Hey Press vs Press Hunt in 2026: a journalist tool folded into JournoFinder vs a 580,000-contact media database
Hey Press no longer operates as its own product. Press Hunt is an active database charging $249/month for speed, not relationships.
Hey Press
Press Hunt- Hey Press merged into JournoFinder and no longer operates as a standalone product; the hey.press domain now functions mainly as a PR guides and comparison content hub.
- Press Hunt maintains an active database of 580,000+ journalists and 10,000+ podcasts, with AI-powered media list generation built from plain-language descriptions.
- Press Hunt has no free trial and starts at $249/month for the Startup tier; press release distribution is locked behind the $499/month Premium tier.
- Neither tool documents an API. Press Hunt's own pricing table lists API access as unavailable on every tier, including PR Agency.
- Hey Press's original journalist search let founders find contacts by topic or beat; that functionality now lives under JournoFinder rather than hey.press.
- Press Hunt's coverage tagging is generated automatically rather than manually verified, so journalist contact accuracy varies by profile.
Hey Press and Press Hunt both started as lean alternatives to enterprise media databases like Muck Rack and Cision, but only one of them is still selling that product today. Press Hunt is a live journalist and podcast database with 580,000+ contacts, AI-powered list generation, and a $249/month Startup plan with no free trial. Hey Press merged into JournoFinder, and the hey.press domain now mostly hosts PR guides and comparison content rather than an active search tool. Comparing them side by side means comparing an operating database against a brand that pointed its users elsewhere. If you need a journalist database you can use today, that comparison resolves quickly; if you want the context on how these tools evolved, both have something worth reading.
The tools at a glance
Hey Press
Journalist discovery tool for startups, now part of JournoFinder
Hey Press launched as a lean journalist search tool for startup founders who wanted press contacts without paying for Muck Rack or Cision. Enter a topic or beat, get a list of journalists covering it, start pitching. That was the entire product, and it reached over 1,000 PR professionals on that pitch alone.
The product has since merged into JournoFinder. The hey.press homepage now describes itself as part of JournoFinder, and the active journalist search functionality lives under that brand's own domain and pricing rather than on hey.press. What remains natively on hey.press is a set of PR guides and comparison articles, genuinely useful reading on topics like Muck Rack alternatives and how to pitch journalists, even if you never use the product itself.
Evaluating Hey Press against a live tool like Press Hunt is lopsided by definition: one is software you can subscribe to today, the other redirects you to a different company's product. If the appeal is specifically the original Hey Press experience, JournoFinder is where that lives now.
| Feature | See JournoFinder Via JournoFinder |
|---|---|
| Journalist search | Via JournoFinder |
| Contact database | Via JournoFinder |
| PR guides and resources | Free on hey.press |
Press Hunt
Journalist and podcast database of 580k+ contacts with AI-powered media list generation and bulk CSV export
Press Hunt is a database first, everything else second. It holds 580,000+ journalist profiles and 10,000+ podcasts, each tagged by coverage category from published work, social activity, and outlet data. The pitch is speed: reduce the hours normally spent hunting for the right contact down to a search query.
The AI-powered media list generation is the feature that separates it from a plain search-and-filter database. Describe your target audience in plain language, something like "fintech journalists covering Series A raises," and Press Hunt returns a curated list with contact details rather than making you stack filters manually. Bulk selection and unlimited CSV export at the Startup tier get that list into whatever email tool you already use.
What Press Hunt does not do is just as defining. There is no outreach, no pitch tracking, no CRM, and no API, so the database is an island: useful for finding contacts fast, useless for managing what happens after you email them. At $249/month with no free trial, you are paying for that speed without a way to test data quality first.
| Feature | Startup $249/month | Premium $499/month | PR Agency Contact for pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Journalist database access | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Podcast database access | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| AI media list generation | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CSV export | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Press release distributions | ✗ | 2/month | Custom |
| API access | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
Head-to-head feature comparison
| Feature | Hey Press | Press Hunt |
|---|---|---|
| Standalone active product | No, merged into JournoFinder | Yes |
| Journalist database size | N/A, via JournoFinder | 580,000+ profiles |
| Podcast database | No | 10,000+ shows |
| AI-powered list building | No | Yes |
| Manual multi-attribute search | Yes, original core feature (now via JournoFinder) | Yes |
| Bulk selection & CSV export | No | Yes, unlimited at Startup tier |
| Built-in outreach / email sending | No | No |
| Press release distribution | No | Premium tier only ($499/mo) |
| API access | Depends on JournoFinder | No |
| Free trial | No public pricing on hey.press | No |
| Starting price | Via JournoFinder | $249/month |
Which should you choose?
Press HuntPress HuntPress HuntThis is not really a contest between two active products, since only one of them still is one. Press Hunt earns its place as a fast, if narrow, database for finding journalist and podcast contacts, and $249/month buys real breadth if list-building speed is your bottleneck. Hey Press, evaluated as software, does not exist anymore in the form that built its early reputation; what is left is a content hub that happens to be genuinely worth reading. Anyone drawn to the original Hey Press pitch should go straight to JournoFinder rather than trying to compare hey.press itself against a live tool like Press Hunt.
Bottom line
Sign up for Press Hunt if you need to build journalist or podcast contact lists fast and already have a separate email tool for outreach; skip it if you also need pitch tracking or an API, since it has neither. Treat hey.press as a resource for PR guides rather than a product decision, and go to JournoFinder directly if the original Hey Press journalist search is specifically what you were looking for.
Frequently asked questions
Is Hey Press still a real, standalone product I can subscribe to in 2026?
Hey Press stopped operating as an independent product after merging into JournoFinder, so there is nothing to subscribe to on hey.press itself; the active journalist search tool and its pricing now live entirely under the JournoFinder brand.
Is Press Hunt worth $249 a month for a startup handling its own PR?
Press Hunt earns the $249/month Startup price for founders who need to build journalist or podcast lists quickly and already have an email tool ready to send from, since the AI list generation and unlimited CSV export cut list-building time significantly, though the price is harder to justify if outreach only happens once or twice a year.
Does Press Hunt include email outreach or pitch tracking like a full PR platform?
Press Hunt does not include outreach, pitch tracking, or CRM features of any kind, so every contact you export still needs to be moved into a separate email tool or CRM to actually run a campaign.
Can I still access the original Hey Press journalist database?
The original Hey Press journalist search now runs entirely through JournoFinder, so there is no separate database left to search on hey.press, only PR guides and comparison articles.
Which tool has the bigger, more current media database, Hey Press or Press Hunt?
Press Hunt has the bigger and more current database by a wide margin, with 580,000+ journalist profiles and 10,000+ podcasts under active maintenance, while Hey Press's original database was folded into JournoFinder and is no longer accessible through hey.press.
Is Press Hunt good for podcast booking, not just journalist outreach?
Press Hunt covers podcast booking reasonably well, with 10,000+ podcast profiles searchable by topic and filterable by audience size where that data is available, though dedicated podcast booking tools go deeper on episode history and guest preferences.