Cision Pricing Guide 2024: Costs & Plans Broken Down

When many in the industry think of PR software, Cision is among the first that come to mind. And for good reason – they have a ton of software and different tools available, not to mention they've been around for a long while.

You likely arrived at this page because you’re trying to find pricing information for Cision. Confusingly, you did not land on Cision’s actual website.

This is because Cision’s software pricing is notoriously difficult to find.

Prospective customers have to set up a consultation with one of their salespeople to get an idea of their pricing structure, which can make finding a quick answer about their services a bit frustrating.

Let's demystify the puzzle that is Cision pricing and help you decide if Cision is the right software for your PR needs.

Note: The only people who know Cision’s exact pricing scheme are, presumably, within their organization. You’ll need to do a consultation for the most up-to-date information about their pricing. But read on for the best pricing info we could find online (and a budget-friendly alternative, too!).

How much you spend on Cision will vary based on which of their products and tools you plan to use. They have a range of offerings, the prices of which vary significantly. Here are the best estimations of Cision pricing we could find based on the information available on the world wide internet. 

For access to their complete PR platform, including pitching, press release tools, online newsrooms, media monitoring, campaigns, etc., you’re looking at an estimated $7,200 annually as a starting figure, according to various online estimates. It’s unclear what features and allowances this starting figure actually encapsulates as reported accounts online suggest that it can quickly skyrocket.

Exact pricing will, again, require speaking directly to Cision and will likely change based on usage, number of seats, etc.

If you only want to use their press release distribution service, the pricing will look something like this, according to the Cision PR Web website. 

• Basic: $110 per news release
• Standard: $230 per news release
• Advanced: $340 per news release
• Premium: $455 per news release

Each tier represents a different level of reach: for example, “basic” seems limited to only indexing your news release by search engines – something platforms like Prezly offer for free – while “standard” has your press release syndicated to their network of “1200+” websites.

But here again, the pricing gets a bit muddy. Sources around the internet indicate wildly higher rates than what is quoted on the website, so there is likely some variation based on location, niche, reach, etc.

Depending on your distribution needs, this certainly adds up. 

There is also some debate about the efficacy of newswire services in 2024. Many PR folks (and journalists) argue that PR wire services are becoming a bit passé and that there are myriad better options, such as building relationships with journalists and targeted pitching. Instead of defaulting to a newswire service to distribute your press release, it can save you a lot of money and get you better results if you work out the best press release distribution strategy for your story type.

But, we digress.

Another closely held secret is the pricing for Cision’s journalist database. To find out, you must consult with a member of their sales team (don’t take a shot every time we say that). Online sources estimate that access to this database will run you $5,700–$6,000 per year.

Connectively, a Cision service that connects journalists with subject matter experts, has a range of pricing options:

• Lite (10 pitches per month): $0 per month
• Core (25 pitches per month): $19 per month
• Pro (50 pitches per month): $49 per month
• Premier (150 pitches per month): $149 per month

To their credit, Connectively's pricing is relatively transparent and straightforward. That being said, some Connectively alternatives match (or even exceed) their quality and price, in our humble opinion.

While Cision is a significant player in the PR tool game, we’d argue that the service has several substantial problems.

The price, once you’re able to find it, does seem to be very high for what you get, particularly when there are other cheaper and more modern solutions on the market. The approximate $7,000 starting annual fee will be prohibitively expensive for many PR professionals, agencies, and teams.

It’s been reported by some users online that Cision’s lack of transparency extends to the option to cancel your subscription with them after you start, so as with any product, be sure to read the terms carefully before you commit otherwise you may find yourself paying a lot more than you expected.

Withholding pricing information is a classic marketing tactic that cashes in on the sunk cost fallacy – once you’ve invested your time in a demo call, you’re far more likely to buy even if it puts you over budget. It’s a practice that places the company’s interests above the client’s, which some might view as reflective of a business’s broader customer care culture.

Media databases, in general, are pretty sketchy. We’ve talked at length about why they don’t work and why we don’t include them in our software – to simplify, the reasons boil down to: 

• Bought contacts get poor deliverability and engagement rates 
• Promotes “spray and pray” spam tactics over targeted distribution 
• Violate privacy principles and regulations such as the GDPR 
• Can get your company email domain blacklisted 

Obviously, we can't speak directly to Cision’s specific database because it was far too expensive for us to try out just for this article. However, the concept of media databases is fraught with controversy. Journalists hate them and find that they’re one of the biggest sources of irrelevant pitches in their inboxes. We think there’s a better way, and advocate for relationship-based pitching and media list curation.

Many consumers just do not want to deal with the friction of working with a salesperson to even get their foot in the door. Prospective Cision customers should have the option to establish (and cancel) service without having to hunt down a salesperson whose interest lies in getting them to sign up to the highest figure, but this does not appear to be possible at the time of writing for several of their services.

Cision does have some services, such as Connectively, that do not require a sales call. However, their primary PR tools do not appear to be accessible without a consultation.

Many of Cision’s online reviews talk about a difficult user interface that seems to be degrading over time, combined with inadequate customer support. With a 3.7/5 rating for Ease of Use on Capterra at the time of writing, it appears that user-friendliness is a sore spot for many current and former customers.

Prezly is a popular alternative to Cision for several reasons. Hear us out, despite our egregious bias.

Assuming Cision costs an approximate starting price of $7,000 annually, our pricing doesn’t even come close to that at a humble $1080 per year – that’s $90 per month – for our Starter Plan. And with that, Prezly offers a full PR software suite, including newsrooms, email pitching tools, a press release builder, CRM, reporting analytics, and more.

Which might beg the question: how are we so much cheaper? To be honest, we're not sure. Magic, maybe.

As a bonus, we won’t even make you guess about our pricing.

At Prezly, we highly value transparency. From how your data is handled to the cost of our services, we want the people who use our software to feel empowered and informed when they continue to choose Prezly over other PR software.

You might assume that, for the incredibly different price points, Prezly would offer far less functionality than Cision. However, this isn't the case, and Prezly’s all-in-one software includes all of the tools that most PR solopreneurs and teams need.

As you can see, we even include tools that Cision doesn't have, including a dedicated CRM, a multimedia press release creator, and a newsroom/site creator. The main difference is that we don’t offer a media base – but there’s a reason for that (three reasons in fact).

Bought media lists are almost always buggy, outdated, and journalists don’t particularly like being included in them. In short? Targeted pitching will always get you more coverage than using a bought media database or a newswire.

While Prezly software is built to accommodate PR teams of all sizes, we understand that bigger operations sometimes require a custom solution. That’s why we offer personalized Agency and Enterprise Plan options for larger collaborative teams. (This is the one case where you might want to speak with our team to get a plan tailored to you!)

Not to toot our own horn too aggressively, but our support crew is out of this world. Prezly’s 100% human customer service team is standing by to help with any issues, and we pride ourselves on fast, friendly support. Our customers tend to agree. 

Answering your most burning questions about how much Cision tools cost to use.

Cision’s pricing varies depending on the product or service you use. However, many of Cision’s services don’t have pricing available online and can only be obtained by meeting with a sales team member.

Each Cision press release costs between $110 and $455 as a starting rate, depending on your membership level, but anecdotal evidence online suggests that this cost can skyrocket into the thousands based on undisclosed parameters. For an estimate of how much it would cost to send a press release to your specific audience, you will need to contact the Cision sales team directly.

Cision does not publicly release its pricing information. However, various online forums and sources show that the cost ranges from $5,700 to $6,000 annually. Cision will need to be contacted directly for the most accurate pricing.

If you’d like to try an all-in-one software with everything you need to build relationships with journalists, send killer multimedia pitches, and house your content in aesthetic, SEO-optimized newsrooms, check out Prezly. We’re so sure you’ll love it that we’ll give you a 14-day, no-CC-required trial. 

And, best of all, you won’t have to talk to a salesperson. (Unless you really want to. Ours is called Jack and he’s pretty rad – ask him about his band!)