Featured Review (2026): PR Pricing, Limits & Alternatives
Bottom line
Featured is a SaaS Platform tool for PR (PR Intelligence & Media Relations) in Social & Influencer. Pricing: Free plan · $0/yr. Best suited to B2B Marketing & GTM Teams. Editor ratings: AI autonomy L3 (conditional automation); moat score 3.8/5.0 (Proprietary moat). Fact-checked by Jiacky Lee on Oct 25, 2026.
AI-assisted PR intelligence and expert media placement platform (formerly Terkel) connecting subject-matter experts with journalists.
Featured buyer fit verdict: when to choose vs. when to walk away
Choose Featured if (Best Fit)
- 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 (Deal-Breakers)
- 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.
Featured key facts & scorecard
| Pricing | Free plan · $0/yrVendor pricing page |
|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes |
| Delivery | SaaS Platform |
| Audience | B2B Marketing & GTM Teams |
| AI autonomy level | L3 · Conditional automationEditor-verified |
| Moat tier & score | 3.8 / 5.0 · Proprietary moatEditor-verified |
| Funding | Seed |
| Total funding | $2MBacked by Stout Street Capital, Calm Company Fund, Sonoran Founders Fund |
| Founders | Brett Farmiloe |
| Company size | 2-10 employees |
| Ecosystem integrations | Slack |
| Headquarters | Scottsdale, Arizona, United States |
| Founded | 2022 |
| Last verified |
Featured pros & cons: strengths vs. operational limitations
Pros: core strengths & capabilities
- Real-time journalist query matching: engine alerting executives and marketers to relevant editorial source requests
- AI PR Co-Pilot and: voice-to-pitch transcription tools that help experts draft authentic, journalist-ready commentary
- End-to-end placement tracking monitoring: submission status, article publication, domain rating, and backlink attribution
- Full-article Q&A publishing network,: podcast guest matching, and multi-profile agency management with Slack alerts
Cons: operational limitations & risks
- 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.
- Functional Scope Boundary: Featured is not built for guaranteed paid advertorial placement, mass cold email scraping of unopted-in press lists, or enterprise social media crisis monitoring.
- 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.
Are you a founder, co-founder, or product/growth lead at Featured? Verify your official @featured.com email to publish a factual architectural response or 2026 roadmap update below these limitations.
Featured TCO & deal-breaker stress test
Simulate 12-month stepped TCO, hidden cost multipliers, contract lock-in exposure, and stack failure modes using only facts verified by Jiacky Lee on · Capture SHA a676a14c.
Featured triggers high-severity friction under your 5-seat / $800/mo constraints. Benchmark the verified subtrack alternatives below before committing.
| Plan / Tier | Verified Rate | Scale Fit | Scope & Quota Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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. |
- Moat Score
- 3.8 / 5.0
- AI Autonomy
- L3
- Free Tier / Trial
- Free plan
Triggered audit signals & failure modes
- Opaque Enterprise Quoting vs. SMB/Mid-Market BudgetVerified Pricing Ledger
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 DetectedFact-checked by Jiacky Lee
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)Verified Tier Schedule
For solo practitioners running focused PR.
- Primary Operational Bottleneck: Deployment & Governance ConsiderationsAudit by Jiacky Lee
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.
Hidden TCO Multipliers & Quota Gates
- 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.
When to Walk Away & Negotiation Levers
- 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.
- 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.
- Require a sandbox proof-of-concept testing primary operational trade-off against your live CRM/data schema before annual sign-off.
4 hard questions to ask on a Featured sales or technical demo
“Between Featured's Free / Sandbox ($0) and Lite ($29/yr) tiers, what exact seat, workspace, or credit ceiling triggers a mandatory upgrade—and are mid-cycle overages billed at the base unit rate or forced onto an annual Lite commitment?”
Contract / Technical Proof to Require: 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.
“Our technical audit of Featured flagged "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.). Can you demonstrate how Featured handles this scenario live against Slack without manual CSV workarounds or webhook latency?”
Contract / Technical Proof to Require: Walk away if your workflow requires uncapped enterprise volume on the Free plan · $0/yr entry plan without upgrading tiers.
“Because Featured operates at L3 · Conditional automation (PR), how do operators prevent "Functional Scope Boundary" (Featured is not built for guaranteed paid advertorial placement, mass cold email scraping of unopted-in press lists, or enterprise social media crisis monitoring.) during high-volume campaigns, and what human-in-the-loop approval gates are configurable?”
Contract / Technical Proof to Require: Require a sandbox proof-of-concept testing primary operational trade-off against your live CRM/data schema before annual sign-off.
“Our review of Featured did not find public SOC 2 Type II or ISO 27001 certificates on the pricing page. Can you share your security packet, DPA, and zero-data-retention policy for LLM sub-processors?”
Contract / Technical Proof to Require: Attach a signed DPA with zero model-training rights and 30-day data deletion SLA upon contract termination.
Ask a custom procurement or TCO stress-test question about Featured
Generate your 4-role approval packet or request a custom Featured sandbox & PR quote
Active spec: 5 Seats · ≤ $800/mo ceiling · Any Stack · No Annual Lock-in
Lower 5-seat floor (~$175/mo vs. Custom Quote) · Transparent self-serve entry without mandatory annual lock-in
Verified PR peer (Custom / enterprise pricing · Moat 4.4/5.0)
No public buyer quote requests logged in the current window for Featured. Be the first to lock a verified procurement specification above.
Featured key entities, modules & ecosystem stack
Featured moat & subtrack positioning
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.
Editorial review
Fact-checked by Jiacky Lee (Managing Editor, AI Autonomy & Moat Methodology) on .
Background
Featured (formerly known as Terkel, accessible at featured.com) is an AI-assisted public relations, expert commentary, and earned media placement platform built for founders, SEO/GEO managers, PR agencies, and B2B thought leaders. Founded in 2022 by Brett Farmiloe and headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, the company operates with a lean team of 2 to 10 employees and has raised $2M in Seed funding backed by Stout Street Capital, Calm Company Fund, and Sonoran Founders Fund. Following the shutdown of traditional Help A Reporter Out (HARO), Featured has become a primary two-sided marketplace connecting subject-matter experts with journalists and publishers seeking credible quotes.
How Featured works
At the operational core of Featured is an intent-matching marketplace and AI PR co-pilot that links verified domain experts directly to active editorial deadlines. Publishers, media outlets, and B2B blogs post specific source queries on the platform, which Featured's matching engine routes to experts based on their credentials, industry tags, and historical answer quality. Experts can record spoken insights or bullet points and use Featured's AI drafting assistant to structure concise, publication-ready responses while enforcing anti-spam originality checks so journalists are not flooded with generic copy-pasted AI text. When a publisher selects an expert's insight, Featured automatically verifies live article publication, tracks the resulting do-follow or editorial backlink, and logs brand mentions that feed both search engine rankings and LLM brand visibility.
Limitations
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.
- Functional Scope Boundary: Featured is not built for guaranteed paid advertorial placement, mass cold email scraping of unopted-in press lists, or enterprise social media crisis monitoring.
- 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.
Featured pricing
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. Paid tiers unlock unlimited monthly pitch submissions, priority query access, AI PR Co-Pilot drafting tools, and link-monitoring analytics: the Lite plan is priced at $29 per month when billed annually ($348 per year), and the Pro plan costs $79 per month billed annually ($948 per year), with multi-seat agency options for managing client executives.
How Featured compares
In the digital PR and media relations landscape, Featured competes with Qwoted, SourceBottle, Help a B2B Writer, and enterprise PR suites like Muck Rack and Cision. Unlike Cision or Meltwater—which require expensive annual contracts for cold journalist databases—Featured delivers inbound, high-intent journalist requests where reporters are actively asking for quotes right now. SEO teams, founders, and PR agencies should evaluate Featured to build organic domain authority and authoritative brand citations.
Frequently asked questions about Featured
How much does Featured cost and what pricing tiers are available?
Published pricing summary for Featured: Free plan · $0/yr. Featured includes a free tier or sandbox entry point. Verified tier schedule: Free / Sandbox ($0 for 1–2 seats (Evaluation)); Lite ($29/yr for 1–2 seats); Pro ($79/yr for 5 seats); Lite ($348/yr for 15 seats). 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.
How does Featured work and how autonomous is its AI architecture?
AI-assisted PR intelligence and expert media placement platform (formerly Terkel) connecting subject-matter experts with journalists. Within PR (PR Intelligence & Media Relations), MarTechRadar rates its execution architecture at L3 · Conditional automation with a verified Moat Score of 3.8 / 5.0 (Proprietary moat). 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. Corporate profile: Founded by Brett Farmiloe, operating at 2-10 employees scale.
What are the main limitations of Featured and when should buyers walk away?
Based on our editorial technical audit, key operational considerations and boundaries for Featured include: (1) 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. (2) Functional Scope Boundary: Featured is not built for guaranteed paid advertorial placement, mass cold email scraping of unopted-in press lists, or enterprise social media crisis monitoring. (3) 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. Primary procurement walk-away rule: Walk away if your workflow requires uncapped enterprise volume on the Free plan · $0/yr entry plan without upgrading tiers.
What integrations, compliance certifications, and contract terms apply to Featured?
Verified ecosystem and stack integrations include Slack. Key TCO multiplier to watch: 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.) Before signing a contract, procurement teams should 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.
What are the best Featured alternatives and head-to-head competitors in 2026?
Top fact-checked alternatives to Featured in PR (PR Intelligence & Media Relations) include Muck Rack (Custom / enterprise pricing), Cision (Pricing not disclosed), Auxos (Custom / enterprise pricing), PressPulse AI (Pricing not disclosed). In the digital PR and media relations landscape, Featured competes with Qwoted, SourceBottle, Help a B2B Writer, and enterprise PR suites like Muck Rack and Cision.
Featured profile completeness & verified buyer trust checklist
Our analysts verified the first 5 baseline facts below from public captures. Founders and growth leads at Featured can reach 100% Gold Verified Transparency (and unlock priority buyer sandbox inquiries) by supplying workflow screenshots, customer ROI case studies, and direct support SLA contacts:
- 1. Corporate Identity & HQ: Founded 2022 · Scottsdale, Arizona, United States · Founders: Brett Farmiloe
- 2. Team Scale & Backing: 2-10 employees · $2M
- 3. Published Pricing Floor: Free plan · $0/yr (Sentinel S7 verified)
- 4. Free Trial & Onboarding: Free-forever tier available
- 5. Stack & Compliance Signals: Slack
- 6. Product Workflow Screenshots & Customer Case Studies: Upload 3 UI screenshots & verified ROI case study (+15% completeness) →
- 7. Direct Support SLA, Hotline & Reader Perk Code: Add official support email/phone, SLA & exclusive buyer trial perk (+10% completeness) →
Verified sources & evidence trail
- Official product domain: https://featured.com
- Commercial pricing verification: https://featured.com/pricing
- Verified corporate entity profiles (
sameAs): LinkedIn Company Profile · Crunchbase Entity Record - Editorial audit sign-off: Fact-checked by Jiacky Lee on under the MarTechRadar Evidence-Ledger Protocol.