What Is beehiiv? Newsletters Built to Grow and Earn

The short answer: if the newsletter is the product, a media brand, a founder's letter, a company publication that should one day pay for itself, beehiiv is built for that: publishing, growth tools and monetisation in one place. The free plan carries up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends; growth and paid features start on Lite at $59 a month on monthly billing at 1,000 subscribers (pricing page, checked on 24 October 2026).

Disclosure: I may earn a commission through some links on this site. It does not change what this page says.

What decides the plan:

1. What a paid tier costs against a revenue share. beehiiv lists a 0% take rate on paid subscriptions from Lite. For example, 200 paying readers at $8 a month is 200 x $8 = $1,600 a month; a 10% share would be $160, against $59 for Lite at 1,000 subscribers (pricing page).
2. The readers you already have. Growth here runs on existing readers: the referral program rewards them for bringing others, and is a paid-plan feature with 3 milestones on Lite and unlimited on Pro (referral guide).
3. How long you can look back. Analytics keep 30 days of history on Free, 12 months on Lite and no limit on Pro, per the plan table. Judging growth by the quarter needs Lite.

What beehiiv does

Every plan includes a newsletter, a website, a podcast, a community and digital products (pricing page). Growth tools include referrals, SEO, automations and a recommendations network where publications recommend each other, free or paid per verified subscriber. The money side has paid subscriptions, sponsorships, digital products and an ad network that beehiiv calls the largest newsletter ad network in the world (homepage).

For AI tools, the beehiiv MCP connects Claude, Claude Code, Cursor and Codex to your workspace. It is open to all users; on the free plan it is read-only, and creating or editing content needs a paid plan.

Who it is for

It is for publishers, creators and companies that treat the newsletter as a channel with its own audience. It is less suited to a store that needs order-driven automations, or a team whose email is mostly transactional.

Plans

USD, at 1,000 subscribers, from the beehiiv pricing page on 24 October 2026:

Removing beehiiv branding starts on Pro, which also adds webhooks, dynamic content and AI credits. Enterprise adds SSO, dedicated IPs and a customer success manager.

How it compares

Kit. Kit is built around tags, sequences and purchase data, with an API and app store documented on its developer site, and its MCP server works on paid plans only. Choose Kit when the newsletter feeds a product funnel; choose beehiiv when the newsletter is the product and its own audience growth is the goal.

Substack. Substack's going paid page says writers keep 90% of their revenue minus card fees, so its cost scales with your income, while beehiiv charges a plan fee and lists no take rate. Below $590 a month in paid revenue, a 10% share costs less than Lite's $59; above it, beehiiv's flat fee does.

beehiiv's pricing page leads with a monetisation estimate for its ad network. An average is the vendor's number, not yours; count on it only after your own first sponsored issue.

Getting started

Connect a custom domain, let Smart Warming run, turn on double opt-in, then referrals: How to use beehiiv follows the support articles.

FAQ

Is beehiiv free?

Yes, up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited email sends, templates, landing pages, the recommendations network and API access, per the pricing page. Referrals, paid subscriptions and automations need Lite or above.

Does beehiiv take a cut of paid subscriptions?

The pricing page lists a 0% take rate on paid subscriptions from Lite, so the plan fee is what you pay beehiiv for them.

Can an AI assistant write posts in beehiiv?

Yes on paid plans. The MCP guide lists creating and editing post content, and says free plans have read-only access.