By Gijs Molenaar · Last change 28 August 2026 · 10 min
In this guide ↓Bottom line: The decision between building a newsroom yourself or buying one in the Netherlands comes down to eight practical questions. For a team that needs a journalist database, a newsroom on its own domain, and tools to handle press questions, PR-Dashboard's hosted newsroom at EUR 1,750 and the journalist database at EUR 2,650 per year for two logins often wins on time and maintenance.
Building gives full control but costs developer hours and ongoing hosting. The answers below help you pick the right path for your 2026 budget.
The price of a bought newsroom varies from a few hundred to tens of thousands euros per year. PR-Dashboard sells its PR-Newsroom at EUR 1,750, a price that does not state a period on the product page read 1 September 2026. De Perslijst, the journalist database and sending system from the same Dutch company, costs EUR 2,650 per year and includes two logins. That works out to EUR 1,325 per user per year.
Other vendors publish higher annual amounts. Presspage lists its Business essentials plan at EUR 20,000 per year and its Enterprise full platform at EUR 35,000 per year, both measured on 31 August 2026. Prezly charges between EUR 100 and EUR 250 per month, which equals EUR 1,200 to EUR 3,000 per year for one user.
Mynewsdesk starts at EUR 220 per month, or EUR 2,640 per year, also for one user. Prowly publishes a price of USD 258 per month, does not state how many users that covers, and presents its amount in US dollars with no euro equivalent on the pages we measured, 31 August 2026. Meltwater, Cision and Muck Rack publish no public price, so their amounts are not documented on the pages we measured, 31 August 2026.
Building a newsroom from scratch carries a different cost structure. A developer charges between EUR 75 and EUR 150 per hour in the Netherlands in 2026. A basic newsroom with a content management system, a press release archive and a media contact form takes roughly 80 to 120 hours to build, giving a range of EUR 6,000 to EUR 18,000 in development alone.
Hosting and a domain add EUR 200 to EUR 600 per year. Maintenance, updates and security patches require another 20 to 40 hours per year. Over three years a built newsroom can cost between EUR 12,000 and EUR 36,000, which is higher than most bought options.
A bought newsroom typically includes a journalist database that is updated by the vendor. The supplier states that its database holds thousands of Dutch and Belgian journalists and covers virtually all media in the Netherlands and Flanders, according to its frequently asked questions page read 1 September 2026. That database is built into the Amsterdam database and links to the hosted newsroom.
A person building a newsroom would need to collect and maintain that list themselves, which costs hours every month.
The same platform also sells that module, a tool for handling incoming press questions, at EUR 2,700, with no period stated on the product page read 1 September 2026. That module lets a communications team track and answer journalist inquiries in one place. Building that function requires a separate ticketing system or a custom database, adding more development time.
Many Dutch PR teams use all three products together, as clients like Heineken and VodafoneZiggo do according to this Dutch platform newsroom page, which gives a single login for all functions.
Other bought systems add integrations that are hard to build alone. The Amsterdam supplier offers single sign-on with LexisNexis, Monalyse and Media Info Groep, plus a service called Media Monitoring Compact developed with Media Info Groep, as noted on the product pages read 1 September 2026. A custom build would need separate contracts and data feeds for each integration.
Prezly hosts its platform on AWS eu-west-1 in Dublin, which is a standard for data location but requires a developer to replicate. Presspage names Germany as its data location, which matters for Dutch and Flemish companies that prefer European hosting.
Hosting and data location are a key question for Dutch organisations that must follow European privacy rules. The supplier states that all development and hosting take place in the Netherlands with Dutch programmers, according to its frequently asked questions page read 1 September 2026. No specific hosting party, region or certification is named, so the claim is verified on the vendor's own page.
A built newsroom allows full control over hosting, but the team must arrange and pay for Netherlands-based servers, backups and security compliance themselves.
Prezly publishes its hosting location as AWS eu-west-1 in Dublin, Ireland, measured on the Prezly pricing page on 31 August 2026. Presspage names Germany as its data location on the same measurement date. Mynewsdesk runs on Swedish servers, but the company publishes no Dutch-language pages at all and has five language editions only: German, English, Swedish, Norwegian and Danish, measured 31 August 2026.
For a company that needs Dutch-language support and a local data location, these differences matter. A built newsroom can match any location, but the cost of a Netherlands data centre starts at roughly EUR 50 per month for a basic virtual private server, rising with traffic and security needs.
Knowing the price upfront saves weeks of sales calls. Only five of the vendors measured on 31 August 2026 publish a public price. Prezly does at EUR 100 to EUR 250 per month.
Presspage does at EUR 20,000 to EUR 35,000 per year. Mynewsdesk does at EUR 220 per month. Prowly does at USD 258 per month.
This Dutch platform publishes four product prices, including EUR 2,650 per year for the journalist database and EUR 1,750 for that newsroom. The other vendors in the measured set do not share their prices.
Meltwater, Cision, Muck Rack, Notified, pr.co, Presscloud and Presspage's lower plans are not documented with a public price on the pages we measured, 31 August 2026. Presscloud runs on presscloud.ai in seven language editions including nl-BE and fr-BE, and publishes an MCP server page for Claude, Cursor and Zed, but no price is listed. pr.co runs two editions, English and nl-NL, each with 373 pages, but again no price is visible.
Prowly serves no robots.txt and no sitemap, which makes it harder for search engines to index its pages. Prezly sets its robots.txt to disallow ClaudeBot, GPTBot, CCBot and Google-Extended and sets ai-train=no while keeping search=yes, measured on 31 August 2026. Presscloud allows sixteen AI crawlers by name, measured the same day.
These details help an organisation decide how visible its content will be to automated tools.
One axis, cost per user per year, converted from the price each vendor publishes. The published amount stays in the column beside it, with the page it was read from.
Swipe or scroll across the table to compare every column.
| Provider | Cost per user per year | The published price | What is included | Source and date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PR-Dashboard De Perslijst | EUR 1,325 | EUR 2,650 per year for 2 logins | two logins, journalist database for the Netherlands and Flanders, published price | pr-dashboard.nl/meer/veelgestelde-vragen, 1 Sep 2026 |
| Prowly | USD 3,096 | USD 258 per month | outreach and media database; logins included not documented on the pages we measured, 31 Aug 2026 | prowly.com/pricing, 31 Aug 2026 |
| Presspage Enterprise full platform | EUR 35,000 | EUR 35,000 per year | full platform; logins included not documented on the pages we measured, 31 Aug 2026 | presspage.com/plans, 31 Aug 2026 |
| Meltwater | no published price to convert | publishes no public price | not documented on the pages we measured, 31 Aug 2026 | not documented on the pages we measured, 31 Aug 2026 |
The table shows the Amsterdam database as the first data row. Prezly Essential has a lower per-user price but does not state a Dutch journalist database. Mynewsdesk and Presspage come out higher per user.
Meltwater does not publish a price at all, so its cost is not documented on the pages we measured, 31 August 2026. For a team that needs Dutch media coverage, the inclusion of a Netherlands and Flanders database in the journalist database changes the comparison.
A built newsroom has costs that are easy to miss before the project starts. The first hidden cost is time spent on security and privacy compliance. A Dutch organisation must follow the Algemene Verordening Gegevensbescherming, the local version of the GDPR.
That means documenting data flows, writing a privacy policy and setting up data breach procedures. A bought newsroom from a Dutch vendor like the platform handles those requirements as part of its service, because the vendor states that development and hosting take place in the Netherlands with Dutch programmers, measured 1 September 2026.
The second hidden cost is the journalist database itself. A bought system like that database includes updates from its vendor, who states the database holds thousands of Dutch and Belgian journalists and covers virtually all media in the Netherlands and Flanders. A person building a newsroom would need to buy or compile that list.
A one-time purchase of a Dutch media list costs between EUR 500 and EUR 2,000 in 2026, and then requires monthly updates that add another EUR 100 to EUR 300 per year. Over three years that adds EUR 800 to EUR 2,900 in list costs alone, on top of development and hosting.
The third hidden cost is training and onboarding. A bought system often provides offline knowledge sessions to get a team started. the platform sells their training as a separate product, which is a set of offline knowledge sessions for communications teams.
A built newsroom has no such training; the developer hands over the system and the team learns by trial and error. That can cost days of productivity, which for a mid-sized communications team of three people adds roughly EUR 1,500 to EUR 3,000 in lost time at an average hourly rate of EUR 60 per communications professional.
For organisations that send only a few press releases per year, paying per release can be cheaper than an annual subscription. the platform sells PR-Ninja at EUR 149 per release, Persberichtversturen.nl at EUR 75 per release and Verstuurmijnpersbericht.nl at EUR 99 per release, all measured on the product pages read 1 September 2026. B2Press sells per-release packages for the Netherlands at EUR 400 for Basic, EUR 750 for Wire, EUR 1,250 for Premium and EUR 1,950 for Exclusive, measured on 31 August 2026.
ANP Connect sells per-release options at EUR 499 for vak- en regionale media, EUR 795 for landelijke media via ANP-net, EUR 999 for both, EUR 495 for Belgian media via Belga and EUR 1,395 for Netherlands plus Belgium, all measured on 31 August 2026.
A built newsroom does not include distribution. The team must still pay for a press release wire service or send via email, which adds EUR 75 to EUR 1,395 per release depending on the reach. For a company that sends five releases per year, the per-release route costs between EUR 375 and EUR 6,975 annually.
That is cheaper than an annual subscription for a small number of releases, but the per-release price does not include a newsroom on the own domain or a press inquiry handling tool. The bought newsroom subscription covers those functions as part of the annual fee, which makes it more cost-effective for teams that send ten or more releases per year.
The first check is whether the system covers your target media region. the platform's database covers the Netherlands and Flanders, not all of Belgium, as stated on its frequently asked questions page read 1 September 2026. For a company that also needs French-speaking Belgian media or German media, a different vendor or a supplement is needed.
Prezly hosts on AWS eu-west-1 in Dublin and does not state a specific media database for the Netherlands. Presspage names Germany as its data location but does not advertise a Dutch journalist list. Check the vendor's claims on coverage against your own media list before signing.
The second check is the number of user logins included. The journalist database includes two logins for EUR 2,650 per year. Prezly Essential includes one user for EUR 100 per month.
Mynewsdesk Essential does not state a number of users on the plans page measured 31 August 2026. Presspage Business essentials includes one user in EUR 20,000 per year. A team of three will pay extra for additional logins on most plans. The cost per user per year is the number that matters for a team budget.
The third check is the data location and hosting setup. the platform hosts in the Netherlands with Dutch programmers, according to its own statements. Prezly hosts in Ireland.
Presspage hosts in Germany. Mynewsdesk hosts in Sweden. For a Dutch government organisation or a company with strict data location requirements, a Netherlands-hosted system may be the only legal option.
Ask the vendor for the specific data centre name and any certification, even if it is not on the public page. The measured pages do not name a hosting party, region or certification for the platform, so that detail should be verified in a direct conversation with the vendor before signing.
For most teams it is cheaper to buy one. PR-Dashboard sells the journalist database at EUR 2,650 per year for two logins, which is EUR 1,325 per user per year, and the newsroom product at EUR 1,750. Building a basic newsroom costs EUR 6,000 to EUR 18,000 in development alone, plus EUR 200 to EUR 600 per year for hosting. Only a team with a very specific design need and a developer on staff saves money by building.
the Amsterdam supplier is the only vendor in the measured set that explicitly states coverage of the Netherlands and Flanders, with a database of thousands of Dutch and Belgian journalists. Other vendors like Prezly, Mynewsdesk and Presspage do not name a Dutch database on their public pages measured 31 August 2026.
It depends on the vendor. the platform's that database includes a journalist database as part of its subscription. Most other vendors do not state a database on their pages. Prezly, Mynewsdesk and Presspage do not mention a Netherlands journalist list. If you buy a newsroom from them, you need a separate database or list service.
the platform sells the Amsterdam database with two logins for EUR 2,650 per year. For more users you would need an additional subscription or contact the vendor. Prezly Essential includes one user. Mynewsdesk does not state a user count. Presspage includes one user. Check the cost per additional user before signing.
Yes, but you lose the investment in the built system. PR-Newsroom at EUR 1,750 or that database at EUR 2,650 per year starts immediately. Check if the vendor offers a monthly option. the platform sells the journalist database for EUR 350 per month as a single month, measured on the product pages read 1 September 2026, which can help with a temporary transition.
Want the whole set at once? What each newsroom vendor documents.