beehiiv is built for sponsors and referrals. Kit is built for selling your own products.
These are the closest fight on the site, and both are built for people who take newsletters seriously. The real split is where you expect the money to come from. beehiiv's tools are built around sponsors and growth. Kit's tools are built around selling your own courses, workshops and paid content.
| 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. |
The short answer depends on what you sell.
Pick beehiiv if you want sponsors and an ad network paying for the newsletter, a referral program to help grow it, or more than one publication under one roof.
Try beehiivPick Kit if you sell courses, templates, workshops or paid content, and you want automations that turn a new subscriber into a buyer.
Try Kitbeehiiv is built around sponsors and growth.
Every paid beehiiv plan includes its ad network, a marketplace of sponsors you can pick from instead of chasing brands with a media kit. Paid subscriptions carry no platform fee, and a built-in referral program rewards readers for bringing friends. Lite covers three publications and Pro covers ten, so a business can run its own title and a client's from one login. It also hosts podcasts and runs a community on every plan, and it takes 0% of subscription and product revenue (Stripe still takes its cut).
Kit is built to sell your stuff.
Kit used to be ConvertKit, and it grew up serving course creators and coaches. Its visual automation builder is the best funnel tool among the newsletter-first platforms. Someone who downloads your pricing guide can get a five-email sequence, a tag that says they're interested in pricing and an offer for your workshop, all without you touching it once it's built. It sells digital products and paid newsletters natively for 3.5% plus 30 cents a sale, card fees included, and its app store talks to the course and payment tools creators already use. There's no podcast hosting or community, so you'll bolt those on elsewhere.
The free plan carries up to 10,000 subscribers, four times beehiiv's. You give up the visual automations at that tier, so treat it as a test drive, not a forever home.
Both have recommendation networks.
Both run recommendation networks where newsletters suggest each other at signup, and both let you pay for subscribers through them. Swap with newsletters your buyers actually read, not whoever has the biggest list. Ten thousand readers who'll never hire you are just a bigger bill.
The WTF Matrix shows where beehiiv and Kit each pull ahead.
Pick the rows that matter for your newsletter's job, then read across. The dots are our opinion, and we have a lot of those.
| What we judged | beehiiv | Kit |
|---|---|---|
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
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 |
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 |
Pick the one that matches how you make money.
If sponsors, ads or a growing audience are the point, start on beehiiv. If the newsletter exists to sell a course, a workshop or a template, start on Kit. Both export your list, so switching later costs a weekend, not a year.
Read the other 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.
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.