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Featured vs. Meltwater
Featured is an AI co-pilot for PR that helps you earn coverage, with public pricing from $0. Meltwater is a media, social and AI intelligence suite that helps you measure it, with plans Meltwater says start from $10,000 a year. Pick Featured to get coverage on a self-serve budget. Pick Meltwater to monitor and analyze coverage at enterprise scale.
Updated Prices and plans checked November 10, 2026Sources
The short answer
Featured earns coverage. Meltwater measures it.
Featured and Meltwater sit at different ends of PR software. Featured is an AI co-pilot for PR: you ask in plain language and it finds journalist requests, podcasts, bylined article openings, awards and speaking slots, drafts the pitch and can rerun the search on a schedule. The prices are public: Free, Lite at $39 a month, Pro at $99 and Pro+ at $299, with 20% off for annual billing.
Meltwater is an intelligence suite for PR, communications and marketing teams. It covers media monitoring, social listening, a journalist database with press distribution, influencer marketing and AI visibility tracking, with an AI assistant called Mira across the platform. Meltwater does not publish a price list. Its own pricing guide gives indicative starting points of $10,000 a year for Starter, $25,000 for Pro and $130,000 for Enterprise, and Vendr reports a median contract of $25,800 a year.
If your problem is getting coverage, start with Featured. If your problem is tracking and reporting on coverage across many markets and channels, Meltwater is built for that.
Choose Featured if
- Your goal is to get quoted, booked or published, and you do not have a monitoring problem yet.
- You want to start free and pay monthly.
- You are a founder, a solo practitioner or a small team without a five-figure software budget.
- You want an AI visibility audit included in the plan, not sold as an add-on.
Choose Meltwater if
- You need monitoring across news, broadcast and social in many regions and languages.
- Social listening or influencer marketing is part of the brief. Influencer marketing is on Meltwater's Enterprise and Agency plans.
- You need governance, permissions, API access and custom integrations for a large team.
- You have budget for an annual contract of at least 12 months.
Featured wrote this page, so read it with that in mind. Every Meltwater fact below comes from Meltwater's own pages or a named third party, checked on November 10, 2026 and linked in the sources.
Side by side
Featured and Meltwater at a glance
| Featured | Meltwater | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | AI co-pilot for PR | Media, social and AI intelligence suite |
| Best for | Founders, solo PR pros and small teams that need coverage | Communications and marketing teams that need monitoring and analysis at scale |
| Starting price | $0. Free plan | From $10,000 a year (Meltwater's indicative Starter price) |
| Paid plans | Lite $39, Pro $99, Pro+ $299 a month. 20% off billed annually | Starter, Pro, Enterprise, Agency. Vendr median: $25,800 a year |
| Free plan or trial | Free plan, no credit card | None listed. Demo and custom quote |
| Contract | Monthly or annual. Change plans any time | Annual, 12-month minimum |
| Main job | Find opportunities and draft pitches | Monitor, measure and report |
| Media monitoring | News, blogs, podcasts and YouTube | News, broadcast and social |
| Social listening | No | Yes |
| AI visibility | GEO Audit, included in every plan | GenAI Lens, sold as an add-on |
| AI assistant | Featured Chat and workflows | Mira |
| Founded | 2022 | 2001 |
| Headquarters | Scottsdale, Arizona | San Francisco, California |
Checked November 10, 2026. Sources are listed at the end of this page.
Definitions
What each one is
What is Featured?
Featured is the AI co-pilot for PR. It is a chat-first product: ask for journalist requests on your topic, podcasts that book guests like you, or awards your company can win, and Featured returns a matched list and drafts the pitch. Workflows run the same searches on a schedule and deliver results to Slack or email. Featured relaunched in this form on June 2, 2026. The company also owns and operates HARO (Help a Reporter Out) and Connectively, which supply many of its journalist requests. Featured is based in Scottsdale, Arizona.
What is Meltwater?
Meltwater calls itself the global leader in actionable intelligence for PR, communications and marketing teams. Its platform combines media intelligence, social listening, media relations, influencer marketing and AI visibility tracking through GenAI Lens. Mira, its AI assistant, runs across the suite, and Meltwater offers an API and an MCP server on higher tiers. Plans are Starter, Pro, Enterprise and Agency. Meltwater was founded in Oslo in 2001 and is headquartered in San Francisco.
Key differences
Five differences that decide it
- 1
Meltwater listens. Featured helps you get heard.
Meltwater's strength is knowing what is being said about you: coverage, social conversation, competitor share of voice and how AI models describe your brand. Featured's strength is creating the coverage in the first place. It surfaces reporters asking for sources, podcasts booking guests and publications taking contributed articles, then drafts the pitch.
- 2
The price gap is large, and so is the scope gap.
Featured Lite is $348 a year when billed annually, and the top individual plan, Pro+, is $2,868 a year. Meltwater's pricing guide puts Starter from $10,000 a year, Pro from $25,000 and Enterprise from $130,000, and calls the figures indicative. Vendr reports a median Meltwater contract of $25,800 a year across 126 purchases, with a range of $5,375 to $56,993 (last updated February 2026). The gap reflects scope. Meltwater sells data coverage, seats and modules for large programs. Featured sells AI usage.
- 3
Featured is self-serve. Meltwater is sold through a demo and a contract.
You can create a Featured account, run a search and upgrade without talking to anyone. Meltwater scopes each contract with a sales team. Its pricing FAQ says most agreements are annual, with a minimum term of 12 months.
- 4
AI visibility is included in Featured and an add-on in Meltwater.
Featured's GEO Audit is part of every plan, including Free. It checks ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Gemini for your buying prompts and shows which sources shape the answers. Meltwater's GenAI Lens tracks brand visibility, sentiment and sources across AI platforms with benchmarking and alerts, and Meltwater describes it as a modular add-on to a subscription. GenAI Lens is the more complete tracking product. GEO Audit is the faster and cheaper way to see where you stand and what to pitch next.
- 5
Meltwater is far stronger on monitoring.
Featured's Media Monitoring tracks brand, people and competitor mentions across news, blogs, podcasts and YouTube and delivers alerts to Slack or email. Meltwater monitors news, broadcast and social at global scale, with dashboards, sentiment and reporting. If monitoring is the core requirement, Featured is not a substitute.
Features
Featured vs. Meltwater: feature comparison
| Feature | Featured | Meltwater |
|---|---|---|
| Earning coverage | ||
| Journalist requests (reporters asking for sources) | Yes. From HARO, Connectively, Substack, X and LinkedIn | Not listed |
| Journalist database | Finds journalists from recent coverage | Yes. Media Relations is included at every tier |
| Podcast, byline, award and speaking opportunities | Yes | Not listed |
| Press release distribution | Yes. Through newswire partners | Yes. Part of Media Relations |
| AI-drafted pitches | Yes | Mira AI assistant |
| Monitoring and intelligence | ||
| Media monitoring | News, blogs, podcasts and YouTube | Yes. News, broadcast and social |
| Social listening | No | Yes |
| Influencer marketing | Creator and LinkedIn influencer search | Yes. Enterprise and Agency plans |
| AI visibility tracking | GEO Audit, on every plan | GenAI Lens, add-on |
| Dashboards and reporting | Alerts and digests | Yes |
| Buying | ||
| Free plan | Yes | None listed |
| Public pricing | Yes | Indicative ranges only |
| Contract | Monthly or annual | Annual, 12-month minimum |
| API and MCP | MCP server | API and MCP on Enterprise |
“Not listed” means the feature does not appear on the vendor’s public pricing or product pages as of November 10, 2026.
Pricing
Featured vs. Meltwater: pricing
Featured publishes its prices. Meltwater scopes each contract, but its own pricing guide gives indicative starting points, shown here next to Vendr's purchase data.
Featured pricing
| Plan | Monthly | Billed annually | What changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | Every feature, with a starter daily allowance |
| Lite | $39 | $29 a month ($348 a year) | 5x the AI usage of Free |
| Pro | $99 | $79 a month ($948 a year) | 5x the usage of Lite |
| Pro+ | $299 | $239 a month ($2,868 a year) | 20x the usage of Lite |
| Team Lite | $199 | $159 a month ($1,908 a year) | Up to 25 logins sharing one usage pool |
| Team Pro | $499 | $399 a month ($4,788 a year) | 5x the pool of Team Lite |
| Team Pro+ | $1,499 | $1,199 a month ($14,388 a year) | 20x the pool of Team Lite |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Unlimited members, usage billed at API rates |
Every Featured plan includes every feature. Plans differ only by daily AI usage. Source: featured.com/pricing.
Meltwater pricing
| Plan | Indicative price | Who it is for, per Meltwater |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | From $10,000 a year | Focused monitoring for small teams in a single region |
| Pro | From $25,000 a year | Broader coverage, competitive analysis and reporting |
| Enterprise | From $130,000 a year | Global teams that need custom workflows, integrations and governance |
| Agency | Custom | Agencies managing multiple clients |
Starting points are from Meltwater's own pricing guide, which calls them indicative. Vendr reports a median contract of $25,800 a year across 126 purchases, with a range of $5,375 to $56,993 (last updated February 2026). Sources: Meltwater pricing guide and Vendr.
Using both
Using Featured with Meltwater
Meltwater customers can add Featured to act on what monitoring shows. When a coverage report or GenAI Lens shows a competitor winning share of voice, Featured finds the open journalist requests, podcasts and bylined article slots that answer it.
There is no direct integration between them today. Featured starts at $0, so the cost of adding it to a Meltwater contract is small.
FAQ
Featured vs. Meltwater: frequently asked questions
Is Featured a Meltwater alternative?
Only for part of what Meltwater does. Featured can replace Meltwater for a small team whose goal is earning coverage and tracking basic mentions. It does not replace Meltwater's global media monitoring, social listening or enterprise reporting.
How much does Meltwater cost?
Meltwater does not publish a price list. Its pricing guide gives indicative starting points of $10,000 a year for Starter, $25,000 for Pro and $130,000 for Enterprise. Vendr reports a median contract of $25,800 a year across 126 purchases. Most agreements are annual with a 12-month minimum.
Does Meltwater have a free plan or a free trial?
Meltwater's pricing page does not list a free plan or a free trial. Buyers request a demo and a custom quote.
How much does Featured cost?
Featured has a free plan. Paid individual plans are Lite at $39 a month, Pro at $99 and Pro+ at $299, or $29, $79 and $239 a month when billed annually. Team plans include up to 25 logins and start at $199 a month. Every plan includes every feature. Plans differ by daily AI usage.
Does Featured do social listening?
No. Featured pulls journalist requests that reporters post on X and LinkedIn, and it monitors brand mentions across news, blogs, podcasts and YouTube. It does not offer a social listening suite like Meltwater's.
What is the difference between Featured's GEO Audit and Meltwater's GenAI Lens?
GEO Audit is included in every Featured plan. It checks how ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Gemini answer your buying prompts and which sources they cite, then suggests where to pitch. GenAI Lens is a Meltwater add-on that tracks brand visibility, sentiment and sources across AI platforms over time, with benchmarking and alerts.
Which is better for a startup or small business?
Featured, in most cases. A small business usually needs coverage before it needs a monitoring suite, and Featured has a free plan. Meltwater's indicative entry price of $10,000 a year is built for teams with an established communications program.
Can I use Featured with Meltwater?
Yes. A team can use Meltwater to monitor and report, and Featured to find journalist requests, podcasts, awards and speaking opportunities. The two products are not integrated.
Sources
Sources and how we checked
Featured wrote this page. Facts about Featured come from our own product and pricing pages. Facts about Meltwater come from Meltwater's public pricing page, pricing guide and product pages, and from Vendr's published purchase data, all checked on November 10, 2026. Where Meltwater does not publish a detail, we say so. We do not have access to private pricing.
- Featured pricing (plans, prices, usage multipliers)
- Featured features (feature list and data sources)
- Featured workflows (workflow templates)
- Meltwater pricing (plans, capabilities, contract FAQ)
- Meltwater pricing guide (indicative starting prices; published July 2026)
- Vendr: Meltwater pricing data (median and range; last updated February 2026)
- Meltwater: AI visibility tracking with GenAI Lens
Featured, Meltwater and other product names are trademarks of their respective owners. Spotted something out of date? Tell us at support@featured.com and we will correct it.
See what Featured finds for you
Ask for journalist requests, podcasts or awards on your topic. Free to start, and no credit card is needed.