The email industry will grow to $17.9 billion by 2027. This makes choosing between beehiiv, kit, and substack a vital decision for content creators who want to monetize their work. The financial differences between these platforms tell an interesting story. Substack claims 10% of all earnings, while beehiiv lets creators keep all their subscription and advertising revenue. This means creators earn by a lot more with beehiiv.
Each platform takes a unique path to monetization and growth. Beehiiv stands out from Substack with its focus on building communities. It also provides better SEO and customization options. ConvertKit sets itself apart by helping creators involve their audience through automated sequences and analytics. Many creators look beyond these popular choices. Some beehiiv users now earn up to $4,000 monthly from their marketing newsletters. Substack’s impressive numbers show more than 35 million active subscriptions, with three million paid subscribers.
This piece will get into how these platforms handle their fees, support various revenue streams, and give you tools to grow your newsletter. You’ll learn which platform best matches your monetization goals for 2025 and beyond.
Who Each Platform is Best For
Your specific creator goals should guide your choice between these newsletter platforms. Each platform has unique advantages that match different content creators’ needs. This choice will shape your long-term growth and success with monetization.
Beehiiv: For growth-focused creators
Beehiiv has become the top choice for creators who want to grow their audience and make money. The Morning Brew’s growth team (a newsletter with millions of subscribers) developed this platform. It serves independent journalists, publishers, newsroom writers, founders, influencers, and small businesses.
Beehiiv’s focus on growth mechanics sets it apart. The platform has a built-in referral program that turns subscribers into promoters – a feature you won’t find on other platforms. Creators can reward subscribers who bring in new readers, which creates a powerful growth engine.
Beehiiv offers several ways to make money:
- Subscription fees (you keep 100% of revenue)
- Ad monetization through their native ad network
- Boosts (earn $1-$3 per subscriber referred to other newsletters)
The platform lets creators track their performance with immediate dashboards and subscriber engagement metrics. Some creators have earned over $5,000 through beehiiv’s Partner Program by spreading their experience with the platform.
Kit: For marketers and product sellers
Kit (previously ConvertKit) works best for marketers and product sellers who need simplified processes and strong product selling tools. This platform offers more than just newsletter features – it has tools to create and sell digital products.
Kit’s Visual Automation feature stands out. Marketers can nurture audiences and sell products automatically. The platform also has workflows that respond to subscriber actions, landing page creation without a website, and subscriber tagging for personalized content.
Product sellers love Kit’s transaction fees – just 3.5% + $0.30 compared to Gumroad’s 10% or PayPal’s 4.75%+. This makes Kit a great choice for creators who sell digital products while building email lists.
Kit works more like a complete marketing suite than a simple newsletter platform. Its email sequences and product selling features make it perfect for creators who need advanced marketing tools.
Substack: For writers and community builders
Writers and journalists who want to build engaged communities choose Substack. The platform started as a writer-focused tool but now supports podcasters and other creators who center their work on newsletters.
Substack builds strong relationships between writers and subscribers through comment sections and discussion threads. One Substack writer puts it well: “People unsubscribe from newsletters, not people and communities”.
The platform helps new readers find your work through its built-in audience discovery system. It also has cross-promotion tools that let you team up with other Substack creators to grow together.
Substack offers an easy-to-use interface that needs no technical knowledge. Writers find value in its simplicity and community features, despite the 10% commission on earnings.
Your main goals should determine your choice between beehiiv, kit, and substack: audience growth and monetization (beehiiv), marketing automation and product selling (Kit), or community building and writing focus (Substack).
Monetization Models and Revenue Potential
Your choice of newsletter platform can make a big difference in your earnings. Each platform handles revenue generation differently, and these differences could affect your income as a creator.
Subscription fees: 10% vs 0% vs 3.5%
The fee structures of these platforms will determine how much money you keep:
- Substack: Takes a 10% cut of all paid subscription revenue, plus Stripe fees of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction and 0.7% for recurring subscriptions. Your costs will grow as your subscriber base expands.
- Beehiiv: Has 0% commission on subscription revenue. They use a tiered pricing model based on subscriber count, which works well for creators with bigger paid audiences.
- Kit: Takes a 3.5% + $0.30 fee per transaction. This applies to one-time purchases and recurring subscriptions, putting it between the other two platforms.
Ad monetization: Beehiiv’s built-in network
Beehiiv shines with its reliable advertising system. The team behind Morning Brew’s internal ad tools created their built-in ad network that links creators with premium advertisers. Newsletters on beehiiv made over $1.23 million in ad revenue in just one month. These numbers show what’s possible with their ad system.
The platform pays based on CPM (cost per thousand views) or CPC (cost per click). To cite an instance, a $5 CPM means you earn $5 for every 1,000 unique opens. With a $2 CPC, 100 verified clicks would earn you $200.
Substack doesn’t have built-in advertising tools and focuses on subscription revenue. Creators must manually add sponsored content without proper tracking tools.
Selling products and services on Kit
Kit works great for creators who want to sell digital products to their audience. You can sell e-books, courses, presets, and coaching services.
The platform gives you flexible payment options like one-time purchases, recurring subscriptions, and “pay what you want” models. You can even collect passive income through their virtual tip jar feature without formal products.
Stripe processes all transactions with weekly payouts every Friday. Creators worldwide can use multiple currencies including USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, AUD, and NZD.
Referral and affiliate income options
Each platform has its own approach to referral and affiliate income:
Beehiiv’s Boosts program helps you earn passive income by recommending other newsletters to subscribers. You can also use affiliate links freely without restrictions.
Kit supports affiliate marketing strongly. Reports show affiliates can earn up to 50% recurring commissions for a year with a 60-day cookie window.
Substack keeps affiliate options limited and stays focused on subscriptions. Their guidelines discourage newsletters that mainly promote products or services.
Beehiiv leads with the most diverse ways to earn, Kit excels at product sales, and Substack keeps things simple with its subscription focus.
Design, Branding, and Customization
Your newsletter’s visual identity affects how subscribers interact with and stick to your content. Let’s look at how beehiiv, kit, and substack handle customization differently.
Newsletter templates and layout control
Beehiiv’s Design Lab lets you customize fonts, header styles, and email background colors through multiple templates. The platform has more options than Substack but doesn’t match full-featured email marketing platforms. The editor lets you create tables easily, which is a nice bonus.
Substack keeps things minimal. You won’t find email templates here. One analysis points out that “all emails tend to look the same” on their platform. You can add your logo and play with background colors, but the structure stays fixed.
Kit (formerly ConvertKit) finds middle ground by offering templates that creators can customize. You can adjust fonts, colors, and layouts to match your brand. The templates are simple, and changing page structure can be tricky.
These platforms take different paths to simplicity. This helps creators focus on writing instead of getting lost in code or endless design options.
Custom domains and branding options
Each platform handles custom domains differently:
- Beehiiv supports custom domains for professional branding
- Substack makes custom domains optional
- Kit lets you use custom domains and landing pages
Brand identity tools vary too. Substack keeps it simple with colors, logos, and profile pictures. Kit offers creator-focused templates that put content first. Beehiiv adds custom signup forms and referral widgets to boost your brand presence.
Website and landing page flexibility
Website and landing page features show the biggest differences between platforms:
Beehiiv’s homepage builder comes with referral widgets and pop-ups. This gives you control over what subscribers experience. Your newsletter lives on a Beehiiv-hosted site that’s SEO-friendly, making your content easy to find through search engines.
Substack gives everyone the same welcome page format. You get a short blurb and sign-up form. Your homepage shows past newsletters in a newspaper layout with few customization choices.
Kit’s landing page builder and form tools offer more options. You can pick from templates or build your own forms to embed in your website. The platform uses tags to segment subscribers, so you can send targeted messages based on their interests.
Substack works well if you like keeping things simple. But beehiiv and Kit give you more room to show your brand’s personality through design and features.
Content and Publishing Tools
Creating and sharing compelling content needs powerful tools that are easy to use. Each platform’s unique capabilities will affect your workflow and content quality by a lot.
Editor capabilities and formatting
These platforms offer vastly different editing experiences that shape how quickly you can create newsletters.
Beehiiv’s clean, minimal editor lets you drag and drop content blocks. You can add text, images, and custom elements without any technical know-how. The platform’s table creation tools help organize information with minimal effort.
Kit’s editor works more like a website builder than your typical email tool. You’ll click the + button on the left to add elements to your newsletter instead of dragging and dropping them. This method gives you exact control over where everything goes, which works great for complex visual newsletters.
Substack is nowhere near as complex. Its distraction-free editor helps writers create and format newsletters quickly. The platform keeps design options simple so writers can focus on their content without technical hassles. Writers and journalists who care more about text than design love this approach.
Multimedia support: Audio, video, embeds
Each platform handles multi-format content differently, which has become crucial for audience engagement.
Beehiiv shines with its reliable audio integration. It supports mp3, wav, ogg, flac, aac, and webm files. You can make audio content exclusive to premium subscribers or those who hit certain referral goals. The platform introduced an audio newsletter feature that turns written content into engaging audio experiences with over a dozen unique voices.
Substack gives you complete multimedia embedding options. You can embed videos, TikToks, Spotify content, and YouTube videos alongside images and GIFs. Videos play in web posts but show up as clickable images in emails, making sure everything works on all devices.
Kit targets marketers and offers standard multimedia embedding features. While it doesn’t stand out here, the platform supports all the basics like images, videos, and product showcases that marketers need.
Automation and email sequences
Smart automation reduces your workload and creates individual-specific experiences that keep subscribers engaged.
Kit (formerly ConvertKit) leads the pack with its advanced automation workflows. The platform lets you create visual sequences that nurture audiences and sell products automatically. On top of that, it has powerful segmentation tools that send personalized messages based on what subscribers like and do.
Beehiiv has simple automation features for scheduling and subscriber segmentation. You can target messages based on subscriber traits and how engaged they are, though it doesn’t match Kit’s marketing features.
Substack puts content distribution first, rather than complex automation. You can schedule posts and do some basic targeting, but you won’t find the advanced sequence-building and behavior triggers that Kit offers.
Your choice depends on what matters most: Substack for pure writing focus, Beehiiv for balanced features with great multimedia support, or Kit for marketing automation and sequences.
Audience Growth and Engagement Features
A successful newsletter needs more than great content. You need the right tools to grow your audience and keep them coming back. Each platform has its own way to help creators build thriving communities.
Built-in discovery and recommendation engines
Substack shines with its built-in discovery system that connects potential subscribers to newsletters they might enjoy. Their growing creator network lets readers explore different newsletters. This creates what many Substack users call a powerful “network effect” for organic growth. Many Substack creators credit their growth to this discovery feature.
Beehiiv takes a different path with its “Boost” system. Creators can pay for recommendations in other newsletters and earn revenue when promoting others. This paid recommendation model creates growth opportunities that benefit everyone on the platform.
Kit (formerly ConvertKit) has the Creator Network. You can promote relevant newsletters while others recommend yours. It works just like word-of-mouth referrals to expand your reach.
Community tools: Comments, chat, and notes
Substack puts community-building first through several engagement features. The platform goes beyond simple comments and “likes.” It offers Notes (similar to short-form posts), direct messaging, Chat functionality, and discussion threads. This creates a mini social network around your content.
Beehiiv has launched comments and likes features, though comments aren’t on by default. Most beehiiv users interact through direct email replies instead of public comments.
Kit focuses on reader interaction through forms, surveys, and polls to get practical feedback.
Referral programs and cross-promotion
Beehiiv’s referral program is a standout feature. Morning Brew gained about one million subscribers through their referral program. This shows how well it works. Referral programs bring down subscriber acquisition costs to around $0.17 compared to $1.00-$3.00 from other channels.
Substack lets writers refer subscribers to similar newsletters they enjoy through their recommendation system.
Kit’s Creator Network helps with cross-promotions. Newsletters grow about 35% faster according to some reports.
Segmentation and personalized messaging
Beehiiv has the most advanced segmentation features. Creators can group subscribers based on:
- Custom attributes and engagement levels
- Signup form sources
- Survey responses
This detailed segmentation lets you deliver highly personalized content.
Kit focuses on segmentation through tagging. This enables individual-specific messaging based on subscriber interests and behaviors.
Substack keeps segmentation simple and focuses more on publishing than sophisticated audience targeting.
Your growth goals should guide your platform choice. Choose Substack for organic discovery, beehiiv for powerful referrals, or Kit for targeted engagement.
Platform Costs and Scalability
You need to think over your current needs and growth potential to pick the right newsletter platform. Your subscriber count growth will make the financial impact of your choice a big deal.
Free plan limits and upgrade triggers
Each platform has unique free options that work for different types of creators:
Beehiiv leads the pack with its free tier that lets you have up to 2,500 subscribers and send unlimited emails. In spite of that, this plan leaves out monetization features, email automations, and A/B testing capabilities. Most creators upgrade when they need premium features such as subscription tools or the referral program.
Kit’s free plan supports up to 1,000 subscribers with unlimited sending. The original appeal works great for beginners, but creators usually upgrade once they need automation workflows or advanced marketing features.
Substack takes a different path—it stays free until you start charging subscribers. After that, Substack takes 10% of your subscription revenue plus payment processing fees (2.9% + $0.30 per transaction).
Cost comparison at 1k, 5k, and 10k subscribers
Platform prices start to branch out substantially as your audience grows:
At 1,000 subscribers:
- Beehiiv: $49/month (Scale plan)
- Kit: $15-29/month (Creator plan)
- Substack: $0/month but 10% of revenue
At 5,000 subscribers:
- Beehiiv: $89/month
- Kit: $50/month
- Substack: $0/month but 10% of revenue
At 10,000 subscribers:
- Beehiiv: $109/month
- Kit: $110/month
- Substack: $0/month but 10% of revenue
This is a big deal as it means that with creators charging $10/month for premium subscriptions, Substack would collect $1,000 monthly from just 1,000 paying subscribers—nowhere near the flat fees of other options.
Long-term value for growing businesses
The money math changes dramatically as newsletters scale up. Beehiiv’s flat-fee approach ended up being affordable for monetized newsletters despite higher upfront costs. To cite an instance, with 5,000 paying subscribers at $10/month, Substack would collect $5,000 monthly compared to Beehiiv’s fixed $89 fee.
Kit sits in the middle with moderate pricing and no revenue-sharing model. Their structure works best especially when you have creators focused on product sales rather than subscriptions.
Substack’s model keeps upfront costs low during early growth stages with few paying subscribers. Your comfort level with sharing revenue versus paying fixed monthly fees should guide your decision as your income grows.
Comparison Table
| Feature | Beehiiv | Kit | Substack |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best For | Creators focused on growth, independent journalists, publishers | Marketers and product sellers | Writers and community builders |
| Commission Fee | 0% | 3.5% + $0.30 per transaction | 10% + payment processing fees |
| Free Plan Limit | 2,500 subscribers | 1,000 subscribers | Unlimited (until monetization) |
| Monthly Cost (5k subs) | $89 | $50 | $0 (+ revenue share) |
| Ad Network | Built-in ad network with CPM/CPC options | Not mentioned | No built-in ad tools |
| Design Flexibility | Multiple templates, Design Lab, custom elements | Several custom templates | Limited customization, fixed structure |
| Automation Features | Simple automation, scheduling, segmentation | Advanced visual automation workflows | Simple scheduling and targeting |
| Community Features | Comments, likes (not enabled by default) | Forms, surveys, polls | Comments, chat, notes, discussion threads |
| Growth Tools | Boost system, referral program | Creator Network, cross-promotion | Built-in discovery system, recommendation engine |
| Custom Domain | Yes | Yes | Optional |
| Multimedia Support | Advanced audio integration, multiple formats | Standard multimedia embedding | Complete embedding options |
| Segmentation | Advanced (custom attributes, engagement levels, sources) | Tag-based segmentation | Simple segmentation |
Conclusion
Your specific needs as a creator will determine the best choice between beehiiv, Kit, and Substack. These platforms let you create and monetize newsletters, but they take different approaches in key areas.
Your main creative direction should guide this decision. Beehiiv works best for growth-minded creators who want maximum revenue with its 0% commission structure. Kit gives detailed tools to marketers and product sellers through its reliable automation features. Writers get a distraction-free environment on Substack that helps build engaged communities, though it takes a higher 10% commission.
Money matters need careful thought too. Beehiiv’s flat-fee model becomes more budget-friendly as your subscriber count grows, especially with paid newsletters. Kit balances moderate pricing that suits creators who focus on product sales. You’ll pay less upfront with Substack, but it takes much of your earnings once you monetize.
Design priorities shape platform selection substantially. Beehiiv gives you balanced customization options and strong multimedia support. Marketing-focused templates come with Kit, offering enough flexibility. Substack keeps things minimal so writers can focus on creating content.
Each platform takes its own path to audience growth. Beehiiv makes use of powerful referral programs. Kit focuses on targeted engagement through segmentation. Substack connects readers to relevant content through its built-in discovery system.
The ideal newsletter platform matches your specific goals, budget limits, and creative workflow. Growth-focused creators tend to prefer beehiiv’s detailed toolkit and favorable revenue terms. Marketers value Kit’s automation capabilities and product selling features. Writers who want simplicity and community often find Substack’s straightforward approach most appealing.
Think over your long-term vision before making the final call. Today’s platform choice will affect your newsletter’s growth path, money-making potential, and success in coming years. Whatever you pick, the thriving newsletter industry offers huge opportunities if you keep delivering value to your audience.