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beehiiv vs Kit (2026): Which Newsletter Platform Fits Your Creator Business?
TL;DR
beehiiv is the better fit if you run a newsletter as a media business: it takes 0% of paid subscription revenue (Stripe fees apply), includes an ad network on paid plans, and bundles website and podcast hosting on every plan. Kit is the better fit if email is your sales engine: its free plan holds up to 10,000 subscribers (vs 2,500 on beehiiv Free) and it has stronger automations and sequences, but charges 3.5% + 30¢ on product and subscription sales.
How this article was made: This is a research-based comparison. Every price and feature below comes from beehiiv's and Kit's official pricing and help pages, which we checked on October 12, 2026. We have not tested either platform hands-on yet. We'll add screenshots and first-hand notes when we do, and the boxes marked "Screenshot coming" show where they'll go. Prices change often, so confirm on the vendor's site before you buy.
If you're starting a newsletter in 2026, two names keep coming up: beehiiv and Kit (formerly ConvertKit). Both serve creators, both have a free plan, and both let you earn money from your list. But they're built around different ideas:
- beehiiv is built like a media platform: publish posts, grow through recommendations, and earn with an ad network and paid subscriptions.
- Kit is built like a creator marketing tool: tag subscribers, run automations and sequences, and sell digital products.
This guide shows where each one wins, where each one costs more, and which type of creator each fits best.
Quick verdict
- Choose beehiiv if you publish a regular newsletter and want built-in ways to earn from ads, paid subscriptions and recommendations. It also takes 0% of your paid subscription and digital product revenue, so you only pay Stripe's processing fee.
- Choose Kit if email is your sales engine: lead magnets, welcome sequences, product launches and tagging. Kit's free plan also holds up to 10,000 subscribers, compared with 2,500 on beehiiv's free plan.
Try beehiiv (affiliate link) Try Kit (affiliate link)
beehiiv vs Kit at a glance
| beehiiv | Kit | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan subscriber limit | Up to 2,500 | Up to 10,000 |
| Free plan sending | Unlimited email sends | Unlimited email broadcasts |
| Entry paid plan | Lite: $49 (price shown for 1,000 subscribers, yearly billing) | Creator: $39/mo monthly or $33/mo billed yearly ($390/yr), at 1,000 subscribers |
| Top self-serve plan | Pro: $95 (1,000 subscribers, yearly billing) | Pro: $79/mo monthly, at 1,000 subscribers |
| Subscriber caps on paid plans | Lite up to 100,000; Pro up to 250,000; Enterprise custom | Price scales with subscriber count |
| Team seats | Free 1, Lite 2, Pro 10 | Pro: unlimited users |
| Platform cut of paid subs / digital products | 0% (Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 still applies) | 3.5% + 30¢ per transaction, card processing included |
| Ad / sponsorship monetization | Ad network on paid plans | Newsletter sponsorships (brand matching) |
| Paid recommendations | Recommendation network (all plans) | Paid Recommendations, 23.5% Kit fee |
| Automations | Paid plans (Lite and up) | Free: 1 basic visual automation; Creator: unlimited automations and sequences |
| A/B testing | Lite and up | Creator and up |
| Remove platform branding | Pro and up | Paid plans (listed on the pricing page) |
| Website / podcast / community | Included on every plan | Landing pages and forms; no podcast or community hosting on the pricing page |
| Migration help | Self-serve onboarding (VIP on Enterprise) | Free migration by an in-house team |
Sources: beehiiv pricing, Kit pricing, Kit Help: Creator vs Creator Pro. Checked October 12, 2026.
Pricing compared
beehiiv pricing
beehiiv's pricing page lists four plans: Free, Lite, Pro and Enterprise. With the slider at 1,000 subscribers and yearly billing, Lite shows $49 and Pro shows $95. Enterprise is custom-priced.
What's worth knowing:
- Free is free forever and needs no credit card. It covers up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited email sends, email templates, landing pages, the recommendation network, and API access and integrations.
- Lite and Pro come with a free trial, also with no credit card needed.
- Yearly billing saves up to 20% compared with monthly, according to beehiiv's FAQ.
- Every plan includes the website builder, podcast, community and digital products. Higher plans change limits, support and advanced features, not which products you get.
- Plan caps: Lite goes up to 100,000 subscribers and Pro up to 250,000. Larger lists move to Enterprise.
Kit pricing
Kit's paid plans are Creator and Pro, plus a free Newsletter plan. Kit's help center says the starting price for up to 1,000 subscribers is $39/month for Creator and $79/month for Pro, and that "pricing scales with your subscriber count" (source). With yearly billing, Creator at 1,000 subscribers works out to $33/month ($390/year). Kit's pricing slider sets the price at larger list sizes, and you should check it for your own list.
- Newsletter (free): up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited landing pages, forms and email broadcasts, and one basic visual automation.
- Creator: unlimited visual automations and email sequences, A/B testing, the Kit App Store integrations, and 24/7 email and chat support.
- Pro: everything in Creator, plus Subscriber Signals, engagement analytics, unlimited users, an insights dashboard, deliverability reporting, collaborative editing, Facebook custom audiences, a newsletter referral system, editing links in sent broadcasts, and 24/7 priority support.
Which is cheaper?
It depends on your list size and what you need:
- Under 2,500 subscribers, with simple needs: both free plans work.
- 2,500 to 10,000 subscribers, with no automations needed: Kit's free plan still covers you. On beehiiv, a list over 2,500 means a paid plan.
- You sell paid subscriptions or digital products: look at fees as well as plan prices. beehiiv takes 0% of paid subscription and digital product revenue, and you pay only Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30. Kit lists 3.5% + 30¢ per transaction, card processing included. On high sales volume, that difference adds up.
Monetization: where beehiiv leans in
Monetization is the biggest difference in philosophy between the two.
beehiiv sells itself on growing and monetizing an audience. Its paid plans add paid subscriptions (0% take rate) and ad monetization through the beehiiv Ad Network. The pricing page shows an "Avg. $39/mo" figure for ad earnings. That's beehiiv's own marketing average, not a promise, and results vary a lot by niche and audience. The recommendation network is on every plan, including Free.
Kit offers paid newsletters, recurring subscriptions, digital product sales, tip jars, Paid Recommendations, and newsletter sponsorships that match you with brands. Kit charges a 23.5% fee on Paid Recommendations earnings, plus the 3.5% + 30¢ fee on product and subscription sales.
Bottom line: if a big part of your income will come from ads and paid subscriptions, beehiiv's 0% take rate and built-in ad network are strong reasons to pick it. If you mostly sell your own courses, coaching or products, both can work, and Kit's automation tools matter more (see below).
Automation and email marketing: where Kit leans in
Kit's roots are in creator email marketing, and it shows in the feature list:
- Visual automation builder with split paths based on subscriber behavior
- Automated email sequences, such as a welcome series or a "best of" series
- Visual automation template library
- RSS campaigns that email subscribers when you publish a blog post
- Content snippets, conditional email content and resend to unopened
- 100+ direct app integrations through the Kit App Store, plus an API
On Kit's free Newsletter plan, automation is limited to one basic visual automation. Unlimited automations and sequences start on Creator.
beehiiv lists automations, A/B testing and audience polls on Lite and up, with webhooks and dynamic content on Pro. Its pricing page doesn't explain how deep its automations go compared with Kit's builder, so we won't guess. We'll compare them properly after hands-on testing.
Growth features
- beehiiv: recommendation network on all plans, ad network and polls on paid plans, and advanced analytics on Pro. Analytics history is 30 days on Free, 12 months on Lite, unlimited on Pro.
- Kit: a newsletter referral system and Subscriber Signals on Pro, which help you find your highest-value subscribers for sponsor pitches or VIP offers. Kit also offers Facebook custom audiences and engagement analytics on Pro.
Publishing: website, podcast and community
beehiiv says the website, podcast, community and digital products are included on every plan, Free included. If you want your newsletter archive to be a full website and one home for your content, that's a real advantage.
Kit focuses on landing pages, forms and sales pages, plus a public newsletter page with gated posts for paid newsletters. Kit's pricing page doesn't list podcast or community hosting.
Team and support
- Seats: beehiiv allows 1 team seat on Free, 2 on Lite and 10 on Pro. Kit Pro includes unlimited users and real-time collaborative editing.
- Support: beehiiv Pro includes 24/7 priority support, and Enterprise adds a customer success manager. Kit paid plans include 24/7 email and chat support, with priority support on Pro. Kit also offers free migration from another platform: an in-house team rebuilds your forms, templates and automations.
Pros and cons
beehiiv
Pros
- 0% platform cut on paid subscriptions and digital products (Stripe fees still apply)
- Built-in ad network and recommendation network
- Website, podcast, community and digital products on every plan
- Unlimited email sends on all plans
- Free trials on Lite and Pro with no credit card
Cons
- Free plan stops at 2,500 subscribers, a quarter of Kit's free limit
- Removing beehiiv branding requires Pro
- Ad earnings depend on your audience; the advertised average isn't a guarantee
- Automation depth compared with Kit isn't clear from public pages
Kit
Pros
- Generous free plan: up to 10,000 subscribers
- Mature automation tools: visual builder, sequences, RSS campaigns, templates
- 100+ integrations, plus API and MCP access
- Free migration by an in-house team
- Pro adds deliverability reporting, engagement scoring and unlimited users
Cons
- 3.5% + 30¢ transaction fee on digital products and subscriptions
- 23.5% fee on Paid Recommendations earnings
- Price rises with list size, so check the slider for your own numbers
- Free plan automation is limited to one basic visual automation
Who should choose which?
| You are… | Lean toward | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A writer running a weekly newsletter, hoping to earn from ads and paid tiers | beehiiv | Ad network, 0% take rate on paid subscriptions |
| A podcaster who wants newsletter, podcast and website in one place | beehiiv | Podcast and website included on every plan |
| A course creator or coach selling through email funnels | Kit | Visual automations, sequences, tagging |
| A blogger who wants new posts emailed automatically | Kit | RSS campaigns |
| Growing on a $0 budget with 2,500–10,000 subscribers | Kit | Free plan up to 10,000 subscribers |
| A small team that writes together | Kit Pro or beehiiv Pro | Kit Pro: unlimited users + collaborative editing; beehiiv Pro: 10 seats |
Can you switch later?
Yes. Kit says it offers free migration from another platform, and beehiiv lists self-serve onboarding on its self-serve plans. Your subscriber list is the asset you own, so whichever you pick, export it regularly.
Related reading
- beehiiv vs Substack
- beehiiv free plan explained
- beehiiv review
- Kit review
- Best newsletter platforms for creators
- Best email marketing for podcasters
Final thoughts
Neither platform is better across the board. beehiiv fits creators who run a newsletter as a media business. Kit fits creators who use email to sell. Start with the free plan of the one that matches your model. Both let you begin without a credit card, so you can test before committing.
Start with beehiiv (affiliate link) Start with Kit (affiliate link)
Sources (checked October 12, 2026)
- beehiiv Pricing: https://www.beehiiv.com/pricing
- Kit Pricing: https://kit.com/pricing
- Kit Help, Creator plan vs Creator Pro plan: https://help.kit.com/en/articles/4494683-creator-plan-vs-creator-pro-plan
FAQ
Is beehiiv free?
Yes. beehiiv's Free plan is free forever with no credit card, for up to 2,500 subscribers.
Is Kit free?
Yes. Kit's Newsletter plan is free for up to 10,000 subscribers and includes one basic visual automation.
Does beehiiv take a cut of paid subscriptions?
No. beehiiv says it takes 0% of paid subscription and digital product revenue; Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 processing fee still applies.
What does Kit charge on sales?
Kit's pricing page lists 3.5% + 30¢ per transaction for digital products and subscriptions, inclusive of card processing.
Which is better for beginners?
If you want the biggest free list, Kit. If you want the most built-in publishing and monetization tools in one place, beehiiv.