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Quick answer: Kit vs beehiiv is a question of where the money comes from. beehiiv is built to grow and monetize a newsletter: its free Launch plan covers 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends, its $43 a month Scale plan (billed yearly, or $49 monthly) opens the ad network, paid subscriptions at a 0 percent platform take and a referral program, and its $96 Max plan removes branding. Kit is built for a creator business that sells products and runs automations around a list: its free plan covers 10,000 subscribers, its $33 a month Creator plan (billed yearly) includes unlimited Visual Automations and sequences, and its Pro plan adds subscriber enrichment and deliverability reporting. If revenue comes from ads and paid newsletters, beehiiv. If it comes from courses, coaching and launches, Kit. Both pricing pages were read on September 5, 2026.
Free tiers: 2,500 versus 10,000 subscribers
beehiiv Launch is free to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends, a website, a podcast host, custom domains, campaign analytics, the recommendation network, link in bio, an AI website builder, read only API and MCP access, 1 team member and 3 publications. It has no automations, no A/B testing, no surveys, no paid subscriptions, no referral program and no ad network. Kit Free is free to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts, landing pages and forms, tagging, commerce and 1 user, and likewise no automations or sequences. Kit's ceiling is four times higher; beehiiv's free tier includes a podcast host and website that Kit's does not. Neither free tier lets you run a welcome sequence.
Paid plans, side by side
- beehiiv Scale, $43 a month billed yearly ($517), $49 monthly: ad network, recommendations, 0 percent take rate on paid subscriptions, digital products, community, email automations, surveys and polls, A/B testing, custom HTML, advanced website analytics, webhooks, write access for MCP and Agent, 3 seats, 3 publications, 25 AI credits a day, human support.
- beehiiv Max, $96 a month billed yearly ($1,151): Scale plus branding removal, sponsorship storefront, audio newsletters, RSS to send, dynamic content, click triggered automations, group subscriptions, Send API, AI bot control, up to 10 publications, unlimited seats, priority support. Enterprise is custom for 100,000 plus subscribers.
- Kit Creator, $33 a month billed yearly ($390) for 1,000 subscribers: unlimited Visual Automations and sequences, RSS campaigns, integrations, Kit MCP, SMS, polls, remove branding, 2 users, free migration, 24/7 chat and email support. Kit Pro, $66 billed yearly ($790): Subscriber Signals, engagement analytics and scoring, deliverability reporting, unlimited users, advanced A/B testing, Facebook custom audiences, a free SparkLoop referral plan.
Two pricing mechanics differ. beehiiv's paid tiers are quoted by subscriber band with a selector from 1,000 to 100,000 plus, and Scale and Max both carry a 100,000 subscriber limit. Kit's paid prices scale with a subscriber slider to 500,000 plus. At 1,000 subscribers, Kit Creator is $10 a month cheaper than beehiiv Scale on yearly billing and removes branding at that tier, where beehiiv needs Max.
Start a free Kit account, up to 10,000 subscribers
Monetization: where each platform takes its cut
- Paid subscriptions: beehiiv takes 0 percent on Scale and above; you pay Stripe's 2.9 percent plus 30 cents. Kit charges 3.5 percent plus 30 cents inclusive of processing on every plan, of which it says 0.6 percent is Kit's.
- Ads: beehiiv runs what it calls the industry's largest native ad network plus programmatic ads from Scale. Kit runs a newsletter sponsorship marketplace from Creator, with brands matched and every ad approved by you; the revenue split is not published on the pricing page.
- Recommendations: both have a creator to creator network. beehiiv's paid recommendations open at Scale. Kit keeps 23.5 percent of Paid Recommendations earnings on Creator and Pro.
- Products: both sell digital products from their entry paid tiers; beehiiv adds appointments on Max, Kit adds tip jars and recurring subscriptions on every plan including Free.
For a newsletter whose income is paid subscriptions, beehiiv's 0 percent take is the decisive number. For a creator whose income is a course launched to the list, the transaction fee matters less than the automation that runs the launch, and that is Kit's territory.
Automation and audience data
beehiiv's automations start at Scale and its click triggered automations at Max; the free tier has none. Kit's Creator plan includes unlimited Visual Automations with multiple entry points, split paths, purchase and date triggers, and integrated triggers from tools like Thinkific, Calendly and Typeform. Kit's own comparison page claims beehiiv's automations lack click based triggers and deep integrations and that Kit has 100 plus native integrations against beehiiv's 1; those are Kit's claims and we have not audited beehiiv's integration count, but beehiiv's own pricing table lists Giphy, Unsplash and API access under integrations and nothing else. On audience data, Kit Pro's Subscriber Signals enriches subscribers with job title, social reach and purchase history; beehiiv's Scale and Max offer 3D analytics and subscriber metrics but no enrichment product.
Deliverability, migration and support
Kit publishes a 99.8 percent delivery rate on its comparison page and sells deliverability reporting and a custom tracking domain on Pro; beehiiv lists optimized deliverability on every plan, with dedicated IP addresses on Enterprise and deliverability reports marked as coming soon there. Both offer migration: Kit's paid plans include a free migration by its in house team; beehiiv has a migration page. Support: beehiiv is AI assistant on Launch, human support on Scale, priority on Max; Kit is email on Free, 24/7 chat on Creator, priority on Pro. If your list is the revenue line, the authentication and reputation work behind those numbers is the same discipline we apply in email infrastructure for outbound clients.
Which one to choose
- Choose beehiiv if you are a newsletter first business monetizing through ads and paid subscriptions, you want a podcast and website included, and a 0 percent take on subscriptions matters more than automation depth.
- Choose Kit if you sell courses, coaching or products to your list, you need launch and nurture automations from the first paid tier, you want branding removed at $33 rather than $96, or you want 10,000 free subscribers of runway.
- Consider both free tiers first. Neither costs anything, neither includes automations, and the one that feels right in the editor is usually the one you keep.
Our Kit pricing guide breaks down every Kit plan, Kit vs Mailchimp covers the small business alternative, and our automation team builds the sequences, integrations and reporting around either platform for creators who would rather not.
Website, podcast, publications and AI credits
beehiiv bundles more than a newsletter. Every plan includes web hosting, subscribe forms, custom domains and website templates; custom webpages arrive on Scale and a custom robots.txt and AI bot control on Max. Podcasting is included at 1 episode a month and 1 show on Launch, 4 episodes on Scale, and unlimited episodes with 3 shows on Max. Publications are capped at 3 on Launch and Scale and 10 on Max, and AI credits at 10, 25, 50 and 100 a day by tier. Kit gives you a newsletter feed and website plus unlimited landing pages on every plan, does not host podcasts, runs one account rather than multiple publications, and does not meter AI on its pricing page at all. If you publish several newsletters or a podcast alongside one, beehiiv's structure fits; if you run one brand and want the email side to do more, Kit's does.
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Frequently Asked Questions
For a newsletter monetized through ads and paid subscriptions, beehiiv: its Scale plan opens an ad network, a referral program and paid subscriptions at a 0 percent platform take. For a newsletter that also sells courses or products and relies on automations, Kit: its Creator plan includes unlimited Visual Automations and sequences and removes branding at $33 a month billed yearly.
Kit's Free plan allows up to 10,000 subscribers; beehiiv's Launch plan allows up to 2,500, as of September 5, 2026. Both include unlimited sends and neither includes automations. beehiiv's free tier adds a website builder and podcast hosting; Kit's adds commerce, tagging and unlimited landing pages.
No. beehiiv states a 0 percent take rate on paid subscriptions on Scale and above, leaving only Stripe's 2.9 percent plus 30 cents processing fee. Kit charges 3.5 percent plus 30 cents per transaction inclusive of processing, of which it says 0.6 percent is Kit's own fee.
beehiiv Scale is $43 a month billed yearly ($517) or $49 monthly, and Max is $96 billed yearly ($1,151), with prices quoted by subscriber band up to 100,000. Kit Creator is $33 a month billed yearly ($390) and Pro is $66 ($790) at 1,000 subscribers, rising with list size, with roughly 17 percent more on monthly billing.
Kit. Unlimited Visual Automations and sequences with multiple entry points, split paths and purchase triggers are included on its first paid tier. beehiiv adds email automations on Scale and click triggered automations only on Max, and its free tier has none. Kit's claims about integration counts are its own; beehiiv's pricing table lists Giphy, Unsplash and API access.
On Kit, yes: branding removal is included on Creator at $33 a month billed yearly. On beehiiv, branding removal requires Max at $96 a month billed yearly; the Scale plan keeps beehiiv branding on your newsletter and website.