Beehiiv, a creator platform that has risen in popularity as an alternative to Substack, is increasing its prices — and many users aren’t happy. In a post explaining the increase, Beehiiv co-founder and CEO Tyler Denk says it will allow the company to “continue investing in our core platform experience.”
As part of the change, Beehiiv is changing the name of its mid-range Scale plan to Lite, which has gone up by at least $10 per month depending on subscriber count. For someone with up to 10,000 subscribers, for example, Beehiiv will charge $139 / month instead of $109. Meanwhile, the Pro plan (formerly Max) will cost $239 / month for up to 10,000 subscribers, a jump from the previous $219 /month price. Creators with less than 2,500 subscribers can continue using Beehiiv for free.
The price hike has several creators on social media reconsidering their decision to use the platform, which many have joined to avoid the 10 percent cut Substack takes from total subscription revenue. In a post on Bluesky, freelance journalist Tim Stevens expresses frustration with the changes to Beehiiv that he’s seen after switching to the platform earlier this year. “Since then, the sponsor choices and ad rates have tanked.” Stevens writes. “Now, Beehiiv is hiking its fees 25%, making this an even less profitable endeavor.”
Matt Lombardo, who also recently moved his NFL news site Between the Hashmarks from Substack to Beehiiv, mentioned his issues with the change as well. “Beehiiv raising prices without yet offering video podcasts, a viable consistent growth engine on platform, or podcast ads is pretty frustrating to experience, as someone who enjoys the platform,” Lombardo writes on Threads.
In a post on Reddit, Extra Points creator Matt Brown notes that while he believes Beehiiv is a “steal” compared to Substack, he acknowledges that this “really isn’t true for many other publishers,” especially for those who don’t charge a subscription fee for their work:
As these prices increase, I think it’s becoming increasingly clear that if you have under 10K subscribers and rely on Beehiiv to do the majority of your rev-gen, and ESPECIALLY if you’re outside the United States, the answer is going to be No. It isn’t worth it. You’ll be able to get similar functionality at a lower startup cost, and can plug in affilate ads via other networks.
Beehiiv has differentiated itself from other platforms by offering a trove of built-in features, including an integrated ad network, website personalization options, and podcast creation tools. The company recently launched a new feature that allows creators to build a community into their website. “It’s only the second time we’ve ever updated our plans and pricing in beehiiv’s near five year history, Denk writes. “Over the past several years, we have greatly expanded the capabilities of the platform.”