Why we built PressPilot
The PR platform market splits into two groups. Cision, Meltwater, and Agility PR price by annual contract, auto-renew in fine print, and require a sales call to see a price list. Business Wire and PR Newswire charge per release at 350 to 400 USD each. Prezly is newsroom-first and costs 100 USD per month minimum. For a Series A founder sending 3 press releases per year, none of these math out. You end up either overpaying for enterprise software or cobbling together Gmail, Google Sheets, and LinkedIn.
The second problem is data quality. Cision publishes a database of 700,000+ journalists. In practice, 40% are stale (source: Muck Rack State of Journalism 2026). Email bounces climb. Auto-replies eat your outreach. PressPilot started with a single idea: curate 5,000 high-intent, actively verified journalist contacts instead of claiming 700,000 stale ones. Update them quarterly based on real engagement. Make the list public so anyone can see exactly who they are reaching.
The third problem is opaque pricing. You cannot comparison shop for PR platforms because pricing is secret. This is not an accident. It is a feature of the enterprise sales playbook: opacity creates negotiating room, drives perceived scarcity, and locks in pricing at renewal time. We inverted this. Price is published. Every credit pack is listed. You can buy and cancel anytime. No auto-renew. No contract.
Our principles
Transparent pricing
All pricing is public. Every feature, credit pack, and team seat is listed on the pricing page. No hidden fees, no sales calls, no surprises at invoice time.
Verified data
We maintain 5,000+ actively verified journalist contacts, not 700,000 stale ones. All contacts are GDPR-compliant and updated based on real engagement signals.
Real journalist relationships
We invest in building genuine relationships with journalists, not trying to maximize spray-and-pray distribution volume or aggregating emails from press.com websites.
How we are different
| Dimension | PressPilot | Legacy platforms (Cision, Meltwater) |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Public, transparent, no contract | Secret, sales-led, annual auto-renew |
| Target customer | Founders, agencies, lean teams (1-10 campaigns/month) | Enterprise comms (50+ campaigns/month) |
| Database size | 5,000+ verified, actively engaged | 700,000+ global, often stale (40% unresponsive) |
| Database updates | Quarterly, based on engagement signals | Reactive, rotational, on contract renewal |
| Newsroom | Included, branded on your domain | Not included or separate add-on |
| AI writing | Included in all plans | Enterprise tiers only, extra charges |
| Real-time tracking | Included, live dashboard | Included but with delays or analytics upsell |
| Setup time | 5 minutes, instant access | Weeks with onboarding, training sessions |
Meet the founder
Hugo Vignon
Founder and CEO, PressPilot. 2023 to present.
Hugo founded PressPilot after spending five years as a comms contractor for SaaS startups. He repeatedly found that founders needed press release distribution but could not justify 7,200 USD per year on Cision for 3 to 4 campaigns annually. He built a basic press release distribution tool for his clients, then open-sourced the journalist database and invited others to contribute verified contacts. The tool grew into PressPilot.
Before PressPilot, Hugo worked as a marketing consultant for Series A companies and led comms for a fintech startup. He studied marketing at ESCP Europe and holds degrees in business and European studies. He is based in Paris and speaks English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.
Our customers
Trusted by teams at growing companies and agencies across Europe and North America.
In the press
TechCrunch
"PressPilot raises 500K seed round to bring transparency to PR software. The startup is targeting underserved SMB comms teams with transparent, no-contract press release distribution."
Q2 2024
Maddyness
"Meet PressPilot, the alternative to expensive PR platforms. Instead of Cision's annual contracts, PressPilot offers credit-based pricing and transparent rates."
June 2023
Sifted
"How PressPilot is eating Cision's lunch. A Paris-based startup is using transparent pricing and lean operations to undercut legacy PR software by 230x."
November 2024
Frequently asked questions
- Why did you build PressPilot instead of using Cision or Prezly?
- Cision is enterprise-first and opaque. Prezly is newsroom-first, not distribution. Both require annual contracts or high monthly fees. We wanted a tool for Series A founders and boutique agencies who send 2 to 10 campaigns per month, refuse annual contracts, and want transparent pricing published on the public website. That tool did not exist.
- Who is the target customer for PressPilot?
- Series A to Series C SaaS founders, PR agencies with 3 to 10 clients, corporate comms teams at mid-market companies, fractional CMOs, and in-house comms managers who send fewer than 10 campaigns per month. If you are a Fortune 500 comms department or need bundled media monitoring, Cision is still the better fit.
- Where is PressPilot hosted and what about data privacy?
- All data is stored in the EU with GDPR-compliant infrastructure and EU data residency. We have data processing agreements available for enterprise contracts. We do not sell data, do not share contact lists with third parties, and do not use journalist contacts for advertising. Your data is yours.
- How is PressPilot funded?
- PressPilot was bootstrapped by the founding team in 2023 with early revenue from beta customers. We do not have VC backing, which means we optimize for unit economics, not growth at all costs. Every feature is built because customers asked for it, not because it looks good in a pitch deck.
- What is the roadmap? Will you build monitoring or Zapier?
- Zapier integration is on the 2026 roadmap and coming soon. We will not build media monitoring because that is not our core value. For monitoring, pair PressPilot with Meltwater or Google Alerts. We optimize for what we do best: writing, distribution, and tracking.
Related guides
- PressPilot features: AI, database, newsroom
- PressPilot pricing, transparent and credit-based
- Alternatives to major PR platforms
- PressPilot vs Cision in 2026
- Press release distribution guide
Built by people who care about PR
PressPilot is bootstrapped, profit-focused, and optimized for long-term sustainability. Every feature is built because customers asked for it. We do not chase trends or sell your data.