Campaign Monitor vs beehiiv: email marketing platform or newsletter platform?
Email marketing and CRM platforms · Verified · By Joonas Rotko
Campaign Monitor
Desk research
From Lite, billed annually
$11.70/mo
$13/mo billed monthly
beehiiv
Desk research
From Scale, billed annually
$43.08/mo
$49/mo billed monthly
vs
Quick answer
For a list that already costs money to send to, Campaign Monitor is the cheaper of the two. At 5,000 contacts on monthly billing, Lite costs $75/month billed monthly, and beehiiv Scale costs $89/month billed monthly. For three people on a 1,000-contact list, Lite costs $47/month billed monthly, and Scale costs $49/month billed monthly. Campaign Monitor includes unlimited users on every plan. beehiiv wins the small list: Launch is free up to 2,500 subscribers, where Campaign Monitor only offers a 30-day trial. It also wins if you want to charge readers, because beehiiv takes 0% on paid subscriptions and Campaign Monitor has no paid-subscription feature. All prices are monthly billing unless I say annual. Prices verified 1 Oct 2026.
Across the three setups below: Campaign Monitor in 2 of 3 scenarios.
Which one fits you?
Solo marketer or small business, a list just past the free tier
beehiiv
My pick
$0/mobilled annually
A 500-contact list costs $0/month billed monthly on beehiiv Launch, which is free up to 2,500 subscribers. Campaign Monitor has no permanent free plan, so the same list needs Lite at $13/month billed monthly, or $11.70/month billed annually.
Why this pick, and when to skip it
Skip it if you want automations on the plan you start on. beehiiv Launch has automations switched off, while Campaign Monitor includes drip automations from Lite up. Campaign Monitor's 30-day trial lets you test them first, capped at 500 contacts.
At 5,000 contacts, Campaign Monitor Lite costs $75/month billed monthly and beehiiv Scale costs $89/month billed monthly. On annual billing Lite is $67.50/month billed annually and Scale is $78.33/month billed annually. beehiiv Launch no longer applies, because its free plan stops at 2,500 subscribers.
Why this pick, and when to skip it
Skip it if you want paid subscriptions or a custom domain for a publication. Those are beehiiv Scale features, and the price gap is what you pay for them.
Three people on a 1,000-contact list fit Campaign Monitor Lite, which allows unlimited users, at $47/month billed monthly, or $42.30/month billed annually. beehiiv needs Scale for 3 seats, at $49/month billed monthly, or $43.08/month billed annually.
Why this pick, and when to skip it
The price gap at this size is small on both billing bases. I'd pick Campaign Monitor for a team emailing customers, because unlimited users are included on every plan, and beehiiv for a team running a paid newsletter.
Skip it if the team runs one publication and needs its monetization tools. The gap on this list is small, and Scale's seats come with paid subscriptions and a 0% platform fee.
How are Campaign Monitor and beehiiv really different?
What each tool is built for
Campaign Monitor
A traditional email marketing platform: drag-and-drop builder, drip campaigns, pre-built journeys and unlimited team members. No paid-subscription feature.
beehiiv
A newsletter platform: paid subscriptions from Scale at a 0% platform fee, custom domains, up to 3 publications on Launch and API access.
If you email customers and leads, Campaign Monitor fits the job. If readers are the product, beehiiv is built around that.
Free plan
Campaign Monitor
No permanent free plan. A 30-day trial capped at 500 contacts, with a cap on emails too.
beehiiv
Launch is free up to 2,500 subscribers with 1 seat. No automations and no paid subscriptions.
A list under 2,500 subscribers costs nothing on beehiiv. On Campaign Monitor it is a paid plan once the trial ends.
Price as the list grows
Campaign Monitor
Lite starts at $13/month billed monthly at 500 contacts. Self-serve prices run up to 50,000 contacts, then switch to Contact Sales.
beehiiv
Scale starts at $49/month billed monthly at 1,000 subscribers. Self-serve prices run up to 100,000 subscribers, then switch to Contact Sales.
Campaign Monitor Lite is cheaper at 1,000 and 5,000 contacts. At 5,000 contacts Lite is $75/month billed monthly and Scale is $89/month billed monthly. beehiiv's ladder is the one that reaches a bigger list.
Team seats
Campaign Monitor
unlimited users on every plan, including Lite.
beehiiv
1 on Launch, 3 on Scale, unlimited on Max.
Campaign Monitor never charges you more for a bigger team. On beehiiv a team of four needs Max, at a much higher price than Scale.
Automations and paid subscriptions
Campaign Monitor
Automations from Lite up. Not available: paid subscriptions.
beehiiv
Automations from Scale up, not on Launch. Paid subscriptions from Scale up.
Both gate automations behind a paid plan. The difference is that only beehiiv lets you sell a subscription to your readers.
What will Campaign Monitor or beehiiv cost for your setup?
The cheapest plan that covers each setup, add-ons included. Prices exclude VAT.
Solo marketer or small business, a list just past the free tier
500 subscribers · mailed 3 times a month (for tools priced by emails sent) · 1 user
For each tool I price every current plan plus the add-ons a setup needs, from the vendor's published prices only, and take the cheapest. Monthly and annual billing are priced separately. When a limit or price isn't published, the tool shows as not fitting instead of a guess.
Solo marketer or small business, a list just past the free tier: A list of about 500 contacts, just past the free tiers most vendors offer. One login. Tools priced by emails sent are costed at three mailings per subscriber a month.
Growing list, sending regularly: A list of 5,000 contacts, sending regularly. One login. Tools priced by emails sent are costed at three mailings per subscriber a month.
Small team managing one list together: Three people logging in to the same 1,000-contact list. Seats, not list size, are the deciding limit. Tools priced by emails sent are costed at three mailings per subscriber a month.
Campaign Monitor vs beehiiv side by side
I compare email/CRM platforms on: Real cost per list size, both billing bases; Free-tier contact ceiling before you must pay anything; Team seats included, and the seat price past that; List segmentation depth; Automation workflow depth and any step/action limits; Deliverability and sending limits (emails per month, per day, or per rolling window); CRM and ecommerce integration depth; What happens past your plan's contact ceiling (overage pricing vs a forced upgrade).
Campaign Monitor and beehiiv compared on the main buying criteria
Criterion
Campaign Monitor
beehiiv
Real cost per list size, both billing bases
Lite at 500 contacts: $13/month billed monthly, or $11.70/month billed annually. At 5,000: $75/month billed monthly, or $67.50/month billed annually.
Free to 2,500 subscribers. Scale at 1,000: $49/month billed monthly, or $43.08/month billed annually. At 5,000: $89/month billed monthly, or $78.33/month billed annually.
Free-tier contact ceiling before you must pay anything
None. A 30-day trial capped at 500 contacts
2,500 subscribers
Team seats included, and the seat price past that
unlimited on every plan, so no seat price
1 on Launch, 3 on Scale, unlimited on Max; no extra-seat price published
List segmentation depth
Not published
Not published
Automation workflow depth and any step/action limits
Drip campaigns and pre-built journeys from Lite. Unlimited automated emails on Essentials and Premier
Automations on Scale and Max; none on Launch. No step limits published
All details, including automation and AI workflows
All compared details for Campaign Monitor and beehiiv
Criterion
Campaign Monitor
beehiiv
Deliverability and sending limits (emails per month, per day, or per rolling window)
Not published
Not published
CRM and ecommerce integration depth
Email only. No paid subscriptions on the platform
Paid subscriptions from Scale at a 0% platform fee. API access on every plan, and a Send API on Max
What happens past your plan's contact ceiling (overage pricing vs a forced upgrade)
Subscriber-count tiered. Self-serve prices are published for 0 - 500, 501 - 2,500, 2,501 - 5,000, 5,001 - 10,000, 10,001 - 15,000, 15,001 - 25,000 and 25,001 - 50,000 contacts on both Monthly and Annual billing. At 50,001+ contacts the page switches the plan button to Contact Sales and shows no new price.
Subscriber-count tiered. Published prices at 1,000, 2,500, 5,000, 10K, 25K, 50K, 75K and 100K subscribers on both Scale and Max, monthly and annual billing; at "100K+" the cards switch to Contact Sales. Annual price is billed as a yearly total and shown per month rounded.
Full price ladder
At 500 contacts: Lite $13/month billed monthly, or $11.70/month billed annually. Essentials $31/month billed monthly, or $27.90/month billed annually. Premier $171/month billed monthly, or $153.90/month billed annually. Enterprise is custom priced.
Launch: free. At 1,000 subscribers: Scale $49/month billed monthly, or $43.08/month billed annually. Max $109/month billed monthly, or $95.92/month billed annually. Enterprise is custom priced.
Annual totals
For the 1,000-contact team list, Lite on annual billing totals $507.60/year.
For the 1,000-subscriber team list, Scale on annual billing totals $517/year. Max totals $1,151/year at 1,000 subscribers.
How pricing scales
Subscriber-count tiered. Self-serve prices are published for 0 - 500, 501 - 2,500, 2,501 - 5,000, 5,001 - 10,000, 10,001 - 15,000, 15,001 - 25,000 and 25,001 - 50,000 contacts on both Monthly and Annual billing. At 50,001+ contacts the page switches the plan button to Contact Sales and shows no new price.
Subscriber-count tiered. Published prices at 1,000, 2,500, 5,000, 10K, 25K, 50K, 75K and 100K subscribers on both Scale and Max, monthly and annual billing; at "100K+" the cards switch to Contact Sales. Annual price is billed as a yearly total and shown per month rounded.
Plan ceilings
Lite, Essentials and Premier publish prices up to 50,000 contacts
Scale and Max publish prices up to 100,000 subscribers
Trial and card requirement
30 days, capped at 500 contacts. The signup form asks for no card
No trial needed for Launch, which is free. Trial terms for the paid plans are not published on the pricing page
Publications per account
Not applicable
3 on Launch and Scale, 10 on Max
Who should pick Campaign Monitor, and who should pick beehiiv?
Campaign Monitor
Desk research
Best for growing lists sending regularly
Best for small teams sharing one account
Campaign Monitor is a contact-tiered email platform with no permanent free plan: you get a 30-day trial capped at 500 contacts, then paid plans from $13/month billed monthly for the same 500 contacts. Its strongest move is unlimited team members on every plan, with drip automations from Lite upward. Prices climb steeply with list size, and Premier gets expensive fast past 10,000 contacts.
Best for: Small teams and agencies who want unlimited seats and automations from the first paid plan, and a simple drag-and-drop email builder.
Strengths
A 30-day trial capped at 500 contacts lets you test the builder before paying. It is a trial only, not a free tier.
Unlimited team members on every plan, even Lite ($13/month billed monthly). Most competitors hide this behind a top plan.
Automations (drip campaigns, pre-built journeys) are included from Lite upward.
Limits
There is no permanent free plan. The free offer is a time-limited trial, so a list you want to keep sending to needs a paid plan from day one.
Pricing is contact-tiered and the steps are steep, especially on Premier. The entry rate of $13/month billed monthly on Lite covers only the first 500 contacts. Self-serve prices stop at 50,000 contacts; past that the plans switch to Contact Sales with no published price.
No paid subscriptions on the platform itself (unlike beehiiv or Ghost). Campaign Monitor is email-only; it doesn't process reader payments.
Skip it if you need a permanent free plan, or you need a deep multi-branch visual automation builder; Campaign Monitor's strength is drip sequences and pre-built journeys, not complex branching.
beehiiv starts free up to 2,500 subscribers, then moves to paid plans with real automations, paid subscriptions and a 0% platform cut on any subscription revenue you charge. It suits a creator who wants automations and paid subscriptions without running their own site, once the free tier's cap is outgrown.
Best for: Creators who want growth and monetization tooling beyond a plain newsletter, and don't mind a paid plan once they outgrow the free tier.
Strengths
A real free plan up to 2,500 subscribers.
0% platform fee on paid subscriptions.
Automations and paid subscriptions from Scale ($49/month billed monthly).
Limits
Launch caps out at 2,500 subscribers and 1 team seat.
Paid subscriptions and automations need Scale or above; nothing beyond the free tier is free.
Pricing scales with list size past the entry tier: what a growing list costs at 20,000+ subscribers isn't a flat rate.
Skip it if you're comfortable on Substack's simpler free-forever model and don't need automations.
Neither vendor publishes a migration service or import guarantee, so plan on exporting your contacts and rebuilding automations by hand in either direction. beehiiv's free Launch plan lets you rehearse a move at no cost. Campaign Monitor's 30-day trial is capped at 500 contacts, so test with a small segment first.
What would change my pick?
Campaign Monitor adding a permanent free plan would remove beehiiv's biggest advantage on small lists.
beehiiv including three seats on Launch or adding automations there would make it the stronger choice for small teams.
Campaign Monitor adding paid subscriptions would close the one big feature gap for newsletter publishers.
A price change on either side. The scenario picks recalculate from the published numbers.
Campaign Monitor vs beehiiv: questions people ask
Is Campaign Monitor cheaper than beehiiv?
Past the free tier, yes. At 5,000 contacts Campaign Monitor Lite is $75/month billed monthly and beehiiv Scale is $89/month billed monthly. For a 500-contact list beehiiv is cheaper, because Launch costs $0/month billed monthly and Lite costs $13/month billed monthly.
Does Campaign Monitor have a free plan?
No. It has a 30-day trial capped at 500 contacts. beehiiv's Launch plan is free up to 2,500 subscribers.
Which is cheaper for a team of three?
Campaign Monitor, by a small margin. Lite allows unlimited users and costs $47/month billed monthly for 1,000 contacts. beehiiv Scale includes 3 seats at $49/month billed monthly.
Can I charge for subscriptions on each?
Only on beehiiv. Paid subscriptions start on Scale, with a 0% platform fee and the payment processor's own fees on top. Campaign Monitor has no paid-subscription feature.
What does annual billing cost on each?
Campaign Monitor Lite at 500 contacts is $11.70/month billed annually against $13/month billed monthly. beehiiv Scale at 1,000 subscribers is $43.08/month billed annually against $49/month billed monthly, which totals $517/year.
Which should I pick for a small list?
beehiiv. A 500-contact list is $0/month billed monthly on Launch, against $13/month billed monthly on Campaign Monitor Lite. Pick Campaign Monitor if you need automations from day one.
How I verified this
Every price and limit here comes from the vendors' own pages, last checked . Campaign Monitor: desk research. beehiiv: desk research.
Sources and changelog
32 facts from 5 source pages, oldest checked 1 Oct 2026.
: Rebuilt around list size and team seats. beehiiv is the pick for the 500-contact list because Launch is free. Campaign Monitor is the pick for the 5,000-contact list and the three-person team because Lite costs less than beehiiv Scale and includes unlimited users.
Spot something out of date?Vendors and readers, send me the correct fact.⌄
Software sites change almost every week, and I want every claim on this page to be factually correct. If you are a vendor or a reader, send me the correct fact and a link to the official page. I will check it and update the page. The opinions and rankings stay mine.
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