Public relations (PR) tools help businesses reach out to journalists, distribute press releases, and track the results of these efforts to manage brand perception.
If you’re looking to enhance your PR operations, I’ve rounded up 10 of the best PR tools to consider using. Where possible, I tested these tools personally to assess their capabilities, limitations, and best use cases. I’ve organized them into three categories: outreach, press release distribution, and media monitoring.
These tools are:
|
PR Tool for Outreach |
Best for |
Pricing |
|
AI PR Toolkit |
Enhancing media outreach with AI |
Base ($149/month) and Pro ($279/month) |
|
Muck Rack |
Sending pitches that comply with anti-spam laws |
Starter, Standard, and Premier. Custom pricing applies to all plans. |
|
PitchFriendly |
Sending pitches improved with AI |
Pro ($25/month). An additional $10/month per team member applies from the fourth team member onward. |
|
Anewstip |
Quicker pitching with user-created templates |
Standard ($200/month), Professional ($400/month), and Partners (custom pricing) |
|
PR Tool for Press Release Distribution |
Best for |
Pricing |
|
GlobeNewswire |
Distributing AI-enhanced press releases |
Custom |
|
Cision |
High-volume enterprise-level press release distribution |
Custom |
|
Business Wire |
Ad hoc enterprise-level press release distribution |
Custom |
|
PR Tool for Media Monitoring |
Best for |
Pricing |
|
Media Monitoring |
Tracking user sentiment toward your business |
$39/month for tracking two keywords. Buy more keywords at $17/keyword. |
|
BuzzSumo |
Getting notified of new mentions in Slack |
Content Creation ($199/month), PR & Comms ($299/month), Suite ($499/month), and Enterprise ($999/month). The Content Creation plan doesn’t include media monitoring. |
|
Pulse |
Monitoring Reddit discussions |
Starter ($24.99/month), Growth ($99.99/month), and Enterprise (custom pricing) |
PR Tools for Outreach
PR tools for outreach help you research, build relationships with, and pitch journalists who may be interested in writing about your business.
The best PR tools for outreach include AI PR Toolkit, Muck Rack, PitchFriendly, and Anewstip. To get the most from your outreach tool, pair it with a PR monitoring tool that lets you evaluate the effectiveness of your outreach efforts.
1. AI PR Toolkit
- Best for: Enhancing media outreach with AI
- Free basic version available: No
- Pricing: Base ($149/month) and Pro ($279/month)
- Free trial period: Seven days
Semrush AI PR Toolkit is an AI-powered suite of digital PR tools for discovering journalists and media outlets—including those AI chatbots trust—emailing them, and monitoring the impact of these pitches within one convenient platform.
With the AI PR Toolkit, I took just 15 minutes to identify and email journalists who report on my industry. Doing this manually would have taken at least one hour. I could also set up—in the same platform—a media monitoring query to track online mentions of keywords relevant to my outreach campaign.
Using the AI PR Toolkit was easy. After launching the tool, I started a new contact search.
I entered my ideal journalist profile—including their topics of interest and location—into the “Search with AI” chat feature and clicked “Search.”
The AI asked some questions to clarify the scope of my search. After I provided the details it needed, the AI generated a list of relevant journalists in three minutes.
From there, I could view the journalists’ profiles and add them to a shortlist.
I then clicked “Pitch this list” to mass-email the shortlisted journalists.
Finally, I set up my media monitoring query.
AI PR Toolkit’s email-scheduling feature works best if you’re emailing journalists who share a similar time zone.
That’s because, similar to many other outreach tools, you can choose only one scheduled date and time. Sending your email at this time may not be optimal if the journalists’ time zones are far apart.
What I Like
AI PR Toolkit helped me find relevant journalists even when my initial topic didn’t lead to many results. It did this by suggesting alternative related topics to consider.
2. Muck Rack
- Best for: Sending pitches that comply with anti-spam laws
- Free basic version available: No
- Pricing: Starter, Standard, and Premier. Custom pricing applies to all plans.
- Free trial period: No
Muck Rack is an all-in-one PR platform for researching journalists, conducting media monitoring, sending personalized pitches, and tracking PR campaign performance.
I didn’t hear back from Muck Rack after requesting a demo. So, I relied on the tool’s marketing site, YouTube demo video, and help articles to review its outreach capabilities.
To send a pitch with Muck Rack, you’ll first enter basic information about your pitch, including an internal name and whether to track email opens and clicks.
Next, you’ll provide your recipients list:
Image Source: Muck Rack
You’ll then write your pitch email, optionally adding personalization merge tags, images, links, and so on.
Image Source: Muck Rack
If you’d like, you can then personalize your pitch email for specific journalists.
The final step is to review your pitch setup and send your pitch.
Muck Rack works best if you send unique pitches for your campaigns. Duplicating past pitches for use in new ones isn’t possible.
What I Like
Muck Rack helps users comply with anti-spam laws while pitching. It offers an option for adding unsubscribe links to pitch emails that contain unsolicited promotional content.
Image Source: Muck Rack
3. PitchFriendly
- Best for: Sending pitches improved with AI
- Free basic version available: Yes
- Pricing: Pro ($25/month). An additional $10/month per team member applies from the fourth team member onward.
- Free trial period: Not applicable
PitchFriendly is an outreach tool for getting information on journalists, improving pitches with AI, and emailing these pitches to relevant journalists.
I used PitchFriendly to draw up a curated list of journalists enriched with data like the journalists’ email addresses, publications, and social media profiles, before scheduling a pitch to these journalists.
First, I created a new pitch in the tool, entering my pitch email’s subject and message content.
I then uploaded a press list to the tool:
And PitchFriendly enriched the contacts on my list with more information, including their title, categories, and X handles.
I downloaded the tool’s enriched press list for future reference:
Back in PitchFriendly, I selected the journalists I wanted to email my pitch to and created pitch template drafts for them.
Finally, I scheduled my pitch.
PitchFriendly works best for PR professionals who already have journalists in mind for their pitch.
Unlike Muck Rack, PitchFriendly can’t suggest relevant journalists to contact if you don’t provide it with an initial press list.
What I Like
PitchFriendly helped me change my pitch email’s writing style with just one click.
The tool provides an AI-powered feature for customizing my email’s subject line and content. I simply selected my preferred writing style, and the tool rewrote my pitch to match.
Here’s the tool’s suggested pitch copy when I indicated I wanted a storytelling format:
4. Anewstip
- Best for: Quicker pitching with user-created templates
- Free basic version available: Yes
- Pricing: Standard ($200/month), Professional ($400/month), and Partners (custom pricing)
- Free trial period: Not applicable
Anewstip is an outreach tool that provides a simple interface for drafting pitches, discovering relevant journalists, and sending your drafted pitches to these journalists.
During my test, I was able to do all these in about 20 minutes.
At the first stage, I entered my pitch’s title and contents into the tool:
Next, I selected my pitch’s recipients.
Apart from letting me send my pitch to contacts in my media list, Anewstip also helped me find new journalists to pitch to by suggesting topics relevant to my pitch’s content and using these topics to surface journalists.
This discovery process took about three minutes.
After that, I set up my pitch’s sender name, email address, and send time. I then reviewed and sent my pitch.
Anewstip’s progress indicator makes it easy to track where you’re at in the pitching process. But the indicator can frustrate users who want to edit their pitch’s contents or outreach parameters midway.
Why?
Because the progress indicator’s headings aren’t clickable.
To navigate to a previous pitching stage, you’d need to go back to the main pitching screen, and then click through each stage until you reach the right one.
What I Like
Anewstip helped me send pitches quicker by saving my pitch content as templates. This way, I didn’t have to manually type subsequent pitches from scratch.
PR Tools for Press Release Distribution
PR tools for press release distribution help you share your press releases with media outlets to publicize the latest news on your business.
Doing this can get your business more press coverage. It can also lead to increased visibility in traditional and AI search, which you can track using SEO monitoring tools and LLM monitoring tools.
Many press release distribution tools are enterprise-level ones that don’t offer free access. So, instead of testing them personally, I evaluated them based on the information available in demo videos, marketing and support documentation, and content on third-party sites.
The best PR tools for press release distribution include GlobeNewswire, Cision, and Business Wire:
5. GlobeNewswire
- Best for: Distributing AI-enhanced press releases
- Free basic version available: No
- Pricing: Custom
- Free trial period: No
GlobeNewswire is a tool for distributing press releases to audiences in geographies and industries around the world.
I encountered a delay in securing a GlobeNewswire demo. So, I used the platform’s marketing site, help articles, and promotional YouTube video to assess its press release distribution capabilities.
To distribute a press release in GlobeNewswire, you’ll draft your press release in the tool, providing multimedia content as relevant.
Preview your draft after that. If it looks good, choose the audiences you want to distribute the press release to. GlobeNewswire’s editorial team will review your press release before distributing it.
That said, GlobeNewswire isn’t the best option for businesses that prefer a self-serve onboarding process to save time.
The only way to get access to GlobeNewswire is by submitting an application. The platform’s representatives will onboard you after that.
What I Like
GlobeNewswire helps businesses produce polished press releases with the help of AI.
Clients can enter a summary of their story, plus supporting information, into the platform’s AI press release generator tool to get a draft for refining further.
6. Cision
- Best for: High-volume enterprise-level press release distribution
- Free basic version available: No
- Pricing: Custom
- Free trial period: No
Cision is a suite of PR tools for reaching out to journalists and monitoring media mentions, and distributing press releases under its Cision PR Newswire service, among other features.
I didn’t hear back from Cision after requesting a PR Newswire demo. So, I used Cision’s marketing site and YouTube demo video, and information on third-party sites, to review the platform’s press release distribution features.
When distributing a press release with Cision, you’ll first create the press release in PR Newswire, providing information like a headline, summary, and pull-out quote.
Image Source: Cision
Next, you’ll upload visual assets, like images, to accompany your press release. And enter your business’s press contact details and social media handles.
Image Source: Cision
You’ll then choose your press release’s distribution date and time, plus the journalists to send it to.
Finally, you’ll confirm your press release’s look and settings before submitting it. Cision’s editorial team will review the press release and distribute it if it’s approved.
Cision may be more suited for businesses that have larger PR budgets and frequently issue press releases.
The platform’s pricing can be expensive. For example, distributing a 400-word press release in the U.S. can cost around $1,000, based on reported user experiences.
Cision also charges an annual membership fee. You may not find this fee justified if your business issues press releases only occasionally.
What I Like
Cision can help businesses secure widespread international reach. It offers press release distribution to over 170 countries in over 40 languages.
7. Business Wire
- Best for: Ad hoc enterprise-level press release distribution
- Free basic version available: No
- Pricing: Custom
- Free trial period: No
Business Wire is a platform specializing in global press release distribution and investor relations services.
Business Wire’s sales development representative declined to provide a demo or share pricing. So, I limited my review to the information I could find on the platform’s marketing site and help articles.
Distributing a press release with Business Wire involves writing your press release in its distribution tool, adding multimedia as relevant.
After that, you’ll choose your distribution lists. Available ones include specific cities and states, industries, and trades in the U.S. and globally.
Next, in-house editors review your press release and prepare it for distribution. Business Wire then delivers your press release with its patented NX news delivery platform.
Business Wire’s pricing may be lower than Cision’s. But businesses with smaller PR budgets may still find Business Wire’s pricing prohibitive.
The platform charges $475 and up for distributing a 400-word press release via U.S. domestic local distribution.
What I Like
With Business Wire, businesses can reach multilingual audiences with less effort. The platform can help clients get professional translations of press releases as needed.
PR Tools for Media Monitoring
PR tools for media monitoring are tools that track brand perception based on what others say about your business online. They’re especially helpful if you’ve just conducted an outreach campaign or distributed a press release, and you want to know whether these efforts have paid off.
The best PR tools for media monitoring include Media Monitoring, BuzzSumo, and Pulse:
8. Media Monitoring
- Best for: Tracking user sentiment toward your business
- Free basic version available: No
- Pricing: $39/month for tracking two keywords. Buy more keywords at $17/keyword.
- Free trial period: Seven days
Semrush’s Media Monitoring is a tool for monitoring mentions containing keywords relevant to your business, identifying these mentions’ sentiment, and evaluating your business’s level of brand awareness for any period.
Setting up a basic media monitoring project in the tool was straightforward and took less than 30 seconds.
I created a new project, entered my target keywords, and selected the language of the mentions I wanted to monitor.
Media Monitoring scanned the web for mentions and displayed its findings.
For example, I could view a summary of mentions over my preferred period:
I could also filter mentions by positive, negative, or neutral sentiment. And view trends on my business’s mentions, reach, and presence score—a score that evaluates a business’s current total reach.
Media Monitoring offers daily, weekly, and monthly email reports of mentions. But it’s unable to provide instant email alerts, which isn’t ideal for businesses that want to track brand reputation, campaign performance, or other PR metrics in real time.
What I Like
Media Monitoring helped me configure a more targeted monitoring campaign.
I could exclude an unlimited number of irrelevant keywords so that reports wouldn’t include mentions containing them.
9. BuzzSumo
- Best for: Getting notified of new mentions in Slack
- Free basic version available: No
- Pricing: Content Creation ($199/month), PR & Comms ($299/month), Suite ($499/month), and Enterprise ($999/month). The Content Creation plan doesn’t include media monitoring.
- Free trial period: Seven days
BuzzSumo is a tool for content ideation and research, discovering influential people in your industry, and monitoring online activity, including mentions of your business, competitors, and content.
I tried BuzzSumo’s monitoring feature and was able to create a simple alert for my business’s name within 30 seconds.
First, I chose what I wanted to monitor (meaning, my business’s name):
I then configured the alert, entering my business’s name and keywords I wanted (and didn’t want) to track, plus setting up email alerts.
There were also filters—for engagement, domain, country, and so on—for more advanced customization.
BuzzSumo then generated a report showing the last month’s worth of data for my alert. For me to view before the report populates with the latest data.
BuzzSumo focuses on content performance and mention tracking rather than sentiment analysis.
If sentiment filtering is a priority, you can set up alerts to detect mentions containing phrases that indicate tone, like “fantastic” or “bad,” and pair BuzzSumo with a dedicated sentiment tool for deeper analysis.
What I Like
BuzzSumo helped me get real-time alerts of new brand mentions in my preferred Slack channel. To do this, I enabled the tool’s Slack integration feature when setting up my alert.
10. Pulse
- Best for: Monitoring Reddit discussions
- Free basic version available: Yes
- Pricing: Starter ($24.99/month), Growth ($99.99/month), and Enterprise (custom pricing)
- Free trial period: Not applicable
Pulse is a specialized tool for monitoring Reddit posts and comments that contain keywords relevant to your business, so you can track industry trends and engage potential customers.
And you don’t have to log in to Pulse to view the Reddit content it finds. When testing the tool, I was able to set up a daily email alert easily.
To do this, I created a new project in Pulse, providing details on my business’s website, name, and description.
Pulse then suggested relevant Reddit keywords to track. I could replace them if I had more appropriate keywords in mind.
After that, Pulse suggested semantic queries. These are questions that my business’s prospects may ask, which helps the tool identify relevant Reddit content even if the content doesn’t contain my target keywords.
Finally, I could set up either instant or daily email alerts.
I chose daily alerts. So, as promised, I got a Pulse email informing me of new and relevant Reddit content the next day.
Pulse lets you connect a Reddit account for replying to Reddit posts within the tool. But each Pulse account supports only one Reddit account connection.
This makes Pulse less helpful for businesses that have multiple team members using their own Reddit accounts to engage the platform’s users.
What I Like
Pulse helped me fine-tune my monitoring setup to focus on valuable mentions.
I did this by excluding Reddit content from subreddits and users I wasn’t interested in being notified about.
Frequently Asked Questions About PR Tools
What is the best free PR tool?
PitchFriendly and Anewstip both offer free basic versions for media outreach. For monitoring, Pulse has a free tier focused on Reddit tracking. Most enterprise-grade tools like Muck Rack, Cision, and Business Wire don’t offer free plans. You’ll need to request custom pricing.
How much do PR tools cost?
PR tool pricing varies widely. Outreach tools range from free (PitchFriendly basic) to $279/month (AI PR Toolkit Pro). Press release distribution through services like Cision or Business Wire can cost $475-$1,000+ per release, plus annual membership fees. Media monitoring tools typically run $25-$500/month depending on features and keyword limits.
What’s the difference between PR outreach tools and press release distribution tools?
Outreach tools help you find and pitch individual journalists; you’re building relationships and sending personalized emails. Press release distribution tools blast your announcement to a wide network of media outlets simultaneously. Most businesses start with outreach tools and add distribution as they scale.
Do I need all three types of PR tools?
Not necessarily. If you’re just starting with PR, begin with an outreach tool to connect with journalists. Add a monitoring tool once you’re running campaigns and need to track results. Press release distribution is typically a later-stage investment for businesses with established PR operations and larger budgets.
Can AI PR tools replace a PR agency?
AI tools can handle much of the research, writing, and sending that agencies traditionally manage, especially for straightforward media outreach. However, they can’t replace strategic counsel, crisis management expertise, or established journalist relationships. Many businesses use AI tools to bring routine PR work in-house while reserving agency partnerships for high-stakes campaigns.
Invest in the Best PR Tools for Your Business
Invest in the best PR tools for your business by selecting the tools that fit your needs and budget.
If you’re new to PR, start by using an outreach tool to connect with journalists and get the word out on your business.
Then, as you scale your PR operations, add a monitoring tool for tracking your campaigns’ outcomes.
Finally, when you have an established, well-funded PR department, consider accelerating press coverage with an enterprise-grade press release distribution tool.
Once you’ve decided on the tools you need, try them before signing up for a paid plan. Many tools have free plans and trials, while others offer salesperson-led demos.
AI PR Toolkit is a good PR tool to start with if media outreach is your priority.
Start pitching journalists for free in a seven-day trial:
