Newsbound bundles a PR team at $3,000/mo. Medialyst is software from $149.
Newsbound pairs an AI agent with an in-house PR team, from $3,000/mo. Medialyst is self-serve software that shows why each journalist fits your story, from $149/mo.
Who builds Medialyst, and who grades it.
As far as we know, Medialyst is the only AI PR tool that publishes a public, recurring quality benchmark. Carly Martinetti, our Founding Strategic Advisor, runs Notably, a boutique PR agency serving 25+ clients; she grades our real media lists, and we publish every grade, starting with her first: F, 27.9/100. Elvis Sun, the founder, is an AI engineer who spent 8 years at Google working on AI systems.
The honest comparison.
Pulled from Newsbound's own public pages and our own product. We update this page when either side ships something new.
| Capability | Medialyst | Newsbound |
|---|---|---|
| Finding the right journalist | ||
| Find journalists for this story | ✓ Story-specific relevance scoring | ~ Picks “the perfect person to reach out to” when “topics, timing and story align” |
| Understand a journalist's beat | ✓ Reads past articles + recent coverage | ~ Picks journalists by “what they actually cover and how recently they've written about related topics” (App Store) |
| Analyze past writing | ✓ Grounded in actual articles | ~ Pitches reference “the cultural moment and recent work” |
| Per-journalist pitch angles | ✓ Personalized angles + pitch drafts | ~ Writes a pitch for each journalist's beat and point of view |
| Data freshness | ✓ Live news article search in real time | ~ “Scours the web 24/7” and monitors breaking news |
| Refine a list with natural language | ✓ “Remove anyone inactive in 6 months” | ~ Not documented |
| Find more like top performers | ✓ “Find 20 more like the top 5” | ~ Not documented |
| Add custom enrichment columns | ✓ “Research if they use affiliate links” | ~ Not documented |
| Pitching & sending | ||
| Email verification | ✓ Multi-step verification waterfall | ~ Not documented |
| Send from one place | ✓ Built-in sending | ~ The agent sends after you approve each step, follows up and tracks replies |
| Pricing & setup | ||
| Time to first pitch | ✓ Minutes | ~ Not documented — onboarding starts with a demo |
| Free trial | ✓ First list free | ~ Not documented — “Book a Demo” |
| Contract | ✓ None — cancel anytime | ~ Not documented |
| Price | ✓ from $149/mo | ~ $3,000/mo (Unlimited) · $5,000/project (Sprint) |
| Agent-native workflows | ||
| API access | ✓ Public REST API | ~ Not documented |
| Remote MCP support | ✓ Hosted remote MCP server | ~ Not documented |
| Agent-native workflows | ✓ Usable directly inside Claude, ChatGPT & Cursor | ~ Not documented — has an iOS app |
| CSV import / re-enrichment from competitor exports | ✓ Upload any CSV — the agent re-verifies & re-scores | ~ Not documented |
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Why people switch from Newsbound.
Decide whether you're buying software or a team
Newsbound's headline is “Time to dump your PR agency”, and both of its plans include “our in-house PR team”: daily guidance on Unlimited, and a team that “builds the campaign with you” on Sprint. Its App Store listing says “Newsbound is a product, not a PR agency.” Before you book the demo, it's worth asking two questions. If the software were good enough on its own, would you need the team? And if the team is what you're paying for, how is that different from hiring an agency? Medialyst answers the first one directly: it is software, and you can test the output before you pay.
newsbound.ai — homepage and pricing ↗Start today, without a demo
Newsbound's published plans are “$3,000/month” for Newsbound Unlimited and “$5,000/project” for a 4–6 week Newsbound Sprint, and the way to start is “Book a Demo”. Its site doesn't document a free trial or contract terms. Medialyst is self-serve: sign up, get 100 free credits with no credit card, and build your first list today. Paid plans start at $149/mo ($97/mo billed annually), with no per-seat fees and a 14-day money-back guarantee.
newsbound.ai — pricing ↗We publish our grade, starting with the F
As far as we know, Medialyst is the only AI PR tool that publishes a public, recurring quality benchmark: the Carly Score. Carly Martinetti, Medialyst's Founding Strategic Advisor, has built media lists by hand for fourteen years. Every other Thursday we hand the same client brief to our software and to her, and she grades our list against her own. The first list we handed her, on 20 July 2026, got an F (27.9/100), and we published it. Every grade since is on the same page; the most recent, on 1 October 2026, was a B (82.0). As of 4 October 2026, Newsbound's site publishes no case studies or results.
medialyst.ai/carly-score ↗See why each journalist is on the list, then send it yourself
Newsbound's agent sends pitches with you in the loop: it “brings you in to approve each step”, and its Terms say the agent's sends are “performed at your direction.” Medialyst draws the line in a different place. The research is automated, and every journalist comes with a 0–100 fit score and a written reason citing their recent articles, so you can check the pick before you pitch. Then you send each pitch yourself from your own Gmail or Outlook, with open, click and reply tracking.
newsbound.ai — Terms of Use ↗Where Newsbound wins.
An in-house PR team is part of the plan
Newsbound includes people. Unlimited comes with “daily guidance from our in-house PR team”, and its site describes daily quality checks “to make sure nothing's off brand or off-target”, weekly calls “to work through your program”, and coaching from “pros who've been there before.” Medialyst sells software only. If you want someone experienced reviewing your program every week, Newsbound includes that.
More channels than journalist email
Newsbound pitches beyond reporters: it “scans open calls for speakers”, pitches podcast hosts, “drafts submissions” for awards, and covers newsletters and expert requests. The Sprint plan includes one newswire distribution. Medialyst is built around journalists; podcasts, speaking, awards and newswire distribution aren't part of it today.
A fixed-fee launch package
Newsbound Sprint is $5,000 for “one launch or funding announcement over 4 to 6 weeks, run across journalists, podcasts and newswire”, with the team timing everything “to land on your announcement day.” Medialyst has no equivalent package. If you have one big announcement and want it run for you at a fixed price, Sprint is built for that.
Execution in one place, including on your phone
Newsbound handles “opportunity discovery, journalist selection, pitch drafting, sending, follow-ups, and contact tracking in a single system”, and there's an iOS app. With Medialyst, sending always involves a person: pitches go out from your own Gmail or Outlook when you send or schedule them, follow-up sequences aren't available yet, and there's no mobile app.
Where Medialyst pulls ahead.
Quality you can check before you pay
The Carly Score is public: every grade Carly has given our lists, starting with the F on 20 July 2026, with the briefs and what we changed after each one. Her reasons for cutting names became rules in the product. You can read all of it, then build a list yourself with 100 free credits.
Each journalist is picked for your story
Medialyst reads what each journalist has published recently and scores them 0–100 for fit to your angle, with a written reason citing those articles. When there isn't enough of their work to judge, it says “not enough evidence” instead of guessing. Before judging fit, scoring also reads each journalist's author page and recent bylines.
A person sends every pitch
Pitches go out from your own Gmail or Outlook, one person deciding each send, with open, click and reply tracking per journalist and a filter that hides bot opens.
Open to your own agents
Every plan, including the free credits, includes a public REST API and a hosted MCP server, so Medialyst works inside Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor. The Medialyst team also builds Newsjack.sh, a free MIT-licensed set of open-source PR skills.
Pay only for what's delivered
Starter is $149/mo ($97/mo billed annually), Pro $299/mo and Scale $800/mo, with no per-seat fees. You pay only for delivered verified emails; misses are free. The first 100 credits are free with no card, and there's a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Three places the difference shows up.
01Database quality
Newsbound and Medialyst both say they pick journalists from what they actually write.
” What the user sees about each pick, such as a score, a reason or how the contact was verified, isn't described on its public pages. Medialyst shows its working on every row. Each journalist gets a 0–100 fit score for your story and a written reason citing the recent articles behind it, and when there isn't enough evidence it says so instead of inventing a score. Scoring also reads each journalist's author page and recent bylines.
Every delivered email was validated within the last 14 days or is re-checked when you build the list, and you pay only for delivered verified emails. Medialyst also publishes how good its lists are: the Carly Score, graded every other Thursday by a working publicist, starting with an F. As of 4 October 2026, Newsbound's site publishes no case studies or results, so the comparison you can run today is to read our grades, then build a free list and judge it yourself.
02Speed
Newsbound runs continuously once you're set up: it “monitors breaking news and trending stories” and pitches “before the moment passes”, with its team doing daily checks and weekly calls.
Getting started runs through “Book a Demo”, and the Sprint plan works to a 4–6 week launch timeline. That pace suits a company that wants a program run alongside it. Medialyst is built for the moment you need a list. There's no demo or onboarding call: paste a press release, URL or topic, and the agent researches the journalists covering that story and returns a fit-scored list in minutes.
You see and edit the story angles before any credit is spent, and every list has a hard credit budget. The list is something you review, not a pitch that has already gone out, so you can move while a story is live and still decide who gets each email. If you want a team running an always-on program with you, Newsbound is designed for that. If you want to go from a story to a researched list today, on your own schedule, Medialyst is designed for that.
03AI & agent surface
Newsbound is its own agent.
Its homepage says “our AI agent executes the entire process; covering pitches, Q&A, briefings, and tracking who's replied and when”, and it brings you in to approve each step. Its public pages don't document an API or MCP server for reaching that agent from other tools. Medialyst is built to plug into the agents you already use. Every plan, including the free 100 credits, includes a public REST API and a hosted remote MCP server, so you can build and enrich journalist lists from inside Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor, or wire them into your own scripts.
sh, a free, MIT-licensed set of open-source PR skills, from newsworthiness checks to angle generation, that runs inside your own agent. Sending stays with a person: drafts come back to you, and you send each pitch from your own Gmail or Outlook with open, click and reply tracking. If you want one hosted agent plus a team to run your PR, Newsbound offers that. If you want PR research that works inside your own tools, Medialyst is built for that.
Two pricing philosophies, side by side.
Ours is public and posted. Here's how it sits next to Newsbound's own published pricing page and what named third parties report.
- Starterfounders & small teams$97/mo annual
- Proin-house comms & PR teams$194/mo annual
- Scaleagencies & high-volume teams$520/mo annual
- No contract · no per-seat fees · cancel anytime · 14-day money-back guarantee
- Free first list — 100 credits, no credit card
- One unified product — no modules priced separately
- Newsbound publishes two plans on its homepage: Newsbound Unlimited at $3,000/month (every channel, approval at each step, daily guidance from its in-house PR team) and Newsbound Sprint at $5,000/project (one launch or funding announcement over 4–6 weeks, including one newswire distribution). Both are booked through a demo; a free trial and contract length aren't published.
- Pricing published online
In the words of Medialyst users.
Real customers, approved for use. Your results depend on your story and your list — these are theirs.
"What came back was a working list with real journalists, current coverage, and contact information I could use the same day. No cross-referencing. No digging through three different tabs. One prompt and I was pitching."
"I love Medialyst. It follows the workflow I already use, which, if I may say so myself, is the right workflow. I don't keep old Excel documents full of old emails and blast things to people. I hate the spray and pray. I like to make sure reporters are writing about the things I'm talking about, and to find new people who are. Muck Rack, Cision, all of those are basically very expensive static databases. I already know the major trade reporters. What Medialyst has helped me uncover are the people at Fast Company and The Wall Street Journal who cover packaging, and the freelancers I can get on the radar of. Muck Rack just doesn't help with that. Now when I tell Claude 'here's the person,' it pulls them through Medialyst, onto my list there, and starts gathering information about them. I haven't gotten a bounced email yet. I'd rather send a smaller list I can defend. And I'm never afraid to share it with clients, because it has everything in there. It proves its worth. My first job, as an intern, was photocopying Bacon's books into an Excel database every year. So I'm acutely aware of how hard it is to keep track of all this. This is how I would approach it myself."
"Medialyst makes it super easy to narrow down and create dedicated PR lists to reach out to the journalists that actually want to hear what you have to say. The timeline from chatting to the agent about what you have to promote to actually launching the campaign goes down to mere 1-2 hours instead of days worth of research and prospecting."
"Then recently I stumbled upon Elvis Sun's agentic PR tool Medialyst — with a few detailed prompts, the agent comes up with a pretty targeted list of journalists. The best thing is it gives a summary of their recent articles before I commit to reading every piece."
"This new company is a terrific idea—and helps PR people in ways they didn't know they needed it. The team really 'gets' this business and so many businesses just don't. Jump in. The agents are ready!"
"Medialyst is the only tool that keeps up with the pace our firm needs to move at across our High Growth B2B Tech clients. The journalist targeting is sharp as well as accurate, and Elvis actually ships when you give him feedback."
"It's 100% customizable to you & your clients. It's affordable. It's built by someone who gets back to you quickly & truly wants to give the people what they want — MORE time."
"The big media database platforms are built for agencies with full teams and retainers to match. For a boutique practice like mine, the economics just do not work. Medialyst fits the model. Beyond contact discovery, it helps me stay on top of what reporters are actually covering: the beats, the patterns, the recent angles. That is the real work of pitching well these days. Spray and pray is over, and Medialyst is built for how modern media relations actually works, at a price point that makes sense for the way I operate."
"Medialyst takes the guesswork out of journalist outreach. It vets your pitch for suitability, matches it to the right journalists, and hands you their most accurate contact details — so instead of firing off cold emails into the void, you're landing in the right inboxes. The result? Fewer emails sent, more stories published."
"This is a must-have if you work in media, it's easy to use and saves you a lot of time! The customer service has been some of the best I have experienced."
Paste a story. Get your journalist list in minutes.
Drop in a press release, your website URL, or a one-line description of your news. Medialyst reads what's relevant, finds reporters who actually cover it, scores them by fit, and checks every email before you get it. Your first list is free, no credit card.
Common questions about switching from Newsbound.
How much does Newsbound cost in 2026?
Is Newsbound software or a PR agency?
Does Newsbound send pitches automatically?
How do I know whether Medialyst's lists are any good?
Does Medialyst pitch podcasts, awards or speaking slots?
Newsbound vs Medialyst — which should I choose?
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