Featured vs Muck Rack
Featured (SaaS Platform) and Muck Rack (Web SaaS) both compete in PR Intelligence & Media Relations. On pricing, Featured lists Free plan · $0/yr (free plan), whereas Muck Rack lists Custom / enterprise pricing (no free plan disclosed). Technically, Featured is rated L3 · Conditional automation with a 3.8/5.0 (Proprietary moat) moat, while Muck Rack is rated L3 · Conditional automation with a 4.4/5.0 (Proprietary moat (category leader)) moat. Corporate profile: Featured (founded 2022, HQ Scottsdale, Arizona, United States, $2M funding) vs. Muck Rack (founded 2009, HQ Miami, United States, $180.0M funding). Fact-checked by Jiacky Lee (Oct 25, 2026) for Featured and Sarah Per (Oct 10, 2026) for Muck Rack. At a 5-seat team baseline, Featured starts at ~$79/mo vs Muck Rack at Custom quote.
Featured
AI-assisted PR intelligence and expert media placement platform (formerly Terkel) connecting subject-matter experts with journalists.
5-Seat Floor: ~$79/mo (Free plan · $0/yr) · Autonomy: L3 · Conditional automation · Moat: 3.8/5.0 (Proprietary moat)
Target fit: B2B Marketing & GTM Teams (SaaS Platform)
Muck Rack
AI communications management platform providing media monitoring, verified journalist databases, pitch tracking, and automated PR coverage reporting.
5-Seat Floor: Custom quote (Custom / enterprise pricing) · Autonomy: L3 · Conditional automation · Moat: 4.4/5.0 (Proprietary moat (category leader))
Target fit: B2B SaaS (Web SaaS)
How Featured and Muck Rack differ
- Pricing model: Featured is freemium, Muck Rack is enterprise / quote.
- Featured has a free plan; none is recorded for Muck Rack.
- Moat tier: Muck Rack is rated Proprietary moat (category leader), Featured Proprietary moat.
- Delivery: Featured is a SaaS Platform product; Muck Rack is a Web SaaS product.
- Muck Rack was founded earlier (2009) than Featured (2022).
- Headquarters: Featured in Scottsdale, Arizona, United States, Muck Rack in Miami, United States.
- Verified backing: Featured records $2M (Stout Street Capital, Calm Company Fund, Sonoran Founders Fund); Muck Rack records $180.0M (Susquehanna Growth Equity).
- Company headcount: Featured is 2-10 employees; Muck Rack is 201-500 employees.
- Audience: Featured targets B2B Marketing & GTM Teams; Muck Rack targets B2B SaaS.
- Ecosystem stack: Featured connects with Slack; Muck Rack connects with Outreach, Slack, Gmail, Google Analytics 4 (GA4).
Computed from the fields below. Only editor-verified ratings and vendor-sourced prices are compared.
When to choose Featured vs Muck Rack (and when to walk away)
Choose Featured if
- Target ICP & Stack Fit: You operate as B2B Marketing & GTM Teams requiring a SaaS Platform deployment for PR, with verified ecosystem connectivity for Slack.
- L3 Architecture & Defensibility: Featured (formerly Terkel) operates a two-sided marketplace and AI PR co-pilot that matches verified subject-matter experts with thousands of active publisher queries to earn high-authority editorial backlinks and brand citations.
- Commercial Model Fit: Your procurement budget aligns with Free plan · $0/yr and want a self-serve free tier for zero-cost initial validation.
Walk away from Featured if
- Walk away if your workflow requires uncapped enterprise volume on the Free plan · $0/yr entry plan without upgrading tiers.
- Walk away if your workflow cannot tolerate primary operational trade-off: In practical PR and SEO execution, the primary trade-off is that placement decisions remain entirely at the editorial discretion of third-party journalists and publishers.
- Walk away if functional scope boundary is a deal-breaker for your team: Featured is not built for guaranteed paid advertorial placement, mass cold email scraping of unopted-in press lists, or enterprise social media crisis monitoring.
Choose Muck Rack if
- Target ICP & Stack Fit: You operate as B2B SaaS requiring a Web SaaS deployment for PR, with verified ecosystem connectivity for Outreach, Slack, Gmail, Google Analytics 4 (GA4).
- L3 Architecture & Defensibility: Proprietary two-sided journalist verification network integrated directly with media-authored portfolios and multi-channel monitoring infrastructure.
- Commercial Model Fit: Your procurement budget aligns with Custom / enterprise pricing.
Walk away from Muck Rack if
- Walk away if you require transparent self-serve monthly billing or your budget ceiling is under $1,000/mo (Muck Rack requires sales-gated custom quoting).
- Walk away if your workflow cannot tolerate attribution window lag: Earned media indexing encounters ingestion delays across paywalled publications and niche local outlets, requiring manual article clipping when scrapers face anti-bot barriers.
- Walk away if contact data decay is a deal-breaker for your team: Freelance journalist records and boutique publication mastheads periodically desynchronize between scheduled directory updates, necessitating manual email deliverability verification.
Side-by-side facts
| Field | Featured | Muck Rack |
|---|---|---|
| Subtrack | PR Intelligence & Media Relations | PR Intelligence & Media Relations |
| Pricing | Free plan · $0/yr | Custom / enterprise pricing |
| Pricing model | Freemium | Enterprise / quote |
| Published pricing tiers | Free / Sandbox ($0) · Lite ($29/yr) · Pro ($79/yr) · Lite ($348/yr) | Enterprise / Custom (Custom quote) |
| Free access | Free plan | No free plan disclosed |
| Enterprise plan | Not recorded | Yes |
| AI autonomy level | L3 · Conditional automation | L3 · Conditional automation |
| Moat tier & score | 3.8 / 5.0 · Proprietary moat | 4.4 / 5.0 · Proprietary moat (category leader) |
| Delivery | SaaS Platform | Web SaaS |
| Audience | B2B Marketing & GTM Teams | B2B SaaS |
| Ecosystem integrations | Slack | Outreach, Slack, Gmail, Google Analytics 4 (GA4), Zapier |
| Funding & backing | $2M · Backed by Stout Street Capital, Calm Company Fund, Sonoran Founders Fund | $180.0M · Backed by Susquehanna Growth Equity |
| Founders | Brett Farmiloe | Greg Galant, Lee Semel |
| Company size | 2-10 employees | 201-500 employees |
| Founded | 2022 | 2009 |
| Headquarters | Scottsdale, Arizona, United States | Miami, United States |
| Fact-checked | Jiacky Lee, Oct 25, 2026 | Sarah Per, Oct 10, 2026 |
| Governance & docs | — | System Status ↗ · Changelog ↗ · Terms ↗ · Privacy ↗ |
Featured vs Muck Rack: TCO & constraint stress test
Test how both tools behave under your team size, monthly budget ceiling, CRM ecosystem, and governance guardrails.
Featured
High Deal-Risk · Constraint Mismatch- Opaque Enterprise Quoting vs. SMB/Mid-Market Budget: Featured does not disclose a public self-serve floor (Free plan · $0/yr). Buyers with a $800/mo cap face high sales-qualification friction.
- Annual Contract Lock-in Risk Detected: Featured operates on a transparent freemium subscription model per expert profile. The Free plan costs $0 per month and includes up to 3 question submissions per month and basic placement notifications.
- Tier Fit for 5-Seat Scale: Lite ($29/yr): For solo practitioners running focused PR.
- Primary Operational Bottleneck: Deployment & Governance Considerations: Because journalists reject generic or overly promotional pitches, users must still invest authentic subject-matter expertise and rapid response turnaround, and teams on the free tier face strict monthly submission caps (3 pitches per month) that limit high-velocity link building.
Walk-Away Rule: Walk away if your workflow requires uncapped enterprise volume on the Free plan · $0/yr entry plan without upgrading tiers.
Negotiation Lever: Validate exact quota thresholds (seats, credits, or API calls) included in Featured's Free plan · $0/yr tier before converting from monthly to annual billing.
Muck Rack
High Deal-Risk · Constraint Mismatch- Opaque Enterprise Quoting vs. SMB/Mid-Market Budget: Muck Rack does not disclose a public self-serve floor (Custom / enterprise pricing). Buyers with a $800/mo cap face high sales-qualification friction.
- Sales-Gated Contract Terms: Muck Rack structures its commercial packaging across Starter, Standard, and Premier tiers tailored for brands and agencies. Commercial pricing is available on request through tailored enterprise sales quotes based on organizational scale and seats.
- Primary Operational Bottleneck: Attribution Window Lag: Earned media indexing encounters ingestion delays across paywalled publications and niche local outlets, requiring manual article clipping when scrapers face anti-bot barriers.
Walk-Away Rule: Walk away if you require transparent self-serve monthly billing or your budget ceiling is under $1,000/mo (Muck Rack requires sales-gated custom quoting).
Negotiation Lever: Demand a 30- to 60-day paid pilot opt-out clause in the Muck Rack order form before signing a 12-month enterprise commitment.
Limitations
Featured
Operational considerations and platform boundaries include: Primary Operational Trade-Off: In practical PR and SEO execution, the primary trade-off is that placement decisions remain entirely at the editorial discretion of third-party journalists and publishers.Full limitations in the Featured review
Muck Rack
Operational considerations and platform boundaries include: Attribution Window Lag: Earned media indexing encounters ingestion delays across paywalled publications and niche local outlets, requiring manual article clipping when scrapers face anti-bot barriers.Full limitations in the Muck Rack review
Official vendor architectural differentiators & migration proof
To help buyers evaluate real-world switching costs, verified founders, solutions architects, and PMMs at both Featured and Muck Rack can submit up to 3 evidence-backed architectural differentiators or verified customer migration case studies.
Why teams choose Featured over Muck Rack
Work at Featured? Verify your official domain email to publish 3 technical differentiators, migration benchmarks, or a head-to-head buyer sandbox offer on this comparison page:
+ Submit Featured Official Differentiators & Case Study →Why teams choose Muck Rack over Featured
Work at Muck Rack? Verify your official domain email to publish 3 technical differentiators, migration benchmarks, or a head-to-head buyer sandbox offer on this comparison page:
+ Submit Muck Rack Official Differentiators & Case Study →Pricing notes & tier schedules
Featured: Free plan · $0/yr
Featured operates on a transparent freemium subscription model per expert profile. The Free plan costs $0 per month and includes up to 3 question submissions per month and basic placement notifications.
- Free / Sandbox ($0, 1–2 seats (Evaluation)): Entry free tier with capped usage or feature quotas for initial workflow testing.
- Lite ($29/yr, 1–2 seats): For solo practitioners running focused PR.
- Pro ($79/yr, 5 seats): For power users running a full PR operation.
- Lite ($348/yr, 15 seats): For solo practitioners running focused PR.
- Annual Billing Headline vs. Monthly Premium: Headline entry rates reflect annual billing commitments; month-to-month flexibility carries a higher effective monthly rate or requires annual prepayment.
- Credit & Usage Burn Multiplier: Automated workflows consume metered credits/usage quotas; multi-step enrichment, voice minutes, or high-frequency agent runs can trigger mid-cycle top-up packs.
Muck Rack: Custom / enterprise pricing
Muck Rack structures its commercial packaging across Starter, Standard, and Premier tiers tailored for brands and agencies. Commercial pricing is available on request through tailored enterprise sales quotes based on organizational scale and seats.
- Enterprise / Custom (Custom quote, 15–50+ seats (Enterprise SLA)): Sales-negotiated annual contract for custom volume, SSO/RBAC governance, and dedicated SLA.
- Enterprise Governance & Add-On Gating: Advanced capabilities such as Single Sign-On (SSO), custom role permissions, or specialized analytics modules are gated behind upper tiers or paid add-ons.
- Attribution Window Lag: Earned media indexing encounters ingestion delays across paywalled publications and niche local outlets, requiring manual article clipping when scrapers face anti-bot barriers.
Frequently asked questions: Featured vs Muck Rack
How does Featured pricing compare to Muck Rack in 2026?
Featured is listed at Free plan · $0/yr (freemium, free plan), whereas Muck Rack is listed at Custom / enterprise pricing (enterprise / quote, no free plan disclosed).
How do Featured and Muck Rack compare on AI autonomy and moat depth?
On the MarTechRadar L1–L5 scale, Featured is rated L3 · Conditional automation with a Proprietary moat moat (3.8/5.0), while Muck Rack is rated L3 · Conditional automation with a Proprietary moat (category leader) moat (4.4/5.0).
Which teams are Featured and Muck Rack built for?
Featured is a SaaS Platform product in PR Intelligence & Media Relations designed for B2B Marketing & GTM Teams. Muck Rack is a Web SaaS product in PR Intelligence & Media Relations designed for B2B SaaS.
What are the main limitations of Featured vs Muck Rack?
For Featured: Operational considerations and platform boundaries include: Primary Operational Trade-Off: In practical PR and SEO execution, the primary trade-off is that placement decisions remain entirely at the editorial discretion of third-party journalists and publishers. For Muck Rack: Operational considerations and platform boundaries include: Attribution Window Lag: Earned media indexing encounters ingestion delays across paywalled publications and niche local outlets, requiring manual article clipping when scrapers face anti-bot barriers.
What are the hidden TCO drivers and contract negotiation levers for Featured vs Muck Rack?
For Featured: Annual Billing Headline vs. Monthly Premium (Headline entry rates reflect annual billing commitments; month-to-month flexibility carries a higher effective monthly rate or requires annual prepayment.) Negotiation lever: Validate exact quota thresholds (seats, credits, or API calls) included in Featured's Free plan · $0/yr tier before converting from monthly to annual billing. For Muck Rack: Enterprise Governance & Add-On Gating (Advanced capabilities such as Single Sign-On (SSO), custom role permissions, or specialized analytics modules are gated behind upper tiers or paid add-ons.) Negotiation lever: Demand a 30- to 60-day paid pilot opt-out clause in the Muck Rack order form before signing a 12-month enterprise commitment.
Excerpts are quoted verbatim from each fact-checked review. Last updated Oct 25, 2026.