MedialystvsResponseSourceResponseSource alternative · 2026

The modern alternative to ResponseSource.

ResponseSource is the UK's established journalist-request service — a platform where UK journalists post source requests and PR professionals respond.

FreeMonitor journalist requests from HARO, Connectively, LinkedIn & more with an AI agent
First list free · No credit card
From $97/mo · no contractPay only for verified emailsFirst list free · no credit card
See the full ResponseSource comparison ↓

Free: let an agent watch journalist requests alongside ResponseSource.

Connect one authenticated MCP feed to Claude, ChatGPT, or another compatible agent. It checks six included request channels every hour, uses zero Medialyst credits, and keeps every response behind human review.

  • $0
  • 0 credits
  • Checks every hour
  • Human review before anything sends
Start free monitoring

All six sources included free

  • Connectively logo
  • HARO logo
  • Twitter/X logo
  • LinkedIn logo
  • MentionMatch logo
  • Substack logo
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 ResponseSource documentation, customer reviews, and our own product. We update this page when either side ships something new.

Capability
MedialystMedialyst
ResponseSourceResponseSource
Finding the right journalist
Find journalists for this story
✓
Story-specific relevance scoring
✕
— you respond to journalist queries
Understand a journalist's beat
✓
Reads past articles + recent coverage
~
Category-filtered request feed
Analyze past writing
✓
Grounded in actual articles
✕
— no per-journalist analysis
Per-journalist pitch angles
✓
Personalized angles + pitch drafts
✕
Not available
Data freshness
✓
Live news article search in real time
~
Real-time journalist request feed (UK)
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 contact data; you respond through the platform
Send from one place
✓
Built-in sending
✕
— response through the platform, no direct outreach
Pricing & setup
Time to first pitch
✓
Minutes
~
Quick to start — self-serve signup
Free trial
✓
First list free
~
Free tier available (limited)
Contract
✓
None — cancel anytime
~
Monthly options available
Price
✓
from $149/mo
~
~£50–£250+/mo (varies by tier)
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
✕
Not available

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

Start in seconds and see live journalist matches for your first pitch.

Build your first list free →
The honest read

Why people switch from ResponseSource.

  1. Reactive by design — you wait for queries

    ResponseSource's model is the same as HARO: you wait for a journalist to post a request, then respond alongside everyone else who saw it. If no journalist posts a query matching your topic today, there's nothing to respond to — your outreach is bounded by what journalists happen to ask. Medialyst reverses that: you describe your story and it proactively finds the journalists who cover your topic.

    ResponseSource — how it works ↗
  2. UK-only coverage

    ResponseSource is a UK service — the journalists using it are primarily UK-based, and the queries reflect UK media needs. If your PR extends beyond the UK, ResponseSource's feed is built around UK media. Medialyst works globally across major online news sources and many trade publications; coverage is strongest where articles and bylines are published online, and hyper-local, print-only and some regional trade sources can be thinner.

    ResponseSource — about ↗
  3. No journalist contact data

    ResponseSource doesn't give you journalist email addresses or direct contact information — you respond through the platform, and the journalist decides whether to follow up. You never build a reusable media list. Medialyst gives you verified contact data you own, scored by fit, and every email it delivers was validated within the last 14 days or is re-checked when you build the list.

    ResponseSource — PR features ↗
  4. Crowd dynamics mean low acceptance rates

    Like every source-request service, ResponseSource broadcasts each query to many responders. You're competing with everyone who subscribed to that category. Acceptance rates are inherently low in a crowd model. Medialyst lets you reach journalists directly, with personalized outreach that isn't competing in a public queue.

    ResponseSource — journalist service ↗
Fair is fair

Where each one wins.

Where Medialyst wins

  • Proactive discovery, not a public queue

    Instead of waiting for a journalist to post a query, Medialyst finds the right journalists for your specific story — each one scored by fit, grounded in their actual recent coverage. Every email we deliver was validated within the last 14 days, or is re-checked when you build the list.

  • Works beyond the UK

    Medialyst works globally across major online news sources and many trade publications, in the UK, US, Europe and APAC. Coverage is strongest where articles and bylines are published online; hyper-local, print-only and some regional trade sources can be thinner.

  • You get verified contact data you own

    Medialyst gives you journalist contact information — verified emails, outlets, recent coverage — that you can use directly, build into reusable lists, and pitch from your own Gmail or Outlook. ResponseSource keeps you inside its platform with no direct contacts.

  • Right-priced with a free first list

    Starter is $149/mo, Pro $299, Scale $800 — published, monthly, no contract. The first list is free with 100 credits and no credit card. You'll know what you pay before you start.

  • Agent-native, end to end

    A public REST API, a hosted remote MCP server, and custom enrichment columns mean you can run Medialyst directly inside Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor.

Where ResponseSource wins

  • A genuine UK journalist-request feed with lower spam

    ResponseSource has built a solid reputation with UK journalists over many years. The queries tend to be higher quality and lower spam than open international feeds, because the journalist base is curated and UK-focused. For UK-based experts who want inbound media opportunities, it's a legitimate channel.

  • Established relationships with UK journalists

    ResponseSource has deep relationships with UK newsrooms and journalists who use it regularly. That institutional trust means the queries are genuine and come from working journalists at real UK outlets.

  • Complementary to proactive outreach

    ResponseSource and Medialyst do different jobs. Running ResponseSource for inbound UK opportunities alongside Medialyst for proactive outreach is a sensible combination — reactive and proactive coverage from two different angles.

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
ResponseSourceResponseSourcehours–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 pitchhours–days
Under the hood

Three places the difference shows up.

01Database quality

ResponseSource isn't a journalist database — it's a request marketplace.

You don't get a list of journalists to pitch; you get a feed of queries to answer. The quality of those queries is generally good for UK media, with less spam than open international feeds like HARO at its worst, because the journalist base is curated.

But the model means you never build a reusable contact list, and your coverage opportunities are limited to whatever journalists happen to post today. Medialyst takes the opposite approach: it builds you a verified, scored journalist list for your specific story, with contact data you own and can reuse.

02Speed

ResponseSource is fast to start — self-serve signup, category subscriptions, and queries appear quickly.

But the speed bottleneck is on the journalist side: if no relevant query appears today, there's nothing to respond to, no matter how fast you are. Medialyst removes that dependency.

You paste a press release, a URL, or a topic, and the agent goes to work immediately — no waiting for a journalist to ask the right question.

03AI & agent surface

ResponseSource is a web platform you log into and monitor for queries.

There's no API, no MCP server, and no way to drive it 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.

Pricing reality

Two pricing philosophies, side by side.

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

Pricing and claims verified June 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
ResponseSource
Published
~£50–£250+/mo
Published pricing
  • ResponseSource offers tiered pricing for PR professionals, with plans varying by the number of category subscriptions and features. Entry plans start around £50/mo, with fuller access running to £250+/mo. There's a limited free tier for basic access.
  • 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
★★★★★

"Medialyst has become one of my go-to tools. It’s fast and intuitive, so I spend less time searching and more time pitching. It’s also helped me find journalists I hadn’t come across before, which has opened up new coverage opportunities for our brands."

Vanessa Dones
★★★★★

"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 ResponseSource.

What is ResponseSource?
ResponseSource is the UK's established journalist-request service — a platform where UK journalists post source requests and PR professionals respond. It's the UK equivalent of HARO, with a solid reputation for quality UK-focused queries.
ResponseSource vs Medialyst — what's the difference?
ResponseSource is reactive: UK journalists post queries and you respond alongside other PR pros. Medialyst is proactive: you describe your story and it finds, scores, and verifies the right journalists across major online news sources and many trade publications. They're complementary — many teams use a reactive feed for inbound opportunities and a proactive tool for targeted outreach.
Is there a free alternative to ResponseSource?
For reactive source requests, HARO (revived by Featured.com) and Source of Sources are free. For proactive journalist discovery, Medialyst's first list is free with 100 credits and no credit card.
Does ResponseSource work outside the UK?
ResponseSource is primarily a UK service. The journalists using it are UK-based, and queries reflect UK media needs. For international PR, use a tool that works globally, like Medialyst, alongside ResponseSource for UK inbound.
Try it free · no account to start

Stop waiting for the right query. Find the right journalists yourself.

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
Or start free, no credit card →Or monitor journalist requests with an AI agent for free