beehiiv vs Kit (formerly ConvertKit): Plans, Fees and the $33,000 Break-Even

beehiiv and Kit, the company formerly called ConvertKit, are the two email platforms built most directly for creators, and they are compared 140 times a month in the United States. They solve different problems. Kit was built for creators who sell products and courses; beehiiv for newsletters that sell subscriptions and advertising. The pricing of each follows that difference.

This comparison uses Kit's own pricing page for Kit and beehiiv's for beehiiv, both read on 9 October 2026. beehiiv's comparison page against Kit is cited where useful, as the vendor's own argument.

The short answer

• Free: Kit's free plan goes to 10,000 subscribers and lets you sell products and subscriptions; beehiiv's goes to 2,500 and allows one digital product but no subscriptions.
• Entry paid plan at 1,000 subscribers: Kit Creator $390 a year, beehiiv Lite $588 a year.
• Fees on sales: Kit charges 3.5% plus 30 cents including card processing; beehiiv passes on Stripe's 2.9% plus $0.30 and takes nothing. The difference is 0.6 points.
• Break-even: at about $33,000 a year of paid revenue, beehiiv's lower fees pay for its higher plan.

Below that, Kit costs less. Above it, beehiiv does. Kit's automation for product funnels is deeper; beehiiv's tools for audience growth and advertising are broader.

## How Kit charges

Kit's pricing page, read for 1,000 subscribers, shows three plans: Free, Creator and Pro ^[20]. Free is $0 for up to 10,000 subscribers, with unlimited landing pages, forms and broadcasts, tagging and segmentation, and selling digital products and subscriptions included. Creator is $33 a month, or $390 billed yearly, adding unlimited visual automations and sequences, removal of Kit branding, and 24/7 email and chat support. Pro is shown at $50 a month as a first-year offer against a list price of $66, adding unlimited users, engagement scoring and deliverability reporting ^[20].

On sales, Kit lists 3.5% plus 30 cents and says the fee is "inclusive of credit card processing fees, so Kit only takes 0.6% of the total fees" ^[20]. On paid recommendations, it lists a fee of 23.5% ^[20].

How beehiiv charges

beehiiv sells Free, Lite, Pro and Enterprise, priced by active subscribers across the whole workspace ^[4]. At 1,000 subscribers, Lite is $59 a month or $588 a year, Pro $109 or $1,140 ^[3]. beehiiv takes 0% of paid subscriptions ^[17] and 20% of paid recommendations ^[13]. Stripe's 2.9% plus $0.30 applies to each charge.

## Price at 1,000 subscribers, billed annually

	Kit	beehiiv
Free plan ceiling	10,000 subscribers	2,500 subscribers
Selling on the free plan	Products and subscriptions	One digital product; no subscriptions
Entry paid plan	Creator, $390 a year	Lite, $588 a year
Branding removed	From Creator	From Pro only
Higher plan	Pro, $593 first year (offer)	Pro, $1,140 a year
Fee on paid subscriptions	3.5% + 30c incl. processing	0% + Stripe 2.9% + $0.30
Fee on paid recommendations	23.5%	20%

From both vendors' pricing pages ^{[20] [3]}. We could read Kit's prices only for the 1,000-subscriber tier, the one its page shows by default.

One line is easy to miss. Removing branding costs $390 a year at Kit and $1,140 a year at beehiiv at this size, because beehiiv reserves it for Pro ^[3].

The break-even on fees

The plan gap at 1,000 subscribers is $198 a year in Kit's favour. The fee gap is 0.6 points of gross sales in beehiiv's favour. They meet at $33,000 a year.

Worked example 1. 150 readers paying $6 a month bring $10,800 a year. Kit's extra 0.6 points cost $65. beehiiv's extra plan cost is $198. Kit is $133 cheaper.

Worked example 2. 300 readers paying $10 a month bring $36,000. Kit's extra 0.6 points cost $216. beehiiv's extra plan cost is $198. beehiiv is $18 cheaper: level, in practice.

Worked example 3. 1,000 readers paying $8 a month bring $96,000, on a list that would sit on a higher tier at both vendors. The fee difference alone is $576 a year in beehiiv's favour.

Our arithmetic. Plan prices at higher tiers differ from the 1,000-subscriber figures above, so check both vendors' sliders at your own list size.

## What each plan includes, side by side

From the two vendors' own pricing pages, at the entry paid plans ^{[20] [3]}:

	Kit Creator	beehiiv Lite
Automations	Unlimited visual automations and sequences	10 live automations
Branding removed	Yes	No, Pro only
Seats	Not stated on the card	2
Publications	Not stated on the card	3
A/B testing	Subject lines	Yes
Polls and surveys	Polls	Polls and surveys
RSS campaigns	Yes	No, Pro only (RSS to Send)
SMS marketing	Yes	Not offered in the feature table
MCP connection for AI tools	Yes	Yes, with write access
Support	24/7 email and chat	Tickets; no email or phone channel
Ad network	Newsletter sponsorships listed	Ad Network, paid monthly
Website and podcast	Landing pages	Website builder and podcast hosting

At the next plan up, Kit Pro adds unlimited users, subscriber engagement scoring, deliverability reporting and a Growth Concierge team ^[20]; beehiiv Pro adds branding removal, unlimited automations, dynamic content, the Send API and ten seats ^[3].

The pattern is clear. At the entry level Kit gives more automation and more white-label for less money; beehiiv gives more publishing surface and more ways to earn.

Fees per charge, not per year

The 0.6-point difference looks small as a percentage, so here it is per payment. On a $5 monthly subscription, Kit's 3.5% plus 30 cents is $0.475 a charge, 9.5% of the payment. beehiiv's Stripe fee of 2.9% plus $0.30 is $0.445, or 8.9%. On a $50 annual subscription, Kit takes $2.05 (4.1%) and Stripe on beehiiv $1.75 (3.5%). Our arithmetic on both vendors' published fees ^{[20] [17]}.

Either way, the fixed 30 cents dominates small monthly payments. Pricing annual plans saves more on fees than choosing between these two platforms.

## Paid recommendations, priced on both

Both vendors run a marketplace where newsletters pay each other for new subscribers. Kit lists its fee at 23.5%, beehiiv at 20% ^{[20] [13]}.

Worked example. Buying 1,000 new subscribers at a $2.00 offer costs $2,000 on either platform. On beehiiv, $400 of that is the platform's fee and $1,600 reaches the recommending newsletters. On Kit, at 23.5%, $470 is the fee and $1,530 reaches them. Our arithmetic, assuming the fee is deducted from the offer price on both, which beehiiv states and Kit's table implies.

Free plans, in practice

A creator with 6,000 subscribers who sells a $29 guide. On Kit Free, the list fits and the guide can be sold from day one, with Kit's 3.5% plus 30 cents on each sale ^[20]. On beehiiv, the list does not fit Free's 2,500, so a paid plan is needed before anything else; at the 10,000 tier that is $139 a month or $1,428 a year ^[3].

A writer with 1,800 subscribers who will not sell for a year. Both free plans fit. beehiiv Free adds a website, podcast feed and recommendation network ^[3]; Kit Free adds unlimited landing pages and forms ^[20]. This one is a matter of taste, not cost.

Promotional pricing to watch

Kit's Pro plan is shown with a first-year offer, $50 a month against a list price of $66, billed at $593 for the first year ^[20]. Kit's page also advertises pay yearly, save 17%. Budget for the list price in year two. beehiiv's published prices carry no first-year discount ^[3], though promotion codes and affiliate discounts can apply at checkout ^[4].

What beehiiv's comparison page claims

beehiiv's page against Kit lists beehiiv at $119 for up to 10,000 subscribers and $399 for up to 100,000, against Kit at Free, with ads and $679 ^[48]. The beehiiv figures match its own Lite annual prices expressed per month. We could not confirm the $679 for Kit from Kit's own page, so treat it as beehiiv's figure, not Kit's.

The same page says "Kit takes a cut of every paid subscription and digital product sale." ^[48]. That is accurate, and Kit is open about it: its 0.6% is printed on its own pricing page.

Testing beehiiv's claim that its price does not spike

beehiiv's page against Kit promises "transparent pricing that doesn't spike as you grow" ^[48]. Transparent, yes: every tier is published ^[3]. Whether it spikes depends on how you measure. On monthly billing, Lite rises from $59 at 1,000 subscribers to $469 at 100,000, nearly eight times the price for a hundred times the list. Per thousand subscribers it falls from $59 to $4.69. Our arithmetic.

The steps between tiers are where a bill jumps. Crossing from 10,000 to 10,001 subscribers moves Lite from $139 to $199 a month, a 43% rise for one subscriber. That is how every tiered price works, including Kit's, but it is a spike in the plain sense, and auto-upgrade decides whether you pay it automatically ^[5].

Where Kit is stronger

• The free plan. Four times beehiiv's ceiling, with selling of products and subscriptions included.
• Branding removal on its first paid plan.
• Commerce automation. Even beehiiv's comparison page lists Kit as good for "Complex, commerce-based automations" and "Selling digital courses and products" ^[48].
• Support on the entry plan. Kit lists 24/7 email and chat support on Creator ^[20]; beehiiv has no email or phone channel on any self-serve plan ^[14].

Where beehiiv is stronger

• Fees on subscription revenue, by 0.6 points.
• Paid recommendations, at 20% against 23.5%.
• An ad network that pays monthly per open or click ^[11].
• Website, podcast and community on the same account ^[3].
• Multiple publications on one bill: three on Lite, ten on Pro.

Migration

beehiiv publishes a step-by-step guide for moving from Kit ^[45]. The usual checks apply: the whole list must fit the tier, because over-limit imports are held ^[9]; tags and custom fields need mapping; and Kit sequences have to be rebuilt as beehiiv automations, which are capped at ten live on Lite ^[3].

Paid subscribers cannot simply move from Kit

This is the most important practical fact in the comparison, and it comes from beehiiv's own migration guide. Free subscribers move with a CSV export and import, tags and locations included. Paid ones do not: "If your paid subscriptions are managed through Kit + Stripe Express, there is not a way to migrate over paid subscriptions to beehiiv." ^[45]. The guide explains that Kit does not expose the payment details needed to move them.

beehiiv offers two workarounds ^[45]:

1. Ask paid readers to subscribe again on beehiiv, after cancelling or refunding their Kit subscriptions, optionally with a discount link.
2. Grant complimentary access on beehiiv for the rest of each reader's current billing period, then ask them to subscribe.

Both mean some paying readers will not come back. If a tenth of 300 paying readers at $10 a month fail to resubscribe, that is $3,600 a year lost, more than ten years of the $198 plan difference at 1,000 subscribers. Our arithmetic. For a creator with an established paid base on Kit, that attrition is the real cost of switching, and it should be estimated before anything else.

Moving paid readers from Substack is different: beehiiv's Substack comparison says readers move through Stripe without being notified ^[16].

Subscription dates and history

By default beehiiv gives every imported subscriber the import date as their subscription date. The migration guide explains how to keep the original Kit sign-up dates by mapping the created-at field to a date custom field ^[45]. If you report subscriber tenure to sponsors, do this on the first import; it is harder to repair later.

Policies to compare before you choose

On beehiiv, "All sales are final upon subscription" ^[6], annual plans cannot pause ^[4], and growth above a tier is charged only if you turn on auto-upgrade; otherwise sends may be delayed ^[5]. Kit's pricing page advertises a 14-day free trial with no card and free migrations ^[20]. We have not yet measured Kit's refund and billing terms in full; we will when Kit's own review is published.

Questions to answer before you choose

1. What will you sell? Products and courses favour Kit; subscriptions and ads favour beehiiv.
2. How big is your list today? Under 10,000 and selling now, Kit Free covers it; beehiiv needs a paid plan.
3. What is your paid revenue? Under about $33,000 a year, Kit's plan saving is larger than beehiiv's fee saving.
4. Must branding go? Kit removes it at Creator; beehiiv at Pro.
5. How much automation do you need? More than ten live automations means beehiiv Pro.

Four creators, four answers

Creator	List	Revenue	Better fit
Course seller, launching	4,000	$12,000 a year in courses	Kit: free plan fits and allows selling
Paid newsletter, established on Kit	8,000	300 readers at $10	Kit, unless the paid base can be moved without loss
Paid newsletter, starting fresh	8,000	Same 300 paying readers	beehiiv: fees and ad income outweigh the plan gap
Media brand, three newsletters	30,000	Sponsors and ads	beehiiv: multiple publications, ad network

The second and third rows have identical numbers and opposite answers. The difference is the migration, not the platforms.

## Who should choose which

Choose Kit if you sell courses, templates or other products, if your list is under 10,000 and you want to sell before you pay anything, or if your paid revenue is under about $33,000 a year.

Choose beehiiv if the newsletter itself is the product, if you want ad revenue and recommendations as income, if you run several publications, or if your paid revenue is above about $33,000 a year.

Our composite score for beehiiv is 3.61. We have not yet published a score for Kit.