beehiiv vs Substack

Substack publishes for free, with unlimited subscribers, and keeps 10% of paid subscription revenue. Stripe on US cards is 2.9% + $0.30 plus Stripe Billing at 0.7%, from the support article updated 29 September 2026. A custom domain is $50 once. beehiiv is free up to 2,500 subscribers and then charges a platform fee instead of 10%: Lite from $49 a month annually, with 0% of paid revenue and Stripe’s fee still present.

The crossover is arithmetic. Ten percent of a large paid list is more than $49 or $95 a month. Ten percent of a tiny paid list is less than a platform bill, and Substack’s app is a distribution channel beehiiv does not have. Run the numbers on your own paid revenue before you move a list.

beehiiv is for Newsletters that plan to grow quickly and sell sponsorships. The working method is A newsletter platform with growth tools and ads, not a general marketing-automation suite. Substack is for Writers starting a paid newsletter with no monthly bill. The working method is A hosted publication. Discovery comes from the app and recommendations. If those two sentences describe the same afternoon, you do not need this page. They usually do not.

The strength you are paying for on beehiiv is this: Referrals, recommendations, a site, and an ad network in the same product. The strength on Substack is this: No monthly fee, and readers can find you inside Substack. Strengths are not a score. They are the hour the product gives back.

Both vendors published a starting figure we could quote on 27 October 2026. beehiiv: Free $0, up to 2,500 subscribers, unlimited sends, no paid subscriptions. Lite from $49/month billed annually ($59 month-to-month) at the up-to-1,000 tier, scaling toward 100,000. Pro from $95/month annually ($109 month-to-month) at 1,000, scaling toward 250,000. Paid plans take 0% of paid-subscription revenue. Stripe’s 2.9% + $0.30 still applies. Substack: Publishing is free, with unlimited subscribers. On paid subscriptions Substack keeps 10%. Stripe’s US card rate is 2.9% + $0.30, plus Stripe Billing at 0.7% (the support article updated 29 September 2026; an older FAQ said 0.5%). An optional custom domain is a one-time $50. Tax is not in those figures. A regional checkout can show another button, and the button is the price.

How the bill is structured is a separate question from the sticker. beehiiv: Free, then monthly, with a lower price if billed annually. No cut of paid-subscription revenue on paid plans. Substack: Free to publish. A percentage of paid subscription revenue, plus payment fees.

Free, or the absence of free, changes the first month more than the feature list does. beehiiv: Yes. Up to 2,500 subscribers and unlimited sends. Paid subscriptions are not on Free. Substack: Yes. Publishing is free.

What the free or entry plan actually holds: beehiiv: The published tiers scale by subscriber bucket. This page does not interpolate a price between the buckets. Paid subscriptions, automations and the ad network start on Lite. Substack: There is no subscriber cap to quote. The cost appears when readers pay you: 10% to Substack, plus Stripe.

On beehiiv, the platforms are Newsletter, website, referrals, recommendations and an ad network. You get A newsletter and a site. Sponsorships are a first-class path. The team shape is Not quoted as a per-seat social tool. The learning curve is Short if you are writing a newsletter. The growth features take a week of setup, not a day. Branding or watermark, stated only if we could support it: Free is a real plan, not a trial, and it stops before paid subscriptions.

On Substack, the platforms are Newsletter, site, podcast and the Substack app. You get A publication: posts, a podcast if you use it, and paid subscriptions. The team shape is A writer’s publication more than a marketing team’s ESP. The learning curve is Very short. Branding or watermark: No watermark. The fee is on revenue.

Where beehiiv gets awkward: Automations are less deep than a tool built as email marketing. Leave it when A creator whose business is tag-based automations and digital products first, newsletter second. Where Substack gets awkward: The 10% gets expensive as paid revenue grows. Design and automation are limited. Leave it when A large paid list where 10% plus Stripe is more than a flat host, or a business that needs deep automations.

A practical way to decide, without a winner’s badge: spend one real piece of work in each, using the free plan or the trial, and keep the one whose limit you did not hit. beehiiv’s limit is “Automations are less deep than a tool built as email marketing.” Substack’s limit is “The 10% gets expensive as paid revenue grows. Design and automation are limited.” If your week collides with the first sentence, the second product is the one to try. If it collides with neither, pick the bill you can read.

Put the two offers on one sheet before you subscribe. beehiiv leaves you with A newsletter and a site. Sponsorships are a first-class path. You pay like this: Free, then monthly, with a lower price if billed annually. No cut of paid-subscription revenue on paid plans. You should walk away when A creator whose business is tag-based automations and digital products first, newsletter second. Substack leaves you with A publication: posts, a podcast if you use it, and paid subscriptions. You pay like this: Free to publish. A percentage of paid subscription revenue, plus payment fees. You should walk away when A large paid list where 10% plus Stripe is more than a flat host, or a business that needs deep automations. The sheet is dull on purpose. A comparison that cannot be written as those six sentences is usually a comparison of logos.

The table is the same facts as the paragraphs, in rows, so a search engine can see them without reading the essay. “Checked on” is 27 October 2026 for every filled comparison on this site. Public ratings from review sites are not in the table: we did not pull a fresh G2 or Capterra number for this update, and an old star count would be a fake precision.

Nothing structural was omitted beyond a public rating. Prices that appear were read from the vendor pages linked under the table.

Re-check before you buy. beehiiv and Substack both change plan names and buttons. This page is a reading of 27 October 2026, not a quote.