Qwoted vs Source of Sources in 2026: Paid marketplace with pitch caps vs a free HARO-style digest
Qwoted runs a two-sided marketplace with real software behind it, free to join but capped at 2 pitches a month. Source of Sources, built by HARO's original founder, is just an email list, entirely free, with nothing to log into.
Qwoted
Source of Sources- Qwoted's free Basic tier caps pitches at 2 per month and delays alerts by 2 hours; Source of Sources has no tier structure at all, so there is nothing to cap.
- Source of Sources is entirely free with no paid upgrade path, ever. Qwoted's Pro tier at $149/month removes the alert delay and raises pitches to 35 a month.
- Qwoted maintains an expert database, pitch intelligence tools, and a team dashboard. Source of Sources has no software layer beyond the email digest itself.
- Qwoted explicitly supports podcast guest booking alongside traditional press outreach. Source of Sources does not separate podcast requests from any other query type.
- Qwoted's Teams tier adds white-label delivery and unlimited pitches for agencies. Source of Sources has no agency or team option of any kind.
- Neither tool offers an API or CRM integration on any tier.
- Both were built by people with media backgrounds: Qwoted since 2017 by former media professionals, Source of Sources by Peter Shankman, who created the original HARO.
Qwoted and Source of Sources both let you respond to journalists for free, but they sit at opposite ends of how much product stands between you and the reporter. Qwoted is a built-out marketplace with an expert database, a matching layer, pitch intelligence tools, and a paid tier structure that scales up to agency features. Source of Sources is Peter Shankman's deliberately bare-bones rebuild of the original Help a Reporter Out (HARO) model: an email digest with no login, no search, and no plan to ever charge you. The gap in sophistication is really the whole story. Qwoted gives you more to work with in exchange for a 2-pitch monthly cap on its free tier, while Source of Sources gives you unlimited raw access to journalist queries in exchange for doing all the filtering yourself. Neither is trying to be the other, so picking between them comes down to whether you would rather have software that does some of the work, or a free-forever list that does none of it.
The tools at a glance
Qwoted
Expert source marketplace connecting journalists, podcasters, and PR teams with credible voices across every industry
Qwoted is a two-sided marketplace where journalists and podcasters post what they need and PR people or subject-matter experts respond directly. That structure means the people on the other end are already in sourcing mode, not passively receiving a cold pitch, which is a meaningfully different starting point than an email list of open queries.
The free Basic tier is real: expert database access, daily opportunity emails, and real-time alerts (delayed by 2 hours compared to paid users), no credit card required. The catch is a 2-pitch-per-month ceiling, which is fine for testing the platform but not enough to run an actual program. Pro at $149/month lifts that to 35 pitches and removes the alert delay, while Teams adds white-label delivery and a team dashboard for agencies running multiple client accounts.
What Qwoted does not have, at any price, is an API. The whole workflow lives inside the platform, so pitch activity does not flow into a CRM or outreach tool automatically. For a solo practitioner or small agency that is not currently a dealbreaker, but it caps how far Qwoted can sit inside a broader martech stack.
| 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 |
| Pitch intelligence | No | Yes | Yes |
| White-label delivery | No | No | Yes |
| Team dashboard | No | No | Yes |
| API access | No | No | No |
Source of Sources
Free daily email digest connecting journalists with expert sources, from the founder of HARO
Source of Sources is Peter Shankman's rebuild of the original HARO model after Cision wound down the version he sold them. Journalists submit queries, Shankman's team compiles them into digests, and up to three times a day subscribers get an email listing what reporters are looking for. There is no login, no dashboard, and no software layer between you and the journalist.
The appeal is how little friction there is. Signing up takes a name and an email address. Responding means replying to the journalist directly from the digest, with nothing tracking the exchange afterward. Shankman runs the whole thing as close to a side project and asks people who benefit from it to donate to animal welfare charities rather than pay him.
The tradeoff is that SOS gives you nothing beyond the raw digest. There is no way to filter by topic, no record of past queries, and no visibility into how many other experts are replying to the same journalist. The strict no-spam policy, where off-topic pitchers get removed with no appeal, keeps quality reasonable, but it does nothing to help you triage a crowded inbox the way a database or dashboard would.
| Feature | Free $0 |
|---|---|
| Daily journalist query emails | Up to 3/day |
| Dashboard or search interface | No |
| Topic filtering | No |
| Analytics or tracking | No |
| API access | No |
Head-to-head feature comparison
| Feature | Qwoted | Source of Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Core model | Two-sided marketplace (journalists post requests, you respond) | Email digest (journalists post queries, you reply directly) |
| Cost to join | Free, with paid Pro and Teams tiers | Free, no paid tiers exist |
| Pitch or response volume | 2/month free, 35/month on Pro, unlimited on Teams | No cap, but no filtering either, you see everything sent |
| Alert speed | Real-time on paid tiers, 2-hour delay on free | Up to 3 digests per day, same for every subscriber |
| Searchable expert database | Yes | No |
| Podcast guest booking | Yes | No |
| Team / agency tier | Yes, Teams (contact for pricing) | No |
| White-label delivery | Teams tier only | No |
| API access | No | No |
| Founder background | Founded 2017 by former media professionals | Founded by Peter Shankman, who created the original HARO |
Which should you choose?
QwotedSource of SourcesQwotedSource of SourcesQwotedSource of SourcesQwotedThese two are not really priced against each other, since one of them is not priced at all. The more useful comparison is what you get for the zero dollars each one charges at the entry point. Qwoted's free tier is a taste of a bigger paid product held back by a 2-pitch cap. Source of Sources is not holding anything back: it is a smaller product by design, and the founder has said as much. If your budget is genuinely zero and staying zero forever, Source of Sources is not a compromise, it is the whole point of the tool. If you can imagine paying $149 a month down the line for more pitch volume, pitch intelligence, and podcast tooling, Qwoted's free tier is worth starting on now so you are already inside the system when you are ready to upgrade.
Bottom line
Sign up for Source of Sources first. It costs nothing and takes thirty seconds, and it will show you whether the raw digest format works for how you triage opportunities. If you want more structure, a searchable database, pitch intelligence, and podcast guest booking, add Qwoted's free Basic tier and treat the 2-pitch cap as a preview of what Pro unlocks at $149/month. Running both costs nothing until you hit a limit worth paying to remove.
Frequently asked questions
Is Qwoted's free plan actually usable or is 2 pitches a month too limiting?
Two pitches a month is workable for someone testing the platform or responding only to their single best-fit opportunity, but it is not enough to run an ongoing PR program. Qwoted's free Basic tier also delays alerts by 2 hours compared to paid users, which compounds the limitation on fast-moving stories. Treat the free tier as a way to build a profile and gauge the volume of relevant requests before deciding whether Pro at $149/month is worth it.
Does Source of Sources have any paid tier for more features?
No, Source of Sources has exactly one tier and it is free, with no plan to introduce paid options. Peter Shankman, who runs it, treats the project as a low-effort operation and asks people who benefit from it to donate to animal welfare charities instead of paying him directly.
Which platform is better for podcast guest outreach, Qwoted or Source of Sources?
Qwoted is the better fit for podcast guest outreach because it explicitly supports podcasters posting guest requests and includes tooling built for that workflow. Source of Sources is a general journalist query digest with no separation between podcast and traditional press requests, so podcast queries, if they appear at all, are mixed into the same feed as everything else.
Can I filter Source of Sources queries by industry or topic?
No, Source of Sources sends the same full digest, up to three times a day, to every subscriber with no filtering, search, or categorization. Qwoted's expert database and daily opportunity emails are more targeted, matching requests to your profile rather than sending you everything that comes in.
Is it worth running both Qwoted and Source of Sources at the same time?
Yes, since both have functioning free tiers and cost nothing to run in parallel. Source of Sources casts the widest possible net with zero filtering, while Qwoted's expert database and daily opportunity emails give you a more curated, profile-matched set of requests. Many solo practitioners and small agencies stack free journalist-matching tools like these as a supplementary layer alongside a primary paid outreach tool.
Do either Qwoted or Source of Sources integrate with a CRM through an API?
Neither Qwoted nor Source of Sources offers an API or CRM integration on any tier. Qwoted's workflow stays self-contained within its own platform, and Source of Sources has no platform at all beyond email, so any CRM logging has to be done manually either way.