beehiiv vs Mailchimp Comparison 2026
beehiiv is a newsletter platform built for one job: writing, sending and getting paid for a list, free to 2,500 subscribers with paid subscriptions included from the start. Mailchimp is general email marketing that happens to send newsletters too, priced on how many contacts you hold rather than how often you mail them, with Standard starting at $20 a month for 500 contacts after a 14-day trial. The real question is what surrounds the newsletter. beehiiv suits the letter itself as the product, Mailchimp suits email that has to talk to a shop, a CRM or a booking tool chosen long before the newsletter existed.
Newsletters with paid subscriptions and referrals
Email marketing with the longest integration list
At a glance
- Mailchimp starts cheaper, at $20.
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
beehiiv | Mailchimp | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $49 | From $20 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial (they differ) | None | 14 days |
| API |
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
Mailchimp
Email marketing with the longest integration list
Mailchimp is the default nobody gets fired for picking, and the reason is that whatever else you run already connects to it. The editor and the reporting are fine rather than good. Its pricing counts contacts rather than sends, so a large list you mail once a month costs the same as one you mail daily, which is the wrong shape for most creators.
Why people weigh these two
- Mailchimp instead of beehiiv
- The longest integration list in email marketing, free tier then $20; a general email platform where beehiiv is built around newsletter growth and paid readers.
- beehiiv instead of Mailchimp
- beehiiv is built for a newsletter that charges its own readers directly, with paid subscriptions and a referral program built into the platform.
Which one should you pick
Choose beehiiv if you are starting a newsletter you intend to charge for. The free plan already covers 2,500 subscribers with paid subscriptions switched on. Scale is $49 a month, and the referral program with automatic milestone rewards is the reason lists here tend to grow faster than a list sitting inside a general email tool.
Choose Mailchimp if email needs to plug into a store, a CRM or a booking system already in use. Standard starts at $20 a month for 500 contacts, cheaper than beehiiv at that size. But the bill tracks contacts rather than sends, so a big list mailed once a month costs the same as one mailed daily, and a writer sending one letter a week is paying for integrations they will not touch.
Common questions
- Is beehiiv or Mailchimp cheaper to start?
- beehiiv's paid tier starts at $49 a month, more than double Mailchimp's Standard at $20 a month for 500 contacts. beehiiv's free plan goes further, though: it reaches 2,500 subscribers with paid subscriptions already switched on, while Mailchimp's free plan suits only a small list before Standard becomes necessary.
- Does Mailchimp charge based on how often I send?
- No, and that is the detail to watch. Mailchimp prices on how many contacts you hold, not on how many emails go out, so a list mailed once a month costs the same as one mailed daily. beehiiv works differently: its free plan covers 2,500 subscribers with sending and paid subscriptions included, and the next tier is a flat $49 a month.
- Which one is better for getting paid by readers?
- beehiiv. Paid subscriptions are switched on from the free plan, run through Stripe, and beehiiv adds a referral program with automatic milestone rewards for readers who bring others. Mailchimp is not built for reader payments at all. It suits a business whose revenue comes from somewhere else, like a store or a booking tool it already connects to.
- Why would somebody pick Mailchimp over beehiiv?
- Integrations. Whatever store, form, CRM or booking tool a business already runs almost certainly has a Mailchimp connector, plus branching customer journeys that trigger on a purchase or a tag. If the newsletter is a small piece of a bigger operation rather than the main product, that connectivity matters more than beehiiv's growth tools.
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.