# Cision Pricing 2026: What Founders Really Pay (Audit) URL: https://pressmonkey.co/review/cision-pricing Type: review Locale: en Published: 2026-10-05 Updated: 2026-10-06 --- > Cision hides its price behind a demo form. We pulled buyer reports, contract data and ratings from five platforms to show what founders actually pay and when to skip it. *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. ## Verdict **Score: 5.5/10** 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. **Quick scores:** - 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 **Pros:** - 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 **Cons:** - 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 *Call to action: Visit Cision's site* (Official site, no affiliate link. Quote on request.) > **Disclosure** — Disclosure: we have no affiliate relationship with Cision and earn nothing if you click through. We publish on a site that helps founders do PR without an agency, so we are not neutral on the question of whether you need an enterprise suite. We did not pay for Cision or get a quote. Every figure below comes from public pages and named third parties, so you can check it yourself. ## 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 **Test categories:** Public pricing pages, Third-party price reports, Review platforms, Contract terms, Competitor price points 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 *Product* ## 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 *Pricing page* ## 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 ### Database only — $3,500 to $6,000/yr 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 — $10,000 to $13,000/yr *(Most reported)* 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 — $23,000 to $25,000/yr 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 — $30,000+/yr 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 ## Customer ratings across platforms Public ratings for Cision as of 2026-10-06. Product Hunt skipped: it is not where enterprise PR software gets reviewed. *[Interactive widget — see the live page for the full experience]* ## What we measured - **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. No price anywhere. Request Pricing leads to a three-step form with 8 answers. No tiers, seat prices or monthly plan. > Check how deep the journalist database looks on the public Journalist Outreach page. A search returns 686 journalists with engagement, sector tags and outlet. Useful, but the page never says how many contacts a seat includes. > Read Cision's aggregate rating on G2 and compare it with Trustpilot. G2 shows 3.9 out of 5 from 2,387 reviews, 82% of them 4 or 5 stars. Trustpilot shows 1.6 from 32. Both can be true: enterprise users on G2, small buyers burned by renewals on 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 **Score: 5.5/10** 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. **Dimensional scoring:** - **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 *Call to action: Visit Cision's site* ## Common questions about Cision pricing ### How much does Cision cost per year? No list price exists. Vendr's data on 107 purchases shows a $12,625 median in a $3,150 to $30,368 range. Reddit buyers report $3,500 for 2 database seats and $23,000 for 5 seats with monitoring. ### Does Cision have a free trial or monthly plan? Not that we could find. The demo flow is a three-step form, and contracts are annual, with 12 months the usual minimum per Vendr. ### What is the difference between Cision and PR Newswire pricing? Cision's software is a custom annual quote. PR Newswire, which Cision owns, distributes releases: a rival's rate card lists $350 local, $805 national and up to $8,700 global, plus a $195 yearly membership. We could not confirm that on PR Newswire's site. ### Does Cision auto-renew? Trustpilot reviewers say yes, with cancellation due at least three months before the end date. Get the notice date and any renewal cap in the order form. ### Can you negotiate Cision's price? Yes. Vendr reports 26% saved on average, 15 to 25% off first quotes and 10 to 20% more for multi-year terms. Q4 gives the most leverage. ### Is Cision worth it for a startup? Rarely at pre-seed or seed. It is built for teams that monitor coverage and report to executives. A founder pitching by hand is usually better served by a public-priced database at $100 to $600 a month. ## Update log - **2026-10-06** — Initial publication: price and public-page audit, no paid access. ## FAQ ### How much does Cision cost per year? No list price exists. Vendr's data on 107 purchases shows a $12,625 median in a $3,150 to $30,368 range. Reddit buyers report $3,500 for 2 database seats and $23,000 for 5 seats with monitoring. ### Does Cision have a free trial or monthly plan? Not that we could find. The demo flow is a three-step form, and contracts are annual, with 12 months the usual minimum per Vendr. ### What is the difference between Cision and PR Newswire pricing? Cision's software is a custom annual quote. PR Newswire, which Cision owns, distributes releases: a rival's rate card lists $350 local, $805 national and up to $8,700 global, plus a $195 yearly membership. We could not confirm that on PR Newswire's site. ### Does Cision auto-renew? Trustpilot reviewers say yes, with cancellation due at least three months before the end date. Get the notice date and any renewal cap in the order form. ### Can you negotiate Cision's price? Yes. Vendr reports 26% saved on average, 15 to 25% off first quotes and 10 to 20% more for multi-year terms. Q4 gives the most leverage. ### Is Cision worth it for a startup? Rarely at pre-seed or seed. It is built for teams that monitor coverage and report to executives. A founder pitching by hand is usually better served by a public-priced database at $100 to $600 a month.