Beehiiv vs Kit (previously ConvertKit): picking the perfect newsletter tool
I've compared beehiiv vs Kit to help you decide which newsletter tool fits your needs better.
When weighing Kit vs Beehiiv, it's essential for creators to understand which is the newsletter tool.
These 2 are some of the best platforms you can use with a free plan and powerful tools.
I even say that you can use them from the beginner phase until the Pro stage, where you make a full-time income with your content.
So, let’s see how these Substack alternatives help creators.
Kit vs beehiiv summary
Beehiiv and Kit are 2 great tools for newsletters that don’t have many flaws.
The main difference is that beehiiv is a more complete tool because it can be used as a blog and is cheaper. While Kit has a better writing experience, is more customizable, and allows the selling of digital products.
The main similarities between Kit and beehiiv are that they both have a free plan, are easy to use, and allow creators to monetize their content with memberships and Ads.
Beehiiv is the better option if you have a big subscriber base (more than 10,000 subs) and want to have a blog and newsletter in the same place.
On the other hand, Kit is better for creators that already have a blog using Ghost or WordPress or are just starting their journey.
- Content creation: 9.2
- Customization: 6.8
- SEO: 7.8
- Growth tools: 10
- Management: 9.5
- Monetization: 7.8
- Overall Rating: 9.6
beehiiv overview
Beehiiv is a newsletter tool with blogging capabilities. This means you can use it to publish different content in the same place.
Beehiiv is a no-code solution for creators who want to focus on writing without having to deal with technical configuration and is probably the best Substack alternative available.
Things I like about beehiiv:
- Free plan (up to 2,500 subscribers).
- 0% membership fees.
- Native Ad Network to make money with ads.
- No-code tool.
- Works as blog + newsletter.
- Nothing to install.
- Newsletter design customization.
- Integrations.
- Great email analytics.
- Multiple newsletters in the same account.
Things I don't like about beehiiv:
- Custom domain only on paid plans;
- Website customization could be better;
- What makes beehiiv special is not available on the free plan;
Kit overview
Kit is one of the best alternatives to Substack and one of the best newsletter services on the market.
It was created in 2013, and Kit focused on being THE email service for creatives.
As you will see, they have all the tools to run a personal newsletter, monetizing it and earn a full-time income.
Things I like about Kit:
- Free plan (up to 1,000 subscribers);
- Automated email sequences;
- Integrations (example, Zapier);
- Great Monetization (newsletter memberships, digital products, newsletter ads and more);
- Low fees (0,6% + payment processing fees);
- Analytics tools (including click tracking and subscriber engagement score);
- Email segmentation (send emails based on tags);
- Newsletter referral program.
Things I don't like about Kit:
- Their landing page is a bit limited;
- Not good for blogging and SEO;
- Lack of importing/export posts.
Monetization
Now, I'll analyze the options to make money with each platform.
Monetization on beehiiv
Monetization options on beehiiv:
- Paid memberships: Yes.
- Sponsorships/ Marketplace ads: Yes.
- Display ads: Yes.
- Affiliate marketing: Yes.
- e-Commerce / Digital products: No.
- Donations/ Tips: No.
- Manual embed ads on content: Yes.
Beehiiv is very good when it comes to making money and offers creators lots of options. This is important as the email industry is expected to reach $17.9 billion by 2027.
Memberships and ads are probably the bread and butter of many creators regarding monetization, and beehiiv excels at both.
And I want to highlight the beehiiv Ad Network.
The beehiiv Ad Network is fantastic and does the heavy lifting of finding sponsors for you. So, you can focus on writing, and beehiiv will bring you sponsors and money.
This is pretty cool and makes beehiiv one of the best platforms for monetization! And they also have other monetization options like Boosts.
Beehiiv also made it more common for creators to sell their newsletters. Before beehiiv, I don't remember seeing people start a newsletter and sell it after a few months, and this is another monetization option that beehiiv made popular.
Monetization options on Kit
Monetization options on Kit:
- Memberships: Yes;
- Display ads (Programmatic advertisement): No;
- Digital products: Yes;
- Sponsorships/ Marketplace ads: Yes;
- Donations/ Tips: Yes;
- Manual embed ads on content: Yes;
- Affiliate marketing: Yes.
The “Earn” tab in Kit reveals all the ways you can monetize your content: paid newsletter, selling digital products, and sponsorships (via Kit Sponsor Network, aka CKSN).
Most creators make the bulk of their revenue via paid subscriptions and sponsorships.
Kit allows you to maximize earnings because you can easily create a paid newsletter. And if you are approved to the Sponsor Network, you’ll have an easy path to finding sponsors.
On top of that, Kit also allows you to sell digital products. Apart from newsletters, you can also use Kit to sell e-books, and coaching/consultations, just to name a few ideas.
Monetization category winner
Kit takes the win in the monetization category. This is a hard choice since I consider both to be gold standards for monetizing newsletters.
Kit has more ways for you to receive money from subscribers. Besides the usually paid memberships, it allows you to sell digital products and access their Sponsor Network to have ads on the newsletter.
Beehiiv is also very good for monetization as they focus on memberships and Ad Network, but unfortunately, it lacks the versatility to sell digital products. For this reason, Kit takes this round.
Content Creation
Now, I'll explore the process of creating content with each tool.
Content Creation Experience on beehiiv
The content creation on beehiiv is great. The editor is clean, easy to use and works well.
Clicking on the plus icon from within the editor gives you access to features like:
- Recommend other newsletters.
- Paywall the rest of the post.
- Text formatting.
- Custom HTML.
- AI writer.
- Buttons.
- Polls.
Their editor also makes it easy to change the SEO settings, post-delivery type, and a preview of how the content will appear on the website.
Beehiiv even allows saving a page as a template, which will save you time if you create content in a repeatable format.
Content creation experience on Kit
The writing experience in Kit is pretty good.
The editor looks clean: with the content on the left and settings on the right (to customize font size, colors, etc.).
When you start creating a newsletter, you can start with a blank page or use one of the templates available, which makes the newsletter prettier and saves time with formatting.
But better than an editor that looks clean is one that works well and doesn’t limit you from creating content. So, let me tell you that you are in good hands with Kit.
Here are some of the main content blocks you can find on the editor:
- Text formatting;
- Files;
- Layouts;
- Products;
- Countdown times;
- HTML blocks.
If I have to point out a weakness here, I’ll mention that the HTML block doesn’t always work as intended, and I'm not sure it's my fault (but it could be).
Content Creation Category winner
Beehiiv is better than Kit for Content Creation.
The editors of both tools are similar and share most features to create a newsletter.
The main difference is that beehiiv is better for posting content on the website, whereas Kit has more limitations.
For example, on beehiiv, you can publish a post that is available only for paying subscribers to read on the website. This lets you put content behind a paywall on the internet, which you cannot do on Kit at the time of writing.
Also, beehiiv deals better with HTML and JavaScript in their editor, and that's something I consider very important.
Customization
Next comes customization and design.
Customization on beehiiv
Beehiiv's customization summary:
- Newsletter templates: No;
- Newsletter customization options: Great and easy to use;
- Website themes: Yes, but still limited;
- Possibility to buy a theme from a 3rd-party or create one with custom code: Not possible.
Beehiiv is polarizing when it comes to customization.
On the newsletter side, beehiiv is the most customizable platform for newsletters I know without writing code.
You can customize everything about the aspect of your newsletter in minutes. And I love this!
But, when it comes to website customization, options are still a bit limiting.
However, beehiiv appears to be aware of this and is making progress after acquiring the Typedream in July 2024. So, I expect customization on the website to improve massively in the coming months.
Customization on Kit
Kit's customization summary:
- Newsletter templates: Yes;
- Newsletter customization options: Yes;
- Website themes: Yes;
- Possibility to buy a theme from a 3rd-party or create one with a custom code: Yes, from Palladio.
When it comes to customization, Kit is great!
Kit allows customizing almost everything on the newsletter side. For example, you can tinker with font colors, backgrounds, the styles of the buttons, and a lot more.
CK also makes customizing landing pages and forms really easy.
On top of that, CK has many design options for newsletters, landing pages, and forms. This can save you hours with Kit’s templates or simply get inspired by them.
And if all these aren’t wow enough, Kit also has content snippets which are blocks of content that you can reuse in different places, speeding up your content creation process.
With Kit, it’s possible to express yourself with ease and make your newsletter pretty without much effort.
Customization winner
Kit is the winner when it comes to customization.
Kit has plenty of templates available for the newsletter, landing pages, and forms. And they look very pretty and usable out of the box! And if you don’t like it, just use the easy editor to customize everything.
Don’t get me wrong, Beehiiv’s newsletter customization is 2nd to none, but their website customization could still be improved.
And this is why Kit wins when it comes to customization.
Pricing
Now comes the cost of each tool.
Beehiiv's pricing
Beehiiv pricing summary:
- Free plan: Yes, up to 2500 subscribers.
- Cheaper paid plan: $34 (paid annually).
Beehiiv prices are reasonable with a generous free plan.
Most free plans are capped at 1,000 subscribers, but beehiiv allows up to 2,500 subs in the free plan.
However, to enable custom domains and paid memberships, you must upgrade to one of their paid plans.
I'm not a fan of the custom domain being associated with a paid plan because small newsletters won't be able to afford it.
This is a case of winning on one side with a generous free plan and losing on the SEO side unless you upgrade.
Beehiiv's "Scale" plan starts at $34/month and gives team members and the API access.
The "Max" plan ($86/month) unlocks multiple newsletters and the referral program, AI writer and a lot more.
For anyone that makes money with their newsletter, beehiiv is a good deal. Plain and simple!
Kit pricing
Kit pricing summary:
- Free plan: Yes;
- Cheaper paid plan: $9/month for 300 subscribers.
Pricing is one of the downsides of Kit, as their prices go up faster than some other alternatives like beehiiv or MailerLite.
Their pricing works in tiers: the more subscribers you get, the more you get billed.
However, Kit has a free plan of up to 1,000 subscribers.
In general, this pricing strategy is helpful for beginners because it allows them to pay a small fee for the tool when starting.
But as your following grows, so will your bill.
Paid plans start at $9/ month for 300 subscribers and grow until it becomes quite expensive.
To put it into perspective, Kit’s prices escalate more than other competitors with better blogging capabilities.
Yes, blogging isn’t really the heart and soul of Kit. And they're great at it but are making a lot of effort to improve.
Pricing category winner
Beehiiv is the winner when it comes to pricing!
It’s hard to find another newsletter tool that allows 2,500 subscribers on their free plan.
I know that beehiiv has limited the features of their free plan. But still, if you compare that to Kit’s pricing chart with the same number of subs, I promise you, you would hardly care at all.
On top of that, beehiiv offers only 2 paid plans that don’t escalate through the roof when you get more subscribers. This makes beehiiv much cheaper than Kit for most creators.
SEO
Now, I want to analyze the search engine optimization (SEO) of beehiiv and Kit.
Beehiiv's SEO
Beehiiv SEO features checklist:
- Custom domain: Yes, you can use a custom domain;
- URL slug customization: Yes
- Meta description customization: Yes;
- Sitemap: Yes;
- Canonical tags: Yes;
- Redirects: No;
- Robots.txt: Yes;
- Website speed: beehiiv has good results in speed tests;
Beehiiv is good when it comes to SEO, letting creators publish content without messing with technical details.
This will make life easier for creators who want their content found on search engines without dealing with complex configurations or plugins.
My testing also revealed that beehiiv websites consistently have fast load times, which puts them ahead of many competitors. The sites feel snappy and responsive without any technical configuration.
While beehiiv's SEO setup meets most creators' needs, advanced users will notice some missing features.
- There's no way to create redirects when you delete or move pages, which can lead to broken links.
- Llck of control over canonical tags, with all links being self-referencing canonicals
- Inability to add noindex tags to specific posts, as you can only control this at the site level.
Overall, beehiiv's SEO performance is solid for 99% of users and has most of the things I consider essential that even a complete beginner can get good results.
Kit SEO
Important SEO features checklist for Kit:
- Custom domain: Yes;
- HTTPS: Yes;
- URL slug customization: No;
- Meta description: No;
- Sitemap: No;
- Canonical tags: No;
- Redirects: No;
- Robots.txt: No;
- Website speed: Good;
SEO isn’t exactly Kit’s strongest suit.
Kit was (and is) mostly a newsletter tool. And for many years, it never had blogging capabilities.
As I write this, Kit is below average when it comes to blogging.
Their creator profiles are more like a Link-in-bio tool than a blogging option.
There are a lot of things missing with the creator profiles on Kit for them to be a valid alternative to Ghost or WordPress.
I don't know if Kit will ever become a great blogging tool with strong SEO. So, I recommend using Kit paired with another blogging tool for the best SEO results.
SEO category winner
Beehiiv is the winner in the SEO category.
Beehiiv has much more advanced blogging capabilities, making it a good option if you care about SEO.
Beehiiv is not a typical newsletter tool as it works as a blog and a newsletter, all in the same place. This is similar to Substack, but if you put Beehiiv vs Substack, you’ll see they have a lot of differences.
Kit leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to SEO, you could see in the SEO checklist above.
I know Kit wasn't originally meant for blogging. Yet, I have to mention the obvious: you can't expect people to find you from search engines by posting on Kit.
So, beehiiv is the clear winner of this category.
Growth
Let's compare the tools when it comes to growth tools. These are the small marketing things that can have a big impact on the business.
Beehiiv Growth tools
Beehiiv's most important Growth tools checklist:
- Automated email sequences: Yes.
- Subscriber segmentation: Yes.
- Plugins/integrations: Yes.
- A/B testing (titles): Yes.
- Referral program: Yes.
- Network effect: Yes.
Beehiiv's main focus is on growing newsletters, and they have multiple features that help a newsletter grow.
Beehiiv excels with its automated email sequences and subscriber segmentation, letting creators send targeted content to different audience groups.
The recommendation system also creates powerful network effects, allowing publications to grow together through cross-promotion. Creators can even recommend another newsletter directly through the editor.
Here are more ways beehiiv helps grow your newsletter faster:
- Integration capabilities with tools like Zapier and Make.com for automated workflows.
- Referral program to encourage readers to share the newsletter with their friends.
- A/B testing for email titles to improve open rates.
- Magic links feature for one-click subscriptions.
All these features work together to create an ecosystem that benefits both new and established newsletters.
I'm impressed with how beehiiv is evolving while some competitors have had the same flaws for years (cough Substack cough).
Kit growing tools
Kit most important Growth tools checklist:
- Plugins/integrations: Yes;
- Automated email sequences: Yes;
- Referral program: Yes;
- Subscriber segmentation: Yes;
- Custom sending domain: Yes;
- A/B testing (titles): Yes;
- RSS feed: Yes;
Kit has fantastic tools to help newsletters grow!
From integrations with blogging tools; to having email automation to help make more money; or simply testing different newsletter titles to improve the open rate, Kit has them all.
That's a lot!
When I tell you Kit is really for newsletter growth, I'm serious.
You can also use Kit to create subscription forms to put on other websites. This will also help grow the newsletter by earning subscribers from a blog.
Kit even integrates with SparkLoop, which allows you to create a referral program for your own newsletter.
For those reasons, Kit gets a great score in this category.
Growth category winner
Beehiiv is better than Kit in the growth category by a small margin.
Beehiiv wins this category because it’s as good as Kit when we think about growth tools like email automation and referral programs.
But beehiiv takes the lead by having more tools that help grow the website.
Final Thoughts
Kit and beehiiv are two of the best tools out there for newsletters.
They are easy to use and have free plans that beginners are looking for, but they also have advanced features that Pros want and desire to use!
However, it’s hard to level the playing field for this match-up because beehiiv is “more complete” than Kit.
I say this because beehiiv is a hybrid platform that works as a blog and a newsletter. Meanwhile, Kit is “only” usable for newsletters.
As this comparison showed, beehiiv is easier to use, has better pricing, and is better for growth and SEO.
On the other hand, Kit has better customization and more monetization options.
This means that if we just looked at the newsletter features, it would be almost a tie. But beehiiv is winning the comparison when I look at all the features, including blogging capabilities.
You will not make a mistake by using either of them for your newsletter.
Usually, creators with an existing blog prefer Kit for their newsletter.
While creators who want to centralize the blog and newsletter in only one place tend to prefer beehiiv.
- Content creation: 9.2
- Customization: 6.8
- SEO: 7.8
- Growth tools: 10
- Management: 9.5
- Monetization: 7.8
- Overall Rating: 9.6
