Start here
The short answer
Kit for creators who monetize through paid products, courses, or coaching where the email list drives sales. Beehiiv for newsletter-first operators who plan to monetize through ads, sponsorships, or a paid tier.
At a glance
Scroll horizontally to view every column. Select a column heading to sort.
| Best for | Starting price | Free plan | Free trial | Key feature | Industries | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kit (formerly ConvertKit)View website (opens in a new tab) | Creators, coaches, and independent publishers who monetize an audience directly. | $0.00 / month (Newsletter free plan) | Yes | Yes | Tag-based subscriber model that makes segmentation and automation predictable. | Small business, Agencies |
| BeehiivView website (opens in a new tab) | Newsletter-first operators who plan to monetize with ads, sponsorships, or a paid tier. | $0.00 / month (Launch free plan) | Yes | Yes | Newsletter publishing with growth and monetization tools. | Small business, Agencies |
A dash means no value has been supplied. Price sorting is unavailable when currencies or billing periods differ.
Best for Creators, coaches, and independent publishers who monetize an audience directly.
Kit (formerly ConvertKit)
An email service provider built for creators and independent publishers, focused on tagging, automations, and landing pages.
Pricing
Starting at $0.00 / month (Newsletter free plan)
Free tier plus subscriber-count subscription
Verified
Pros
- Free Newsletter plan supports up to 10,000 subscribers.
- Subscriber tags and paid visual automations support creator workflows.
- Landing pages and forms support audience signup.
Cons
- Paid pricing scales with subscriber tier.
- Templates and workflow requirements should be tested before migration.
Sources & references
- Kit (formerly ConvertKit) official pricing — month (Newsletter free plan) — Kit (formerly ConvertKit)Accessed
- Kit (formerly ConvertKit) official homepage — Kit (formerly ConvertKit)Accessed
Best for Newsletter-first operators who plan to monetize with ads, sponsorships, or a paid tier.
Beehiiv
A newsletter platform with built-in growth, referrals, and monetization tools, built by former Morning Brew operators.
Pricing
Starting at $0.00 / month (Launch free plan)
Free tier plus subscriber-count subscription
Verified
Pros
- Free Launch supports up to 2,500 subscribers.
- Eligible paid plans offer Ad Network and other monetization tools.
- Paid features support newsletter growth and publishing workflows.
Cons
- Ad eligibility and revenue are not guaranteed.
- Compare exact automation needs and plan entitlements; no controlled inbox-placement ranking is established here.
Sources & references
- Beehiiv official pricing — month (Launch free plan) — BeehiivAccessed
- Beehiiv official homepage — BeehiivAccessed
Pros
- Kit offers a free Newsletter tier up to 10,000 subscribers.
- Beehiiv offers a free Launch tier up to 2,500 subscribers.
- Both offer paid tools for audience growth and monetization, with different entitlements.
Cons
- Paid subscriber tiers can change the cost comparison as the list grows.
- Validate the exact triggers, branches, and integrations required by your sequence; this comparison does not establish a universal automation ceiling.
What actually changed with the rebrand and where things stand in 2026
ConvertKit became Kit in 2024. The rebrand came with a real product shift: doubling down on creator monetization tools, the Kit Commerce product, and features that support paid digital products delivered through email.
Beehiiv came out of the Morning Brew orbit and built the opposite: a newsletter platform with a native ad network, referral programs, boost campaigns, and monetization for operators whose product is the newsletter itself.
So the tools stopped competing for the same customer. Kit is now the tool for creators whose email list drives sales of something else. Beehiiv is the tool for newsletter-first operators whose product is the newsletter.
Monetization: the actual dividing line
Kit Commerce lets you sell digital products directly through the platform. Ebooks, courses, memberships, coaching packages. The checkout is native, the delivery is native, and the automation to onboard buyers is native. If your business model is "my email list sells my product," Kit is genuinely built for you.
Beehiiv offers an Ad Network and other newsletter monetization tools on eligible paid plans. Access to an ad opportunity does not guarantee acceptance, inventory, clicks, or revenue. Evaluate those tools against your audience and the current program terms without deducting assumed ad income from the subscription price.
Pick the tool that matches your revenue model, not the one with the shinier landing page.
Automations and tagging: where Kit still wins
Kit's tag-based subscriber model is the reason serious creators stay on it. You tag subscribers based on any behavior or attribute, then build automations that trigger, branch, and gate based on those tags. The result is a subscriber experience that feels personalized rather than blasted.
Beehiiv also offers automation tools. The earlier claim that it cannot support a behavior-based branching workflow was not established by the reviewed evidence. Build a representative sequence in each platform and verify the required triggers, conditions, and plan entitlements.
Kit remains our first shortlist choice for a creator using subscriber tags and product-purchase journeys. That is a workflow preference, not a documented account-migration study or proof that Beehiiv cannot perform a particular sequence.
Deliverability at real volumes
This comparison does not include a controlled inbox-placement test for Kit and Beehiiv. The evidence reviewed does not support a category ranking, a 100,000-subscriber performance threshold, or claims about the frequency of customer complaints.
Before moving a list, review authentication, consent, engagement, and unsubscribe handling. Test representative sends and monitor results on the intended account. Those checks help evaluate your own configuration without treating a platform recommendation as a delivery guarantee.
Pricing at 1K, 10K, and 50K subscribers
At 1,000 subscribers, both Kit Newsletter and Beehiiv Launch are free. Their free limits differ: Kit supports up to 10,000 subscribers and Beehiiv up to 2,500. At 1,000 subscribers on annual billing, Kit displays Creator at $33 per month ($390 per year) and Pro at $66 ($790 per year); Beehiiv displays Scale at $43 ($517 per year) and Max at $96 ($1,151 per year). Displayed monthly equivalents are rounded; use the annual invoice totals.
At exactly 10,000 subscribers, the live annual calculators show Kit Creator at $1,390 per year (displayed as $116 per month) and Beehiiv Scale at $1,151 per year (displayed as $96 per month). Beehiiv is $239 less per year in this billing scenario, before tax or optional services. These are different feature packages, and no ad revenue is assumed.
For a 50,000-subscriber list, Kit's current selector steps from 45,000 to 55,000: the Pro tier covering the example is therefore 55,000, at $5,190 per year (displayed as $433 per month). Beehiiv Scale at exactly 50,000 is $2,629 per year (displayed as $219 per month). This is a comparison of the tiers that cover the list, not equal subscriber caps or equivalent features.
Use the required features and annual invoice total in the budget. Subscription cost is an expense; ad revenue and product sales remain uncertain and should not be used as a guaranteed offset.
So which one
If you sell digital products, courses, coaching, or memberships to your email list, Kit is the first option I would evaluate for its commerce and tag-based workflows. Whether those capabilities pay for the subscription depends on your business.
If you are building a newsletter as the product and plan to monetize through ads, sponsorships, referrals, or paid tiers, Beehiiv. The growth stack and ad network are the reason to be there.
If you are somewhere in between and cannot commit, start on the free tier of whichever platform matches your primary revenue theory. Both are portable if you switch later, though you lose some automation configuration in the move.
How to choose
- Monetization support (ads, sponsorships, digital products)
- Growth and referral features
- Automation depth
- Deliverability at typical volumes
- Pricing at 1K, 10K, and 50K subscriber levels
Final verdict
Kit wins for product-selling creators. Beehiiv wins for pure newsletter operators. The gap between them is real and neither is trying to be the other anymore.
Our evaluation process
Research and methodology
Research-based comparison of current vendor pricing, published features, and the workflow needs described in this article, fact-checked September 9, 2026. Linked vendor sources are supplemented by attributed reporting where needed. Recommendations are editorial judgments; this article does not report a documented hands-on trial or measured performance benchmark.
Read our review methodologyFrequently asked questions
Can I import my list from Mailchimp or Substack?
Both offer subscriber import paths. Check the supported source platform, required consent records, field mapping, suppression lists, and automation migration separately. Run a sample import before committing; this article does not establish a fixed migration time.
Does Kit still work if I do not sell products?
Yes. Kit is still a strong newsletter tool independent of Commerce. But you would be paying for capabilities you are not using. Beehiiv is likely a better fit in that scenario.
Is Beehiiv's ad network actually paying real money?
The Ad Network offers monetization opportunities, but eligibility, demand, engagement, and campaign terms determine actual earnings. This comparison has no documented revenue data establishing a meaningful-income threshold at 10,000 or 50,000 subscribers.
Sources & references
- Kit pricing — KitAccessed
- Beehiiv pricing — BeehiivAccessed