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, and 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?
| 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 | Muck Rack remains a standalone PR platform with tiered PR plans.9 |
| Published monthly price | Base is $149, Pro is $279, and Business is $499 a month.2 | Muck Rack does not publish a list price. Its pricing page says pricing depends on factors specific to the team, including users.9 |
| How buying starts | Buyers can choose Base, Pro or Business and start a seven-day trial.2 | PR buyers are directed to contact Muck Rack or request a custom demo.9 |
| Trial access to contacts | The trial disables viewing and exporting contact information. It is useful for seeing the product flow, not for judging a specific list.2 | Muck Rack publishes no PR-user trial on its pricing page.9 |
| Journalist database claim | Semrush publishes two figures on its pages, over 600,000 journalist profiles and over 1 million journalist profiles.320 | Muck Rack publishes no headline count. Its Google ads say "400K+ Contacts in 60 Countries."21 |
| Search and filters | Search can use topic, region, country, city, role, media type or targeted audience, plus natural-language prompts.4 | Filters include 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 includes zero exports, Pro includes 150, and Business includes 500. A 200-export add-on costs $149 a month.5 | Starter exports are listed as "Limited." Standard and Premier have unlimited monthly exports.9 |
| Contact fields | Paid plans can reveal email addresses, phone numbers and social profiles.6 | Profiles show an email, phone, social accounts and the journalist's contact preferences.10 |
| Pitch sending | Users can send from an authenticated domain or connect a Gmail or Outlook inbox. Pro and Business include automatic follow-ups.7 | Pitches go out through the user's own Gmail or Outlook inbox. Follow-ups are manual, with no sequences.10 |
| Media monitoring | Pro and Business include monitoring across online news, blogs, discussions and YouTube, with alerts and AI summaries.8 | Online news monitoring comes on every tier. Podcast monitoring starts at 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 come in tiered packs. Custom dashboards and interactive presentations come on Premier. This is the stronger reporting setup for client work.10 |
| AI-specific research | AI-Cited Media ranks outlets by how often several AI search products cite them and gives an AI authority score.11 | Muck Rack offers Generative Pulse for AI-answer visibility as part of its broader PR suite.10 |
| Billing and cancellation | Semrush says that with annual billing "you pay for the entire year upfront." Its refund policy says refunds are not available for month-to-month plans.1216 | Muck Rack bills by the year. Its 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. Treat it as a guide, not a list price.14 |
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Start 3-day free trial →Who each tool fits best
Choose Prowly if you want a Semrush PR workspace
- Choose Prowly if you already use Semrush and want journalist search, pitching and monitoring in one login. The product lets you connect a Gmail or Outlook inbox and has automatic follow-ups on Pro and Business.7
- Choose Prowly if AI-cited outlets matter to your digital PR plan. Its AI-Cited Media feature is designed around outlets surfaced by ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI products.11
- Choose Prowly if 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 your PR work is broad and ongoing
- 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.
- Choose Muck Rack if your team needs more than a small export allowance. Its Standard and Premier tiers have unlimited monthly exports.9
- Choose Muck Rack if finding freelancers, trade writers and hard-to-find reporters is central to the job. A PR community commenter said it has more freelancers and contacts overall.15
What the cost can look like
For a 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, but 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.
For a 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, but the 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
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.
What buyers say about both tools
These are single buyers, not a verdict. Read together, they show why the choice comes down to fit.
- A Prowly user on Trustpilot wrote, “It very easy to use and unlike some other tools that I am using there is one on one training available.”17
- Another Prowly reviewer on Trustpilot wrote in June 2026, “most of the contacts either don’t exist or result in bounce-backs.”17
- A Muck Rack reviewer on Capterra said in January 2026, “Its accuracy is far superior to its competitors.”18
- A small-business reviewer on Software Advice said Muck Rack is “expensive for we small biz owners.”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. Semrush says its subscription automatically renews for the same period on the then-current terms.19 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. 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 is a third option for a team that mainly needs a self-serve list at a published monthly price. Basic starts at $99 a month with 2,500 exports a month. You can filter journalists by beat, outlet, state and media type, and 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. There is no demo requirement, and monthly plans can be cancelled from the billing page. At volume, Basic is about $0.04 per exported contact. Media List also includes 1.2 million podcasts and 189,000+ YouTube channels 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.