Best newsletter platform for agencies & consultants: beehiiv vs Substack vs Kit
If you run an agency or consultancy, a newsletter is how you stay in front of past clients between projects — the cheapest referral engine there is. Three platforms dominate the choice: beehiiv, Substack, and Kit (formerly ConvertKit). Here's what each really costs, the revenue-cut math nobody puts in the headline, and which one fits which situation.
beehiiv for a business that wants to own its audience and keep 100% of any revenue; Substack for a solo writer monetizing purely through paid subscriptions; Kit if deep marketing automation matters more than the newsletter itself. For most agencies and consultants — where the newsletter nurtures referrals rather than being the product — beehiiv is the one we'd pick, and the one we actually use.
Pricing, side by side
| beehiiv ✓ our pick | Substack | Kit (ex-ConvertKit) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Up to 2,500 subscribers, unlimited sends, website + custom domain | Unlimited subscribers, free to publish | Up to 10,000 subscribers (limited automation) |
| Entry paid plan | Scale: $43/mo ($34.40 billed annually) | No monthly fee | Creator: $33/mo at 1,000 subs (scales with list size) |
| Cut of your paid-subscription revenue | 0% (on Scale & up) | 10% + payment processing | Transaction fee 3.5% + $0.30 via its commerce |
| Owned audience (export/migrate) | Yes — it's yours | Yes, but the discovery network is Substack's | Yes — it's yours |
| Built-in growth tools | Recommendation network, referral program, magic links | Substack network & recommendations | Recommendations, SparkLoop referrals (Pro) |
| Marketing automation | Email automations on Scale+ | Minimal — it's a publishing tool | Deepest of the three (visual automations) |
| Best fit | Businesses & serious newsletters | Solo writers selling subscriptions | Creators who live in automation |
The revenue-cut math nobody headlines
This is the number that quietly decides it if you ever charge for anything. Say you build a paid newsletter or sell a course to your list and it earns $2,000/month. On Substack, their 10% cut plus payment processing takes roughly $260 of that every month — forever, scaling with your success. On beehiiv's Scale plan, the cut on paid subscriptions is 0%: you pay the flat $43/mo and keep the rest. The crossover is brutal for Substack the moment you're earning real money — at $2,000/mo you'd pay beehiiv $43 and Substack $260 for what is, functionally, the same job. Substack's pitch is that its discovery network brings you subscribers you wouldn't get elsewhere; that can be true for writers, but for a business nurturing its own client list, you're paying a 10% tax for a network you don't need.
Where Substack genuinely wins
Honesty cuts both ways. If you're a writer whose newsletter is the product — essays, journalism, a personal following you monetize through paid subscriptions — Substack is the path of least resistance. Zero monthly cost until you earn, a built-in discovery network and recommendation engine that genuinely surfaces new readers, and an app where your subscribers already read. The 10% is real, but for someone starting from no audience and no budget, "free until you make money, and here's an audience" is a fair trade. It's the wrong trade for a business that already has the audience (its clients) and just needs to email them.
Where Kit fits
Kit's free plan is the most generous headline number — up to 10,000 subscribers free — but the free tier deliberately limits automation to one basic sequence, and the paid Creator plan ($33/mo at 1,000 subscribers) is priced against your list size, so it climbs as you grow. What you're paying for is the best marketing automation of the three: proper visual automation builders, tagging and segmentation, integrations. If your newsletter is one node in a bigger email-marketing machine — sequences, launches, tagging by behavior — Kit earns it. If the newsletter is mostly "email my list every two weeks," you're paying for an engine you won't run.
Why we run this site on beehiiv
We don't just recommend beehiiv from the outside — the subscribe box at the bottom of every page on this site is beehiiv, and we deal with its editor and subscriber tools every week. What made it the choice for a business newsletter: the free tier includes a real website and custom domain (not a stripped trial), the recommendation network brings in subscribers passively, and the 0% cut on paid subscriptions means if we ever monetize the list, beehiiv doesn't get a slice. The honest downsides we've hit: the free tier caps at 2,500 subscribers (Substack and Kit go further free), and the sheer number of features can feel like more tool than a simple newsletter needs on day one. Our full write-up is in the beehiiv guide.
Who should pick which
Pick beehiiv if: you're a business or serious newsletter that wants to own its audience, use built-in growth tools, and keep 100% of any revenue. Pick Substack if: you're a solo writer starting from zero who'll monetize through paid subscriptions and wants the discovery network. Pick Kit if: marketing automation — sequences, tagging, launches — matters more to you than the newsletter itself, and you're under 10,000 subscribers so the free plan covers you. All three have real free tiers, so the honest move is to start free on the one that matches and only pay once it's earning its keep.
Frequently asked questions
Which newsletter platform is cheapest?
It depends on whether you monetize. For a free newsletter, all three have free tiers — Kit's goes furthest (10,000 subscribers). The moment you charge for subscriptions, beehiiv is far cheaper at scale because it takes 0% of your revenue on Scale+, while Substack takes 10%. At $2,000/mo in subscription revenue, beehiiv costs ~$43/mo and Substack ~$260/mo.
Do you use beehiiv yourselves?
Yes — the subscribe box at the bottom of every page on this site runs on beehiiv, and we work with its editor and subscriber tools every week. We also earn a commission if you sign up through our link, and we say so plainly. We have no affiliate relationship with Substack or Kit.
beehiiv vs Substack for a business newsletter?
beehiiv, for most businesses. Substack is optimized for individual writers monetizing a personal following through its discovery network — and it charges 10% of paid revenue for the privilege. A business nurturing its own client list already has the audience and doesn't need the network, so paying that 10% tax rarely makes sense. beehiiv gives you an owned audience, a real website, and a 0% revenue cut.
Is Kit (ConvertKit) better than beehiiv?
Only if automation is your priority. Kit (renamed from ConvertKit in 2024) has the deepest marketing-automation tooling of the three — visual builders, tagging, segmentation — and a free plan up to 10,000 subscribers. beehiiv is stronger on newsletter-native growth (recommendation network, referrals), owned website, and revenue economics. For a newsletter that's mostly "email my list regularly," beehiiv; for a newsletter embedded in a bigger automated funnel, Kit.
Bottom line
Start free on the one that matches your situation — but if you're a business using a newsletter to stay in front of clients, that's beehiiv, and it's what we use here. The free Launch plan gives you a real website, a custom domain, and the recommendation network at no cost, and the 0% revenue cut means it stays cheap even if the list starts making money. Substack and Kit are the right calls for writers and automation-heavy creators respectively — just go in knowing which one you actually are.
Start on beehiiv free → Substack ↗ Kit ↗
Full researched guide: beehiiv pricing & fit. Running a newsletter as part of a bigger stack? See the 5-person agency stack · Take the 2-minute stack finder.