9 Best Digital PR Tools for Earning Editorial Links

Connectively (rebranded from HARO in 2024) remains the gold standard for source request platforms. Three times daily, journalists post specific source needs—"Looking for SaaS CEOs to comment on AI trends" or "Need cybersecurity experts for Forbes article." The free plan delivers these opportunities via email, making it accessible to everyone. Premium plans add filtering by relevance, saved searches, and early access to requests before they hit the free tier. With 55,000+ journalists and 75,000+ sources, it's the most active PR marketplace.

Prowly is the end-to-end PR platform combining media database, press release distribution, monitoring, and relationship management. Find journalists by beat, publication, and location from 1M+ contacts. Draft press releases with the visual editor, then distribute to targeted media lists. Track who opened your pitch and clicked links. Media monitoring alerts you to brand mentions and coverage, automatically extracting backlinks. For PR teams juggling multiple campaigns and client accounts, Prowly consolidates everything into one organized workspace.

Muck Rack offers the most detailed journalist profiles we've seen. Each profile shows the journalist's recent articles, beat focus, social media activity, and contact preferences. This research depth helps craft hyper-personalized pitches that resonate. The media monitoring component tracks every time your brand or clients get mentioned, automatically flagging backlink opportunities. Portfolio features let you showcase earned coverage to stakeholders. While expensive, Muck Rack's research quality reduces pitch rejection rates—you're only contacting journalists who actually cover your niche.

Featured is the affordable HARO alternative with 150+ source requests posted daily. Writers and journalists describe what experts they need, and you submit pitches directly through the platform. The interface is cleaner than HARO's email digest, with filtering by niche, publication tier, and deadline. While the journalist community is smaller than Connectively, the lower competition means higher response rates. At $29/month, it's the most accessible paid source request platform—perfect for testing digital PR without major budget commitment.

Cision is the enterprise standard with the largest media database (1.6M+ contacts across 190 countries) and global press release distribution. The platform handles every PR workflow: research journalists, send pitches, distribute releases, monitor coverage, and measure impact with detailed analytics. Cision's strength is scale—if you're coordinating PR across multiple countries or industries, no other platform offers comparable global reach. Integration with marketing automation, social media, and analytics platforms makes it the operational hub for enterprise PR teams.

Terkel flips the script: instead of pitching journalists, you build an expert profile and journalists find you. Writers post questions looking for expert quotes ("What's the #1 SaaS pricing mistake?"), and you submit answers. If selected, you get cited with a backlink in their published article. It's completely free and less time-sensitive than HARO—questions stay open for days. The quality varies (many small blogs alongside legitimate publications), but the effort-to-result ratio is excellent. Answer 10 questions monthly and expect 2-3 placements.

Qwoted creates two-way profiles: journalists describe their beats and upcoming articles, while sources showcase expertise. This mutual visibility improves match quality—journalists can research sources before requesting quotes, and sources can proactively offer expertise on relevant stories. The verification system reduces spam and low-quality users common on free platforms. While smaller than HARO, Qwoted's community includes tier-1 journalists from CNN, Bloomberg, and AP. The paid plan adds unlimited pitches and priority matching.

ResponseSource is the leading platform for UK and European digital PR, with 9,000+ verified journalists from BBC, Guardian, Telegraph, and regional publications. Three daily email digests deliver source requests specific to UK markets and European languages. The media database helps research journalists by publication, beat, and region. While it has some US coverage, its strength is European media—if your target audience is UK/EU, ResponseSource reaches journalists that US-focused HARO misses.

JustReachOut is built for PR beginners, with educational content and templates baked into the platform. The journalist database includes pitch templates for different scenarios: product launch, expert commentary, case study, etc. Step-by-step tutorials walk you through researching journalists, crafting pitches, and following up. While the database is smaller than enterprise tools, the training compensates by improving your pitch quality. The founder (Dmitry Dragilev) regularly updates the platform with new PR tactics, making it part tool, part PR course.