The modern alternative to Onclusive.
Onclusive is an enterprise PR intelligence platform born from a string of acquisitions — Kantar Reputation Intelligence, PRgloo, Critical Mention, and Digimind — backed by Symphony Technology Group (STG). It's strongest at media monitoring, analytics, and attribution, not journalist discovery. Its contact database exists but takes a back seat to the measurement story. If your primary job is finding and pitching the right journalists rather than measuring share of voice, Medialyst fills the gap Onclusive doesn't prioritize.
The honest comparison.
Pulled from public Onclusive documentation, customer reviews, and our own product. We update this page when either side ships something new.
| Capability | Medialyst | Onclusive |
|---|---|---|
| Finding the right journalist | ||
| Find journalists for this story | ✓ Story-specific relevance scoring | ~ Basic contact database + influencer search |
| Understand a journalist's beat | ✓ Reads past articles + recent coverage | ~ Topic and beat filters |
| Analyze past writing | ✓ Grounded in actual articles | ✕ — no per-article analysis |
| Per-journalist pitch angles | ✓ Personalized angles + pitch drafts | ✕ — analytics-focused, not pitch-writing |
| Data freshness | ✓ Live news article search in real time | ~ Static database, not live research |
| Refine a list with natural language | ✓ “Remove anyone inactive in 6 months” | ✕ Not available |
| Find more like top performers | ✓ “Find 20 more like the top 5” | ✕ Not available |
| Add custom enrichment columns | ✓ “Research if they use affiliate links” | ✕ Not available |
| Pitching & sending | ||
| Email verification | ✓ Multi-step verification waterfall | ✕ — no real-time email verification |
| Send + track from one place | ✓ Built-in send + tracking | ~ Monitoring + analytics (not outreach-first) |
| Pricing & setup | ||
| Time to first pitch | ✓ Minutes | ~ Weeks: enterprise sales cycle |
| Free trial | ✓ First list free | ✕ Demo only |
| Contract | ✓ None — cancel anytime | ~ Annual enterprise contracts |
| Price | ✓ from $149/mo | ~ Quote-only (enterprise pricing) |
| Agent-native workflows | ||
| API access | ✓ Public REST API | ~ API for analytics data |
| Remote MCP support | ✓ Hosted remote MCP server | ✕ Not available |
| Agent-native workflows | ✓ Usable directly inside Claude, ChatGPT & Cursor | ✕ Not available |
| CSV import / re-enrichment from competitor exports | ✓ Upload any CSV — the agent re-verifies & re-scores | ~ No re-enrichment from exports |
Three reasons teams switch.
We're not trying to out-database Onclusive. We're trying to out-result them — by being more accurate, faster to act on, and honest about price.
A smaller list that actually replies.
Instead of a giant static database, Medialyst enriches journalists live and verifies every email in real time before it reaches you — global coverage across any outlet, journalist, or beat, researched for your story rather than pulled from a stale row.
From story to sent pitch in minutes.
Paste a release, a URL, or a topic. Medialyst proposes journalists, scores them 0–100 by fit, and drafts a tailored angle for each — no demo call, no contract, no multi-week onboarding.
Pricing on the website. Not in a sales deck.
Every plan and limit is public. Starter is $97/mo billed annually (or $149 month-to-month, cancel anytime) — and your first list is free: 300 credits, no credit card. No lock-in, no “let’s get on a call.”
Why people switch from Onclusive.
Analytics-first, not discovery-first
Onclusive's DNA is measurement and attribution — tracking earned media impact, share of voice, and PR ROI. That's genuinely valuable for enterprise comms teams who need to prove PR value to the C-suite, but it means journalist discovery and outreach are secondary features, not the core product. If your primary job is finding the right journalists for a specific story, you're paying for a measurement suite and using the side feature.
G2 — Onclusive reviews ↗An acquisition patchwork with integration growing pains
Onclusive is the product of multiple acquisitions — Kantar Reputation Intelligence, PRgloo (UK newsroom CMS), Critical Mention (broadcast monitoring), and Digimind (social listening) — all under Symphony Technology Group's umbrella. Reviewers note that the integration is still a work in progress, with inconsistent UX across modules and features that don't always talk to each other smoothly.
G2 — Onclusive reviews ↗Enterprise pricing with no self-serve option
Onclusive sells to enterprise accounts via custom annual contracts — there's no published pricing, no monthly option, and no free trial. The sales cycle is long and the commitment is significant. Medialyst publishes pricing from $149/mo, bills monthly, and gives you a free first list with no credit card.
Onclusive — request a demo ↗Critical Mention's broadcast monitoring merged in, but contacts didn't improve
When Onclusive absorbed Critical Mention in 2023, it gained strong broadcast and TV monitoring capabilities. But the merger didn't solve the journalist-database gap — contact data quality and discovery features remain secondary to the analytics and monitoring story.
STG — Onclusive expands US footprint with Critical Mention acquisition ↗Where Onclusive wins.
No tool is best at everything. Here's where Onclusive is genuinely strong — so you can decide honestly.
Enterprise-grade PR analytics and attribution
Onclusive's core strength is earned-media measurement: linking PR coverage to business outcomes, tracking share of voice, and delivering ROI reports that satisfy the C-suite. For enterprise comms teams that need to prove PR value with data, that attribution capability is genuinely differentiated.
Broadcast monitoring via Critical Mention
The Critical Mention acquisition gave Onclusive real-time broadcast and TV monitoring across thousands of stations — a capability that's hard to match and genuinely useful for teams tracking broadcast coverage. If TV and radio monitoring is a must-have, this is a real strength.
Backed by Symphony Technology Group
Onclusive is backed by STG, a private equity firm focused on software and analytics. STG's portfolio and investment signal long-term commitment to the PR intelligence space. For enterprise buyers who want a vendor with PE resources behind it, that backing provides reassurance.
Where Medialyst pulls ahead.
The flip side: here's where Medialyst is the stronger choice over Onclusive for finding and pitching the right journalists.
Discovery-first, not measurement-first
Medialyst is built entirely around one job: finding the right journalists for your story. Every feature — story-specific relevance scoring, live enrichment, real-time email verification — serves that mission. You're not paying for a measurement suite and using the contact database as a side feature.
Right-priced and flexible — no contract, no sales call
Starter is $149/mo, Pro $299, Scale $800 — published, monthly, no per-seat fees, no annual lock-in, and a 30-day money-back guarantee. The first list is free with 300 credits and no credit card.
Live enrichment instead of a static pull
Global coverage across outlets, journalists, and beats, enriched live in real time rather than served from a static database. Every email is verified in real time before it reaches you.
Agent-native, not dashboard-bound
A public REST API, a hosted remote MCP server, and custom enrichment columns mean you can run Medialyst directly inside Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor — and ask for things an analytics dashboard simply can't express.
Switching is a CSV upload
Already paying for Onclusive? Export your contacts, upload the CSV, and Medialyst's agent re-verifies and re-scores every contact against your story.
AI bolted on vs. AI-native.
Onclusive markets AI-powered analytics — sentiment analysis, impact scoring, and predictive insights — but its AI serves the measurement story, not journalist discovery. There's no AI that reads each journalist's recent articles to judge fit for your specific story; the contact database is a supporting feature filtered the traditional way. Medialyst is AI-native end to end. There's no underlying analytics dashboard to bolt onto — the agent reads real, recent articles per journalist, and you can define custom enrichment columns in plain language. That's the difference between AI for measurement and AI for research.
★★★★★“Not a static database pull. Not the same recycled names that have been sitting in a spreadsheet for two years. A researched, current list built around exactly what you tell it to look for.”Amy BartkoPR professional, Chatterbox
Pitching the same announcement.
One launch, two tools. Here's what a comms lead actually does to get a story-specific pitch out the door.
Medialyst9 min totalOnclusive~3 daysThree places the difference shows up.
Database quality
Onclusive has a journalist and influencer database, but it's not the product's center of gravity — analytics and monitoring are.
The database serves as a supporting feature for teams that need to identify media contacts alongside their measurement workflows. Coverage and accuracy are serviceable for enterprise customers already in the platform, but reviewers don't single it out as a strength, and it doesn't receive the same investment attention as the analytics and monitoring modules. Medialyst takes the opposite stance: journalist discovery is the entire product.
It enriches journalists live at the moment you build a list, pulling recent articles, confirming the beat, and verifying the email in real time before it's ever shown to you. The practical result is a list built and checked for the pitch you're sending today, not a database row that exists as a supplement to a measurement dashboard.
Speed
Onclusive is built for enterprise workflows — long sales cycles, annual onboarding, and dashboards designed for ongoing measurement rather than rapid list-building.
Time-to-first-pitch isn't the metric it's optimized for. Medialyst collapses that entirely. There's no demo gate and no contract — you paste a press release, a URL, or a topic, and the agent goes to work immediately.
The average time from describing your story to a verified, scored journalist list is four minutes and thirty-two seconds. When a news story breaks, that speed is the difference between landing coverage and missing the window.
AI & agent surface
Onclusive's features live inside its enterprise dashboard — analytics, monitoring, and contact tools are operated through its interface.
There's API access for analytics data, but no meaningful way to drive journalist discovery from your own tools. Medialyst is built agent-first. A public REST API and a hosted remote MCP server mean you can run discovery and enrichment directly from inside Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor, wire it into your own scripts, or hand it to an internal agent.
Custom enrichment columns let you ask research questions in plain language across a whole list. If your team is building AI-assisted workflows, Medialyst is a component you can compose with.
Two pricing philosophies, side by side.
Ours is public and posted. Here's how it sits next to what Onclusive customers tell us they encounter.
- 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 · 30-day money-back
- Free first list — 300 credits, no credit card
- One unified product — no modules priced separately
- Onclusive doesn't publish pricing — it sells via custom annual enterprise contracts. Pricing is negotiated based on features, seats, and monitoring scope. No monthly option and no free trial.
- No public pricing — quote on request
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."
"My new favorite PR intern. 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."
"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."
"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 verifies every email — your first list is free, no credit card.
Common questions about switching from Onclusive.
How much does Onclusive cost in 2026?
What is the best Onclusive alternative?
Is Critical Mention the same as Onclusive?
Who owns Onclusive?
Can I import my Onclusive contacts into Medialyst?
Discover journalists, not dashboards. Build your first list now.
Start free with 300 credits and no credit card. Paste your story and get a verified, story-specific list of journalists in minutes.