beehiiv
Newsletter platform with a website, referrals, an ad network and paid subscriptions.
- Price
- Lite for 5k subscribers: $109/month ($95 billed yearly)
- Free plan
- Yes
- Setup
- No code
- Up and running
- An hour to publish the first issue; the custom domain verifies within a day.
What beehiiv is for
beehiiv is a newsletter platform: it gives you the newsletter, a website with your posts, a referral program and ways to earn from it (ads, sponsors, paid subscriptions). It is for when the newsletter is a growth channel or a product in itself, not for the emails your app sends on its own like login codes or receipts.
How it plugs into your product
- 1Create a free publication; it comes with a website and sign-up form on a beehiiv address.
- 2Connect your own domain and add the DNS records, including DMARC, which beehiiv requires on custom domains.
- 3Import only subscribers who opted in: you have to confirm that at import.
- 4Write and send posts from the editor; turn on referrals, ads or paid subscriptions as the list grows.
Does it fit your idea?
It fits if
- A founder whose newsletter is the product, earning from sponsors or paid subscriptions.
- A B2B startup using a weekly newsletter as its main growth channel, with referrals to spread it.
- A creator under 2,500 subscribers who wants to start free with unlimited sends.
Look elsewhere if
- You need onboarding emails triggered by what users do in your app: Loops is built for that.
- You need login codes and receipts: use a transactional service like Resend or Postmark.
- You want your own brand only, with no beehiiv mark, on a small budget: removing it starts at Pro.
What people only find out after building
Read this before you build on it. Each item links to the official page that says so.
beehiiv branding stays on Free and Lite; only Pro ($109/month at 1,000 subscribers) and Enterprise remove it.
Official source: beehiiv.comEmail automations start at Lite, and the Send API, needed to fire emails from your own code, only comes with Pro.
Official source: beehiiv.comAn import that would push you past your plan's subscriber limit (2,500 on Free) stays on hold as a whole, even the part that would fit, until you upgrade.
Official source: beehiiv.comImporting contacts who didn't opt in breaks the terms and can get the service terminated.
Official source: beehiiv.com
Price
Lite for 5k subscribers: $109/month ($95 billed yearly)
Up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends.
- Free tier
- 2,500 subscribers
- Price for 5k contacts
- $109/month (Lite)
- Automations
- From the Lite plan
Checked on Oct 28, 2026 · official pricing
What it costs in practice
A newsletter with 5,000 subscribers on Lite: $109/month, or $95/month billed yearly ($1,140). Removing beehiiv branding means Pro: $199/month. Rough estimate.
Estimate from the official price. Check it before you decide.
At a glance
- Free plan: yes
- Open source: no
“Not stated” means the official site doesn’t say.
Who uses it
Alternatives
Compare side by side
KitEmail marketing for creators (formerly ConvertKit), with sequences, automations and digital product sales.
MailchimpLong-running email marketing platform with campaigns, automations and a drag-and-drop editor.
LoopsEmail for SaaS: product updates, onboarding flows and transactional email in one place.
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