Type “free press release distribution” into a search engine and you will find dozens of sites willing to publish your announcement at no charge. Some of them are perfectly respectable. None of them does what most people hope a press release will do, which is to land in front of a journalist who might write about it.
This guide sets out what a free service delivers, how those services pay their bills, where the gaps are, and when free is nevertheless the right choice. It then explains what paid distribution costs, using our own published prices. We run a paid service, so read the second half with that in mind. The first half is true regardless of who is telling you.
What a free press release site actually gives you
A free press release site does one thing well. It publishes your text on a web page that anyone can open. That gives you three things of genuine value:
- A public URL. You can link to it from your own site, from social posts and from emails to customers or investors. The announcement exists somewhere other than your own domain.
- A dated record. The page carries a publication date. If you ever need to show that a product was announced or a partnership disclosed on a particular day, the page is evidence.
- Sometimes, a search-indexed page. If the site is reasonably well maintained, search engines may index the page. Someone searching for your company name, or for a very specific phrase from the release, might find it.
For a sole trader launching a first product, or a small charity recording an appointment, that is not nothing. It is what a notice board offers: a place where the announcement is pinned up and can be pointed at.
How free services make their money
Hosting, moderation and bandwidth cost money, and free sites cover those costs in one or more of four ways.
Upsells at the point of submission. The free tier is the top of a funnel. Once you have pasted your release, you are offered a paid tier for faster approval, a “featured” slot, a link or an image, or the removal of the site’s own advertising from your page.
Advertising on your page. Your announcement becomes inventory. The page carries display advertising, sometimes for your competitors, and you have no say over what appears there.
Paid tiers that dilute the free one. Paid releases take the prominent slots; free releases drop off the homepage within hours. The page still exists, but nobody browsing the site will see it.
Your data. Submitting a release means handing over a name, an email address and a phone number. Some sites treat that as a marketing list. Read the privacy terms first.
None of this is dishonest. It is simply the model, and it explains why the free product is shaped the way it is.
What free distribution does not do
This is the part that matters if your goal is coverage rather than a URL.
No journalist reads it. Reporters and editors do not browse free press release sites for stories. They work from their inbox, the newsroom wire on their terminal, and the contacts they already trust. A release on a free site is waiting for an audience that is not coming.
No editorial review. A free site checks that your text is not spam. It will not tell you that your headline buries the news, that your first paragraph is an advertisement, or that the announcement is not a story. Those are the things that decide whether a journalist reads past the first line.
No wire or terminal delivery. Newsrooms receive releases through systems built for the purpose; in the UK and Europe, PA Media’s Mediapoint puts them inside the editorial systems journalists use all day. Free sites have no route into any of these. Your release never enters the newsroom.
Links that pass nothing. Most free sites mark outbound links “nofollow” or strip them from free-tier releases, so the page confers no search authority on your own site.
A neighbourhood that can hurt. Search engines assess the company a page keeps. A release on a site full of low-quality, duplicated announcements can be treated as low-quality itself, and the same text republished across many such sites is exactly the pattern search engines are built to discount. A free release can do slightly less than nothing for your visibility.
No syndication into real news networks. Free sites do not place your release on the Associated Press network, USA Today or Google News. Those placements cost the services that provide them, and cannot be given away.
When free is a reasonable choice
Being honest about the limits does not mean free is never right. It is a sensible choice when:
- You need a dated public record and nothing more. A change of registered address, a new director, a product name you want on the record before a trade show. Nobody is going to cover it, and you know that.
- You are testing. You have never written a release before and want to see how the process feels and how your text reads on a page.
- Your announcement has no news in it. If you cannot say why anyone outside your organisation would care, no distribution, paid or free, will make a journalist care. Better to publish it free than to pay to have it ignored.
- The audience is already yours. If the people who need to know are your customers or members, a page you can link to from your own newsletter does the job.
The mistake is not using a free site. The mistake is expecting it to produce coverage, then concluding that press releases do not work.
How to judge a paid service
If your goal is to be read by journalists, you are going to pay something. The question is what you are paying for. Ask any provider these questions first.
Who actually receives the release? Is it sent to named journalists and editors, selected by the subject they cover and the region they work in? Or is it “distributed” by being posted on a network of websites? The two are sold with the same word and are entirely different products.
Does a human read it before it goes? A service that checks your release before sending is protecting your reputation with the people on the list, as well as your chances of coverage. Ask who does the checking.
What is included in the headline price? Publication on the provider’s own site, syndication, a report, an image, a logo, a second region. Get the list in writing.
What are the hidden charges? Two are common: an annual membership fee before you can send anything, and a per-word charge that turns a 600-word release into a surprise. Ask directly whether either applies.
Can you add newsroom wire delivery, and can you control timing? Ask whether the provider can place your release on PA Mediapoint, and about turnaround, embargoes and timed release.
What paid distribution actually costs
Here is what Presswire charges, from our 2026 rate card, so that you can compare it against any quote you receive. You pay the published figure in the currency you buy in. Prices exclude VAT, which is added for UK-based businesses only.
Distribution to journalists in one region costs $250, £185 or €220 per release. The regions are North America, Europe (which includes the UK), the UK on its own, and Asia. Worldwide distribution to every region in one order costs $400, £300 or €350.
Every distribution includes a human editorial review by our editors, who are former BBC journalists, publication on presswire.com and on our Google News title, and syndication to our content partners. There is no membership fee, no charge per word, and no charge for a logo or an image. We aim to send a release within an hour of receiving it, once it has passed review, unless you ask for an embargo or a future date and time when you file.
The optional additions are priced separately rather than bundled, so you pay only for what the announcement needs:
- PA Mediapoint newsroom-terminal delivery, which places the release inside the editorial systems used by newsrooms across the UK and Europe, on any circuit: $235, £175 or €205.
- Online syndication to more than 400 news and business sites, including the Associated Press network and USA Today, with guaranteed Google News placement: $290, £215 or €250.
- A tracking report showing delivery, opens and pick-up: $95, £70 or €85.
- Translation, per language, for a release of up to 500 words: $380, £285 or €335.
- Media monitoring of coverage for one month after a release: $235, £175 or €205. Ongoing monitoring of up to two keywords is $320, £240 or €280 per month.
Organisations that send releases regularly can take an annual subscription: media contact database access, unlimited distribution and a complimentary tracking report on every release, from $2,700, £2,000 or €2,350 a year for the UK to $6,550, £4,900 or €5,700 for global coverage.
Set against a free service, the gap is not really about money. A free site publishes your text where nobody who matters will look. A direct-to-journalist service puts it in front of the people who decide what gets covered, with someone checking first that it deserves their attention.
Frequently asked questions
Is free press release distribution worth it?
It is worth exactly what it delivers: a public page with a date on it. If that is what you need, it is worth it. If you want journalists to read the release, it is not, because no journalist will see it.
Do free press release sites help with SEO?
Rarely, and sometimes the reverse. Most free sites strip links or mark them nofollow, and the pages sit among low-quality, duplicated content that search engines discount.
How much does press release distribution cost?
With Presswire, $250, £185 or €220 for one region and $400, £300 or €350 worldwide, with no membership fee and no per-word charge. Wire delivery, syndication, tracking, translation and monitoring are optional additions with published prices. Other providers quote per release; ask for a full written breakdown.
Can I put my press release on Google News for free?
Not by using a free press release site. Google News carries content from approved publishers. Presswire publishes every distributed release on its own Google News title, and its online syndication option adds guaranteed Google News placement through partner sites.
If you have decided that your announcement deserves a reader rather than a notice board, see how press release distribution to journalists works, check the full pricing in USD, GBP and EUR, or read about online syndication if a permanent, searchable record across news sites is what you need.