How to submit a press release online: 5 free websites you can use

Quick takeaways

Free press release sites work best as a supplement to a paid release, not a replacement.
Combine 1–2 free wires with UGC platforms like Medium and LinkedIn Articles for maximum free reach.
Avoid publishing the identical release to more than 2 free sites — it hurts search performance.

Editorial disclosure: Drafted with AI assistance and fully reviewed, fact-checked, and edited by our human editorial desk before publication. Any pricing or platform detail is verified against the vendor's public pages at the time of writing.

You don't always have a budget. That's fine — free press release distribution has never been better than it is right now, if you know which sites are worth your time and which are just SEO farms that'll clutter your Google results with low-quality URLs. Here are the five we'd actually use in 2026, plus how to stack them together without shooting yourself in the foot.

1. Press Release Submit (free tier)

Yes, us. Every new verified account gets one full free press release distribution — same editorial review, same network access, same live-link report as our paying customers. It's a one-time offer per company, so use it for a release that matters. If you have more than one announcement queued up, run the most important one through us and use the sites below for the rest.

2. OpenPR

OpenPR has been quietly reliable for a decade. Free basic listing, well-indexed by search engines, and their submission moderation is fast — usually within 24 hours. The site looks 2010s-era, which is part of why it works: search engines have watched it publish news content for years and treat it as legitimate.

Best for: B2B, corporate, and international announcements — OpenPR has a strong European reader base.

3. SubmitPressRelease.org

SubmitPressRelease.org offers a genuinely free tier and a paid upgrade path if you want faster review or premium categorization. The published URL is clean, the domain looks like a real newsroom, and their categorization taxonomy is broad enough that most business news finds a home.

Best for: general small-business news, product launches, and hiring announcements.

4. PRLog

PRLog has been running since 2008 and is one of the free wires with the strongest search footprint. Individual PRLog release URLs still rank in Google for long-tail queries years after publication — meaning your release earns residual traffic long after the news cycle moves on.

Best for: long-tail SEO plays, evergreen announcements, and building a "features and mentions" library over time.

5. FreePressRelease.io

FreePressRelease.io is the newest on this list and its clean UI reflects that. Free submissions get a published URL and basic distribution; paid upgrades unlock premium placement. Editorial review is same-day for straightforward business news.

Best for: tech, startup, and fintech announcements where a modern-looking publisher domain matters for the "as seen on" logo you'll drop into a deck.

Bonus: UGC platforms that behave like PR

These aren't press release sites — but if your goal is "get a URL out there talking about my news," they're free, fast, and often out-perform the traditional free wires for reach.

Medium. Publish your release as an article. Not press, but the domain authority is high and it often ranks fast.
LinkedIn Articles. Post the announcement in the founder's voice. Distribution is native, and it becomes shareable content for the whole team.
Substack. If you have a company newsletter, publish the release as an issue. Free email distribution to your own list.
Reddit (industry subreddits). Post the news, be transparent about who you are, engage in the comments. Judged by the subreddit's rules — respect them.
X threads. Break the release into a thread with the founder narrating. Not indexed like a press release, but often earns higher engagement.

How to combine them without hurting SEO

This is where most people get it wrong. Publishing the identical release across every free site you can find looks like coverage — but Google reads it as duplicate content and may filter all copies, including the good ones.

The safe stacking pattern:

Day 0: Publish on your primary channel — a paid wire (like us) or your best free option. This becomes the canonical version.
Day 2: Publish a slightly rewritten version (different headline, new opening paragraph, same facts) on one secondary free site.
Day 3–7: Publish a founder-voice version on Medium and LinkedIn.
Ongoing: Link back to the canonical URL from your own site's press page.

That's how you turn zero dollars into meaningful free reach without the duplicate-content hangover. If you want the primary release to have real teeth, $45 gets you Google News indexing — often the only meaningful upgrade a free-first campaign actually needs.

Frequently asked

Do free press release sites still work?+

For a search-engine footprint and a basic 'as seen on' URL, yes. For serious coverage or Google News indexing, no — you'll need at least a mid-tier paid distribution.

Are any free sites indexed on Google News?+

Very few consistently. Google News eligibility requires editorial standards that most free sites don't meet. Assume no unless you can verify it yourself.

Can I use a free site and a paid site for the same release?+

Yes, but publish the paid one first and wait 48 hours. This gives the higher-authority domain time to establish itself as the canonical version.

Tony Glinn Verified author

Head of Distribution · Press Release Submit

Tony has spent the last eleven years inside newswire desks and comms teams — routing releases for public issuers, Series C rounds, and more crypto launches than he wants to admit. He writes the guides he wishes he'd had when he started.