HARO vs Qwoted vs Featured vs Help a B2B Writer (2026 Comparison)

For more than a decade, HARO was the first place SEO and PR teams went to earn editorial links. That era closed at the end of 2024. Cision had rebranded the service as Connectively in early 2024. On December 9 that year, it shut down for good.

The hunt for a worthy replacement has shaped journalist outreach ever since. By 2026, the field has narrowed to four names that come up again and again. If you are weighing HARO vs Qwoted vs Featured and Help a B2B Writer, you probably want the same three answers everyone does: 

• Which one actually lands quotes in real publications
• What it costs
• Whether it fits your sector

One happy surprise worth flagging early: Featured.com bought the HARO name and brought it back in 2025. Hence, HARO lives again, just as one choice among several now.

At-a-Glance Comparison

Here’s how the four platforms line up on what actually decides whether you earn a link.

Qwoted

Qwoted is the closest all-round successor to HARO, and it is the name PR people bring up first. It pairs sources with verified journalists inside a dashboard, and no other platform matches its reputation for query quality.

Pricing: The free tier gives you two pitches a month. Paid plans, under Qwoted Pro, are $149 a month, with custom plans available for teams.

Pros:

• Verified journalists, so the queries stay high quality
• Deep coverage in finance, tech, and B2B
• A route into top-tier media outlets

Cons:

• Two pitches a month is tight on the free plan
• It is the priciest of the four once you upgrade
• Thin on consumer and lifestyle queries

Best for: B2B and SaaS founders who have already picked up a few free wins elsewhere and now want higher-authority queries. Put Qwoted vs Featured head to head, and it comes down to this: Qwoted takes journalist quality; Featured takes volume and price. 

Featured (ex-Terkel)

Featured started life as Terkel, and it is the platform that now owns HARO, having bought and revived the brand back in April 2025. It runs on a different model from the rest. Editors post specific questions, you answer them, and your answers get used as quotes in published pieces.

Pricing: There’s a free tier, and paid plans start around $29 a month. You can get a pro plan at $79 per month. 

Pros:

• The highest active query volume of the four
• Quick turnaround from your answer to a live article
• Owns and runs the revived HARO, so that audience is baked in

Cons:

• The question-and-answer setup leans more toward thought leadership than fast reactive PR
• The free tier caps your monthly answers
• Link quality rides entirely on which outlet picks you up

Best for: Founders and executives building a public profile who want plenty of opportunities at a low entry price. On the matter of Featured.com pricing 2026, it stays the most wallet-friendly paid option among the serious platforms.

Help a B2B Writer (now MentionMatch)

Help a B2B Writer was created by Elise Dopson, later picked up by Superpath, and today it goes by MentionMatch. So if you have been chewing on MentionMatch vs HARO for your B2B work, here is the simple take: MentionMatch is built specifically for the niches HARO only served in passing.

Pricing: Free and paid models available.

Pros:

• Free, with no paid upsell hovering over sources
• Laser-focused on B2B, SaaS, and marketing writers
• High relevance, since every query is B2B by design

Cons:

• Not much use outside B2B and its close cousins
• Lower overall query volume than Featured or Qwoted
• No consumer, lifestyle, or general-interest coverage

Best for: SaaS founders and B2B subject-matter experts after relevant opportunities that cost nothing. Any Help a B2B Writer review written in 2026 really should mention the rename, since MentionMatch and Help a B2B Writer are one and the same tool. Line up Help a B2B Writer vs Qwoted and the split is clean: MentionMatch wins on price and B2B focus, Qwoted wins on breadth and authority.

Source of Sources (SoS)

Source of Sources is Peter Shankman’s free relaunch of the original HARO idea. Shankman built and sold the first HARO years ago, and he put SoS together to fill the hole Connectively left behind. It leans into the old email-blast format on purpose, for the people who missed it.

Pricing: Free.

Pros:

• Free, with the familiar HARO-style email digest
• Broad coverage spread across plenty of niches
• Built by HARO’s own founder, so the format feels authentic

Cons:

• The email-blast approach means more to sift through
• Less structured than Qwoted or Featured
• Query quality swings more than on verified platforms

Best for: Teams on no budget who miss how the original HARO worked. As a Source of Sources alternative to the paid tools, it teams up nicely with MentionMatch for a fully free B2B stack. And on Source of Sources vs HARO, you could argue SoS stays truer to the original than Featured’s revived version does.

Which One Should You Pick?

It comes down to your sector and your budget, and honestly, most teams run more than one. Here is the framework I would use.

By budget:

• Zero budget, B2B or SaaS: Source of Sources plus MentionMatch has you covered for free.
• Zero budget, general or consumer: Source of Sources plus Featured’s free tier.
• Around $50 a month: Add Featured’s paid plan for the extra volume.
• $150+ a month: Featured and Qwoted Pro together give you reach and high-authority queries at once.

By sector:

• SaaS and B2B

Start with MentionMatch, then layer in Qwoted when you want more authority. That is the strongest answer for HARO alternatives for SaaS.

• Finance and tech

Qwoted, for its verified-journalist depth.

• Thought leadership and executive visibility

Featured for its question-and-answer rhythm.

• Broad or consumer

Source of Sources and Featured side by side.

So is Qwoted better than Featured? There is no clean yes or no. Qwoted is better for authority and verified journalists. Featured is better for volume, price, and thought leadership. As journalist outreach platforms 2026 keep maturing, the smartest setup is a free base paired with one paid platform matched to your niche.

Running a Post-HARO PR Workflow

Turning a response into a live, valuable link is the harder part. And it is where a lot of teams lose the plot. These platforms get you in front of journalists and it is the starting line.

A workflow you can repeat looks like this:

1. Check queries daily across your chosen platforms, because the good ones close fast.
2. Pitch with real expertise, a specific answer backed by data, never a generic quote.
3. Reply quickly, since journalists tend to run with the first strong source.
4. Track every placement, logging the outlet, the link, and whether it actually went live.
5. Reclaim the misses, because plenty of published quotes name your brand and forget the link.

That final step pays off more than people expect. A quote that mentions your brand but skips the link is one short email away from becoming a real backlink, which makes it the fastest win in the whole process.

Turn Journalist Quotes Into Lasting Authority With Link Publishers

HARO’s closure scattered journalist outreach across 

• Qwoted
• Featured
• MentionMatch
• Source of Sources
• And others 

Juggling them is a real time sink. The platforms get you in front of journalists. However, landing quotes consistently and turning them into permanent, high-authority links takes a full workflow most teams cannot staff.

Link Publishers runs that entire workflow for you. From reactive PR and journalist outreach to securing the placement and reclaiming any unlinked mention, it handles earned media end to end. So you can skip the daily query-watching altogether. 

Explore digital PR services to earn coverage on vetted, relevant publishers, whether you want to run it yourself or hand the whole program to a strategist.

Frequently Asked Questions