On calls, the first thing coaches ask me about beehiiv is whether it’s really free. For a coach starting a newsletter, yes, right up to 2,500 subscribers. That single number is the heart of beehiiv pricing, and plenty of coaches will spend their first year on the free plan without seeing a bill.
But “free” isn’t the same as “costs nothing”. A newsletter that sells coaching needs a few other things around it, and beehiiv’s paid plans start earlier than 2,500 if you want certain tools. So instead of just listing plans, I’m going to build the real monthly cost line by line. Then I’ll show where the break-even points sit, and what a year looks like as a list grows from zero to 5,000.
All prices were checked on beehiiv.com/pricing on 3 November 2026, and I’ve used yearly billing unless I say otherwise.
beehiiv pricing in one breath: the three plans
- Free: $0, up to 2,500 subscribers.
- Lite: $49/mo billed yearly at 1,000 subscribers. Adds paid subscriptions (beehiiv takes 0%), ad monetization and automations.
- Pro: $95/mo billed yearly at 1,000 subscribers. Adds removing beehiiv branding, webinars and advanced analytics.
Both paid prices rise as your list grows, and there’s a custom Enterprise plan above Pro. beehiiv is built for newsletters. Its strengths are the growth and money side: a referral program, boosts (other newsletters recommending yours) and an ad network. Its automations are less deep than a selling tool like Kit. Keep that in mind, because it shapes what a coach ends up paying for elsewhere.
Stay on Free until a paid feature earns more than $49 a month
- Under 2,500 readers and one coaching offer → Free, $0
- Growing fast, ready for a welcome automation or sponsors → Lite
- You need branching sales sequences → beehiiv may be the wrong tool; compare Kit
Building the true monthly cost, line by line
Here’s what a coach running a newsletter on beehiiv actually pays for. I’ve split it into what’s on beehiiv’s page and what isn’t.
Line 1: the beehiiv plan
$0 on Free. $49 on Lite at 1,000 subscribers. $95 on Pro at the same size.
Line 2: taking payment for coaching
beehiiv sends the newsletter. It doesn’t run your coaching checkout. That’s Stripe or PayPal, at roughly 2.9% + 30¢ per sale. Sell a $500 package and around $14.80 goes to processing. This cost is the same whatever email tool you use, but people forget it when they say their stack is “free”.
Line 3: a booking link
Most coaches end each issue with “book a call”. You need somewhere for that link to go.
- Cal.com’s free plan has unlimited event types and, since October 2026, built-in payments. $0.
- Calendly’s free plan works for free calls, but taking payment needs a paid plan. Standard is $10/mo yearly.
See our free scheduling apps guide if you want this line at zero.
Line 4: glue between tools (optional)
If you want a booking or a sale to do something in beehiiv, you may need Zapier. The free plan is limited. Professional starts at $19.99/mo yearly. Many coaches never need it.
Line 5: a website (optional)
beehiiv gives your newsletter a web home, which can double as a simple site. If you want a full coaching website, Squarespace Basic is $19/mo yearly. Plenty of newsletter-first coaches skip this at the start.
| Cost line | Lean setup | Growth setup | Full setup |
|---|---|---|---|
| beehiiv plan | Free $0 | Lite $49 | Pro $95 |
| Booking with payments | Cal.com $0 | Cal.com $0 | Calendly Standard $10 |
| Zapier | None | None | Professional $19.99 |
| Website | beehiiv site $0 | beehiiv site $0 | Squarespace Basic $19 (US) |
| Monthly total | $0 | $49 | $143.99 |
| Yearly total | $0 | $588 | ≈ $1,728 |
The gap between lean and full is about $1,728 a year. Most of that isn’t beehiiv pricing at all. It’s the tools you add around it. Before you upgrade anything, ask which line is actually earning its place.
Break-even point 1: when Lite beats staying on Free
Lite costs $588 a year at 1,000 subscribers on yearly billing. So the question is simple. Will Lite’s extra tools bring in more than $588 a year?
For a coach, they pay off in one of three ways:
- A welcome automation that books calls. Lite adds automations. If an automated welcome email lands one extra coaching client a year, and your package costs more than $588, you’re ahead.
- Sponsor money. Lite adds ad monetization. If your newsletter is focused enough for sponsors, ad income can cover the plan.
- Paid subscriptions. Lite lets you charge for a premium edition, and beehiiv takes 0% of it. A small paid tier can pay for the plan on its own.
If none of these is likely in the next six months, stay on Free. There’s no prize for upgrading early.
The early upgrade is a pattern I run into more than I’d like. I’ll call the coach Nadia: she writes a newsletter for new parents going back to work, and she moves to Lite with under 300 readers because she wants to look professional from day one. Five months later she checks her account and finds she hasn’t touched a single paid feature, so she’s paid for the same weekly email she could have sent for free. She drops back to Free, and her readers don’t notice a thing.
Simple test: write down the one paid feature you’d use this month. If you can’t name it, you don’t need Lite yet.
Break-even point 2: yearly vs monthly billing
The $49 and $95 prices on beehiiv’s page are per month, billed yearly. When I opened beehiiv’s pricing page on 3 Nov 2026, those were the figures it showed at 1,000 subscribers. I haven’t confirmed the monthly-billing price, so check the toggle on beehiiv’s page before you pick.
The rule still holds whatever the gap is. Pay monthly for the first two or three months to make sure the plan is earning its keep. Switch to yearly once it is.
Break-even point 3: beehiiv vs Kit for a coach who sells
This is the comparison most coaches end up making. At 1,000 subscribers on yearly billing:
- beehiiv Lite: $49/mo, or $588 a year.
- Kit Creator: $33/mo, or $390 a year.
Kit is $198 a year cheaper at that size, and its sequences and automations are deeper. beehiiv’s advantage is growth, sponsors and paid subscriptions. So if your newsletter’s job is to grow and earn, beehiiv’s extra cost can pay back. If its job is to turn readers into clients through a welcome series, Kit is both cheaper and better suited. Below 2,500 subscribers, though, beehiiv Free costs $0, and Kit’s Free plan has its own limits (one automation, one sequence). Our Kit vs beehiiv comparison goes deeper.
Break-even point 4: is Pro worth the jump from Lite?
At 1,000 subscribers on yearly billing, Pro is $95 a month and Lite is $49. The gap is $46 a month, or $552 a year.
So Pro only makes sense if its extra tools bring in at least $552 a year more than Lite would. What you get is the beehiiv branding removed, webinars and advanced analytics. For most solo coaches, that’s a high bar. Webinars are the one feature that can earn it, if you already run them and pay for a separate tool.
Here’s a way to think about it per reader. On Lite at 1,000 subscribers, you pay about 4.9 cents per reader per month. On Pro, it’s about 9.5 cents. If you can’t point to how each reader is worth nearly twice as much on Pro, stay on Lite.
What one coaching sale actually covers
It helps to put the plans next to a real sale. Say you sell a $500 coaching package from your newsletter. Processing takes about $14.80, leaving roughly $485.
- That one sale covers almost ten months of Lite ($49 × 10 = $490) on yearly billing.
- It covers just over three months of the full setup from the table above.
- It covers about five months of Pro ($95 × 5 = $475).
If your newsletter reliably brings in one client every couple of months, Lite is an easy yes once you need it. Pro needs a lot more proof.
Watch the renewal date: yearly billing locks you in for twelve months. If you upgrade to Pro on yearly billing and decide it was too much, you may be stuck with it until renewal. Test the higher plan on monthly billing first.
A 12-month beehiiv cost timeline: 0 to 5,000 subscribers
Here’s an illustrative path for one list over a year. The coach writes a weekly newsletter, sells 1-to-1 coaching, and grows steadily through referrals and a few podcast guest spots. Her list goes from zero to 5,000 over twelve months.
The plan: stay on Free until 2,500 subscribers, then move to Lite.
| Month | Subscribers (end of month) | Plan | beehiiv cost that month |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 150 | Free | $0 |
| 2 | 350 | Free | $0 |
| 3 | 600 | Free | $0 |
| 4 | 900 | Free | $0 |
| 5 | 1,250 | Free | $0 |
| 6 | 1,650 | Free | $0 |
| 7 | 2,100 | Free | $0 |
| 8 | 2,500 | Free (at the cap) | $0 |
| 9 | 3,000 | Lite | Lite at list size — check slider |
| 10 | 3,600 | Lite | Lite at list size — check slider |
| 11 | 4,300 | Lite | Lite at list size — check slider |
| 12 | 5,000 | Lite | Lite at list size — check slider |
Three things stand out about beehiiv pricing over a year.
Eight free months. On a steady growth path, a coach can run a real newsletter for most of a year without paying beehiiv anything. That’s rare.
The jump comes all at once. On Free, cost is flat at $0. The moment you pass 2,500, you’re on a paid plan sized for your list, not the $49 price shown at 1,000 subscribers. Plan for that month before it arrives.
Why we don’t print the 3,000–5,000 prices. beehiiv’s paid prices move on a slider, and the plan line-up itself has changed more than once. Rather than guess, I’ll leave the exact number to the slider. Open the slider on beehiiv’s page, set it to your list size and you’ll have the exact figure in seconds.
If she’d upgraded to Lite in month one “to look professional”, she’d have paid $49 a month for eight months she didn’t need to. That’s $392 at yearly rates, on top of the bigger bill from month nine.
Where beehiiv’s free plan stops working for a coach
The 2,500 cap is the obvious limit. But coaches often outgrow Free for other reasons first:
- You want the referral program or boosts. These growth tools are central to why people choose beehiiv. Check which plan includes them, since beehiiv moves features between tiers.
- You want sponsor income or a paid edition. Ad monetization and paid subscriptions start on Lite. They’re a big beehiiv strength once your list is focused and growing.
- You need sales automations. Automations start on Lite, but if you want branching sequences and buyer tags, upgrading beehiiv may not fix it. That’s where a tool like Kit is stronger. See our beehiiv alternatives for coaches who need automations more than ads.
Who should not pay for beehiiv
- Coaches whose emails are mostly sales funnels. You’ll pay for growth tools and still miss deeper automations.
- Coaches already on Kajabi. Kajabi Basic at $143/mo yearly includes email marketing for up to 2,500 contacts. A second email tool is often double spending.
- Coaches under 2,500 subscribers with no plan for growth tools. Stay on Free. It’s free for a reason.
What I’d do with beehiiv
beehiiv pricing rewards patience. Start on Free and keep the rest of your stack lean: Cal.com free for bookings, beehiiv’s web pages instead of a full site. Your monthly bill for email and booking can sit at $0 while you build.
Move to Lite when one of two things is true: you’ve passed 2,500 subscribers, or a specific automation, sponsor or paid-subscription feature will clearly bring in more than $49 a month. Pay monthly for a couple of months, then switch to yearly. Leave Pro until you need webinars or your newsletter is a real business line on its own.
And if, a few months in, you realise your emails are really about selling coaching rather than publishing, compare Kit before you upgrade. It may be the cheaper fix. Our best email marketing for coaches ranking lays out all six options.
beehiiv pricing FAQ
Is beehiiv free?
Yes. beehiiv’s Free plan costs $0 for up to 2,500 subscribers. Paid plans start with Lite at $49/mo on yearly billing at 1,000 subscribers.
How much does beehiiv cost per month?
Free is $0 up to 2,500 subscribers. Lite is $49/mo and Pro is $95/mo, both billed yearly at 1,000 subscribers, and both rise with list size. Check beehiiv’s page for monthly billing and your exact list size.
What happens when I pass 2,500 subscribers on beehiiv?
You’ll need to move to a paid plan. The price depends on your list size, so check the slider on beehiiv’s pricing page. Plan for the jump a month or two before you hit the cap.
Is beehiiv cheaper than Kit?
Under 2,500 subscribers, beehiiv’s Free plan costs nothing, and Kit’s Free plan doesn’t either, with different limits. On paid plans at 1,000 subscribers, Kit Creator is $33/mo yearly and beehiiv Lite is $49/mo yearly, so Kit is cheaper at that size.
Is beehiiv good for coaches?
It’s good for coaches whose newsletter is the main way people find them, especially if they want referral growth or sponsors. For coaches who mainly sell through email sequences, a tool with deeper automations, like Kit, usually fits better.
