ConvertKit vs Beehiiv

Kit (formerly ConvertKit) against beehiiv on pricing, free tiers, automation, and monetization, checked against both vendors' 2026 pricing pages.

At a glance

Pricing

Kit's free Newsletter plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers, which is unusually generous, but it includes only one basic automation. The Creator plan starts at $33 a month, or $390 a year, for a 1,000-subscriber list, and Creator Pro starts at $66 a month or $790 a year. Both paid tiers cost more as your list grows, and Kit charges 3.5% plus 30 cents per transaction when you sell digital products through it.

beehiiv's free Launch plan caps at 2,500 subscribers but includes most of the core product, including a website with custom domains. Scale starts at $43 a month on annual billing (about $517 a year) and covers lists up to 100,000, with the ad network, paid subscriptions, automations, and the referral program unlocked at this tier. Max starts at $96 a month, removes beehiiv branding, adds the sponsorship storefront, and supports up to 10 publications. beehiiv takes 0% of paid subscription revenue on paid plans.

When to pick Kit

I would pick Kit when the newsletter is the top of a funnel rather than the product itself. Its visual automation builder is the deeper of the two: tag-based segmentation, unlimited sequences, and branching logic that beehiiv only partly matches. If you sell courses, templates, or coaching, that automation depth is what earns the subscription fee.

Kit also makes sense if you are already inside its ecosystem. The rebrand from ConvertKit to Kit in 2024 did not change the product's center of gravity: creator recommendations, integrations with the usual creator stack, and a long deliverability track record. Migrating a working automation setup is real work, so if Kit already runs your business, the burden of proof is on beehiiv.

One honest caveat: at small list sizes the paid plans are priced close to beehiiv's while covering far fewer subscribers, and the transaction fee on product sales adds up if commerce is a large share of your revenue.

When to pick beehiiv

I would pick beehiiv for a new newsletter where the newsletter is the business. The monetization stack is native instead of bolted on: an ad network that places sponsors for you, paid subscriptions with no platform take, and a referral program that does not need a third-party tool. Getting the same result out of Kit means stitching together outside services.

The growth mechanics matter too. beehiiv's recommendation network lets newsletters send each other subscribers inside the platform, which is how many newer newsletters actually grow. The free plan is also a genuine trial of the product, since it includes the website, analytics, and unlimited sends rather than a stripped-down teaser.

The tradeoff is automation depth and a smaller integration ecosystem. If your plan involves complex behavioral email flows, you will hit beehiiv's ceiling sooner than Kit's.

What most comparisons miss

The two free tiers are shaped in opposite directions, and most head-to-head posts flatten this. Kit gives you a big list with few features. beehiiv gives you a small list with most features. Which one is more generous depends entirely on whether you already have an audience.

Fee structure beats sticker price. Kit's 3.5% plus 30 cents per sale is a real cost for product-heavy creators, while beehiiv's 0% take on paid subscriptions is a real saving for subscription-heavy writers. And since both platforms raise prices with subscriber count, the number that matters is the price at the list size you expect in a year, not the entry price on the pricing page.