beehiiv is a newsletter platform for writing, sending and earning from an email list, with a website builder, an ad network and an AI agent built in, and it is best for creators and small media businesses that want to grow a newsletter and make money from it without giving a platform a cut of subscriptions. It is free up to 2,500 subscribers, and paid plans start at $49 a month billed yearly (checked 24 October 2026); I score it 7.0 out of 10. The angle here is timing: beehiiv raised prices on 1 October, monthly customers start paying them from 1 November, and the jump lands hardest at the list size where most newsletters stall.
Disclosure: I don’t earn a commission from beehiiv. It runs a partner program for its own users, but I haven’t joined it, so every beehiiv link on this page is a plain link.
The short version
beehiiv in five lines
| Line | Where it lands |
|---|---|
| Time | A first issue can go out the day you sign up; a paid tier, ads and automations take a few weeks to set up well |
| Cost | Free to 2,500 subscribers; Lite from $49 a month billed yearly ($59 monthly) for up to 1,000, rising with list size |
| Output | Newsletter, website, landing pages, paid subscriptions, ad placements, polls, referral program and an AI agent |
| Real earning path | Setting up and running newsletters for small businesses that already have customers |
| Overall | 7.0/10 |
Start a list here, or look elsewhere?
Start here if you plan to earn from the newsletter itself, through sponsors, a paid tier or both, and you want the sending, website and monetisation tools in one account. The free plan is a fair place to find out whether you can actually write every week.
Look elsewhere if you only need to email customers about your shop or service, your list will sit between 2,500 and 10,000 subscribers for a while, or you need a refund safety net. Kit’s free plan covers far more subscribers, and beehiiv sells no refunds at all.
How I put this review together
I haven’t run a paid newsletter on beehiiv, so this is a research review, not a hands-on test. On 24 October 2026 I read beehiiv’s pricing page, its Terms of Use (effective 6 October 2026), help articles on refunds, the partner program and beehiiv Agent, its blog post on paid recommendations, the Trustpilot, Capterra and G2 pages, news coverage of the October price change from PPC Land and Net Influencer, PricingSaaS’s change log, a third-party tier table from SendX, and the pricing pages of Kit and Ghost. All maths is my own. My scores:
| Area | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Ease of use | 8/10 | G2 users give it 9.0 for ease of use; a minority on Trustpilot call the editor laggy |
| Output quality | 8/10 | Deliverability, analytics and monetisation tools draw steady praise |
| Value for money | 6/10 | 0% cut on paid subscriptions, but a 27.5% rise at 10,000 subscribers and a small free tier next to Kit |
| Trust and support | 6/10 | Replies to 95% of negative Trustpilot reviews, but no refunds, account-lock complaints and four pricing changes in about 90 days |
| Overall | 7.0/10 | Average of the four |
If a price or rule here has changed, tell me through the contact page and I’ll correct it.
Some background: beehiiv launched in 2021 and is run by co-founder and CEO Tyler Denk. Net Influencer, citing the company, reports more than 170,000 publications on it by Q2 2026; that is a company figure, not an audited one.
Is beehiiv free?
Yes, up to 2,500 subscribers, with no card and no time limit. The free plan includes unlimited sends, one publication, one team seat, landing pages, the recommendation network, the API and a 30-day analytics window. beehiiv branding stays on, and paid subscriptions and ad monetisation are not on the free card. The pricing page says Lite and Pro come with a free trial that needs no card but doesn’t state its length; SendX’s guide says 14 days.
How much does beehiiv cost at 1,000, 10,000 or 100,000 subscribers?
Between $49 and $469 a month on Lite, depending on list size and billing. beehiiv’s own page shows only the starting yearly figures ($49 for Lite, $95 for Pro), so the full ladder below comes from SendX’s table, which matches those starting prices and the 10,000-subscriber figures reported by PPC Land and Net Influencer.
| Subscribers | Lite monthly | Lite yearly (per month) | Pro monthly | Pro yearly (per month) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Up to 1,000 | $59 | $49 | $109 | $95 |
| Up to 2,500 | $79 | $69 | $149 | $129 |
| Up to 5,000 | $109 | $95 | $199 | $169 |
| Up to 10,000 | $139 | $119 | $239 | $199 |
| Up to 25,000 | $199 | $169 | $349 | $299 |
| Up to 50,000 | $299 | $249 | $469 | $399 |
| Up to 100,000 | $469 | $399 | $699 | $599 |
Lite adds paid subscriptions, ad monetisation, automations, A/B tests, polls, three publications and two seats. Pro adds branding removal, webhooks, dynamic content, advanced analytics, ten seats, ten publications and priority support.
What changed in October 2026, and who pays more?
New customers pay the new prices from 1 October; existing monthly customers move to them at their first renewal on or after 1 November, with at least 30 days’ notice, and yearly customers keep their price until the term ends. The plans were also renamed: Launch, Scale and Max became Free, Lite and Pro.
At 10,000 subscribers, Lite went from $109 to $139 a month, a 27.5% rise worth $360 a year. Pro went from $219 to $239, about 9.1%. PricingSaaS also logged seat cuts in the same change: Lite from three seats to two, and Pro from unlimited to ten. It counts this as beehiiv’s fourth pricing change in about 90 days. One publisher argued in public that the maths stops working for newsletters under 10,000 subscribers without a paid tier; CEO Tyler Denk replied in a blog post that the company doesn’t “grow beehiiv by just raising prices.”
When is beehiiv cheaper than Substack’s 10%?
Once your paid subscriptions bring in more than ten times your beehiiv plan price each month. beehiiv takes 0% of paid subscription revenue; Substack takes 10%. Stripe’s processing fee (2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction, as beehiiv’s FAQ puts it) applies on both, so it cancels out of the comparison.
| List size | Lite, monthly billing | Paid revenue where Substack’s 10% costs more | Same, Lite billed yearly |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $59 | $590 a month | $490 a month |
| 5,000 | $109 | $1,090 a month | $950 a month |
| 10,000 | $139 | $1,390 a month | $1,190 a month |
| 25,000 | $199 | $1,990 a month | $1,690 a month |
One more small-print point: on a $5 monthly subscription, Stripe’s fee comes to about $0.45, or 8.9% of the price. Cheap tiers lose a lot to processing on any platform.
What does beehiiv’s AI actually do?
It drafts, edits and reads your numbers back to you. beehiiv Agent, per its help article updated 4 October 2026, writes intros and subject lines, explains open and click rates, suggests topics, writes sign-up and welcome copy, segments subscribers and turns podcast transcripts into posts. On Free it can only read and advise; Lite lets it create and edit content; Pro lets it schedule and send. The pricing page lists “AI Credits” on Pro without a number, and the help article names no usage limits, model providers or training terms.
beehiiv’s own launch workshop walks through writing, designing and sending a first issue, plus the ads and paid subscription settings. It was recorded in November 2024, so some screens have changed:
Can you get a refund from beehiiv?
No. Its help centre says “All sales are final upon subscription,” and lists non-use, forgetting to cancel and buying the wrong plan among the cases it won’t refund. Section 5 of the Terms says all fees are non-refundable, plans renew automatically at the then-current price, and cancelling mid-term gives no prorated refund. Start on the free plan or the trial, and only pick yearly billing once you are sure.
Two other clauses are worth reading before you build a business on it. Section 6 says you own your content but grants beehiiv a worldwide licence to use it, including derivative works of your “name, voice, and/or likeness,” in connection with the service. Section 3 lets it suspend accounts without liability for lost data or profits, so export your subscriber list regularly.
What do users say about beehiiv?
Mostly good things about the product and mixed things about support. On Trustpilot beehiiv scores 3.9 out of 5 from 413 reviews, 206 of them in the past year, with 66% five-star and 23% one-star. Praise covers easy setup, deliverability, the ad network and support; complaints, several from early 2026, describe locked accounts with little explanation, sudden limit changes and a laggy editor. beehiiv replies to 95% of negative reviews, usually with a templated note.
Capterra shows 4.4 out of 5 from 16 reviews, with 4.4 for ease of use and for customer service; the cons mention a busy interface, limited automations and the jump from free to paid. G2’s comparison with Ghost gives beehiiv 9.0 out of 10 for ease of use and 8.6 for quality of support.
Strengths and weak spots
Strengths
- 0% cut of paid subscription and digital product revenue
- Unlimited sends on every plan, including Free
- Ad network, paid recommendations and referral program built in
- Up to 3 publications on Lite, 10 on Pro
- AI agent and MCP access on every plan
Weak spots
- No refunds, and plans renew automatically
- 27.5% rise at 10,000 subscribers on Lite
- Free plan stops at 2,500 subscribers
- Seats cut to 2 on Lite and 10 on Pro
- AI credit limits not published
Is Kit, Substack or Ghost a better fit?
Kit is the better deal for a list that won’t earn much for a while, Substack wins for small paid newsletters, and Ghost is the cheapest paid plan here if you are happy to set more up yourself.
| Tool | Price at about 1,000 subscribers (checked 24 October 2026) | Platform cut on paid subs | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| beehiiv Lite | $59/mo, or $49/mo billed yearly; free to 2,500 | 0% (Stripe fees apply) | Newsletters earning from ads and a paid tier |
| Kit | Free plan to 10,000 subscribers; Creator $33/mo or $390/yr | Kit’s page lists both 0.6% and 3.5% + 30¢ (unclear) | Creators selling products by email |
| Substack | Free | 10% (plus Stripe) | Writers starting a small paid newsletter |
| Ghost(Pro) Publisher | $29/mo billed yearly | 0% (Stripe fees apply) | Publishers who want an open-source site |
| Systeme.io | See my review | See my review | Funnels and courses with email on the side |
If you write the issues yourself, my Grammarly review covers what the paid tier adds for proofreading, and the Canva review covers the licence rules for newsletter graphics. Podcasters turning episodes into issues may also want the Descript review.
Should you pay for beehiiv?
Pay for it once a paid tier or sponsors are bringing in more than the plan costs, and not before. Until then the free plan does the job up to 2,500 subscribers. If you are already a monthly customer, check your renewal date: the new price arrives with the first renewal on or after 1 November, and switching to yearly billing at today’s tier is the cheapest way to soften it, provided you are sure you’ll stay, because beehiiv won’t refund the year.
Making beehiiv pay through client work
Small businesses pay freelancers to set up and run newsletters on platforms like this. My earning guide uses Fiverr’s own price ranges, works through a three-client month and covers the email and disclosure rules.
beehiiv questions people ask
Is beehiiv free?
Yes, up to 2,500 subscribers with no card required. The free plan includes unlimited sends and one publication, but paid subscriptions and ad monetisation need Lite or Pro.
How much does beehiiv cost for 10,000 subscribers?
$139 a month on Lite with monthly billing, or $119 a month billed yearly, since the October 2026 price change. Pro costs $239 monthly or $199 a month billed yearly at that size.
Does beehiiv take a cut of paid subscriptions?
No. beehiiv takes 0% of paid subscription and digital product revenue; you pay only Stripe’s processing fee of 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction.
Is beehiiv better than Substack?
It is cheaper once your paid subscriptions earn more than ten times your plan price each month. Below that, Substack’s free platform with its 10% cut costs less.
Can I get a refund from beehiiv?
No. beehiiv’s help centre says all sales are final, and its Terms say fees are non-refundable with no prorated refund if you cancel mid-term.
Does beehiiv have AI?
Yes. beehiiv Agent drafts and edits content, explains your metrics and segments subscribers; it is read-only on Free and can edit on Lite and send on Pro. beehiiv doesn’t publish its AI credit limits.
Did beehiiv raise its prices?
Yes. New prices started on 1 October 2026 for new customers and apply to existing monthly customers from their first renewal on or after 1 November 2026; at 10,000 subscribers Lite rose from $109 to $139 a month.
Update log: 24 October 2026: first published, with prices checked that day.
Sources
- beehiiv pricing
- beehiiv Terms of Use (effective 6 October 2026)
- beehiiv help: Am I eligible for a refund?
- beehiiv help: What you can do with beehiiv Agent
- beehiiv help: Getting started with the Partner Program
- beehiiv blog: paid recommendations
- PPC Land: beehiiv faces complaints as Lite plan rises (8 October 2026)
- Net Influencer: beehiiv raises prices (6 October 2026)
- PricingSaaS: beehiiv renames its plans (2 October 2026)
- SendX: beehiiv pricing tiers (October 2026)
- Email Tool Tester: beehiiv pricing (2 October 2026)
- Trustpilot: beehiiv reviews
- Capterra: beehiiv reviews
- G2: Ghost vs beehiiv
- Kit pricing
- Ghost pricing
- YouTube: A Complete Guide to Launching on beehiiv (beehiiv channel)
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