MedialystvsProwlyProwly (now Semrush AI PR Toolkit) alternative · 2026

Prowly is now a PR toolkit inside an SEO suite. For Medialyst, PR is the whole company.

Semrush finds the outlets AI cites. Medialyst finds the journalists who would actually write your story, and shows why for every one.

First list free · No credit card
From $97/mo · no contractPay only for verified emailsFirst list free · no credit card
See the full Prowly comparison ↓
Who builds it

Built by an AI engineer and a working publicist.

Medialyst's co-founders bring both halves of the job into the room: Elvis brings the standard he held at Google, and Carly brings the standard her own clients pay for.

  • Elvis Sun

    Co-founder

    Spent 8 years at Google working on AI systems used by millions of people.

  • Carly Martinetti

    Co-founder

    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.

At a glance

The honest comparison.

Pulled from public Prowly documentation, customer reviews, and our own product. We update this page when either side ships something new. Prowly pricing and feature claims on this page are accurate as of 4 October 2026.

Capability
MedialystMedialyst
ProwlyProwly
Finding the right journalist
Find journalists for this story
✓
Story-specific relevance scoring
~
Outlet-first: AI-Cited Media “starts from a topic”; journalists listed under each outlet
Understand a journalist's beat
✓
Reads past articles + recent coverage
~
Journalist profiles + natural-language search matched “from recent articles”
Analyze past writing
✓
Grounded in actual articles
~
Pitch recommendations use “the journalists’ recent work”; relevance summary “for some journalists”
Per-journalist pitch angles
✓
Personalized angles + pitch drafts
~
AI-personalized pitches, up to 20 recipients per sendout
Data freshness
✓
Live news article search in real time
~
Database of “over 1 million journalist profiles”; refresh cadence not documented
Refine a list with natural language
✓
“Remove anyone inactive in 6 months”
~
Natural-language search + filters
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
~
Verification method: not documented
Send from one place
✓
Built-in sending
~
Gmail/Outlook or authenticated domain; follow-ups on Pro and up
Pricing & setup
Time to first pitch
✓
Minutes
~
Not documented; no sending or contact info during the trial
Free trial
✓
First list free
~
7-day trial, card required; contact info hidden until paid
Contract
✓
None — cancel anytime
~
Monthly or annual; subscriptions “automatically renew”
Price
✓
from $149/mo
~
$149 / $279 / $499 per user per month
Agent-native workflows
API access
✓
Public REST API
~
AI PR Toolkit API not documented
Remote MCP support
✓
Hosted remote MCP server
~
Semrush MCP covers SEO/Trends/Projects; PR Toolkit not documented
Agent-native workflows
✓
Usable directly inside Claude, ChatGPT & Cursor
~
Semrush Claude connector for SEO, backlink & market data; PR Toolkit not documented
CSV import / re-enrichment from competitor exports
✓
Upload any CSV — the agent re-verifies & re-scores
~
Not documented

Find your journalists now. No demo. No contract. No credit card.

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The honest read

Why people switch from Prowly.

  1. PR is one toolkit for them, and the whole company for us

    Prowly became one toolkit inside Semrush, a suite built around SEO and marketing data, and Semrush became one acquisition inside Adobe: the deal was announced on November 19, 2025 at “approximately $1.9 billion” and closed on April 28, 2026. Adobe’s release promises “continued investment and an expanded product roadmap,” and Semrush’s customer FAQ says there are no immediate changes. Medialyst is built only for media relations: journalist discovery, Radar, the journalist-request feed and the PR calendar all serve the same PR teams.

    Adobe: completes Semrush acquisition (Apr 28, 2026) ↗
  2. Start from your story, not from the outlets AI cites

    Semrush’s help center says “AI-Cited Media starts from a topic” and ranks outlets by “AI authority” across ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overview and Google AI Mode, with contributing journalists shown “right under each media outlet.” That’s a strong way to find outlets. Medialyst starts one step later: you paste the announcement, and it picks each journalist from what they published recently that matches your story.

    Semrush KB: AI-Cited Media ↗
  3. A written reason for every journalist, not some

    Semrush’s help center, as of 4 October 2026: “For some journalists, a Why this journalist is relevant summary explains the match.” In Medialyst, every journalist on the list gets a 0–100 fit score and a written reason grounded in their recent articles, so you can check the call before you pitch. On Pro and Scale, deeper scoring also reads the author page, recent bylines and the opening of their latest articles.

    Semrush KB: AI-Cited Media ↗
  4. Build media lists from inside your AI agent

    Semrush launched an official Claude connector on August 26, 2026, bringing its SEO, backlink and market data into Claude. Its MCP docs list the Trends API, the SEO API and a read-only Projects API; AI PR Toolkit data is not in that documented scope as of 4 October 2026. Medialyst ships a public REST API and a hosted MCP server on every plan, with tools to create and read media lists and enrich journalists from Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor (a few tools, such as journalist lookup, need a paid plan).

    Semrush developer docs: Semrush MCP ↗
Fair is fair

Where each one wins.

Where Medialyst wins

  • Story-first, with a reason for every pick

    Paste a press release, a URL or a topic. Medialyst reads recent coverage for that story, scores each journalist 0–100 by fit, and writes down why each one is on the list, grounded in what they actually published. You get a scored list in minutes. Pro and Scale add deeper scoring that reads the author page, recent bylines and the opening of their latest articles.

  • Recently validated emails, and misses are free

    Medialyst is evidence-first, not database-first: journalists are picked from what they published recently for your story, and the email comes from our own journalist database or a fresh check. 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. Misses are free.

  • Open to your agents on every plan

    A public REST API and a hosted remote MCP server come with every plan, so you can build and refine media lists inside Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor. Custom enrichment columns let you ask research questions a filter can’t express, like “research if they use affiliate links.”

  • Send from your own inbox, with tracking

    A person reviews and sends every pitch from their own Gmail or Outlook account. Open, click and reply tracking are built in, and bot and scanner opens are filtered out. Instantly and Reply.io sync and CSV export are there when your team works elsewhere.

  • A free first list, then published plans

    Your first list is free, with 100 credits and no credit card. Starter is $149/mo month to month or $97/mo billed annually, with Pro and Scale above it. Every plan includes unlimited seats. No contract, cancel anytime, and a 14-day money-back guarantee.

Where Prowly wins

  • Targeting the outlets AI assistants cite

    AI-Cited Media “covers ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overview, and Google AI Mode,” scores outlets 0–100 for “AI authority” on each, and builds on Semrush’s AI-visibility data. The homepage pitch is “Be present in the media LLMs trust.” If showing up in AI answers is your main PR goal, Medialyst has nothing comparable.

    Semrush KB: AI-Cited Media ↗
  • Monitoring, share of voice and follow-ups in one login

    From Pro up, the toolkit monitors “news, blogs, Reddit, and YouTube” with alerts and AI summaries, schedules follow-ups by segment (“Didn’t open / Opened, but didn’t click / Opened and clicked”) in the same thread, and tracks earned mentions back to your pitches. Business adds competitive dashboards and “PR Gaps and Opportunities.” That’s a broad PR stack under one subscription.

    Semrush KB: AI PR Toolkit overview ↗
  • Adobe and Semrush behind it, on one bill with your SEO tools

    The toolkit is backed by Semrush and, since April 28, 2026, by Adobe. If your team already runs SEO in Semrush, PR sits in the same account and on the same bill, next to the search and AI-visibility data it draws on.

    Adobe: completes Semrush acquisition (Apr 28, 2026) ↗
Workflow

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.

MedialystMedialyst9 min total
1
Paste the release
Drop your announcement into the agent. It identifies the angle and newsworthiness.
~30 sec
2
Receive ranked matches
Journalists scored 0–100 by fit, each with reasoning grounded in their recent articles.
~90 sec
3
Review drafted pitches
A unique angle per journalist referencing their actual recent work. Edit anything; tone stays yours.
~5 min
4
Send from your own Gmail or Outlook
You send each pitch from your own inbox, then see opens, clicks and replies per journalist.
~2 min
Time to first pitch~9 minutes
ProwlyProwly~3 days
1
Build a media list
Filter by outlet, beat, and geography, then cross-reference recent coverage by hand and export to CSV.
hours
2
Validate the list
Someone checks each contact’s most recent byline. A meaningful chunk gets cut for staleness.
~1 day
3
Draft pitches
Mostly one template lightly varied per contact; generic AI assist gets re-edited anyway.
~1 day
4
Send & chase replies
Track opens and replies across separate tools; reporting often lags behind.
~1 hr
Time to first pitch~3 days
Under the hood

Three places the difference shows up.

01Database quality

Semrush’s help center describes a media database of “over 1 million journalist profiles,” while the prowly.com FAQ still says “over 600,000 journalists and outlets,” so the two Semrush-owned pages give different numbers.

Profiles include contact details, and outlets carry audience, traffic and “AI authority” data drawn from Semrush’s AI tracking. How emails are verified is not documented on semrush.com as of 4 October 2026; the email-campaign flow does flag recipients “whose emails frequently bounce,” so bounce signals feed back into sending. Medialyst works the other way round. It is evidence-first, not database-first: for each story, it reads recent coverage and picks the journalists who are writing about that subject now. Medialyst has its own journalist database too.

The email comes from it when it was validated in the last 14 days, otherwise it’s re-checked when you build the list, and you pay 1 credit only when we deliver a verified email. 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 difference is the unit you start from: an outlet in a large database on one side, a journalist chosen for your specific announcement on the other.

02Speed

The AI PR Toolkit offers a 7-day trial on any plan.

Semrush puts “a nominal amount” on your card to check it, and during the trial contact information stays hidden and unexportable, and sending and email stats are off, so the first real pitch comes after you pay. Once subscribed, the workflow is fast: AI-Cited Media suggests outlets for a topic, natural-language search finds matches, AI drafts personalized pitches for up to 20 recipients per sendout, and you send now or schedule from a connected inbox. Medialyst needs no card to start. Paste a press release, a URL or a topic, and the agent researches recent coverage for that story and returns a scored list in minutes, with a written reason and a verified email or a free miss for each journalist.

Your first list is free with 100 credits. From there, a person reviews and sends every pitch from their own Gmail or Outlook account, with open, click and reply tracking built in. When a story breaks and the window is short, starting from the story itself means the list you get is already shaped around the angle you’re pitching.

03AI & agent surface

Semrush has real agent plumbing.

It runs an MCP server and, since August 26, 2026, an official Claude connector that brings its SEO, backlink and market data into Claude. The MCP docs list “All Trends API,” “All SEO API” and a read-only Projects API. The AI PR Toolkit isn’t in that documented scope, and developer.semrush.com documents SEO, Trends, Projects, Listing Management and Map Rank Tracker APIs but no AI PR Toolkit API, as of 4 October 2026. As documented, the PR workflow runs in the Semrush app.

Medialyst ships a public REST API and a hosted remote MCP server on every plan, built around media-list work: create and read media lists, enrich journalists, search news, and pull the journalist-request feed and PR calendar (a few tools, such as journalist lookup, need a paid plan). That means you can run discovery 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 plain-language research questions across a whole list and get structured answers back. If your team already drives SEO research from Claude through Semrush, Medialyst covers the media-list side from the same chat.

Pricing reality

Two pricing philosophies, side by side.

Ours is public and posted. Here's how it sits next to Prowly's own published pricing page and what named third parties report.

Pricing and claims verified 4 October 2026
Medialyst
Transparent
From $97/mobilled annually
or $149/mo month-to-month · cancel anytime
  • 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
Prowly
Published
$149/mo per user
Typical range: $149–$499/mo per user
  • The Semrush AI PR Toolkit (formerly Prowly) publishes Base at $149/mo, Pro at $279/mo and Business at $499/mo, the same price on the monthly and annual toggles; Enterprise is custom. “All AI PR Toolkit plans come with one user,” and each extra user is $20/mo. Base includes 250 database contacts a month, 500 emails and 0 contact exports; Pro includes 150 exports and Business 500. The 7-day trial needs a card, and contact details and sending unlock only on a paid plan.
  • Pricing published online
What teams say

In the words of Medialyst users.

Real customers, approved for use. Your results depend on your story and your list — these are theirs.

★★★★★

"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."

Rita Liao
★★★★★

"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."

Kristjana (Kris) Hillberg
★★★★★

"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."

Amy Bartko
★★★★★

"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."

Milena Petrović
★★★★★

"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."

Sim Aulakh
Sim Aulakh
Founder at EstablishCred
★★★★★

"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."

Saddat Abid
Saddat Abid
CEO at Property Saviour
★★★★★

"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."

Raul Quiroz
Raul Quiroz
Senior Account Manager at HJ-PR
★★★★★

"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."

Kyle Cabodi
★★★★★

"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!"

Richard Laermer
★★★★★

"I needed a tool built for speed: finding the journalists who are on a story right now, in the moment, while it's still news. For how fast our world moves, this service is genuinely a big deal."

Emily Carter
★★★★★

"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."

Christine Pietryla Wetzler
Christine Pietryla Wetzler
★★★★★

"As most of us in the PR business know, media database services can be expensive, cumbersome, and too often imperfect. We pay a premium for access to AI and out-of-the-box features. We still spend significant time verifying whether a journalist is still covering the same beat, whether contact information is current, whether a reporter is truly relevant to a story, and whether outreach is actually reaching the right person. And that is only one part of the problem. Media relations itself has become increasingly fragmented. Research happens in one place, list building in another, monitoring somewhere else, and outreach through email —with PR teams constantly stitching the workflow together manually. This can leave teams overwhelmed and unsure how efficient they are. At Trier and Company, we’re excited to endorse Medialyst because it is tackling that workflow from a different direction - with AI top of mind. It's 'pitch-driven' in real time with bona fide speaking points. It's an entirely new experience. … It’s time for a change — and Medialyst is building in exactly the right direction. We’re pleased to support the team - Elvis Sun and Carly Martinetti. Excited to see where they take it from here. Count us in!"

Beth Trier
★★★★★

"This is awesome and I just want to say I LOVE Medialyst! It’s well into my workflow. Landed an AP and WashPo interview today for a newsjack for two different clients. Cut down HOURS of work and enabled me to move so quickly! What a great tool!"

Lizi Sprague
FAQ

Common questions about switching from Prowly.

How much does Prowly (Semrush AI PR Toolkit) cost in 2026?
As of 4 October 2026, Semrush publishes Base at $149/mo, Pro at $279/mo and Business at $499/mo, with Enterprise on custom pricing. The price is the same on monthly and annual billing. Each plan comes with one user, and extra users are $20/mo each. Base includes 250 database contacts a month, 500 emails and 0 contact exports; Pro includes 150 exports and Business 500. There’s a 7-day trial that needs a card, and contact details and sending unlock only once you’re on a paid plan.
Is Prowly discontinued or merged into Semrush?
Prowly is now sold as the Semrush AI PR Toolkit. The prowly.com FAQ says “we are not offering new Prowly subscriptions or free trials,” and its sign-up button leads to the AI PR Toolkit. Semrush itself is now part of Adobe: Adobe announced the deal on November 19, 2025 at “approximately $1.9 billion” and completed it on April 28, 2026, promising “continued investment and an expanded product roadmap.” Semrush’s customer FAQ says there are no immediate changes for customers.
What is the best Prowly alternative?
It depends on why you bought it. If you want to get into the outlets AI assistants cite, or you want monitoring and PR next to your Semrush SEO data, the AI PR Toolkit does that well. If you need the journalists who would actually write a specific story, Medialyst is built for that: it finds and scores journalists by fit for your announcement, gives a written reason for each one, and delivers emails validated within the last 14 days or re-checked when you build the list. Your first list is free with 100 credits and no card.
Semrush AI PR Toolkit vs Medialyst: which is better?
They start from different places. The AI PR Toolkit starts from a topic and the outlets AI assistants cite, and adds monitoring, share of voice, follow-ups and earned-mention tracking around a database of “over 1 million journalist profiles.” Medialyst starts from your story, picks journalists from what they published recently, and gives every one a 0–100 fit score and a written reason. A person sends every pitch from their own Gmail or Outlook, with open, click and reply tracking, and a REST API and hosted MCP server come with every plan. Choose Semrush for AI-citation targeting and an all-in-one PR stack; choose Medialyst for story-specific journalist research.
Does the Semrush AI PR Toolkit work with Claude?
Semrush launched an official Claude connector on August 26, 2026, for its SEO, backlink and market data. Its MCP docs list the Trends API, the SEO API and a read-only Projects API; AI PR Toolkit data is not in that documented scope as of 4 October 2026. Medialyst’s hosted MCP server works in Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor on every plan, with tools to build media lists and enrich journalists; a few tools, such as journalist lookup, need a paid plan.
Can I import my Prowly lists into Medialyst?
Yes. Export your Prowly or Semrush AI PR Toolkit contacts as a CSV and upload it. Medialyst’s agent re-checks the contacts, re-scores them against your story and adds their recent coverage, so you can compare results on your own data before you change anything.
Try it free · no account to start

Start from your story, not the outlet. Build your first list free.

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.

First list free · No credit card
From $97/mo · no contractPay only for verified emailsFirst list free · no credit card
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