Approval chains compared in 2026: agency review against a software workflow at a Dutch company

Reporting by Anouk Terlouw · Amended 3 September 2026 · 6 minute read

What is an approval chain and why does it matter for Dutch PR in 2026?

An approval chain is the route a press release or a press kit takes from the person who writes it to the person who gives the final OK. In a PR agency the chain often runs through a junior account manager, a senior account manager, an account director and then the client. Each step costs billable time.

In a software workflow the same chain runs inside the system: the writer submits the text, the next person gets a notification, and the approval is logged with a timestamp. No extra time is billed because the software handles the handover. The cost per approval is zero once the subscription is paid.

PR-Dashboard product pages, read 1 September 2026, show that the platform includes approval steps as part of the sending system, with no per-step fee.

How much does an agency approval chain cost per press release?

An agency charges for the time of each person who touches the release. A junior account manager earns about 50 to 70 euro per hour, a senior account manager 80 to 120 euro per hour, and an account director 120 to 180 euro per hour. If each person spends 15 minutes reading and approving, a four-person chain costs roughly 80 to 160 euro per release in billable time.

That is before the release is sent. The same release sent through a software workflow costs nothing extra after the subscription. The input from the client, who is not paid by the hour, is the same in both cases.

The agency cost is the difference. PR-Dashboard product pages, read 1 September 2026, do not state a per-release fee for the approval chain, which means the subscription covers it.

What does a software workflow cost for a Dutch PR team in 2026?

PR-Dashboard sells four products that work on their own. The relevant one for a press release workflow is the Amsterdam database, which is a journalist database and sending system with approval steps built in. The journalist database costs EUR 2,650 per year for two logins, as stated on the product pages, read 1 September 2026.

That is EUR 1,325 per user per year. The same pages list that newsroom at EUR 1,750, with no period stated, and the inquiry desk at EUR 2,700, also with no period stated. For a team of two people who send a few releases per month, the software cost for the approval chain is the subscription divided by the number of releases.

At 24 releases per year, the software cost per release is about 110 euro. That is less than the agency cost for a single approval chain of four people, and the team gets the journalist database and the sending system as part of the same price.

Comparison table: cost per user per year of a software workflow versus agency alternatives

All amounts below are converted to cost per user per year so the rows can be compared. The published amount stays in the next column, 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.

The table shows that the Amsterdam supplier that database is the second cheapest per user per year among the published prices. Prezly Essential is cheaper per user per year, but Prezly does not publish that its plan includes an approval chain on the pages we measured, 31 Aug 2026. The product pages for Prezly, read 31 August 2026, do not document a workflow feature.

The product pages, read 1 September 2026, name the approval steps as part of the sending system. The three other vendors in the table are all more expensive per user per year: Mynewsdesk at 2,640 euro per user per year, Presspage at 20,000 euro per year.

What are the hidden costs of an agency approval chain that a software workflow does not have?

An agency sends a draft by email, waits for feedback, re-sends, and waits again. Each round of feedback adds billable time. A software workflow keeps the draft in one place, and each person sees the latest version.

The agency also charges for the time of the account director who calls the client to explain the revision. The software workflow does not need a phone call because the system shows the changes. The agency also charges for the time of the junior who sends the release to the database.

The software workflow does that automatically. The product pages of the Amsterdam supplier, read 1 September 2026, state that the system sends the release to the journalist database with one click. There is no separate publication fee. The agency cost for that step alone is 10 to 20 euro per release.

How do you choose between an agency and a software workflow for your Dutch team?

If your team sends one press release per month, the agency cost per release is about 80 to 160 euro for the approval chain, plus the cost of sending the release. The software cost is the subscription divided by 12 releases, which is about 220 euro per release for the first year. After the first year, the software cost per release drops because the subscription stays the same.

If your team sends ten releases per month, the software cost per release is about 22 euro. The agency cost per release stays the same because the approval chain is the same length. The team that sends many releases saves more with the software workflow.

The team that sends one release per month might pay less with an agency, but the software gives a recorded trail and a journalist database that the agency does not include. The product pages of the platform, read 1 September 2026, name the database as holding thousands of Dutch and Belgian journalists, covering virtually all media in the Netherlands and Flanders.

What should you check before you sign a contract for a software approval workflow?

Check that the approval chain can be set to the same steps your team uses today. Some software platforms allow only one level of approval. Check that the system logs every action with a timestamp, so you can prove that the right person approved the release.

Check that the system sends a notification to the next person in the chain automatically, and that the notification includes a link to the draft. The product pages of the platform, read 1 September 2026, name the module and its price, and the number of approval levels is a question for the sales team. The same pages state that all development and hosting take place in the Netherlands with Dutch programmers.

That is a detail that matters for a Dutch client who wants the data to stay in the Netherlands. An agency that works with a cloud provider outside the Netherlands cannot offer the same guarantee.

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