beehiiv vs Kit for a side-hustle newsletter (2026 costs, free plans, verdict)

beehiiv and Kit (formerly ConvertKit) are the two names that come up most when someone asks where to start a newsletter. Both have free plans, both let you sell things, and both are popular with creators. They’re built around different ideas, though, and for a side hustle written in a few spare hours a week, that difference decides which one you’ll still be happy with in a year.

Short version: Kit is an email marketing tool that happens to be good at newsletters. beehiiv is a newsletter publishing platform that happens to do email marketing. If your list exists to sell your own products, lean Kit. If the newsletter is the product and you’d like it to earn from ads and sponsors one day, lean beehiiv.

How we compared them: every price and limit below comes from each company’s own pricing page, checked in October 2026. We haven’t run identical newsletters on both for months, so there are no open-rate or deliverability claims here. Those depend far more on your list and your writing than on the platform.

Side-by-side

USD. Paid prices on both rise with list size.

Free plans: Kit holds more, beehiiv publishes more

Kit free is a big bucket. Kit’s pricing page lists up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited landing pages and forms, unlimited broadcasts, tagging and segmentation, and the ability to sell digital products and subscriptions. What’s missing is automation: sequences and visual automations sit on the paid Creator plan. On free, you write and send each email yourself.

beehiiv free is smaller but more “publication”. It covers up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends, a website builder, link-in-bio, the recommendation network (other newsletters can recommend yours), a welcome email and campaign analytics with a 30-day lookback. Automations, A/B testing, publishing to segments, polls and the ad network all start at Lite.

One wrinkle: beehiiv’s pricing page lists “Custom Domains” in the Free plan summary but marks custom domains as Lite-and-up in its detailed comparison table. If a custom domain on free matters to you, check in your account before relying on it.

For a 5-hour-a-week newsletter: both free plans are enough to start. Kit’s lasts four times as long before the subscriber cap forces a decision; beehiiv’s gives you a nicer public home for your posts from day one.

When you’ll have to pay

The trigger is almost always automation: a welcome sequence that sends three or four emails over a week without you touching it. For a time-poor writer that’s the single most useful paid feature, and it’s where the two platforms differ most in price.

At 1,000 subscribers, using each vendor’s published prices:

beehiiv publishes its full price ladder: Lite climbs to US$79 a month (monthly billing) at 2,500 subscribers and US$109 at 5,000. Kit’s prices also rise with list size; check its slider for your number.

Verdict on cost: if all you need is automation, Kit Creator is about US$198 a year cheaper than beehiiv Lite at 1,000 subscribers. beehiiv Lite bundles more publishing and monetisation features into that price, which only matters if you’ll use them.

Making money from the newsletter

This is where beehiiv’s design shows.

beehiiv puts monetisation tools in Lite: the ad network (beehiiv notes it isn’t available in all regions, so Australian and other non-US writers should confirm eligibility), paid recommendations, and paid subscriptions with a 0% beehiiv take (you pay Stripe’s processing; beehiiv quotes 2.9% + US$0.30). Pro adds a sponsorship storefront.

Kit focuses on selling your own things: digital products, paid newsletters, recurring subscriptions and tip jars, all at 3.5% + 30c per transaction with card processing included. It also lists Paid Recommendations (Kit keeps 23.5% of those earnings) and a newsletter sponsorship matching service.

For a side hustle: ad and sponsorship income needs a sizeable, engaged list before it’s meaningful. Selling a US$19 guide or template to 1,000 subscribers can work much earlier. That’s why we’d point most small newsletters selling their own products at Kit, and newsletters planning to earn from ads at beehiiv.

Which one suits an AI-assisted, low-time workflow?

If an AI assistant drafts your issues or manages your list, both platforms now offer connectors:

• Kit lists Kit MCP on the Creator plan, to connect assistants such as Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini to your account.
• beehiiv lists MCP read access on Free and write access on Lite, plus an in-editor AI on Lite and up.

Either way, the time-saver that matters most is still the automated welcome sequence. Set it up once, and every new subscriber gets your best emails without you.

The verdict

• Choose Kit if your list exists to sell your own products (guides, templates, a small course), you want the biggest free plan, and you want automations at the lowest price. → See Kit’s plans
• Choose beehiiv if the newsletter itself is the product, you want a proper website and archive from day one, and you hope to earn from ads, recommendations or paid subscriptions. → See beehiiv’s plans
• You don’t need either paid plan yet if you have fewer than a few hundred subscribers and aren’t selling anything. Write consistently on a free plan first; automations are worth paying for once there’s something to automate.

If you want email, sales pages and checkout in one free account instead, an all-in-one platform is a third option. We compare email platforms for product sellers in our email platform guide, the whole costed stack is in the $0–$50/month solopreneur tool stack, and our software cost calculator shows whether bundling would actually save you money.

Switching later

Both let you export your subscriber list, so the choice isn’t permanent. What doesn’t move neatly is the setup: automations, forms and templates have to be rebuilt. Tag subscribers by where they came from and what they bought from day one, and moving is an afternoon’s job rather than a weekend’s.

Sources (checked October 2026)

• Kit pricing and plan features: kit.com/pricing
• beehiiv pricing, plan comparison and FAQ: beehiiv.com/pricing

Before you choose: newsletter platforms change plans and limits often. Confirm the current details on each pricing page before you sign up.