Featured vs Prowly in 2026: self-serve AI PR co-pilot vs Semrush's enterprise-priced outreach suite
Featured starts free and covers inbound opportunities plus AI search visibility. Prowly now only exists inside the Semrush AI PR Toolkit, starting at $149 per month, with a 600,000-profile journalist database for outbound pitching.
Featured
Prowly- Featured is free to start and reaches $79/month on Pro. Prowly has no standalone plan left; the cheapest way in is the Semrush AI PR Toolkit Base tier at $149/month.
- Prowly ships a 600,000+ journalist and outlet profile database built for outbound pitching. Featured has no searchable contact database; it surfaces inbound requests instead.
- Both tools have an AI-citation angle: Featured's GEO Visibility tracks brand appearances in AI-generated answers on every plan, and Prowly's AI-Cited Media Database filters journalist targets by which outlets LLMs reference.
- Prowly's Base plan excludes Media Monitoring entirely; you need the $279/month Pro tier to get AI-summarized coverage tracking and audience demographics.
- Neither tool publishes a public API. Featured has none as of mid-2026, and Prowly's Semrush listing does not document one either.
- Featured's usage is credit-based and caps out daily even on Pro. Prowly blocks outbound email sending entirely during its 7-day trial, so you cannot test deliverability before paying.
Featured and Prowly solve different halves of the same PR problem, which makes them an unusual but useful comparison. Featured is built around inbound opportunities: journalist requests, podcast bookings, and speaking slots that come to you through an AI chat interface, with pricing that starts at zero and tops out at $79 a month. Prowly is built around outbound pitching: a database of more than 600,000 journalist and outlet profiles you search, filter, and email directly, now sold exclusively through the Semrush AI PR Toolkit starting at $149 a month. Both have quietly added an AI-citation angle this year, Featured with GEO Visibility tracking bundled into every plan, Prowly with an AI-Cited Media Database that flags which outlets large language models actually reference. Neither turns that into a dedicated monitoring product, but it is worth knowing both exist before picking a lane.
The tools at a glance
Featured
AI-powered PR co-pilot for journalist requests, podcast pitching, and media opportunity discovery
Featured works from the inbound side of PR. It aggregates journalist source requests from HARO-style feeds, podcast bookings, bylined article slots, and speaking opportunities into one AI chat interface, and you prompt it directly: "find journalist requests for a fintech founder" pulls from a live opportunity feed rather than generating generic talking points. Automated workflows let you set up standing monitoring so alerts land in Slack, SMS, or email without daily manual checks.
GEO Visibility, included on every plan down to the free tier, tracks how your brand and expertise show up in AI-generated search answers and flags which competitors are appearing in your place. It is a genuinely useful addition for a tool in this price range, though it stops at tracking; there is no API to pull that data anywhere else.
The trade-off for Featured's low cost is scope. There is no searchable journalist database and no proactive outreach tooling, so you are responding to opportunities that appear rather than building your own pitch list. Usage is credit-based and caps out daily on every tier, which becomes noticeable during a busy launch week.
| Feature | Free $0/mo | Lite $29/mo (annual) | Pro $79/mo (annual) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Journalist request matching | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Podcast and speaking discovery | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GEO visibility tracking | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Automated background workflows | Limited | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-channel alerts (Slack, SMS) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Daily AI usage | Low | 5x Free | 5x Lite |
Prowly
AI-powered PR platform for media outreach, journalist discovery, and media monitoring, now part of Semrush
Prowly works from the outbound side: a database of over 600,000 journalist and outlet profiles, filterable by keyword, location, audience size, and traffic, that you search to build your own pitch targets rather than wait for requests to appear. AI drafts the press release or pitch email once you have your list, and a built-in CRM tracks contact history and pitch status so outreach does not live in a spreadsheet.
The AI-Cited Media Database is the feature that overlaps most directly with Featured's GEO Visibility, though it approaches the same problem from the opposite direction. Instead of tracking your own AI visibility, it identifies which outlets large language models actually reference when answering questions in your industry, letting you prioritize pitches toward journalists whose coverage feeds AI answers rather than just search rankings.
The catch is access. Prowly no longer sells its own subscription; you buy the Semrush AI PR Toolkit, starting at $149/month for Base, which excludes Media Monitoring, or $279/month for Pro, which includes it. That is a meaningful jump from a dedicated PR-only tool, and the value case gets stronger fast if you already pay for other Semrush products.
| Feature | Base $149/mo | Pro $279/mo |
|---|---|---|
| AI-Cited Media Database | ✓ | ✓ |
| 600,000+ journalist profiles | ✓ | ✓ |
| AI pitch and press release writing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Media Monitoring | ✗ | ✓ |
| Journalist CRM | ✓ | ✓ |
| Free trial | 7 days | 7 days |
Head-to-head feature comparison
| Feature | Featured | Prowly |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Yes, real free tier | No, standalone free tier discontinued |
| Inbound journalist request monitoring | Yes, HARO-style feeds aggregated in Featured Chat | No, outbound pitching model |
| Podcast/speaking opportunity discovery | Yes | No |
| AI-citation-aware media targeting | Yes, GEO Visibility tracks your own AI-answer appearances | Yes, AI-Cited Media Database flags LLM-referenced outlets |
| Ongoing media/coverage monitoring | Competitor visibility watch only, not general coverage monitoring | Yes, full monitoring with AI summaries on Pro plan only |
| AI-drafted pitches or press releases | Yes, drafted conversationally in Featured Chat | Yes, AI drafts press releases and pitch emails |
| Searchable journalist contact database | No, inbound requests only, no searchable database | Yes, 600,000+ journalist and outlet profiles |
| Journalist CRM | No | Yes, built-in CRM |
| API access | No | No public API documented |
| Starting price | Free (Lite $29/mo) | $149/mo via Semrush AI PR Toolkit |
Both tools touch AI-citation data. Neither one is built to monitor it.
Featured's GEO Visibility and Prowly's AI-Cited Media Database both acknowledge that AI answers matter for PR, but they approach it from opposite ends and neither offers an API to move that data anywhere else. Featured tracks your own AI-answer appearances with no way to export it; Prowly filters pitch targets by AI-citation likelihood but does not track your own visibility at all. AI Peekaboo does the tracking half properly: five AI engines (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode), a read and write API on every plan from $50/month, and white-label delivery for agencies running this alongside client PR work. Pair it with whichever pitching tool fits your workflow.
Read the AI Peekaboo review →Which should you choose?
FeaturedProwlyProwlyFeaturedFeaturedThese are not really substitutes for each other. Featured is cheap, inbound, and immediate: you sign up free and start seeing opportunities that day. Prowly is expensive by comparison and outbound: you are buying a database and a CRM to run your own pitching campaigns, which is a different job and a different skill set. The AI-citation features on both sides are real but narrow, Featured tells you where you already appear, Prowly tells you where to aim next, and neither is a substitute for a dedicated AI visibility tool. Pick based on whether your PR motion is mostly reactive or mostly proactive, not on the AI features alone.
Bottom line
Start with Featured if you are a solo founder, consultant, or small team doing reactive PR and want AI search visibility tracked as a side benefit at no extra cost. Choose Prowly, meaning the Semrush AI PR Toolkit, if you need to run proactive outbound campaigns against a large journalist database and can justify $149 to $279 a month, ideally because you are already inside the Semrush ecosystem. Running both is not unreasonable for a team with budget: Featured catches inbound opportunities while Prowly powers outbound pitching, though at that point a dedicated AI visibility platform still fills the tracking gap neither one closes.
Frequently asked questions
Can I still sign up for Prowly on its own, without buying Semrush?
No, Prowly no longer sells a standalone subscription. Since the Semrush acquisition, the only way to access Prowly's journalist database and outreach tools is through the Semrush AI PR Toolkit, which starts at $149/month for the Base plan.
Is Featured's free plan actually usable for PR, or is it just a trial?
Featured's free plan is a real ongoing tier, not a time-limited trial, and includes journalist request matching, podcast discovery, and GEO visibility tracking. The limitation is a low daily AI usage allowance, which suits checking in a few times a week rather than running active daily outreach.
Which tool is better for tracking whether ChatGPT or Gemini mention my brand?
Featured is the one built for that specifically: its GEO Visibility feature tracks brand and expertise appearances in AI-generated search responses on every plan, including free. Prowly's AI-Cited Media Database works differently, it identifies outlets that LLMs cite so you know who to pitch, but it does not track your own brand's AI visibility.
Does Prowly's AI PR Toolkit include media monitoring at the base price?
No, media monitoring is excluded from the $149/month Base plan and only included on the $279/month Pro plan. Base gets you the journalist database, AI pitch writing, and PR metrics dashboard, but not the AI-summarized coverage tracking or audience demographic data that Pro adds.
Do Featured or Prowly offer an API for pulling data into a CRM or reporting tool?
Neither tool publishes a public API as of mid-2026. Featured has confirmed there is none, and Prowly's Semrush AI PR Toolkit listing does not document one either, so both require manual export or in-platform reporting for now.
Is Prowly worth $149 a month for a small PR team that just needs journalist contacts?
Prowly is worth it mainly if the 600,000-profile database and AI pitch drafting replace a tool you would otherwise pay for separately, or if you already use other Semrush products and the bundled pricing makes sense. For a small team that only needs occasional journalist lookups, the entry cost is steep compared to lighter database tools built specifically for PR.