Muck Rack Pricing Guide 2026: Costs & Plans Broken Down

As you've probably already noticed, Muck Rack don't publicly share their pricing. So, unless you’re ready to speak with their sales team, it can be pretty tricky to understand how much it’ll cost you. 

Not ready to jump into Muck Rack’s sales cycle quite yet? Don’t worry, we’ve gathered the pricing information available so you can get a sense of the cost before speaking with sales.

Let’s start by breaking down Muck Rack’s pricing with a simple TL;DR.

Vendr reports a median annual price of $13,000 across 80 purchases. Its summary doesn’t show which plans, tools or team sizes those purchases cover, so your quote could be quite different.

Muck Rack lists Starter, Standard and Premier for both brands and agencies. Each requires a custom quote. All three cover journalist research, pitching, monitoring and reporting.

The brand and agency packages aren’t identical, so compare the version for your team. Muck Rack advertises a custom demo; ask whether trial access is available with your proposal.

Muck Rack don't list their extra fees on their website. Instead, they’re known for customizing prices based on what you need.

Here's what you can generally expect:

Basic packages include access to the media database, media monitoring and reporting. If you need more flexible PR analytics, Premier adds custom dashboards rather than templates. Ask to see a report you’d use before paying for the upgrade.

Muck Rack lists print and broadcast monitoring as add-ons. If you need magazine coverage or TV and radio clips, check that they’re included in your quote.

If you're buying for an agency with several clients, ask for a setup that covers their different monitoring and reporting needs. A smaller team may need less.

If you're an agency, you may find our guide about the best PR agency software helpful.

I'd start by counting the people who'll use Muck Rack regularly, then ask for a quote for that many people.

To get the exact pricing for your needs, you'll need to contact Muck Rack's sales team. They'll ask about what you need and give you a custom quote.

Pro tip: Before jumping on a call with Muck Rack’s sales team, come prepared with a specific budget to share with them. Think about what you can spend and which tools you’ll use regularly.

Now that you know how Muck Rack’s pricing works, you’re probably wondering: “What are the best alternatives to Muck Rack, and how much do they cost?”

Generally, Muck Rack’s main alternatives to consider are other dedicated PR platforms. The most notable being: Cision, Meltwater, and Prezly.

Not sure how to differentiate between “dedicated PR platforms”? Here’s a quick explainer:

PR software covers different jobs, including media monitoring, contact research and managing your own outreach.

Muck Rack, Cision and Meltwater combine contact research with monitoring and reporting. If you already have contacts, compare that scope with tools focused on managing your relationships and publishing your news.

On the other hand, we’ve built Prezly around managing your media relationships, publishing stories and sending outreach. Prezly doesn’t include a searchable media database subscription.

If you’ve already built your own media list, it’s worth asking how much use you’ll get from paying for a database as well.

If finding contacts in an unfamiliar industry is a regular part of your work, a database can help with that research. If you mostly pitch journalists you already know, managing those relationships may be the more useful investment.

The best PR work comes from building relationships, not cold selling to a list of strangers.

Relevance matters whichever tool you use. Cision’s 2021 State of the Media report made the same point about researching journalists before pitching.

“The vast majority of journalists only consider about 25% of the pitches they receive relevant to their audience.”

That’s how Cision summarized its 2021 findings. It’s a reason to research each pitch, whichever database or contact list you use.

In short? Buying contact details still leaves you with the work of finding the right people and giving them a relevant story.

Cision:

Cision requests a custom quote tailored to your team’s needs and budget.

Meltwater:

Meltwater also uses custom pricing, based on the tools and scope you choose.

Muck Rack:

Muck Rack’s three plans use custom quotes. Compare the plan and coverage you’re offered, rather than assuming its price will be higher than every alternative.

Prezly:

We built Prezly to help you manage PR contacts, send email outreach and publish an online newsroom. You can import your own contacts and keep pitches and notes with each person’s record.

Compare quotes for the same number of people and the work you need done.

Prezly publishes its plan prices and offers a 14-day free trial, so you can check its contact, publishing and outreach workflow before committing. It doesn’t include the same database and monitoring package as Muck Rack.

Want to know more about how Muck Rack and Cision compare to Prezly? Check out our full Muck Rack vs Cision and Prezly comparison. ​ ​ 

While Muck Rack is a strong PR platform, their pricing is difficult to get a hold of before speaking with sales. Whether it’s worth the cost depends on how much you’ll use the research, monitoring and reporting tools.

If you already have a media list and mainly need to manage relationships and share your news, compare that workflow before paying for a broader package.

Starter is aimed at individuals, but Muck Rack doesn’t publish a single-user price. Ask for a proposal with one user and the coverage you need.

Vendr describes Muck Rack contracts as typically annual. Check the term in your proposal. Monthly installments, if offered, don’t necessarily mean you can cancel monthly.

Muck Rack offers free journalist tools, including profiles and portfolios. Those are separate from the paid PR platform.

Muck Rack is one of several full PR platforms worth pricing out. See how the wider market compares in our press release & PR software pricing comparison, or check Cision's pricing directly. You can also see how Prezly compares to Muck Rack.