Beehiiv vs Kit (ConvertKit)

Who Should Use Which

Use Beehiiv if newsletters are your primary content channel and you want built-in growth tools - ad network, referral program, and recommendations. Best for newsletter-first creators and media operators.

Use Kit (ConvertKit) if you're a creator who needs visual email automations, landing pages, and commerce alongside newsletters. Best for creators who sell digital products and courses.

Newsletter Features

Beehiiv was built by the team behind Morning Brew - one of the most successful newsletters ever. That pedigree shows. The editor is optimised for newsletter-style content. The subscriber management is clean. The analytics dashboard shows opens, clicks, growth, and engagement in a way that prioritises newsletter-specific metrics.

Kit's newsletter capabilities are solid but they're part of a broader email marketing platform. The broadcast editor works well. Visual automations let you build complex subscriber journeys. But Kit wasn't designed newsletter-first - it was designed email-marketing-first with newsletters as a use case.

For pure newsletter operations - write, send, grow, monetise - Beehiiv's focused design wins.

Growth Tools

Beehiiv has a built-in referral program (similar to Morning Brew's famous referral engine). Subscribers share a unique link, earn rewards at configurable milestones. No third-party integration needed. The Recommendations feature lets newsletters cross-promote each other, driving organic growth.

Beehiiv's Ad Network is a genuine differentiator. Once you hit a subscriber threshold, Beehiiv matches you with advertisers. The revenue share is handled automatically. This is a monetisation channel that Kit doesn't offer.

Kit has the Creator Network for cross-promotion and a referral program (on Creator Pro). But Kit's growth tools are more basic compared to Beehiiv's purpose-built newsletter growth engine.

Automation and Sequences

Kit wins on automation depth. The visual automation builder lets you create complex subscriber journeys - tag-based segmentation, conditional paths, time delays, and integration triggers. If a subscriber buys a product, clicks a link, or hits a tag condition, you can route them through different email sequences.

Beehiiv has automations but they're simpler. Welcome sequences, tag-based segments, and conditional sends cover the basics. For complex multi-step journeys with branching logic, Kit's automation builder is more capable.

If you sell courses, digital products, or services alongside your newsletter, Kit's automation depth matters. If your business model is purely newsletter + ads + paid subscriptions, Beehiiv's simpler automations are sufficient.

Monetisation

Beehiiv offers three monetisation paths: premium subscriptions (paid newsletter), the Ad Network (Beehiiv matches you with advertisers), and Boosts (get paid when you recommend other newsletters). All are built into the platform.

Kit offers paid subscriptions through Kit Commerce, which also handles digital product sales (ebooks, courses, templates). Kit's commerce features are broader - you can sell a $500 course alongside a $5/month newsletter subscription. But Kit has no ad network.

For newsletter-only monetisation, Beehiiv gives you more options out of the box. For creators with diverse revenue streams (courses, products, coaching), Kit's commerce platform is more versatile.

Pricing

Beehiiv's free tier (Launch) gives you 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends and a custom domain. Grow is $49/month for 10K subscribers with the ad network and custom HTML. Scale is $99/month for 100K subscribers with A/B testing and API access.

Kit's free tier gives you 10K subscribers with unlimited broadcasts and one automation - significantly more generous on subscriber count. Creator is $25/month for unlimited automations, sequences, and integrations. Creator Pro is $50/month for referral programs and subscriber scoring.

At 5K subscribers:

• -Beehiiv Grow: $49/month (includes ad network)
• -Kit Creator: $25/month (includes automations)

Kit is cheaper at most subscriber counts. Beehiiv's higher price includes the ad network, which can generate revenue that offsets the cost.

The Verdict

Beehiiv wins for newsletter-first creators who want to grow and monetise a newsletter as their primary business. The ad network, referral program, and recommendations are growth tools that Kit can't match.

Kit wins for creators with diverse revenue streams who need visual automations, landing pages, and commerce alongside their newsletter. If you sell courses, digital products, or services, Kit's broader feature set serves that business model better.

Pure newsletter play? Beehiiv. Creator business with multiple revenue streams? Kit.