beehiiv vs Letterhead (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, beehiiv grades higher than Letterhead: 2.4 against 1.8 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
beehiiv grades higher on the free plan and features. Letterhead grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
beehiiv
Newsletter platform with paid subscriptions, ads, website and podcast
Which one is for you
Pick beehiiv if
- Fits if you want to charge for your newsletter, with beehiiv taking 0% and Stripe its fee
- Works for writers who want the newsletter, a website, a podcast and an ad network in one place
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you only need a paid plan for automations, at $49 a month to start
- Tight if you want your own branding, as removing beehiiv's needs the $95 Pro plan
- Skip it if your list will pass 2,500 before you're ready to pay, as the free plan stops there
- Watch out: Lite caps you at 10 automations and 100,000 subscribers, and webinars and the Send API need Pro
- Watch out: the free plan keeps only 30 days of analytics and has 1 seat
Pick Letterhead if
- Fits if a team runs several newsletters and wants one view of them
- Makes sense if you want shared editing and goals across publications
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you want a price, as pricing comes after a demo
- Skip it if you want to try it free, since no plan or trial is stated
- Too light, or too heavy, for one-person lists, as it's built for teams
- Watch out: with more than 10 publications and a million subscribers you're pointed to Enterprise, and Braze is Enterprise only
How we grade them
| 2.4GPAbeehiivFair | 1.8GPALetterheadWeak | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | DLite is $49 a month for 1,000 subscribers on yearly billing, or $59 monthly. That's in the dearest tenth of email tools, nearly four times the middle. Taking the beehiiv branding off needs Pro at $95. | CNo price is published; the vendor says it depends on your list and newsletters and comes after a demo. |
| Free plan and trial | BUp to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends, a website, a podcast and a welcome email, free for good. One writer could live on that for a while. The wall is money: no paid subscriptions, no ad network and no custom automations. | FNo free plan or trial is stated on the pages we read. |
| Features | BA block editor, paid tiers and paywalls, an ad network, recommendations, a website, a podcast and digital products, plus automations from Lite. It covers the newsletter job end to end. Lite caps you at 10 live automations, though; Pro lifts the cap. | CCuration, team editing, automation, audience health, goals and promotions. Aimed at newsletter teams, so it covers a narrower job. |
| Ease of use | CNo App Store rating on record. It's a web app where you build the newsletter, the site and the automations yourself, so there's some setting up before your first send. | CNo store rating on record. Sold through a demo, with editors and automations to set up. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, with Stripe, Zapier, Make, Shopify and Luma connections and an API. No desktop or phone app is listed. | BWeb with Braze, Zapier, WordPress, Airtable, Calendly and Circle listed. |
| Best for | newsletters you plan to make money from | newsletter teams running several publications |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: beehiiv and Letterhead. How we grade
Where they differ
- beehiiv also covers forms and paid newsletters.
- Letterhead also covers reports and a/B testing.
At a glance
| beehiiv | Letterhead | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Paid |
| Starts at | $49 per month for up to 1,000 subscribers, billed yearly ($59 monthly) | Not published |
| Free plan | Up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends, 1 seat, 1 publication, a website, a podcast and 30 days of analytics. No paid subscriptions or automations. | None |
| Free trial | Free trial of Lite and Pro, no credit card required | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | beehiiv | Letterhead |
| Price read from | beehiiv.com | Not confirmed |
| Checked | Oct 17, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
beehiiv
- The Free plan stops at 2,500 subscribers and has no paid subscriptions, ad network or custom automations.
- Removing beehiiv branding, dynamic content, webinars and the Send API all need Pro.
- Lite tops out at 100,000 subscribers and Pro at 250,000; larger lists go to Enterprise through sales.
- beehiiv takes no cut of paid subscriptions, but Stripe charges 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction.
Letterhead
- No prices are published; the vendor says pricing depends on your current list and newsletters and is given after a demo.
- No free plan or trial is stated on the pages read.
- Teams with more than 10 publications and one million subscribers are pointed to an Enterprise platform.
- Some integrations, such as Braze, are listed as Enterprise plan only; others run through Zapier.
Key features
beehiiv
- Newsletter editor
- A custom block editor with templates and unlimited sends on every plan. Lite adds A/B tests, polls, custom HTML and publishing to segments.
- Paid subscriptions and ads
- From Lite: paid tiers, metered paywalls, coupons and the beehiiv ad network. beehiiv takes 0% of subscription revenue; Stripe's fees still apply.
- Website, podcast and community
- Every plan hosts a website, a podcast feed and a member community. Custom pages, shows and private podcast feeds grow with the plan.
- Digital products
- Sell downloads and other one-time products from every plan; Lite raises the product limit to 3 and Pro removes it and adds webinars and coaching.
- Growth tools
- A recommendation network on all plans, plus a referral program, surveys and paid recommendations from Lite.
- Automations
- Welcome emails on Free. Lite allows 10 live automations triggered by sign-ups, tags, segments or purchases; Pro has no limit and adds click triggers.
Letterhead
- Content curation
- Pulls content from RSS feeds, APIs, a browser, a CMS such as WordPress, and Google Docs, and organizes it with tags and custom fields.
- Team editing
- Real-time collaborative editing, lockable sections and templates, review workflows and approvals, roles and permissions.
- Automation
- Workflows with triggers, delays and conditional branches, such as emailing readers who have not opened recent issues; the vendor places this on the Team plan.
- Audience health
- Groups readers by engagement (loyalists, casual, fading, ghosts) and rates each newsletter's health.
- Goals and portfolio view
- Set goals per newsletter, such as monthly net growth, and track all newsletters together.
- Promotions and testing
- Promotion and sponsor support, A/B testing and a read/write MCP server for connecting AI tools.
Plans
beehiiv
Free$0
Up to 2,500 subscribers, unlimited sends, 1 seat, 1 publication, website and podcast, beehiiv branding.
Lite$49
per month for up to 1,000 subscribers, billed yearly ($59 monthly)
Paid subscriptions, ad network, 10 automations, 2 seats, 3 publications, up to 100,000 subscribers. $119 a month at 10,000 subscribers, billed yearly.
Pro$95
per month for up to 1,000 subscribers, billed yearly ($109 monthly)
No beehiiv branding, unlimited automations, webinars, dynamic content, Send API, 10 seats, up to 250,000 subscribers. $199 a month at 10,000, billed yearly.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom subscriber volume, SSO and SAML, dedicated IPs, concierge onboarding and a customer success manager, through sales.
Letterhead
Pricing could not be confirmed. See tryletterhead.com.
Ways to pay less
beehiiv
- Annual discount
Save up to 20% with yearly billing
beehiiv's pricing page says yearly billing saves up to 20%: at 1,000 subscribers Lite is $49 a month billed yearly against $59 monthly.
Letterhead
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, beehiiv or Letterhead?
As of Nov 13, 2026, beehiiv starts at $49 per month for up to 1,000 subscribers, billed yearly ($59 monthly), and Letterhead has no price we could confirm.
Which has a free plan, beehiiv or Letterhead?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only beehiiv has a free plan. Letterhead does not.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.