Cision starts around 7,200 USD a year on an annual contract, with a 12,625 USD median real contract and a 1,400,000+ contact database (Prezly, August 2026; Vendr, February 2026; AuthorityTech, July 2026). PressPilot sends a release to 100 journalists from 29 EUR a month (excl. VAT), no contract, AI writing and newsroom included, but no monitoring and no wire.
The short answer
Pick PressPilot if you send fewer than ten campaigns a month, will not sign an annual contract, and your news is product, funding, partnerships or hires. Pick Cision if you need media monitoring across markets, PR Newswire for regulated disclosures, or one vendor for all of it and a budget in the range SpendHound reports for enterprise buyers. The two overlap on one job only: getting a release in front of journalists.
Why comms teams leave Cision in 2026
The first reason is the price and not knowing it. Cision's pricing page is a quote form. The entry estimate is about 7,200 USD a year (Prezly, August 2026), the median real contract 12,625 USD across 77 deals (Vendr, February 2026), and SpendHound's 160-customer sample runs from 9,565 USD for SMB and mid-market to 74,923 USD for enterprise (July 2026). Budgeting against that spread takes a sales cycle.
The second reason is the contract. Cision sells annual contracts only (AuthorityTech, July 2026), and Vendr's buyers saved 25.53% on average against the first quote. A team that finds out about that margin at renewal tends to leave rather than renegotiate every year.
The third reason is the bundle. The journalist database on its own is estimated at 5,700 to 6,000 USD a year (Prezly, August 2026), and a PR Newswire national release adds 805 USD each (Prezly, August 2026). A team that mainly pitches journalists pays for monitoring and wire it rarely opens.
Cision real pricing in 2026
Cision does not publish prices. The figures below are the same ones as in our Cision pricing guide, each with its source.
| Benchmark | Annual cost (USD) | What it describes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry platform estimate | From about 7,200 | Full platform, small team | Prezly Academy (August 2026) |
| Journalist database only | 5,700 to 6,000 | Database licence without monitoring or wire | Prezly Academy (August 2026) |
| Median real contract | 12,625 (3,150 to 30,368) | 77 deals, buyers saved 25.53% on average | Vendr (February 2026) |
| SMB and mid-market average | 9,565 | Part of a 160-customer sample | SpendHound (14 July 2026) |
| Enterprise average | 74,923 | Same sample; AuthorityTech range 25,000 to 80,000+ | SpendHound (14 July 2026), AuthorityTech (23 July 2026) |
| PR Newswire national release | 805 per release | 400 words, 245 per extra 100 words, on top of the platform | Prezly Academy (August 2026) |
PressPilot pricing, out in the open
Starter
100 credits
0.60 EUR per journalist
Growth
500 credits
0.39 EUR per journalist
Scale
1,000 credits
0.34 EUR per journalist
Agency
2,500 credits
0.30 EUR per journalist
One credit is one journalist contacted. Prices excl. VAT, no contract, credits never expire. Monthly plans cost less per credit: 29 EUR for 100 credits, 79 EUR for 300, 179 EUR for 800. See the full pricing page.
Feature-by-feature comparison
| Feature | PressPilot | Cision |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Prepaid credits or a monthly subscription, price published | Annual contract, quoted by sales |
| Starting price | 29 EUR a month for 100 credits, or 60 EUR per packpresspilot.io/pricing, October 2026 | About 7,200 USD a year, estimatePrezly Academy (August 2026) |
| Typical contract | None | 12,625 USD median, 3,150 to 30,368 USDVendr (February 2026) |
| Contract term | No contract, cancel any time | Annual onlyAuthorityTech (23 July 2026) |
| AI press release writing | Included, 4 languages | Depends on the package quoted |
| Journalist database | 45,476 journalists, live count, September 2026 | 1,400,000+ contactsAuthorityTech (23 July 2026) |
| Hosted newsroom | Included, on your brand | Depends on the package quoted |
| Media monitoring | Not included | Included in the suite |
| Wire distribution | None | PR Newswire, 805 USD per national releasePrezly Academy (August 2026) |
| Open and reply tracking | Included | Included |
| Data hosting | EU, GDPR | On request |
| Setup | Self-serve, same day | Sales cycle and onboarding |
| Best for | Founders, agencies and small comms teams sending targeted releases | Enterprise comms with monitoring and regulated disclosure |
3 scenarios where PressPilot wins
Each scenario compares the yearly cost of the outreach only, from 29 EUR a month per 100 journalists, with Cision's entry estimate and median contract.
Founder after a funding round
You send 3 releases a month to 100 journalists each. That is 36 campaigns, 1,188 EUR a year on the Team plan (300 credits a month), or 1,150 EUR with one Agency pack, one Scale pack and one Starter pack. Cision's entry estimate is 7,200 USD and the median contract 12,625 USD. Nothing to cancel if the next quarter is quiet.
Agency with 3 to 10 clients
Cision prices by seat and by year, whatever each client sends. On PressPilot you buy credits, send on behalf of each client and bill the credits back. A 2,500-credit Agency pack at 750 EUR covers 25 campaigns of 100 journalists across the whole roster.
Two-person corporate comms team
You send 5 campaigns a month, keep a newsroom and want AI drafts. Sixty campaigns a year cost 1,800 EUR on Starter packs or 1,238 EUR with two Agency packs and one Scale pack, newsroom and writing included. Cision would quote from 7,200 USD for the platform before any wire release.
2 scenarios where Cision still wins
Be honest about the job. Cision is the right tool in two cases, and PressPilot does not compete in either.
Monitoring across markets
If you need media monitoring, social listening and share-of-voice reporting across several countries, Cision delivers that in one contract. PressPilot does not monitor. Meltwater, at a 25,800 USD median contract (Vendr, February 2026), is the other tool for that job.
Regulated disclosure through PR Newswire
If you are a listed company and your disclosure policy names PR Newswire or Business Wire, you need a wire. PressPilot does not distribute through any wire. Business Wire charges 760 USD per 400-word release, PR Newswire 805 USD (Prezly, August 2026); see our Business Wire pricing guide.
Migration path from Cision to PressPilot
- Export your journalist list. Request a full CSV export from Cision before you give notice. Record the lawful basis (consent or legitimate interest) for each contact and the export date.
- Read the renewal clause. Cision contracts are annual. Find the notice window in your agreement, put the date in the team calendar and send written non-renewal before it closes.
- Map what you actually use. Writing, list building, sending, monitoring, reporting. If monitoring or the wire scores high, keep Cision for that and move only the outreach.
- Run a paid pilot on one real release. Send the same release from PressPilot while Cision is still live. Compare open rate, reply rate and the coverage you can attribute.
- Rebuild the newsroom. Port past releases to your PressPilot newsroom, set the domain and verify DNS before the Cision pages go dark.
- Clean and reimport the list. Drop contacts with no reply in the last 12 months, re-verify emails and respect opt-outs. PressPilot matches the import against its own 45,476-journalist database.
- Train the team and archive. One hour covers the workflow. Archive Cision exports and reports for your legal retention period.
Related resources
- 7 best Cision alternatives 2026
- Cision pricing 2026: what buyers actually pay
- Meltwater vs Cision
- All PR platform comparisons
- Press release distribution guide
Frequently asked questions
- How much cheaper is PressPilot than Cision?
- Cision starts around 7,200 USD a year (Prezly, August 2026) and the median real contract is 12,625 USD (Vendr, February 2026). A team sending 3 campaigns a month to 100 journalists each spends 948 EUR a year on the PressPilot Team plan (300 credits a month). That is about one seventh of the entry estimate and less than a tenth of the median contract, for the outreach part of the job only: PressPilot has no monitoring and no wire.
- Does PressPilot have media monitoring like Cision?
- No. PressPilot writes, sends and tracks press releases to journalists chosen from a database of 45,476 contacts (live count, September 2026). Cision bundles monitoring, social listening and analytics. If monitoring is your main job, evaluate Meltwater or Agility PR Solutions; if you only need alerts on your own brand, a light monitoring tool next to PressPilot covers it.
- Can I migrate my Cision contact list to PressPilot?
- Yes. Export your list from Cision as a CSV, record the lawful basis for each contact, drop the ones with no reply in the last 12 months and upload the rest. PressPilot accepts CSV imports and matches them against its own 45,476-journalist database. Plan half a day for the export, the cleaning and a first test send.
- Is there a contract commitment with PressPilot like Cision?
- No. PressPilot sells monthly plans (29 EUR for 100 credits, 79 EUR for 300, 179 EUR for 800) or prepaid packs (60 EUR for 100, 195 EUR for 500, 340 EUR for 1,000, 750 EUR for 2,500), excl. VAT, and credits never expire. Cision sells annual contracts only (AuthorityTech, July 2026), with a median value of 12,625 USD (Vendr, February 2026). That is the single largest operational difference between the two.
- What if I need Cision's global reach?
- Cision's database is listed at 1,400,000+ contacts (AuthorityTech, July 2026). PressPilot has 45,476 journalists (live count, September 2026), mostly in Europe and North America, organised by beat. If you need a regulated wire, keep PR Newswire or Business Wire for that release; if you need monitoring across many markets, Meltwater or Cision remain the tools for it. Most product and funding news needs neither.
- How does PressPilot AI writing compare to Cision's?
- PressPilot includes AI drafting of the release in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese on every credit pack and subscription. Cision prices its modules on quote, so whether AI writing is included depends on the package you are offered; ask for it in writing. On PressPilot the draft, the newsroom page and the send are one workflow.
- Who typically switches from Cision to PressPilot?
- Founders after a funding round, agencies with a handful of clients, and comms teams of one to three people who send fewer than ten releases a month and mainly used Cision for the database. Teams that run monitoring across markets, or file regulated disclosures through PR Newswire, usually keep Cision for those jobs and move only the outreach.
- Does Cision include a newsroom like PressPilot?
- PressPilot hosts every release on a newsroom under your brand, included in the credit price. Cision sells newsroom products as part of its quote-based packages, so the answer depends on the contract. If you want a standalone newsroom with more design control, Prezly starts at 100 EUR per month billed annually (prezly.com, September 2026).
Ready to move the outreach off Cision?
PressPilot starts at 29 EUR a month for 100 journalist credits with no contract. AI writing, hosted newsroom and reply tracking included. Keep your wire for regulated news.