beehiiv vs Mailchimp: Which Is Better for Newsletters & Small Businesses in 2026?
Beehiiv vs Mailchimp: Which Is Better for Your Newsletter or Small Business?
If you’re starting (or rethinking) an email newsletter, there’s a good chance you’ve come across beehiiv and Mailchimp.
At first glance, they may seem similar.
Both let you send emails, grow a list, and stay in touch with your audience.
But they’re built for very different types of users.
Mailchimp has been around for years and is best known as an all-purpose email marketing tool for businesses. Beehiiv, on the other hand, was built specifically for newsletters, creators, and small businesses that want to grow an audience — and eventually monetize it.
As a small business owner who’s used multiple email platforms, I’ve learned that choosing the wrong tool early can make things harder (and more expensive) than they need to be.
Let’s take a look at both beehiiv and Mailchimp across the things that actually matter: ease of use, pricing, growth tools, monetization options, and who each platform is best for (so you can decide which one fits your goals now and as your newsletter grows).
Disclosure: Please note that some of the links you’ll find below are affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking one of these links, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
Why beehiiv is the better choice for most newsletter-first creators
For most creators, side hustlers, and small business owners starting a newsletter, beehiiv is usually the better fit.
Mailchimp is a powerful email marketing tool, especially for traditional businesses running campaigns, promotions, and automated flows.
But it wasn’t designed with newsletters as the core product. As a result, it can feel heavier than necessary if your main goal is to grow an audience and send consistent content.
beehiiv takes a different approach. It’s built specifically for newsletters, which shows up in how easy it is to write, publish, and grow from day one.
The platform combines a clean writing experience with built-in growth tools, clear audience ownership, and monetization options that don’t require stitching together a bunch of third-party tools.
For creators who care about turning a newsletter into a long-term asset (not just sending emails) beehiiv offers more flexibility without adding unnecessary setup or complexity. It leaves room to grow while keeping the day-to-day experience simple and manageable.
Why I personally love beehiiv
I personally use beehiiv for my newsletter and recommend it to marketing clients as well. Beehiiv offers quite a bit of growth and engagement features, which has led to impressive growth with my newsletter:
Total Subscribers increased from ~100 to over 2,000
Open Rate increased 8.3%
Click Rate increased 99% (my prior click rate was pretty terrible)
You can also check out my engagement metrics…
Needless to say, I’m a fan. If you do decide to check out Beehiiv, use promo code KMONEY or simply click on one of my links to get a free 30-day trial plus 20% off for the first three months of any paid plan.
Why Email Newsletters Work Well as a Side Hustle
For a long time, email marketing felt like something only big businesses did.
It sounded complicated, expensive, and time-consuming. None of which are appealing when you’re already balancing work, kids, and everything in between.
That’s changed.
Email newsletters are now one of the most approachable ways for parents to build a side hustle that fits into real life.
You don’t need a massive following, a complicated funnel, or hours of daily content creation.
You need a clear topic, consistency, and a way to stay in touch with people who actually want to hear from you.
You’ve already seen this model in action, even if you’ve never thought of it as “email marketing.” You sign up for something that interests you. Over time, you get helpful ideas, stories, or tips.
Eventually, an offer shows up that makes sense — a product, a recommendation, or a paid upgrade.
That same approach works incredibly well for individuals.
Parents are using newsletters to earn income through:
Sponsored ads
Paid subscriptions
Affiliate recommendations
Digital products and resources
Services tied to their existing skills or experience
The topic matters less than you think.
If you can be helpful to a specific group of people (whether that’s around food, money, work, hobbies, or home projects) a newsletter gives you a direct way to build trust and stay connected.
So why don’t more parents start one?
From my experience, it comes down to time and effort to start. It’s easy to lose momentum when you compile everything together.
A few I hear….
Finding time to write consistently
Growing an audience from zero
Figuring out how to monetize (without coming off like a sleazy sales person)
My recommendation is to simply take it step by step, starting with writing consistently. The rest will follow.
As you get started, it’s important to choose the right email platform as it removes a lot of that initial friction by handling distribution, audience growth, automation, and monetization behind the scenes.
And as newsletters have grown in popularity, more tools have entered the market promising to make the process easier.
What is Beehiiv?
Beehiiv is a newsletter platform launched in 2021 that’s built for creators who want to grow an audience and monetize it over time — without duct-taping together five different tools.
At the simplest level, beehiiv gives you the core newsletter essentials:
Email Campaigns - beehiiv lets you create email broadcasts, newsletters, and email sequences to send to your subscriber list. There are unlimited sends on every plan, including the free tier. Which is pretty unheard of for email software.
Subscription Forms - Generate embeddable opt-in forms to capture new subscribers from your website or landing pages.
Automations - Set up automated email journeys to nurture new subscribers, deliver lead magnets, and promote products/services.
Segmentation - Organize your list into segments based on interests, behaviors, etc., for more targeted emails.
Analytics - View performance metrics like open rates, clicks, engagement, etc., to optimize your email content.
If you’re a parent building a side hustle, that combination matters because it keeps the weekly workload realistic.
You write once, publish once, and beehiiv handles a lot of the “behind the scenes” work.
Where Beehiiv really stands out in 2026 (Pros of Beehiiv)
As a relative newcomer to the email marketing space, beehiiv has some clear advantages but also some potential drawbacks - so you'll want to look closely and try it out before you put all your eggs into one basket.
Pro #1: Beehiiv can be your newsletter and your home base website
Every beehiiv publication comes with a website, and the website builder has become a real strength — especially if you want to treat your newsletter like an asset that can also bring in search traffic.
You can control key SEO settings (like metadata), manage redirects, and structure your site without needing plugins or a separate CMS.
Beehiiv is constantly making positive changes to their platform, including their new AI website builder.
The new website builder is absolutely amazing.
It’s easy to use and you can create a clean site quickly if you want to get in front of customers quickly and not overthink the design build.
I’ve used it personally for another side hustle of mine and was able to launch an MVP within a day or two of tinkering with the builder.
Beehiiv also allows you to leverage AI tools directly within their email composer to generate content ideas and optimize existing text. Whether you love AI or hate it, it helps to have a creative block-breaker sometimes!
Pro #2: Automations are no longer “basic”
If your current article suggests advanced automations are “coming soon,” that’s outdated.
Beehiiv’s automation and segmentation engine is now built for practical workflows that side hustlers actually use (welcome flows, lead magnet delivery, targeting engaged readers, separating paid vs free, etc.).
Pro #3: Built-in monetization is a big advantage
Beehiiv’s Ad Network and Boosts are designed to help newsletters monetize and grow without having to source everything manually. Beehiiv also runs payouts through Stripe Express for these programs, which makes the money side cleaner.
Boosts also allow filtering by things like category/payout, which helps you keep promotions more aligned with your audience.
This is one of beehiiv’s best features - and you really feel that the team behind the platform is invested in helping creators build their audience.
When it comes to growth, beehiiv also offers a built-in referral program that lets you:
Offer custom rewards (like PDFs, merch, discounts, or free coaching)
Track exactly how many people each subscriber refers
Automate fulfillment without duct-taping together outside tools
This is huge for small business owners and creators who want to turn fans into growth drivers.
Pro #4: Segmentation is genuinely useful (not just “tags”)
Beehiiv has invested heavily in segmentation.
You can build segments around engagement (opens/clicks), subscriber attributes, time windows, and tier (paid vs free).
This is especially helpful once you start monetizing and you want to reward your best readers without blasting everyone the same way.
Pro #5: Digital products are now part of the platform
This is a key update: beehiiv now supports selling digital products (downloads like PDFs, templates, toolkits, and even services/coaching offerings) through the platform. This feature is positioned as 0% commission on beehiiv’s side.
Side note…you will need to be on a paid plan for this.
Pro #6: Affordable (and Predictable) Pricing
Cost is one of the biggest reasons many parents and small business owners gravitate toward beehiiv early on.
beehiiv offers a free plan that supports up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends. That gives you real runway to build a writing habit, test ideas, and grow an audience without immediately worrying about monthly software costs.
Mailchimp approaches pricing very differently.
While it does offer a free tier, it’s more limited in terms of features and sending flexibility. As your list grows, costs increase based on contact count, and certain features quickly push you into paid plans.
For example, let’s say you have 1,500 subscribers. As of the the date of this writing, if you opened an account with Mailchimp you would receive 14 days free and then be charged at least $45 per month with an email send limit. With beehiiv, you can get your account for free with unlimited sends.
For many small businesses, pricing can feel harder to anticipate, especially if you’re sending frequently or experimenting with different formats.
This matters because Mailchimp pricing is tied closely to list size and usage, regardless of whether your newsletter is generating revenue yet. That can make the early growth phase feel more constrained, particularly for creators who want to publish consistently without watching every send.
Where beehiiv stands out is predictability.
Once you move to a paid plan, your costs scale based on subscriber count, not how often you email or how much revenue you generate. Pricing increases gradually and transparently, which makes it easier to plan ahead and reinvest early wins back into your newsletter or business.
Rather than focusing on exact dollar amounts (since pricing can change), the bigger takeaway is this: beehiiv’s pricing structure gives you clearer control over costs as you grow. That flexibility matters when your newsletter is part of a broader income strategy, not just a standalone email tool.
You can check for yourself at the beehiiv pricing page.
Pro #7: SEO and Content Discoverability
One growth channel that often gets overlooked when starting a newsletter is search traffic.
If you want your writing to show up in Google results (not just inboxes), beehiiv makes that easier to do intentionally. Every post lives on a clean, SEO-friendly site where you can:
Set custom URL slugs
Edit meta titles and descriptions
Add image alt text
Organize content by categories
That structure allows evergreen content like guides, reviews, and comparisons to keep working for you long after the email is sent.
Over time, those posts can bring in new readers who never saw the original newsletter.
Mailchimp treats content differently and is built primarily around email campaigns and automation, not long-form publishing. While you can host landing pages and basic content, it’s not designed to function as a searchable content hub or blog.
As a result, SEO control is more limited.
You’re not working within a system built for ongoing content discovery, and most newsletters live and die in the inbox rather than continuing to attract readers through search over time.
For small business owners who want their content to pull in new readers months or even years later, beehiiv offers more flexibility and control. It supports a longer-term approach where your newsletter also acts as a growing content library, not just a place to send emails.
Pro #8: Data Portability and Content Ownership
This isn’t the flashiest thing to think about early on, but it becomes increasingly important as your newsletter gains traction.
Both beehiiv and Mailchimp allow you to export your subscriber list, which is a necessary baseline. You’re not locked out of your audience on either platform.
Where beehiiv stands out is in how much flexibility it gives you around both your data and your content.
With beehiiv, you can:
Export subscribers with segments and tags intact
Download your full post archive
Move your list and content cleanly if you ever switch platforms
That setup makes it easier to adapt as your business evolves. If you decide to rebrand, change tools, or expand your newsletter into something larger, the mechanics are already in place.
Mailchimp handles subscriber data well, especially for traditional email marketing use cases. You can export contacts and lists, but the platform isn’t built around long-form content ownership in the same way. Most newsletters live entirely inside campaigns, rather than as part of a structured content archive that can move with you.
Migrating away from Mailchimp is possible, but it often involves more manual work — especially if you’re using complex automations, templates, or audience segments that don’t transfer cleanly to newsletter-focused platforms.
beehiiv was built with long-term flexibility in mind. As your goals shift, you’re able to take your audience and content with you without reworking everything from scratch.
If ownership and optionality matter to you (particularly as a side hustler or small business owner building something over time) beehiiv gives you more room to grow and adapt without friction.
Potential downsides to consider (Cons of beehiiv)
No platform is perfect.
What matters is understanding the tradeoffs and deciding whether they align with the kind of newsletter or business you’re building.
Fewer native integrations than traditional email marketing platforms
beehiiv includes many core tools directly inside the platform, which keeps things streamlined. The tradeoff is that it offers fewer native integrations than long-established email marketing platforms.
For most parents and small business owners, this isn’t a problem early on. You can write, send, grow, and monetize a newsletter without stitching together a complicated tech stack.
That said, Mailchimp has a clear advantage here. Mailchimp offers a large ecosystem of integrations with CRMs, ecommerce platforms, booking tools, and analytics software. If your workflow depends on deep connections to tools like Shopify, Salesforce, or a custom CRM, Mailchimp may fit more naturally into your existing setup.
If integrations are central to how your business operates, it’s worth reviewing beehiiv’s integration options before committing.
A faster pace of change
beehiiv launched in 2021 and continues to evolve quickly. New features, improvements, and refinements roll out regularly, which is part of why the platform has gained traction so fast.
For many creators, that momentum is a positive. It means the product is actively improving and adapting to how newsletters are actually used. For others, frequent updates can feel distracting if you prefer a tool that stays mostly the same once it’s set up.
Mailchimp tends to move at a slower, more deliberate pace. Its interface and core workflows remain relatively stable, which some businesses value. That consistency can feel reassuring, especially for teams that rely on repeatable campaigns and long-standing processes.
Built for newsletters, not complex marketing ecosystems
beehiiv supports paid newsletters, sponsorships, ads, referrals, and digital products. That covers most newsletter-driven income streams very well.
Where it’s less suited is acting as the central hub for a large, multi-channel marketing operation. Advanced automation logic, highly customized funnels, and complex ecommerce workflows are areas where Mailchimp is stronger.
Mailchimp was designed to support broader marketing needs, including promotional campaigns, transactional emails, segmentation across customer lifecycles, and multi-product businesses. If email marketing is just one piece of a larger system, that depth can matter.
The bottom line
beehiiv is a strong fit for parents and creators who want to build a newsletter-first business with fewer tools, predictable costs, and multiple paths to monetization.
If your priority is growing an audience, publishing consistently, and turning a newsletter into a long-term asset, the tradeoffs are usually worth it.
If your business relies heavily on integrations, advanced automation, or complex ecommerce workflows, Mailchimp may feel like a better match.
Top Beehiiv Newsletters
Contrarian Thinking By Codie Sanchez
Codie Sanchez is well known for her content around “boring businesses” and currently owns ~26 of her own. Codie’s newsletter just surpassed over 700,000 subscribers worldwide.
Milkroad
A newsletter with over 300,000 subscribers, Milkroad brings Crypto to your inbox on a daily basis. This was one of the fastest growing newsletters on beehiiv and is extremely well known in the Crypto space.
Miss Excel
Another fun one on beehiiv is Miss Excel. Best known for combing music and dancing with Excel tips, Miss Excel powers her newsletter with beehiiv. This newsletter showcases the customization options that help automated email sequences feel like personal social posts.
Mailchimp Pros and Cons: What to Know Before Choosing It for Your Newsletter
Mailchimp remains one of the most capable email marketing platforms available, especially for businesses that see email as part of a broader marketing system rather than a standalone newsletter.
Here’s where it continues to stand out.
Pro #1: Strong automation and campaign workflows
Mailchimp’s biggest advantage is its automation depth.
If your email strategy includes triggered messages, customer journeys, and lifecycle-based campaigns, Mailchimp gives you a lot to work with out of the box. You can build automated flows tied to actions like signups, purchases, abandoned carts, re-engagement, and more.
This is an area where Mailchimp clearly goes further than beehiiv, which prioritizes publishing and audience growth over complex automation logic.
For businesses running promotions, onboarding sequences, or customer nurture campaigns, that flexibility matters.
Large template library and design flexibility
Mailchimp offers a wide range of email templates and layout options, with more variation than most newsletter-first tools.
That’s useful if:
You send different types of emails (promotions, announcements, transactional updates)
You want heavier visual customization
You’re working within established brand guidelines
While beehiiv focuses on clean, readable newsletter layouts, Mailchimp gives you more control over design and structure when presentation is a priority.
Deep reporting and performance insights
Mailchimp provides detailed reporting across campaigns, automations, and audiences.
You can track:
Opens and clicks
Conversion behavior
Revenue attribution (especially for ecommerce)
Engagement trends over time
For data-driven teams, this level of reporting helps fine-tune campaigns and justify marketing decisions. It’s especially valuable when email is tied directly to sales, promotions, or product launches.
beehiiv’s analytics are improving steadily, but Mailchimp still offers more granularity for traditional marketing use cases.
Extensive integrations and ecosystem
Mailchimp integrates with a large number of third-party tools, including ecommerce platforms, CRMs, booking software, analytics tools, and ad platforms.
Popular integrations include Shopify, WooCommerce, Squarespace, Salesforce, and many others. That ecosystem makes it easier to plug email into an existing business stack rather than rebuilding workflows around a newsletter.
If your business already relies on several tools working together, Mailchimp often fits more naturally into that environment.
Scales well for established businesses
Mailchimp is built to support growing teams and mature businesses.
As your audience expands, you gain access to more advanced segmentation, permissions, collaboration tools, and support options. Its automation and reporting features also scale alongside more complex marketing needs.
For businesses with multiple products, customer types, or revenue streams, that structure can be a real advantage.
Potential downsides to consider (Cons of Mailchimp)
Mailchimp is a powerful tool, but that power comes with tradeoffs — especially if your primary goal is running a newsletter rather than managing a full marketing operation.
Pricing can become hard to predict as you grow
One of the most common frustrations with Mailchimp is how pricing scales.
Costs are tied to contact count, and certain features are locked behind higher-tier plans. Even if your list isn’t generating revenue yet, pricing can increase as your audience grows or as you send more frequently.
For creators and side hustlers who want to publish consistently while experimenting with ideas, that can introduce friction early on. You may find yourself managing costs before the newsletter itself has had time to mature.
Heavier setup and learning curve
Mailchimp offers a lot of functionality, but that also means more setup.
Between audiences, segments, templates, campaigns, and automations, it can take time to understand how everything fits together. For businesses with dedicated marketing resources, that’s manageable. For solo creators or parents fitting this in around a busy schedule, it can feel overwhelming.
By comparison, beehiiv is easier to get up and running quickly if writing and publishing are the main focus.
Less intuitive for newsletter publishing
Mailchimp was built for email marketing campaigns, not ongoing newsletter publishing.
There’s no native concept of a public post archive, content hub, or newsletter-first site that lives alongside your emails. Most content exists only as campaigns, which means your work is less likely to live on beyond the send itself.
If your goal is to build a library of evergreen content that compounds over time, this can be a meaningful limitation.
Feature depth can be more than you need
For many creators, Mailchimp’s biggest strength is also a downside.
Advanced automation, granular reporting, and deep integrations are valuable when email is part of a complex system. If you don’t need that level of sophistication, the platform can feel heavier than necessary.
In those cases, you may spend more time managing the tool than focusing on the content and audience growth that actually move the needle.
Better suited for marketing teams than solo operators
Mailchimp shines in environments where email supports sales funnels, promotions, and customer lifecycle management. It’s widely used by established businesses for good reason.
For solo creators, side hustlers, or small businesses building a newsletter as an asset, that same structure can feel less aligned with day-to-day needs.
The takeaway
Mailchimp is a strong option for businesses that need advanced automation, integrations, and reporting as part of a broader marketing system.
If your primary goal is growing and monetizing a newsletter with minimal overhead and fewer moving parts, those same features can feel like more than you need. In that case, a newsletter-first platform like beehiiv often provides a smoother path forward.
Final recommendation: beehiiv vs Mailchimp
Choosing between beehiiv and Mailchimp comes down to how you plan to use email in your business.
If your goal is to build a newsletter as an asset (something you publish consistently, grow over time, and eventually monetize), beehiiv is the better fit for most creators, side hustlers, and small business owners.
It’s easier to get started, pricing is more predictable, and the platform is designed around growth, ownership, and long-term flexibility. You can focus on writing, audience-building, and turning your newsletter into a meaningful income stream without managing a complicated tech stack.
Mailchimp shines in a different scenario. If email is one piece of a larger marketing system (tied closely to ecommerce, advanced automation, CRM workflows, or promotional campaigns), Mailchimp’s depth and integrations can be a real advantage. It’s a strong choice for established businesses with complex needs and dedicated marketing resources.
For most parents and solo operators starting or growing a newsletter, simplicity matters. Momentum matters. And flexibility matters.
That’s where beehiiv tends to win.
If you want a platform that supports publishing now while giving you room to expand later, beehiiv is usually the more practical choice.
If you’re still unsure, the best next step is to think less about features and more about how you actually plan to use your newsletter over the next 6–12 months. The right tool should make that path easier, not heavier.
If you do decide to check out Beehiiv, use promo code KMONEY or click on one of my links to get a free 30-day trial plus 20% off for the first three months of any paid plan.
Frequently asked questions: beehiiv vs Mailchimp
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For most newsletter-first creators and small business owners, beehiiv is the better option.
It’s designed specifically for writing, publishing, growing, and monetizing a newsletter, with predictable pricing and built-in growth tools.
Mailchimp is better suited for businesses using email as part of a broader marketing system rather than as a standalone newsletter.
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Yes. beehiiv supports multiple monetization paths, including paid subscriptions, sponsorships, ads, referrals, and affiliate-driven content.
That flexibility makes it easier to experiment with different income streams as your audience grows.
Mailchimp can support monetization indirectly through promotions and ecommerce emails, but it doesn’t offer built-in newsletter monetization tools in the same way.
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Yes of course! Mailchimp is still a strong option for small businesses that rely on automation, ecommerce integrations, and customer lifecycle emails.
If your business depends on advanced workflows, transactional emails, or tight integration with tools like Shopify or a CRM, Mailchimp can be a good fit.
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beehiiv is generally easier for beginners who want to start writing and publishing quickly.
The interface is built around newsletters, with fewer setup steps and less technical overhead.
Mailchimp has more features, but that also means a steeper learning curve — especially if you don’t need advanced automation right away.
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For creators and side hustlers building an owned audience, beehiiv tends to support long-term growth more naturally.
Features like SEO-friendly posts, referrals, ads, and predictable pricing make it easier to scale without changing platforms.
Mailchimp scales well for established businesses, but long-term growth can come with higher costs and more operational complexity.
