Muck Rack vs Qwoted in 2026: Enterprise media monitoring platform vs free-to-start source marketplace
One is a sales-led journalist database and monitoring platform with no public pricing. The other is a two-sided marketplace with a genuinely free tier, capped at 2 pitches a month until you upgrade.
Muck Rack
Qwoted- Qwoted has a genuinely free tier with expert database access and daily opportunity emails. Muck Rack has no free tier or self-serve trial at all; every plan requires a demo call.
- Muck Rack tracks AI-generated brand mentions across ChatGPT and Gemini through Generative Pulse, gated as an add-on on Professional and included on Enterprise. Qwoted has no AI monitoring feature.
- Qwoted does not offer an API on any plan, including Teams. Muck Rack offers limited API access on Professional and full API access on Enterprise.
- Qwoted is a two-sided marketplace built around inbound source requests from journalists and podcasters. Muck Rack is built for outbound pitching from a searchable journalist database.
- Qwoted caps free-tier pitches at 2 per month and delays free-tier alerts by 2 hours versus paid tiers. The Pro tier at $149/month removes both limits but still has no white-label option.
- Qwoted offers white-label delivery on its Teams tier for agency client work. Muck Rack reserves white-label reporting for Enterprise only.
- Qwoted explicitly supports podcast guest booking alongside traditional press sourcing. Muck Rack has no dedicated podcast booking workflow.
Muck Rack and Qwoted both call themselves PR platforms, but they solve the outreach problem from opposite directions. Muck Rack gives you a searchable journalist database, AI-powered pitch recommendations, and media monitoring across news, social, broadcast, and podcasts, plus a Generative Pulse module that tracks brand mentions inside ChatGPT and Gemini answers. None of it is priced publicly, and there is no self-serve signup, so evaluating it means booking a demo first. Qwoted flips the model: journalists and podcasters post source requests, and you respond, with a free tier that includes the expert database and daily opportunity emails at no cost. The free plan caps you at 2 pitches a month and there is no API on any tier, so it is not built for volume. If you need an outbound database and monitoring across every channel, Muck Rack is the deeper platform. If you want to start responding to real journalist requests today without a sales call, Qwoted gets you there in minutes.
The tools at a glance
Muck Rack
AI-powered PR platform for media monitoring, journalist outreach, and generative AI coverage tracking
Muck Rack combines three things PR teams usually manage in separate tools: real-time media monitoring across news, social, broadcast, and podcasts, a searchable journalist database with AI-generated pitch recommendations, and measurement tools that tie coverage back to business outcomes. It is aimed at in-house communications teams and agencies managing several client accounts, not solo practitioners.
The feature getting the most attention lately is Generative Pulse, which tracks how a brand is mentioned inside AI-generated answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, and similar models, alongside traditional press coverage. That puts Muck Rack ahead of most media monitoring competitors on AI search visibility, though it is worth noting Generative Pulse is an add-on at the Professional tier and only bundled in at Enterprise.
The catch is access. There is no public pricing, no free trial, and no self-serve signup: everything runs through a demo call and typically an annual contract. For a communications team with an established budget, that trade-off buys a genuinely capable, well-supported platform. For a freelancer or a small brand testing the waters, it is simply out of reach.
| 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 |
Qwoted
Expert source marketplace connecting journalists, podcasters, and PR teams with credible voices across every industry
Qwoted works from the other end of the pitching process. Instead of a static contact list you cold-email, journalists and podcasters post what they need, and you respond to live requests. Because the people on the other end are already actively sourcing, response rates tend to be higher than cold outreach, and the workflow suits solo practitioners as much as agency teams.
The free Basic tier is unusually generous for this category: expert database access, daily opportunity emails, and real-time alerts (with a 2-hour delay versus paid tiers) cost nothing and need no credit card. It caps at 2 pitches a month, which is enough to test the platform but not enough to run a real program. Pro, at $149 a month, raises that to 35 pitches and removes the alert delay. Teams adds white-label delivery and an administrative dashboard for agencies managing multiple client accounts, though pricing there is by quote.
What Qwoted does not do is connect to anything else. There is no API and no third-party integrations on any tier, so pitch activity stays inside Qwoted rather than syncing to a CRM. It also has no media monitoring and no AI-answer tracking, which makes it a sourcing tool rather than a full communications platform.
| Feature | Basic Free | Pro $149/month | Teams Contact for pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pitches per month | 2 | 35 | Unlimited |
| Real-time alerts | 2-hour delay | No delay | No delay |
| Expert database access | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pitch intelligence | No | Yes | Yes |
| White-label | No | No | Yes |
| API access | No | No | No |
Head-to-head feature comparison
| Feature | Muck Rack | Qwoted |
|---|---|---|
| Core mechanic | Media monitoring plus outbound journalist pitching | Two-sided marketplace, inbound source requests |
| Outbound journalist database | Yes, with AI pitch recommendations | No |
| Inbound source-request marketplace | No | Yes |
| Media monitoring (news/social/broadcast/podcast) | Yes, across all channels | No |
| AI-answer brand monitoring | Yes (Generative Pulse, add-on/Enterprise) | No |
| Podcast guest booking | No | Yes |
| Pitch or request volume limits | None documented | 2/month (Basic), 35/month (Pro), unlimited (Teams) |
| API access | Limited (Professional) / Full (Enterprise) | No, on any tier |
| White-label delivery | No (Professional) / Yes (Enterprise) | No (Basic/Pro) / Yes (Teams) |
| Free tier | No | Yes (Basic) |
| Free trial / self-serve signup | No | Yes, Basic tier requires no card |
| Starting price | Contact for pricing (sales-led) | Free |
Considering AI Peekaboo alongside Muck Rack and Qwoted?
Muck Rack is the only one of these two tracking AI-generated brand mentions at all, and Generative Pulse sits behind an add-on on Professional and a sales-led Enterprise contract to get it bundled in. Qwoted has no AI-answer monitoring whatsoever; it is built purely for journalist and podcast source matching. If the actual goal is tracking how your brand shows up in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, without a demo call or an annual commitment, AI Peekaboo covers five AI engines with a read and write API on every plan starting at $50 per month. It is a dedicated AI visibility tool rather than a PR platform with monitoring bolted on as an upsell, or a marketplace with none at all.
Read the AI Peekaboo review →Which should you choose?
Muck RackQwotedMuck RackQwotedMuck RackQwotedMuck RackThe honest way to frame this comparison is by direction of outreach, not overall quality. Muck Rack is built for teams that already know who they want to reach and need a database, monitoring, and reporting to run that program at scale. Qwoted is built for teams that would rather respond to journalists who are already looking for a source right now, and its free tier makes that workflow accessible without a budget conversation. A PR program that has outgrown cold pitching alone often ends up running both in parallel rather than choosing one.
Bottom line
Book the Muck Rack demo if you run PR for an established brand or agency and need a journalist database, cross-channel monitoring, and AI-answer tracking under one roof, with the budget for a sales-led annual contract. Sign up for Qwoted for free if you are a solo consultant, small agency, or subject matter expert who wants to start responding to real journalist and podcast requests this week, and upgrade to Pro at $149 a month once 2 pitches a month stops being enough. Neither tool replaces the other: Qwoted has no monitoring or API, and Muck Rack has no inbound marketplace.
Frequently asked questions
Is Qwoted a good free alternative to Muck Rack for a solo PR consultant?
Qwoted is a stronger starting point than Muck Rack for a solo PR consultant because its Basic tier is free and gives you expert database access, daily opportunity emails, and real-time alerts, while Muck Rack has no free tier or self-serve signup at all and requires a demo call before you see pricing. The trade-off is volume: Qwoted's free plan caps you at 2 pitches a month, so a consultant running a busy pipeline will hit that ceiling fast.
Does Qwoted have an API to connect with a CRM like Muck Rack does?
Qwoted does not offer an API on any of its plans, including the top Teams tier, so pitch activity stays inside the platform rather than syncing to Salesforce, HubSpot, or a BI tool. Muck Rack offers limited API access on Professional and full API access on Enterprise, which matters for teams that want media data flowing into an existing reporting stack.
Which tool tracks brand mentions in ChatGPT and other AI models?
Muck Rack tracks brand mentions inside AI-generated answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, and similar models through its Generative Pulse module, available as an add-on on Professional and included on Enterprise. Qwoted has no equivalent feature; it is focused entirely on matching sources to journalist and podcast requests.
Can Qwoted replace a full media monitoring platform like Muck Rack?
Not really, Qwoted has no media monitoring capability at all and is built as a marketplace for responding to inbound source requests rather than tracking ongoing coverage, competitor mentions, or sentiment. If monitoring across news, social, broadcast, and podcasts is a requirement, Muck Rack or a comparable monitoring platform is necessary alongside or instead of Qwoted.
What happens when I hit the 2-pitch limit on Qwoted's free plan?
You can still browse the expert database and receive daily opportunity emails and real-time alerts on the free Basic plan, but you cannot submit more than 2 pitches in a month until you upgrade. The Pro tier at $149 a month raises the cap to 35 pitches, removes the 2-hour alert delay, and adds pitch intelligence tools for researching upcoming editorial opportunities.
Is Muck Rack worth it if I only need occasional journalist outreach, not full-time PR?
Muck Rack is generally not worth it for occasional, low-volume outreach because pricing requires a demo call and typically an annual contract designed for teams with a dedicated PR budget. For occasional outreach, Qwoted's free tier or its $149-a-month Pro plan is a more proportionate cost for the volume of pitching involved.