Hey Press vs Muck Rack in 2026: a folded-in journalist search tool vs an enterprise AI PR platform
Hey Press no longer operates as an independent product and now points to JournoFinder. Muck Rack is an actively developed platform with Generative Pulse tracking brand mentions inside ChatGPT and Gemini, sold through a demo and an annual contract.
Hey Press
Muck Rack- Hey Press is no longer a standalone product. The hey.press domain now hosts PR comparison guides and directs users to JournoFinder for active journalist search.
- Muck Rack's Generative Pulse tracks brand mentions inside ChatGPT and Gemini responses, shipping as an add-on on the Professional plan and included by default only on Enterprise.
- Neither tool has public self-serve pricing, but for different reasons: Hey Press because it is not the live product anymore, Muck Rack because it sells exclusively through a demo call and custom quote.
- Muck Rack has no free trial or self-serve signup of any kind, which rules it out for freelancers, solo PR consultants, and teams without an established software budget.
- Hey Press was built specifically for startup founders doing DIY PR without an agency; Muck Rack is built for mid-market and enterprise in-house comms teams and agencies managing 5+ client accounts.
- The PR comparison guides still hosted on hey.press, covering Muck Rack alternatives and journalist pitching, remain genuinely useful reading regardless of which platform you ultimately choose.
This comparison is lopsided by design, and it is worth saying so upfront. Hey Press launched as a lean journalist search tool for startup founders, but it has since merged into JournoFinder, and hey.press today functions as a PR content hub rather than a live product. Muck Rack, by contrast, is one of the more fully built PR platforms on the market: a journalist database with AI pitch recommendations, media monitoring across news, social, broadcast, and podcasts, and Generative Pulse, a module that tracks how your brand is mentioned inside AI-generated responses from ChatGPT and Gemini. If you came here to pick between two comparable tools, the honest answer is that Hey Press conceded that fight. What is left to evaluate is whether Muck Rack is worth its demo-gated, no-free-trial pricing, and whether hey.press's free guides are worth reading regardless.
The tools at a glance
Hey Press
Journalist discovery tool for startups, now part of JournoFinder
Hey Press launched as a journalist search and discovery tool aimed at startup founders and small teams who wanted to find relevant press contacts without the cost or complexity of an enterprise PR platform. The pitch was simple: search by topic or keyword, find journalists who cover it, and start pitching without a steep learning curve. It reportedly reached over 1,000 PR professionals as users before the shift that followed.
The product has since merged with JournoFinder, and hey.press now announces itself as "now part of JournoFinder" on its homepage. What remains on the domain is a content hub: comparison guides covering Muck Rack alternatives, Prowly alternatives, and how-to content on pitching journalists and earning startup press coverage. These guides are genuinely well-structured, but they are content marketing for JournoFinder rather than documentation of an active Hey Press product.
Practically, evaluating "Hey Press" today means evaluating JournoFinder, which runs under its own domain and pricing structure not detailed on hey.press itself. There is no pricing page, no product demo, and no way to test the original Hey Press search experience independently anymore.
| Feature | See JournoFinder Via JournoFinder |
|---|---|
| Journalist search | Via JournoFinder |
| Contact database | Via JournoFinder |
| PR guides & resources | Free on hey.press |
Muck Rack
AI-powered PR platform for media monitoring, journalist outreach, and generative AI coverage tracking
Muck Rack is an AI-powered communications platform combining three capabilities PR teams historically needed separate tools for: media monitoring across news, social, broadcast, and podcasts; a searchable journalist database with AI pitch recommendations; and measurement tools that tie coverage back to business outcomes. Each journalist profile includes recent articles, publication beats, social following, and contact details, plus AI-generated notes on what kinds of pitches tend to land with that reporter.
The standout recent addition is Generative Pulse, which tracks how a brand is mentioned inside AI-generated content from ChatGPT, Gemini, and similar platforms, showing which sources the models cite and how sentiment trends over time. It sits alongside traditional media monitoring in the same dashboard, giving comms leads one view across earned press and AI-generated answers rather than two disconnected tools. Press releases can also be distributed directly through the platform, with coverage automatically tracked and attributed back to specific pitches.
Access is the trade-off. There is no public pricing, no free trial, and no self-serve signup, you book a demo and negotiate a custom quote, typically on an annual contract. API access exists but is limited on the Professional tier and only full on Enterprise, and Generative Pulse itself is an add-on below Enterprise rather than a baseline feature.
| Feature | Professional Contact for pricing | Enterprise Contact for pricing |
|---|---|---|
| Media monitoring | Yes | Yes |
| Journalist database | Yes | Yes |
| Generative Pulse (AI monitoring) | Add-on | Included |
| API access | Limited | Full |
| White-label reporting | No | Yes |
| Dedicated account manager | No | Yes |
Head-to-head feature comparison
| Feature | Hey Press | Muck Rack |
|---|---|---|
| Product status | Folded into JournoFinder; hey.press now a content hub | Actively developed enterprise platform |
| Journalist search / database | Via JournoFinder (not evaluable on hey.press directly) | Yes (searchable database with AI pitch recommendations) |
| Media monitoring (news, social, broadcast) | No | Yes (news, social, broadcast, podcasts) |
| AI-generated search (GEO) visibility tracking | No | Yes (Generative Pulse tracks ChatGPT and Gemini brand mentions) |
| Pitch tracking & recommendations | No | Yes (AI-suggested pitch angle, open/reply tracking) |
| PR measurement / reporting | No | Yes (executive reporting, attribution) |
| API access | Not documented on hey.press | Yes (Limited on Professional, Full on Enterprise) |
| White-label reporting | No | Yes (Enterprise only) |
| Free trial or self-serve signup | No public pricing on hey.press | No (demo and custom quote required) |
| Starting price | Via JournoFinder | Contact for pricing |
Considering AI Peekaboo alongside Hey Press and Muck Rack?
Muck Rack's Generative Pulse tracks brand mentions inside ChatGPT and Gemini responses, but it ships as an add-on on the Professional plan and is only bundled by default on Enterprise, both of which require a demo call and a custom quote. Hey Press has no AI-generated search tracking at all, hey.press today is a content hub pointing to JournoFinder. AI Peekaboo tracks AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and other engines with self-serve pricing from $50 per month, a read and write API, and white-label reports, no demo required, for teams that want AI answer-engine visibility without going through enterprise procurement.
Read the AI Peekaboo review →Which should you choose?
Muck RackHey PressMuck RackMuck RackHey PressIt would be dishonest to present this as a close call. Hey Press stopped being a product you can sign up for and use; it is now marketing surface area for JournoFinder. Muck Rack is a mature, actively developed platform that has moved faster than most competitors on AI-generated coverage tracking. The only real reason to spend time on hey.press is that its comparison guides are free, well-written, and worth reading before you commit budget to Muck Rack, JournoFinder, or anything else in this category.
Bottom line
If you need a working PR platform right now, go to Muck Rack, book the demo, and budget for an annual contract; it is the only actively operated tool of the two, and Generative Pulse gives it a real edge on AI-generated coverage tracking that most competitors still lack. Read the guides on hey.press first if you want context on the broader landscape, then evaluate JournoFinder directly if journalist search on a smaller budget is what you actually need.
Frequently asked questions
Is Hey Press still a product I can sign up for?
No, Hey Press is no longer a standalone product you can sign up for. It merged into JournoFinder, and the hey.press domain now serves as a content hub with PR guides that directs users to JournoFinder for actual journalist search functionality.
What is Generative Pulse and does Hey Press have anything similar?
Generative Pulse is Muck Rack's feature for tracking brand mentions inside AI-generated responses from ChatGPT, Gemini, and similar platforms, showing which sources those models cite and how sentiment shifts over time. Hey Press has no comparable feature; it was built purely as a journalist search tool and never added AI-generated coverage monitoring.
Can I try Muck Rack before paying for it?
No, Muck Rack does not offer a self-serve trial or free tier. You need to book a demo and receive a custom quote before getting access, which typically means an annual contract and rules the platform out for freelancers or teams testing the category on a small budget.
Is Muck Rack worth it for a small PR agency compared to using JournoFinder through Hey Press's old positioning?
Muck Rack is built for agencies managing 5+ client accounts and includes centralized journalist databases, pitch tracking, and coverage attribution that justify its enterprise pricing at that scale. A solo consultant or very small agency that Hey Press originally targeted is better served by JournoFinder directly or a lighter, self-serve tool, since Muck Rack has no plan sized for that budget.
Does either tool include press release distribution?
Muck Rack does, letting you distribute releases directly to journalists in its database with targeting by beat, geography, or publication tier, with resulting coverage automatically tracked. Hey Press never had press release distribution as part of its original feature set, and this is not something documented as available via JournoFinder on hey.press either.
Why compare a discontinued product to an active enterprise platform at all?
Because founders researching PR tools still land on hey.press through its comparison content and need to know what they are actually looking at before assuming it is a live competitor to Muck Rack. The honest answer is that it is not, hey.press is worth reading for its guides, but the product decision is really between JournoFinder and something like Muck Rack.