Published on by Affiliate Inventory
The most common move in newsletters right now is leaving Substack for beehiiv. It’s worth understanding why before you follow it — and why a lot of people shouldn’t.
The short answer
Substack is a marketplace you publish inside. beehiiv is software you rent.
Substack costs nothing until you charge readers, then takes 10% of everything, forever. beehiiv charges rent whether you earn or not, and takes nothing when you do. Which is cheaper depends entirely on how much money your newsletter makes.
Run the arithmetic
Substack: 10% of gross subscription revenue, plus Stripe’s processing on top (roughly 2.9% + 30¢, plus a small recurring-billing fee). Call it 13–16% all in.
beehiiv Scale: $43/month flat, with a 0% take rate on paid subscriptions from Scale upward. You still pay Stripe, because everyone pays Stripe.
So the crossover is where 10% of your revenue equals $43/month — around $430/month in subscriptions, or roughly 43 subscribers at $10/month.
| Monthly subscription revenue | Substack’s 10% | beehiiv Scale | Better |
|---|---|---|---|
| $200 | $20 | $43 | Substack |
| $430 | $43 | $43 | Even |
| $1,000 | $100 | $43 | beehiiv |
| $5,000 | $500 | $43 | beehiiv, by $457/month |
Below ~$430/month, Substack is genuinely cheaper and you should stop reading. Above it, the gap widens every single month and never closes.
But the money isn’t the real argument
The 10% is what people talk about. Ownership is what actually bites.
On Substack, your publication lives at a Substack URL by default, inside Substack’s app, discovered through Substack’s network, and subject to Substack’s decisions about what belongs on it. You can export your subscriber list — Substack is honest about that and it matters — but you cannot export the network effects, the app placement, or the readers who found you through Notes.
beehiiv gives you a website you control, a real archive that search engines index as yours, and a list that has never been anyone else’s audience. You’re renting software, not standing in someone’s marketplace.
That cuts both ways. Substack’s network is a genuine growth channel that beehiiv answers only partially, through recommendations and boosts. If your growth today comes from Substack recommendations and Notes, leaving costs you something real, and you should count it before you go.
Where each one wins
Substack wins if you’re starting from zero, you’re earning under a few hundred a month, you want zero fixed costs, or the Substack network is where your readers already are. Free is a very good price when revenue is uncertain.
beehiiv wins if you’re earning enough that 10% is a real number, you want ads and sponsorships as well as subscriptions, you care about owning the SEO on your archive, or you want automations, segmentation and A/B testing that Substack simply doesn’t offer.
Neither wins if you haven’t published consistently for three months. Pick the free one and write.
The features that aren’t close
Substack deliberately keeps the toolset small — that’s a design choice, not a failure, and it’s why people find it easy. But if you want any of the following, beehiiv is the only one of the two that has it: an ad network that matches sponsors to you, subscriber segmentation, automated sequences, A/B testing on subject lines, polls and surveys, a no-code website builder, digital products, or an API.
Substack’s counter is Notes and the recommendation network — discovery you cannot buy. Weigh that honestly rather than dismissing it.
Migration
It’s genuinely easy. Substack exports your list, beehiiv imports it, and your paid subscribers can be moved with Stripe intact. The hard part isn’t technical. It’s that you leave behind the Substack discovery surface on the day you go, and your growth curve will dip before your own loops replace it. Plan for a slow quarter.
The offer
If beehiiv is where you’re landing, start it through our link and you get a 14-day free trial, then 20% off for three months — no code, the discount is carried by the link.
Three months at a discount is roughly the time it takes to migrate, rebuild your growth loops and find out whether the switch paid for itself. See the offer in full, or check beehiiv’s pricing before you decide.
It’s an affiliate link — no extra cost to you, and it’s what applies the discount.
Also worth reading
beehiiv vs MailerLite if your newsletter supports a business rather than being one. beehiiv vs Kit if you sell courses or digital products. beehiiv vs Ghost if you want to own the software outright.
Written by Affiliate Inventory
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