Beehiiv vs Substack 2026: Which Newsletter Platform Is Better?

Beehiiv and Substack are the two most talked-about newsletter platforms in 2026, but they take fundamentally different approaches to the same problem. Substack gives you a writing environment with a built-in audience network and handles everything behind the scenes. Beehiiv gives you a growth engine with granular control over monetization, design, and subscriber acquisition.

This is not a "both are great" comparison. These platforms make different bets about what matters, and one of them will be clearly better for your situation. This guide covers every meaningful difference.

Feature Comparison

Pricing Breakdown

Substack's pricing model is simple: the platform is free to use, and Substack takes 10% of your paid subscription revenue (plus Stripe's processing fees of roughly 2.9% + $0.30). If you never charge readers, you never pay Substack anything. If you charge $10/month and have 1,000 paying subscribers, you are paying Substack $1,000/month.

Beehiiv charges a flat monthly fee. The free Launch plan supports up to 2,500 subscribers. The Scale plan at $39/month covers up to 100,000 subscribers with all growth and monetization tools included. The Max plan at $99/month adds premium features like custom HTML, priority support, and NewsGPT AI tools.

The math tilts heavily in Beehiiv's favor once you monetize. A newsletter with 5,000 paying subscribers at $8/month generates $40,000/month. Substack takes $4,000 of that. Beehiiv takes $39. At that scale, you are saving $47,532 per year by choosing Beehiiv.

However, if you are running a free newsletter with no paid tier, Substack's free-forever model is genuinely hard to beat. You pay nothing regardless of how many subscribers you accumulate.

Growth Tools

This is the category where the platforms diverge most sharply.

Beehiiv offers a full suite of growth tools. The referral program lets current subscribers earn rewards for bringing new readers. The Boost network creates a paid cross-promotion marketplace where newsletters recommend each other. You can set up automations to onboard new subscribers with drip sequences. A/B testing lets you optimize subject lines and send times. The analytics dashboard shows granular data including click maps, UTM tracking, and subscriber source attribution.

Substack's growth model is entirely different. The Substack Network surfaces your content to readers of other Substack publications through recommendations and the Substack app. This discovery mechanism is passive but surprisingly effective for writers in popular categories like politics, tech, and culture. Substack also has a Notes feature (similar to Twitter/X) where writers can post short-form content and gain visibility.

The difference is control. Beehiiv gives you active tools to drive growth through your own efforts. Substack gives you passive exposure through its network effects. If you are disciplined about growth marketing, Beehiiv's tools will outperform. If you want to focus purely on writing and let the platform handle distribution, Substack's network has real value.

Monetization

Substack's monetization is straightforward: paid subscriptions. You set a monthly or annual price, readers subscribe, and Substack handles billing. This is deeply integrated into the reading experience with paywalls, free previews, and subscriber-only posts. Substack also supports founding-member tiers for readers who want to pay more.

Beehiiv takes a multi-pronged approach. You can run paid subscriptions (keeping 100% of revenue). The built-in ad network places relevant advertisements in your newsletter once you reach sufficient scale. The Boost network pays you when your subscribers sign up for partner newsletters. You can also sell sponsorship slots directly. These revenue streams can be combined, and many Beehiiv creators earn more from ads and boosts than from subscriptions.

If your model is "readers pay me directly," both platforms work. But if you want to monetize a free newsletter through advertising and cross-promotion, only Beehiiv offers that path natively.

Writing and Editing Experience

Substack's editor is intentionally minimal. It feels like writing in a clean document with no distractions. You get bold, italic, headers, images, links, and embeds. That is roughly it. The simplicity is the point: Substack wants you focused on words, not formatting. The experience is similar to writing in a note-taking app, and many writers find this liberating.

Beehiiv's editor is more capable but also more complex. You get drag-and-drop content blocks, custom HTML injection, multiple column layouts, button elements, and dividers. You can create visually rich newsletters that look distinct from other publications. The trade-off is a steeper learning curve and more decisions to make on every post.

For long-form essay writers, Substack's editor is better. For newsletter operators who want visual branding, templates, and layout flexibility, Beehiiv wins.

Design and Branding

Substack newsletters look like Substack. The platform enforces a consistent visual style with minimal customization. You can change your logo, colors, and header image, but the layout, typography, and overall feel are recognizably Substack. This is a deliberate choice - Substack believes readers trust the Substack brand. But it means your publication looks similar to thousands of others.

Beehiiv provides substantially more design control. You can customize fonts, colors, layouts, and page structure. Your newsletter website can look completely unique. You can use a custom domain from the free tier. The result is a publication that looks like your brand, not like a platform's brand.

For established brands or anyone building a media company, Beehiiv's design flexibility matters. For individual writers who want their name associated with a trusted platform, Substack's uniformity can actually be an advantage.

Audience Ownership and Portability

Both platforms let you export your subscriber list at any time. You own your email list on either platform. This is a critical baseline, and both pass the test.

The deeper question is platform dependency. Substack readers often discover you through the Substack app and network. If you leave Substack, you keep the email addresses but lose the discovery channel. Some portion of your audience may have followed you through the app rather than through email, and those readers may not follow you to a new platform.

Beehiiv subscribers come to you through your own growth efforts (referrals, boosts, SEO, social). The relationship is between the reader and your brand, not between the reader and the platform. This makes migration less risky.

Who Wins?

Choose Beehiiv if:

• You want to keep 100% of your revenue with no platform cut
• You want built-in growth tools: referrals, boosts, A/B testing
• You plan to monetize through ads, sponsorships, or a mix of revenue streams
• You want full control over design and branding
• You want an SEO-optimized website with a custom domain
• You want advanced analytics and segmentation
• You are building a media brand, not just a personal blog

Choose Substack if:

• You want the simplest possible writing and publishing experience
• You want free built-in audience discovery through the Substack Network
• Your monetization model is purely reader-supported paid subscriptions
• You prefer to focus on writing rather than growth tactics
• You want a free platform with no monthly fees
• You are a solo writer, journalist, or essayist
• You write in a category where Substack has strong network effects (politics, tech, culture, finance)

Final Take

Substack is optimized for writers who want to write. Its strength is removing friction between having an idea and reaching readers. The built-in network effect is real - if you write in a popular category, Substack can deliver subscribers you would never find on your own. The 10% revenue cut is the price of that simplicity and distribution.

Beehiiv is optimized for newsletter operators who want to grow. Its strength is giving you tools to acquire subscribers, retain them, and monetize them through multiple channels. The flat pricing model rewards scale. The branding and design tools let you build something that looks and feels like your own media property.

Neither platform is universally better. But the decision usually comes down to one question: do you want to be a writer on a platform, or do you want to run a newsletter business? Substack is the answer to the first. Beehiiv is the answer to the second.