Meltwater is PR software platform that helps track and analyze media coverage, social media trends, and online news. Choosing the right PR tool is challenging; you need to weigh all the pros and cons, feature sets, and, of course, pricing.
Unfortunately, Meltwater pricing is impossible to find on their website. Based on research and user reviews, though, we estimated its cost.
Given that you're Googling their pricing, you probably want to buy a powerful PR software platform without straining your budget. Naturally, we want to help you find the answer to your question and introduce Prowly as a smart alternative. Ready when you are.
Looking for a Meltwater alternative?
Try Prowly completely free for 7 days on a platform that has everything you need for PR.
- All-in-one platform: Get everything you need in one tool for PR, incl. media database, outreach, reporting, and more
- Transparent Pricing: Plans start at $258/month
- Comprehensive Monitoring: Track the web, social media, print, and broadcast mentions
Meltwater pricing
Based on our research, Meltwater costs an average of $15,000 to $20,000 per year.
Unfortunately, Meltwater pricing is not publicly disclosed, and potential customers must talk to sales to get a custom quote.
Key takeaways:
- For a basic, 1-user subscription, expect to pay around $7,000 per year and up.
- The average subscription costs around $15,000/yr to $20,000/yr, while enterprise plans can cost $40,000/yr or more!
- Meltwater offers three distinct plans—Essentials, Suite, and Enterprise.
- You can only access Meltwater with an annual contract; monthly subscriptions are unavailable.
- More affordable alternatives, like Prowly, start at $258/per month.
How we found this data
To get accurate information about Meltwater pricing, we searched the Internet to find what real Meltwater users were saying about their monthly costs.
Here's what people are saying in 2025:
One user, expressing their frustration, mentioned that Meltwater and Cision cost around $15,000 to $20,000. And if you're looking for enterprise reports, be prepared to pay up to $100,000!
Another user claimed she pays $13k per year and that she had her plan auto-renewed despite not planning to.
User #3 claims to pay $16,000 per year for reporting and insights.
Another user mentions paying only $6,900 per year, and using it only for media monitoring—possibly why the price is so low.
A different commenter claims paying $43,000 per year, mentioning that the price seems to be too much.
Many users have reported being able to negotiate prices with Meltwater or similar tools that don't offer transparent pricing.
Finally, user #6 mentions paying $33,000 per year for 20 users.
Ultimately, with Meltwater's custom pricing, the cost can depend on the specific features required, the number of users, and simply how well you negotiate your final price.
Plans explained
Meltwater’s pricing plans are designed to accommodate a variety of business needs, offering flexible options that scale as your media monitoring and PR efforts grow.
Here’s an overview of the different pricing tiers:
- Essentials plan
Perfect for smaller teams or businesses just starting with media intelligence. The Essentials plan gives you access to basic media monitoring tools, allowing you to track your brand’s mentions and stay informed about industry trends without the complexity of advanced features. - Suite plan
The Suite plan is designed for businesses that need more advanced monitoring and analysis. In addition to comprehensive media coverage, this plan includes Meltwater's powerful social media management tools, allowing you to track social mentions, engage with audiences, and analyze performance across social platforms. It’s ideal for growing teams that want to consolidate their media and social media efforts onto one platform. - Enterprise plan
For large organizations or agencies, the Enterprise plan offers a fully customizable suite of tools, designed to handle high volumes of data and provide enterprise-level insights. With tailored solutions and priority support, it’s perfect for teams that need the full power of Meltwater’s platform to scale their PR efforts globally.
Meltwater also provides tailored pricing for businesses with unique needs. To get a precise quote and find a plan that best fits your goals, it’s best to reach out to their sales team directly. And don't forget to negotiate!
Meltwater alternatives
Tired of searching for Meltwater monthly pricing and want a tool that shows you how much it costs right on their website?
Keeping your options open is always a great idea, and here are some Meltwater alternatives you should consider for PR.
| Provider | Pricing | Contract length | # of contacts | Free trial |
| Meltwater | $15,000/yr* | Yearly only | >380,000 | No |
| Prowly | From $258/mo | Monthly or yearly | >1,000,000 | Yes |
| Muck Rack | $15,000/yr* | Yearly only | >300,000 | No |
| Cision | From $10,000/yr | Yearly only | >1,400,000 | No |
| Propel | From $2,400/yr* | Yearly only | >1,000,000 | No |
| Agility PR | Undisclosed | Yearly only | >1,000,000 | No |
| Roxhill | Undisclosed | Yearly only | >190k+ | Yes |
→ If you want to learn more about other PR tools' pricing, feature sets, pros, and cons, you can check out these guides:
- Top 5 Meltwater alternatives
- Muck Rack pricing and alternatives
- Cision pricing and alternatives
- Roxhill pricing and alternatives
- Prezly pricing and alternatives
- Agility PR alternatives
- Propel alternatives
- Vuelio pricing
- JustReachOut pricing
How does Meltwater compare to Prowly?
The main contrast is in the pricing plans. Prowly offers flexible pricing options suitable for any organization size, making it a great choice if you're looking for affordable PR software without compromising on features.
| Meltwater | Prowly | |
| Pricing | $15,000/yr | From $258/mo* |
| Setup fee | Unknown | Free |
| Media database size | > 380,000 | > 1,000,000 |
| Press release creator | No | Yes |
| Press release distribution | Yes | pitching, sending press releases through email, following up |
| PR CRM | Yes | Yes |
| Online newsroom | No | Yes |
| Media monitoring | Yes | Yes |
| Support | Very responsive | Very responsive |
Media database
Both providers offer high-quality media databases with contacts from local and international media sources.
If you're only interested in finding a media database, check out our guide on picking the best one for PR.
With Prowly, you can access more than 1 million contacts; Meltwater has about 400 thousand.
The distinctive factors among various media databases are their contact quantity, update frequency, and pricing. But it's crucial to consider not just the quantity but also the quality of media contacts. This can vary based on the location and beat you're interested in. This can especially be the case outside of the US, where the relevance of contacts may vary.
To determine which option best suits you, ask for a sample or sign up for a free trial.
With Prowly, you get a free 7-day trial with full search access.
It's unclear if Meltwater offers a free trial. Although its product pages suggest you can find out more during a demo call, it's not clear if this will give you a complete view of its contacts.
Media monitoring
Meltwater and Prowly provide essential media monitoring tools for tracking news and online mentions. They also include social media listening features.
Here’s a list of the best social media listening tools to choose from.
Print and broadcast monitoring in Meltwater and Prowly
Both Meltwater and Prowly offer robust tools for monitoring print and broadcast media, allowing you to track mentions across a wide range of platforms:
- Meltwater provides comprehensive coverage for print and broadcast media, including access to national and global newspapers, trade publications, and television or radio mentions. With Meltwater, you can track and analyze print articles, broadcast clips, and digital content, providing valuable insights into your brand's media presence across multiple channels.
- Prowly, on the other hand, focuses on delivering detailed print and broadcast monitoring by integrating with services like LexisNexis and TVEyes. This allows users to access mentions in print media, even paywalled content, as well as real-time tracking of TV and radio broadcasts. Prowly also offers the ability to filter data based on outlet categories, sentiment, and reach, ensuring that you have the most relevant insights at your fingertips.
Both platforms offer powerful monitoring tools, but Prowly’s integration with LexisNexis and TVEyes enhances its ability to provide in-depth, global coverage for print and broadcast media.
→ Read more here on print media monitoring and broadcast monitoring.
PR reports
Both platforms provide PR reporting tools, streamlining the creation process for PR reports.
However, user reviews on G2 indicate that Prowly has slightly better results in measurements, monitoring data, and the transformation of media monitoring into visually appealing PR reports.
The availability of a free trial for Meltwater remains uncertain, making it challenging to assess their PR report creation functionality. However, with Prowly, you can use the 7-day trial period to explore and create your PR reports.
Additional features
Meltwater doesn’t provide a press release creator or online newsroom, which are valuable for businesses of any size.
On the other hand, Prowly offers an AI-based press release creator, empowering PR professionals to input essential information and generate a polished press release within moments, requiring only minor editing.
Prowly provides an online newsroom, offering a centralized space to showcase key information for your company and clients. This feature facilitates easy access for journalists and media members when covering stories related to your brand.
Conclusion
Meltwater offers a rich feature set for media professionals, whether in an agency setting or as part of a business's PR team. Unfortunately, without transparent pricing, it’s hard to evaluate if you're on a budget or just trying to compare it to the alternatives, as you have to sit through lengthy sales calls to discover the pricing for your use case.
Prowly offers a media database, press release creator, and media monitoring that lets you manage all aspects of your PR strategy in one place. Its pricing is transparent and easy to understand.
We hope this comparison has answered some of your inquiries and simplified your decision-making process regarding selecting appropriate PR software.
If you're ready to begin evaluating PR platforms, you can explore Prowly for a full 7 days at no cost. No credit card information is needed, and there are no strings attached.
