Beehiiv vs Substack: Pick the right newsletter tool

Are you struggling to choose between Substack vs beehiiv for your newsletter?

Substack is seen as the easier option and is free to use, making it attractive for most users, but it has many quirks and issues you might not be aware.

On the other side, beehiiv is gaining popularity as it is hyper-focused on helping users monetize and grow their newsletters.

These tools serve different purposes, and the right option will depend on your goals, so keep reading to pick the best option for you.

Beehiiv vs Substack Decision Quiz

The quiz below takes 2 minutes to complete and will help you find out whether Beehiiv or Substack is better based on your needs.

At the end of the quiz, you'll see a score for each platform. A higher score means the platform is best suited for your needs.

Beehiiv vs Substack summary

The main similarities between Beehiiv and Substack are:

• Newsletter platform with an integrated blog.
• Built-in monetization via memberships.
• Generous free plan.
• No-code tools.

But similarities stop there.

The main difference between beehiiv and Substack is their approach to pricing. Substack takes 10% of the revenue from memberships, while beehiiv has better tools for professionals.

Beehiiv is better than Substack regarding SEO, customization, tools for growing a newsletter, and monetization. Beehiiv's Ad Network is a great way to earn money via ads.

Substack is a minimalist tool that acts more like a content ecosystem. It has podcasting, social features, and a mobile app, which suits creators looking for an all-in-one platform.

Beehiiv is my recommendation for creators who want serious monetization and growth. The platform provides everything you need to treat a newsletter as a business.

Substack is my recommendation for creators focused on community building and publishing different content types in one place. Their forever-free plan and simple interface are perfect for non-technical people and hobby writers.

Best overall

beehiiv

• Content creation: 8.9
• Customization: 6.8
• SEO: 7.8
• Growth: 10
• Management: 9.5
• Monetization: 7.8
• Overall Rating: 9.5

20% off with code EB

Free forever plan

Substack

• Content creation: 5.2
• Customization: 4.3
• SEO: 7.5
• Growth: 4.8
• Management: 9.0
• Monetization: 4.8
• Overall Rating: 6.7

Use Substack

Table of contents

• Beehiiv overview
• Substack overview
• Monetization
• SEO
• Pricing
• Ease of use
• Content Creation
• Customization
• Growth tools

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:

• Website customization could be better;
• What makes beehiiv special is not available on the free plan;

Substack overview

Substack is a publishing platform for newsletters and blogs, with some podcast and social media capabilities called Notes. Created in 2017, Substack became popular by making it easy for writers to monetize their content via memberships.

Substack is free to use with a revenue-sharing model where they take 10% of membership earnings, which is perfect for hobby writers and beginners.

Since its launch, Substack has attracted numerous journalists, authors, and thought leaders who value its super simple interface and direct relationship with readers.

Things I like about Substack:

• Free forever plan;
• Do everything without code;
• Good safety record;
• Publish different types of content (newsletter, blog, podcast, and more);
• Easy to use.

Things I don't like about Substack:

• 10% in membership fees;
• Bad SEO;
• Custom domain costs $50;
• No integrations;
• No email sequences;
• Awful customization;
• Complicated content guidelines (you have to follow their rules or risk getting banned).

Monetization: beehiiv vs Substack

Here, 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 on Substack

Monetization options on Substack:

• Paid memberships: Yes
• Sponsorships/ Marketplace ads: No;
• Display ads: No;
• e-Commerce / Digital products: No;
• Donations/ Tips: No;
• Manual embed ads on content: Yes;
• Affiliate marketing: Yes.

Substack has paid memberships as the main way to monetize content. But when a creator charges for access, Substack takes a 10% cut (plus payment processing fees).

While Substack focuses on memberships, creators have found ways to earn through alternative methods. Many writers manually embed sponsored content in their posts. However, this comes with limitations, as Substack lacks tools to properly tag sponsored links, which can be problematic for SEO purposes.

Substack's monetization options are quite restricted compared to other platforms, as it doesn't support display ads or even paid recommendations.

This narrow focus on memberships means creators must rely heavily on memberships.

Monetization category winner

Beehiiv has better and more options for monetizing.

Both platforms are similar regarding paid memberships as the main route for creators to earn money.

But beehiiv pulls ahead with their Ad Network. It's not even close. This network has been massive for many people on the platform.

While Substack isn't as good for monetizing with ads, there are workarounds to put ads on Substack.

This means beehiiv can offer everything that Substack can, but Substack can't do everything beehiiv does.

SEO: beehiiv vs Substack

Now, I want to analyze the search engine optimization (SEO) of beehiiv and Substack.

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. The sites are fast and responsive without any technical configuration required.

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.

Subastack's SEO

Important SEO features checklist for Substack:

• Custom domain: Yes;
• HTTPS: Yes;
• URL slug customization: Yes;
• Meta description: Yes;
• Sitemap: Yes;
• Canonical tags: Yes;
• Redirects: No;
• Robots.txt: Yes;
• Website speed: Yes, website speed is good;

Substack's SEO looks decent on paper but, in practice, performs poorly.

The platform has important features like custom meta descriptions, XML sitemaps, and schema markup. But the biggest issue is that Substack publications struggle to rank well in search engines.

Writers have complained about this limitation since 2021, with minimal improvements from Substack to address the problem. Casey Newton even said that "the only way a Substack grows is through tweets. I am like 85% serious when I say this".

Substack also lacks the necessary technical SEO capabilities that advanced users need. Users cannot create redirects, customize canonical tags, or control noindex settings for individual posts. The redirects part is a big, big problem!

To show how bad is Substack's SEO, I have a question for you:
Have you seen a Substack publication on Google results without using the word "Substack" in the search? Me neither.

Substack also charges $50 to enable custom domains, which I don't appreciate (but at least the feature exists).

SEO Category winner

Beehiiv is better than Substack for SEO.

I love that Beehiiv keeps improving its weak spots regarding SEO and is now a competent platform.

Conversely, Substack looks okay regarding SEO features, but the real-world results are below average.

Writers have complained about this over the years. Yet, I haven't seen Substack make any improvement.

So, I give the advantage to beehiiv.

Pricing: beehiv vs Substack

Let's analyze the costs of using each platform.

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!

Substack's Pricing

Substack pricing summary:

• Free plan: Yes, Substack has free forever plan;
• Cheaper paid plan: 10% of the revenue charged via memberships;

Substack has a free forever plan with a revenue-sharing model. Instead of charging a subscription fee, Substack takes 10% of your membership revenue (plus Stripe payment processing fees).

This model is good for beginners and hobby writers since you can use Substack without spending money.

Actually, many use Substack this way.

But this model is problematic, which makes creators look for cheaper Substack alternatives.

Yes, you can use Substack for free if you don't charge memberships.

However, the 10% fee becomes expensive when your subscriber base grows.

Imagine readers pay you $50 per year. This is how much Substack keeps:

I consider these fees outrageous!

I know it's normal for platforms to have usage-based pricing, but Substack goes from being lenient with their forever-free plan to taxing the success of their writers without offering too much in return. And, you should consider if it makes sense to pay these fees.

Pricing category winner

The winner of this category will depend on who is reading.

I don't like Substack's revenue-sharing model.

I can't ignore that many people have used Substack for years without paying.

But if you have around 5k paying subscribers, Substack can be 25 times more expensive than beehiiv.

So, for someone treating their newsletter as a business, beehiiv is the better decision because it will be cheaper.

But for beginners and hobby projects, Substack is the cheaper option.

Ease of use: beehiiv vs Substack

It's now time to look at how easy is to use the tools.

Beehiiv ease of use

Beehiiv is simple to use because there's nothing to install. You just create an account and start writing, which is perfect for non-technical users who want to focus on creating content.

Beehiiv has analytics directly in the dashboard, showing the open rate, click-through rate, and other newsletter engagement metrics. This gives you insights into how content is performing.

The tool makes team management flexible with two ways to grant access to your newsletters:

• Workspace access for people who need to manage all your newsletters.
• Publication access for those working on specific newsletters.

Regarding team roles, beehiiv has 3 levels:

• Administrators with full access to billing and data.
• Members who can manage everything except sensitive settings.
• Contributors who only access the editor and automation tools.

I really like that everything is done without code on beehiiv, and is super easy, like importing subscribers and using the platform. The beehiiv team also handles updates, so you never have to worry about maintenance or security patches.

Substack ease of use

Managing a Substack publication is easy. The set up takes just a few minutes.

You won't need to install anything or deal with technical configurations.

Substack also has team collaboration. You can add admins, contributors, and byline members.

This works well for larger teams looking to publish on Substack.

Regarding analytics, Substack is okay. The dashboard shows metrics like open rates and reader engagement, helping creators understand how their content performs.

Substack also has welcome emails that greet new subscribers when they join.

Overall, Substack focuses on being as simple to use and manage as possible. You don't even need to worry about updates or backups to your data.

Ease of use category winner

Beehiiv is marginally better than Substack in terms of ease of use.

Both tools make it simple for creators to start publishing without technical knowledge. They also handle the technical side automatically.

They have analytics built into their dashboards, showing newsletter performance metrics.

Where beehiiv is slightly better is by having better analytics and subscriber segmentation tools.

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 Substack

Content creation on Substack is simple yet limiting.

The editor has a minimalist layout with few settings at the top and nothing else on the way.

This makes it pleasant to look at and won't distract you when writing.

This is a dream for beginners because it's easy to learn and use. But frustrating for advanced users.

For example, adding custom HTML on Substack is a pain and can only be done with Google Tag Manager.

This isn't optimal from a privacy perspective and is too complicated for a thing that should be available by default.

For me, this is a big turn-off about Substack.

As a creator, I need the ability to add custom HTML, CSS, and inject JavaScript into some of my posts. I need these things for embedding forms, making tables, and writing code for sponsored tags.

Other important things missing on Substack are:

• Exclusive email content;
• Content toggles;
• Saving content as reusable blocks.

Substack also allows the creation of content with Notes (their Twitter-like social feature) and podcast publishing.

Content Creation Category winner

Beehiiv is the clear winner when it comes to content creation.

Beehiiv wins because they have almost everything we need as creators.

Meanwhile, Substack feels stagnated and has only recently improved its social features, which doesn't feel enough.

Customization: beehiiv vs Substack

Next comes customization and design.

Customization 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.

Customization on Substack

Substack's customization summary:

• Newsletter templates: No;
• Newsletter customization options: Basically none;
• Website themes: Yes, but very limited;
• Possibility to buy a theme from a 3rd-party or create one with a custom code: Only the Tripoli theme from Aspire Themes is available.

Substack's customization is extremely limited for both newsletters and websites.

You can only change basic things like fonts and colors.

Regarding layouts, there are only a handful of options. And you won't have complete control over them or advanced options.

This makes it hard to build a recognizable brand because everyone looks the same.

That's boring!

Newsletter customization is even more restrictive.

So, you can't buy or build custom themes for Substack.

To make things worse, you can't remove Substack's branding from your emails, either.

While this simplicity makes Substack easy to use, it significantly limits creators' freedom.

Customization winner

Beehiiv is the winner when it comes to customization. Their newsletter customization is second to none.

This gives beehiiv an advantage over Substack, that only has "cookie-cutter" customization for both the website and newsletter.

Growth tools: beehiv vs Substack

Let's see how beehiiv and Substack compare when it comes to growth tools.

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).

Substack Growth tools

Substack's most important Growth tools checklist:

• Plugins/integrations: No;
• Automated email sequences: No;
• Referral program: No;
• Subscriber segmentation: Limited (only segments between free and paid);
• Custom sending domain: No;
• A/B testing (titles): No;
• RSS feed: Yes;

Growing a Substack publication has been the biggest problem since forever.

Where do I even start...

The platform doesn't have email automation, A/B testing for titles, and subscriber segmentation is very limited.

To counter these flaws, Substack developed its internal Discovery tool and its Twitter-clone called Notes.

This move towards a more social approach makes Substack a unique tool. It also increases the power of their network as more writers use Notes.

In 2022, Substack also released newsletter recommendations. This lets one writer recommend another newsletter to its subscribers.

While this creates network effects where creators can help each other grow, it's one of the few growth features available.

Growth Category winner

Beehiiv is miles ahead of Substack in the growth category.

You can see several case studies of newsletters growing really fast on beehiiv on their blog.

And when we look at beehiiv and Substack from a technical point of view, the difference is massive.

Beehiiv keeps improving almost every week and has fixed most of its flaws.

While Substack looks like a stagnated platform.

Things like email automation and segmentation are essential, and there is no excuse for Substack not to have this after several years.

So, beehiiv is the clear winner when it comes to growth.

Final Thoughts

Across this comparison, it became clear that beehiiv is superior to Substack in most categories.

Substack has a respectable reputation. They made newsletters cool again and became the standard for non-technical users to start writing online.

However, this "ease of use" comes at the cost of missing features, hurting advanced users the most.

On the other side, beehiiv was created in 2021 and has become one of the most complete newsletter tools for creators.

Beehiiv has improved on many limitations that Substack has had for years without fixing. And developed a lot more things that Substack users can only dream of.

This has become one of the reasons I see people compliment them on Twitter over and over again.

So, it's obvious why I rate beehiiv higher than Substack.

The only reasons to pick Substack over beehiiv are:

• You don't have any money to pay for a beehiiv paid plan at the moment;
• You want to publish different types of content on the same platform (podcast, newsletter, etc.) and see Substack as the perfect place to publish everything you need and be easy to talk with subscribers.

In every other scenario, you will be much better off going with beehiiv. It's not even close!

Click on the button below and start your beehiiv account today.

Best overall

beehiiv

• Content creation: 8.9
• Customization: 6.8
• SEO: 7.8
• Growth: 10
• Management: 9.5
• Monetization: 7.8
• Overall Rating: 9.5

20% off with code EB

Free forever plan

Substack

• Content creation: 5.2
• Customization: 4.3
• SEO: 7.5
• Growth: 4.8
• Management: 9.0
• Monetization: 4.8
• Overall Rating: 6.7

Use Substack