GTM AI Index
Index › Marketing › PR › Small business › September 2026 Edition

PR and media monitoring for small business buyers

Asked as “PR and media monitoring platform”, and as “press outreach and media monitoring tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 49 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Brand24
Contested
31% of first choices, contested.
ShowinginAll 73 categories →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
Small businessBrand2431%ContestedThis pageMid-marketMuck Rack24%ContestedStanding →EnterpriseMeltwater57%Clear leaderStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Brand2431%4%57endorsed leader
02Semrush AI PR Toolkit27%5%56accepted challenger
03Awario20%6%33accepted challenger
04Mention8%18%45accepted challenger
05Muck Rack4%50%38criticized challenger
06Google Alerts2%6%35accepted challenger
07Prezly2%0%12accepted challenger
08Cision2%82%44criticized challenger
Show the three products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
11Meltwater0%87%46criticized challenger
10Brandwatch0%71%14criticized challenger
09Talkwalker0%36%11criticized challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
Muck Rack vs Semrush AI PR ToolkitMuck Rack vs AwarioSemrush AI PR Toolkit vs Awario

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01Brand2431%
02Semrush AI PR Toolkit27%
03Awario20%
04Mention8%
05Muck Rack4%
06Google Alerts2%
07Prezly2%
08Cision2%
09Talkwalker0%
10Brandwatch0%
11Meltwater0%

02What they warned about

Two of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Meltwater
87%
40 of 46 labels negative · 12 of 12 models · 19 hard negative
“the enterprise PR platforms (**Meltwater, Cision, Muck Rack**) and the newly-priced **Mention** are overkill and dangerously expensive” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Cision
82%
36 of 44 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 18 hard negative
“overkill and dangerously expensive\u2014especially given their aggressive contract terms, hidden pricing, and documented billing complaints” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Muck Rack
50%
19 of 38 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“~$5,000-15,000/year, annual contracts only—overkill for small businesses” Kimi K2, paraphrase prompt
Brandwatch
71%
10 of 14 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Enterprise-focused with custom pricing; too premium for small teams needing simple monitoring.” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: four of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

20 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 173 links across 58 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. The other 8 models searched through a gateway that returned no source list on this edition.

prlab.co
9 answers · 14 citations · 2 models
g2.com
8 answers · 9 citations · 3 models
meltwater.com
vendor site · Meltwater7 answers · 11 citations · 2 models
brand24.com
vendor site · Brand247 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
gartner.com
vendor site · Gartner7 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
guideflow.com
vendor site · Guideflow7 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
truescope.com
vendor site · Truescope6 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
thecmo.com
6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
improvado.io
vendor site · Improvado5 answers · 5 citations · 1 model
onclusive.com
vendor site · Onclusive5 answers · 5 citations · 1 model
shadow.inc
vendor site · Shadow4 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
prowly.com
4 answers · 6 citations · 2 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

prlab.co/blog/the-best-media-monitoring-tools-for-news-and-social-media
8 answers · 2 models
gartner.com/reviews/market/pr-and-media-monitoring-tools
7 answers · 2 models
prlab.co/blog/best-pr-tools
6 answers · 2 models
thecmo.com/tools/best-media-monitoring-software
6 answers · 2 models
brand24.com/blog/media-monitoring-tools
5 answers · 2 models
improvado.io/blog/best-digital-pr-tools-and-software
5 answers · 1 model
truescope.com/blog/top-pr-monitoring-tools-a-comprehensive-review
5 answers · 2 models
cloro.dev/blog/media-monitoring-tools
4 answers · 2 models
guideflow.com/blog/media-monitoring-software
4 answers · 2 models
shadow.inc/resources/best-media-monitoring-tools-pr-agencies
4 answers · 2 models

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best PR and media monitoring platform for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which press outreach and media monitoring tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top PR and media monitoring platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best PR and media monitoring platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a PR and media monitoring platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which PR and media monitoring platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Brand24
Four alternativesBrandMentions, Cision, Mention, Muck Rack
CisionChanged
Four alternativesBusinessWire, Mention, Muck Rack, ePressPR
Brand24
Three alternativesBrandMentions, Prezly, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
Brand24, Mention
Two alternativesAwario, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
no first choiceagainst: Agility PR Solutions, Meltwater, Signal AI
GPT-5.4 miniMuck Rack
One alternativeSemrush AI PR Toolkit
against: MeltwaterSemrush AI PR ToolkitChanged
One alternativeMuck Rack
Muck Rack
Two alternativesCisionOne, Meltwater
Brand24
Two alternativesMuck Rack, PR Underground
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashSemrush AI PR Toolkit
Four alternativesBrand24, Mention, Prezly, Semrush AI PR Toolkit / Media Monitoring
against: Cision, MeltwaterSemrush AI PR ToolkitHeld
Two alternativesJustReachOut, Qwoted
against: Cision, MeltwaterSemrush AI PR Toolkit
Three alternativesBrand24, CoverageBook, Prezly
against: Cision, Meltwater, Muck RackAwario
Six alternativesBrand24, BrandMentions, Google Alerts, JournoLink, Semrush AI PR Toolkit, Talkwalker Alerts
against: Cision, Meltwater, Mention, Muck RackSemrush AI PR Toolkit
Five alternativesAgility PR Solutions, Brand24, Determ, Mention, Muck Rack
against: Cision, Meltwateragainst: Business Wire, Cision, Fiverr, Meltwater, Muck Rack, PR Newswire
Perplexity SonarSemrush AI PR Toolkit
Two alternativesBrand24, Mention
against: Cision, Muck RackBuzzStream, MentionChanged
Three alternativesBrand24, Google Alerts, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
Brand24
Four alternativesCoverageBook, Mention, Prezly, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
against: Brandwatch, Cision, MeltwaterBrand24
Three alternativesAwario, Google Alerts, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
no first choiceagainst: Agility PR Solutions, Brandwatch, BuzzSumo, Cision, Meltwater, Muck Rack, Semrush AI PR Toolkit, Talkwalker
Grok 4.1 FastAwario
Four alternativesBrand24, Mention, Semrush AI PR Toolkit, Semrush Brand Monitoring
against: Cision, MeltwaterPrezlyChanged
Three alternativesBrand24, JustReachOut, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
against: Cision, Meltwater, Muck RackAwario
Five alternativesBrand24, Hootsuite, Mention, Semrush, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
against: Cision, MeltwaterAwario
One alternativeGoogle Alerts
against: MentionBrand24
Three alternativesAwario, Mention, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
against: Cision, Meltwateragainst: Awario, Brandwatch, Cision, Hootsuite, Meltwater, Mention, Sprout Social, Talkwalker
Mistral SmallBrand24
Three alternativesAwario, Mention, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
against: Cision, Meltwater, Muck RackMuck RackChanged
Two alternativesMeltwater, PR Newswire
against: CisionBrand24
Three alternativesAwario, Mention, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
against: CisionOne, Meltwater, Muck RackBrand24
Three alternativesAwario, JustReachOut, PRWeb
no first choice
Four alternativesBrand24, Determ, Mention, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
against: Meltwateragainst: Brandwatch, Cision, Critical Mention, LexisNexis Newsdesk, Meltwater, Mention, TVEyes
DeepSeek V4 FlashBrand24, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
Three alternativesAwario, BuzzStream, Google Alerts
against: Cision, Critical Mention, Meltwater, Mention, Muck RackSemrush AI PR ToolkitChanged
Four alternativesAwario, Brand24, BuzzStream, Google Alerts
against: Muck RackAwario, Brand24
Four alternativesGoogle Alerts, Muck Rack, Prezly, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
against: Brandwatch, Cision, Meltwater, Mention, TalkwalkerAwario, Brand24
Three alternativesGoogle Alerts, Mention, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
against: Cision, Meltwater, Muck RackSemrush AI PR Toolkit
Two alternativesBrand24, Mention
against: Cision, Meltwater, Muck Rackagainst: Brand24, Cision, Meltwater, Mention, Muck Rack
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceno first choiceHeldBrand24, Mention
Two alternativesAgility PR Solutions, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
against: Cision, MeltwaterAwario
Two alternativesBrand24, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
no first choiceagainst: Brandwatch, BuzzSumo, Cision, CoverageBook, Google Alerts, Meltwater, Muck Rack, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
Qwen 3.7 FlashDeterm
Three alternativesBrand24, BrandMentions, Mention
against: Cision, MeltwaterSemrush AI PR ToolkitChanged
Four alternativesAwario, Brand24, Qwoted, Source of Sources
against: Cision, MeltwaterBrand24, Mention, Muck Rack, Semrush AI PR Toolkitagainst: Cision, MeltwaterBrand24
Three alternativesAwario, Google Alerts, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
Awario, Mention
Three alternativesBrand24, Cision, Sprout Social
against: Brandwatch, Meltwateragainst: Brandwatch, Cision, Factiva, Meltwater, Sprinklr
Kimi K2Brand24, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
One alternativeMention
against: Cision, Meltwater, Muck RackSemrush AI PR ToolkitChanged
Three alternativesBuzzStream, Google Alerts, Prezly
against: Cision, Meltwater, Muck RackSemrush AI PR Toolkit
Four alternativesBrand24, Mention, Prezly, Propel
against: Cision, Meltwater, Muck RackAwario
Three alternativesBrand24, Google Alerts, Mention
Brand24, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
Three alternativesAgility PR Solutions, Mention, Muck Rack
against: CisionOne, Meltwateragainst: Business Wire, Cision, CisionOne, GlobeNewswire, Meltwater, Muck Rack, PR Newswire, PRWeb
GLM 4.7 FlashXBrand24, Mention
Two alternativesMuck Rack, Talkwalker
against: Brandwatch, Cision, MeltwaterSemrush AI PR ToolkitChanged
Three alternativesBrand24, JustReachOut, Pressfarm
against: Muck Rackno first choice
Three alternativesBrand24, Mention, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
against: Google AlertsAwario
Two alternativesBrand24, Mention
no first choice
Three alternativesBrand24, Mention, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
against: Cision, Meltwateragainst: Agorapulse, Brand24, Brandwatch, BuzzSumo, Cision, Meltwater, Mentionlytics, Semrush, Semrush AI PR Toolkit, Sprinklr, Talkwalker
MiniMax M2.5Brand24
Three alternativesMention, Muck Rack, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
Awario, Brand24Changed
Two alternativesMuck Rack, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
Awario, Brand24
Five alternativesCisionOne, Hootsuite, Semrush, Semrush AI PR Toolkit, Sprout Social
Awario, Google Alerts
Two alternativesBrand24, Mention
no first choiceagainst: Awario, Cision, Meltwater, Mention
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:40yes816 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 00:42yes34 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:19yes1319 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:48yes204 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 00:40yes08 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:50yes09 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 02:20yes052 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:06yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 22:52yes029 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:41yes023 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:12yes070 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:20yes020 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:53no04 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:20yes34 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:08yes916 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:50yes206 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 02:32yes07 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:13no03 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 02:50yes018 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:10yes02 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:18yes063 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:13yes023 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 22:56yes021 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:41yes09 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:35yes910 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:58yes58 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:15yes2531 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:58yes206 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 02:01yes07 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:59yes010 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 00:48yes019 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:54yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:44yes033 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:46yes045 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:42yes095 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:01yes011 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:21yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:05yes24 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:49yes1724 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:57yes206 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-14 22:57yes08 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:07yes04 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 01:10yes021 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:24yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:47yes014 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:44yes030 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:39yes064 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:15yes016 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:18no05 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:47no06 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:42yes1124 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:34yes2010 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 01:30yes012 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:46yes05 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-14 23:05yes031 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 03:13yes01 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:05yes044 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:45yes055 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:20yes023 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:41no010 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 22:54yes167 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:38no05 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:29yes2625 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:12yes188 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 01:25yes08 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:35yes012 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-14 23:55yes038 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:25yes03 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 22:59no033 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 05:04yes081 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:31yes0220 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:12yes045 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
None. Every name in this category resolved on its own.
Unresolved, counted raw
ACCESS Newswire
Agility
BusinessWire
Factiva (by Dow Jones / Thomson Reuters)
Featured
Fullintel
GlobeNewswire
HARO
HubSpot's Free Tools
JournoLink
MediaWatcher
Notified Public Relations Solutions
PR Underground
PRLog / EIN Presswire (free tier)
Pressfarm
ReachWire
Semrush AI PR Toolkit / Media Monitoring
Semrush Brand Monitoring
ePressPR
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

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