Price audit of public data · October 2026
Cision Pricing 2026: What Founders Really Pay
Cision publishes no price list. We audited its public pages, buyer reports and review platforms to find the real numbers.
Summary
Cision pricing is quote-only: the site shows a Request Pricing button and a three-step demo form, never a number. Buyers report $3,500 to $23,000 a year, and Vendr's median across 107 purchases is $12,625. Contracts are annual and auto-renew, with 90 days' notice reported. This audit uses public pages and buyer data, not a paid account. For pre-seed founders it is the wrong size.
Cision pricing is quote-only, annual and opaque. Buyers report $3,500 to $23,000 a year for the database and monitoring, with a $12,625 median on Vendr. It is a serious enterprise PR suite, but for a pre-seed or seed founder it is the wrong size and the wrong contract.
- Price transparency
- 2/10
- Value for founders
- 4/10
- Database and monitoring depth
- 8/10
- Contract flexibility
- 3/10
- Support (per reviews)
- 4.5/10
- Large journalist database with engagement and sector filters
- Monitoring, reporting and PR Newswire distribution under one contract
- G2 score of 3.9/5 on 2,387 reviews, with strong marks for reporting
- No public price: you book a demo before you see any number
- Annual contracts that auto-renew, with reported 90-day cancellation notice
- Trustpilot sits at 1.6/5 on 32 reviews, mostly billing and support complaints
- Prices vary 6x between buyers, so you cannot budget before the sales call
Official site, no affiliate link. Quote on request.
How we audited the pricing
- Plan paid
- None. No paid account, no sales quote requested
- Version tested
- CisionOne public site and third-party listings, checked 2026-10-06
- Test period
- 2026-10-06 → 2026-10-06
This is a pricing and public-page audit, not a hands-on product test. We did not have a paid Cision seat, and we did not book a demo to extract a quote. On 2026-10-06 we loaded cision.com, its demo form and its Journalist Outreach page with a 1440 by 900 browser and took screenshots. We then pulled price evidence from Vendr's contract data, a Reddit thread of buyers in r/PublicRelations as compiled by Rephonic, and three vendor blogs. Ratings come from G2, TrustRadius and Trustpilot pages we opened, plus a Capterra figure quoted secondhand. Several price sources are Cision competitors, so we use them only when two agree. Where numbers conflict, we say so.
Should you look at Cision?
YES if you...
- Comms teams of 3+ people who need monitoring, reporting and a database in one contract
- Public or regulated companies that need wire distribution with editorial review
- Agencies reporting coverage to many clients, where $12,625 spread over accounts is small
NO if you...
- Pre-seed or seed founders pitching 10 to 30 journalists a month by hand
- Anyone who wants to see a price, start a trial and cancel within a month
- Teams without someone to own tagging, saved searches and reporting every week
- Founders whose goal is a podcast slot or one trade-press feature, not coverage tracking
The database is the real product
The Journalist Outreach page shows a search that returned 686 journalists, each with an average engagement score, a top reaction, sector tags and an outlet. Buyers praise it most on TrustRadius and G2, and Reddit buyers pay from $3,500 for two seats.
- Search by topic, location and coverage area
- Per-journalist engagement and sector tags
- Outreach and pitch tools inside the same screen
What you see before you pay: a form
Every path on cision.com ends at a demo. The nav has a Request Pricing link, and the demo page opens a three-step form that asks 8 answers in total before anyone replies. No tier names, no seat prices, no monthly option.
- Request Pricing replaces a price list
- 3-step, 8-answer form before a human replies
- No self-serve trial listed on the demo flow
Reported price bands, not a price list
Cision has no tiers. These bands come from buyer reports and contract data, so treat them as ranges to negotiate against.
Database only
1 to 3 seats, journalist search and lists
- Reddit buyer: $3,500 for 2 seats
- Vendor blogs quote $5,700 to $7,200 as the entry point
Database + monitoring
2 to 4 seats, coverage tracking added
- Reddit buyers: $10,000 for 2 seats, $13,000 for 4 seats with social
- Vendr median across 107 purchases: $12,625
Full suite, 5 seats
Database, monitoring, social, unlimited searches
- Reddit buyers: $23,000 and $25,000 for 5 seats
- Per-seat cost lands near $4,600 to $5,000
Enterprise
Teams of 3 to 10+ with global scope
- Vendr: $30,000 to $80,000 for 3 to 10 users with core modules
- Above $150,000 for large global programs
ROI breakdown: At the $12,625 Vendr median, Cision costs about $1,052 a month. A retainer agency at $12K a month costs $144,000 a year, so Cision is around 9% of that, but it is software, not a person pitching for you. We have no data on reply rates for Cision-sourced lists, and nobody publishes any.
Hidden costs & gotchas
- Auto-renewal with a reported 90-day cancellation window
- Renewal uplift of 5% per period in Cision's terms, as read by AI CMO; Vendr sees 3 to 7%
- Onboarding fees of $2,000 to $10,000+ per Vendr
- PR Newswire releases billed separately: $350 local, $805 national, $195/yr membership, per a rival's rate card
What we measured
Seven figures from public sources. None come from a paid Cision account.
- Median annual contract (Vendr)
- 12,625 USD per year 107 purchases, range $3,150 to $30,368, avg 26% saved
- Commonly quoted entry platform
- 5,700 to 7,200 USD per year Pressonify, Prezly and JustReachOut agree
- Reddit-reported spend
- 3,500 to 23,000 USD per year 2 database seats up to 5 seats with monitoring and social
- G2 rating
- 3.9 out of 5 2,387 reviews on the Cision seller page
- TrustRadius score
- 8 out of 10 458 reviews, Communications Cloud page
- Trustpilot rating
- 1.6 out of 5 32 reviews, 7 in the last 12 months, mostly billing and support
- Journalists in one demo search
- 686 Journalist Outreach screenshot, climate and sustainability filter
Find the price on cision.com: home page, Request Pricing link, demo page.
Check how deep the journalist database looks on the public Journalist Outreach page.
Read Cision's aggregate rating on G2 and compare it with Trustpilot.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Database depth and filters Search by topic, location and outlet, with per-journalist engagement scores and sector tags. TrustRadius reviewers call the contact database their main reason to stay.
- Reporting that stakeholders accept G2 reviewers single out tagging and shareable reports. If your boss wants a coverage deck every month, this is the strength.
- One contract for monitoring, outreach and wire CisionOne links to PR Newswire, so distribution, tracking and lists sit under one vendor.
Cons
- No public pricing at all You book a demo to learn a number. Buyers report anything from $3,500 to $23,000 for similar-sounding scope, so you cannot budget first.
- Auto-renewal with long notice Several Trustpilot reviewers describe a 90-day cancellation window and being charged again after missing it. Ask for the exact date in writing.
- Costs stack beyond the licence Onboarding of $2,000 to $10,000+, monitoring overages, broadcast add-ons and PR Newswire per release all sit outside the seat price.
- Poor fit below team size three A solo founder pays for monitoring, social listening and analytics she will not open. A $369/mo tool covers the pitching job.
Final verdict on Cision pricing
Cision is not overpriced for what it is. A 3-person comms team that needs monitoring, a big database and a wire in one contract will find $12,625 to $30,000 reasonable, and G2 reviewers back the product. The problem is the sales model: no visible number, slow exits, and one scope costing $3,500 for one buyer and $23,000 for another.
For a founder at pre-seed or seed, we would not sign. The money buys monitoring and reporting you do not need yet, and the contract outlasts most pitch campaigns. If you still want it, get a written quote with a renewal cap and notice date, and compare two tools priced in public.
Our score is 5.5 out of 10: strong product, weak fit and weak transparency for the founders who read this site.
- Price transparency 2/10 Request Pricing form only
- Value for founders 4/10 Built for teams of 3+
- Database depth 8/10 Praised on TrustRadius and G2
- Contract flexibility 3/10 Annual, auto-renew, 90-day notice
- Support (per reviews) 4.5/10 Split: G2 fine, Trustpilot poor
Common questions about Cision pricing
How much does Cision cost per year?
Does Cision have a free trial or monthly plan?
What is the difference between Cision and PR Newswire pricing?
Does Cision auto-renew?
Can you negotiate Cision's price?
Is Cision worth it for a startup?
Update log
- Initial publication: price and public-page audit, no paid access.