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beehiiv vs Kit (ConvertKit) 2026: which newsletter platform should you pick?
By Top Shelf Picks · November 1, 2026 · Prices checked Nov 1, 2026 on beehiiv.com/pricing and kit.com/pricing. Verdicts are our opinion.
Short answer: Pick beehiiv if your newsletter is the product and you want built-in growth and ad revenue tools (referral program, ad network, paid recommendations) plus a publication website. Pick Kit if email is the engine behind something else you sell (courses, books, coaching, a YouTube channel) and you need automations, tags and sequences. Kit's free plan is bigger (10,000 subscribers vs 2,500), but it leaves out automations. beehiiv's free plan is smaller and also leaves out automations and paid subscriptions.
Prices at a glance (checked Nov 1, 2026)
| beehiiv | Kit | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan limit | Up to 2,500 subscribers | Up to 10,000 subscribers |
| Email sends | Unlimited on every plan | No sending limits on any plan |
| Entry paid plan | Lite: $59/mo monthly, or $49/mo billed annually ($588/yr), up to 1,000 subs | Creator: $39/mo monthly, or $33/mo billed annually ($390/yr), up to 1,000 subs |
| Top self-serve plan | Pro: $109/mo monthly, or $95/mo billed annually, up to 1,000 subs | Pro: $79/mo monthly, or $66/mo billed annually, up to 1,000 subs |
| Free trial of paid plans | Yes (some features excluded during trial) | 14 days, no card required |
| Team seats | Free 1 · Lite 2 · Pro 10 | Free 1 · Creator 2 · Pro unlimited |
Both platforms price paid plans by list size, so these are the starting numbers. A few more points from each pricing page:
- beehiiv Lite is $79/mo monthly at up to 2,500 subscribers, $109 at up to 5,000 and $139 at up to 10,000. beehiiv Pro is $149, $199 and $239 at the same sizes.
- Kit Creator (billed monthly) is $59/mo at 1,001 to 3,000 subscribers, $89 at 3,001 to 5,000 and $139 at 8,001 to 10,000. Kit says paying yearly saves 17%.
- Kit Pro had a limited-time offer when we checked: 25% off the first year on annual billing ($593 for the first year at 1,000 subscribers), renewing at the standard rate after that. Offers like this change, so check before you buy.
Free plans compared
This is where most people start, and the two free plans are built for different jobs.
beehiiv Free (up to 2,500 subscribers)
- Newsletter, website and podcast tools, with unlimited sends and posts.
- The beehiiv Recommendation Network, subscribe forms, link-in-bio and an AI website builder.
- Up to 3 segments, 1 custom website page, 30 days of analytics history and API access (no Send API).
- Not included: email automations, paid subscriptions, the ad network, paid recommendations, the referral program, A/B testing and removing beehiiv branding.
Kit Free (up to 10,000 subscribers)
- Unlimited landing pages and opt-in forms, a newsletter feed and website, and a customizable domain for landing pages.
- Unlimited broadcasts, subscriber tagging and segmentation, custom HTML/CSS email templates, conditional (Liquid) content, and resending to non-openers.
- Selling digital products, paid newsletters, recurring subscriptions and tip jars, at a 3.5% + 30¢ per-transaction fee that Kit says includes card processing.
- Kit's free and "Smart" Recommendations to grow through other Kit creators.
- Not included: the visual automation builder, automated email sequences (like a welcome series), RSS-to-email, the 100+ app integrations, removing Kit branding, and free migration help.
Our take: Kit's free plan is the more generous of the two if you want to collect emails and send broadcasts to a list of up to 10,000 people. It's also the cheaper way to test a small paid newsletter. beehiiv's free plan is better if you want a proper publication website and a growth network from day one, and you're happy to upgrade once you pass 2,500 readers or want to monetize.
Automations: Kit's home turf
Kit started as an email marketing tool for creators who sell things, and it shows. On Creator and Pro you get unlimited visual automations and unlimited email sequences, a template library of pre-built funnels, RSS campaigns, and over 100 direct app integrations. Kit Pro adds subscriber engagement scoring, deliverability reporting, a custom tracking domain and advanced A/B testing (up to 5 subject lines).
beehiiv's automations are real but capped by plan: Lite includes 10 live custom automations, with triggers such as sign-ups, form submissions, tags, segments, paid subscriptions and product purchases. Pro removes the cap and adds click-triggered automations and A/B split paths. That covers welcome series and simple nurture flows easily. If you're building branching funnels around several products, Kit's builder is the more mature choice in our opinion.
Making money: fees and monetization tools
| beehiiv | Kit | |
|---|---|---|
| Paid newsletter on free plan | No (Lite or higher) | Yes |
| Platform cut of paid subscriptions | 0% (you pay Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢) | 3.5% + 30¢ per transaction, which Kit says includes card processing |
| Ad network / sponsorships | beehiiv Ad Network on Lite+ (not in all regions); Sponsorship Storefront on Pro | Newsletter sponsorships on Creator+ |
| Paid recommendations | Lite+ | Creator+ (Kit keeps 23.5% of earnings) |
| Referral program | Built in on Lite+ | Pro includes a free SparkLoop plan (Kit says it's worth $99/mo) |
| Digital products | Free: 1 product · Lite: 3 · Pro: unlimited | Selling digital products on every plan |
The fee math, using published rates only: on a $5 monthly subscription, Kit's fee comes to about $0.48 per payment (3.5% + 30¢), and Stripe's fee on beehiiv comes to about $0.45. The per-payment difference is tiny. The real difference is that beehiiv requires a paid plan to charge readers, starting at $59/mo billed monthly. If your paid newsletter is small, Kit Free is cheaper overall. Once you need automations on both platforms, compare the plan prices at your list size. At up to 1,000 subscribers on monthly billing, Kit Creator ($39) costs less than beehiiv Lite ($59). At about 10,000 subscribers, Kit Creator and beehiiv Lite are both $139/mo on monthly billing. This is arithmetic on today's price lists, not a prediction of what you'll earn.
Website and publishing
beehiiv is built around a publication: every plan gets a hosted website with templates, subscribe forms and a website builder. Paid plans add custom pages, redirects, advanced analytics and surveys, and Pro adds a custom robots.txt and AI bot controls. If you want your newsletter archive to rank in search and feel like a media site, beehiiv is the stronger tool. (One thing to check in your account: beehiiv's pricing page lists "Custom Domains" among Free plan features in one spot, but its comparison table shows custom domains starting on Lite.)
Kit gives you a newsletter feed and site, plus unlimited landing pages, on every plan. It works well as a home for sign-ups and products, but in our opinion it's less of a full publication site than beehiiv's.
Pros and cons
beehiiv
- Pros: 0% take on paid subscriptions; ad network, paid recommendations and referral program built in on Lite; strong publication website; unlimited sends; podcast and community tools on every plan.
- Cons: free plan stops at 2,500 subscribers; no automations or paid subscriptions until you pay; Lite caps you at 10 automations; removing beehiiv branding requires Pro; some monetization features aren't available in every region.
Kit
- Pros: free plan for up to 10,000 subscribers; paid newsletters and digital products even on Free; unlimited automations and sequences from Creator up; large app integration library; free migration help on paid plans; 30-day refund window on paid plans, per Kit's FAQ.
- Cons: no automations at all on Free; a percentage fee on every sale instead of 0%; Kit branding stays until you pay; the referral program and engagement analytics are Pro-only; Kit's own site warns that it auto-upgrades you to the next tier when you go over your plan's subscriber limit.
Who should pick which
| You are... | Our pick |
|---|---|
| A writer whose newsletter is the business (sponsors, ads, paid tier) | beehiiv |
| A course creator, coach or author who sells through email funnels | Kit |
| Just starting, want the biggest free list limit | Kit Free (10,000) vs beehiiv Free (2,500) |
| Want a media-style website and archive | beehiiv |
| Want to test a small paid newsletter for $0/month | Kit Free |
| Want email, funnels, courses and checkout in one cheap tool | Consider Systeme.io (below) |
Prefer Kit? It's at kit.com (no affiliate link).
Budget alternative: Systeme.io
If what you really need is email plus sales funnels and a course area, Systeme.io may beat both on price. According to its pricing page (checked Nov 1, 2026), the free plan includes up to 2,000 contacts, unlimited email sends, 3 sales funnels and 1 course, but only 1 automation rule. The Startup plan is $17/month for 5,000 contacts. Systeme.io isn't a newsletter-first platform, though. It has no ad network or recommendation network like beehiiv's, so pure newsletter writers are better served above. See our Systeme.io review for the details.
Switching later
Both platforms let you export your data. beehiiv lists data exports on every plan, and Kit offers free migration (forms, templates and automations rebuilt by its team) on paid plans. Switching is possible, but it costs time, so it's worth picking for where you want to be in a year rather than just for this week.
FAQ
Is Kit (ConvertKit) free?
Yes, for up to 10,000 subscribers, with unlimited broadcasts, landing pages and forms. Automations and sequences start on Creator ($39/mo monthly at up to 1,000 subscribers).
Is beehiiv free?
Yes, for up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends. Monetization and automations start on Lite ($59/mo monthly, or $49/mo billed annually, at up to 1,000 subscribers).
Which is better for a paid newsletter?
For a small paid list, Kit Free costs less because there's no monthly fee, only the 3.5% + 30¢ per transaction. For larger paid newsletters, beehiiv's 0% take rate plus Stripe fees can work out better once you'd be paying for a plan anyway. Run the numbers at your own list size.
Is Kit the same as ConvertKit?
Yes. ConvertKit rebranded as Kit and now lives at kit.com.
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Sources
beehiiv.com/pricing (plan table, price-by-list-size table, feature comparison, FAQ), kit.com/pricing (plan cards, plan comparison table, FAQ) and systeme.io/pricing (FAQ), all accessed November 1, 2026. Prices change, so check the current price before you upgrade.