ConvertKit vs Beehiiv for SaaS: Pricing and Fit (2026)

Prices checked 7 October 2026; each price links to the vendor page it came from. Subscriber count sets the price on both, and each page's selector was read at the audience sizes named in the tables.

SaaS teams end up comparing these two for one of three reasons: a founder-led newsletter that feeds the top of the funnel, a course or template business running alongside the product, or a developer-relations list that has outgrown a spreadsheet. In all three the audience is people who read content, not users who trigger events, and that is the audience these tools are built around.

ConvertKit rebranded to Kit, and its pricing now lives at kit.com. The older name still appears in search and in this comparison's URL, so this page uses both. Beehiiv started as a publishing platform and has grown a website builder, podcasts, communities, digital products and an ad network around the newsletter.

What each one costs at 1,000, 5,000 and 10,000 subscribers

Beehiiv's readouts below are for yearly billing, with its higher monthly prices shown beside them; Kit's page had its yearly toggle switched on in the capture. The 10,000-subscriber row matters most for Kit, because that is where its free plan ends.

At 5,000 subscribers Kit Creator costs $75 against $95 for Beehiiv Lite, a gap of $20 a month or $240 a year. At 10,000 the two are almost level, $116 against $119, so $36 a year separates them and the choice is about features. The gap on the higher plans is wider: Kit Pro at 10,000 reads $158 and Beehiiv Pro reads $199 on yearly billing, $41 a month more, and $239 if you pay monthly. Kit's page also reads $166 for Creator at 25,000 subscribers.

Free plans change the picture below 2,500 people. A list of 2,000 can run on either vendor for $0, but only Kit's free plan allows 10,000 subscribers, so a founder with 6,000 subscribers sending occasional broadcasts need not pay anything on Kit. The limit is that Kit's free plan has no sequences or Visual Automations, which start on Creator, so a welcome series needs the $75 step at 5,000. Beehiiv's free tier runs out at 2,500, but it includes the recommendation network and an API.

Both vendors show an introductory offer. Kit's Pro card shows $50 a month for the first year against a regular $66 at 1,000 subscribers, with a note that the plan renews at the standard rate. Budget the standard price, not the first-year one.

Where ConvertKit fits a SaaS business

Kit is organised around tags, forms and sequences. Its Free plan lists unlimited landing pages and forms, unlimited broadcasts, and tagging and segmentation, and Creator adds unlimited sequences, Visual Automations and subject-line A/B tests. For a SaaS founder that maps onto a familiar funnel: a guide or checklist behind a form, a five-email sequence, a tag when someone clicks the trial link, and a different path for those who do not.

The monetisation tools matter if you sell something alongside the product, such as templates, a course or a paid community. Kit's free plan lists selling digital products and subscriptions; Pro adds Subscriber Signals, engagement analytics and unlimited users, which is useful when a marketer and a founder both work in the account. The plan cards do not list API-driven events or transactional email, so anything triggered by the application stays outside Kit.

Where Beehiiv fits a SaaS business

Beehiiv puts the publication first. Every plan includes a newsletter, a website, a podcast, a community and digital products, according to its pricing page, and the free plan adds the recommendation network, which lets publications promote each other. Lite adds paid subscriptions at a 0% take rate, ad monetisation, automations, audience polls and A/B testing; Pro adds branding removal, webinars and coaching, advanced analytics, webhooks and dynamic content.

That suits a SaaS company whose content is a product in its own right: an industry newsletter with sponsors, a research digest for a vertical, a developer-relations publication. The website builder can host the archive, so a separate blog engine may be unnecessary. What Beehiiv does not do is behavioural lifecycle logic from your app; it can take subscribers by API and webhook, but it will not decide who is overdue for an invoice.

One caveat for team plans: the free tier has a single seat and Lite two, so a marketer and a founder working together will need Pro (10 seats) or to share a login.

Moving between them

ConvertKit to Beehiiv starts with an export of subscribers, including tags and custom fields. Decide which Kit tags become Beehiiv segments or custom fields before importing, and carry unsubscribed addresses across so nobody who opted out is re-mailed. Rebuild each sequence as a Beehiiv automation (a Lite plan or above), and replace Kit forms and landing pages with Beehiiv's subscribe forms or pages. If you have paying subscribers, ask Beehiiv how existing subscriptions are carried over before cancelling the old account.

Beehiiv to ConvertKit goes the other way. Export subscribers, map each segment to a Kit tag, and recreate automations as sequences on Creator. Kit's pricing page lists free migrations, which is worth asking about if the list is large. Plan for the growth step: a list over 10,000 leaves the free plan and prices at the Creator and Pro readouts above.

In both directions, authenticate the sending domain on the new tool, send one real issue to a small segment, and keep the old account until the first full cycle of issues has gone out.

Verdict

Pick ConvertKit if your list drives a funnel (lead magnet, sequence, trial or paid offer) and you value a free plan up to 10,000 subscribers. Pick Beehiiv if the newsletter is a product with ads, paid tiers and a website, and you accept a free plan capped at 2,500. At 10,000 subscribers the two cost about the same, so features should decide it.

For the SaaS side of the business, look at ActiveCampaign vs Loops, ConvertKit alternatives, the best email platforms for SaaS newsletters and email tools for early-stage SaaS. The comparison hub lists every matchup.