MedialystvsShadowShadow alternative · 2026

Shadow's site describes a managed perception program. Medialyst is self-serve journalist research.

Shadow's site describes a managed perception program. Medialyst is self-serve journalist research for the story you need to pitch today.

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

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.

  • Elvis Sun

    Founder

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

  • Carly Martinetti

    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, 82.0). 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 Shadow's own homepage, docs, published guide, and open-source README, plus our own product. We update this page when either side ships something new. Shadow pricing and feature claims on this page are accurate as of 13 October 2026.

Capability
MedialystMedialyst
ShadowShadow
Finding the right journalist
Find journalists for this story
✓
Story-specific relevance scoring
~
Shadow's docs list media-list programs; story-specific journalist scoring is not described as of Oct. 13, 2026
Understand a journalist's beat
✓
Reads past articles + recent coverage
~
Shadow's site asks which journalists carry authority; per-journalist beat analysis is not described
Analyze past writing
✓
Grounded in actual articles
~
Shadow's docs describe web research and citations; per-journalist article analysis is not described
Per-journalist pitch angles
✓
Personalized angles + pitch drafts
~
Shadow's docs list pitches and written content; per-journalist pitch angles are not described
Data freshness
✓
Live news article search in real time
~
Shadow's site says responses use thousands of signals across media, social, search, and AI answers
Refine a list with natural language
✓
“Remove anyone inactive in 6 months”
~
Shadow's docs say you direct and refine work; list-level natural-language refinement is not described
Find more like top performers
✓
“Find 20 more like the top 5”
~
Not described on Shadow's site as of Oct. 13, 2026
Add custom enrichment columns
✓
“Research if they use affiliate links”
~
Not described on Shadow's site as of Oct. 13, 2026
Pitching & sending
Email verification
✓
Multi-step verification waterfall
~
Per-journalist email validation is not described on Shadow's site as of Oct. 13, 2026
Send from one place
✓
Built-in sending
~
Shadow's docs list pitches and written content; sending and tracking are not described
Pricing & setup
Time to first pitch
✓
Minutes
~
Not described; Shadow's site routes access through scheduling
Free trial
✓
First list free
~
No self-serve signup visible on Shadow's site as of Oct. 13, 2026
Contract
✓
None — cancel anytime
~
Not described on Shadow's site as of Oct. 13, 2026
Price
✓
from $149/mo
~
$1,500/mo Narrative Intelligence; managed programs from $3,000 (Shadow's guide)
Agent-native workflows
API access
✓
Public REST API
~
No public API docs described on Shadow's site as of Oct. 13, 2026
Remote MCP support
✓
Hosted remote MCP server
✓
Shadow's site says MCP connects to Claude or another compatible agent
Agent-native workflows
✓
Usable directly inside Claude, ChatGPT & Cursor
✓
Shadow's site describes Chat, Monitors, and Agents over MCP
CSV import / re-enrichment from competitor exports
✓
Upload any CSV — the agent re-verifies & re-scores
~
Not described on Shadow's site as of Oct. 13, 2026

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

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

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The honest read

Why people switch from Shadow.

  1. Buy the job you need today

    Shadow's site says it is a real-world model and perception layer for orientation, monitoring, and measurement across media, social, search, and AI answers. That is a broad, ongoing intelligence job. Medialyst is narrower by design: give it one story and it returns the journalists who fit that story, each with a score, a written reason, and a validated email. If the task on your desk is a media list for today's announcement, you can buy that task without buying an ongoing perception program.

    shadow.inc — homepage ↗
  2. Start with the software, not a scheduling call

    As of October 13, 2026, Shadow's site has no public pricing page and its Get access form continues to scheduling. Shadow's own guide lists $1,500 per month for Narrative Intelligence and says managed programs start at $3,000, describing Shadow as a managed product rather than a low-cost self-serve dashboard. Medialyst is self-serve: the first 100 credits are free with no card, paid plans start at $149/mo, and there is a 14-day money-back guarantee.

    Shadow — how to choose an AI visibility provider ↗
  3. Keep the publicist at the send button

    Shadow's docs say the system gathers context, researches, and drafts while you direct, refine, and approve. As of October 13, 2026, Shadow's site does not describe per-journalist email sending or open, click, and reply tracking. Medialyst makes that handoff explicit: review why each journalist fits, edit the pitch, send it yourself from Gmail or Outlook, and track what happened per journalist.

    Shadow Docs — overview ↗
  4. Use a public API as well as MCP

    Shadow's homepage says its MCP connects to Claude or another compatible agent, which is a real agent surface. As of October 13, 2026, Shadow's site does not describe public API documentation. Medialyst offers both: a public REST API and a hosted remote MCP server on every plan, including the free credits, for building and enriching journalist lists from an app, script, or agent.

    shadow.inc — Agents and MCP ↗
Fair is fair

Where each one wins.

Where Medialyst wins

  • Built by an AI engineer and a working publicist

    Elvis Sun spent eight years at Google working on AI systems. Carly Martinetti runs Notably, a PR agency, and is Medialyst's Founding Strategic Advisor. He builds the research engine; she judges the lists against real agency work.

  • The Carly Score is public

    Carly builds a media list by hand from the same client brief, grades Medialyst's list against it, and every grade stays public. The first grade was an F (27.9/100), so you can inspect the misses, the fixes, and every result since before you pay.

  • Review, send, and track each pitch

    Every journalist arrives with a 0–100 fit score and a written reason citing recent coverage. A publicist reviews the pick and draft, then sends from their own Gmail or Outlook. Medialyst tracks opens, clicks, and replies per journalist, with a filter for bot opens.

  • Validated contacts for this story

    Medialyst researches the journalists who fit the story you describe. Every delivered email was validated within the last 14 days or is re-checked at build time, and you pay only for delivered verified emails; misses are free.

  • Self-serve, API-open, and refundable

    The first 100 credits are free with no card. Starter is $149/mo ($97/mo billed annually), Pro $299/mo, and Scale $800/mo, with no per-seat fees and a 14-day money-back guarantee. A public REST API and hosted remote MCP server come with every plan.

Where Shadow wins

  • A managed program with a dedicated strategist

    Shadow's own guide describes Shadow as a managed product and says managed programs start at $3,000. It says the program connects AI-visibility monitoring to content production and earned-media execution, with a dedicated strategist guiding the work. Medialyst is self-serve software. If you want a strategist to run an ongoing perception and visibility program with you, Shadow is built for that engagement.

    Shadow — how to choose an AI visibility provider ↗
  • Narrative intelligence across four signal families

    Shadow's site says its responses are grounded in thousands of signals across social activity, media coverage, search behavior, and AI answers. Its communications and PR applications include AI visibility, media monitoring, social listening, message pull-through, sentiment, and white-space analysis. Medialyst does not try to replace that breadth; it is focused on journalist discovery and outreach.

    shadow.inc — homepage ↗
  • An MIT-licensed open-source GEO CLI

    Shadow's auto-geo README describes a file-based, MIT-licensed Node CLI with doctor, write, fix, check, and history commands. It says check runs tracked prompts against ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Grok through their APIs and reports whether the domain is cited. That is a useful, inspectable tool teams can run and commit outside Shadow's managed program.

    GitHub — shadowresearch/auto-geo README ↗
  • MCP access for the agents you already use

    Shadow's homepage says you can connect its MCP to Claude or another compatible agent so the agent can consult Shadow's world model independently while it works. If the need is broad external context for an existing agent—not a media list alone—that MCP surface is a strong fit.

    shadow.inc — Agents and MCP ↗
Under the hood

Three places the difference shows up.

01Database quality

Shadow's site describes a different data product from a journalist database.

It says Shadow grounds responses in thousands of signals across social activity, media coverage, search behavior, and AI answers, and its communications applications include media monitoring, social listening, AI visibility, sentiment, message pull-through, and white-space analysis. Shadow's docs list media lists and pitches among the programs it supports. As of October 13, 2026, Shadow's site does not describe a searchable journalist database, per-journalist fit scores, or per-journalist email validation. Medialyst is built around those rows. For each story, it reads recent coverage, scores every journalist 0–100 for fit, and writes the reason with the supporting articles.

Every delivered email was validated within the last 14 days or is re-checked when the list is built, and misses are free. The Carly Score adds a public quality check: a working publicist grades real Medialyst lists against her own, starting with the first F. If the question is how a narrative is moving across media, social, search, and AI, Shadow's broader signal model is the point. If the question is who should receive this pitch, Medialyst is the focused tool.

02Speed

Shadow's site describes ongoing and on-demand work through Chat, Monitors, and Agents.

As of October 13, 2026, access starts with a form whose next step is scheduling; the site does not show a self-serve signup or publish a time-to-first-list figure. That path fits a managed program where the engagement and monitoring brief are set up with a strategist. Medialyst is built for the day the story arrives. Paste a press release, URL, or topic, review the proposed angles before credits are spent, and get a ranked journalist list in minutes.

You see the reason and evidence for every journalist before deciding who to email, then send from your own Gmail or Outlook and track opens, clicks, and replies. Shadow's program is the stronger fit when you want ongoing perception work managed with you. Medialyst is the stronger fit when you need the right journalists for a specific story today.

03AI & agent surface

Shadow's agent surface is a genuine strength.

Its homepage says Shadow is available through Chat, as Monitors, and to agents over MCP; its Agents section says Claude or another compatible agent can consult the world model independently while working. Shadow's auto-geo project adds a separate MIT-licensed CLI for auditing, writing, fixing, checking, and tracking GEO pages and citations. As of October 13, 2026, Shadow's site does not describe public API documentation. Medialyst exposes both a public REST API and a hosted remote MCP server on every plan, including the free credits.

Those interfaces are focused on journalist discovery and enrichment: build a list for a story, retrieve the fit evidence, validate contacts, or add plain-language research columns from Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, an internal agent, or your own code. Shadow gives agents broad narrative and perception context. Medialyst gives them a composable journalist-research service, while review and sending stay with a person.

Pricing reality

Two pricing philosophies, side by side.

As of October 13, 2026, Shadow's site has no public pricing page. Its own guide lists $1,500/month for Narrative Intelligence and says managed programs start at $3,000; access begins through a scheduling form.

Pricing and claims verified 13 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
Shadow
Quote-based
$1,500/mo
Typical range: $1,500/mo; managed programs from $3,000/mo
  • Shadow's own guide says Narrative Intelligence costs $1,500 per month and managed programs start at $3,000. As of October 13, 2026, Shadow's site has no public pricing page; its Get access form continues to scheduling. The same guide says Shadow does not offer broadcast monitoring and discloses that the guide is published by Shadow, which is also a provider in the category.
  • No public pricing — quote on request
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.

★★★★★

"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
★★★★★

"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
★★★★★

"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
★★★★★

"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
★★★★★

"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
★★★★★

"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
★★★★★

"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
★★★★★

"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
★★★★★

"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
FAQ

Common questions about switching from Shadow.

How much does Shadow cost in 2026?
Shadow's own guide says Narrative Intelligence is $1,500 per month and managed programs start at $3,000. As of October 13, 2026, Shadow's site has no public pricing page; the Get access form continues to scheduling. The guide also discloses that it is published by Shadow, which is a provider in the category.
What does Shadow do for communications teams?
Shadow's site says it grounds responses in thousands of signals across social activity, media coverage, search behavior, and AI answers. It lists AI visibility, media monitoring, social listening, message pull-through, sentiment, and white-space analysis among its communications and PR applications, delivered through Chat, Monitors, and Agents over MCP.
Does Shadow have a journalist database?
Shadow's docs list media lists and pitches among its programs. As of October 13, 2026, Shadow's site does not describe a searchable journalist database, per-journalist fit scores, or per-journalist email validation. Medialyst is built around that job: a story-specific list with a score, evidence, and a validated email for each delivered journalist.
Does Shadow have an API or MCP server?
Shadow's homepage says its MCP connects to Claude or another compatible agent. As of October 13, 2026, Shadow's site does not describe public API documentation. Medialyst provides both a public REST API and a hosted remote MCP server on every plan.
What is Shadow's auto-geo project?
Shadow's auto-geo README describes an MIT-licensed Node CLI with doctor, write, fix, check, and history commands. It says check runs tracked prompts against ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Grok through their APIs and reports where the domain is cited.
Shadow vs Medialyst — which should I choose?
Choose Shadow if you want the managed narrative and perception program its site describes: a dedicated strategist, monitoring across media, social, search, and AI answers, plus agent access over MCP. Choose Medialyst if you need the right journalists for a specific story today, with validated emails, a public API and remote MCP, and a publicist reviewing, sending, and tracking each pitch. The first Medialyst list is free, and paid plans have a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Try it free · no account to start

Find the journalists for this story. Review every pick before you send.

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
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