Quick verdict
Short answer: If you want to own your site and keep 100% of subscription revenue, pick Ghost. If you want zero monthly cost and a built-in reader network, pick Substack and accept its 10% cut. If your newsletter is really an email marketing business, pick Kit or MailerLite instead.
Bottom line: Beehiiv is still a strong newsletter platform — people leave over its subscriber-tier pricing and gated monetisation, not its editor. The right alternative depends on what you value most: ownership (Ghost), simplicity (Substack or Buttondown), or automation (Kit or MailerLite).
Why are people looking for beehiiv alternatives in 2026?
Beehiiv repriced and renamed its plans on 1 October 2026 — Launch became Free, Scale became Lite, and Max became Pro — and paid prices rose for new customers. The free plan is generous on list size, but the features that make money, including the Ad Network and paid subscriptions, start on paid plans, and the bill climbs automatically as your subscriber count crosses each tier. Creators who want a flat fee, a 0% platform they fully own, or proper email automations start shopping around.
What the pricing page doesn’t make obvious
Verified on beehiiv’s own pricing pages in October–November 2026 coverage: Free covers up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends, but paid subscriptions and the Ad Network are not on Free at all — they start on Lite at $49/month billed yearly, and that $49 price is only for up to 1,000 subscribers. At 2,500 subscribers Lite is $69/month yearly, at 10,000 it is $119/month, and it keeps climbing to $399/month at 100,000. So a bigger list means a bigger bill even before you earn anything from it — the exact point several alternatives below are built to avoid.
8 best beehiiv alternatives at a glance
| Tool | Free plan | Paid starts | Platform cut | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ghost | No (self-host free) | $29/mo yearly for paid subs | 0% | Owning your site |
| Substack | Yes | Free to publish | 10% | Discovery and simplicity |
| Kit | Yes — up to 10,000 subs | Paid Creator tiers | 0% on own sales* | Creator automations |
| MailerLite | Yes — 250 subs | $12/mo at 500 subs | 0% | Cheap email marketing |
| Buttondown | Yes — 100 subs | $9/mo up to 1,000 | 0% | Minimal, cheap writing |
| EmailOctopus | Yes — 2,500 subs | $9/mo billed yearly | 0% | Simple, low-cost sends |
| Brevo | Yes — 300 emails/day | Paid tiers by volume | 0% | Email plus SMS/CRM |
| Mailchimp | Limited free | Paid tiers by contacts | 0% | All-in-one marketing |
*Check Kit’s current terms for the product or payment route you use; Stripe fees apply on most platforms in this list.
The 8 best beehiiv alternatives
1. Ghost — best for owning your publication
Ghost is an open-source publishing platform with a website, newsletter and paid memberships in one product, and a 0% platform fee. On managed Ghost(Pro), Starter is $18/month billed yearly for up to 1,000 members but does not support paid subscriptions; Publisher, the plan most newsletters need, is $29/month billed yearly at 1,000 members. You can also self-host Ghost for free. The cost is effort: no built-in ad network or recommendation engine does your growth for you.
2. Substack — best for discovery with zero monthly bill
Substack is free to publish on and brings a reader network and app that can genuinely help a new writer get found — something neither Ghost nor Buttondown offers at the same scale. The trade is steep: Substack keeps 10% of every paid subscription, plus Stripe fees. We compared the two models head-to-head in our Beehiiv vs Substack comparison and our Substack alternatives roundup.
3. Kit (formerly ConvertKit) — best for creator automations
Kit is built for creators who sell things: visual automations, sequences, tagging and digital product sales alongside the newsletter. Its free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts, but automations and sequences start on paid Creator tiers. If beehiiv feels like a publishing tool and you actually need a marketing system, Kit is the natural move — see also our Kit alternatives guide for how it stacks up.
4. MailerLite — best cheap email marketing alternative
MailerLite is a proper email marketing platform — campaigns, automations, landing pages and a website — at lower entry prices than beehiiv’s paid tiers. Note its free plan shrank in June 2026 to just 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month; paid Comfort starts at $12/month for 500 subscribers. It has no newsletter recommendation network, so growth is on you.
5. Buttondown — best minimal, low-cost option
Buttondown is the small, writer-first option: Markdown-friendly, privacy-conscious, with a hosted archive and custom sending domain. It is free for the first 100 subscribers, then $9/month for up to 1,000, and it takes 0% of paid subscription revenue. Some extras are add-ons, and there is no website builder or ad network — that simplicity is the point.
6. EmailOctopus — best simple, low-cost sending
EmailOctopus focuses on doing email well and cheaply: a free plan up to 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails a month, with Pro from $9/month billed yearly. It is a good home for a straightforward newsletter that does not need beehiiv’s growth tools, sponsorship storefront, or publication features.
7. Brevo — best if you want email plus SMS and a CRM
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) is an all-in-one marketing platform with email, SMS, WhatsApp campaigns and a built-in CRM. Its free plan allows 300 emails a day to unlimited contacts. It is less newsletter-native than beehiiv — no reader network or paid-subscription storefront — but stronger if your newsletter is one channel among several.
8. Mailchimp — best familiar all-in-one
Mailchimp remains the default many small businesses already know, with email, automations, landing pages and a large integration library. Its free plan is now tightly limited and paid pricing climbs with contacts, so it is rarely the cheapest pick here — we covered its weaknesses in our Mailchimp alternatives roundup. Choose it for familiarity and integrations, not value.
Verdict: which beehiiv alternative should you pick?
Pick Ghost if ownership and a 0% cut matter most and you will do your own growth. Pick Substack if you want $0/month and discovery, and your paid revenue is still small enough that 10% is cheap rent. Pick Kit if automations and selling are the job, MailerLite or EmailOctopus if low cost is, and Buttondown if you want the simplest paid newsletter at $9/month. Stay on beehiiv if its ad network and recommendations are already earning for you — switching costs a migration, and no alternative copies that growth stack exactly.
FAQ
What is the cheapest beehiiv alternative?
Buttondown, at $9/month for up to 1,000 subscribers with a 0% cut, or Substack at $0/month if you accept its 10% cut of paid subscriptions.
Which beehiiv alternative takes 0% of subscription revenue?
Ghost, Kit, MailerLite, Buttondown and EmailOctopus do not take a platform percentage of your subscription revenue on their paid plans — you still pay Stripe’s card fees.
Can I move my subscribers from beehiiv to another platform?
Yes. Export your subscriber list from beehiiv and import it into Ghost, Kit, MailerLite or the others above. Paid subscribers need more care: check each platform’s migration guidance so billing continues without a gap.