Growing an audience
Running the business
Both cover newsletter & email. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| beehiiv | MailerLite | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $49 | From $12 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | None | 14 days |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Data export | Everything, in an open format | Not stated |
| Their cut | None | Not stated |
| Runs on | Not stated | Not stated |
| Covers | Newsletter & Email, Monetization & Payments | Email Marketing & Automation, Newsletter & Email |
| Works with | Substack | Nothing in particular |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | None right now | 1 |
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.
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Email marketing that stays cheap as lists grow
MailerLite sends campaigns, runs automations and hosts the signup forms feeding them, and prices all of it under the tools it competes with. The editor is plain in a way that suits people who write more than they design. The free plan stops at 250 subscribers, which is a fraction of what beehiiv and Kit give away, so the comparison is really about what you pay at ten thousand.
Our note
The cheap end of email, done properly. Kit is better at automation and beehiiv at growth, and MailerLite wins on the bill, which for a list that is not itself the product is often the only comparison that matters.
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.
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