Want to start an email list but confused about the best platform to use so you are on the hunt for a detailed Beehiiv vs Convertkit comparison to help you decide? Then you've just arrived at the right place at the right time.
Starting an email list is one of the best choices you'll ever make for running your online business, you've taken the first right decision. Give yourself a pat on the back.
In fact in the latest b2b email marketing statistics, it was revealed that people spend 0-60 minutes checking their emails each week. The more you send out emails, the more money you can make.
The only problem?
There are a lot of email marketing/newsletter platforms so it is hard to decide which one will work best for your needs.
OKAY, OKAY, I'll give you some credits. You've spent a lot of time on research and narrowed down to two platforms, Beehiiv and Convertkit.
But the question still lies there.
Which one is better?
Which should you invest in?
This can cause a lot of headache especially if you are a complete beginner to email list building. You obviously don't want to invest in the wrong tool.
If by chance you want to invest in the wrong tool, please send me the money, don't waste it. (I'll drop my paypal email for you, haha)
No worries, you've come to the right place today.
I'll take the burden off your shoulder.
I love my readers and there is LITERALLY nothing they can do about it. LOL!!!
Enough of the play, now let's get down to business.
In this convertkit vs Beehiiv comparison I'm going to show you which is the better tool to start your email list.
I'll cover;
- What Beehiiv and Convertkit are best for
- Their features and benefits
- Do they deliver to inbox?
- Which one is more easy to use for beginners
- Pricing plans to determine which is cheaper and also offers quality at the same time
- Pros and cons, etc.
So grab one or two snacks while I take you through the journey.
Quick note: We get a small commission when you buy a subscription through our affiliate link at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support!
Also if you don't have a lot of time on your hands (I value and schedule my time a lot) here is a quick summary for you to decide faster.
Quick Convertkit vs Beehiiv summary:
Convertkit is one of the most popular email marketing platforms in the market. It is a perfect fit if what you are looking for is a platform to build your email list & engage it plus launch and sell digital products to them.
You can create funnels, product launches and more but this can get really, really expensive. Compared to $99 per month on Beehiiv for up to 100k subscribers, you'll have to pay $800+ per month on Convertkit to use their full features.
On the other hand;
Beehiiv is heavily focused on newsletters. It provides you with everything you need to setup, grow your email newsletter super fast and also monetize it with three powerful monetization models.
You can make money with paid newsletter subscriptions, sponsored advertisements, and newsletter recommendations.
It offers you a Blog + Newsletter functionality so you can share content with your readers and also grow your newsletter at the same time. It also comes with powerful growth tools to grow your list super fast.
Its highest pricing is SCALE which costs $99 per month and gives you access to email up to 100,000 subscribers and everything for a successful newsletter business.
You can also try the SCALE plan for free for 30days before committing to a paid plan.
Overall the main difference is Convertkit is tailored to email marketing, while Beehiiv is to newsletters. Plus Convertkit is too expensive for beginners.
Quick verdict: The only reason you want to choose Convertkit over Beehiiv is if you have plans to launch and sell digital products to your email list in the future, otherwise Beehiiv is highly recommended benefits and features wise. Their dashboard is also easier to use for beginners compared to Convertkit which is confusing.
With that being said, let's get into the full side-by-side comparison so you can understand even better.
Beehiiv vs Convertkit – The Battle of Email List Platforms: which One Wins? (2024)
Let's take a look at an overview where I'll show you who is who
Convertkit vs Beehiiv (Overview)
What is Convertkit?
Launched in 2013 by Nathan Barry.
Convertkit is a marketing platform for creators looking to setup and sell using email. It provides you with all the tools you need to create your email list, grow it make money.
It comes with everything you need such as growth tools to increase your subscribers, automation tools to send sequence emails and different avenue to monetize your email list.
These monetization models includes paid subscriptions, selling digital products, sponsored networks and newsletter recommendations.
Here is a glance at Convertkit's dashboard
What is Beehiiv?
Founded in 2021 by Tyler Denk
Beehiiv is a fast growing newsletter platform that's gaining a lot of attention and outpacing any other tool in the industry.
I've compared Beehiiv to traditional email marketing tools like Mailchimp and it comes out a winner. You can check the beehiiv vs mailchimp comparison here.
Beehiiv is focused on one thing; Newsletters.
It provides you with all the tools needed to setup your email newsletter, grow your list, and monetize that list.
It is regarded as one of the best newsletter platforms right now because of it's mouth watering benefits and features. it is built by newsletter professionals and also the team behind Morning brew.
You get access to an SEO ready blog too you can use to create content for your newsletter readers, platform for emailing your subscribers and more.
Here is how the dashboard of Beehiiv looks like.
Beehiiv vs Convertkit (Features)
Let's see the wonderful features each of these email platforms offer so you can choose the one that best fits your needs.
Beehiiv Features
Beehiiv as an email newsletter platform provides you the following features to setup, grow and monetize your newsletter.
This is divided into five categories of tools such as create, publish, grow, monetize and analyze.
It all comes together to offer you the best benefits and total control.
Let's see.
CREATE tools
This comes with a website and newsletter feature in one place where you can create content and email your newsletter subscribers.
This is known as the blog + newsletter functionality. You can create content that can be shared with your blog readers and email subscribers in one dashboard.
Beehiiv websites are SEO optimized so you can create articles to rank on Google to generate free traffic. This in turn helps you grow your newsletter too while also demonstrating authority.
You can choose pre-built beautiful templates, comments is enabled, and other features such as the following:
- Spam and bot protection
- Custom pages
- Custom domains
- Search and filter posts and more.
Publish Tools
This includes a text editor that comes with everything you need to create your emails such as headings, buttons, emojis, bullet list, etc.
Automations to take your newsletter subscribers on a journey.
For example; when they signup to your list you can ask for a number of emails to be sent on selected days.
Another tool here is Beehiiv AI assistant. An artificial intelligence assistant that can help you create anything. Just describe an idea of what you want to create and the AI writing tool will do its magic.
Growth tools
Just as the name sounds, these are powerful growth tools that will help you increase your subscribers list.
They include the following;
- Referral program to incentivize your readers in order to grow your list super fast. You can create referral contents and offer rewards and more.
- Boosts: This feature allows you use other newsletters for growth by paying and getting only active and engaged subscribers
- Newsletter recommendations: Other top newsletters recommend your own newsletter
- Pop ups for converting your blog visitors into subscribers
- Subscribe forms to collect emails on your blog
- 1-click magic links for auto-subscribe
With these powerful growth tools you will find it super easy growing your email newsletter list.
Monetization Models
Beehiiv offers three ways to make money from your newsletter and it includes the following
- Beehiiv Ad network that lets you monetize your newsletter with Ads from popular brands in the world
- Boosts model lets you monetize your newsletter by recommending other people's newsletters while you get paid per subscriber.
- Premium subscriptions: Wit this you can offer paid newsletter subscription and charge monthly or annually.
Analytics tools
Beehiiv offers different tools to gain reports of your newsletter and they include the following
- 3D Analytics to get a deep cohort analytics of your readers
- Polls in emails to collect data
- Survey forms to collect information about your readers
- Segmentation also known as automation tools to create automations and see detailed reports on your subscribers newsletter activity
Convertkit Features
As you know, Convertkit mainly focuses on email marketing and selling of digital products to your email subscribers though there are other extra features.
This means it provides you mostly all the necessary tools for a successful email marketing business and they include and are divided into the following categories;
Grow, Connect, Automate and Monetize
Growth tool
Convertkit offers three ways to grow your audience and they include:
- Recommendations: This tool helps you grow your subscribers list by getting recommended among other creators.
- Landing pages: You can create landing pages and send traffic to it to capture subscribers and grow your list
- Email sign up forms to display on your website in order to collect subscribers
Connect tool
The connect tool from convertkit lets you connect with your email subscribers and it includes an email designer, email marketing tools for sending beautiful emails. Email deliverability ensures your emails land in the inbox and not spam with an up to 99%+ delivery rate.
Automate tool
Convertkit provides you with tools such as integrations and automation to keep in touch with your subscribers easily. You can setup triggers and send email sequences to promote your course, offer a free training and more.
Monetization
The first monetization model is selling your digital products directly on Convertkit.
Other ways to monetize your email list include the following:
- Paid recommendations: You recommend other newsletters and get paid
- Paid subscriptions: This lets you offer paid newsletters and charge your subscribers monthly or annually.
- Sponsor network: You make money from your newsletter by getting brands to place sponsorship in your newsletter
Beehiiv vs Convertkit (Deliverability)
Both beehiiv and Convertkit offer very good deliverability to inbox (From many users' experience).
Convertkit records around 99.8%+ deliverability and is one of the best in the industry for inbox delivery.
Goodnews;
Beehiiv and Convertkit use Sendgrid for deliverability (which is one of the best ESPs for ensuring your emails deliver to the inbox).
When it comes to deliverability, you have no issues with getting your emails seen by your subscribers whether you use Beehiiv or Convertkit.
Convertkit vs Beehiiv (Pricing)
So which is the cheaper one? Let's take a quickly look at the pricing plans from Convertkit and Beehiiv
Quick pricing verdict: Convertkit is very expensive. If you want to enjoy the full benefits for automation, monetize, growth and more, the pricing goes as high as $800+ per month for up to 95,000 subscribers.
The only difference with Beehiiv is selling of digital products and building funnels for launches.
Beehiiv's 100k subscribers costs only $99 per month and offers you even better benefits when it comes to setting up, growth, and monetization.
They both offer you a free plan, Beehiiv is free up to 2,500 subscribers while Convertkit is free up to 1,000 subscribers.
You can see my Beehiiv pricing article if you want more details.
Any Discount?
Of course, if you pay annually you get a discount where you only pay $84/mo instead of $99/mo on Beehiiv for up to 100k suscribers, while on Convertkit, you pay $673 per month instead of $807 per month up to 95k subscribers.
Beehiiv vs Convertkit (Pros and Cons)
Now, pobody is nerfect.
Great, I mean, really great platforms both Beehiiv and convertkit but are there drawbacks? Let's see in their pros and cons.
Beehiiv Pros
- Generous free plan of up to 2,500 subscribers and 30 days free trial of their best plan SCALE
- Very easy to use dashboard for beginners
- It is fast becoming the best modern newsletter platform beating competitors like Substack and top email marketing platforms like mailchimp features wise
- Highly dedicated team
- Very affordable
Beehiiv Cons:
- You need paid plans to enjoy full benefits of the platform
- There is room for improvement
Convertkit Pros:
- Very Popular Email Marketing Platform
- Solid foundation for Deliverability (Up to 99.8%)
- Generous 14-days free trial to try any of the paid plans
- All-in-One marketing tool both for email marketing and a touch of newsletters
- Full control and customization
Convertkit Cons:
- Complicated dashboard (you need some kind of learning curve)
- Very expensive
Who's the winner? Convertkit or Beehiiv?
So which one should you use?
From the comparison so far, one thing is clear.
Covertkit offers you an extra feature which is building of funnels and product launches to monetize your email list.
Do you need to do that in the future? sell digital products, build funnels, launch products and sell stuff? then you want to go with convertkit.
If what you want is a simple platform where you can blog, build your email list and also make money Beehiiv is the better fit.
You can build your email list and monetize it on both.
One is also cheaper, Beehiiv as you pay only $99 per month compared to convertkit's $800+ per month.
If you are just getting started, go with Beehiiv
It's easier, you can send your emails, grow your list, connect with your readers and earn a living.
So for starter – Beehiiv is the clear winner
Final Thoughts
It is not easy to make a decision especially one that has to do with long term such as a platform you need to build your email list.
You need to continue using this tool for a long period of time. This is why it is best to go through a detailed comparison showing you everything you need.
You have to compare their features/benefits, pricing, pros and cons, deliverability and more.
Hopefully I've been able to show you everything you need to make a decision.
I am a user of Beehiiv myself and I've also used Convertkit even though I didn't sign up to their paid plan. I was trying to move from GetResponse to Convertkit back then but couldn't.
So it all depends on you now to take action.
From my comparison so far, I always recommend Beehiiv
and that's pretty much it.
Did this Beehiiv vs convertkit comparison help you decide which is a better platform to build your email list? Which one is it? Have a any questions? Please let me know in the comments section.
Prosper Noah is the brain behind TipsonBlogging. A full-time blogger & SEO expert. His tips has helped a lot of people start their own blogs, grow it and make money.
