beehiiv vs Substack (2026): Fees, Growth Tools and Which to Pick

Pick Substack if you want to publish for free with no ceiling, and beehiiv if the newsletter has to earn money from ads or a growing paid tier. Substack costs nothing to publish and keeps 10% of paid subscription revenue. beehiiv is free up to 2,500 subscribers, then Lite costs $49 a month billed yearly at 1,000 subscribers, with a 0% cut of paid revenue.

The money flips at a precise point. Substack's 10% cut costs more than beehiiv Lite once paid revenue passes $490 a month, before card fees, which both platforms pass on from Stripe. Below that line, Substack's free model is the cheaper one, and a writer who never charges readers pays nothing on either platform until beehiiv's 2,500-subscriber cap.

Prices were read on 18 October 2026 on beehiiv's pricing page and in Substack's help article How much does Substack cost?. Disclosure: Dupple's newsletters, MarketingShot included, are sent on beehiiv. The comparison below uses only the two vendors' published prices, and Substack wins where those prices say it does.

Toolradar data: Toolradar, the software directory we run, tracks 22 newsletter tools as of 18 October 2026, and 82% of them are free, freemium or open source. Substack is the most compared newsletter tool on Toolradar over the last 90 days, with 133 side-by-side comparisons. The ranking is on Toolradar's newsletter tools page, and the product pages are beehiiv and Substack.

beehiiv vs Substack at a glance

Item (read 18 October 2026)	beehiiv	Substack
Free plan	Free up to 2,500 subscribers, unlimited sends	Free to publish at any list size
Paid plan	Lite $49/mo billed yearly or $59/mo monthly, Pro $95/mo yearly or $109/mo monthly (prices at 1,000 subscribers)	No paid plan
Cut of paid subscriptions	0% on Lite and Pro	10% of each subscription payment
Card processing	Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction	The same Stripe card rate on US cards, plus Stripe Billing at 0.7%
Paid subscriptions available on	Lite and up	Every publication
Ad network	Lite and up	None; sponsored posts are allowed
Custom domain	Included on Free	One-time $50
Subscriber caps	2,500 Free, 100,000 Lite, 250,000 Pro	No cap stated

The table hides one structural difference. beehiiv charges you for the audience; Substack charges you for the revenue. beehiiv's bill grows with the list whether or not readers pay, while Substack's bill is zero until a reader pays and then grows with every payment.

What is the real difference between beehiiv and Substack?

Substack is a publishing network with its own reader app, where your newsletter sits next to other publications and readers can move between them. Its business model is subscriptions only. Its help center says it builds no tools for affiliate links or advertising, so a writer on Substack earns from readers first.

beehiiv is a newsletter business toolkit. It sells the website, the automations, the ad network and the sponsorship tools as plan features, and it keeps none of the subscription money. A publisher on beehiiv can earn from readers, from advertisers, or from both, and pays a flat software fee that rises with the subscriber count.

For a marketer, that split maps to two jobs. A personal-brand writer who wants readers to find them through recommendations and the app fits Substack. A team running a newsletter as a media product, with sponsors, segments and a welcome sequence, fits beehiiv.

What does each platform cost a paid newsletter?

The scenarios: a list of 1,000 subscribers, with readers paying monthly. Each payment goes through Stripe, so the card fee is charged once per paying reader per month. beehiiv's pricing page names only Stripe's standard card fee; Substack's help article adds Stripe Billing at 0.7% for recurring payments.

Scenario A: 50 paying readers at $8 a month ($400 of revenue).

Monthly line	Substack	beehiiv Lite, billed yearly	beehiiv Lite, billed monthly
Platform fee	$0	$49.00	$59.00
Revenue cut	10% = $40.00	0% = $0	0% = $0
Stripe card fee, 50 payments	$26.60	$26.60	$26.60
Stripe Billing	0.7% = $2.80	Not listed by beehiiv	Not listed by beehiiv
Total cost	$69.40	$75.60	$85.60
You keep	$330.60	$324.40	$314.40

At this size Substack is $6.20 a month cheaper than Lite on yearly billing, and $16.20 cheaper than Lite on monthly billing. A writer at this stage is paying for the software on beehiiv whether or not the paid tier grows, which is the risk of a flat fee.

Scenario B: 100 paying readers at $10 a month ($1,000 of revenue).

Monthly line	Substack	beehiiv Lite, billed yearly
Platform fee	$0	$49.00
Revenue cut	10% = $100.00	$0
Stripe card fee, 100 payments	$59.00	$59.00
Stripe Billing	0.7% = $7.00	Not listed by beehiiv
Total cost	$166.00	$108.00
You keep	$834.00	$892.00

Now beehiiv is $58 a month cheaper, or $696 a year. The gap keeps widening, because Substack's cut scales with every new paid reader while the Lite fee stays fixed at a given list size. A newsletter with a strong paid conversion rate outgrows Substack's model quickly.

The arithmetic has one honest limit. beehiiv's price rises as the list grows past each tier, and these scenarios use the 1,000-subscriber prices printed on its page. A writer with a large free list and a small paid tier pays more on beehiiv than these tables show, while Substack would still charge nothing for the free readers.

Who wins on growth tools?

Substack wins discovery inside its own network. Its Recommendations feature lets you promote other Substacks to your readers, and those writers are prompted to recommend you back. Substack also sends a recommendations digest email to subscribers when a writer they follow recommends a new publication, which puts your name in front of readers you never reached. For a solo writer with no ad budget, that network is the main growth engine, and it costs nothing.

beehiiv answers with a recommendation network on the Free plan, plus a referral program, subscribe forms and pop-ups listed in its growth tools. Automations and audience polls start on Lite, and A/B testing sits there too, so a welcome series needs a paid plan. Pro adds dynamic content and click-triggered automations, which matter to a marketer who wants to route readers by what they clicked.

The difference for a growth marketer is ownership of the funnel. On Substack, a large part of growth happens inside Substack's app and network. On beehiiv, growth happens on your own site and forms, which you can measure and tune. The newsletter growth tools roundup covers the referral and paid-acquisition tools that plug into either, and the guide to growing a newsletter covers the playbook. For a benchmark of what marketers already read, see the best marketing newsletters list.

Can you run ads and sponsorships?

beehiiv, yes, built in. Substack, only on your own terms. beehiiv's Ad Network starts on Lite, so a publication can fill ad slots from beehiiv's advertisers without selling them itself. Pro adds a Sponsorship Storefront for direct deals.

Substack's help center states that it builds no functionality for advertising, and its business model relies on subscriptions. It does not prohibit sponsored content, so you can sell a sponsor slot and paste it in by hand. Substack also runs a native sponsorship program through Creator Kits, a shareable media kit available to Bestsellers publications or those with at least 100 paid subscribers.

For a free newsletter that wants to earn from day one, that settles it. A free list on Substack has no built-in ad revenue, while the same list on beehiiv Lite can carry ads from its network. The newsletter open rate benchmarks page shows the engagement figures sponsors ask about before they book.

Who owns the list, and can you leave?

Both let you leave with your readers. Substack's help center explains how to export your email list as a CSV from the Subscribers page, with all columns or only the visible ones. It also publishes a guide for moving from beehiiv to Substack, which tells you the switch in that direction is a supported path.

beehiiv markets itself on owning your subscriber list, includes custom domains on the Free plan, and counts subscribers as unique email addresses. Substack charges a one-time $50 to connect a custom domain, and that fee does not include registering the domain. If you plan to move platforms one day, a custom domain from the start keeps your links and your sender identity yours.

One Substack detail affects paid writers on mobile. Subscriptions bought in the Substack iOS app may cost readers more to cover Apple's fees, and Substack's cut is calculated on the web price, not the higher app price. A writer can choose to raise in-app prices or keep them the same.

Where each one falls short

beehiiv's weaknesses. The free plan stops at its subscriber cap, so a writer with a growing free list hits a bill before earning anything. Automations, paid subscriptions and the ad network are all locked behind Lite, and removing beehiiv branding needs Pro. The price climbs with every subscriber tier, which penalizes a large, unmonetized list.

Substack's weaknesses. The revenue cut never goes away, so the platform takes more from a successful paid newsletter every month it grows. There is no built-in ad network, and native sponsorships open only to publications that already have scale. Your growth depends partly on Substack's network and app, which you do not control.

Verdict by newsletter type

Newsletter	Better fit	Why
Free personal newsletter, no plans to charge	Substack	Free at any size, with a recommendation network
Free newsletter funded by ads	beehiiv Lite	Ad Network built in; Substack builds no ad tools
Paid newsletter, small paid tier	Substack	Below the break-even line, the revenue cut costs less than Lite's fee
Paid newsletter past the break-even line	beehiiv Lite	A fixed fee beats a percentage of every payment
Brand or team newsletter with sequences	beehiiv	Automations from Lite, 10 seats on Pro
Writer who wants readers through an app	Substack	Readers discover publications inside Substack

If the choice is wider than these two, the best newsletter platforms roundup ranks the full field, the best email marketing software list covers tools built for campaigns rather than publishing, the Kit review covers the creator email option, the beehiiv review covers beehiiv's plans in depth, and beehiiv vs Kit compares it with the creator email platform. For Kit's own tiers, see Kit pricing. Toolradar's side-by-side page is at beehiiv vs Substack on Toolradar.

Dupple data: MarketingShot had 35,000+ active subscribers on October 18, 2026, with a 32% average open rate, figures read from beehiiv's API. If you want campaigns, tools and benchmarks like these in your inbox, sign up for the MarketingShot newsletter at marketingshot.com.

How we computed it

beehiiv prices come from beehiiv's pricing page at the 1,000-subscriber setting, and Substack fees from its help articles on cost, custom domains, advertising and Creator Kits, all read on 18 October 2026. The scenarios apply each published fee to the stated revenue and number of payments. They assume US cards, monthly payments and no refunds or taxes, and they leave out any Stripe fee beehiiv does not list. Louis Corneloup, founder of Toolradar and Dupple, is the author.

FAQ

Is beehiiv or Substack better in 2026?

It depends on how the newsletter earns. Substack is free to publish at any size and takes its cut only when readers pay, which suits free and small paid newsletters. beehiiv Lite costs $49 a month billed yearly at 1,000 subscribers with a 0% cut and an ad network, which suits newsletters with ads or more than $490 a month of paid revenue.

How much does Substack take from paid subscriptions?

Substack keeps 10% of each subscription payment. Stripe then charges 2.9% + $0.30 per payment on US cards and 0.7% for Stripe Billing on recurring payments. On $1,000 of monthly revenue from 100 readers, the total comes to $166.

Is beehiiv free?

Yes, up to 2,500 subscribers. The Free plan includes unlimited email sends, a website, custom domains and the recommendation network. Paid subscriptions, the ad network and automations need Lite, priced at $49 a month billed yearly or $59 a month billed monthly at 1,000 subscribers.

Does beehiiv take a cut of paid subscriptions?

No. beehiiv states that it takes 0% of paid subscription and digital product revenue on its paid plans. You still pay Stripe's standard card processing fee, so the platform fee is the only beehiiv charge.

Can you run ads on Substack?

Not through Substack's own tools. Substack says it builds no functionality for affiliate links or advertising, but it allows sponsored content you sell yourself. Its native sponsorship program, Creator Kits, is open to Bestsellers publications or those with at least 100 paid subscribers.

When does beehiiv become cheaper than Substack?

When paid revenue passes about $490 a month on beehiiv Lite billed yearly at 1,000 subscribers, the point where Substack's 10% equals the $49 fee. On monthly billing the line moves to $590. A bigger list raises beehiiv's fee and pushes the line higher.

Can I move from beehiiv to Substack or back?

Yes. Substack lets you export your list as a CSV and publishes a guide for moving from beehiiv to Substack. A custom domain, included on beehiiv Free and a one-time $50 on Substack, keeps your links working when you switch.

Cite this: MarketingShot, "beehiiv vs Substack (2026): Fees, Growth Tools and Which to Pick", October 2026.

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