We make Drry, which competes with beehiiv for some creators, so read this with that in mind. Is beehiiv free? Yes: the Free plan costs $0 with no card, for up to 2,500 subscribers, with unlimited sends. Paid subscriptions and the ad network start on Lite, which is $59 a month billed monthly at 1,000 subscribers ($49 a month billed yearly), and every paid price rises with your list. beehiiv takes 0% of your paid subscriptions on those plans. We read every figure on this page from beehiiv's own pricing page and help centre in October 2026.
What does the free plan include?
More than most free plans, and it is aimed squarely at building a list. Free holds up to 2,500 subscribers and gives you unlimited email sends, a website, a link-in-bio page, campaign analytics, a community and beehiiv's recommendation network, where other publications can suggest yours for free.
What Free leaves out is most of what earns. On beehiiv's own feature table, paid subscriptions, the ad network, automations and A/B testing are unavailable on Free; digital products are capped at one. So the free plan is a genuinely good place to grow to a few thousand readers and sell them one product, and not a place to charge a subscription.
How much does beehiiv cost as your list grows?
beehiiv prices its paid plans by subscriber count, using a slider on its pricing page. We walked it through every setting, on both billing options. These are the prices a month:
| Subscribers | Lite, monthly | Lite, yearly | Pro, monthly | Pro, yearly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Up to 1,000 | $59 | $49 | $109 | $95 |
| Up to 2,500 | $79 | $69 | $149 | $129 |
| Up to 5,000 | $109 | $95 | $199 | $169 |
| Up to 10,000 | $139 | $119 | $239 | $199 |
| Up to 25,000 | $199 | $169 | $349 | $299 |
| Up to 50,000 | $299 | $249 | $469 | $399 |
| Up to 75,000 | $389 | $329 | $589 | $499 |
| Up to 100,000 | $469 | $399 | $699 | $599 |
| Up to 150,000 | Unavailable | Unavailable | $799 | $689 |
| Up to 200,000 | Unavailable | Unavailable | $899 | $779 |
| 250,000 or more | Unavailable | Unavailable | $999 | $869 |
Yearly billing takes a slice off, up to 20% by beehiiv's own FAQ; on the prices we walked, the largest saving is about 17%, on Lite at 1,000 subscribers. At 1,000 subscribers Lite is $49 a month billed yearly and Pro is $95. Lite is unavailable above 100,000 subscribers; Pro runs to 250,000 subscribers and beyond, and Enterprise is quoted.
Two things are worth knowing before you pick. First, sends are unlimited on every plan, so the list size is the only thing you pay for; email as often as you like. Second, the jump from Lite to Pro buys specific things rather than more sending: removing beehiiv branding, a sponsorship storefront, audio newsletters and up to 10 publications. If you do not need one of those, Lite is the plan, until your list passes 100,000 subscribers, where Pro is the only self-serve option.
What are beehiiv's fees on the money you earn?
- Paid subscriptions: 0%. beehiiv takes none of it, and its FAQ says the same of digital product revenue. Stripe's standard processing of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction is the only deduction beehiiv names, and it is the one every platform that runs on Stripe carries.
- Paid recommendations: 20%. When another publication pays for readers you send it, beehiiv's help centre says a 20% fee covers its costs and Stripe's, and it is already taken out of the price you are shown.
- The Ad Network: not published. It pays per unique open or per unique click, once a month, and is open on every paid plan. We could not find the share beehiiv keeps stated on its pricing page or in its Ad Network FAQ, so compare what an offer pays you rather than looking for a rate.
beehiiv or Substack: where is the crossover?
This is the comparison most beehiiv shoppers are really making. Substack is free to publish on and takes 10% of paid subscription revenue; beehiiv charges a plan price and takes 0%. So the cheaper one depends on how much you earn.
The honest caveat runs the other way too. Substack's network brings readers that no plan price buys, and a writer still finding an audience may be right to pay a percentage for it. Our Substack pricing guide has the full breakdown of that side, and beehiiv vs Substack compares the two feature by feature.
Who beehiiv is genuinely right for
- Writers whose newsletter is the business. Unlimited sends, a real website, referrals and recommendations are built for growing a publication, and it shows.
- Anyone monetizing with sponsors. The ad network and, on Pro, the sponsorship storefront are income sources a general email tool does not hand you.
- Paid newsletters past the break-even. Once your paid revenue clears the crossover above, a flat plan with 0% taken beats a percentage every month.
Weighing other options? Our beehiiv alternatives guide covers the platforms writers actually move to, and Substack alternatives covers the other direction.
How Drry compares (the disclosed pitch)
Our product, so discount this accordingly. Drry is not a newsletter platform. It has no public archive of your posts for search to find, no ad network and no recommendation network, and its free plan holds 500 contacts plus 100 members, against beehiiv's 2,500 subscribers. If the newsletter is the product, beehiiv is the better tool.
Drry is for the writer who wants paying members rather than only paying subscribers: a community feed they log into, courses, audio and events, with broadcasts sent from the same place. The money side is where it differs from beehiiv most. We take 0% of member payments on every plan, free included, paid into your own Stripe account, so charging does not wait for a paid plan. Free covers 700 email sends a month; Creator is a flat $29 a month with 25,000 contacts and 60,000 sends, and paying members never count as contacts. That count includes every email your community sends, receipts, booking confirmations and reply notifications included; sign-in codes, mail to your own team and the emails we send you about your own account do not count. See Drry vs beehiiv for the full side-by-side.
Questions coaches ask
Is Beehiiv free?
Yes. beehiiv's Free plan costs nothing with no card, for up to 2,500 subscribers, with unlimited sends and the recommendation network. Paid subscriptions, the ad network and automations are on the paid plans, which start at $59 a month billed monthly; one digital product can be sold on Free. Checked against beehiiv's own pricing page in October 2026.
How much does beehiiv cost?
Nothing on Free, up to 2,500 subscribers. At 1,000 subscribers, Lite is $59 a month billed monthly or $49 a month billed yearly, and Pro is $109 or $95. Both rise with your list: at 10,000 subscribers Lite is $139 a month and Pro is $239, billed monthly. Lite stops at 100,000 subscribers, Pro runs to 250,000 and beyond, and Enterprise is quoted.
Does beehiiv take a cut of paid subscriptions?
No. beehiiv takes 0% of paid subscription revenue, and its own pricing page says you keep everything minus Stripe's standard processing fee of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. The condition is the plan: paid subscriptions are a Lite and Pro feature, so the zero cut costs you a paid plan rather than a percentage.
How does the beehiiv Ad Network pay?
Per open or per click. beehiiv's Ad Network FAQ says it is open on every paid plan, pays on CPM (unique opens) or CPC (unique clicks), and pays out on the 20th of each month for the previous month's ads through a Stripe Express account. We could not find the share of ad revenue beehiiv keeps stated in that FAQ, so judge offers on what you are paid, not on a percentage.
Is beehiiv cheaper than Substack?
Once you earn a little, usually yes. Substack takes 10% of paid subscription revenue and beehiiv takes 0% on a plan you pay for, so they cost the same where 10% of your revenue equals the plan price: at 1,000 subscribers on Lite, billed monthly, that is $590 a month of paid revenue. Earn less and Substack is cheaper; earn more and beehiiv is, by a margin that widens with every paying reader.
Should a newsletter writer use Drry instead?
Only if the newsletter exists to sell something readers log into: a course, coaching or a paid community. Drry takes 0% of member payments on every plan including free, and runs broadcasts next to the courses and community feed. It is not a publishing platform: there is no public post archive, ad network or recommendation network, so a writer whose newsletter is the product is better served by beehiiv. We make Drry, so weigh that.