beehiiv vs Curated Comparison 2026
beehiiv is a general newsletter platform with subscriptions, growth tools and a hosted site, free to 2,500 subscribers. Curated is built specifically for the link-roundup format, collecting items through the week so the issue assembles itself, free to 1,500 subscribers with every feature including sending. Pick Curated only if the format really is curation: an essayist fighting that workflow is better served by beehiiv.
Newsletters with paid subscriptions and referrals
A link newsletter that stays free to 1,500 readers
At a glance
- Curated starts cheaper, at $39.
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
beehiiv | Curated | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $49 | From $39 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | None | Not stated |
| API | Yes |
beehiiv
Newsletters with paid subscriptions and referrals
beehiiv handles sending, paid subscriptions, a referral program and a basic website, which covers most of what someone writing a weekly letter actually needs. It was built by people who ran Morning Brew, and it shows in the growth tooling. Automation is thinner than a dedicated email platform.
Our note
If you are starting a newsletter you intend to charge for, start here. The free tier goes further than it looks, the growth tools are the reason people stay, and the export is clean if you decide to leave.
Only on this side
- Covers monetization & payments
- Works with Substack
Curated
A link newsletter that stays free to 1,500 readers
Curated is built for the link-roundup newsletter specifically, so collecting items through the week, writing a line under each and having the issue assemble itself is the main path rather than a workaround. Every feature including sending is on the free tier, which runs to 1,500 subscribers. Pricing then moves in published subscriber bands rather than on a quote. Anybody writing long-form essays rather than curating links will find the whole editor shaped around a job they are not doing.
Why people weigh these two
- Curated instead of beehiiv
- Curated is shaped around a link-roundup format specifically and stays free to 1,500 readers before $39, cheaper than beehiiv's $49 start once a list needs a paid plan.
- beehiiv instead of Curated
- beehiiv suits the essayist a link-digest tool underserves, with paid subscriptions and referral growth built in; free tier, then paid from $49.
Which one should you pick
beehiiv is for a writer whose newsletter is not a link roundup: essays, reporting, a mix of formats that Curated's editor is not built around. The free plan runs to 2,500 subscribers, 1,000 more than Curated's free tier, and includes paid subscriptions from day one, with Scale at $49 a month adding the referral program and boosts once growth is the priority.
Curated is for somebody writing exactly one thing: a weekly roundup of links with a line of commentary under each. Every feature, sending included, stays free to 1,500 subscribers, and the first paid band above that is $39 a month to 2,500, cheaper than beehiiv's $49 entry price. Watch the cliff edge, though: it arrives at 1,501 subscribers, sooner than beehiiv's, which does not charge anything until 2,501.
Common questions
- Which has the bigger free tier, beehiiv or Curated?
- beehiiv. Its free plan runs to 2,500 subscribers, including paid subscriptions, while Curated's free plan stops at 1,500, even though every feature including sending is included up to that point.
- Which is cheaper once I outgrow the free plan?
- Curated, at first. Its band above the free tier is $39 a month to 2,500 subscribers, cheaper than beehiiv's $49 a month Scale plan. Curated's price keeps climbing in published bands after that, up to $399 a month at 50,000 subscribers.
- Is Curated a good fit for an essay-style newsletter?
- No. The whole editor is built around collecting links through the week so an issue assembles itself, and an essayist will be fighting that workflow. beehiiv, Ghost or Buttondown all suit long-form writing better.
- What is the actual difference in what each tool does?
- beehiiv is a general newsletter platform with growth tools: referrals, boosts and paid subscriptions from the free plan. Curated does one job, the link roundup, and gives every feature including sending free up to 1,500 subscribers because the format is the whole product.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.