PRWeb costs less than eReleases. That’s true, and their low cost is why a lot of small businesses choose it for press release distribution. But the price difference reflects a real difference in what you actually get for what you’re paying — and most comparisons miss the thing that actually matters.
These are not two different prices for the same result. They’re two fundamentally different services that provide vastly different results.
The Short Answer
eReleases distributes through the PR Newswire national wire and sends your release directly to journalists. PRWeb syndicates your release to a network of 1,200+ partner websites — and their low-price plans don’t reach journalists at all. If you’re sending a press release to get media coverage, PRWeb’s basic plans won’t do it. Though its advanced plans do provide some journalist outreach, they reach a fraction of the journalists eReleases does.
They charge a lower price but they don’t give you what you really want – pickup of your story by real journalists.
They’re not providing the same service.
Pricing: What PRWeb Delivers at Each Price Point
What is PRWeb? Basically, it’s a company that has built and/or contracted with 1200+ websites. When you submit your press release, it automatically gets published to those sites. That’s called web syndication.
Web syndication is not journalist outreach. Journalists rarely, if ever, even look at those sites, much less use them to decide what stories to cover.
If you’re hoping to get your story picked up by real journalists, web syndication doesn’t cut it.
PRWeb offers four plans: Basic ($120), Standard ($245), Advanced ($360), and Premium ($480).
Two of those four plans — the ones most small businesses start with — include no journalist access whatsoever. If you buy PRWeb Basic or Standard hoping to get media coverage, you’re paying for a search indexing service, not PR.
To reach any journalist list at all, you have to buy PRWeb Advanced at $360. That plan gets you one industry-curated journalist email list. One.
Pricing: What eReleases Delivers
eReleases starts at $399 with their Buzz Builder package, followed by $499 (Newsmaker), and $699 (PR Pro).
For that $399, eReleases distributes your press release through PR Newswire, the leading newswire for press releases, reaching 1.7 million media contacts. In addition, they send your press release to a hand-curated group of journalists that match your specific industry and beat.
PRWeb Advanced’s one journalist list versus eReleases’ 1.7 million targeted contacts isn’t a marginal difference.
PRWeb Premium at $480 adds blogger and influencer distribution. It still doesn’t include national wire distribution. You are paying more than eReleases’ entry price and getting less reach.
Distribution: The Gap That Actually Matters
PRWeb is owned by Cision, the same company that owns PR Newswire. That creates a common and costly misconception: PRWeb is not PR Newswire. They run on separate networks and serve different purposes.
PRWeb was built for online visibility. Your release goes to 1,200+ news aggregator sites: websites that collect press release content automatically. Journalists don’t monitor those sites. Your release appears there, it may get indexed by Google, and stops.
eReleases has distributed through Cision PR Newswire for over 27 years as the only nationally authorized partner. Your release goes out on the national wire, the same infrastructure Fortune 500 companies use for major announcements. It gets sent directly to targeted journalists from a database of 1.7 million media contacts, matched to your industry by human editors. And it also distributes to online news sites through the PR Newswire network — so you get the aggregator and search visibility PRWeb promises, plus the wire distribution and journalist targeting PRWeb can’t offer at any price.
With PRWeb, you’re choosing between online visibility and media coverage. With eReleases, you don’t have to choose.
Your release being on a news aggregator site is not the same as your release landing in a journalist’s inbox from a wire they actually read.
Editorial Review: One More Key Difference
PRWeb includes proofreading starting at the Advanced plan ($360). The $120 and $245 plans include no editorial review at all.
eReleases includes professional editorial review on every plan. A real editor reads your release before it goes out. Journalists delete poorly edited releases before finishing the first paragraph. Editorial review isn’t a premium add-on; it’s table stakes.
| PRWeb | eReleases | |
| Starting price | $120 | $399 |
| PR Newswire distribution | No | Yes |
| Journalist access | None until $360 (1 list) | 1.7M contacts, hand-curated, all plans |
| Editorial review | $360+ only | All plans |
| Online news site syndication | Yes | Yes — via PR Newswire network |
| Reporting | Basic analytics | WireWatch (live links within 2 hours) |
Which One Is Right for You
Choose PRWeb if you don’t care about getting picked up by the media, and your goal is solely online visibility: search indexing, news aggregator presence, SEO. If you don’t need a journalist to cover your story, the lower price makes sense.
Choose eReleases if you want real media coverage. The national wire matters. The targeted journalist outreach matters. The editorial review matters.
Most small businesses use press releases because they want coverage. That’s eReleases’ job.
Ready to get your release in front of the journalists who cover your beat? See eReleases plans and pricing.
Frequently Asked Questions about PRWeb and eReleases
Is PRWeb the same as PR Newswire?
No. Both are owned by Cision, but they are separate products on separate networks. PR Newswire is a national wire service that newsrooms actively monitor. PRWeb is an online syndication platform that pushes releases to news aggregator sites, not PR Newswire. eReleases distributes through PR Newswire’s network, not PRWeb’s.
Does PRWeb get you media coverage?
Not on its basic plans. PRWeb Basic ($120) and Standard ($245) are distributed only to news aggregator sites and search engines. No journalists receive your release directly. In their Advanced plan ($360), you get one industry journalist list — a fraction of the targeted outreach eReleases provides on its entry plan. Pickup at any PRWeb tier depends on whether a journalist happens to search your topic. That’s not PR outreach; it’s hoping someone finds you.
Which is better for small businesses, PRWeb or eReleases?
eReleases was built for small businesses. It offers the same national PR Newswire wire distribution that large companies use, at a price point built for founders and marketing teams without an agency budget. PRWeb suits businesses whose only goal is online visibility, not earned media coverage.
How much does eReleases cost compared to PRWeb?
eReleases starts at $399 per release. PRWeb starts at $120, but journalist access doesn’t begin until the $360 Advanced plan. At comparable price points, eReleases includes national wire distribution and industry-targeted journalist sends. PRWeb’s Advanced plan includes one journalist list.
What does eReleases include that PRWeb doesn’t?
Full PR Newswire national distribution, editorial review on every plan, industry-targeted journalist sends from a 1.7 million contact database, and WireWatch reporting with live pickup links within two hours of distribution.
Mickie Kennedy founded eReleases.com in 1998 after watching PR firms charge small businesses a $20,000 minimum for a single press release. For 27 years, he’s been closing that gap — distributing 150,000+ releases via Cision PR Newswire, serving 30,000+ clients including Manscaped, Squatty Potty, and 40+ Shark Tank brands, and generating $132M+ in earned media. A sought-after podcast guest and two-time Amazon bestselling author of Beginner’s Guide to Writing Powerful Press Releases and The PR Strategy Manifesto. Mickie holds an MFA in Creative Writing from George Mason University. Based in Baltimore, MD. LinkedIn