beehiiv review

What beehiiv is for

beehiiv is an email newsletter platform built by former Morning Brew engineers, positioned less as “another Mailchimp” and more as infrastructure for a newsletter that wants to become a real media business: writing and sending, growing the list, charging for subscriptions and selling ads, all inside one product. beehiiv’s Free plan gets a new newsletter to 2,500 subscribers with no bill, and the paid tiers unlock the parts that turn a list into revenue.

Where it shines

The biggest structural difference from Substack is money. Lite and Pro plans take 0% of paid subscription revenue, only Stripe’s processing fee, so a $10/month subscriber nets a creator roughly $9.41 on beehiiv versus roughly $8.40 that Substack’s 10% platform cut plus Stripe’s fee leaves. Beyond that, beehiiv bundles a real ad network that connects newsletters with sponsors directly in the dashboard, a paid Recommendation Network (the feature formerly called Boosts) that lets creators buy or sell subscriber growth from other newsletters, and a website builder with custom domains, so the newsletter can function as a full site rather than a bare landing page. AI tools for subject lines, drafting and segmentation live in the editor instead of requiring a separate app.

Where it frays

Cost scales with the list. The $59/month Lite price (roughly $49 effective billed annually) covers only the first 1,000 subscribers; beehiiv’s pricing page then steps it up in bands, to $79 at 2,500, $139 at 10,000, $299 at 50,000 and $469 at 100,000, where Lite stops. Pro climbs on its own ladder, from $109/month (roughly $95 annual, with 10 seats) to $699 at 100,000 and $999 at 250,000. A growing newsletter’s bill rises with it, so price the band you expect to reach in a year, not today’s, before committing to a plan. Review sites consistently flag automation as thin next to dedicated ESPs like ActiveCampaign or Klaviyo, and beehiiv’s Trustpilot score sits at a middling 4.1 out of 5 across 344 reviews, with a recurring cluster of one-star complaints about being billed after cancelling and accounts getting suspended without much warning.

Who should buy it

Buy beehiiv if the newsletter is, or is meant to become, a business: charging for subscriptions without giving up a cut, selling ads, and eventually owning a website and audience that doesn’t depend on someone else’s app. Stick with Substack if you’re an early-stage or hobbyist writer who wants to publish for free indefinitely and lean on its built-in reader network for discovery, at least until charging real money makes beehiiv’s monthly plan, which rises with your list size, the better trade.