beehiiv vs ConvertKit
An honest side-by-side on pricing, features, and who each tool actually suits.
Best for: Independent publishers and newsletter operators building an audience they intend to monetise.
Visit beehiiv
Best for: Bloggers, newsletter operators, and course creators who send regular broadcasts plus a handful of evergreen sequences.
Visit ConvertKitOur verdict
beehiiv is a publishing business; ConvertKit is an email platform.
beehiiv assumes your newsletter is the product. A referral programme, the Boosts paid-acquisition network, cross-recommendations, paid subscriptions with no platform cut on higher tiers, and an ad network that places sponsors into newsletters too small to sell direct are all native. Its website builder produces real archive pages that can earn search traffic. If growth and monetisation are the job, nothing else bundles this much of it.
ConvertKit is the better email tool. Tag-based subscribers, cleaner automations, and category-leading deliverability make it the stronger platform for sequences, launches, and any sending shaped by behaviour rather than a publishing schedule. It also sells digital products directly.
Decide on what you are building. A newsletter you intend to monetise through subscriptions and sponsorships points to beehiiv. A creator business where email supports courses, products, and launches points to ConvertKit — beehiiv's automation is thin by comparison, and pricing climbs steeply with subscriber count.
At a glance
| beehiiv | ConvertKit | |
|---|---|---|
| Editor score | 4.6 / 5 | 4.7 / 5 |
| User rating | No reviews yet | 4.7 / 5 |
| Verified reviews | 0 | 3 |
| Starting price | $39/mo | $15/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | No |
| Ease of use | — | 4.8 |
| Support | — | 4.7 |
| Value | — | 4.7 |
Feature comparison
| Feature | beehiiv | ConvertKit |
|---|---|---|
| Autoresponder sequences | — | Yes |
| Behavioural triggers | — | Yes |
| Visual automation builder | — | Yes |
| Built-in CRM | — | No |
| Lead scoring | — | Yes |
| Subscriber deduplication | — | Yes |
| Tag-based segmentation | — | Yes |
| Drag-and-drop email editor | — | Yes |
| Landing pages | — | Yes |
| Signup forms & pop-ups | — | Yes |
| Template library | — | Yes |
| A/B testing | — | Yes |
| Send-time optimisation | — | No |
| SMS marketing | — | No |
| Abandoned cart recovery | — | No |
| Sell digital products | — | Yes |
| Revenue attribution | — | No |
| API access | — | Yes |
| Zapier / no-code integrations | — | Yes |
beehiiv
Pros
- Best-in-class newsletter growth features
- Multiple built-in monetisation routes
- Strong publishing and website tooling
- Growth and revenue analytics
- Usable free tier
Cons
- Weak marketing automation
- Expensive at scale
- Growth features gated to higher tiers
- Ad revenue needs real scale
ConvertKit
Pros
- Category-leading deliverability
- Tag-and-segment model beats list duplication
- Visual automations that stay readable as they grow
- Free tier is usable to 10,000 subscribers
- Landing pages and forms included on every plan
- Sell digital products without a second platform
Cons
- Plain-text aesthetic fights design-heavy brands
- Reporting stops well short of revenue attribution
- Shallow e-commerce automation versus Klaviyo
- No SMS channel