Half the beehiiv vs Kit arguments online are people comparing two tools that were never trying to do the same thing. Kit, which you might still know as ConvertKit, is an automation engine built for creators who sell courses and digital products by email. beehiiv is a newsletter platform built to grow and monetize the newsletter itself. Pick by the job you're hiring the tool for, and the answer is usually obvious.
We're a performance marketing agency that has run email and funnels for 400+ brands over 12+ years, and we use beehiiv ourselves. This post is honest about where Kit is the better tool, because for a lot of creators it is. If you want beehiiv measured against the other big name instead, our beehiiv vs Substack breakdown covers the fee math, and the full beehiiv review covers the product end to end.
beehiiv vs Kit at a glance
| beehiiv | Kit (ConvertKit) | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Newsletter as the product | Selling products by email |
| Free plan | To 2,500 subs | To 10,000 subs |
| Entry paid plan | Scale, from $49/mo | Creator, from $33/mo |
| Automations | Yes, on paid plans | Best in class |
| Newsletter growth | Ad network, Boosts, referrals | Creator network |
| Monetization | Paid subs at 0%, ads, Boosts | Sell products (3.5% fee) |
| Best for | Media-style newsletters | Course and product creators |
| Try it | Try beehiiv |
The one question that decides it
Ask this before anything else. Is the newsletter the product, or is email the channel you use to sell a different product. That single question sorts almost everyone.
If the newsletter is the product, meaning readers subscribe for the writing and you make money from subscriptions, sponsorships, and ads, beehiiv is built for exactly that. If email is how you nurture people toward buying a course, a membership, or a digital download, Kit's automation and commerce tools are built for exactly that. Neither is a worse tool. They're aimed at different targets, and using the wrong one feels like friction you can't quite name.
Where Kit wins, automation and selling
Kit's visual automation builder is the best in the category, full stop. You can map multi-step funnels, branch on tags and behavior, trigger sequences off purchases, and run a product launch entirely inside the tool. For a creator whose revenue comes from digital products, that engine is the whole point, and beehiiv doesn't match its depth.
Kit also handles commerce natively. You can sell digital products and subscriptions directly, with a commerce fee of 3.5% plus 30 cents per transaction, and the automation ties the selling to the emailing so a purchase can move someone into a new sequence automatically. If your business is courses, coaching, or downloads, this is the workflow you want. beehiiv can send email around a product, but it isn't a funnel machine, and pretending otherwise would waste your money.
Rule of thumb. If you sketch your business and the newsletter is a box that feeds other boxes labeled course or product, start with Kit. If the newsletter is the box everything else feeds, start with beehiiv.
Where beehiiv wins, newsletter growth
beehiiv treats the newsletter as a media business, and the growth and money tools reflect that. The Ad Network books sponsorships against your newsletter and pays you per placement, with no selling on your part. Boosts is a marketplace where you pay per verified subscriber to have other newsletters recommend yours, or get paid to recommend theirs. There's a referral program, a recommendation network across 130K+ publishers, and a custom-domain website that Google can index so search sends you readers for free.
On monetization, beehiiv takes 0% of paid subscription revenue where most tools take a cut somewhere, and it pairs paid subscriptions with ads and Boosts so one newsletter has three income streams under one roof. Kit's growth is mostly its creator network and your own automations. For pure newsletter growth and newsletter revenue, beehiiv is the stronger machine, which is why we picked it. The Substack comparison digs into that 0% math further.
Pricing, side by side
Both platforms have a real free tier and paid plans that scale with your subscriber count. Kit gives you far more free headroom. beehiiv gives you more growth tooling inside the free plan. Here's the shape of it.
| Tier | beehiiv | Kit (ConvertKit) |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Launch, to 2,500 subs | Newsletter, to 10,000 subs |
| Entry paid | Scale, from $49/mo | Creator, from $33/mo |
| Higher paid | Max, from $109/mo | Pro, from $66/mo |
| Fee on sales | 0% subs (Stripe only) | 3.5% + 30c commerce fee |
| Scales by | Subscriber count | Subscriber count |
Kit's paid plans start cheaper at a small list, so a creator under a thousand subscribers pays less on Creator than on beehiiv's Scale. As lists grow, both climb. The beehiiv pricing guide walks the full beehiiv curve, and Kit's pricing page shows its own bands by subscriber count. Match the plan to your list size and your job, not to the sticker price alone.
Who should pick Kit
- You sell courses, memberships, coaching, or digital downloads, and email is the sales channel.
- You need deep, branching automation and product-launch funnels.
- You have a large list and want the most free subscriber headroom, up to 10,000.
- Your revenue comes from products, not from the newsletter itself.
Who should pick beehiiv
- The newsletter is the product, and you want it to grow and earn.
- You want an ad network, Boosts, and paid subscriptions at a 0% platform take under one roof.
- You want an SEO-friendly website and owned growth channels, not just automations.
- You run a B2B or company newsletter feeding a pipeline, where a small list stays cheap.
The verdict
Kit is the better tool if you sell products and live in automation. beehiiv is the better tool if the newsletter is the business and you want growth and monetization built in. This isn't a close fight on the wrong axis, it's two winners in two different races.
If you're building a newsletter as a media property, start on beehiiv's free plan and test the growth stack to 2,500 subscribers before you pay. If you're launching courses, Kit is where we'd send you, no affiliate link attached.