COMPARED
Relay vs Google Alerts
Google Alerts tells you a page exists. Relay reads it and tells you what happened and why it matters. They suit different jobs, and plenty of people use both.
| Compared on | Relay | Google Alerts |
|---|---|---|
| What you set up | A description of a subject, in a few sentences | A keyword or search query |
| What you receive | A written briefing: headline, what happened, why it matters, sources | An email of links with short excerpts |
| Reading the article | Done for you; each story is read in full before it is kept | Left to you |
| Exact terms | Yes, as an extra list beside the description | Yes, this is how it works |
| Specific pages and official journals | Read in full each time the agent gathers | Only if the search index has picked them up |
| Languages | Searches in several, writes in the one you choose | Per alert, results in the language you pick |
| For a team | A shared desk, comments, Slack and Telegram | Sent to one Google account |
| Price | From $14.99 a month; free during the private beta | Free |
When Google Alerts is the right tool
- You want to know whenever a name appears: yours, your company's, a product's.
- You want it free and set up in a minute.
- You are happy to open the links and judge them yourself.
When Relay is the right tool
- You follow a subject, not a word. "Telecom regulation in the UK" is a subject; no single keyword covers it.
- You want to be told what happened, not handed a reading list.
- More than one person needs the same picture.
- A quiet week should produce a short briefing, not a full inbox.
What you keep from keyword alerts
The useful part of an alert is that it never misses a name. Relay keeps that: next to the description you can list exact terms, and a story that names one reaches you by rule, whatever else is going on.
Moving over
Take the two or three alerts that produce the most noise and write one description that covers what you wanted from them. Run both for a fortnight and compare what you actually read.
This comparison describes Google Alerts as we understand it in October 2026. For its current features, see Google's own help pages.
Relay is in private beta. Sign in with Google to ask for a place on the waiting list, or enter your access code if you were given one. What is Relay? · How to set it up
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