Published pricing or a fast quote.
If the firm will not name a number until the third call, assume the number is high. Boutiques that work with founders publish pricing or share it in writing on day one.
Alternatives / Edelman
Edelman alternatives for founders and local operators.
If a $15K monthly retainer and two trade-pub mentions feel mismatched to a 30-person company, here are five firms sized differently. One of them is ours. Four are not.
The pattern
Why 30-person companies leave Edelman.
We have taken on 11 clients in the last two years who came off a large global retainer. Five of them left Edelman specifically. The reasons are rarely about quality. They are about fit.
- Retainer minimum pushed past $15K per month and the value was not tracking.
- Work was passed to a junior after the pitch meeting. Senior attention was gone by month three.
- Onboarding consumed six weeks before a single reporter got a pitch.
- The quarterly review was a deck of impressions, not placements a founder could link to.
- GEO and AI-Overview work was on a capabilities slide, not in the account plan.
The criteria
What to look for in a replacement.
Press targets, not impressions.
The proposal should list specific outlets, specific beat reporters, and the angles being pitched. "Share of voice" and "media equivalent value" are not deliverables.
AI Overview and LLM citation work.
Press is the input. If the firm cannot connect coverage to schema, llms.txt, and ChatGPT citation tracking, you are paying for half the funnel.
A senior who has worked with founders.
Enterprise PR cadence and founder-stage cadence are different jobs. Ask the firm for references from companies under 100 people.
30 to 60-day notice.
If the work is good, you will stay. A 12-month minimum is a sign the firm needs you more than you need them. Most good boutiques run on 30-day notice.
A shared board, not a monthly slide.
Notion, Airtable, or a client portal where you see the pitch list, sends, replies, and placements in real time. If the only artifact is a monthly deck, you are paying for the deck.
The list
Top alternatives to Edelman.
Four real firms plus ourselves. Capabilities and pricing are estimated from public client lists, trade-press reporting, and practitioner interviews. We are first only because we wrote the page, not because we are first for everyone.
1. GetDigitize (that is us)
Five-person US firm founded 2022 by Sunny Goyal. We work with founders Seed to Series B, multi-location operators, and D2C brands doing $500K to $10M ARR. Our wedge is press plus GEO: a TechCrunch or Inman placement, then the schema, llms.txt, and citation work that gets your brand named by ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews.
Strengths: senior-only team, GEO and AI-citation practice, project pricing, 30-day notice.
Weaknesses: not built for Fortune 500 IR, global crisis, or clients who need 200-person team capacity.
Price: $3,500/mo retainers, $4,500 projects, $12K six-month brand build.
Best for: Seed to Series B founders, multi-location local operators, D2C brands ready for editorial press.
Book a fit call2. Bospar
Independent US B2B tech firm, founder-led. Publicly reported as "politely pushy" in their own marketing. Senior-heavy staffing, strong analyst relations, and a good track record placing enterprise-SaaS founders in WSJ, Forbes, and Fortune. More traditional than GetDigitize on GEO and AI citation, but excellent on classic media relations for B2B.
Strengths: senior operators, B2B tech depth, analyst relationships, crisis experience on tech accounts.
Weaknesses: limited explicit GEO practice, pricing trends higher than five-person boutiques.
Price: Industry estimates suggest $10,000 to $20,000 per month.
Best for: Series B+ B2B SaaS, cybersecurity, enterprise infrastructure.
3. Mission North
Independent firm focused on tech, climate, and "impact" categories. Strong editorial instincts, tier-one placements across NYT, WSJ, and Bloomberg, and a reputation for sharper writing than the average enterprise firm. A good fit for a climate-tech or AI-infrastructure founder with a real story and $15K to $30K per month in budget.
Strengths: editorial craft, tech and climate beat relationships, strong writing.
Weaknesses: higher entry price, less suited to local operators or D2C consumer.
Price: Industry estimates $15,000 to $30,000 per month.
Best for: Series B+ climate-tech, AI infrastructure, enterprise software.
4. Inkhouse
Independent US agency with offices in Boston, San Francisco, and New York. Covers B2B tech, consumer, and financial services. A useful middle-ground option between a large global firm and a five-person boutique: more capacity than GetDigitize or Bospar, but still independently owned. Their consumer practice has placed brands in Allure, Vogue, and The Strategist.
Strengths: multi-practice capacity, solid B2B and consumer beats, independent ownership.
Weaknesses: pricing sits in the same band as enterprise firms, explicit GEO work is not a headline practice.
Price: Industry estimates $12,000 to $25,000 per month.
Best for: Series B+ B2B, mid-market consumer brands, dual PR plus content needs.
5. Highwire PR
Tech-focused independent firm with deep benches in enterprise infrastructure, cybersecurity, and fintech. Known for analyst relations work (Gartner, Forrester) alongside media relations. Good fit for a later-stage SaaS founder whose board wants a Tier-1 firm name but is not yet big enough for Edelman or Weber Shandwick.
Strengths: enterprise tech depth, analyst relations, strong in cybersecurity.
Weaknesses: less suited to consumer, local, or D2C; pricing is enterprise-tier.
Price: Industry estimates $15,000 to $35,000 per month.
Best for: Series C+ B2B enterprise software, cybersecurity, fintech.
Head to head
Side by side: GetDigitize vs Edelman.
The full comparison is on the vs page. The short version is here. Numbers for Edelman are estimates from publicly reported sources.
| Dimension | GetDigitize | Edelman |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $3,500/mo or $4,500/project | ~$15,000+/mo (industry estimate) |
| Team size | 5 senior operators | 6,000+ globally |
| Contract length | 30-day notice | Typically annual |
| Onboarding time | 1 week to first pitch | 4 to 6 weeks typical |
| Named GEO practice | Yes, core offering | Digital practice, GEO varies by team |
| US founder fit (under 100 employees) | Core ICP | Served via SMB practice, economics are tight |
| Local business expertise | HVAC, dental, retail, medical | Designed for national and global brands |
| Crisis comms depth | Light; we refer out | Industry-leading |
| Fortune 500 IR | No | Yes, core practice |
| Global footprint | US only | 65+ offices worldwide |
| Time to first placement | 4 to 6 weeks typical | 8 to 12 weeks typical |
| Shared workflow visibility | Live Notion board | Monthly or quarterly review |
The transition
How to migrate from Edelman to GetDigitize.
We have run this migration six times. The pattern is the same. 30 to 60 days, no coverage gap, $10K+ saved by month two.
-
Audit what Edelman actually delivered.
Pull the last six months of placements, pitches sent, and meetings held. Separate press hits (named stories) from impressions and share-of-voice theatre. This gives you the real run-rate number.
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Define three press targets you still want.
Name the outlets and beat reporters you wanted coverage from and have not gotten. The new firm will build a plan around these three, not a generic tier-one list. This is the most important step.
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Give 30 to 60 days notice.
Check the contract. Most enterprise retainers run annually with 30 to 60-day out clauses. A clean notice email plus a polite thank-you call preserves the relationship. You may need them back on a project later.
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Transfer reporter context and past pitches.
Your Edelman team has a pitch doc, a reporter tracker, and a Cision or Muck Rack account with notes. Request a copy in writing. It saves the new firm four weeks of research and you already paid for it.
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Run a two-week overlap.
Pay the last month of the old retainer while the new firm builds the Week 1 list and drafts the first three pitches. This avoids a coverage gap and gives the new team a running start.
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Reset the reporting cadence.
Decide in writing what counts: placements at named outlets, beat relationships built, AI Overview citations gained. Put the metrics on the first page of the Notion board. Revisit at day 60.
Common questions
Answers we send before the intro call.
Is Edelman actually bad for a 30-person company?
Edelman is not bad. It is mismatched. Their staffing model assumes a retainer in the five-figure-monthly range so the account teams can be sized properly. For a 30-person company spending $6K per month, the economics force junior-heavy staffing and slower cycles. You are not getting Edelman's best work, because that work is expensive to produce.
What is Edelman's actual starting price?
Publicly reported figures from industry sources suggest Edelman retainers typically start around $15,000 per month and frequently run $25,000 to $50,000 for full-service accounts. Edelman does not publish pricing, so these are estimates from trade-press reporting and practitioner interviews.
When should I actually hire Edelman over a boutique?
Hire Edelman if you are a public company handling a crisis, a Fortune 500 running integrated campaigns in 10 or more markets, or a regulated enterprise with complex stakeholder comms (investors, policymakers, employees, press). For those jobs, the scale is the product, and a boutique cannot match it.
Will a smaller firm get less press?
Not necessarily. Beat relationships, not team size, drive press. A senior strategist at a five-person firm who has pitched the same TechCrunch reporter for six years often outperforms a junior at a 200-person firm. Ask for named beat relationships, not firm-wide headcount.
Can I keep Edelman for crisis and use a boutique for proactive PR?
Yes. A common setup for mid-market companies is a small retainer with a boutique for proactive coverage and a separate crisis retainer with Edelman or a legal-adjacent firm. You pay less overall and get specialized attention where each actually matters.
Does Edelman do GEO and AI Overview work?
Edelman has digital and SEO practices. Explicit GEO programs (AI Overview citation, llms.txt, LLM-citation measurement) are newer industry-wide and vary by account team. If GEO is central to your plan, ask the specific team for a sample deliverable, not a capabilities deck.
How long does a migration off Edelman take?
Plan 30 to 60 days end to end. Contract notice is usually 30 to 90 days. Reporter-context handoff takes a week. The new firm needs two weeks to build the pitch plan before outreach begins. A clean migration has no coverage gap because you run an overlap.
What if my board or investor wanted Edelman specifically?
Ask what they actually want. Usually it is the outcome (tier-one press, a named reputation) rather than the firm name. Bring the board a 90-day plan from a right-sized firm with named targets. If they still want a Tier-1 firm name on the cap table, run both and split the work.