One-time $150 vs $43–109+/month

Broadcast vs Beehiiv

Both are powerful email marketing tools—but they take fundamentally different approaches. Beehiiv is a VC-backed SaaS platform with monthly fees that scale with your list. Broadcast is self-hosted software you buy once and own forever.

Buy Broadcast — $150 Calculate Savings

At a Glance

Pricing Model

Beehiiv: Monthly subscription

Broadcast: One-time purchase

Subscriber Limits

Beehiiv: Tiered by plan

Broadcast: Unlimited

Data Ownership

Beehiiv: On their servers

Broadcast: Your server

IP Reputation

Beehiiv: Shared infrastructure

Broadcast: Your dedicated IP

Feature Comparison

How Broadcast and Beehiiv stack up on the features that matter

Feature	Broadcast	Beehiiv
Pricing	$150 one-time	$0–109+/mo
Subscribers	Unlimited	Tiered limits
Email Sends	Unlimited	Plan-dependent
Automations	Included	Scale plan ($49+/mo)
Tags & Segmentation	Full	Limited
Custom Fields	Unlimited	Limited
Remove Branding	Always	Scale plan ($49+/mo)
Dedicated IP	Your server	Shared
Data Ownership	100% yours	On Beehiiv servers
API Access	Full REST API	Available
ESP Choice	SES, Postmark, any SMTP	Beehiiv only
Newsletter Archive	Yes	Yes
Ad Network	No	Yes
Referral Program	Manual	Built-in

Real Cost Comparison

Beehiiv charges monthly based on your subscriber count. Broadcast is a one-time purchase plus low hosting and sending costs.

Subscribers	Beehiiv (Year 1)	Beehiiv (Year 2)	Beehiiv (Year 3)	Broadcast (Year 1)	Broadcast (Year 3)
1,000	$0 (free tier)	$0	$0	$222	$366
10,000	$516	$1,032	$1,548	$294	$582
50,000	$1,308	$2,616	$3,924	$510	$1,230
100,000	$1,308+	$2,616+	$3,924+	$870	$2,310

Broadcast costs include: one-time license ($150), hosting (~$6-20/mo), and email sending via Amazon SES (~$0.10/1,000 emails). Beehiiv prices from their published pricing page for the Scale plan (required for automations and branding removal).

Calculate Your Exact Savings →

Where They Differ Most

Automations

Beehiiv locks automations behind their $49/month Scale plan. With Broadcast, drip campaigns, triggers, and conditional logic are included in every license.

Learn more about automations →

Segmentation

Beehiiv primarily distinguishes between free and paid subscribers. Broadcast offers tags, lists, custom fields, and advanced segment building for precision targeting.

Compare segmentation →

Deliverability

On Beehiiv, you share IP reputation with thousands of other senders. With Broadcast, you control your own dedicated IP and domain reputation.

Deliverability deep-dive →

Data Ownership & Privacy

With Beehiiv, your subscriber data lives on their servers. With Broadcast, everything is on your own server—your database, your backups, your rules.

Why self-hosting matters →

Who Should Choose What

An honest take on when each tool makes sense

Choose Broadcast if you…

Want to own your data and infrastructure
Are tired of escalating monthly SaaS bills
Need full automation and segmentation without paying extra
Want dedicated IP reputation for better deliverability
Care about GDPR compliance and data sovereignty
Want the flexibility to choose your ESP (SES, Postmark, etc.)

Beehiiv might be better if you…

Want a built-in ad network to monetize your newsletter
Need a built-in referral/recommendation system
Prefer fully managed hosting with zero server management
Have fewer than 2,500 subscribers and want a free plan
Want paid newsletter subscriptions built in

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Broadcast supports CSV import, so you can export your subscriber list from Beehiiv and import it directly. Your subscriber data, tags, and custom fields can all be migrated.

Broadcast includes an automated installer that handles setup on Ubuntu servers. The initial setup takes about 15 minutes. After that, managing Broadcast is no harder than using any web-based email platform.

It means you run Broadcast on your own server (a simple VPS from Hetzner, DigitalOcean, etc.). You have full control over the software, your data, and your sending infrastructure. No vendor can change pricing, limit features, or shut down your account.

You choose your own email service provider. Amazon SES costs about $0.10 per 1,000 emails. Postmark, SendGrid, and Mailgun are also supported. This gives you dramatically lower per-email costs compared to any SaaS platform.

Broadcast is a one-time purchase starting at $150, not a subscription. While there’s no free tier, you never pay again for the software. Beehiiv’s free plan limits you to 2,500 subscribers with their branding, and once you outgrow it, monthly costs add up quickly.

With Broadcast, you use your own dedicated IP and domain, so your sender reputation is entirely in your hands. On Beehiiv, you share infrastructure with other senders—if someone else sends spam, it can affect your deliverability. See our deliverability comparison for details.