Beehiiv Review (2025) - How I earn £££ with a newsletter

As a marketer by trade, content creation isn’t new to me. But leaping to build a one-person business was daunting.

After launching Hustlers Outpost, a UK-focused business newsletter and passion project, I tried my hand with platforms like Substack and Mailchimp before settling on Beehiiv - and it's now been well over a year of using it.

During that time, I tried all of Beehiiv’s free and paid plans, most of its features, and most importantly, used the platform to grow a loyal audience and monetise through it.

In this review, I’ll share what Beehiiv is, what I like and dislike about it, and the benefits for anyone looking to start an email newsletter. Essentially, this is my experience with the platform that promises it’s “built for growth”... and I can say, it does a pretty good job of it.

This is my honest review of the beehiiv newsletter platform for creators in 2025.

Table of Contents

• Beehiiv TL;DR

• What Is Beehiiv

• Who Is Beehiiv For?

  • Content Creators

  • Businesses

  • Media Companies

  • Anyone Looking To Monetise An Audience

• How Beehiiv Works

• The Beehiiv Plans

• My Experience With Beehiiv

  • Beehiiv & SEO

• Newsletter Monetisation Options with Beehiiv

• Case Study: MyGolfSpy's 200k subscribers After Beehiiv Switch

• Platform Comparisons:

  • Beehiiv Vs. Substack

  • Beehiiv Vs. ConvertKit (Now known as ‘Kit’)

  • Beehiiv Vs. MailChimp

• The Beehiiv Community

• What Beehiiv Can Do Better

• FAQs

• Conclusion

Beehiiv TL;DR

Beehiiv is rated 4.6/5 stars on Product Hunt from 45 reviews

I've used beehiiv extensively for over a year across all plans. Here's a quick takeaway:

Easy To Get Started - Beehiiv offers a free plan for up to 2,500 subscribers. What’s more, you can register for a 30-day free trial and 20% off on any paid plan.

User-Friendly: Beehiiv is a powerful, user-friendly email newsletter platform that helps creators grow and monetise their newsletters.

Extensive Features: Whether you’re on a free plan or a premium one, there’s a lot to like—Beehiiv offers flexible design options, advanced analytics, and multiple monetisation features.

Easy Growth: It's the perfect mix for anyone looking to scale up. Tools like referral programs and paid subscriptions make it stand out.

What Is Beehiiv

Beehiiv is an all-in-one newsletter platform created to assist content creators in building, growing, and monetizing their email newsletters. 

Launched in 2021 by Benjamin Hargett, Jacob Hurd, and Tyler Denk (a former Product Lead at Morning Brew and Google), Beehiiv aims to be the most creator-friendly newsletter tool available. 

In the words of co-founder Tyler Denk in his interview with First Class Founders:

That experience shows, as the platform offers a range of impressive features including advanced analytics, customisable templates, and powerful monetisation options, all designed to streamline the process of managing a successful newsletter.

If this is your first newsletter, don’t worry. The onboarding process for Beehiiv is very good. It’ll ask you simple questions like ‘Is this your first newsletter?’ and ‘Do you have any paying subscribers?’ to set up your account appropriately to get you started.

Beehiiv’s key selling point? It’s built with growth in mind - from the design flexibility to the advanced monetisation features. Testament to Tyler Denks time working at Morning Brew’s newsletter empire, you’ll be happy to know that Beehiiv borrows from many of those same growth principles.

The platform also has extensive libraries of content and tutorials available on their website and on YouTube. 

Who Is Beehiiv For?

Content Creators

Beehiiv is a fantastic platform for content creators who want to monetise their work. With flexible design features, easy-to-use analytics, and multiple monetisation tools, it's a solid choice for influencers looking to build a newsletter as part of their brand strategy.

Businesses

With its clean interface and useful integrations, Beehiiv is also ideal for small businesses that want to stay connected with their customers. The Boosts feature is especially useful for growth hacking early on, helping you build your subscriber base quickly.

Media Companies

Beehiiv’s custom branding capabilities and advanced analytics make it an excellent choice for media outlets and content curation platforms. If your business relies on newsletter-driven traffic or curated content, Beehiiv's ability to segment audiences and track performance in-depth is a huge advantage.

Anyone Looking To Monetise An Audience

Influencers, solopreneurs and bloggers, I’m looking at you. Beehiiv is an incredible tool for anyone who is looking to monetise their audience, or looking to grow one. Let me show you how…

How Beehiiv Works

Beehiiv simplifies the newsletter creation and management process through its intuitive dashboard and comprehensive tools. Here’s a step-by-step overview of how it works:

1. Sign Up and Onboarding: Upon signing up, you’re guided through an onboarding process to set up your newsletter’s name, URL, and design preferences.

2. Dashboard Navigation: The main dashboard provides a snapshot of subscriber statistics, email performance, and recent posts. It’s your control centre for all newsletter activities.

3. Writing and Publishing: The content editor allows you to create and send emails or publish posts on your Beehiiv-hosted website. It supports various content types and provides a clean, user-friendly interface.

4. customisation: Customize your newsletter’s design, set up subscribe forms, and create landing pages to capture new subscribers.

5. Analytics: Access detailed analytics to track open rates, click-through rates, and subscriber growth. This helps in refining your strategies and content.

6. monetisation: Utilise Beehiiv’s monetisation features such as paid subscriptions, referral programs, and sponsored ads to generate revenue from your newsletter.

The Beehiiv Plans

Beehiiv offers several pricing plans to accommodate different needs. Here’s a summary of the plans on offer:

1. Launch Plan (Free): Ideal for beginners, this plan supports up to 2,500 subscribers and includes basic features like campaign analytics, audience segmentation, and advanced email capture.

2. Grow Plan ($49/month): This plan adds features like premium subscriptions, custom HTML blocks, and the ability to handle up to 10,000 subscribers.

3. Scale Plan ($99/month): Designed for larger operations, it supports up to 100,000 subscribers and includes advanced features like the referral program, Boosts, and 3D analytics.

4. Enterprise Plan: For those with over 100,000 subscribers, Beehiiv offers customized solutions with additional support and functionalities.

Don’t forget before you jump straight in, you can register for a 30-day free trial.

Here’s a table I’ve created to help you better understand the benefits of each plan:

*The plan prices are based on current £ to $ exchange rates at the time of writing and may vary slightly.

My Experience With Beehiiv

Using Beehiiv for the past year to run Hustlers Outpost has been a transformative experience. Initially drawn by its user-friendly interface and robust feature set, I quickly realised the platform’s potential for scaling and monetising my newsletter. Here are some highlights:

• Growth: The intuitive design and comprehensive tools allowed me to grow my subscriber base rapidly. Features like advanced analytics and audience segmentation helped me understand my audience better and tailor content to their preferences.

• monetisation: Beehiiv’s various monetisation options, including paid subscriptions and the Boosts marketplace, enabled me to generate significant revenue. The platform’s built-in referral program was particularly effective in driving organic growth.

• Support and Community: Beehiiv’s support team was always responsive and helpful, providing guidance whenever needed. The platform’s community of creators also offered valuable insights and collaboration opportunities.

Beehiiv & SEO

As a former full-time SEO, naturally, this was of interest to me. Beehiiv has extensive and well-thought-out SEO optimisation. 

Here’s a rundown of some key SEO features on Beehiiv.

Additionally, there is a tutorial to connect beehiiv to Google Search Console for anyone needing help setting up. A welcome bonus.

Newsletter Monetisation Options with Beehiiv

One of the biggest surprises for me was how easy it was to monetise through Beehiiv, which was refreshing compared to previous platforms I’ve been a part of. However, it wasn’t always this easy. Beehiiv has grown significantly over the last couple of years, and new monetisation features are regularly being released or updated.

Now, at the time of writing, Beehiiv provides several significant monetisation options which are very accessible to anyone who runs a newsletter on the platform:

1. Sponsored Ads: Beehiiv’s ad network matches you with advertisers who want to reach our audience. You’ll get told how much the advertiser is willing to pay per click, and they’ll provide all the copy and images. You have full information before choosing whether to accept or decline the sponsorship opportunity. 

2. Paid Subscriptions: An effective way newsletter creators generate huge income is through running paid subscriptions. This is like a paywall for premium content, often offering different pricing plans and your most valuable content and insight. Beehiiv makes this easy with a paid subscription dashboard. The platform also allows you to easily customise your upgrade pages and messaging for paid subscribers.

3. Boosts: One of my personal favourites, Boosts allows you to pay other newsletters to refer their subscribers to your newsletter and vice versa. It’s a powerful feature used by thousands of newsletters to grow and monetise. 

At the time of me writing this review, newsletters like mine have generated over $1.2million last month alone. That is seriously impressive.

Case Study: MyGolfSpy’s 200,000 Subscribers After Beehiiv Switch

To show you just how powerful Beehiiv can be, let’s take a look at a real-world success story from MyGolfSpy, one of the most popular golf media brands in the world. It’s seriously impressive.

If you’re not a golfer, you might not know MyGolfSpy, but think of it as Consumer Reports - only for golf. They test golf equipment and deliver unbiased reviews to over 20 million readers. As of now, they’ve grown their newsletter to 200,000 subscribers.

But here’s the kicker: they didn’t start with Beehiiv. Like many, MyGolfSpy initially relied on a different email provider. However, that provider quickly became a roadblock.

Why MyGolfSpy Switched to Beehiiv

Adam Beach, the founder of MyGolfSpy, explained that their previous provider (Sailthru) was a nightmare. The costs were 10x higher than Beehiiv, and their growth stagnated. He said:

With Beehiiv’s referral program, audience segmentation, and ad network, MyGolfSpy unlocked growth opportunities they hadn’t previously imagined. Beach shared that Beehiiv’s focus on two-way communication tools, like polls and surveys, also helped them better understand their audience and tailor content for their subscribers.

The Results

After switching to Beehiiv in 2024, MyGolfSpy saw dramatic results:

• Tens of thousands of new subscribers joined their list within months.

• Newsletter monetisation became seamless, thanks to Beehiiv’s ad network and Boosts marketplace.

• Their audience loved the enhanced engagement features, like polls and personalised content.

What Creators Can Learn From MyGolfSpy’s Journey

Adam Beach’s story is a lesson for all creators: If you’re serious about owning your audience and scaling your newsletter, Beehiiv offers the tools to make it happen. From cost-effective pricing to advanced growth tools, the platform is built for creators looking to take control of their destiny.

What’s Next for MyGolfSpy?

Heading into 2025, MyGolfSpy plans to double their subscriber base and tap further into Beehiiv’s monetisation features, like the ad network and Boosts. Beach summed it up perfectly:

Platform Comparisons:

Beehiiv Vs. Substack

Beehiiv and Substack are both popular newsletter platforms, but they cater to slightly different needs. Here’s a quick comparison:

• Design Flexibility: Beehiiv offers far more customisation compared to Substack.

• Monetisation: While both platforms support paid subscriptions, Beehiiv's Boosts and ad network offer extra revenue streams.

• Analytics: Beehiiv’s analytics suite is more detailed, which is a must for data-driven creators.

• Pricing: Substack is free, which is attractive and initially drew me in. However, Substack’s commission-based pricing takes a 10% cut from your revenue, which adds up fast if you plan to monetise your newsletter. Beehiiv’s flat-rate and transparent pricing is a winner for me here, particularly if you have a larger subscriber base.

• Community Features: Beehiiv fosters a greater sense of creator community with its exclusive Slack group, "The Hiiv," which includes support from high-profile creators. Substack lacks this kind of creator-first, collaborative environment.

Beehiiv Vs. ConvertKit (Now known as ‘Kit’)

Beehiiv also holds its own against ConvertKit, especially for those who prioritise ease of use and pricing:

• User Interface: Beehiiv’s interface is modern and intuitive, making it more user-friendly than ConvertKit.

• Features: Beehiiv offers a richer feature set, especially when it comes to monetisation and analytics.

• Monetisation: Speaking of monetisation, Beehiiv integrates monetisation features like sponsored ads, paid subscriptions, and the Boosts marketplace, all within the platform. ConvertKit excels in automation but lacks these direct revenue streams.

• Affordability: Beehiiv’s plans, especially at the Scale level, are more affordable than ConvertKit, which can get pricey as your subscriber list grows.

Beehiiv Vs. MailChimp

Beehiiv and Mailchimp are both highly-regarded platforms for email campaigns. Here’s how I’d size them up against each other:

• Email Sends: Mailchimp imposes limits on the number of emails you can send per month based on your plan. Beehiiv allows unlimited email sends, which is crucial for creators sending daily or weekly newsletters.

• Monetisation: While Mailchimp focuses on email marketing, it lacks direct monetisation options, whereas Beehiiv excels with paid subscriptions, ad networks, and Boosts, making it ideal for those looking to monetise their audience.

• Growth Features: Mailchimp is geared toward business automation and eCommerce, and does well with it, but lacks the growth tools needed for newsletters. Whereas Beehiiv shines with features like its referral program and Boosts for organic newsletter growth.

• Design & Flexibility: As I’ll come on to in a moment, Mailchimp is the winner of this category. Mailchimp provides a wide range of templates, including those for newsletters, while Beehiiv offers extensive customisation tools specifically designed for newsletter content, Mailchimp’s range of templates is impressive.

• Focus on Newsletters: However, what this comes down to in the best newsletter platform. Mailchimp is designed primarily for email marketing campaigns, making it great for eCommerce but clunky for running newsletters. Beehiiv is purpose-built for newsletters, offering tools like referral programs and ad networks tailored for creators. Ultimately, Beehiiv takes my money here.

The Beehiiv Community

The beehiiv community is a very friendly and active place in the time I have been a part of it. From useful subreddits such as r/beehiiv and r/emailnewsletters, to an exclusive Slack group accessible to paid plan members, I have never been short of help and advice.

The exclusive Slack group, known as the ‘hiiv‘ is especially valuable, with the whole beehiiv team and high-profile newsletter creators ‘buzzing‘ around. It’s a pretty cool thing to be a part of. At the time of writing, the community boasts over 4,500 members regularly contributing insights and sharing experiences. It's an excellent resource for anyone looking to level up their newsletter game.

What Beehiiv Can Do Better

While Beehiiv is a fantastic platform, no platform is perfect and these are my few areas for improvement:

1. Template Variety: 

While the customisation options are great, Beehiiv could benefit from offering pre-built templates for both newsletters and landing pages.

As of now, you're given a solid foundation, but having a range of starting templates (especially for users with less design experience) would be useful. Luckily, I’ve heard on good authority that this feature is in the works and will be launching soon, which will take things to the next level.

2. Integration Options: 

Beehiiv is relatively new, so while it offers some excellent functionality for newsletter growth, integration options are still somewhat limited.

You can integrate with Google Analytics, but there are fewer native connections to other popular tools like Zapier, Webflow, or WordPress, especially when compared to platforms like ConvertKit. More integration flexibility could attract an even larger audience of creators and businesses looking to streamline their workflows.

3. Email Personalisation: 

Beehiiv’s polling feature is still in its early days, and while it's functional, it could be expanded. For example, having multi-question surveys or more custom form options (like conditional logic or quiz features) would help creators gather deeper insights from their audience, making their newsletters even more interactive.

FAQs

Is Beehiiv free? Yes, Beehiiv offers a free plan for up to 2,500 subscribers. Paid plans with additional features are also available, along with a 30-day free trial.

How does Beehiiv compare to other platforms? Beehiiv offers more customisation and monetisation options compared to platforms like Substack and ConvertKit, with a more user-friendly interface and affordable pricing.

Can I make money with Beehiiv? Absolutely. Beehiiv provides multiple monetisation options, including paid subscriptions, sponsored ads, and referral programs.

Is Beehiiv suitable for beginners? Yes, Beehiiv is designed to be accessible for beginners while also offering advanced features for more experienced creators.

How many emails can I send with Beehiiv? All Beehiiv plans, including the free version, offer unlimited email sends, which is a key advantage for those scaling their newsletters.

Can I use my own domain on Beehiiv? Yes, Beehiiv allows custom domains, giving you the ability to brand your newsletter and website URL to match your business.

Does Beehiiv integrate with Google Analytics? Yes, Beehiiv supports Google Analytics integration for detailed tracking.

Can I import subscribers to Beehiiv from another platform? Yes, Beehiiv allows easy import of subscribers from platforms like Substack, Mailchimp, and others. Although there is a 10,000 subscriber import limit, it’s easy to reach out to the team to increase this if needed.

Does Beehiiv offer support? Yes, Beehiiv has a great support team and a helpful community of users across Reddit and Slack.

Conclusion

I’m not one to write review posts often, but after a year of using Beehiiv, I can confidently say it’s one of the best platforms for creators looking to build, grow, and monetise a newsletter. Its ease of use, robust analytics, and flat-rate pricing structure make it particularly appealing for both beginners and seasoned professionals.

The platform’s focus on growth sets it apart from others, and its monetisation features are among the best available in the newsletter space. While there are still a few areas for improvement (like more integration options and better template variety), Beehiiv is on track to being a top choice for email marketing in 2025.

If you’re looking to get started or take your newsletter to the next level, I recommend giving Beehiiv a try - especially with their generous free plan that gets you up to 2,500 subscribers.