10,000 or 25,000 new contacts a month by plan. About $0.04 per exported contact at full use | No export limits published. Starter "uses standard exports"3 |
| Email checks | Every contact shows its verification status before you export, and you can filter to verified emails | Meltwater publishes its process. "90+ dedicated research analysts", changes reflected "within 24-48 hours", a bounce rate "around 7 to 8%"1 |
| Media monitoring and social listening | Not included. Media List is a media database | The core product, across news, broadcast, podcasts, print and social. Meltwater wins1 |
| Pitching | Campaigns with follow-ups and open and click tracking on Professional and up | "Email outreach with engagement tracking" sent "from your own domain"1 |
| Seats | 1 on Basic, up to 3 on Professional, up to 10 on Scale, all included | Price depends on the "number of users" among other factors2 |
| API and MCP | MCP server, read-only API, Zapier (beta), Google Sheets add-on, Send to Notion and Send to Webflow on paid plans | "API & MCP Integrations" only on Enterprise and Agency23 |
| Support | Email support | "24/7 multi-channel support for all customers", including live chat. Meltwater wins2 |
Try Media List for 3 days, $0 today, then from $99 a month. No contract. No sales call.
Start 3-day free trial →Just need the media list, not the monitoring suite?
Monitoring is Meltwater's core product. Its plans bundle news tracking, social listening, dashboards and its Mira AI assistant with a journalist database. That is good value if your team uses all of it. Some teams do not.
One PR pro put it plainly in a Reddit thread in January 2026. "I am in Meltwater now and we don't really need the listening but I do need the media lists."9 If that sounds like you, you may be paying for monitoring you do not use.
Media List does one job. You search 31,000+ journalists, editors and producers, plus YouTube channels and podcasts. You filter by beat, outlet, state and media type. You export the list or pitch it from Media List on Professional and up. There is no suite to learn and no 12-month term to sign.
Who each tool fits best
Choose Media List if
- You are a solo publicist who needs US reporters this week and wants to pay by the month, not by the year.
- You are a founder or startup that wants to pitch press, YouTubers and podcasters from one plan for $99 a month.
- You run a small agency and want up to 3 seats and pitching with follow-ups for $399 a month, with no contract to renew.
- You want to see the price and start the same day, without a sales call or a 2 to 4 week setup.
- You want your contacts inside Claude, Google Sheets, Notion or Webflow through the MCP server, API and add-ons.
Choose Meltwater if
- You need media monitoring and social listening across news, broadcast, podcasts, print and social in one tool.
- You are an agency or in-house team that pitches in many countries and needs global depth beyond the US.
- You want a much bigger database. Meltwater claims 800,000+ contacts with a published update process and bounce rate.
- You need dashboards, competitive benchmarking and 24/7 live chat support for a large team.
- You already have the budget and the annual contract, and you use the monitoring every day.
Cost example for one year
These examples use Meltwater's own starting price and the Vendr buyer data. Your Meltwater quote may differ, because Meltwater prices each deal by the "number of users" and other factors.2
A solo publicist
Media List Basic costs $99 a month. Twelve months comes to $1,188, or $990 if you pay yearly. That includes 2,500 new exports every month.
Meltwater Starter starts "from $10,000/year", paid up front.34 Meltwater says there may be a one-time onboarding charge on top. Vendr puts typical onboarding fees at $2,000 to $10,000.25 So the first year starts at about $10,000 before any setup fee.
A 3-person agency
Media List Professional costs $399 a month with up to 3 seats included. A year comes to $4,788, or $3,990 paid yearly. It adds campaigns with follow-ups and 10,000 exports a month.
Vendr reports that small teams of 1 to 5 users pay $15,000 to $30,000 a year for Meltwater. Vendr's median buyer pays $25,800 a year.5 Vendr also lists price escalators of 3 to 7% a year, and Meltwater's own FAQ says to expect a rate increase at each renewal.45
The assumptions are simple. Media List figures use list prices with no discount. Meltwater figures use Meltwater's floor and Vendr's reported ranges, not a quote.
What buyers say about Meltwater
- Praise, Reddit, September 2026. "Meltwater has a more robust monitoring platform, and their media database has come a LONG way in the last couple years."7
- Praise, Reddit, March 2025. "I like Meltwater way more than Cision, personally."8
- Complaint, Trustpilot, March 2025. "Their renewal practice is built around you not paying attention to the contract."6
- Complaint, Reddit, March 2025. "they auto renewed last year after I told them I was not planning to renew."8
On Trustpilot, Meltwater scores 1.7 out of 5 from 17 reviews as of October 2026.6 On G2 it shows about 4.1 out of 5 from thousands of reviews, per search results, not checked on G2.10
How to switch from Meltwater
Timing matters most. Meltwater's renewal FAQ says the agreement renews for the same length "at Meltwater's then standard price" unless you cancel at least 60 days before the term ends.4
- Find your term end date on your Meltwater order today. Count back 60 days. That is your last day to give notice.
- Start a Media List trial a few weeks before that date. The 3-day trial costs $0 today and lets you export up to 25 contacts.
- Rebuild your core lists in Media List with filters. Pick a beat, then narrow by outlet, US state and media type, such as newspapers, TV and radio, trade or online.
- Compare the reporters you actually pitch. If Media List covers them, give Meltwater notice before the 60-day line.
- Keep anything you still need from Meltwater, such as monitoring reports, until your paid term ends.
What carries over is your own work. Your pitch templates, your story angles and your notes are yours. You rebuild contact lists in Media List with filters, and exports you have already made never count against your allowance again.
Is Meltwater free?
No. Meltwater's pricing FAQ says it "does not offer a self-serve free trial", though you can book a free guided demo.2 There is no free tier for PR buyers. Media List starts with a 3-day trial that costs $0 today, with a card or PayPal, and shows real contacts.
What Meltwater includes at Starter
Meltwater's pricing blog says media relations is "Included at every tier - from journalist databases and press distribution at Starter".3 So a Starter plan does include the database. The extras that make Meltwater a suite, such as influencer marketing and the API and MCP tools, sit on the Enterprise and Agency tiers.23
That is the key point for a database-only buyer. At Meltwater, the database is one part of a $10,000 starting bundle. At Media List, the database is the product, and the price starts at $99 a month.
Bounced emails
Meltwater says its database bounce rate is "around 7 to 8%".1 Media List takes a different route. If an email you exported bounces, send it to support and Media List replaces that export at no cost. Every contact also shows its verification status before you export it.