Moving from Substack to beehiiv

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Why writers switch: a percentage fee vs. flat pricing

Substack is free to publish, but keeps 10% of each paid subscription payment, plus Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 for US cards and 0.7% Stripe Billing on recurring payments. A custom domain is a one-time $50 (source: https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037607131-How-much-does-Substack-cost, verified 2026-10-14). beehiiv takes 0% of paid subscription revenue (you still pay Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30). The Free plan covers up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends (source: https://www.beehiiv.com/pricing, verified 2026-10-14). The 0% take rate is a Lite/Pro feature; paid subscriptions aren't on Free (same source).

Cost calculator

Subscribers (beehiiv bucket)	beehiiv Lite monthly / annual ≈ per mo	beehiiv Pro monthly / annual ≈ per mo
Up to 1,000	$59 / $49	$109 / $95
Up to 5,000	$109 / $95	$199 / $169
Up to 10,000	$139 / $119	$239 / $199
Up to 25,000	$199 / $169	$349 / $299
(source: https://www.beehiiv.com/pricing, verified 2026-10-14)

Break-even rule of thumb: Substack's 10% cut costs more than a beehiiv plan once your monthly paid revenue is above 10× the plan price. For example, at $1,190/mo in paid revenue, Substack's fee ($119) matches Lite annual at 10k subscribers. If you have no paid subscribers, Substack costs $0 and beehiiv Free costs $0, so the decision is about features, not money.

Try beehiiv free

Pros and cons

beehiiv pros: 0% take rate on paid plans; ad network and paid recommendations (Lite and up, not in trial, not in every region); automations; custom domains on paid plans; up to 10 publications on Pro (source: beehiiv pricing, verified 2026-10-14). beehiiv cons: a monthly bill even before you earn anything; branding removal requires Pro; you lose Substack's built-in network and app discovery. That network is real and is the biggest reason to stay. Ghost (an honest alternative): open-source and self-hostable. Ghost(Pro) managed hosting charges 0% transaction fees on paid plans (Publisher $29/mo and Business $199/mo billed yearly, each at 1,000 members; the $18/mo yearly entry plan doesn't include paid subscriptions) (source: https://ghost.org/pricing/, verified 2026-10-14).

What transfers

Item	Transfers?
Free subscribers	Yes (included in Substack's export)
Paid subscribers	Yes: Settings → Subscribers Import → "Import paid subscriptions from Stripe" (source: https://www.beehiiv.com/support/article/14966988360215-how-to-migrate-from-substack-to-beehiiv, verified 2026-10-14)
Post archive	Yes, via beehiiv's Content Import tool. Free posts come from your publication URL; paid posts need the Substack export zip. Video and podcast posts, photo galleries and category structures don't migrate, and code blocks arrive as plain text (source: https://www.beehiiv.com/support/article/14966988360215-how-to-migrate-from-substack-to-beehiiv, verified 2026-10-14)
Comments	No. beehiiv doesn't migrate comments. Re-create recommendations manually (source: https://www.beehiiv.com/support/article/14966988360215-how-to-migrate-from-substack-to-beehiiv, verified 2026-10-14)

Step 1: Export from Substack

In your publication's Settings → Exports → Create new export. Substack generates a zip of your posts, subscriber list, and related stats, and emails you when it's ready (source: https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037466012-How-do-I-export-my-data-from-Substack, verified 2026-10-14).

Step 2: Import into beehiiv

Create your beehiiv publication and import subscribers. Then go to Settings → Content Import → Start Import → Substack, choose free (and paywalled) content, paste your Substack URL and, for paywalled posts, upload the Substack export zip. The import takes about 5–10 minutes; check the Historical Imports table (source: https://www.beehiiv.com/support/article/14966988360215-how-to-migrate-from-substack-to-beehiiv, verified 2026-10-14).

Step 3: Move paid subscribers through Stripe

beehiiv doesn't reuse your Substack Stripe account. You create a new Stripe account through beehiiv, copy customers (with card details) from the Substack-connected account using Stripe's "Copy all customers", and beehiiv recreates the subscriptions with a restricted API key. Subscribers keep their price and don't re-enter cards. Pause or cancel Substack billing afterwards to avoid double charges (source: https://www.beehiiv.com/support/article/14966988360215-how-to-migrate-from-substack-to-beehiiv, verified 2026-10-14).

Step 4: Domain and redirects

If you use a custom domain, repoint DNS to beehiiv. Lite and up includes custom domains, and site redirects are 10 on Lite and unlimited on Pro (beehiiv pricing, verified 2026-10-14).

Deliverability warm-up

Send to your most engaged segment first, set up SPF/DKIM/DMARC on your sending domain, and announce the move in your last Substack post.

FAQ

Will my readers notice? They'll see a new sender and design. Tell them in advance. Can I go back? Yes. beehiiv includes data exports on every plan (beehiiv pricing, verified 2026-10-14).