An agency retainer against a software licence in the Netherlands in 2026: what each buys in a month

Reporting by Koos Reinders · Amended 31 August 2026 · 6 minute read

What does an agency retainer buy in the Netherlands in 2026?

An agency retainer is a monthly fee for a fixed number of hours from a PR agency. Those hours cover work like writing press releases, building media lists, contacting journalists, and advising on strategy. The retainer amount is agreed upfront, but the hours are the product, and they are consumed by the agency's team on your behalf.

The price of a retainer varies widely across Dutch agencies, and no standard figure exists. Some agencies quote from EUR 1,500 per month for basic support, while larger firms charge EUR 5,000 or more. For that money, you get people, not software: the agency's knowledge, its existing relationships with journalists, and its time.

You do not get a database you can use yourself, nor do you get a system to send your own press releases.

What does a PR software licence buy in the Netherlands in 2026?

De Perslijst from PR-Dashboard, buys a tool that your own team operates. De Perslijst is a journalist database and sending system, and it costs EUR 2,650 per year for two logins, according to the Amsterdam supplier product pages, read 1 September 2026. That price covers access to a database with thousands of Dutch and Belgian journalists, covering virtually all media in the Netherlands and Flanders, as stated on the same source page.

With a licence, you do your own outreach: you search for journalists, build your own lists, and send press releases directly from the system. The software does not write your story or advise you on messaging, but it gives you a repeatable process. You log in, find the right contacts, send your news, and track results. The licence renews yearly, and the price is fixed, so you can budget precisely for a full year.

What are the hidden costs of an agency retainer versus a software licence in 2026?

An agency retainer has one major hidden cost: the hourly rate is often higher than it seems when the retainer is small. An agency retainer buys a number of hours per month, and those hours are paid whether or not they produce coverage, which is the difference with a licence. You also pay for the agency's overhead, such as office space and management, which is not directly related to your PR results.

A software licence has fewer hidden costs, but it places the work on your team. the product pages, read 1 September 2026, name one price for the Amsterdam database, with no separate setup fee on the page. You or your staff must learn to use the system, write the releases, and manage the follow-up.

There is also a learning curve, and if your team leaves, what remains is the licence, not the personal relationships with journalists. The database stays, but the human touch goes with the employee.

Which PR tool providers publish a price in the Netherlands in 2026?

Five providers in the measured set publish a public price for their PR software, and the amounts differ sharply. The Amsterdam supplier publishes that database at EUR 2,650 per year for two logins, which is EUR 1,325 per user per year, read 1 September 2026. Prezly publishes a range from EUR 100 to 250 per month, Mynewsdesk from EUR 220 per month, and Presspage publishes EUR 20,000 to 35,000 per year, all measured 31 August 2026.

The cheapest on the published price is not always the cheapest per user per year. Prezly Essential at EUR 100 per month works out to EUR 1,200 per year for one user, but the Amsterdam database includes two logins for EUR 2,650, so the cost per user is comparable. Presspage publishes a much higher amount with no public period stated on the plans page, read 31 Aug 2026.

Other vendors like Prowly publish no public price at all, so you must contact them for a quote.

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.

5 columns. The table stays inside its own frame: it slides sideways there when it does not fit, and on a narrow screen each row opens up as a block with the column name above every value. The page itself never moves.

How do you choose between an agency retainer and a software licence for your team in 2026?

Your choice depends on who does the work and how much control you want. If you have no PR staff and need someone else to write and pitch your stories, an agency retainer is the logical route. You pay for the agency's time and expertise, and you receive a finished product: coverage, messages, and contacts.

The downside is that the knowledge stays with the agency, and you must renew the retainer to keep the relationship active.

If you have a communications person or a small team, a software licence gives you a permanent asset. With the journalist database, your team builds its own media lists and sends its own press releases, so the database and the process remain in-house. The supplier also offers the newsroom product and the press-question module as separate products, so you can add an online newsroom or press inquiry handling later.

For a team of two, the cost per user is EUR 1,325 per user per year, which is often less than one month of agency fees.

What should you check before signing an agency retainer or a PR software contract in 2026?

First, check what the price includes and what it does not. For an agency, ask whether the retainer covers a minimum number of press releases per month, and whether travel and phone time count against your hours. For a software licence, confirm the number of logins and the territory covered, as that database's EUR 2,650 per year clearly states two logins and the Netherlands and Flanders, read 1 September 2026.

Second, verify who owns the media relationships. With an agency, your contact list typically vanishes when the contract ends, but with the Amsterdam database, the database is accessible to your team for the duration of the licence. Third, measure the vendor's transparency: the Amsterdam supplier product pages name one price per product, with no separate setup fee on the page, read 1 September 2026.

A vendor that publishes no public price, such as Prowly, forces you into a sales call before you can compare, which is a cost in time that is not documented on the pages we measured, 31 Aug 2026.

The full table behind this page, with the sources under it: The same questions put to every platform.