For years, HARO was the easiest link building tactic to explain to a client. Sign up, answer a few relevant queries each morning, and wait for the backlinks to show up as journalists published their articles. That era is over. Cision shut down Connectively, the rebranded version of HARO, in December 2024 as part of a shift toward its broader CisionOne platform. It briefly returned under the old HARO name in 2025, but users have reported the reopened version is flooded with low quality, AI generated pitches and little moderation.
The good news is that the underlying tactic still works. Journalists still need expert sources, quotes, and data for their stories, and a handful of platforms have grown specifically to fill the gap HARO left behind. This guide covers the platforms worth your time in 2026, how each one works, and how to actually get selected instead of ignored.
If digital PR and journalist outreach are new territory for your link building strategy, our guide on digital PR for SEO covers the wider approach these platforms fit into.
What Happened to HARO
Cision acquired Help A Reporter Out several years ago and eventually folded it into a rebrand called Connectively. That platform was discontinued in December 2024 as Cision shifted focus to CisionOne, its larger PR software suite. The brand briefly resurfaced under the original HARO name afterward, but the relaunch has not restored confidence. Several industry writeups from 2026 note that journalist request volume across the space has dropped significantly since 2024, and many PR professionals have simply moved on to purpose built alternatives instead of waiting to see if HARO recovers.
That shift is not necessarily bad news. Several of the newer platforms filter and verify sources more carefully than HARO ever did, which tends to produce fewer wasted pitches and stronger placements once you learn how each one works.
What to Look For in a Journalist Request Platform
Not every alternative operates the same way, so it helps to know what you are comparing before picking one.
Verification. Some platforms verify that journalists posting requests are real, working reporters rather than content farms collecting free quotes. This matters more than it sounds, since an unverified query can waste hours of your time on a request that was never going to be published anywhere with real traffic.
Volume versus curation. A platform that sends dozens of queries a day is useful for volume, but a smaller, more curated set of requests often converts better, since each one has already been filtered for quality.
Link policy. Ask, or check the platform’s own documentation, on whether cited sources typically receive a followed link, a mention with no link, or an inconsistent mix depending on the publication.
Cost. Several alternatives offer a usable free tier alongside a paid plan that adds priority placement or additional categories, so it is worth testing the free version before paying for anything.
Qwoted
Qwoted has become one of the most commonly recommended HARO replacements, and for good reason. It verifies both journalists and sources, and instead of only broadcasting a firehose of queries, it also lets journalists search expert profiles directly, so opportunities can come to you even without actively pitching. Data cited in industry writeups suggests a large share of Qwoted queries come from publications with meaningfully high domain authority, which is one reason it is frequently ranked as a top pick.
The tradeoff is that many of the platform’s better features sit behind a paid tier, and the free plan’s query volume is smaller than HARO’s used to be at its peak.
Featured
Featured takes a more curated approach than a pure volume model. It positions itself as connecting vetted subject matter experts with publishers seeking authoritative, publication ready contributions, which generally means fewer requests overall but a higher quality bar on both sides. If you would rather spend time crafting a smaller number of strong responses than sorting through a large daily digest, Featured tends to be a better fit than the higher volume platforms.
Source of Sources
Source of Sources, often shortened to SOS, was built by Peter Shankman, the same person who originally created HARO. It runs on a simple honor system rather than heavy moderation. Pitch something off topic and you risk being banned outright, which keeps the query quality high without needing a large moderation team. Independent testing referenced in recent industry comparisons found SOS produced the highest rate of followed links among the platforms tested, making it one of the stronger options purely from a link building standpoint, even though its overall volume runs lower than Qwoted or Featured.
SourceBottle
SourceBottle has been operating since 2009 and has quietly continued to connect journalists, bloggers, and podcasters with sources across categories like business, marketing, technology, health, and travel. It works mainly through email digests sent throughout the day rather than a dashboard you have to check constantly, which makes it a reasonable secondary platform to layer on top of a primary tool like Qwoted or Featured.
MentionMatch and Other Niche Platforms
MentionMatch, formerly known as Help a B2B Writer, focuses specifically on B2B topics and remains free to use, which makes it worth adding to a rotation even if it is not your primary source of queries. ProfNet, a longstanding Cision product, survived the Connectively shutdown and tends to work best for academic and healthcare focused pitches. PressPlugs and ResponseSource round out the list for teams that want additional niche coverage, particularly ResponseSource’s stronger presence among established newsroom style publications.
No single platform on this list replaces HARO’s old volume on its own. Most PR professionals running an active program in 2026 check three or four of these platforms daily rather than relying on just one.
Journalist Hashtags on Social Media
A lower effort, zero cost option is watching hashtags like #JournoRequest and #PRRequest on X, where journalists post source requests directly with no platform or middleman involved. This channel rewards speed. Since there is no digest delay, a reply sent within minutes of a request going live has a real edge over a submission that arrives after a dozen others have already responded. The tradeoff is that it takes near constant monitoring or a reliable alert setup to catch requests before they go stale, so it works best as a supplement to a primary platform rather than a main channel on its own.
How to Write a Pitch That Actually Gets Used
Journalists on any of these platforms are scanning many responses quickly, so a pitch needs to earn its spot in the first sentence.
A response that gets used typically does the following. It answers the actual question asked, not a broader version of the topic. It leads with the most quotable sentence rather than burying it under a paragraph of introduction. It includes a specific credential or data point that establishes why you are a credible source. It stays short enough to be usable almost as written, since a journalist working on deadline is unlikely to heavily edit a long, unfocused answer.
A useful structure looks like this.
[One sentence that directly answers the question, phrased as something quotable.]
[One or two sentences of supporting detail or a specific example.]
[Your name, title, and company, plus a one line credential if relevant.]
Avoid attaching a long bio or several paragraphs of company background. Most journalists are looking for the quote itself, not a pitch about your business.
Building This Into a Repeatable Process
Treating journalist requests as a daily habit, rather than an occasional task, produces far better results than checking in sporadically. A workable routine looks like scanning two or three platforms each morning, replying to anything genuinely relevant within the first hour it appears, and tracking which pitches actually convert into a published mention so you can refine what kind of requests are worth your time.
Over several months, this builds a track record of the topics and publications that respond well to your pitches, which makes each future response faster to write and more likely to land.
Conclusion
HARO’s shutdown did not end journalist outreach as a link building tactic. It scattered the same opportunity across a handful of more specialized platforms, several of which verify sources and filter requests more carefully than HARO ever did. Qwoted and Featured currently offer the strongest mix of volume and quality for most teams, Source of Sources is worth adding for its high signal to noise ratio, and a rotation of smaller platforms plus social media monitoring fills in the gaps. The tactic still rewards the same habits it always has. Answer quickly, answer specifically, and treat it as a daily process rather than a one time project.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is HARO still usable in 2026? HARO technically still exists after briefly relaunching in 2025, but many users report it is now flooded with low quality and AI generated responses, which has pushed most active PR professionals toward alternatives like Qwoted, Featured, and Source of Sources instead.
Which HARO alternative is best for backlinks specifically? Source of Sources has been reported to produce a strong rate of followed links relative to other platforms, while Qwoted tends to draw a large share of its queries from higher authority publications, making both strong choices depending on whether you prioritize link type or publication authority.
Are these platforms free to use? Most offer a usable free tier, including Qwoted, SourceBottle, and MentionMatch, though features like priority placement or a wider range of categories are often reserved for paid plans.
How many platforms should I actually monitor? Most active PR programs in 2026 check three or four platforms daily rather than relying on a single source, since query volume on any one platform can vary significantly from day to day.
Do journalist request platforms guarantee a backlink? No. Being quoted does not guarantee a link, since some publications only credit a source by name without linking back. Checking a platform’s general link policy beforehand helps set realistic expectations.
Is monitoring hashtags like #JournoRequest worth the effort? It can be, especially for teams that can respond within minutes of a request going live, since there is no digest delay working against you. It generally works best as a supplement to a dedicated platform rather than a standalone strategy.
