Email marketing and newsletters

Kit vs beehiiv

Kit’s free plan covers 10,000 subscribers but automations start at $33 a month; beehiiv is free to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends and builds in an ad network and 0% paid subscriptions.

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The short answer

Both are for creators rather than product email, and both put automations behind a paid plan. Kit’s free plan is larger: up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts, landing pages and forms. beehiiv’s free Launch plan stops at 2,500 subscribers, with unlimited sends, a website, podcast hosting and custom domains.

At 1,000 subscribers, Kit Creator lists $33 a month with unlimited visual automations and sequences, and Pro $66; beehiiv Scale lists $49 with automations, the ad network, paid subscriptions and webhooks. At 10,000 subscribers beehiiv Scale lists $109, a figure from its April 2024 FAQ; Kit’s price at that size was not captured.

Monetisation differs. beehiiv takes 0% of paid subscriptions (Stripe’s 2.9% + $0.30 still applies) and runs a native ad network. Kit charges 3.5% + 30c per transaction and keeps 23.5% of Paid Recommendations earnings. Branding comes off on Kit Creator, but only on beehiiv Max or Enterprise.

Choose Kit if

Your list is under 10,000 and you do not need automations yet
You sell courses or digital products and want sequences to deliver them
You want to remove branding on the entry paid plan

Choose beehiiv if

You run a media-style newsletter and want sponsors placed through an ad network
You want paid subscriptions with no platform take rate
You publish a podcast and website alongside the newsletter

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Side by side

	Kit	beehiiv
Stages	HobbyIndieStartupScale-upEnterprise	HobbyIndieStartupScale-upEnterprise
What it is	Creator email marketing platform	Newsletter platform
From	Creator from $33/mo (1,000 subscribers, monthly)	Scale from $49/mo (1,000 subscribers)
Free tier	Up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited landing pages, forms and broadcasts, tagging and segmentation, selling digital products; Kit branding and no sequences or visual automations beyond a basic one	Launch plan: up to 2,500 subscribers, unlimited email sends, newsletter, website and podcast, custom domains, API read access (no Send API), 1 team member; no automations
Free plan	10,000 subscribers	2,500 subscribers, unlimited sends
10k contacts/mo	—	$109/mo (Scale)
Automations	Creator plan and up (unlimited)	Scale plan and up
Landing pages	Unlimited, all plans	Hosted website builder, all plans
Open source	No	No
Self-hostable	No	No
EU data residency	Not stated	Not stated
Compliance	Not stated	Not stated
Checked	28 Sept 2026	28 Sept 2026
Strengths	Free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers Unlimited landing pages and forms on every plan Built-in ways to earn from a newsletter Bills only unique, active subscribers	Free plan with 2,500 subscribers and unlimited sends Several built-in ways to earn from a newsletter No take rate on paid subscriptions Website, podcast and newsletter in one account
Limitations	Sequences and visual automations require a paid plan Creator starts at $33 a month even for 1,000 subscribers Transaction and recommendation fees apply to earnings No transactional email API for app notifications	Automations require the Scale plan Send API for programmatic email is Enterprise-only beehiiv branding can be removed only on Max or Enterprise Scale and Max top out at 100,000 subscribers

Sources: Kit pricing, beehiiv pricing. Full plans on each tool's page.

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Plans

Kit

Free Up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited broadcasts, landing pages and forms	$0
Creator 1,000 subscribers; $390/yr billed yearly; unlimited visual automations and sequences, remove branding, RSS campaigns	$33/mo
Pro 1,000 subscribers; $790/yr billed yearly; unlimited users, deliverability reporting, referral system, advanced A/B tests	$66/mo

beehiiv

Launch Up to 2,500 subscribers, unlimited sends, 1 seat	$0
Scale 1,000 subscribers ($43/mo, $517 billed annually); automations, ad network, paid subscriptions, webhooks, 3 seats; up to 100,000 subscribers	From $49/mo
Max 1,000 subscribers ($1,151/yr); remove branding, RSS to send, dynamic content, 10 publications, unlimited seats	From $96/mo billed annually
Enterprise 100K+ subscribers, Send API, dedicated IPs, SSO	Custom

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