Roxhill vs Source of Sources in 2026: UK enterprise media intelligence vs a free journalist email list
Roxhill sells a sales-led UK journalist database with monitoring and spokesperson analytics, priced only after a demo call. Source of Sources costs nothing, run by HARO's own founder as a plain email digest with no software behind it.
Roxhill
Source of Sources- Roxhill has no free tier or trial at all; pricing is contact-only on both the Professional and Enterprise plans. Source of Sources is entirely free, forever, with a single tier.
- Roxhill bundles a journalist database, media monitoring with smart folders, spokespeople share-of-voice analytics, and press release distribution into one platform. Source of Sources has exactly one feature: an email digest of journalist queries.
- Roxhill's UK journalist database tracks editorial intelligence like beat changes and outlet moves. Source of Sources has no database or profiles of any kind; you reply directly from the digest email.
- Roxhill offers a managed bespoke reporting layer for board-ready deliverables, included on Enterprise and available as an add-on on Professional. Source of Sources has no reporting, tracking, or analytics whatsoever.
- Source of Sources enforces a strict no-spam policy, removing off-topic pitchers with no appeal. Roxhill has no equivalent subscriber-conduct rule since it is a proactive-search database, not a shared call-out list.
- Neither tool offers an API.
- Roxhill is built for structured UK communications programs; Source of Sources is positioned for emerging experts and small businesses with no PR budget.
Roxhill and Source of Sources both help you get in front of journalists, but they were built for entirely different budgets and program sizes. Roxhill is a UK-built media intelligence platform combining a journalist database, monitoring, spokesperson share-of-voice analytics, and press release distribution, sold through a sales process with no published pricing. Source of Sources is Peter Shankman's deliberately minimal rebuild of the original Help a Reporter Out (HARO) model: an email digest, nothing more, and nothing to pay for at any point. Comparing them side by side is a bit like comparing a full comms department's toolkit to a single free newsletter, but that contrast is the actual point. A solo expert with no budget and a UK agency running a multi-client monitoring program are looking for completely different things, and knowing which end of that spectrum you sit on makes the choice fairly obvious.
The tools at a glance
Roxhill
Media intelligence platform for UK and global PR with journalist database, media monitoring, and spokespeople analytics
Roxhill is a UK-built media intelligence platform aimed at professional PR and communications teams. Its journalist database is the foundation, tracking profiles across UK national, regional, and trade press with editorial intelligence on when journalists change outlets or shift beats, upkeep that generic global databases do not maintain at the same depth for the UK market specifically.
Beyond the database, Roxhill adds media monitoring with configurable smart folders, a spokespeople analytics module that tracks how your named experts are covered against competitor spokespeople in share-of-voice terms, and press release distribution built directly into the platform. Teams that would otherwise need three separate vendors, a database, a monitoring tool, and a distribution service, get all three in one place.
The tradeoff is access. Both Professional and Enterprise tiers are contact-for-pricing only, with no free trial and no published numbers, so you cannot size up the cost without booking a demo. There is also no API and no white-label option on either tier, and the database, while strong for UK press, thins out for North American or APAC-heavy programs.
| Feature | Professional Contact for pricing | Enterprise Contact for pricing |
|---|---|---|
| Journalist database access | Yes | Yes |
| Media monitoring with smart folders | Yes | Yes |
| Spokespeople share-of-voice analytics | Yes | Yes |
| Press release distribution | Yes | Yes |
| Bespoke board-ready reports | Add-on | Included |
| API access | 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, and 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, asking people who benefit from it to donate to animal welfare charities rather than pay him.
What SOS does not have is everything Roxhill is built around: no database, no monitoring, no spokesperson tracking, and no reporting of any kind. The strict no-spam policy, where off-topic pitchers get removed with no appeal, keeps the digest reasonably on-topic, but it is still just a list of queries you filter and answer yourself.
| 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 | Roxhill | Source of Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Core model | Searchable database, you find and pitch journalists proactively | Email digest, journalists post queries and you reply directly |
| Cost to join | No free tier, contact for pricing | Free, always |
| Journalist database depth | Strong UK depth with editorial intelligence on beat and outlet moves | None, no database or profiles exist |
| Media monitoring | Yes, with smart folders | No |
| Spokespeople / share-of-voice analytics | Yes | No |
| Press release distribution | Yes, built in | No |
| Bespoke reporting service | Add-on on Professional, included on Enterprise | No |
| Topic filtering | Not applicable, you search the database directly | No, same digest sent to every subscriber |
| API access | No | No |
| Starting price | Contact for pricing (sales-led) | $0 |
Which should you choose?
RoxhillSource of SourcesRoxhillSource of SourcesRoxhillSource of SourcesRoxhillIt is tempting to call this an apples-to-oranges comparison and stop there, but the more useful framing is different rungs of the same ladder. Source of Sources is where you start when you have no budget and no infrastructure: a raw feed of journalist requests you filter and answer yourself. Roxhill is where a program lands once it has outgrown what any free list can support, when you need to know who is covering your sector, whether your spokespeople are getting cited more than a competitor's, and a press release distribution tool that does not require a separate vendor. A solo consultant has little reason to book a Roxhill demo. A UK comms team running a multi-client program has little reason to rely on Source of Sources as anything more than a free supplementary channel.
Bottom line
If you have no PR budget, sign up for Source of Sources today, it costs nothing and takes thirty seconds. If you are running a UK-focused communications program that needs journalist database depth, monitoring, and spokesperson measurement in one paid platform, book the Roxhill demo with a clear sense of your required feature set, since pricing only shows up after that conversation.
Frequently asked questions
Is Roxhill worth the sales call if Source of Sources is completely free?
It is worth the call if you need what Source of Sources does not offer: a searchable UK journalist database, media monitoring with smart folders, spokespeople share-of-voice analytics, and built-in press release distribution. Source of Sources is a raw email digest with none of those features, so the two are not really substitutes. Roxhill's sales process pays off for structured comms programs and is overkill for someone who just wants to see journalist queries.
Does Source of Sources have anything comparable to Roxhill's spokespeople analytics?
Source of Sources has no analytics, tracking, or measurement features of any kind, just an email digest and direct replies to journalists. Spokespeople share-of-voice analytics is one of Roxhill's core differentiators and has no equivalent on any free journalist-matching tool in this category.
Why doesn't Roxhill publish its pricing the way some PR tools do?
Roxhill sells both its Professional and Enterprise tiers as contact-for-pricing only, which is common for platforms selling into agency and enterprise communications budgets where cost is negotiated around team size, database scope, and add-ons like bespoke reporting. You will need to book a demo to get an actual number, unlike Source of Sources, which has no pricing to disclose because it is entirely free.
Can Source of Sources replace a media monitoring tool like Roxhill offers?
Source of Sources has no monitoring, tracking, or coverage reporting of any kind; it only sends you journalist queries to respond to. Roxhill's media monitoring, built around configurable smart folders and digest newsletters, tracks brand mentions, competitor coverage, and spokesperson visibility over time, a fundamentally different function than a request-and-reply email list.
Who actually uses Source of Sources instead of a paid platform like Roxhill?
Emerging experts, small business owners, and independent PR consultants with no dedicated budget are the core users of Source of Sources, since it costs nothing and requires no software commitment. Roxhill's Professional and Enterprise tiers are built for UK PR agencies and in-house communications teams running structured, often multi-client programs where journalist database depth and reporting justify a paid, sales-led tool.