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Beehiiv vs Kit (formerly ConvertKit) in 2026: after Kit's 35% price hike

In October 2025, Kit raised prices by approximately 35% across every tier with no grandfathering for existing customers. Combined with Beehiiv's continued aggressive pricing and growing feature set, the calculus for choosing between the two has changed materially. This isn't about which platform is "better" anymore — it's about whether Kit's automation and commerce depth justifies what is now a 2–3× price premium at most subscriber counts.

TL;DR

• Pick Kit if you actively use complex visual automation workflows, sell digital products / courses / tip jars directly through your email platform, or have an established list with deep Kit-specific integrations you'd lose by migrating.
• Pick Beehiiv if you primarily publish a newsletter, want native growth tools (Boosts, recommendation network, Ad Network), need a built-in website, or care about per-subscriber cost at scale.
• Kit's free tier is better at the start (10K subs vs 2.5K). Beehiiv's paid tier is dramatically better at any scale.
• The October 2025 Kit price increase has triggered a wave of migrations. This page exists because so many creators are running the math.

Pricing in 2026 (verified after October 2025 increase)

Kit pricing

• Newsletter (free): Up to 10,000 subscribers. Single basic visual automation. No A/B testing. No removal of Kit branding. Limited features.
• Creator: $39/month monthly billing, $33/month annual billing for 1,000 subscribers. Unlimited automations, sequences, 2-variant A/B testing, branding removal, integrations/API. Scales steeply with subscribers (e.g., 5,000 subs = $89/mo monthly).
• Creator Pro: $79/month monthly, $66/month annual for 1,000 subs. Adds 5-variant A/B testing, advanced reporting, Facebook Custom Audiences sync, newsletter referral system, deliverability reporting, unlimited team members. Also scales with subscribers.
• Commerce transaction fee: 3.5% + $0.30 per transaction for digital product sales.
• Sponsor Network: Kit takes 23.5% of sponsorship earnings. Requires 10,000+ subscribers, weekly sending, exclusivity.

Beehiiv pricing

• Launch (free): Up to 2,500 subscribers, unlimited sends, custom domain, API access, paid subscriptions allowed at 0% take rate.
• Scale ($43/mo annual, $49/mo monthly): Base tier for up to 1,000 subscribers; scales with subscriber count (approximately $84/mo at 10K, $262/mo at 100K annual billing). Unlocks Ad Network, Boosts, automations, advanced analytics, 3 team seats.
• Max ($96/mo annual, ~$109/mo monthly): All Scale features plus remove Beehiiv branding, audio newsletters, RSS-to-send, up to 10 publications, Sponsorship Storefront.
• Subscription revenue take rate: 0% (Stripe fees only: 2.9% + $0.30).
• Ad Network: No qualification gate beyond Scale tier; revenue share favorable to creator.

Feature matrix

Best for [persona]

Pick Kit if you are:

• A creator selling digital products, courses, or coaching directly to your email list — Kit's built-in commerce eliminates the need for Stripe + a separate checkout (Gumroad, Podia, etc.).
• Running complex marketing funnels with conditional logic ("if subscriber clicked X, send Y, otherwise tag Z") — Kit's visual automation builder is genuinely more sophisticated than Beehiiv's.
• An established Kit customer with deep integrations and 5+ years of segmentation data you'd lose value migrating away from.
• Heavy on Facebook/Meta ads and want native Custom Audience sync without Zapier.

Pick Beehiiv if you are:

• Primarily a newsletter publisher — Kit's automation depth doesn't justify 2–3× the cost if you're sending the same email to everyone.
• Building a media business with multiple monetization streams (paid subs, ads, sponsorships, recommendations).
• Just starting out and want the most generous free tier with full features (Kit free is technically larger at 10K subs but Kit free is feature-limited; Beehiiv free is closer to what you'd actually use).
• Going to scale past 10,000 subscribers — the price gap compounds dramatically.
• Want a built-in website + blog without setting up a separate platform.

What the October 2025 Kit price increase changed

Kit's pricing increase wasn't small. Approximately 35% across all paid tiers. Existing customers weren't grandfathered — everyone moved to new pricing.

This matters because:

1. The cost-per-subscriber math now favors Beehiiv at every tier above 1,000 subs. Before the increase, Kit Creator at $29/mo for 1K subs was within striking distance of Beehiiv Scale at $43/mo. After the increase ($39/mo monthly, $33/mo annual), Kit's only competitive at the very smallest end.
2. Migration interest spiked. Search volume for "Kit alternatives" and "ConvertKit alternatives" jumped significantly in Q4 2025 per third-party SEO tools.
3. Some Kit users left for Beehiiv specifically, not Substack or MailerLite. The migration target depends on whether you valued Kit's automation (move to Beehiiv reluctantly) or wanted simpler/cheaper (move to Substack or MailerLite).

If you're a Kit customer who joined before October 2025, you may have already accepted the price increase. If you're evaluating fresh in 2026, the math has changed.

Migration considerations: Kit → Beehiiv

If you're an active Kit user thinking about switching, the practical realities:

• Subscriber export is clean. Kit lets you export everything via CSV including tags and segments. Beehiiv import preserves segments.
• Paid subscribers require Stripe re-authorization. Standard cost: 10–25% churn during transition. Beehiiv has migration tools to soften this.
• Automations don't migrate. You'll rebuild every automation manually. If you have 20+ active sequences, this is a real cost — budget 1–3 days of work.
• Commerce products don't migrate. If you sell products through Kit's commerce, you'll need an external solution (Stripe + checkout page, Gumroad, Lemonsqueezy) or rebuild in Beehiiv's digital products feature.
• Don't migrate until your renewal date. Most pricing is monthly so the cost is bounded, but if you paid for an annual plan you'll forfeit the remainder.

Where the comparison gets nuanced

A few things the matrix doesn't capture:

• Kit's commerce is materially more mature than Beehiiv's digital products feature. If selling courses/products is your primary monetization, this is the single biggest reason to stay on Kit despite the price.
• Kit's deliverability reputation is stronger. Beehiiv's deliverability has improved significantly in 2025–2026 but Kit has more years of inbox-placement track record, especially for marketing-heavy sends.
• Beehiiv's website / blog is a real differentiator. Kit has landing pages but not a true CMS. If your newsletter doubles as a content site, Beehiiv removes the need for a separate WordPress / Webflow setup.
• Both platforms ship rapidly. The October 2025 Kit price increase may be partially offset by post-increase feature additions over the next 12 months. Refresh this analysis quarterly.

Related comparisons

• Beehiiv vs Substack — same Beehiiv cost model, head-to-head against Substack's 10% take rate
• Kit vs Substack — flat fee vs 10%, with crossover math after Kit's October 2025 price increase
• Best newsletter platforms in 2026 (ranked) — where Beehiiv and Kit land in our full ranking
• Newsletter platform pricing in 2026 — interactive calculator across all major platforms
• Best free newsletter platforms — what Beehiiv's free tier (and others) actually lets you do