# Muck Rack review (2026): is it worth it? > Media database, pitching and coverage monitoring for PR teams Checked Oct 23, 2026 ยท graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA. Muck Rack is a web platform for PR and communications teams at brands and agencies. It combines a database of journalists, creators and outlets with email pitching, alerts and reports on coverage, and on its top plan a tracker of how ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini talk about a brand. Journalists use it free; PR teams buy it on a quote from sales. - **Category:** Backlinks & Link Building - **Made by:** Muck Rack - **Website:** https://muckrack.com - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Skip it if you want to see a price first, as every plan is quoted by sales on users and add-ons. - **Facts last checked:** Oct 23, 2026 ## Pricing Muck Rack's current pricing could not be confirmed from its own site. ## Key features - **Media database:** Search journalists, creators, outlets and their staff by beat, location and keywords. Muck Rack says over 100 people keep the listings up to date. - **Pitching:** Send or schedule pitches from Muck Rack and track opens, clicks and replies; coverage that follows is linked back to the pitch as a placement. - **AI journalist recommendations:** A Media List Agent builds lists from a description and suggests contacts to add or drop. Recommendations start on the Standard plan. - **Monitoring and alerts:** Alerts on online coverage by email and Slack on every plan; podcast monitoring from Standard, and print, broadcast and social listening as add-ons. - **Reports and dashboards:** Coverage reports with sentiment analysis on every plan; custom dashboards, a PR hit score and Google Analytics data come with Premier. - **Generative Pulse:** Shows how ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini describe a brand and which sources shape those answers. Included in Premier and also sold as an add-on. ## Good for - In-house PR and communications teams at mid-size and large companies - PR agencies pitching journalists for several clients - Teams that want to see how AI chatbots describe their brand ## Worth knowing - No prices are published: each plan is quoted by sales, based on the number of users and the add-ons chosen. - Starter limits media list exports and leaves out AI journalist recommendations and podcast monitoring. - Inbound Media Manager, custom dashboards and Generative Pulse come with Premier; the API is an add-on only Premier customers can buy. - Print and broadcast monitoring, social listening and press release distribution cost extra on every plan. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.0 out of 4**, graded Oct 23, 2026. Muck Rack is a database of journalists and outlets with pitching, coverage alerts and reports, sold to PR teams at brands and agencies. No price is published, so you only find out what it costs on a sales call, nothing is free for the people who'd pay, and custom dashboards, the Inbound Media Manager and the API all wait on the top plan, Premier. - **Value for money: C.** No price is published. Every plan is quoted by sales on the number of users and the add-ons you pick, so the price is only given on a sales call. Print and broadcast monitoring, social listening and press release distribution cost extra on every plan. - **Free plan and trial: F.** Nothing free on record for PR teams: no free plan and no trial. Journalists use it free, but they're the other side of the deal, not the people paying. - **Features: B.** A journalist and outlet database, pitching with open, click and reply tracking, coverage alerts, reports with sentiment, and tracking of how AI chatbots describe a brand. It covers the PR route to links end to end, though Starter limits exports and leaves out AI journalist picks and podcast monitoring. - **Ease of use: C.** No rating on record. It's a big platform: you build media lists, set up alerts and learn the reports before it pays off, and getting in at all starts with sales. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web only, with no desktop or phone app. Alerts go to email and Slack, Premier brings Google Analytics data into reports, and the API is an add-on only Premier customers can buy. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Muck Rack's own pages on 23 October 2026. Its pricing page turned our reader away when we checked it again later that day. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among link building tools - Muck Rack's GPA of 2.0 is higher than 13 of the 50 other link building tools we grade, and level with 12. - It stands best on features (B, above 39 of 50) and worst on free plan and trial (F, above 0). The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/link-building ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace Muck Rack you would be making a network of journalists who post requests for sources. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. That makes this kind of software worth paying for, not this one in particular: 25 of the 50 other link building tools grade higher. - You could make: Link outreach and reports: an app builder makes these well. - You could not: A network of journalists who post requests for sources. - You could not: The same prompts asked of ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI answers every day, and the answers kept. - You could not: It plugs into other products, Slack and Google Analytics among them, and has an API. - You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself. - You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with Slack, Google Analytics **Tags:** Journalist requests, Link outreach, AI search visibility, Reports, AI features, Public API ## Alternatives - [Semrush AI PR Toolkit](https://toolgpa.com/tools/prowly): Media database, pitching and monitoring, formerly Prowly. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/muck-rack-vs-prowly) - [Roxhill](https://toolgpa.com/tools/roxhill): Media database and monitoring platform for PR teams, sold by quote. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/muck-rack-vs-roxhill) - [Prezly](https://toolgpa.com/tools/prezly): PR software for newsrooms, media contacts and email pitches. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/muck-rack-vs-prezly) - [JournoFinder](https://toolgpa.com/tools/journofinder): Journalist database with an AI list builder, news search and pitching. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/journofinder-vs-muck-rack) - [Anewstip](https://toolgpa.com/tools/anewstip): Journalist database searched by what reporters write and tweet. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/anewstip-vs-muck-rack) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 23, 2026: - https://muckrack.com/pricing - https://muckrack.com/ - https://muckrack.com/pr-software/media-database - https://muckrack.com/pr-software/pitching - https://muckrack.com/pr-software/inbound-media-manager - https://muckrack.com/pr-software/api - https://muckrack.com/generative-pulse-by-muck-rack Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/muck-rack Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).