Comparison — from the record, 2026-08-26
Kit (ConvertKit) vs beehiiv: the 10,000-subscriber free tier changes the maths
OUR PICK
Our pick: Kit — the deepest free runway in the category, by a distance. It flips to beehiiv the day monetization becomes the plan.
Kit's free plan holds up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts, landing pages and forms — read off their own pricing slider. beehiiv's free Launch plan stops at 2,500. For the early newsletter this comparison's searchers are usually running, that's years of free runway against months, and when you do outgrow it, Kit's Creator plan starts at $33/month against beehiiv Scale's $49.
The other way: Pick beehiiv when making money is the point: its paid tiers bundle an ad network, paid recommendations and a referral program, and it takes 0% of paid-subscription revenue. Know Kit's free-tier catch too — no automations or email sequences until the $33 Creator plan, where beehiiv's free tier includes a website and podcast hosting.
How to read this page: every number below was read from the vendor’s own public pricing page on the date shown, and the pages are re-checked daily. Currencies differ because that is what each vendor showed an EU visitor. Some links on this page are affiliate links — if you subscribe through one we earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. Per
our method, that never changes a number or a verdict. Source links always point to the vendor’s plain page.
The two pricing pages, side by side
Kit — USD, read 2026-08-26
| Plan | Price | Contacts | What the page says |
|---|
| Free | Free | up to 10,000 | 1 user; unlimited landing pages, forms and email broadcasts; tagging & segmentation; sell digital products; no automations or sequences; Kit branding stays |
| Creator | $33/mo ($32.5 annual) | from 1,000 (slider) | 2 users; unlimited visual automations and email sequences, integrations, RSS, A/B subject tests, 24/7 support |
| Pro | $66/mo ($65.83 annual) | from 1,000 (slider) | Unlimited users; adds Smart Recommendations, Facebook custom audiences, newsletter referral system (SparkLoop), engagement scoring |
Source: https://kit.com/pricing · read 2026-08-26 (UTC) · Paid prices shown at the 1,000-subscriber slider position (the slider's floor); annual billing saves 17% (Creator $390/yr, Pro $790/yr at 1,000). Full monthly ladder captured by driving the slider — see notes.
beehiiv — USD, read 2026-08-26
| Plan | Price | Contacts | What the page says |
|---|
| Launch | Free | up to 2,500 | Newsletters, website and podcast, campaign analytics; no ad network or paid recommendations |
| Scale | $49/mo ($43 annual) | from 1,000 (scales) | Ad network, recommendations, paid subscriptions at 0% take rate, beehiiv AI, API (excl. Send API) |
| Max | $109/mo ($96 annual) | from 1,000 (scales) | Removes beehiiv branding, sponsorship storefront, teams (3 seats), priority human support |
| Enterprise | Custom | 100K+ | Custom volume, demo required |
Source: https://www.beehiiv.com/pricing · read 2026-08-26 (UTC) · Paid prices shown at the up-to-1,000-subscriber slider position and rise with subscriber count. Annual billing saves ~12% (Scale $517/yr, Max $1,151/yr); the annual per-month rates are shown alongside.
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What the record says
Two creator platforms, two very different ideas of what to give away. Kit's pricing page (read 2026-08-26, slider driven through every position) leads with a free plan that manages up to 10,000 subscribers — unlimited broadcasts, unlimited landing pages and forms, tagging and segmentation, even selling digital products. beehiiv's Launch plan is free to 2,500 subscribers but includes things Kit's free tier doesn't: a website, podcast hosting, and beehiiv's recommendation network.
The free-tier fine print matters equally in both directions. Kit's catch: no visual automations and no email sequences until you pay — the free plan sends broadcasts, not automated journeys — plus one user and Kit branding. beehiiv's catch: the monetization features that define the platform (the ad network, paid recommendations) don't exist on Launch; they start on Scale at $49/month at the 1,000-subscriber position.
Paid against paid, the recorded ladders run close: Kit Creator $33/$50/$75 monthly at 1k/3k/5k subscribers against beehiiv Scale's $49 at 1k (annual $43); both save on annual billing (Kit −17%). Kit's Pro at $66 adds a sponsor-facing layer — Smart Recommendations, a SparkLoop-powered referral system. beehiiv's Max at $109 removes branding and opens the sponsorship storefront. Neither plays promo-then-renewal games; both prices simply climb with your list, and we recorded both ladders point by point.
So the honest decision rule: if you're building the audience first — the common case — Kit's 10,000-subscriber free runway is the category's best offer, and $33 buys automations when you need them. If the newsletter is already a revenue plan — ads, sponsorships, paid subscriptions — beehiiv's rails (0% take, ad network, recommendations marketplace) are built exactly for that, and its free tier's website and podcast make a fuller free stack for a content brand despite the lower subscriber cap.
Beyond the price tag
Free-tier trade
Kit: 4× the subscribers (10,000 vs 2,500), unlimited broadcasts, digital-product sales — but no automations or sequences. beehiiv: fewer free subscribers but a website, podcast hosting and the recommendations network from day one.
Monetization
beehiiv is the monetization platform: ad network, paid recommendations, referral program, 0% take on paid subscriptions (Stripe's fees only). Kit counters on Pro with its sponsor network and SparkLoop referrals, and takes no cut of digital-product or subscription revenue either — the difference is beehiiv's ad marketplace has no Kit equivalent at Creator level.
Automation
Kit's paid plans are the stronger marketing-automation product — unlimited visual automations and sequences from $33, with the integrations ecosystem of a decade-old ESP. beehiiv has automations, but its pricing page sells publishing and monetization first.
Questions people actually search
Is Kit really free to 10,000 subscribers?
Yes — read directly off kit.com/pricing: the free plan is labeled 'Free — up to 10,000 subscribers' with unlimited broadcasts, landing pages and forms. The limits are one user, Kit branding, and no automations or sequences until the Creator plan.
Which is cheaper once I pay?
Kit at every recorded point up to 10,000 subscribers: Creator is $33/$50/$75/$116 monthly at 1k/3k/5k/10k against beehiiv Scale's $49 at the 1,000-subscriber position (larger beehiiv tiers weren't fully recorded). Both discount annual billing.
Who takes a cut of my revenue?
Neither takes a platform cut of paid subscriptions — beehiiv states 0% explicitly and Kit charges no transaction share on top of processing either. The monetization difference is infrastructure: beehiiv's ad network and paid recommendations have no direct Kit equivalent below Pro.
I searched 'ConvertKit' — same thing?
Yes. ConvertKit renamed to Kit in 2024; kit.com is the same product and the prices here are from Kit's current page.
THE VERDICT, ONE MORE TIME
Our pick: Kit — the deepest free runway in the category, by a distance. It flips to beehiiv the day monetization becomes the plan.
Kit's free plan holds up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts, landing pages and forms — read off their own pricing slider. beehiiv's free Launch plan stops at 2,500. For the early newsletter this comparison's searchers are usually running, that's years of free runway against months, and when you do outgrow it, Kit's Creator plan starts at $33/month against beehiiv Scale's $49.
We verified the prices and plan limits on both vendors' own pages (dates shown above) — Kit's full slider ladder was recorded position by position. Feature descriptions summarize what each vendor's own materials emphasize; we have not run a hands-on test. The method →
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