Beehiiv vs ConvertKit is one of the most common questions I get since I run TrendSpends on Beehiiv myself. Both platforms are excellent, but they’re built with different creators in mind, and picking the wrong one can mean months of wasted setup time or fees you didn’t need to pay.
ConvertKit’s been around longer and has a loyal following among course creators, so I dug into both platforms side by side to give you a straight answer instead of a biased one.
Here’s the short version: if you’re building a newsletter as the business itself, Beehiiv wins. If you already have a product or course and need email to support sales, ConvertKit is built for that instead. Let me walk through why.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you sign up through my link, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend tools I actually use.
What Is ConvertKit?
ConvertKit launched in 2013 as an email marketing tool for bloggers and course creators. It was built for people who already have something to sell — an ebook, a course, a coaching offer — and need email automation to move subscribers toward a purchase.
Beehiiv, on the other hand, was built in 2021 by former Morning Brew employees specifically for newsletter creators who want to monetize the newsletter itself — through ads, referrals, and paid subscriptions — rather than using email as a funnel to something else.
That difference in origin explains almost everything else on this list.
Beehiiv vs ConvertKit: Pricing Breakdown
Beehiiv Pricing
- Launch (Free): Up to 2,500 subscribers, unlimited sends, website builder, custom domain
- Scale: Starting at $34.40/month (billed annually) — unlocks the ad network, Boosts, paid subscriptions with 0% revenue share, and automations
- Max: Starting at $76.80/month — removes branding, adds audio newsletters and sponsorship storefront
ConvertKit Pricing
- Newsletter (Free): Up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited landing pages, forms, and traffic
- Creator: Starting at $33/month (billed yearly) — adds free recommendations, unlimited automations
- Pro: Starting at $66/month (billed yearly) — adds smart recommendations, Facebook custom audiences, newsletter referral system
ConvertKit’s free tier looks more generous on subscriber count, but the features that actually matter — automation sequences, tagging — sit behind the paid plans. Beehiiv’s free plan gives you more usable functionality out of the gate, just at a lower subscriber ceiling.
My honest take: if you’re starting from zero, Beehiiv’s free plan gets you further before you need to pay anything.
👉 Start free on Beehiiv here — no credit card needed.
Where Beehiiv Wins: Monetization
When comparing Beehiiv vs ConvertKit on monetization, this is the core difference. Beehiiv’s Scale plan gives you:
- Ad Network — pre-approved advertisers pay per click, no audience minimum required to get matched
- Boosts — earn per subscriber when you recommend other newsletters to your list
- Paid subscriptions at 0% revenue share — Substack takes 10% of everything; Beehiiv keeps nothing
ConvertKit doesn’t have an equivalent built-in ad network or referral marketplace. It has “Creator Network” recommendations and digital product/tip jar features, but nothing structured the way Beehiiv’s Boosts and Ad Network are.
If your plan is to make the newsletter itself the income source — not just a funnel to something else — this is the deciding factor.
👉 Try Beehiiv free — no credit card required
Where ConvertKit Wins: Email Automation
On the Beehiiv vs ConvertKit automation question, ConvertKit’s visual automation builder is genuinely more advanced than Beehiiv’s. You can build detailed subscriber journeys — tag someone based on a link click, trigger a sequence, score subscribers by engagement — with a level of granularity Beehiiv doesn’t match yet.
If you’re selling a course or a coaching package and need email to nurture someone from “just subscribed” to “just bought,” ConvertKit’s automation depth is worth the steeper price and learning curve.
Design and Ease of Use
Design is another area where Beehiiv vs ConvertKit diverge sharply. Beehiiv feels more polished right out of the box. The editor is clean, templates look professional with almost no tweaking needed, and you can go from signup to a published newsletter in under an hour — that matched my own experience setting up TrendSpends.
ConvertKit gives you more flexibility, but it takes longer to feel comfortable in. If you want to launch fast without much fiddling, Beehiiv has the edge.
Beehiiv vs ConvertKit Comparison Table
| Feature | Beehiiv | ConvertKit |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | ✅ Up to 2,500 subs, most features unlocked | ✅ Up to 10,000 subs, key features locked |
| Built-in ad network | ✅ Yes (Scale plan) | ❌ Not available |
| Referral/cross-promo marketplace | ✅ Boosts | ⚠️ Creator Network (more limited) |
| Paid subscription revenue share | ✅ 0% | N/A — not core to platform |
| Automation depth | ⚠️ Basic to moderate | ✅ Advanced visual builder |
| Website builder included | ✅ Yes, full site + SEO | ❌ No |
| Best for | Newsletter-first creators | Creators selling products/courses |
Who Should Choose Beehiiv
- You’re building a newsletter and want monetization tools ready from day one
- You want a built-in website that’s SEO-indexed automatically
- You’re moving from Substack and don’t want to lose 10% to revenue share
- You want a clean setup without a steep learning curve
Who Should Choose ConvertKit
- You already sell a course, product, or coaching offer
- You need advanced tagging and multi-step automation sequences
- Your email list exists to support sales, not to monetize on its own
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I migrate from ConvertKit to Beehiiv? Yes — Beehiiv supports subscriber list imports, and has documentation specifically for migrating from other providers including ConvertKit.
Does Beehiiv have a free plan? Yes, up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends, a custom domain, and a full website builder included.
Which is better for beginners? Beehiiv, mainly because the free plan unlocks more of what you’d actually want to use, and the interface takes less time to learn.
Can I use both platforms for different projects? You could, but for most people picking one and going deep gets better results than splitting effort and subscriber lists across two tools.
Final Verdict
Both platforms are strong — they’re just solving different problems. Beehiiv is built for creators who want the newsletter itself to be the business. ConvertKit is built for creators who already have something to sell and need email to support it.
For most people starting from scratch who want monetization built in without stitching together separate tools, Beehiiv is the easier and cheaper starting point.
My rating: Beehiiv 4.4/5 for newsletter-first creators, ConvertKit 4/5 for product-first creators
