beehiiv vs Substack

beehiiv is a newsletter platform founded by former Morning Brew engineers, including CEO Tyler Denk, to give independent publishers the growth tooling that helped Morning Brew scale. It handles writing, sending, hosting and monetizing a newsletter in one place, and has grown quickly since its public launch in 2022.

Every publication gets a visual editor with polls and surveys, a hosted website with SEO-friendly archives and custom domains, segmentation and analytics. The free plan covers up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends. The paid Lite plan, priced by list size, unlocks the features that matter for growth: a referral program, Boosts (paid recommendations from other newsletters), the beehiiv Ad Network, paid subscriptions through Stripe, automations and A/B tests. Pro removes beehiiv branding and adds webinars and advanced analytics, and Enterprise adds dedicated IPs and SLAs.

beehiiv suits media-style newsletters, niche publications and journalists who treat the newsletter as the business. Its referral and ad network features have no real equal among email tools. It is not built for e-commerce lifecycle marketing (Klaviyo), creators selling courses and digital products (Kit), or SaaS product email (Customer.io). Substack is the main alternative for writers who value its network effects more than control over branding and monetization.

Over 2024 and 2025 beehiiv kept expanding beyond email with a richer website builder and AI writing tools, positioning itself as a full publishing platform.

Substack is a San Francisco company founded in 2017 by Chris Best, Hamish McKenzie and Jairaj Sethi that gives writers a newsletter, website and subscription business in one account. It handles email delivery, a hosted publication site, comments and Stripe-powered paid subscriptions, so a writer can start for free and charge readers whenever they are ready.

Over time Substack added podcasts, video posts and livestreams, a mobile app where readers follow publications, and a social layer: Notes for short posts, Chat for subscriber communities, and a recommendations network that has become a major source of new subscribers for many writers. Custom domains, sections, imports from other platforms and basic analytics are included. Publishing is free; Substack takes 10% of paid subscription revenue, plus Stripe processing fees.

Substack fits journalists, essayists, researchers and creators who want to build an audience quickly and value the network over control. The 10% fee grows with success, design and SEO options are limited, and the platform's moderation policies and algorithm shape your reach. Paid subscriptions depend on Stripe, so writers in countries Stripe does not serve face extra hurdles. Ghost offers ownership and a flat fee with open-source code, beehiiv adds growth and monetization tools such as an ad network and referral programs, and Kit (formerly ConvertKit) suits creators focused on email marketing and product sales.