Switching from beehiiv to Substack: what happens to your fees

A flat plan fee out, a percentage in

beehiiv and Substack charge for opposite things. beehiiv's paid plans cost a flat monthly fee and take 0% of subscription revenue — you pay only Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 on each payment. Substack charges no plan fee at any list size and takes 10% of every subscription, on top of which you pay Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 card fee and its 0.7% recurring-billing fee — 13.6% of the subscription before the per-transaction cents.

On a $10/month subscription that is $1.66 per paid subscriber per month on Substack against $0.59 on beehiiv — 2.8× as much, or $1.07 more on every subscriber. Against that, Substack saves you beehiiv's plan fee. So the whole question is whether you have enough paid subscribers for $1.07 a head to add up to more than the plan fee. One limit up front: we have verified beehiiv's plan pricing directly only to 2,500 subscribers (as of 2026-09-22), so every figure below stays at or under that size. The three-scenario side-by-side is on beehiiv vs Substack, and the fee structures on their own are in beehiiv pricing explained and how much Substack actually costs.

If you are about to start charging, Substack can be the cheaper start

A beehiiv newsletter that charges nobody costs nothing to move, because it costs nothing to stay: at 2,500 subscribers it is $0/month on beehiiv's Launch plan and $0 on Substack. On fees alone, a free list has no reason to switch in either direction. The difference shows up the day you decide to charge. beehiiv's Launch plan cannot sell paid subscriptions, so your first paying reader moves you to Scale at $43.08/month on its annual rate ($49 month to month) — a $43.08 step you pay before that first subscription clears. On Substack the same first subscriber costs you $1.66.

This is where Substack genuinely wins: a small paid base. The line sits at 41 paid subscribers ($410/month gross) on both a 1,250- and a 2,500-subscriber list, because beehiiv's Scale fee does not change anywhere inside the range we have verified — 3.28% of the smaller list, 1.64% of the larger one. Below it, Substack costs less — at 10 paid subscribers on the 2,500-subscriber list it is $16.60/month against $48.98 on beehiiv, $32.38 less. That saving shrinks by $1.07 with every paid subscriber you add and is gone at 41. If you are testing whether readers will pay at all, not paying a plan fee while you find out is a reasonable choice. How many paid subscribers it takes to cover your platform bill runs the same break-even question across every platform.

Past that line, the percentage costs more every month

Give the 2,500-subscriber list a 5% conversion rate — 125 paid subscribers at $10/month, $1,250/month gross — and beehiiv costs $116.83/month all-in on Scale (9.35% of gross) against $207.50 on Substack (16.6%). The move now costs $90.67/month more, about $1,088 a year. At 1,250 subscribers with 63 paid, the premium is $24.33/month — $80.25 on beehiiv against $104.58 on Substack. The gap grows with every subscription you sell, because beehiiv's fee is fixed and Substack's rises with revenue; that is the general shape flat fee or revenue share describes.

Nobody moves to Substack for the pricing, so the useful way to hold that premium is as a growth budget with a target. Each new paid subscriber nets you $8.34 after Substack's fees at $10/month, so the $90.67/month premium is covered once Substack's recommendations, app and Notes bring in 11 extra paid subscribers — 8.8% more than you started with. beehiiv has its own growth tools, including a referral program and a recommendations network, so the question is not whether Substack has discovery but whether its discovery beats what you already have by that margin. If you cannot say how, the premium is just a cost.

Where our numbers stop, and what to check first

Above 2,500 subscribers this comparison goes one-sided. Substack's cost is simple at any size — 13.6% plus $0.30 per payment, no plan fee — but beehiiv has historically scaled its plan price with list size, and we have not confirmed its price above 2,500. Quoting one would mean publishing a number we have not verified, which this site does not do. If your list is larger, check beehiiv's current price for your real subscriber count and put both into the calculator. What does hold at any size is the direction: the more of your revenue comes from subscriptions, the more a percentage costs you relative to a flat fee.

Before you move, confirm the things that cost real money: whether existing paid subscriptions transfer through Stripe without readers re-entering their cards, how annual subscribers are handled mid-term, and what happens to any ad-network or Boosts income you earn on beehiiv, which does not come with you. We keep migration mechanics out of the data layer because they change often. The same move from other platforms is in Kit to Substack and Ghost to Substack, and the reverse is Substack to beehiiv. The fee profiles behind every figure are on the beehiiv and Substack profile pages, with sources on the methodology page.

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