vs
Propel alternative · 2026Propel starts from a database. Medialyst starts from what reporters just published.
Propel starts from a database search.
Built by an AI engineer and a working publicist.
Medialyst has both halves of the job in the room: Elvis builds it to the standard he held at Google, and Carly judges it against the standard her own clients pay for.
Founding Strategic Advisor
Runs Notably, a boutique PR agency serving 25+ clients, and pitches journalists for a living.
The proof is public. Carly grades our real media lists, and we publish every grade, starting with her first: F, 27.9/100 (latest: B, 81.1). As far as we know, Medialyst is the only AI PR tool that publishes a public, recurring quality benchmark.
The honest comparison.
Pulled from public Propel documentation, customer reviews, and our own product. We update this page when either side ships something new.
| Capability | Medialyst | Propel |
|---|---|---|
| Finding the right journalist | ||
| Find journalists for this story | ✓ Story-specific relevance scoring | ~ Prompt-based DB search; AI Media List Builder |
| Understand a journalist's beat | ✓ Reads past articles + recent coverage | ~ Beat from profile + pitch-preference data |
| Analyze past writing | ✓ Grounded in actual articles | ~ Profile bylines, no per-article analysis |
| Per-journalist pitch angles | ✓ Personalized angles + pitch drafts | ~ AI Tailored Pitch Writer + personalized intros |
| Data freshness | ✓ Live news article search in real time | ~ Daily database updates (static refresh) |
| Refine a list with natural language | ✓ “Remove anyone inactive in 6 months” | ~ Prompt-based search, not list-level NL refine |
| Find more like top performers | ✓ “Find 20 more like the top 5” | ~ Personalized journalist recommendations |
| Add custom enrichment columns | ✓ “Research if they use affiliate links” | ✕ Not available |
| Pitching & sending | ||
| Email verification | ✓ Multi-step verification waterfall | ~ Native Gmail/Outlook/Slack send + tracking |
| Send from one place | ✓ Built-in sending | ~ Built-in send + open/response tracking |
| Pricing & setup | ||
| Time to first pitch | ✓ Minutes | ~ Fast self-serve, but CRM setup first |
| Free trial | ✓ First list free | ~ Free tier (tight limits) — no paid trial |
| Contract | ✓ None — cancel anytime | ~ Premium billed annually |
| Price | ✓ from $149/mo | ~ ~$99/mo (Premium, annual, 1 user) |
| Agent-native workflows | ||
| API access | ✓ Public REST API | ✕ Not available |
| 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 | ~ Media list import, no re-enrichment |
Find your journalists now. No demo. No contract. No credit card.
Start in seconds and see live journalist matches for your first pitch.
Why people switch from Propel.
A daily refresh is still a database pull
Propel's media database is large and updated daily — its own materials cite 1M+ journalists, 3B+ articles, and daily updates. But a daily refresh is still a static pull: you get whoever was last indexed, not a journalist researched for your specific story right now. Medialyst works evidence-first instead. When you build a list, the agent reads recent articles about your story and picks the journalists who wrote them. Every email it delivers was validated within the last 14 days, or is re-checked when you build the list.
Authority Tech — AI PR platforms comparison 2026 ↗Propel's own marketing can't agree on its journalist count
Propel's homepage says 500K+ journalists while its features pages and blog claim 1M+ — an inconsistency in Propel's own marketing that was unverified as of June 2026. When the database itself is the product, that ambiguity matters. Medialyst doesn't compete on a headline inventory number; it researches and verifies the contacts you actually need, for the story you're actually pitching.
Propel blog — How AI is revolutionizing PR ↗It's a relationship CRM first, a discovery engine second
Propel is built around ongoing PR relationship management — a Story Funnel pitch pipeline, projects, and inbox plugins. That's powerful if you live in a CRM, but it means discovery starts from setup and a database search rather than from your announcement. Medialyst is discovery-first: paste a press release, URL, or topic and the agent finds and scores journalists by fit immediately, no CRM scaffolding required.
Sword and the Script — Propel PR software review ↗Third-party roundups rank it mid-tier despite the AI marketing
Guideflow's March 2026 roundup of the 14 best PR software tools placed Propel #13 of 14 — described as a "modern PR CRM focused on outreach workflow," positioned mid-market rather than as a first-call recommendation, even with heavy AI messaging. The AI label and the AI substance aren't the same thing, which is exactly where Medialyst's live, story-specific research separates from a database with an AI layer.
Guideflow — 14 best PR software tools 2026 ↗
Where each one wins.
Where Medialyst wins
Evidence-first, not database-first
Journalists are picked from what they published recently about your story, rather than from whoever a scheduled index returns. Every email we deliver was validated within the last 14 days, or is re-checked when you build the list. You pay 1 credit only when we deliver a verified email, and misses are free.
Fit for this story, not a database search
Medialyst reads hundreds of articles relevant to your specific announcement, scores reporters 0–100 by fit, and tells you why each one would write it — grounded in their actual recent coverage. That's a different unit of work from prompting a static database and getting back whoever the index returns.
Custom enrichment columns a CRM can't express
Define research questions in plain language and get structured answers back across a whole list — "research if they use affiliate links and identify which platform," or "has this travel journalist visited San Diego in the last two years?" Propel's database fields can't be invented on demand the way Medialyst's enrichment columns can.
Agent-native, not AI on top of a database
A public REST API and a hosted remote MCP server mean you can run journalist discovery and enrichment directly inside Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor, wire it into your own scripts, or hand it to an internal agent. Propel's AI lives inside Propel; Medialyst is a component you can compose with.
Monthly, no contract, free first list
Starter $149/mo, Pro $299, Scale $800 — published, monthly, no per-seat fees, no contract, 14-day money-back guarantee. The first list is free with 100 credits and no credit card. Propel's Premium undercuts Starter at entry, but Medialyst's plan is month-to-month rather than Propel's annual billing on Premium.
Where Propel wins
An ongoing free tier for small teams
Credit where it's due: Propel is public and self-serve, with a standing $0 tier (up to 10 users, tight limits) and a Premium tier around $99/mo billed annually for a single seat. Medialyst is public and self-serve too — $97/mo annually, with a free first list (100 credits, no card) — but that first list is a trial, whereas Propel's free tier sticks around. For a small team that wants to keep running on $0 indefinitely and can live with the limits, that's a fair call.
Propel — Free + pricing page ↗Native inbox plugins are a real differentiator
Propel is the rare PRM with native Gmail, Outlook, and Slack plugins, so you can send pitches and track opens and responses directly from the inbox you already work in. If your workflow is centered on your email client and you want everything to live there, that integration is genuinely convenient and not something every competitor offers.
Authority Tech — AI PR platforms comparison 2026 ↗Included media monitoring via the Signal AI partnership
Through its October 2025 partnership with Signal AI, Propel folds in real-time media monitoring — 5M+ content pieces daily across 226 markets and 75 languages — with SSO between the platforms. If you want outreach and broad monitoring/share-of-voice in one place, that bundled monitoring is a legitimate advantage Medialyst doesn't try to replicate.
Sword and the Script — Propel + Signal AI partnership ↗
AI bolted on vs. AI-native.
Legacy platforms point AI at the same filter UI you already had. Medialyst assigns a research agent to each candidate journalist, reads their actual work, and consolidates the strong fits. Watch the same brief run through both.
MEDIALYST AGENTOUTPUT: 1,847 RESEARCHED TO FIT-CHECKED SHORTLIST
Full architecture notes for Propel
Propel markets hard on AI — PropeLLM, its proprietary Llama-based model fine-tuned for PR, plus the Amiga "Artificial Media Intelligence" layer, the AI Tailored Pitch Writer, and the AI Media List Builder. It's real engineering, and the named LLM is a genuine asset. But architecturally the AI sits on top of a journalist database that's refreshed on a schedule: the model helps you search and write against that database and personalize intros, but the underlying contacts are still a static index, and the most autonomous "LLM-Powered AI Agent" was flagged as "coming soon" as of mid-2025 with status unverified since. That's a legacy filter dashboard with an AI front end and extra steps. Medialyst is AI-native end to end. The agent doesn't start from a database query. It reads real, recent articles per journalist, scores them for your specific story, and lets you define custom enrichment columns in plain language: "find journalists who use affiliate links and identify which platform," or "has this travel journalist visited San Diego in the last two years?" That's the difference between an AI layer over a database and a research assistant that actually does the 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, with journalist names, their publication, their most recent articles, and their contact information all in one place.”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 totalPropel~3 daysThree places the difference shows up.
01Database quality
Propel's data story is scale plus daily updates: its materials cite a media database of 1M+ journalists, 50M+ influencers, and 3B+ articles, refreshed daily, with prompt-based natural-language search instead of pure keyword filters.
The catch is that "updated daily" still describes a static inventory — you query an index and get back whoever was last written into it. Propel's own marketing even disagrees with itself on the headline number: the homepage says 500K+ journalists while features pages and blog posts claim 1M+, an inconsistency unverified as of June 2026. Medialyst takes the opposite stance: evidence-first, not database-first. When you build a list, the agent reads recent articles about your story, picks the journalists who wrote them, and confirms the beat from their bylines.
Medialyst keeps its own journalist database too, and the email comes from it when it was validated within the last 14 days; otherwise it is re-checked when you build the list. Coverage works globally across major online news sources and many trade publications. It is strongest where articles and bylines are published online; hyper-local, print-only and some regional trade sources can be thinner. The practical result is far less manual cross-referencing, because the list is chosen for the pitch you're sending today rather than pulled from a profile that may have drifted.
02Speed
Propel is fast to start by legacy standards — pricing is transparent and self-serve, with a free tier and no mandatory demo, which is a real improvement over the sales-call gauntlet older vendors impose.
But because Propel is a relationship CRM, getting to a first pitch still means setting up the workspace and running a database search, then writing and personalizing from there. Medialyst collapses that further. There's no CRM to configure — you paste a press release, a URL, or a topic, and the agent goes to work immediately, finding and scoring journalists for that specific story. A verified, scored journalist list takes minutes.
That speed isn't just convenience; it changes what's possible. When a news story breaks and you have a timely angle, the difference between "list in minutes" and "list after I set up the CRM and search the database" is the difference between landing the coverage and missing the window. For teams that newsjack or simply move fast, discovery-first speed is the whole game.
03AI & agent surface
This is where the gap is widest.
Propel's AI features live inside Propel — you operate PropeLLM, the AI Media List Builder, and the pitch writer through its app and inbox plugins, on its terms. There's no public way to drive journalist discovery from your own tools, and the more autonomous agent was still "coming soon" as of mid-2025. Medialyst is built agent-first. A public REST API and a hosted remote MCP server mean you can run journalist 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 and get structured answers back across a whole list — the kind of thing a fixed database schema can't express. And you can upload competitor CSVs and the agent takes it from there, re-verifying and re-scoring every contact. If your team is building AI-assisted workflows, Medialyst is a component you can compose with, not a walled garden you have to log into.
Two pricing philosophies, side by side.
Ours is public and posted. Here's how it sits next to Propel'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
- Propel publishes self-serve pricing: a $0 free tier (up to 10 users, tight limits) and a Premium tier starting around $99/mo billed annually for one user, scaling up to roughly $599/mo for 5–9 users; Enterprise is contact-sales.
- 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."
Common questions about switching from Propel.
How much does Propel cost in 2026?
What is the best Propel PRM alternative?
Propel vs Medialyst — which should I choose?
Is Propel's database up to date?
Is there a cheaper alternative to Propel?
Can I import my Propel lists into Medialyst?
Start from the story, not the database. Build your first list now.
Paste a press release, your website URL, or a one-line description of your news. Medialyst finds reporters who actually cover it, scores them by fit, and checks every email before you get it.