beehiiv review

How much does beehiiv cost?

beehiiv is free up to 2,500 subscribers, then costs $59 to $999 a month on monthly billing, depending on plan and list size. Paying yearly saves up to 20%, so Lite at 1,000 subscribers drops to $49 a month.

The plans changed on October 1, 2026. Launch became Free, Scale became Lite, and Max became Pro, with new prices for new customers. Existing customers move to the new prices at their first renewal on or after November 1, 2026.

• Up to 1,000 subscribers: Lite $59, Pro $109 a month
• Up to 2,500 subscribers: Lite $79, Pro $149 a month
• Up to 5,000 subscribers: Lite $109, Pro $199 a month
• Up to 10,000 subscribers: Lite $139, Pro $239 a month
• Up to 25,000 subscribers: Lite $199, Pro $349 a month
• Up to 100,000 subscribers: Lite $469, Pro $699 a month

Does beehiiv take a cut of paid subscriptions?

No. beehiiv takes 0% of paid subscription and digital product revenue. You pay Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, and that money goes to Stripe, not beehiiv.

The catch is that the free plan cannot sell subscriptions at all. To charge readers you need Lite, at $59 a month for up to 1,000 subscribers. Lite allows one paid tier. Pro adds unlimited tiers, paid trials, and group subscriptions.

This is the flat fee versus percentage trade. Substack costs 10.7 points more per payment, its 10% plus the 0.7% Stripe Billing fee its help center lists. That gap equals Lite's $59 at about $551 a month in revenue, and Lite's $109 at 5,000 subscribers at about $1,019. Below those numbers, a percentage costs you less, so check our fee comparison before you upgrade.

What do you get for the monthly fee?

You get the broadest growth and ad toolkit in this category. Every plan includes unlimited email sends, a website builder, podcast hosting, community, and the recommendation network. Lite adds paid subscriptions, the Ad Network, automations, A/B testing, polls, and a referral program.

The Ad Network brings sponsors to you, but beehiiv's pricing page says it is not available during the trial or in every region. Pro removes beehiiv branding, raises the cap to 250,000 subscribers, and adds 10 team seats and 10 publications.

Pick beehiiv if ads matter as much as subscriptions. If you only sell subscriptions and want a full website, compare it with Ghost, which costs less at the same list size.

Who owns your list and your payments on beehiiv?

You do. beehiiv exports posts and subscribers as CSV files, and the full subscriber export includes custom fields and statistics.

Paid subscriptions run through a personal Stripe account that beehiiv's help center describes as fully owned and managed by you. One quirk: you cannot connect a Stripe account you already used outside beehiiv's setup, so you create a new one. beehiiv's import tool then copies paid subscribers over from your old platform's Stripe account.

Custom domains for your website and sending address need a paid plan. On Free, your site lives on a beehiiv subdomain.

Subscription and digital product revenue goes into your connected Stripe account. Ad Network, paid recommendation, and sponsorship earnings use a separate Stripe Express account linked to your beehiiv Wallet.

Sales tax is your job. beehiiv can collect tax IDs at checkout, but putting tax on invoices requires Stripe Tax onboarding in your own Stripe account.

Who should skip beehiiv?

Skip beehiiv if you only sell subscriptions to a list under 10,000. Kit's free plan charges 3.5% + $0.30 all-in with no monthly bill, and its extra 0.6% only passes Lite's $59 at about $9,800 a month in sales.

Skip it too if you need several paid tiers on a small budget. Lite allows one tier, and unlimited tiers start on Pro at $109 a month for 1,000 subscribers.