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Kit vs beehiiv vs Systeme.io: free plans, prices and limits from the official pages

Published: November 9, 2026 · Last updated: November 9, 2026 · Facts checked: November 9, 2026

This is a check of published pricing and help pages, not a hands-on review: we did not run newsletters on these platforms for this article. Every figure below comes from the vendor's own pages, listed at the end, and was checked on the date above. This article contains no affiliate links at the time of publication.

Start with the three numbers every comparison leads with. Kit's free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers. beehiiv's free plan covers up to 2,500 subscribers. Systeme.io's free plan covers up to 2,000 contacts. Read as a ranking, Kit wins by a factor of four. Read with the definitions attached, the gap narrows and changes shape — because each vendor counts a different thing, gates a different feature behind the first paid step, and takes a different cut when you sell.

First, the definitions: what is being counted

Vendor	Unit counted	Definition as published
Kit	Subscriber	Unique, active subscribers; Kit's billing help states the bill is based on confirmed subscribers, not on emails sent
beehiiv	Subscriber	Unique email addresses subscribed to your publication (pricing-page FAQ)
Systeme.io	Contact	Contacts stored in the account; plans are described as "based primarily on contact limits" (pricing-page FAQ)

The practical difference: a Kit list is counted after confirmation, so unconfirmed sign-ups do not inflate your tier. A beehiiv list counts addresses. A Systeme.io contact list is a CRM-style store, which matters if you import leads who never open an email — they still occupy the allowance. None of the three counts emails sent: all three state, in their own FAQs, that sending is unlimited on every plan, free included.

The free plans, side by side

	Kit (Free)	beehiiv (Free)	Systeme.io (Free)
Audience ceiling	10,000 subscribers	2,500 subscribers	2,000 contacts
Email sends	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Credit card to start	Not required	Not required	Not required
Expiry	No expiry stated	"Free forever"	"Never expires" (FAQ)
Automations on free	Visual automation builder is a paid-plan feature in Kit's comparison table	Automations are listed as a Lite (paid) addition	1 automation rule included
Beyond email	Unlimited landing pages and forms; newsletter site	Website, podcast, community and digital products are included on every plan	3 sales funnels, 1 blog, 1 course, 1 custom domain, 1 affiliate program
Team seats	1	1	Not stated as a headline limit

CHECKED 2026-11-09

Two conclusions survive the definitions. First, for a broadcast-only newsletter — you write, you send, no automated sequences — Kit's free plan has by far the longest runway: 10,000 confirmed subscribers before any payment is due. Second, Systeme.io's free plan is the only one of the three that is a business stack rather than an email tool: funnels, a course and a custom domain are inside the free allowance, at the cost of the smallest audience ceiling.

The first paid step buys different things

Vendor	First paid plan	Price as published	What the step actually buys
Kit	Creator	From $39/mo at the 1,000-subscriber tier (monthly billing); annual billing is 2 months free	Features, not headroom: the automation builder, sequences and integrations — the free plan already allows a larger list than this tier
beehiiv	Lite	$49/mo at 1,000 subscribers with yearly billing (yearly saves up to 20% vs monthly); priced by subscriber count, up to 100,000	Monetization: paid subscriptions with a 0% platform take, plus automations
Systeme.io	Startup	$17/mo ($170/yr billed yearly)	Headroom: contacts 2,000 → 5,000, funnels 3 → 10, courses 1 → 5, automation rules 1 → 10

The Kit row is the one most often misread. Because Kit prices by subscriber tier, the Creator plan's entry price ($39/month) is attached to the 1,000-subscriber tier even though the free plan holds 10,000. Kit's help center gives the scaling directly: its worked billing example puts the 3,000-subscriber Creator tier at $59/month. So on Kit, growing a list from 1,000 to 3,000 subscribers raises the Creator bill by $20/month — the price of the features, re-measured at each tier. beehiiv also prices by subscriber count (its pricing page is a slider; the $49 figure above is its published price at 1,000 subscribers on yearly billing). Systeme.io's steps are flat by plan: Startup's $17/month covers any list up to 5,000 contacts.

When you sell: the fee under the price

Vendor	Platform take on sales, as published
Kit	3.5% + 30¢ per transaction for digital products and subscriptions, on all plans; Kit states this includes card processing fees
beehiiv	0% of paid subscription and digital product revenue; Stripe's standard processing fee (2.9% + $0.30) still applies
Systeme.io	0% transaction fees on all plans, free included; payments run through Stripe or PayPal at no extra platform cost

On a $10/month paid newsletter, the published arithmetic is: Kit keeps $0.65 of each payment (3.5% + 30¢), beehiiv keeps $0 of platform fee and Stripe takes about $0.59, Systeme.io keeps $0 of platform fee with processor fees on top. The gap between Kit and the other two is small per subscriber and grows linearly — at 500 paying subscribers it is roughly $325/month of difference against the two zero-take platforms, before considering what each platform's paid plan itself costs.

What happens when you cross a limit

Each vendor publishes a different answer, and it is worth reading before you need it. Kit's pricing FAQ states that when you pass your tier, Kit automatically upgrades you to the next subscriber tier — sending is never interrupted, and the bill rises instead. Systeme.io's FAQ describes warnings first (a daily email for 3 days, plus a dashboard alert); on the free plan, an account still over its limits on day 4 is restricted — forms and payments stop, new contacts cannot be added, sends pause — with nothing deleted, and the restriction lifts when you return within limits or upgrade. beehiiv's pricing page does not describe an automatic consequence; its FAQ says you can upgrade at any time, and custom limits are an Enterprise conversation.

Which one, by situation

You send a free newsletter and want the longest time at $0Kit's free plan, on the published numbers: 10,000 confirmed subscribers, unlimited sends and forms. Accept that automated welcome sequences wait until you pay for Creator — at which point the bill is set by your tier ($39/mo at 1,000, $59/mo at 3,000 per Kit's help examples).

You plan to charge for the newsletter earlybeehiiv's structure is built for it: paid subscriptions arrive at the Lite tier with a 0% platform take. The free plan's 2,500-subscriber ceiling is the constraint to plan around, and Lite's price rises with your subscriber count.

You need funnels, a course or a small product stack, not just emailSysteme.io is the only one of the three whose free plan includes them. The trade is the 2,000-contact ceiling and a single automation rule; Startup at $17/month is the cheapest first paid step in this comparison, and it buys capacity rather than a new feature class.

None of the three fits if…your list is mostly unconfirmed or imported cold contacts: Kit counts confirmed subscribers, beehiiv counts addresses, Systeme.io counts stored contacts, so the same list prices out three different ways. Run your actual list against each definition before choosing — the counting rule, not the ceiling, decides.

Sources (official pages, checked November 9, 2026)

Kit pricing — plans, free-plan ceiling, sending limits, transaction fees, over-limit behavior: kit.com/pricing
Kit help center — Creator/Pro starting prices at 1,000 subscribers, annual billing: help.kit.com — Creator vs Pro
Kit help center — what the free plan includes (10,000 subscribers, unlimited broadcasts): help.kit.com — The Kit Free plan
beehiiv pricing — plan prices at 1,000 subscribers (yearly billing), subscriber ceilings, 0% take, sending limits: beehiiv.com/pricing
Systeme.io pricing — plan prices, free-plan limits, over-limit sequence, cancellation behavior (pricing-page FAQ): systeme.io/pricing