8 Best beehiiv Alternatives Tested in 2026
beehiiv gives away the most generous free plan in the newsletter category, then puts the two things a working newsletter actually needs on two different paid tiers. Launch carries 2,500 subscribers, unlimited sends and a custom domain for $0. Automations arrive only on Scale at $49 per month. Removing the beehiiv badge from the footer of your own newsletter requires Max at $109 per month — more than double, for a branding toggle.
We priced 8 alternatives against beehiiv’s published plans, ranked them by our internal score, and matched each to the kind of beehiiv user it wins for. This page does not conclude “switch”. beehiiv takes 0% of paid subscription revenue, and that number beats every platform below once a newsletter earns real money. The arithmetic is in the next section, and for many readers it says stay.
Why look for a beehiiv alternative in 2026
Three concrete reasons to leave, and one arithmetic reason to stay.
Reason one: the free plan cannot automate. beehiiv Launch covers 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends, more than MailerLite or EmailOctopus hand out. But automations sit on Scale. A welcome sequence — the highest-return automation a newsletter runs — costs $49 per month on beehiiv and $0 on Sender, whose free plan includes automation at the same 2,500 subscriber ceiling.
Reason two: branding removal is on the top tier. Scale at $49 unlocks the ad network, digital products, community and beehiiv MCP write access — but not branding removal. That is Max, at $109 per month. Every paid plan on this page below $109 ships unbranded email; EmailOctopus removes its badge at $20.
Reason three: deliverability is mid-table. beehiiv scores 6.5 on deliverability in our review, the Medium band. ActiveCampaign is at 8.5 and MailerLite at 8.0. For a customer-facing list rather than a publication, that gap is worth more than any feature on beehiiv’s roadmap.
And the reason to stay: the take rate. beehiiv keeps 0% of paid subscription revenue from Scale upward; you pay only Stripe’s 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction. Substack takes a flat 10% on top of the same Stripe fee; Kit charges 3.5% plus 30c on subscriptions and products. Set Scale’s $49 against Substack’s 10% and the two cost the same at $490 per month of paid subscriptions. Above that line beehiiv is cheaper, and the gap widens as you grow. Against Max at $109, the crossover is $1,090.
How to read this page. Free newsletter that wants automations: almost everything below beats beehiiv on price. Paid newsletter clearing roughly $490 per month: beehiiv’s 0% take rate is the cheapest arrangement here and the honest answer is to stay. Paid but small: Substack still wins, and we say so in its block.
8 beehiiv alternatives at a glance
Ranked by our overall review score. Every platform below has a full SMTPedia review, so the Score column is measured rather than invented for this page.
| Platform | Score | Starting $ | Free plan | Best for | MCP | Deliverability | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brevo | 7.7 | $9/mo | Yes — 300 emails/day, contacts to 100,000 | Newsletters that also send receipts | Yes | Medium | Value 8.5 vs 7.5, deliverability 7.5 vs 6.5, transactional on one account |
| MailerLite | 7.4 | $19/mo | Yes — 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails/month | Design-led newsletters needing inbox placement | Partial | High | Deliverability 8.0 vs 6.5; free tier a tenth of beehiiv Launch |
| Sender | 7.3 | $11/mo | Yes — 2,500 subscribers, 15,000 emails/month, automation included | The free welcome sequence beehiiv will not run | No | Low | Automation 7.5 vs 5.5 free; deliverability 5.5 vs 6.5 is the price |
| ActiveCampaign | 7.2 | $15/mo | No — 14-day trial only | A newsletter that is really a sales funnel | Yes | High | Automation 9.5 vs 5.5, deliverability 8.5 vs 6.5, value 5.0 vs 7.5 |
| EmailOctopus | 7.1 | $20/mo | Yes — 2,500 subscribers, 10,000 emails/month | Cheapest unbranded sending at scale | No | Medium | Support 9.0 vs 5.5, branding gone at $20; automation 4.0 vs 5.5 |
| Kit | 7.0 | $33/mo | Yes — 10,000 subscribers, no automations | Creators selling products, not only subscriptions | Yes | Medium | Free to 10,000 subscribers; commerce fee 3.5% vs 0% |
| Flodesk | 6.4 | $25/mo | Partial — forms and landing pages only, no sending | Visual-first newsletters, small lists | Partial | Medium | Deliverability 7.5 vs 6.5, best templates here; value 4.0 vs 7.5 |
| Substack | 5.0 | $0 + 10% | Yes — free to publish at any list size | Writers with no audience and no budget | No | Low | Zero fixed cost plus discovery; automation 3.0 vs 5.5, take rate 10% vs 0% |
Score is our overall rating out of 10 from each platform’s own SMTPedia review, not a figure invented for this comparison. The Deliverability column is derived mechanically from our deliverability rating: High is 8.0 and above, Medium 6.0 to 7.9, Low below 6.0. beehiiv itself scores 6.2 overall and 6.5 on deliverability, the Medium band. The MCP column records a first-party Model Context Protocol server documented by the vendor. Prices are list prices in US dollars, checked 15 September 2026, at the tier named in each block.
1. Brevo — the newsletter that also sends receipts
Brevo
Who it wins for
The newsletter attached to a product. If you send an issue on Tuesday and a password reset on Wednesday, beehiiv makes you run two vendors: it is a publishing platform, and its Send API appears only on Max at $109 per month. Brevo bills by email volume rather than by subscriber, so the same account carries the campaign and the transactional stream, and the bill does not move when your list grows. Starter is $9 per month for 5,000 emails and $29 per month for 20,000.
| What matters | beehiiv | Brevo |
|---|---|---|
| Billing basis | Per subscriber, to 100,000 on Scale | Per email sent, contacts to 100,000 on the free plan |
| Entry paid price | $49/mo (Scale) | $9/mo (Starter, 5,000 emails) |
| Transactional sending | Send API on Max, $109/mo | Included on every paid plan |
| Our value rating | 7.5 | 8.5 |
| Our deliverability rating | 6.5 (Medium) | 7.5 (Medium) |
| Paid subscriptions built in | Yes, 0% take rate | No native paid-subscription product |
| Official MCP server | Read on Launch, write on Scale | Yes, first-party |
What you lose by leaving beehiiv for Brevo. Everything that makes beehiiv a publishing business rather than an email tool: the hosted website and archive, the subscriber-facing web reader, the ad network, the sponsorship storefront, and native paid subscriptions at a 0% take rate. Brevo is an excellent sending engine and not a newsletter business in a box. If any of your revenue comes from subscriptions or sponsorships, this move costs the revenue machinery, not just the templates. The free plan also keeps a 300 emails per day cap, which a single send to 2,500 subscribers breaks on day one.
Medium
4 to 8 hours
The subscriber CSV imports cleanly. The archive does not move: published issues stay on the beehiiv-hosted site unless rebuilt elsewhere, so plan redirects before cancelling. Domain DNS and a fresh DKIM record need 24 to 48 hours.
$9/month
Starter, 5,000 emails per month
Free forever tier holds contacts to 100,000 but caps sending at 300 emails per day. The daily cap lifts on any paid plan. Starter reaches $29 per month at 20,000 emails.
2. MailerLite — the deliverability upgrade
MailerLite
Who it wins for
The newsletter whose open rate stopped making sense. MailerLite is the highest-scoring platform on this page that is still an email tool rather than a marketing suite, and its deliverability rating of 8.0 is the only High band available below $20 per month. It is also the closest match to beehiiv’s editing experience: a block editor, a decent template library, and a newsletter-shaped model rather than a CRM-shaped one.
| What matters | beehiiv | MailerLite |
|---|---|---|
| Our deliverability rating | 6.5 (Medium) | 8.0 (High) |
| Free plan ceiling | 2,500 subscribers, unlimited sends | 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails/month |
| Automations on the free plan | No | No |
| Price at 1,000 subscribers | $49/mo (Scale) | $19/mo (Comfort) |
| Price at 2,500 subscribers | $69/mo (Scale) | $33/mo (Comfort) |
| Our support rating | 5.5 | 8.0 |
| Official MCP server | Read on Launch, write on Scale | Partial coverage only |
What you lose, and a warning about the free plan. MailerLite cut its free tier in 2026 from 500 subscribers and 12,000 monthly emails to 250 subscribers and 2,500 monthly emails, an almost 80% reduction in sending capacity, and raised paid prices roughly 10% to 30% across tiers for existing customers as well as new ones. If beehiiv’s free plan is what is holding your newsletter up, this is not the migration for you. You also give up the ad network, the sponsorship storefront and beehiiv’s 0% take rate on paid subscriptions.
Easy
2 to 4 hours
CSV import with custom fields preserved. Rebuild the welcome sequence by hand: beehiiv automations do not export. Verify the sending domain again; MailerLite reviews new accounts manually, which can add a business day.
$19/month
Comfort, 1,000 subscribers
Power is $39 per month at the same 1,000 subscribers and $49 at 2,500. The free plan now stops at 250 subscribers.
Read our MailerLite review
Affiliate link. It does not change your price or the score above.
3. Sender — the free welcome sequence
Sender
Who it wins for
The newsletter under 2,500 subscribers that needs a welcome sequence and cannot justify $49 per month for one. Sender’s free tier carries 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails per month with automation included — the exact ceiling beehiiv Launch offers, minus the paywall on the feature that matters. Our automation rating is 7.5 against beehiiv’s 5.5, and our support rating is 8.0 against 5.5. Paid Standard runs $11 per month to 5,000 subscribers on the published ladder; Sender’s own calculator advertises rates from $6.30 at the 2,500 tier.
What you lose, and it is the important number. Sender’s deliverability rating is 5.5, the Low band, against beehiiv’s 6.5. You are trading inbox placement for automation. For a free list that is being warmed up that trade is defensible; for a paid newsletter whose subscribers are paying to receive it, it is not. You also lose the hosted archive, the ad network and native paid subscriptions entirely — Sender has no equivalent to beehiiv’s 0% take rate because it has no subscription product at all.
Easy
1 to 3 hours
Small lists move in one CSV. Spend the time on domain authentication and a slow warm-up rather than the import: given the Low deliverability band, ramping sends over two weeks matters more here than anywhere else on this page.
$0
Free Forever, 2,500 subscribers, automation included
Free covers 15,000 emails per month. Standard is $11 at 5,000 subscribers and $22 at 10,000.
4. ActiveCampaign — when the newsletter is really a funnel
ActiveCampaign
Who it wins for
The newsletter that exists to sell something on the other end. beehiiv’s automation model is a sequence builder; ActiveCampaign’s is a conditional graph with tags, scores, site tracking and branching. Our automation rating is 9.5 against beehiiv’s 5.5 — the widest single-category gap anywhere on this page — and its deliverability rating of 8.5 is the highest here. If a subscriber’s behaviour in week three should change what they receive in week four, nothing else on this list does that properly.
| What matters | beehiiv | ActiveCampaign |
|---|---|---|
| Our automation rating | 5.5 | 9.5 |
| Our deliverability rating | 6.5 (Medium) | 8.5 (High) |
| Our value rating | 7.5 | 5.0 |
| Free plan | 2,500 subscribers | None, 14-day trial only |
| Entry price at 1,000 contacts | $49/mo (Scale) | $15/mo annual, $19/mo monthly |
| Hosted publication and archive | Included on every plan | None |
| Official MCP server | Read on Launch, write on Scale | Yes, first-party |
What you lose, and what it costs later. ActiveCampaign has no free plan and no publication layer: no hosted site, no archive, no web reader, no ad network, no sponsorship storefront, no paid subscriptions. The entry price of $15 per month is also the most misleading number in this table: our value rating of 5.0 against beehiiv’s 7.5 reflects how fast the contact ladder climbs past a few thousand subscribers. Price your actual list size, not the entry tier.
Hard
2 to 5 days
The import is trivial; the rebuild is not. beehiiv sequences map onto a tag-and-condition model rather than translating, so every automation is designed again. And the archive has no home here: budget a separate site or accept losing the back catalogue.
$15/month
Starter, 1,000 contacts, billed annually
Billed monthly the same plan is $19. There is no free tier; the trial runs 14 days on the Professional plan with 100 contacts.
Read our ActiveCampaign review
Affiliate link. It does not change your price or the score above.
5. EmailOctopus — cheapest unbranded sending
EmailOctopus
Who it wins for
The publisher whose only real complaint about beehiiv is the footer badge. beehiiv puts branding removal on Max at $109 per month, one tier above the $49 plan that unlocks automations. EmailOctopus Pro removes its badge at $20 per month for 2,500 subscribers, $31.50 at 5,000 and $44.50 at 10,000 — under half of beehiiv Max at 10,000. Its free tier holds 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails per month with three automations of five steps. Our support rating of 9.0 is the highest here, against beehiiv’s 5.5.
What you lose. EmailOctopus is deliberately a lean, email-only platform — no SMS, no ecommerce, no CRM, and our automation rating of 4.0 is below beehiiv’s 5.5, so this is a downgrade on workflow depth even as it is an upgrade on price. There is no publication website, no ad network, no storefront and no paid subscriptions, and no first-party MCP server where beehiiv ships read access on its free plan.
Easy
1 to 3 hours
CSV import, then rebuild any sequence longer than five steps: the free tier caps automations there. The archive stays behind on beehiiv.
$20/month
Pro, 2,500 subscribers, unbranded
Free Starter carries 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails per month with EmailOctopus branding and three automations.
Read our EmailOctopus review
Affiliate link. It does not change your price or the score above.
6. Kit — for creators who sell more than a subscription
Kit
Who it wins for
The creator whose newsletter is one product among several. Kit’s free plan runs to 10,000 subscribers — four times beehiiv Launch’s 2,500 — and its commerce layer sells digital products, courses and tips alongside paid subscriptions, where beehiiv’s digital products sit behind Scale at $49 per month. Like beehiiv Launch, Kit’s free plan excludes automations and sequences; those start on Creator, published at $33 per month for 1,000 subscribers on Kit’s own calculator. Kit also ships a first-party MCP server.
What you lose: the take rate, and it compounds. Kit charges 3.5% plus 30c on every digital product sale and paid subscription, on top of Stripe. beehiiv charges 0%. On $2,000 per month of paid subscriptions that is roughly $70 a month handed over before Kit’s own subscription fee — more than beehiiv Scale costs outright. Paid Recommendations carry a 23.5% fee on earnings. You also lose the hosted publication, the ad network and the storefront, and our deliverability rating for Kit is 6.0, below beehiiv’s 6.5.
Medium
4 to 8 hours
Subscribers and tags import cleanly. Paid subscriptions do not: Stripe subscriptions created under beehiiv must be migrated or re-created, touching billing for every paying reader. Do this one with a written rollback plan.
$0
Free to 10,000 subscribers, no automations
Creator is published at $33 per month at 1,000 subscribers; independent testing puts the monthly-billed rate at $39. Commerce costs 3.5% plus 30c per transaction on every plan, free included.
7. Flodesk — the design-led option, now on a meter
Flodesk
Who it wins for
The newsletter that is judged on how it looks. Flodesk’s templates are the best on this page by a distance, and its deliverability rating of 7.5 is a full point above beehiiv’s 6.5. Lite is $19 per month billed annually or $25 monthly at 1,000 subscribers; Pro is $28 and Everything $49 annually, the tier that carries unlimited checkouts and subscriptions.
What you lose, plus a pricing change worth knowing. On 2 December 2025 Flodesk retired the flat unlimited-subscriber plan that was its entire reputation and moved to subscriber-based tiers. The old bill stayed the same at 500 or 50,000 subscribers; the new one climbs with every milestone. Our value rating of 4.0 against beehiiv’s 7.5 is that change priced in. The free plan sends nothing at all — it is forms and landing pages only. And our automation rating for Flodesk is 4.5, below beehiiv’s 5.5, with no publication site, no ad network and no 0% subscription take rate.
Easy
2 to 4 hours
CSV import and a template rebuild, which is the point of moving here. Price your real list size against the new tiers first: the figures above are at 1,000 subscribers.
$19/month
Lite, 1,000 subscribers, billed annually
Monthly billing is $25. Checkouts start on Pro; payment plans and subscriptions are Everything only, $49 annually.
Read our Flodesk review
Affiliate link. It does not change your price or the score above.
8. Substack — the one beehiiv was built to replace
Substack
Who it wins for
The writer who has not proved anything yet. Substack costs $0 to publish at any list size and takes a flat 10% only when you charge readers, plus Stripe’s 2.9% and 30c. beehiiv Scale costs $49 per month whether you earn anything or not. Below $490 per month of paid subscriptions Substack is cheaper; above it beehiiv’s 0% take rate is. Substack also has what no platform here can sell you: readers arriving through its network at no cost.
| What matters | beehiiv | Substack |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed monthly cost | $0 free, $49 to automate | $0 at any size |
| Take rate on paid subscriptions | 0% plus Stripe | 10% plus Stripe |
| Our automation rating | 5.5 | 3.0 |
| Our deliverability rating | 6.5 (Medium) | 5.0 (Low) |
| Our support rating | 5.5 | 4.0 |
| Built-in audience discovery | Recommendations network only | Network, app and recommendations |
| Official MCP server | Read on Launch, write on Scale | None |
What you lose, in order of how much it hurts. The 10% is permanent and uncapped: at $5,000 per month of subscriptions it is $500 a month, against $109 for beehiiv Max. Our automation rating of 3.0 is the lowest of any platform on this page — there is effectively no sequence builder. Deliverability sits at 5.0, the Low band, and support at 4.0. You also lose the ad network and the sponsorship storefront, which for many beehiiv publishers are the revenue line that pays for the plan.
Medium
3 to 6 hours
Free subscribers import from CSV. Paying subscribers are the problem in both directions: their Stripe subscriptions must be moved, and Substack’s tooling is built for arrivals, not departures. You also accept a substack.com address unless you attach a custom domain.
$0
Free to publish, 10% of paid subscription revenue
Stripe’s 2.9% plus 30c applies on top, for an effective take of roughly 13% on paid revenue. Free newsletters cost nothing.
Leaving beehiiv: what transfers and what breaks
Four things move, three do not. The three that do not are what makes a beehiiv migration different from an ordinary one.
What transfers
Subscribers and custom fields export to CSV and import cleanly everywhere on this page. Your custom domain moves with a DNS change. Sending authentication — SPF, DKIM, DMARC — is set up again at the new platform: routine, but 24 to 48 hours to propagate. Segments usually survive as tags.
What breaks
The archive. beehiiv hosts your publication website and every issue on it. Nothing on this page except Substack gives you a hosted archive, so your back catalogue either stays on beehiiv, gets rebuilt somewhere else, or disappears. Decide this before you cancel, and put redirects in place while the old site is still live.
Paid subscriptions. Paying readers sit in Stripe subscriptions created under beehiiv. Moving them is a billing operation, not an export, and every platform handles it differently. Write a rollback plan: a failed subscription migration is the one mistake here that costs money rather than effort.
Automations. beehiiv sequences do not export in any portable format. Every welcome flow, drip and conditional send is rebuilt by hand at the destination. On ActiveCampaign the model differs enough that rebuilding means redesigning.
The safe order. Authenticate the new platform, import subscribers, rebuild automations, send one issue from both platforms to a small segment and compare delivery, then move paid subscriptions last — and cancel beehiiv only after a full billing cycle has run clean.
beehiiv alternatives: common questions
Is there a free beehiiv alternative with automations?
Yes. Sender’s free plan carries 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails per month with automation included — beehiiv Launch’s ceiling, without the paywall on sequences. EmailOctopus’s free plan includes three automations of five steps at 2,500 subscribers. The trade on Sender is deliverability: 5.5, the Low band, against beehiiv’s 6.5.
Which beehiiv alternative has the largest free plan?
Kit, at 10,000 subscribers — four times beehiiv Launch. Like beehiiv’s free plan it excludes automations and sequences, and its commerce layer charges 3.5% plus 30c on sales even on the free tier, where beehiiv takes 0%.
beehiiv or Substack for a paid newsletter?
It depends on one number: your monthly paid subscription revenue. Substack charges $0 fixed and a flat 10%; beehiiv Scale charges $49 fixed and 0%. The two cost the same at $490 per month of subscription revenue. Below that Substack is cheaper and adds a discovery network. Above it beehiiv is cheaper and the gap grows. Against Max at $109 the crossover is $1,090. Stripe’s 2.9% plus 30c applies on both sides and does not change it.
Which alternative has the best deliverability?
ActiveCampaign at 8.5, then MailerLite at 8.0. Both sit in the High band, above beehiiv’s 6.5. MailerLite is cheaper at $19 per month for 1,000 subscribers and closer to a newsletter workflow; ActiveCampaign is right only if you also need its automation depth.
Is beehiiv’s 0% take rate really 0%?
On beehiiv’s side, yes: from Scale upward beehiiv takes none of your paid subscription revenue. Stripe still charges 2.9% plus 30c per transaction, as it does on every platform here including Substack and Kit. The 0% is genuine and it is the strongest argument for staying once a newsletter monetizes seriously.
What is the cheapest way to send unbranded email?
EmailOctopus Pro, at $20 per month for 2,500 subscribers and $44.50 at 10,000. beehiiv puts branding removal on Max at $109, so a 10,000-subscriber newsletter pays less than half as much to lose the badge.
This review follows our email infrastructure testing methodology. We disclose affiliate relationships in our editorial independence policy.
