Our Beehiiv review outlines all of the core features, the pros and cons as well as alternatives to give a clear overview of Beehiiv so you can see if it's right for you and your business needs.

What is Beehiiv?

Beehiiv is a newsletter platform, offering you a tool that covers every aspect of the newsletter process, from the creation and sending of the newsletters to the management of your subscribers,  the design of newsletters all the way to the analytical side. In essence, it's your one-stop user-friendly and intuitive place for your newsletter.

It's taken a big chunk of the newsletter software market relatively quickly with some of the top newsletter-based companies using them to power their newsletters they have become a very compelling choice for businesses of all sizes from small to large as a solution for creating powerful newsletters.

The company was founded in 2021 by ex Morning Brew employees Benjamin Hargett, Tyler Denk, and Jake Hurd with a focus on becoming the go-to creator-friendly newsletter platform.

What people are saying about Beehiv

A lot of people have switched across from other platforms to Beehiiv and seen impressive stats, below are a few examples of founders who have seen great results switching.

Why do you need a newsletter?

Chances are if you're looking into a review of Beehiiv you already know the importance, power and value of a newsletter for your business, however, if you're not, then briefly this section explains why you should seriously consider one.

Newsletters are incredibly powerful marketing tools, that can get your business and its messages right in front of existing, new and potential customers of your business. Although the concept of newsletters has been around for decades they have still kept their importance and there has even been a rise in recent years of businesses being started solely as newsletter businesses, which have made millions and have been sold for large sums. Some of the most well-known examples of this include:

• MorningBrew - a daily newsletter covering the latest business news, grew to 4 million subscribers, $50m in revenue (CNBC), and got acquired by BusinessInsider with a deal that was said to be valuing it at around $75 million.
• TheSkimm - a daily newsletter that provides concise summaries of current events and news was acquired in 2020 for approximately $50m by American Family Insurance.
• The Hustle - a business and tech-focused newsletter was acquired by HubSpot for a reported $27 million.
• Finimize - a financial newsletter and app that provides personalized financial news and analysis. In 2020, it was acquired by ADVFN, a financial market website, for approximately $6 million.
• The Milk Road - A crypto-focused newsletter that sold for an 8-figure sum in 2022.

Why Beehiiv is great

Let's kick off with the positives, Beehiiv is a fantastic platform for newsletters because it's designed specifically to do this, it's not packed full of every feature you could imagine, nor does it distract you with other marketing options and because of this, it does a great job at it.

We're yet to find another platform that does the whole newsletter thing so well without taking a cut of the paid memberships, we just love how it's set up and designed to essentially make your newsletter journey easier and power you to grow and thrive.

Why we don't like using Beehiiv

The main downsides to Beehiiv relate to the platform if you're using it as a free plan but want all of the features you've read about such as a custom domain, referral system and more, these won't be available to you on a free plan.

The customisation of the blog if you opt to post to a blog is quite limited too, meaning you can only select a few designs and then edit certain colours and styles.

The features

The core features are great and the main things we love about Beehiiv as a whole include:

Great at creating, sending, and managing your newsletter

No shock here, it does everything related to newsletters really really well, from the creation step to sending, managing your subscribers, analyzing open rates and much more. You'll have all of the tools you need when it comes to the core features you'll expect.

Email segmentation and automation

A core feature of a powerful newsletter platform is the ability to create email segments, these are essentially a way to group your subscribers and audience based off attributes such as their demographics, location, interests, behaviour and more.

Beehiiv allows you to segment your audience in two key ways, either manually yourself or dynamically where it is automatically done.

This can be very powerful, allowing you to send emails to certain segments can mean increased open rates, better click throughs and ultimately more revenue. For example you can send a newsletter to all of your subscribers who are located in one country who have previously clicked a link in your email.

This becomes even more powerful when you implement automation too, this is where you give Beehiiv instructions and a workflow to follow based on your audiences behaviour. For example, you can set up an automation/trigger that says when a user doesn't open 2 emails in a row, you start sending them a different sequenece of emails than other members get.

Email automation will take some time to set up but it's well worth the investment in the short term to reap the rewards down the line.

Ability to make your content available online aswell

Reading a newsletter within your email is great, but some people prefer to read them in a browser or you may want your subscribers to easily be able to read previous newsletter issues or even have the ability to have anyone read your newsletters.

Beehiiv allows this, by letting you create a blog as well as a newsletter, so when it comes to sending out a newsletter you choose to either send it to subscribers only or published to your blog too.

The ability to charge a membership fee with 0% fees

A key draw for people signing up to Beehiiv is the ability for you to be able to charge your subscribers a membership without any fees from Beehiiv. With many alternatives, you'll be charged a percentage fee by the newsletter platform if you want to monetize your subscribers in this way.

Everything you need to charge a membership fee  to your subscribers is found within Beehiiv and your Stripe account, no need to use any other software. Beehiiv handles all of the security and payrolls surrounding the content that you produce so that it can't be shared with non-members and only those who are paid members can see the content that you have hidden behind a paywall/made available to paid subscription plans only.

Of course, you'll still be charged a fee for the actual payment by the payment processor which in this case is Stripe, this fee is typically around 2-4%.

This feature also allows you to offer coupons, discounts and free trial offers to your members, all with the end goal of getting them to upgrade to a paid subscription.

Integrated referral program

Referrals are one of the most powerful marketing strateges and Beehiivs inbuilt referral program feature is impressive and can help turn your subscribers into a marketing machine bringing in new subscribers. This feature is one that shouldn't be dismissed and should really be utilized as much as you can.

Easy email customizations

The look and feel of your newsletter is a vital part to it's success, if it looks great then your readers will enjoy it more, making the open rate higher and making your newsletter ultimately a bigger success.

The Beehiiv platform has a no-code email editor that allows a large range of customizations when it comes to your emails, all of which can be done within the platform online. So changing fonts, font size, colors and more is as simple as moving a slider or selecting a dropdown.

AI integration

If you're a fan of Artificial Intelligence then you'll be pleased to know that Beehiiv have an inbuilt feature allowing you to use the power of AI to help write better emails, increasingly the enjoyment for your readers.

Set up for SEO

If you're creating valuable content that is being sent out in a newsletter, its silly to not make sure that this content can be picked up in search engines, ultimately leading to you getting more subscribers and increasing the value of your business.

When it comes to Beehiiv and SEO they have all of the basics and more covered, so that if you opt to publish your newsletter content to a blog too, it will be optimized for search. This includes the ability to use custom domain names for your blog, the creation of XML sitemaps and much more.

It's easy to use and powerful

You can sign up to Beehiiv in minutes, import subscribers and your content and send your first newsletter out within the hour if you wish, all from the platform which you access via their website.

This makes it really powerful as it means there are no restrictions such as technical knowledge, time or anything else stopping anyone from starting a newsletter or from giving your existing one a more powerful platform to run off.

For example, you can easily send a newsletter with different sections which are only viewable by certain member types, so you can include paid content within a newsletter that goes out to everyone. This saves you a lot of time and can help improve the experience for all members and help convert your free members into paid subscriptions.

Integrations with 100's of tools

When selecting any new software you have to ensure that it can work well with your existing tools that you use, Beehiiv has this covered as it offers API access and integration with 100's of tools including: Webflow, Shopify, Stripe, Twitter, Slack, Notion, Wix, Facebook, Hubspot and many more.

So you can be safe in the knowledge that you'll likely be able to integrate this with any existing tools you have so that it fosters seamless communication between them, resulting in a more efficient, time saving and flexible process.

Powerful email analytics

Data can be incredible powerful and Beehiiv know this and want to ensure it's customers can utilize this. The dashboard will allow you to see everything from the number of subscribers, the open rates, click through rates, breakdown of different types of members (paid and free) and much more.

You'll be able to compare this with other newsletters that you have sent out, seeing what your subscribers like, which they open, which got better click rates and more so you can analyze and assess to improve each time you send an issue out.

Running multiple newsletters from one account

As a fellow founder, it's more common than not for entrepreneurs to run multiple businesses and hence the need for the ability to run multiple newsletters from one account.

With Beehiiv you can do this, running multiple publications all from one single account, this feature is one of the many that has attracted newsletters across to this platform from rivals.

Beehiiv pricing and plans

Beehiiv have three core pricing plans as well as an Enterprise option for those with bigger needs.

The plans are Launch, Grow and Scale, each with more features, as well as each of the plans having a certain limit on the number of subscribers you can have.

Don't forget to use the Beehiiv promo code Partner20 so you can get 20% off your first month to save that little extra.

Launch - The Free Plan

For those starting out and with lower than 2,500 contacts then this free plan is a great choice to explore the Beehiiv platform,

Too often than not companies massively limit the features of a free plan but Beehiiv are pretty generous with the features that you get in this plan, these include:

• Custom designed newsletters
• Campaign & Subscriber Analytics
• Newsletter Recommendations
• Magic Links
• Audience Segmentation (limited)
• Popups & Advanced Subscribe forms
• External Subscribe Forms
• Unlimited Sending

Grow - For up to 10,000 subscribers

For those wanting to grow and take newsletter marketing more seriously, the core benefit of this gives you the additional ability to offer premium subscriptions. This plan is for those with up to 10,000 subscribers and features all of the essential features as well as the following:

• Custom Domains (Email + Web)
• Ability to offer Premium Subscriptions (so you can get paying subscribers)
• Unlimited Audience Polls
• Unlimited Audience Segmentation
• Multiple Team Members
• Promotional Offers & Trials
• A/B Testing Subject Lines
• API Access
• Custom HTML
• Survey Forms

Scale - For the top newsletters

For those who are or are aiming to be the top newsletters in their market then the Scale plan is a great option on this newsletter platform as it includes all of the features they have and is suitable for those with over 10,000 subscribers.

You'll get all of the features of the Launch and Grow plans as well as the following:

• Integrated Referral Program
• Automated Journeys
• beehiiv AI
• Boosts
• 3D Analytics
• Dedicated Email Blasts
• Multiple Publications (Limit 3)
• Full A/B Test Customization
• Webpages & Navigation
• Advanced Web Builder
• Priority Support

Enterprise - For those with over 200,000 subscribers

For the very best of the best, then the Enterprise plan is a custom plan which you'll need to contact them about to get pricing for.

You'll get all of the features of the top three plans but additionally:

• Fully white-labeled
• Unlimited Subscribers
• Unlimited Publications
• Unlimited Sends
• Early Feature Access
• No Contract Lock-In
• Dedicated IP Addresses
• Quarterly Newsletter Audits
• NewsletterXP Course Access
• 250 Monthly AI Credits

How to sign up to Beehiiv

As with most software and tools nowadays the sign up process is simple and quick, you can get started in a matter of minutes. You won't need credit card details to sign up if you're using the free plan, however you may need to use them for some features, please check the Beehiiv.com website for full details.

What are the alternatives

When it comes to newsletter platforms then there are a few main Beehiiv alternatives, of course there are well known email marketing platforms such as Brevo (formally Sendinblue) and MailChimp which offer newsletters management but these focus around a lot of other areas and so we won't directly look at these.

In this Beehiiv review we'll just look at the below alternatives which are a more accurate comparitive solution.

Beehiiv vs Substack

Substack are one of the biggest names in newsletter platform scene and have been around for longer than Beehiiv, so this is one that we will look at and so you can see if this is right for you.

Both platforms offer similar features with the core ones being focused around sending customized newsletters and having the ability to publish these to a blog. Similarly you can have paid memberships for your newsletter on either with similar features relating to these too.

The main differences relate to the fact that Substack take a 10% cut on all premium subscriptions (paid membership) that you have whereas Beehiiv does not, this of course can be a huge factor when choosing between them. You can read our full Beehiiv vs Substack comparison to find exactly what the differences and similarities are.

Beehiiv summary

Beehiiv has to be a top runner for you when it comes to picking a newsletter platform, theres a reason that many of the top newsletters have moved across to them and we recommend that you give it a go (with a free trial) so you can play around to see for yourself.

It's great core features, it's newsletter focus, it's ease of use, and Beehiiv pricing which is competitive, merged with a team that was behind one of the biggest newsletters on the market do make for a compelling tool that every founder should have in their arsenal.

We love the fact that it's founded by people who used to work in one of the best newsletters around and so have direct hands on experience in how a insanely successful newsletter is run and therefore pass these learnings on to the tools and features within Beehiiv itself.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you make money on beehiiv?

The simple answer is yes, it's very possible to make money on Beehiiv, if you have or build up a great email list, create fantastic and valuable content and can charge for it, then there is no reason that you can't make money on Beehiiv.

Couple this with the fact that Beehiiv don't take a cut of this, then you'll also make more money than if you were using other platforms, bear in mind that you'll still lose a portion of the paid subscriptions via the Stripe fees.

Is Beehiiv free?

If you have less than 2,500 subscribers then you are able to use their free plan which gives you access to a generous number of features. It's a great option for those who are running a newsletter as a hobby or if you're a startup and if you grow then you can easily switch it to a paid plan so you can increase the number past 2,500.

Does beehiiv give you a website?

Yes, you can have a hosted website with Beehiiv, where you can publish straight to that or when you publish your newsletter you can opt each time whether you want it to be published to the blog at the same time.

You will need a paid plan in order to get all of the best features relating to having a website on Beehiiv such as using a custom domain.

Does Beehiiv have newsletter and blog templates?

Yes, there are a few options when it comes to choosing the designs for both the newsletter and the blogs, but the options are still relatively limited, you can of course customize these with fonts and colors but if you're looking for a newsletter platform that allows full customization with thousands of themes and designs then Beehiiv is probably not right for you.

Are there any Beehiiv coupons or promo codes?

Yes, if you visit Beehiiv as a new customer and use the code listed on our Beehiiv promo code page you'll be able to get 20% off your first months subscription. This is applicable for new customers only and not for existing customers.