They all send email. Pick the one that does the rest of the job.
beehiiv, Kit, Brevo, HubSpot, monday.com and ActiveCampaign will all put a nicely formatted email in someone's inbox. So will Gmail, if you're brave and have a lot of BCC fields. The real question is what else you need the platform to do once the email goes out.
Picking a newsletter platform for its email editor is like picking a car for its cupholders. They've all got cupholders. What you actually care about is whether it gives you tools to grow the list, ways to earn beyond client work, or a way to tell your salesperson who just read three issues about pricing.
So start with the job, not the feature list. WTF Growth runs newsletters that do all three jobs, and we've got loud opinions about every tool on this page.
Two questions sort these six in about ten seconds.
Is it a newsletter tool or a CRM at heart? And is it built for someone who just wants to hit send, or for a RevOps engineer with a whiteboard full of lifecycle stages? Get those two right and you've already crossed off half the list.
| Platform | What it really is | Who it's built for |
|---|---|---|
| beehiiv | A newsletter platform that grew into a whole media business: site, podcast, community and products. | A founder or editor who wants to publish. No RevOps degree required. |
| Kit | A newsletter platform with a creator storefront. | A solo expert who wants to write, sell and automate without hiring anyone. |
| Brevo | An email, SMS and transactional email tool with a light CRM add-on. | A generalist marketer who wears six hats. |
| HubSpot | A CRM first, with marketing, sales and service built around it. | A RevOps or marketing ops pro, or a partner you pay to be one. |
| monday.com | A work-management platform that added a CRM and email. | An ops-minded team that already lives on monday boards. |
| ActiveCampaign | A marketing automation engine with a CRM add-on. | Someone who gets genuinely excited about automation flowcharts. |
What's your newsletter actually for?
It's a media property.
The audience is the asset, and the newsletter earns its own keep from sponsors, ads, paid subscriptions and products. Every client it brings in is gravy. You want a platform with real growth tools and real ways to earn, like an ad network and paid subscriptions.
Our shortlist: beehiiv, Kit
It makes you the authority.
You want to be the business your market quotes, forwards and thinks of first. Sponsors might chip in and sales will happily borrow it, but the point is owning the conversation in your niche. You want the writing to look great and the list to keep growing.
Our shortlist: beehiiv, HubSpot
It backs up the sales team.
Prospects trust you before the first call because they've been reading you for months, and every open and click tells a rep who's warming up. You want the email living right next to the deals.
Our shortlist: HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, monday.com
Don't pick a platform for the stuff they all do.
Every tool on this page gives you a decent drag-and-drop editor and templates, signup forms, a web version of every issue, basic segments and tags, some flavor of AI writing help, a free trial or free plan and an MCP server, so Claude or ChatGPT can drive it for you. If a sales demo spends twenty minutes on any of that, ask them to skip ahead.
The WTF Matrix shows which platform fits your newsletter's job.
Pick the rows that matter for your job and ignore the rest. A media property lives on publishing and revenue tools. Authority needs great publishing and steady growth. Sales support needs the signal to reach sales, plus solid automation. Then read across and see who wins your rows.
| What we judged | beehiiv | Kit | Brevo | HubSpot | monday.com | ActiveCampaign |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PublishingDoes it think like a publication or like a campaign tool? | It thinks like a media company: polls, multiple publications and a real website builder. | Its plain, fast editor is a gift for people who'd rather write than design. | It makes a clean email, but it doesn't know what a publication is. | The editor is polished and Breeze helps, but it thinks in campaigns, not issues. | It sends a perfectly fine email and treats it like one more item on the board. | The designer is solid, though its heart belongs to automated journeys. |
| Revenue toolsDoes it give you ways to earn beyond client work, like an ad network, sponsorships or paid subscriptions? | Ad network, paid tiers, products, podcasts and community, and beehiiv takes 0% of what you sell. | It sells your products and paid newsletters well, for 3.5% plus 30 cents a sale. | No ads, no sponsors and no paid tiers live here. | It can sell courses and gated content, but it won't sell your audience to a sponsor. | No ads, no sponsors and no paid tiers live here. | No ads, no sponsors and no paid tiers live here. |
| Growth toolsDoes it give you built-in growth tools, like referrals and recommendations? | It has a built-in referral program and a recommendation network, which is the best growth toolkit here. | Recommendations trade readers with other creators, and Pro adds SparkLoop referrals. | You get forms and landing pages, and then you're on your own. | Its blog, SEO and landing pages pull people in, but readers can't refer you. | It gives you forms and wishes you luck. | Forms and landing pages catch readers, but nothing helps them spread the word. |
| Ease of useCan a busy founder run it without hiring a wizard? | You can run it in an afternoon. Learning the money settings takes an evening. | Tags and visual automations are friendly enough for a Sunday afternoon. | A generalist marketer can run it without crying. | It does everything, which is why most businesses hire someone to drive it. | If your team already lives in monday.com, it'll feel like home on day one. | The automation builder is powerful and takes a few weeks to tame. |
| Getting signal to salesCan a salesperson see who read what and do something about it? | There's no pipeline, so sales sees reader activity only through a sync. | There's no pipeline, but Pro now syncs subscribers to HubSpot. | Its sales add-on tracks deals and tasks, which covers a small team. | Every open and click lands on the record your salesperson already lives in. | Deals sit on the same boards as the client work, which is handy for a services business. | Site tracking is built in, and deals and lead scoring come with the Pipelines add-on. |
| Plays well with your stackDoes it talk to your CRM, website and the other tools you already pay for? | Zapier, webhooks and an API cover it, but there's no native HubSpot handshake. | Its app store speaks fluent creator tool: course platforms, shops and payments. | It connects to the usual website and e-commerce suspects, plus Zapier. | More than 1,500 integrations means it's probably already connected to your stuff. | It connects to a wide range of work tools, and you can build your own board automations. | More than 1,000 integrations on every plan means it plays nice with everyone. |
| AI that actually helpsDoes it save real time, or just write filler faster? | Its AI and agent can draft and build pages, but they won't find your angle. | It plugs into Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini, which is handier than its own AI. | Brevo Aura writes campaigns and picks send times so you don't have to. | Breeze gets genuinely useful once your whole business lives in HubSpot. | Its agents source leads and prep meetings, which helps the selling more than the writing. | Active Intelligence builds automations from a plain request, which saves real setup time. |
| Automation and segmentsHow clever can it get about who gets what, and when? | It's plenty for a publication and nowhere near a marketing automation suite. | The visual automation builder is the best funnel tool among the newsletter-first platforms. | Email, SMS, WhatsApp and transactional email in one account is a sneaky-good combo. | You can segment on anything, including the deal stage of a reader's company. | Segments come from board columns, which gets clumsy once your list gets interesting. | It's the deepest automation engine for the money, full stop. |
| Price to startWhat does a small list cost you in year one? | It's free up to 2,500 subscribers, and the good stuff starts on Lite. | Free up to 10,000 subscribers is the best free lunch on this page. | You pay for emails sent, so a big quiet list costs next to nothing. | Starter is cheap, and the automation you want lives on Professional. | Campaigns start at $50 a month, and CRM seats come in packs of three. | Plus runs about $49 to $59 at 1,000 contacts, which is fair for what you get. |
| Price at 50,000What happens to the bill when the list takes off? | The bill grows with the list, just more politely than most. | The price climbs steadily, and Pro climbs faster. | Big lists that send rarely stay cheap, and big lists that send weekly land on Professional. | Every reader counts as a marketing contact, and the renewal email is a jump scare. | Bigger lists get a custom quote, which means a sales call. | Plus hits about $759 at 50,000 contacts, and Pro costs a lot more. |
What you can sell, and what each platform skims off the top, varies a lot.
| Platform | Paid newsletter | Digital products and courses | Podcast hosting | Community | Sponsors and ads | What the platform takes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| beehiiv | Yes, on paid plans | Yes (1 on Free, unlimited on Pro) | Yes, every plan | Yes, every plan | Ad network on paid plans | 0% (Stripe fees only) |
| Kit | Yes, even on Free | Yes, even on Free | No (Acast partnership) | No | Sponsorships on paid plans (new in 2026) | 3.5% + 30¢ a sale, card fees included |
| Brevo | No | Payment links, France only | No | No | No | 1% on payment links |
| HubSpot | Gated memberships on Content Hub | Yes, via HubSpot payments (US, UK, Canada) | No | No | No | 0.5% platform fee plus card processing |
| monday.com | No | No | No | No | No | Nothing to cut |
| ActiveCampaign | No | Only through Stripe, Shopify or WooCommerce | No | No | No | No native selling |
The bill at 50,000 subscribers looks nothing like the bill at 1,000.
These are the prices we found at the time of publication for the plan most businesses would actually use. Vendors change pricing whenever they feel like it, so treat this as a snapshot, not a promise.
| Platform | Free plan | About 1,000 contacts | About 10,000 contacts | About 50,000 contacts | How it bills |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| beehiiv | Free up to 2,500 subscribers | $59 on Lite ($49 billed annually) | $139 on Lite, $239 on Pro | $299 on Lite, $469 on Pro | By subscribers |
| Kit | Free up to 10,000 subscribers | $39 on Creator ($33 billed annually) | About $139 on Creator (third-party) | About $379 at 55,000 on Creator (third-party) | By subscribers |
| Brevo | 300 emails a day, 100,000 stored contacts | About $18 on Standard | About $69 to $139 on Standard | About $499 on Professional (roughly 200,000 emails) | By emails sent, assuming weekly sends (third-party figures) |
| HubSpot | Free tools for up to 2 users | $20 a seat on Starter | About $1,400 on Professional (estimate) | About $3,000 and up on Professional (estimate) | Seats plus marketing contacts, and Professional has a $3,000 onboarding fee |
| monday.com | No free plan, 14-day trial | $50 for 2,000 contacts on campaigns Pro (billed annually) | Custom quote | Custom quote | Campaigns by contacts, plus CRM seats at $12 to $28 each in packs of three |
| ActiveCampaign | No free plan, free trial | $49 to $59 on Plus | $239 on Plus | $759 on Plus | By contacts (third-party figures, billed annually) |
Read the head-to-head comparisons.
beehiiv vs HubSpot
One grows an audience and sells ads to it. The other turns every reader into a record your sales team can work. Most growing businesses end up wanting both.
beehiiv vs Kit
The two newsletter-first platforms. beehiiv earns from sponsors and grows through referrals, and Kit earns from your products through very good automations.
HubSpot vs ActiveCampaign
Both back up a sales team. HubSpot runs the whole revenue operation, and ActiveCampaign runs the automations for a lot less money.
HubSpot vs monday.com
If your team lives in monday.com, it can carry a simple client newsletter. HubSpot is the upgrade when the newsletter has to create pipeline.
Brevo vs ActiveCampaign
Both run newsletters, follow-up and a simple pipeline. Brevo is the bargain at size, and ActiveCampaign is the automation powerhouse.