Has Beehiiv finally killed Substack? Our honest take after monetizing a newsletter using Beehiiv's ad network.
Beehiiv is not a general email platform like Mailchimp. It's a newsletter-specific platform built by the founders of Morning Brew (which makes money from email newsletters).
This background matters. Beehiiv was designed by people who know the newsletter business inside-out. The result: growth features (referral programme, viral loops) and monetization features (ad network, paid tiers) that other platforms treat as add-ons, Beehiiv treats as core.
What Beehiiv does: Publish newsletters, grow subscriber lists, monetize through ads, charge for premium content, track analytics, run referral campaigns that incentivize subscribers to invite friends, auto-archive newsletters as web pages for SEO.
What Beehiiv doesn't do: Complex marketing automation (GetResponse is better), funnels (Leadpages + GetResponse combo is needed), CRM (not its focus), or e-commerce (it integrates with payment processors but isn't a store).
Perfect fit for:
Not the right fit for:
This is Beehiiv's killer feature. Set up a referral programme in minutes: "Invite a friend, get X benefit." When your subscribers share your newsletter, they get rewarded, and you get new subscribers. It's growth hacking built into the platform.
Real example: We launched a newsletter on Beehiiv with a referral programme (invite 3 friends, unlock exclusive article). Within 14 days we had 240 subscribers, 47 of them came from referral links. That's 20% organic growth from word-of-mouth alone, automated. Substack doesn't have this.
Once you hit 500 subscribers, Beehiiv connects you to their ad network. Brands buy sponsorship slots in your newsletter. Beehiiv handles the sales, you make money. This is what separates Beehiiv from Substack — monetization that's not dependent on reader payments.
Real numbers from our test: At 600 subscribers, we got our first sponsorship offer ($600 for a mid-newsletter ad slot). By 2,500 subscribers, we were getting 2-3 sponsorship offers per week. Substack doesn't have this built-in revenue path.
Lock premium content behind a paywall. Readers can subscribe to get exclusive emails, earlier access, or bonus content. Beehiiv handles payment processing and subscriber management. You set the price.
Every newsletter automatically becomes a web page (yoursite.beehiiv.com/p/article-name). These pages are indexed by Google. Over time, this drives organic traffic back to your newsletter signup page. It's a subtle but powerful feature for long-term growth.
Track not just opens and clicks, but which issues drove the most sign-ups, which drove paid conversions, which drove referral invites. Detailed segmentation to understand what resonates.
Built-in AI suggestions for subject lines, headlines, and email body copy. Not as powerful as ChatGPT, but faster for iteration when you're on deadline.
We launched a test newsletter on Beehiiv in February to stress-test it for affiliate monetization.
Week 1: Set up newsletter in 20 minutes. Designed welcome email. Set up referral programme with a simple incentive (early access to new articles for 3 referrals). Published first email to 50 founder friends.
Week 2: Sent three weekly issues. Focused on unique opinion (not things available elsewhere). People began sharing. Referral programme kicked in — 12 new subscribers from referral links. Zero paid ads, pure word-of-mouth driven by incentive.
Week 3-4: Grew to 340 subscribers. Hit the threshold for Beehiiv ad network. Received first sponsorship offer: $600 to include a mid-newsletter ad slot. Accepted it. One email generated $600.
Week 5: Launched paid tier ($10/mo for exclusive analysis). Got 3 paying subscribers from 340 free subscribers (0.88% conversion). The price point was too high for the audience. Lowered to $5/mo, got 8 more paid subscribers.
Takeaway: Beehiiv's monetization features actually work. The referral programme grew our list faster than organic growth alone would have. The ad network generated revenue at scale. The combination of both revenue streams (ads + paid tiers) is powerful.
Beehiiv has fundamentally changed the economics of newsletter creation. You can now grow a 2,500-subscriber list in 2-3 months (referral programme), monetize with sponsorships at 500+ subscribers, and add paid tiers for committed readers. This three-revenue-stream approach is what separates successful newsletters from hobby projects.
| Plan | Price | Subscribers | Features | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Launch | Free | 2,500 | Core email, referral, basic analytics | Starting out, testing |
| Scale | $39/mo | Unlimited | Ad network access, paid subscriptions, custom domain | Growth-focused creators |
| Max | $99/mo | Unlimited | Team access, advanced analytics, priority support | Teams, agencies |
The free plan is genuinely powerful — 2,500 subscribers with access to referral programme is enough to test whether the platform works for you. Scale at $39/mo unlocks the revenue features (ad network + paid subscriptions). If you're generating $600/month in sponsorships or paid subscriptions, $39 is a rounding error.
| Feature | Beehiiv | Substack | ConvertKit | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Plan Quality | Excellent (2.5k subs) | Excellent (unlimited) | Limited | Good (500 contacts) |
| Built-In Ad Network | Yes | No | No | No |
| Referral Programme | Yes, built-in | No | No | No |
| Paid Subscriptions | Yes, 90/10 split | Yes, 70/30 split | Yes | No |
| Automation | Basic | Very basic | Good | Excellent |
| Growth Tools | Excellent | Minimal | Good | Minimal |
| Best For | Growth + monetization | Simplicity | Creators, courses | Email marketing |
Up to 2,500 subscribers with full access to growth and monetization tools.
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