Beacons vs Kit (formerly ConvertKit): pricing, email and selling compared

TL;DR

Beacons treats email as one part of a free creator page: a link in bio, store, media kit and Instagram auto-DMs, with Beam writing, scheduling and sending those emails on every plan. Free includes 50 sends a month, Creator ($10) 500, and Creator Plus ($30) has no monthly send limit. Kit (formerly ConvertKit) is where newsletters live: if the newsletter is the business, start there. Its Free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts; automations start at $39 a month for 1,000 subscribers, and Kit Commerce costs 3.5% + $0.30 per sale. Plenty of creators run both.

Plan snapshot

Prices in USD, checked Nov 2, 2026; Subscriber Signals rechecked Nov 6, 2026. Sources: Beacons pricing; Kit pricing; Kit Commerce overview; Kit Subscriber Signals.

Side-by-side on a $200 and $1,000 month

Kit's fee includes payment processing and Beacons' doesn't, so this table counts processing on both sides.

You keep = sales minus plan price and all per-sale fees, with monthly billing, $20 orders and Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 per order on Beacons.

On fees alone, Kit keeps more of each sale; Creator Plus only catches Kit's free plan at about $5,000 a month. The case for Beacons is everything around the sale: the page, store, media kit, auto-DMs and Beam in one account at a flat price. List size is Kit's other cost: with automations, Kit is $39 a month at 1,000 subscribers and $89 at 5,000, while Creator Plus stays $30 with no monthly send limit. Free and Creator's 50 and 500 sends won't cover a broadcast to a large list, which is the real reason to move up. At a few hundred dollars a month in sales, I'd choose on the page and email tools, not the fee.

How we compared

We used official pricing pages and help centers (Nov 2, 2026; Subscriber Signals rechecked Nov 6). We make Beacons, so where Kit fits better, we say so. Email is the part of Beacons I work on, so I'm the wrong person to be neutral about it, and I've tried to be anyway.

Email and audience

Kit's email is deeper at every level. It offers visual automations with branching, tagging, A/B subject lines and RSS campaigns, with deliverability reporting and engagement scoring on Pro.

Beacons email has block-built broadcasts, templates, smart groups such as purchasers or recent openers, and a welcome automation of up to 5 emails on every plan. Beam can write, schedule and send a broadcast or set up an automation. Creator adds sending from your own domain, and Creator Plus adds sequences of up to 20 emails. Sequences are linear, so for branching on clicks, use Kit.

Selling, courses and bookings

Kit Commerce sells digital products, paid newsletters, subscriptions and tips on any plan, and buyers land on your list, but it has no storefront, bookings or course player. Kit has two things Beacons doesn't: native paid newsletters and Paid Recommendations, where other creators pay you for subscribers you send them.

Beacons' store, paid through your own Stripe or PayPal, sells digital products and appointments on every plan, with order bumps, discount codes and limited-quantity offers; Creator Plus adds buy now, pay later, unlimited courses, memberships and payment plans (one course comes with Free and Creator).

Your page and brand deals

Kit's link in bio is the Creator Profile, a mini site built to turn visitors into subscribers. A Beacons page sends fans to a product, booking or affiliate link, with email capture as one block, and Smart Reply sends links to people who comment on your Instagram posts.

For sponsors, Kit Pro includes Subscriber Signals, which shows your list's demographics on a dashboard you can download as a PDF for a pitch. Beacons' media kit is on every plan, refreshes daily from your social accounts and collects brand inquiries through a "Work with me" form, and Beam can find brands and draft pitches that go out only after you approve them.

Would you still need a second tool?

If email is your main channel and you want branching automations, keep Kit for email and use Beacons for the page, store and media kit. If your emails are mostly launches and updates to fans from social, Beacons covers it.

Switching from Kit to Beacons

Export your subscribers and upload the CSV in Beacons' Audience Manager, which accepts Kit's format on every plan. Each contact gets a confirmation email first, so expect the list to shrink. Rebuild products in the store; paid Kit subscriptions don't transfer. Or move the page first and keep sending from Kit.

When to choose Kit vs Beacons

Choose Kit if:

• Email is your main channel and you want branching automations.
• You send only broadcasts to under 10,000 subscribers.
• You sell a paid newsletter or earn from sponsorships.

Choose Beacons if:

• You want links, store, email and media kit in one account, free to start.
• You sell products, bookings or courses and want 0% fees at $30.
• You want a flat price that doesn't climb with your list.

Our data: how Beacons orders are priced

• About a quarter of paid Beacons orders were under $10. At $10, Kit's 3.5% + $0.30 works out to 6.5% of the sale.

Source: Beacons sales data (PostHog), Sep 28 to Oct 27, 2026: all paid orders, by order value.