Cision
Cision is a comprehensive public relations and media intelligence software that helps you identify influencers, distribute press releases, and measure the impact of your communications campaigns across global channels.
Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a comprehensive social media management platform that helps you manage engagement, publishing, analytics, and listening across all your social channels from a single, centralized dashboard.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | Cision | Sprout Social |
|---|---|---|
| Website | cision.com | sproutsocial.com |
| Pricing Model | Custom | Subscription |
| Starting Price | Custom Pricing | $249/month |
| FREE Trial | ✘ No free trial | ✓ 30 days free trial |
| Free Plan | ✘ No free plan | ✘ No free plan |
| Product Demo | ✓ Request demo here | ✓ Request demo here |
| Deployment | ||
| Integrations | ||
| Target Users | ||
| Target Industries | ||
| Customer Count | 0 | 0 |
| Founded Year | 1867 | 2010 |
| Headquarters | Chicago, USA | Chicago, USA |
Overview
Cision
Cision provides you with a centralized platform to manage your entire earned media lifecycle. You can discover relevant journalists and influencers from a massive global database, then reach them directly with targeted pitches or broad wire distributions via PR Newswire. The platform simplifies the process of building media lists and managing relationships so you can secure more high-quality coverage for your brand.
Beyond distribution, you can monitor brand mentions across millions of online, social, print, and broadcast sources in real-time. The software translates these mentions into actionable data, allowing you to track your share of voice and prove the bottom-line impact of your PR efforts to stakeholders. It is designed primarily for mid-to-large communications teams and agencies who need to scale their outreach and reporting capabilities.
Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a centralized platform designed to help you manage every aspect of your social media presence. Instead of jumping between different apps, you can handle engagement, publishing, and reporting from one unified smart inbox. It helps you build stronger relationships with your audience by ensuring no message falls through the cracks while providing deep insights into what content actually drives results for your brand.
You can use the platform to schedule posts across multiple networks, monitor brand mentions in real-time, and generate presentation-ready reports for your stakeholders. It scales effectively for growing businesses and large enterprises alike, offering a 30-day free trial to let you explore the full suite of automation and listening tools before committing to a paid plan starting at $249 per month.
Overview
Cision Features
- Media Database Access a global database of over 1.1 million journalists and influencers to build highly targeted media lists for your campaigns.
- Press Release Distribution Send your news across the PR Newswire network to reach thousands of websites, newsrooms, and social media feeds instantly.
- Media Monitoring Track brand mentions across online news, social media, print publications, and broadcast channels to stay ahead of every story.
- Impact Analytics Connect your PR efforts to actual business results by tracking website conversions and audience reach from earned media coverage.
- Social Listening Monitor social conversations to understand sentiment and identify emerging trends before they impact your brand reputation.
- Automated Reporting Create professional, data-rich reports for your executives that visualize your share of voice and campaign performance automatically.
Sprout Social Features
- Unified Smart Inbox. Streamline your engagement by managing all incoming messages from every social profile in a single, filterable view.
- Shared Content Calendar. Plan and schedule your social posts across multiple networks using a visual calendar to maintain a consistent brand voice.
- Social Listening. Uncover critical consumer insights and industry trends by tracking specific keywords, hashtags, and brand mentions across the web.
- Automated Reporting. Create professional, presentation-ready reports that track your performance and prove the ROI of your social media efforts.
- Employee Advocacy. Empower your team to share curated company content to their own social networks to extend your brand's reach.
- Review Management. Monitor and respond to your business reviews on Facebook, Google My Business, and TripAdvisor directly from your dashboard.
Pricing Comparison
Cision Pricing
Sprout Social Pricing
- 5 social profiles
- All-in-one smart inbox
- Publishing and scheduling
- Social content calendar
- Review management
- Mobile app for iOS and Android
- Everything in Standard, plus:
- Unlimited social profiles
- Competitive reports for Instagram
- Custom workflows and tags
- Optimal send times
- Paid social reporting
Pros & Cons
Cision
Pros
- Extensive and accurate global media contact database
- Industry-standard wire distribution through PR Newswire integration
- Comprehensive monitoring across print, web, and broadcast
- Robust reporting tools for measuring campaign ROI
Cons
- Significant learning curve for the advanced analytics
- Premium pricing makes it inaccessible for small startups
- Occasional delays in updating specific journalist contact info
Sprout Social
Pros
- Intuitive interface makes onboarding new team members fast
- Excellent reporting tools that look professional for clients
- Smart Inbox simplifies managing high volumes of messages
- Reliable post scheduling and automated optimal timing features
Cons
- Significantly higher starting price than most competitors
- Additional costs for social listening and advocacy modules
- Limited features for smaller teams on the entry tier