Beehiiv vs Mailchimp

beehiiv's Free plan (formerly Launch) includes 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends and a hosted newsletter website; automations need Lite. Mailchimp's free plan has been cut to just 250 contacts and 500 emails per month — a fraction of what it used to offer.

On paid plans, beehiiv Lite (formerly Scale) starts at $59/month ($49 billed annually) for 1,000 subscribers and is priced by active subscribers up to 100,000, with Ad Network access, the referral program, paid recommendations and a 0% platform fee on paid subscriptions. At 10,000 subscribers Lite is $139/month; Mailchimp Standard at 10,000 contacts is $135/month.

Beehiiv and Mailchimp serve fundamentally different use cases. Beehiiv is built for newsletters AS a business — with growth tools, monetization, and audience building baked in. Mailchimp is built for businesses that USE email as a marketing channel.

Beehiiv offers a newsletter website, recommendation network, referral program, ad network, and paid subscriptions. Mailchimp offers a broader template library, website builder, social media tools, and 300+ integrations. The right choice depends on whether the newsletter is your product or supports a product.

Beehiiv's editor is modern and blog-like — closer to writing in Notion or Medium than in a traditional email builder. Rich formatting, image embedding, interactive blocks (polls, CTAs), and a clean writing experience make it a joy for newsletter creators.

Mailchimp's drag-and-drop editor is polished and familiar. It's designed for marketing campaigns with templates, design blocks, and social integration. Both are beginner-friendly but optimized for different workflows.

beehiiv's automations start on Lite (up to 10 live) and Pro adds unlimited automations — welcome sequences, conditional logic, and subscriber journey mapping. It's designed for newsletter workflows: onboarding new subscribers, nurturing engaged readers, and monetization funnels.

Mailchimp's Marketing Automation Flows handle traditional marketing automation: welcome series, abandoned carts, date-based triggers. Both are adequate for their respective use cases but neither matches ActiveCampaign for automation depth.

We haven't published a like-for-like inbox-placement test of these two, so we don't rank them on deliverability. beehiiv documents SPF and DKIM setup for custom sending domains and has required DMARC on them since February 2024. Its analytics dashboard shows subscriber growth, engagement trends, revenue metrics, and referral program performance.

Mailchimp authenticates your domain with DKIM and DMARC records and requires DMARC for senders of more than 5,000 emails a day to Gmail or Yahoo. On either platform, list quality and engagement decide inbox placement more than the platform. For newsletter-specific metrics, beehiiv's reporting is more relevant and actionable.

Choose Beehiiv if the newsletter is your primary product — whether through sponsorships, paid subscriptions, or paid recommendations. Its growth tools, modern editor, and monetization features are unmatched for newsletter-first creators.

Choose Mailchimp if you're running a business that sends email campaigns (not a newsletter). If you need ecommerce integrations, a broad template library, and maximum third-party connections, Mailchimp is more versatile.

If the newsletter IS the product, choose Beehiiv. If email supports a different product, choose Mailchimp. It's that simple.

beehiiv's growth tools (paid recommendations, referral program, Ad Network) and 0% subscription revenue fees give newsletter creators an unfair advantage. Mailchimp's integration ecosystem and design tools serve traditional businesses better.