beehiiv
Newsletter platform built by the Morning Brew team. Referral programs, ad network, A/B testing, and analytics — no revenue cut on subscriptions.
What should journalists know about beehiiv?
beehiiv is the growth-oriented alternative to Substack. It takes 0% of paid subscription revenue (Substack takes 10%), includes referral programs and an ad network, and ships features fast. The free tier is generous — 2,500 subscribers with custom domains and API access. The ad network (beehiiv Ad Network) brokers sponsorships and pays based on engagement, which is a real revenue stream for mid-size newsletters. The Boosts program lets newsletters cross-promote for cash. The trade-off: beehiiv is VC-funded ($49.7M raised, $225M valuation) and growing aggressively — $30M ARR by mid-2025. Shared sending infrastructure means one bad actor's spam complaints can hurt everyone's deliverability. Multiple users reported unexplained open rate declines in late 2025 and early 2026. The Media Collective program offers health insurance, legal support, and waived hosting for qualifying journalists — a direct shot at Substack's creator economy. SOC 2 Type 1 certified as of October 2025. For journalists who want to own their audience economics, beehiiv is the strongest option that isn't self-hosted.
Newsletter growth and audience building. Writers who want referral programs, Boosts cross-promotion, and detailed engagement analytics. Publications monetizing through both subscriptions and ad sponsorships. Journalists who refuse to give up 10% to Substack.
Journalists who need self-hosted infrastructure (use Ghost). Publications with sensitive source contacts where shared sending infrastructure is a concern. Writers who want the simplest possible publishing experience — beehiiv has more features than most people need. Anyone who needs reliable Stripe integration without friction (payment bugs are documented).
Security & Privacy
Data is scrambled while being sent to their servers
Data is scrambled when stored on their servers
Where servers are located — affects which governments can request your data
Privacy policy summary
beehiiv collects subscriber data, engagement metrics (opens, clicks, read time), and website analytics. Subscriber data is shared with publication owners. beehiiv uses engagement data to power its Ad Network and recommendation engine (Boosts). Third-party integrations include standard analytics and payment processors (Stripe). GDPR and CCPA compliant with cookie consent and unsubscribe tools. Annual third-party penetration testing. SOC 2 Type 1 certified (October 2025). No EU data residency — all data stored in US AWS regions.
How to protect yourself:
Export your subscriber list regularly (CSV export available in Quick or Full format — download links expire after 24 hours). Use a custom domain so your publication URL is portable if you leave. Understand that beehiiv's Ad Network uses engagement data to match sponsors. Review beehiiv's data practices if your subscribers include sensitive contacts. Monitor your open rates — shared infrastructure deliverability issues are documented. Enable GDPR cookie banner and privacy policy settings if you have EU readers.
SOC 2 Type 1 certified (October 2025). GDPR/CCPA compliant. Annual penetration testing. Data stored on US AWS infrastructure — no EU residency option. VC-funded with ad network model — subscriber engagement data is part of the business. Shared email sending infrastructure is a deliverability risk, not a security risk per se, but it matters for operational reliability. Adequate for most publishing use cases. Subscriber data is exportable.
Who Owns This
Known issues
Shared sending infrastructure means spam complaints from other beehiiv users can degrade deliverability for everyone on the platform. Multiple users reported gradual open rate declines in late 2025/early 2026 even with low bounce and spam rates. Stripe integration has documented payment bugs: payments not appearing despite active Stripe connection, subscribers showing as free in beehiiv despite paying in Stripe, checkout failures. Customer support response times are inconsistent — some users report unanswered tickets. Service outage on March 12, 2026. Feature stability complaints: some users report core editing features breaking after updates.
Pricing
Free (Launch: up to 2,500 subscribers, unlimited sends, custom domains, API access). Scale: from $49/month (adds monetization, surveys, A/B testing, AI tools). Max: from $109/month (removes beehiiv branding, priority support, NewsletterXP course). Enterprise: custom pricing for 100K+ subscribers. Annual billing saves roughly 20%.
This is an editorial assessment based on publicly available information as of 2026-04-02, using our published methodology. Independent security review is pending. Security posture can change at any time. This is not a guarantee of safety.
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