beehiiv vs. kit: which is best? [2026 review]
Beehiiv vs. Kit: The Creator Income Mistake I See Everyone Make
If you're reading this, you're probably where I was two years ago. Looking at Kit and Beehiiv, trying to figure out which one will help you finally make real money from your audience.
Let me tell you what I wish someone had told me: you're asking the wrong question.
The question isn't "which platform is better?" The question is "what kind of business am I actually building?"
Here's What You're Really Choosing Between
Kit (formerly ConvertKit) is great if you sell stuff to your audience, and it starts at $29/month after the free plan.
Kit was built for people like course creators, coaches, and consultants. People who use email to nurture prospects and convert them into customers.
The automation is sophisticated. You can create complex sequences that feel personal. You can segment people based on what they've bought, what they've clicked, how they've behaved.
I've seen creators build six-figure businesses with Kit's automation alone.
But here's what Kit doesn't do well: newsletters. If you want to grow a newsletter audience and monetize through content and advertising, Kit feels clunky. The newsletter features are basic. There's no ad network. No sponsor matching. You're basically using a Ferrari to deliver newspapers.
Beehiiv is great if your audience IS your product, and it's free until 2,500 subscribers.
This is what you use when your newsletter is the business, not just a marketing channel for something else. The Morning Brew team built this after they figured out how to turn newsletters into real media companies.
You get sponsor matching, ad networks, advanced newsletter analytics, and monetization options that actually make sense for content creators. Plus that generous free plan that lets you prove the concept before you pay anything.
The downside? If you want to sell courses or coaching or consulting, you'll need other tools. Beehiiv isn't built for complex product sales.
The Problem Both Platforms Share
Here's what nobody wants to admit: behind the scenes, Beehiiv and Kit both use SendGrid's email engine, one of the big players in the email service space.
Here's the thing - Beehiiv and Kit's email engine is good if all your subscribers are Gmail.com or iCloud.com users.
But if you have Outlook, Hotmail, or Yahoo users in your audience, you're going to see delivery issues no matter how perfect your automation sequences are.
Same problem, different platform.
If deliverability is your number one priority because you want every email to actually count, and you still want email campaigns, automations, segmentation, API access, and all the other features they have, then Lemon Email might be worth exploring.
Instead of being stuck with one delivery approach, you get the optimal path for each subscriber based on their email provider.
What I'd Do If I Were You
Stop picking platforms that cost you thousands in lost revenue every month.
Lemon Email gives you all the newsletter features you need (campaigns, automations, segmentation, analytics) without being locked into one delivery engine that only works well for half your audience.
You can still build your beautiful website elsewhere if you want. But for your newsletter business, use the platform that actually reaches your entire audience.
Because losing $45,000 a year to spam filters isn't a platform choice. It's a business mistake.
