One-time $250 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 for $250 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 $250 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
Updates Every 2.x release included. You choose when to install. Automatic, on their schedule
Public changelog Yes, 125 releases since Nov 2025 No versioned changelog
Support Email and Discord, included Varies by plan

Broadcast ships every week

Releases since November 2025

125

releases, 63 with new features. The last one was yesterday.

Shipped in the last 90 days

  • v2.42.0 Broadcasts, sequences and Autopilot can exclude segments, so nobody in an excluded segment gets the email, even when they are in the audience.
  • v2.42.0 A segment that a broadcast, sequence or autopilot excludes cannot be deleted, and the message names what uses it.
  • v2.42.0 The API can create a subscriber who has already unsubscribed in one request, so a migration keeps its opt-outs with no gap.
  • v2.42.0 The API accepts excluded_segment_ids on broadcasts, sequences and autopilots.
  • v2.41.2 The “Send Broadcast?” dialog now says how many subscribers the broadcast goes to.

See the full release chart → | Read the changelog

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 ($250), 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’s free Launch plan has no automations; they start on the paid Scale plan, from $43 a month, and the price rises with your list. With Broadcast, sequences, triggers and conditional branching are included in the $250 license.

Segmentation

Broadcast’s segment builder combines tags, custom fields and subscriber activity with and/or rules, segments update themselves as subscribers change, and joining a segment can start a sequence.

Deliverability

Beehiiv sends everyone’s newsletters through its own infrastructure. With Broadcast you choose the sending service, such as Amazon SES or Postmark, on shared or dedicated IPs, and your domain’s reputation goes with you if you switch.

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.

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. See our step-by-step guide to migrating from Beehiiv.
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 $250, 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 send through the provider you choose, on shared or dedicated IPs, with your own domain, so your sender reputation is 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.

Ready to own your email marketing?

Stop paying monthly fees. Buy once, own forever.

Every 2.x update is included. Version 2.0 shipped on March 16, 2026. A license bought that day has received all 83 releases of version 2 at no extra cost.

Calculate Your Savings Buy Broadcast for $250

Related Comparisons

Beehiiv Pricing Breakdown
Hidden costs and tier limitations
Beehiiv Alternatives
7 best alternatives compared
Deliverability Guide
SPF, DKIM, DMARC, warm-up and inbox placement

Still deciding?

Comparisons cover the tradeoffs. How To covers whether Broadcast does the specific thing you need, organized by what you are trying to accomplish rather than by feature name. If the answer is no, it says no.

Browse How To Segment subscribers Branch a sequence Bring an existing list