beehiiv vs Kit (formerly ConvertKit)

Which costs less at your list size?

Under 2,500 subscribers, both cost nothing. Between 2,500 and 10,000, Kit Free keeps sending free while beehiiv asks for Lite. Once you need automations, beehiiv Lite is the cheaper bill at 50,000.

beehiiv bills by unique email addresses subscribed to a publication, in “up to” buckets that round up (beehiiv pricing). Kit bills by confirmed subscribers on a slider of steps (Billing at Kit). Neither charges by the email.

The free plans set the first crossover. beehiiv Free holds up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends, one seat and beehiiv branding. Kit Free holds up to 10,000 with unlimited broadcasts, forms and landing pages (Kit Free plan).

The Kit Free plan

Price The Free plan costs $0 per month for as long as you stay under 10,000 subscribers.

Not on Free Visual automations and the automation template library, email sequences, rules and RSS campaigns, AI Connectors, and paid apps in the Kit App Store.

So a writer with 6,000 readers who sends a weekly letter pays nothing on Kit. On beehiiv the same list sits in the “up to 10,000” bucket on Lite.

The bill once you need automations

An automation is an email series that sends itself, such as a welcome sequence for every new reader. Neither free plan has them.

Below 10,000 subscribers, Kit Creator costs less than beehiiv Lite. At 10,000 the two bills match, and at 50,000 beehiiv Lite is cheaper.

The two plans hold different things at that price. Lite caps you at 10 live automations and adds a custom domain, the Ad Network and the 0% take rate (beehiiv pricing.md). Creator lists unlimited visual automations and 2 team members (Kit pricing).

Yearly billing moves both figures. At the entry step, beehiiv Lite costs $49 a month billed yearly billed yearly and Kit Creator $33 a month billed yearly, checked 6 November 2026 (beehiiv pricing).

What a paid newsletter costs on each

beehiiv takes nothing from paid subscriptions from Lite up. Stripe still takes its 2.9% plus $0.30 per payment (beehiiv pricing FAQ).

Kit charges 3.5% plus $0.30 per sale on every plan, and calls that “the only cost of selling through Kit” (Kit help centre).

Here is what that means at $1,000 a month from 100 paying readers. Kit’s fee comes to $65. On beehiiv Lite, Stripe’s fee comes to $59, and the Lite subscription sits on top (beehiiv pricing.md).

The rates differ by 0.6 percentage points: $6 on every $1,000 of sales, as the sums above show. Kit’s selling article does not say whether Stripe’s fee sits inside its 3.5%.

The free plans flip it. Kit Free can sell, with only the per-sale fee. beehiiv puts paid subscriptions on Lite, so a small paid list pays the Lite price first.

Growth tools: the Ad Network and recommendations

beehiiv puts its growth kit on Lite. That covers the Ad Network, which places sponsors in your newsletter, plus recommendations and a referral programme (beehiiv pricing.md). The trial leaves out the Ad Network, recommendations and the 0% take rate.

Kit spreads its tools across plans. Free accounts get five Smart Recommendation slots in the Creator Network, and earning from Paid Recommendations needs a paid plan (Kit Free plan). The newsletter referral system sits on Pro (plan comparison).

Users of both credit recommendations with growth. One Kit writer says recommendations “pushed 50 a day” (Reddit). A beehiiv thread calls them “the fastest organic growth channel” (Reddit).

One publisher of 19 beehiiv sources writes “I don’t get CPM offers from beehiiv” (Reddit).

Which plan has the AI features?

beehiiv’s AI writer works in the editor from Lite. Kit’s main AI feature is AI Connectors, which lets an outside assistant work inside your account, from Creator.

beehiiv meters its AI. Free gets “Limited” AI usage, Lite “Elevated”, and Pro five times Lite, with no credit counts published (beehiiv pricing.md). Its MCP connection reads on every plan and writes from Lite.

Kit’s AI Connectors is an MCP server with 65+ tools. MCP is a standard that lets an assistant such as Claude read your account and act on it (AI Connectors article). On Free the assistant connects, but every tool call returns an upgrade prompt.

Kit also generates subject lines in its broadcast editor, with no plan named on the Kit AI page.

Does either train AI on your content?

Kit says no. beehiiv’s terms do not say either way.

Kit’s help centre states: “Kit itself does not train any AI/LLM on Kit data.” The line sits in the AI Connectors FAQ, dated 1 October 2026. Kit’s terms do not mention AI.

AI Connectors, security and data FAQ

Kit itself does not train any AI/LLM on Kit data. Please note, however, once a creator connects AI Connectors to a third-party AI client (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc.), that provider’s own data-handling settings govern whether prompts/data get used for model training.

beehiiv’s Terms of Use (6 October 2026) contain no statement on training AI with your content. Section 3 says “beehiiv may compile Aggregated Statistics based on your Content”, meaning anonymised figures. The pricing page lists “No-training / zero-retention” in the Enterprise column only.

Terms of Use, 3 (Aggregated Statistics)

You acknowledge that beehiiv may compile Aggregated Statistics based on your Content (as defined below). You agree that beehiiv may: (i) make Aggregated Statistics publicly available in compliance with applicable law; and (ii) use Aggregated Statistics to the extent and in the manner permitted under applicable law; provided, that such Aggregated Statistics do not identify you or Your Users.

Connect ChatGPT or Claude to either tool and that provider’s settings decide what trains its models. The AI-training guide sets both answers beside 13 other email tools.

Moving between Kit and beehiiv

Your subscribers move either way by CSV. Paid subscriptions are the hard part.

From Kit to beehiiv, you export a CSV and import it. Tags can be applied to everyone in the file (beehiiv migration article, updated 3 September 2026). Your archive comes over through beehiiv’s content import, using your Kit newsletter site URL.

Paid readers depend on how Kit takes payment. On Kit with Stripe Express, beehiiv says “there is not a way to migrate over paid subscriptions to beehiiv”. On a standard external Stripe account, they move.

From beehiiv to Kit, subscribers arrive with their custom fields and tags (Kit migration article, updated 12 September 2026). Posts and automations stay behind. For paid readers, Kit says “there is no convenient method”, and suggests cancelling them on beehiiv and asking them to re-subscribe.

Kit adds that “Migration is included with every paid Kit plan” (Kit migrations).

Kit and beehiiv reviewers praise ease of use and object to price rises

We read 38 public reviews: 19 on each tool, mostly Trustpilot with a few Reddit threads. The two read alike.

Users find beehiiv’s editor easy for beginners (6 of 19 beehiiv sources: Trustpilot, Trustpilot). Kit gets the same praise (6 of 19 Kit sources: Trustpilot, Trustpilot).

Price rises draw complaints on both. On beehiiv, 3 of 19 report them, one “after one month” (Trustpilot, Trustpilot). On Kit, 4 of 19 do (Trustpilot, Trustpilot).

The rest splits. Kit’s top complaint is slow support once billing goes wrong. Five of 19 report it (Trustpilot, Trustpilot). beehiiv users call the editor and mobile app clunky (3 of 19: Trustpilot, Trustpilot).

Where to go next

Every tier is on beehiiv pricing and Kit pricing. The profiles hold each tool’s limits and reviews: beehiiv and Kit.

beehiiv vs Substack sets the 0% take rate against Substack’s 10%. Kit vs MailerLite prices Kit against a cheaper automation plan. Newsletter platforms ranks the tools built for writers, and the AI email marketing hub routes every other job.

Questions buyers ask about beehiiv and Kit

Is beehiiv cheaper than Kit?

At 50,000 subscribers on the plans with automations, yes: beehiiv Lite costs $80 a month less than Kit Creator. Below 10,000, Kit costs less.

Is ConvertKit the same as Kit?

Yes. ConvertKit now trades as Kit, at kit.com.

Which has the bigger free plan?

Kit. Its Free plan holds up to 10,000 subscribers; beehiiv Free holds up to 2,500.

Does beehiiv take a cut of paid subscriptions?

No. From Lite up beehiiv takes 0%, and Stripe’s own fee still applies to each payment (pricing FAQ).

Can I move paid subscribers from Kit to beehiiv?

Only from a standard external Stripe account. beehiiv’s help article says paid subscriptions on Kit with Stripe Express cannot move.

More email tool comparisons sit together in the AI email marketing hub →