beehiiv vs Substack: Fees, Domains, and Monetization Compared

Choose Substack if you want to publish for free today with no plan to pick and don't mind a 10% cut of paid-subscription revenue. Choose beehiiv if you want a 0% take rate on paid subscriptions and are willing to pick a paid Scale or Max plan once your monetization needs outgrow the free Launch tier. The two aren't structured the same way: Substack has no plans at all, just one free-to-publish product with a flat 10% fee if you turn on paid subscriptions. beehiiv is tiered — free to start, but its 0% take rate and its ad network, digital products, and custom-code tools live on paid plans.

What does each platform cost to use?

Substack has no plan tiers to choose between. Its support pages state plainly: "Publishing is free on Substack — no matter how many subscribers you have!" (Substack, checked September 2026). There's one product, and the only cost that scales is the fee on paid subscriptions, covered below.

beehiiv's pricing page lists four tiers: Launch (free, "Up to 2,500 subscribers"), Scale ($43 per month, billed annually as $517), Max ($96 per month, billed annually as $1,151), and Enterprise (custom pricing) (beehiiv, Pricing, checked September 2026, prices shown at the entry subscriber-count view — the page has a subscriber-count selector that changes the figures shown, so re-check against your own list size). Scale and Max both list a subscriber limit of "100,000," with Enterprise offering a custom limit above that.

What fee applies to paid subscriptions?

This is the central difference. Substack's fee applies uniformly, since there's only one product tier: "10% of each transaction" from Substack, plus Stripe's own processing fee — "2.9% + $0.30 per transaction" on credit cards, plus a separate 0.7% Stripe billing fee on recurring charges (Substack).

beehiiv's fee depends on which plan you're on. Paid subscriptions aren't available at all on the free Launch plan — beehiiv's pricing table lists "Paid subscriptions" as "No" for Launch and "Yes" for Scale, Max, and Enterprise. On the plans that do include it, beehiiv states the platform fee itself is 0%: "beehiiv takes zero revenue share, so you keep 100% of your subscription earnings (minus Stripe's industry-standard processing fee)" (beehiiv, "Paid Subscriptions", checked September 2026). So the real comparison is Substack's flat 10%-plus-Stripe on any plan (there being only one), against beehiiv's 0%-plus-Stripe once you're on Scale or above.

What do I get for a custom domain?

Substack charges separately for this, one time: "Substack charges a one-time $50 USD fee to use a custom domain for your publication" (Substack, checked September 2026). It also comes with a structural rule: "We require that your Substack publication be hosted by a subdomain such as 'www.'" You can 301-redirect the bare root domain to that subdomain, but Substack itself won't serve the site at the root. And a custom domain doesn't change your sender address — "even if you change your custom domain, you will not get your own Substack inbox. The newsletters will always be sent [publicationdomain]@substack.com" (same source).

beehiiv lists custom domains as included on every tier, including the free one: custom domains marked "Yes" for every plan, from Launch to Enterprise, in its pricing page's feature comparison table (beehiiv, Pricing). There's no separate fee stated for it the way Substack charges $50, and no documented subdomain requirement forcing a "www." prefix the way Substack's does.

What monetization tools does each include, beyond paid subscriptions?

Substack's monetization is essentially the one lever: turn on paid subscriptions and the 10% fee applies. It doesn't document a separate ad network or digital-product storefront the way beehiiv does.

beehiiv's pricing table lists several monetization tools gated by plan. On the free Launch tier: "Ad network, Launch, No," "Digital Products, Launch, No." Starting on Scale: "Ad network, Scale, Yes," "Digital Products, Scale, Yes," plus "Programmatic Ads, Scale, Yes" (same source). Max adds "Digital Products (Appointments), Max, Yes" and "Group subscriptions, Max, Yes" on top of everything in Scale. Design-wise, beehiiv's Website Builder also supports "Custom HTML" starting on Scale ("Custom HTML, Scale, Yes"), letting you add custom-styled sections beyond the built-in blocks — Launch is the only tier where this is listed as "No."

What can I export, and how?

Both platforms frame the content as yours and back it with a real export. Substack's support page: "Anything you publish on Substack is yours to own," and an export generates "your posts, subscriber list, and related statistics" as a downloadable zip file from the publication's Exports settings (Substack, checked September 2026).

beehiiv splits the export into two separate actions. Subscribers export as either a "Quick Version" (email, status, tier) or a fuller "Full Version" including custom fields and statistics; a separate posts export covers "all posts; published, archived, and in draft," delivered as CSV with "download links... valid for 24 hours" (beehiiv, "Exporting post content or subscriber data from beehiiv", checked September 2026). Neither vendor's export is a package that reimports into the other platform directly — it's a portable archive of your own content and list, not a one-click migration.

Capability table

Who is each one not for?

Substack isn't a fit if you want a 0% cut of subscription revenue, a free custom domain, or a native ad network or digital-product storefront — none of those are part of what it documents. Every paid subscription permanently owes it 10%, on the only version of the product that exists.

beehiiv isn't a fit if you want to publish today for free and also want the 0% fee, an ad network, or digital products right away — those all sit behind the paid Scale plan, not the free Launch tier. If you're not ready to pay $43/month, Launch gets you a newsletter and a website, but not the monetization tools that are beehiiv's main draw over Substack.

Where does Figment fit in?

Neither directly. Figment publishes a Figma design as a live website through its Figma plugin — it has no newsletter delivery, subscriber list, or paid-membership system, so it isn't a substitute for either platform's actual job. If you're choosing between beehiiv and Substack for the newsletter itself, this comparison is the one to use.

Which should I actually pick?

• Pick Substack if you want to publish for free right now with no plan decision to make, and 10% of subscription revenue is an acceptable trade for zero setup and Substack's built-in reader network.
• Pick beehiiv's free Launch tier if you're not yet monetizing and want a free custom domain without Substack's $50 charge or subdomain requirement.
• Pick beehiiv Scale or Max once paid subscriptions, an ad network, or digital products are real plans — that's where its 0% take rate and monetization tools actually turn on, at the cost of a monthly plan Substack doesn't require.

For the fuller newsletter-platform landscape, including Ghost's 0%-fee self-hosted option and Kit's combined transaction fee, see our Substack alternatives guide; for Ghost specifically against Substack on ownership and design, see Ghost vs Substack.

Bottom line: Substack is one free product with a flat 10% fee the moment you charge for subscriptions. beehiiv is free to start but reserves its 0% take rate, ad network, digital products, and custom code for the paid Scale and Max tiers — cheaper at scale if you're monetizing seriously, but not free the way Substack's core product is.