Prowly vs SourceBottle in 2026: AI-cited media database vs pay-per-pitch human matching
One layers an AI-citation signal onto a 600,000-profile database starting at $149 a month. The other is a free Australian expert directory with human-driven pitching from $25 per pitch.
Prowly
SourceBottle- SourceBottle's cheapest paid option is $25 per pitch with no monthly commitment; Prowly has no per-use pricing and starts at $149 a month.
- Prowly's AI-Cited Media Database flags outlets that LLMs reference in answers; SourceBottle's pitching is entirely human-driven with no AI matching.
- SourceBottle's journalist call-out volume and media relationships are predominantly Australian; Prowly's database is not geography-restricted in its own materials.
- SourceBottle offers a genuinely free Expert Profile and Directory listing; Prowly has no free tier, only a 7-day trial that blocks outbound email.
- Neither tool publishes an API for pulling data into CRM or reporting systems.
- SourceBottle's Agency plan at $130 a month supports up to 5 Expert Profiles; Prowly's Pro plan at $279 a month is priced per single account, not per client roster.
- Prowly includes a PR metrics dashboard for reporting; SourceBottle has no analytics or coverage-tracking dashboard at all.
Prowly and SourceBottle both help experts and brands get quoted in media, but they price and staff that work completely differently. Prowly, now the Semrush AI PR Toolkit, gives you a searchable database of 600,000-plus journalists and an AI-Cited Media Database that flags outlets large language models actually reference, starting at $149 a month with no free option. SourceBottle is free to join for an Expert Profile and Directory listing, and its human-driven pitching, a real person manually matching your profile to journalist call-outs, starts at $25 per pitch with no monthly commitment. The trade-off is geography and automation: SourceBottle's call-out volume is predominantly Australian and its matching is entirely human, while Prowly's reach isn't geography-limited and its pitching is AI-drafted.
The tools at a glance
Prowly
AI-powered PR platform for media outreach, journalist discovery, and media monitoring, now part of Semrush.
Prowly operates as the Semrush AI PR Toolkit now, with a searchable database of over 600,000 journalist and outlet profiles you filter by keyword, location, audience size, and traffic, then pitch directly using AI-drafted emails and press releases. It is a self-serve, self-directed tool: you find the journalist, you write and send the pitch, all inside one platform.
The AI-Cited Media Database is the piece with no equivalent at SourceBottle: it filters that journalist list by whether large language models cite the outlet when generating answers, a distinct signal from traffic or domain authority. Media Monitoring, PR metrics reporting, and a journalist CRM round out a workflow built for structured, ongoing outreach rather than opportunistic pitching.
Cost is the trade-off. There is no free tier, the 7-day trial blocks outbound sending, and $149 a month is the floor regardless of how many pitches you actually send in a given month. For a program with steady, high volume outreach that benefits from AI targeting and monitoring, that flat cost is easy to justify. For sporadic, low-volume pitching, it is a lot to pay upfront next to SourceBottle's per-pitch model.
| Feature | Base $149/mo | Pro $279/mo |
|---|---|---|
| AI-Cited Media Database | ✓ | ✓ |
| 600,000+ journalist profiles | ✓ | ✓ |
| AI pitch and press release writing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Media Monitoring | ✗ | ✓ |
| PR metrics dashboard | ✓ | ✓ |
| Journalist CRM | ✓ | ✓ |
| Free trial | 7 days | 7 days |
SourceBottle
Free journalist-to-source matching platform with optional human-driven pitching service
SourceBottle started in 2009 as Australia's answer to HARO and has since added a searchable Expert Directory and a human-driven pitching service on top of the basic call-out model. Creating an Expert Profile and getting listed in the Directory is free, with no time limit, and gives you passive discoverability: journalists can find you without you responding to a public call-out at all.
What sets SourceBottle apart from Prowly's AI drafting is that a real person on SourceBottle's team reviews journalist call-outs and manually pitches your profile to the ones that match, rather than relying on keyword search alone. The No Pitch No Pay plan charges $25 only when a pitch actually goes out, capped at 3 a month, which removes the risk of paying for a slow month. The Agency plan at $130 a month covers up to 5 Expert Profiles, useful for agencies managing several clients on one low-cost plan.
The limitation is reach: the bulk of SourceBottle's call-out volume and media relationships are Australian, so US or UK programs will see meaningfully fewer relevant opportunities than on a global database. There is also no analytics dashboard, no CRM, and no API, so tracking what happens after a pitch goes out is left entirely to you.
| Feature | Free $0 | No Pitch No Pay $25/pitch | Unlimited Pitches $65/mo | Agency $130/mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Expert Directory listing | Basic | Basic | Priority | Priority |
| Human-driven pitching | ✗ | Up to 3/mo | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Expert Profiles supported | 1 | 1 | 1 | Up to 5 |
| Helpdesk support | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
Head-to-head feature comparison
| Feature | Prowly | SourceBottle |
|---|---|---|
| Cost model | Flat monthly ($149-$279) | Free, per-pitch ($25), or monthly ($65-$130) |
| AI-cited media / LLM citation tracking | Yes | No |
| AI-drafted pitches or press releases | Yes | No (human-driven pitching) |
| Expert/journalist database size | 600,000+ journalist profiles | Not disclosed; Australian-focused directory |
| Geographic focus | Not geography-limited in published materials | Predominantly Australian |
| Media monitoring | Yes (Pro plan) | No |
| Analytics or coverage dashboard | Yes | No |
| Human-reviewed pitch matching | No (AI-drafted, self-sent) | Yes (team manually pitches your profile) |
| Free tier | No (7-day trial, outbound blocked) | Yes (free Expert Profile and Directory listing) |
| Multi-client/agency support | Not specified per-client | Yes (Agency plan, up to 5 profiles) |
| Journalist CRM | Yes | No |
| API access | No | No |
| Starting price | $149/mo | Free |
Considering AI Peekaboo alongside Prowly and SourceBottle?
Prowly's AI-Cited Media Database identifies outlets that large language models reference, a real feature, but it is locked inside a $149-plus-a-month Semrush subscription with no API and no ongoing tracking once you've pitched. SourceBottle has no AI angle at all; its pitching is entirely human-reviewed. AI Peekaboo tracks brand mentions and citation share across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity continuously, with a read and write API on every plan from $50 a month, which fits teams whose real objective is measuring AI visibility over time rather than a one-off signal inside a PR tool.
Read the AI Peekaboo review →Which should you choose?
SourceBottleProwlySourceBottleProwlySourceBottleProwlySourceBottleGeography and budget decide this one more than features do. SourceBottle's human-driven pitching and free entry point make sense for Australian-focused work at almost any budget, while Prowly's flat monthly cost only pays off once you're pitching enough volume, and outside Australia, to make the database and AI-citation layer worth $149 a month.
Bottom line
If your program targets Australian media and budget is tight, SourceBottle's free Expert Profile plus the $25 No Pitch No Pay option beats paying $149 a month for a database that isn't built around Australian outlets. If you're running outreach outside Australia, or want an AI-citation signal alongside your pitching, Prowly's 600,000-profile database and AI-Cited Media Database justify the higher, published price. Neither exposes an API, so if you need to pull PR data into your own systems automatically, look past both.
Frequently asked questions
Is SourceBottle a good alternative to Prowly for US or UK PR programs?
Not really: SourceBottle's call-out volume and media relationships are predominantly Australian, so US or UK programs will see far fewer relevant journalist opportunities than on Prowly's broader database. SourceBottle makes more sense as a supplementary free channel for global brands or as a primary tool for genuinely Australian-focused campaigns.
How does SourceBottle's pay-per-pitch pricing compare to Prowly?
SourceBottle's No Pitch No Pay plan charges $25 only when its team actually pitches your Expert Profile, capped at 3 pitches a month, with no monthly commitment. Prowly has no per-use option; it is a flat $149 a month for Base or $279 a month for Pro through the Semrush AI PR Toolkit regardless of how many pitches you send.
Does SourceBottle have anything comparable to Prowly's AI-Cited Media Database?
No, SourceBottle's pitching is entirely human-driven, a real team member manually matches your Expert Profile to relevant call-outs. There is no feature in SourceBottle for identifying which outlets large language models cite, which is specific to Prowly's product.
Which tool is cheaper for a PR agency managing multiple clients?
SourceBottle's Agency plan at $130 a month covers up to 5 Expert Profiles with unlimited pitching, working out to $26 per client. Prowly's Pro plan at $279 a month is priced as a single account rather than per client, so an agency running several clients through Prowly would need to weigh whether its AI-Cited Media Database and monitoring features justify the higher per-client cost.
Is SourceBottle actually free, or does it require payment eventually?
The core product, an Expert Profile and Directory listing plus journalist call-out alerts, is free indefinitely with no time limit. Payment only enters the picture if you want SourceBottle's team to actively pitch your profile on your behalf, starting at $25 per pitch, which is optional rather than required to use the platform.
Do Prowly or SourceBottle offer an API for custom reporting?
Neither Prowly nor SourceBottle offers one. Prowly's Semrush-listed AI PR Toolkit does not document API access, and SourceBottle confirms it has no API or integrations with CRM or PR tools, so both require manual data handling outside their own dashboards.