Updated September 2026

beehiiv vs Substack

This is the comparison most people actually mean when they ask which newsletter platform to use, and it is the one where the answer changes as you grow. Substack charges nothing up front and 10% of paid subscription revenue forever. beehiiv charges a flat monthly fee and takes 0%. Everything else is detail on top of that single trade.

The useful question is not which is cheaper, it is where the lines cross.

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The short answer

Substack is cheaper until your paid subscriptions pass roughly $430 a month. After that its 10% cut costs more than beehiiv Scale, and it keeps costing more every month you grow.

Side by side

beehiiv compared with Substack, prices checked September 2026
	beehiiv	Substack
Cost to start	Free to 2,500 subscribers, then $43/mo	Free, no monthly fee ever
Cut of paid subscriptions	0%	10%, plus Stripe fees
Ad and sponsor network	Built in, matches sponsors to your list	None. You sell your own
Other revenue	Digital products, boosts, paid tiers	Paid subscriptions only
Custom domain	Included	One-off fee
Design control	Full website builder and themes	Limited, deliberately uniform
Built-in discovery	Recommendation network and boosts	Notes, app and network effects
Automations	Yes on paid plans	Welcome email only

List prices checked September 2026. Both platforms change their plans, so confirm on their own pricing pages before committing.

Beehiiv vs Substack September 2026: beehiiv takes 0% of paid subscriptions against Substack 10%, with the cost crossover at about $430 per month in subscription revenue. — The crossover point is roughly 43 subscribers at $10 a month.

The crossover point, in actual numbers

Substack takes 10% of paid subscription revenue. beehiiv Scale is $43 a month flat. Set those equal and the crossover is $430 a month in subscription revenue: below it Substack is cheaper, above it beehiiv is.

At a typical $10 a month subscription, $430 is about 43 paying subscribers. That is a small number for anyone running a newsletter seriously. If you have 200 paying subscribers at $10, Substack takes $2,000 a year while beehiiv takes $516, and the gap widens every subscriber you add.

The counterpoint is real though: if you have zero paying subscribers, Substack costs zero and beehiiv costs $516 a year. Plenty of newsletters never turn on payments, and for those Substack is unambiguously the right call. Do not pay for monetisation tooling you have no plan to use.

What Substack genuinely does better

Substack has network effects that beehiiv cannot replicate by building features. Notes, the app, and reader recommendations put new writers in front of an existing audience of readers who are already in the habit of subscribing to things. For a writer starting from nothing with no distribution of their own, that is worth a great deal.

It is also simply easier. There is almost nothing to configure. You write, you press send. The deliberate lack of options is a feature if options are the thing stopping you from publishing.

And the brand carries weight with readers. Some audiences trust a Substack link in a way they do not yet trust an unfamiliar newsletter domain.

Where Substack starts to hurt

The 10% never goes away, and it applies to revenue rather than profit. As your newsletter becomes a business, it starts to read like a partner who does progressively less for a progressively larger cheque.

Paid subscriptions are also the only lever. If your newsletter is better suited to sponsorship than to a paywall, and most niche B2B newsletters are, Substack gives you no infrastructure for it. You are finding advertisers, negotiating, invoicing and chasing payment yourself.

Customisation is thin by design, so your publication looks like every other publication. That is fine for a personal essay newsletter and a problem for anything trying to look like a media property.

Moving from Substack to beehiiv

Free subscribers are easy. Substack exports a CSV and beehiiv imports it, and beehiiv can also mirror your archive so your posts and their URLs come across.

Paid subscribers are the fiddly part, because you are moving recurring billing between Stripe accounts. beehiiv has a migration path for this and will help on the larger plans, but it is a job to plan rather than to attempt on a whim. Do it at a calm point in your publishing schedule, not the week of a launch.

So which one?

Pick beehiiv if

You already have, or expect, more than about 43 paying subscribers
You want sponsorship revenue as well as subscriptions
You want the publication to look like your brand rather than a Substack
You want referral and recommendation growth you control

20OFF2026

Try beehiiv with 20OFF2026

14 days free, then 20% off your first 3 months. About $34.40/mo for Scale.

Pick Substack if

You have no paid tier and no near-term plan for one
You want to publish today with nothing to configure
Substack Notes and the app are a meaningful source of your readers
A flat monthly bill before any revenue would genuinely put you off publishing

We earn nothing if you choose Substack, and it is still the right answer for plenty of people. A recommendation you cannot trust is worth nothing to either of us.

beehiiv vs Substack questions

Is beehiiv cheaper than Substack?

It depends entirely on your paid revenue. Substack is free until you sell subscriptions, then takes 10% forever. beehiiv Scale is $43 a month and takes 0%. The crossover is around $430 a month in subscription revenue, which is roughly 43 subscribers at $10. Below that Substack costs less, above it beehiiv does.

Can I move my Substack subscribers to beehiiv?

Yes. Substack exports subscribers as CSV and beehiiv imports them, and your post archive can come across too. Paid subscribers are harder because recurring billing has to move between Stripe accounts, so plan that part rather than rushing it.

Does Substack have a promo code?

No, because there is nothing to discount. Substack has no subscription fee. Its cost is the 10% cut on revenue you earn, and that percentage is not discountable.

Will I lose my Substack readers if I move?

You keep the email list, which is the part that matters and the reason email is worth building on. What you lose is Substack-native discovery: Notes, the app, and recommendations from other Substack writers. If a large share of your growth comes from those, factor that in before moving.

Use 20OFF2026 at beehiiv checkout

14 days free, then 20% off your first 3 months on Scale and Max. Verified September 2026.

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