Beehiiv and ConvertKit look similar on a feature page, but they reward different businesses. Beehiiv is built around the newsletter as the product itself, with a public web archive, built-in growth tools, and no revenue share on paid subscriptions. ConvertKit, now called Kit, is stronger for creators whose main income is digital products and courses, with deeper automation for selling. If your newsletter is the business, the move makes sense, and the numbers often support it. When you migrate ConvertKit to Beehiiv newsletter creators gain a publication home for every issue and a growth engine designed for referrals.
This guide compares the two honestly, maps subscribers and tags, and faces the hardest part first, which is what happens to paid subscribers.
ConvertKit sequences versus beehiiv automations
Choosing between staying and moving is a decision about the next two years, not about this week’s annoyance. Write down the three frustrations that pushed you to consider the move and check whether the new platform genuinely solves all three or merely replaces them with different ones. Read recent reviews from teams of a similar size, because a tool that shines for a solo user can strain under a team, and the reverse is also true. If only one of the three frustrations is solved, the move may still be worth it, but say so plainly and price the remaining two into the decision. A move made with open eyes lasts.
A move made on a single impressive demo usually ends with a second move a year later.
Beehiiv publication pages versus ConvertKit landing pages
Price is usually the trigger, but it is rarely the whole reason to move. When you compare the two bills side by side, look past the headline monthly figure and count what each plan actually includes for the people who will use it every day. A cheaper plan that forces you to buy a second tool for something the old plan included is not cheaper at all. migrate ConvertKit to Beehiiv newsletter creators deserves a simple spreadsheet before anyone cancels anything. List every seat, every add-on, and every integration you pay for today, then price the same setup on the new platform.
Add the cost of running both platforms side by side for one or two months, because that overlap is the honest price of a careful move. Most small teams find the saving is real but smaller than the marketing pages suggest, and the real win is a better fit for how the team works now rather than a dramatic cut to the bill.
The paid subscriber problem you must solve first
Kit Stripe Express paid subscriptions
Every migration leaves something behind, and naming those gaps early prevents disappointment later. Some features have no direct equivalent, some history is stored in a format the new tool cannot read, and some automations have to be rebuilt by hand. Make a short list of the three things your team would miss most if they vanished, and test each one during the pilot. If a gap turns out to be a deal breaker, you want to learn that while the old platform is still running, not after it is cancelled. For gaps you can live with, write a one-paragraph workaround and put it where people will find it.
Teams accept a missing feature far more easily when someone has already explained the replacement than when they discover the loss on their own during a busy day.
Beehiiv Stripe paid subscriptions
Paid subscriptions managed through Kit and Stripe Express cannot be moved directly to beehiiv, because Kit does not expose the payment details needed for the transfer. migrate ConvertKit to Beehiiv newsletter creators therefore starts with a revenue decision, not a CSV export, and every creator with paying readers should read this section twice before touching anything else.
Mapping is the unglamorous work that decides whether the new workspace feels familiar or foreign. Before importing, write down what each old container becomes in the new world and keep that sheet open during the whole import. Names matter more than people expect. A folder or list called Clients in the old tool should still be called Clients in the new one, or people will spend weeks hunting for things they used to find by habit. Do the same for labels, tags, and groups. Where the new tool has no exact match for an old concept, decide the closest fit in advance and note it on the mapping sheet so nobody invents a different answer mid-import.
After the import, spot check ten items from different parts of the archive and confirm each one landed where the sheet said it would.
A pilot batch is the cheapest insurance a migration can buy. Pick a small group that covers the messy cases, not just the easy ones. Include someone with a large archive, someone who shares heavily with outsiders, and someone who uses the product on a phone as much as on a computer. Move their data first, then give them a few normal working days on the new platform before you judge the result. Ask them to find five specific items without help, to share one item with a colleague, and to complete one everyday task end to end. Their answers tell you more than any feature table.
If the pilot group struggles, fix the instructions and the mapping, not the people. Only when the pilot group works comfortably should the rest of the team follow.
Use this mapping to decide what survives, what is rebuilt, and what is deliberately left behind. migrate ConvertKit to Beehiiv newsletter creators goes cleanest when the mapping sheet is finished before the first export, because tag decisions made mid-import are rarely revisited.
Exporting from ConvertKit and importing to beehiiv
ConvertKit subscriber CSV export
Exports are where migrations quietly succeed or fail, so treat the export as a deliverable in its own right. Run the export from the desktop app or the admin console rather than a phone, because desktop exports expose the full options for format, attachments, and folder structure. Keep the original export files untouched in a clearly named folder, and work only on copies. That way a bad import can be repeated without going back to the source and re-exporting everything. Check the size of each export before you import it. A file that is far smaller than expected usually means attachments or a whole section were left out.
A file far larger than expected may contain duplicates from an earlier partial export. Either way, stop and look before you import, because importing twice creates the duplicate mess that takes longest to clean up.
Beehiiv subscriber import and custom fields
The small details are where a migration earns its reputation inside a team. ConvertKit visual automations rebuilt in beehiiv deserves a dedicated test during the pilot, because it is used daily and any breakage shows up immediately. Run through it with the person who uses it most and watch where they pause. A pause usually means a label changed, a default changed, or a step moved, and each of those is fixable in minutes once spotted. Write the fix into the team guide the same day. Small details also include the things nobody owns, like shared templates, saved searches, and default views. Assign an owner to each one before the move.
An unowned detail is a detail that will be discovered broken at the worst possible moment.
Rebuilding sequences, forms, and the publication site
ConvertKit forms rebuilt as beehiiv subscribe forms
A second detail worth the same attention is Beehiiv custom domain and publication settings, which tends to be set up once and then forgotten. Because it is forgotten, it is also the thing most likely to be configured differently on the new platform without anyone noticing. Compare the old and new settings side by side during the pilot and screenshot both so the comparison can be repeated after the full import. If the new platform offers a stronger or simpler version of the same setting, adopt it deliberately and tell the team what changed. Quiet improvements are fine, but quiet changes that nobody was told about feel like bugs.
A short message explaining the change turns a potential complaint into a small welcome improvement.
Training for a migration works best in short, task-shaped pieces rather than one long session. Nobody remembers a forty minute tour of every menu. People remember being shown how to do the three things they do every morning. Record a short screen video for each of those tasks, keep each one under three minutes, and link them from the top of the new workspace. Then hold one live session where people bring their own questions and their own messy examples. Answer with their data on screen, not with a demo account. After the session, keep a single page of answers to the questions that came up twice.
That page becomes the real manual, because it was written from the questions people actually asked.
Paid-subscriber re-subscribe checklist
Testing after a move should follow real tasks, not a generic checklist copied from a help page. Pick the five things your team does most often and run each one on the new platform with real data. Send a message, share a file, find an old item by searching, open the workspace on a phone, and undo a mistake. Time each task loosely and note where anyone hesitates. Hesitation is useful information. It points to the exact spot where a short guide, a renamed folder, or a different default setting would help. Repeat the same five tasks a week later. If the second run is faster and nobody asks for help, the move has landed.
If the same task still stalls, that task owns your next fix, not some other feature nobody uses.
This checklist is the heart of the move for any creator with paying readers. Follow it in order, write the re-subscribe message with care, and give readers a genuine reason to follow you across. migrate ConvertKit to Beehiiv newsletter creators succeeds or fails on this list, because a lost paying reader costs far more than a lost free subscriber.
- [ ] List every paid subscriber with their plan, price, and renewal date before announcing anything.
- [ ] Decide between re-subscribe and complimentary access for each tier, and write the reasoning down.
- [ ] Draft the re-subscribe message from the name readers already know, with one clear link and one clear deadline.
- [ ] Offer a discount or extended period for readers who re-subscribe promptly, and honour it without fuss.
- [ ] Grant complimentary access on beehiiv for the remainder of each reader’s current billing period where you choose that route.
- [ ] Set a follow-up reminder for readers who have not re-subscribed a week after the first message.
- [ ] Send a second, shorter reminder that states plainly what happens if they take no action.
- [ ] Track re-subscribe rates daily during launch week and compare them against your forecast attrition.
- [ ] Keep ConvertKit billing live until every paying reader has either re-subscribed or been granted complimentary access.
- [ ] Confirm free subscribers received the move announcement and that the new subscribe form works on the website.
Growth tools, pricing, and the overlap month
Beehiiv Boosts and recommendations
Billing overlap is the part of a migration budget that people forget until the invoice arrives. Plan to pay for both platforms for at least one full billing cycle, and two if the team is large or the data is messy. Downgrade the old plan before cancelling it outright if the vendor allows it, since a cheaper read-only tier keeps the safety net while cutting the cost. Watch renewal dates on both sides. A move that finishes three days after an annual renewal has effectively paid for a year of a platform nobody uses.
Set a calendar reminder for the cancellation date on the day the move starts, not the day you hope it ends, so the reminder survives even if the project slips by a week or two.
Vendor support is worth testing before you need it, not after something breaks. During the pilot, send the new vendor one real question and note how long a useful answer takes. Check whether help is available on the channels your team actually uses, and whether the help pages cover migration specifically rather than only everyday use. Keep the old vendor’s support details handy too, because questions about exports usually need the old vendor, not the new one. If the new vendor offers a free migration review for larger accounts, take it.
A second pair of eyes on the mapping sheet often catches a mistake that the team is too close to see, and the review costs nothing but a short call.
Mobile behaviour decides whether a migration feels like an upgrade or a downgrade, because most people check the new tool on a phone before they ever sit at a desk. Install the new app on every phone and tablet the team uses, sign in, and confirm that offline access, search, and sharing all work the way people expect. Phones also expose the gaps fastest. A note, file, or message that looks fine on a computer but renders badly on a small screen will be reported within hours. Fix mobile display issues before the full rollout, even if that means adjusting a template or renaming a long folder. The desktop experience can wait.
The phone experience is the one people judge first.
Launch week, verification, and the ConvertKit exit
Beehiiv analytics after launch week
Verification is a job with an owner and a deadline, not a vague hope that someone will notice problems. Assign one person to own the post-move check and give them a written list of what to confirm. Counts come first. Compare the number of items before and after, and investigate any gap larger than a rounding difference. Then check quality on a sample. Open items from the start, middle, and end of the archive and confirm attachments, images, and formatting survived. Finally, check access. Confirm that the people who should see shared items can still see them and that former collaborators cannot. When all three checks pass, write a short note saying so.
That note is what lets the team cancel the old plan without a lingering worry.
Timing a move well is mostly about avoiding the worst week, not finding a perfect one. Look at the calendar for deadlines, launches, holidays, and the days when the person who knows the old system best will be away. Then pick a quiet stretch and work backwards. Exports and pilot batches happen in the first week, the full import in the second, and verification in the third. Tell everyone the dates early, including clients who share files with you, so nobody is surprised by a changed link or a new invite. If a deadline moves into your migration window, pause the move rather than rushing it. A migration delayed by a week costs little.
A migration rushed through a deadline week costs trust, and trust is harder to rebuild than any folder.
History is what makes an archive valuable, and it is also what migrations handle worst. Creation dates, edit history, comments, and version history often transfer partially or not at all. Decide which history actually matters before you move. For most teams, the content and the current version matter far more than every past edit. Where history does matter, such as client approvals or contract drafts, export a dated copy in a stable format and store it alongside the new item with a clear name. Tell the team plainly what history will look different after the move so nobody panics when an old item shows the import date instead of its original date. Honesty about history beats a surprise every time.
The habits in this section decide whether you migrate ConvertKit to Beehiiv newsletter creators successfully or merely completely.
The first month on the new platform sets habits that last for years, so treat it as part of the migration rather than after it. Keep the mapping sheet and the team guide linked from the top of the new workspace for at least thirty days, because people will still look for old names and old locations while the new ones become familiar. Resist the urge to reorganise everything again immediately. A second reorganisation on top of a migration confuses people who have just learned the new layout, and it destroys the before-and-after comparison that tells you whether the move actually helped. Instead, collect small complaints in one shared document and review them together at the end of the month.
Patterns in that document point to genuine fixes, while one-off grumbles usually resolve themselves once the new routine settles. The goal of the first month is not perfection. It is a team that can do everyday work without thinking about the platform at all, which is the quietest sign that a migration has succeeded.
Measuring a migration after the fact is worth doing properly, because the next tool decision will lean on whatever story this one leaves behind. Pick three measures before the old platform closes and record them while you still can. The first is time on everyday tasks, measured loosely by asking the team how long the five most common tasks take now compared with before. The second is cost, including seats, add-ons, and the overlapping months, compared with the old bill for the same period. The third is friction, counted as support questions about the new platform per week, which should fall steadily after the first fortnight.
If all three move in the right direction, the move was a success and the numbers prove it. If one measure stalls, that measure names the next improvement project. Either way, the team ends up with evidence instead of opinions, and the next migration starts from a stronger position than this one did.
Every platform decision deserves a revisit date, set while the memory of the move is still fresh. Put a reminder twelve months out to ask whether the new platform still fits how the team works, whether the pricing still makes sense at the current size, and whether any feature that was missing at migration time has since appeared. A revisit is not a plan to move again. It is protection against the slow drift that made the last platform feel wrong, where pricing crept up, features went unused, and workarounds piled up until switching felt urgent.
Teams that review annually tend to make smaller, calmer adjustments, such as dropping unused seats or adopting one new feature, instead of another full migration. Write the revisit questions down now, while you can still remember what frustrated you about the old setup, and let that memory keep the new setup honest.
More Reading on Stratilyze
Newsletter creators planning this move also tend to read about starting a newsletter with AI, email marketing tools that fit small teams, and another newsletter move, from Substack to Beehiiv, since those are the levers that decide whether the new platform grows faster than the old one did.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can paid subscribers move automatically from ConvertKit to beehiiv?
No, not when they are managed through Kit and Stripe Express. Beehiiv’s own migration guidance states there is no way to move those paid subscriptions directly, because the payment details are not exposed. The realistic options are asking readers to subscribe again on beehiiv, optionally with a discount, or granting complimentary access for the rest of their current billing period and then asking them to subscribe. Either route loses some readers, so forecast that attrition before you commit.
Subscriber emails and custom fields transfer through CSV import, and tags can be carried over with careful field mapping, but segmentation logic usually needs rebuilding. Review your export headers before importing and rename them to match the tags you plan to use in beehiiv. After import, check segment sizes against the old ones, since a segment that is far smaller than expected usually means a mapping mistake rather than lost subscribers.
How do I keep original signup dates after import?
By default, beehiiv gives imported subscribers the import date as their subscription date. To preserve history, map the original signup date field from your ConvertKit export to a date custom field during import. Do this on the first import, because repairing dates afterwards is much harder. If you report subscriber tenure to sponsors, this single mapping step protects a number you may need later.
How long does the whole move take?
A free-list move typically takes two to three hours of setup plus a week of careful sending and checking. A list with paid subscribers takes longer, because the re-subscribe campaign needs drafting, sending, and follow-up over two to three weeks. Do not rush the paid side to meet an arbitrary date. The revenue at stake justifies a slower, more personal approach to the readers who pay you.
Is beehiiv cheaper than ConvertKit?
It depends on list size and structure. Beehiiv costs more at smaller sizes on some comparisons, but it takes no share of paid subscription revenue and bills a workspace as one list across multiple publications. Creators with several newsletters or significant paid revenue often come out ahead, while small free lists may find ConvertKit cheaper. Price your exact subscriber count and paid mix on both platforms before deciding.
What happens to my ConvertKit sequences?
Sequences must be rebuilt as beehiiv automations, which are capped at ten live automations on the Lite plan. Audit your sequences before moving and keep only the ones that still earn their place. Most creators find they run fewer than ten genuinely useful sequences, and the rebuild is a good moment to retire the ones nobody remembers creating.
Should I announce the move to free subscribers too?
Yes, briefly. Free subscribers deserve one short message explaining that the newsletter has a new home, that nothing about their subscription changes, and that future issues will arrive from the new platform. Keep it to a few lines and lead with the benefit to them, such as a better archive or faster loading issues. Announcing only to paying readers leaves free readers confused when the sender name or layout changes, and confused readers unsubscribe faster than informed ones.
Can I keep selling digital products after moving to beehiiv?
Yes, but the setup changes. Beehiiv focuses on newsletter monetisation through subscriptions, ads, and boosts rather than a built-in product store like ConvertKit Commerce. Creators who sell courses or templates usually pair beehiiv with a separate checkout tool and link products from the newsletter and publication site. Plan that pairing before launch week, test a purchase end to end, and make sure buyers still receive delivery emails reliably from the new setup.
Beehiiv earns its place when the newsletter itself is the product and the archive, the growth tools, and the zero revenue share all point the same way. It does not earn the move on novelty alone, and it certainly does not earn it by pretending the paid subscriber problem away. Count your paying readers, forecast the attrition honestly, write them a message worthy of their trust, and then move with the care that revenue deserves. Done that way, the migration becomes a story you can tell new readers with pride. You moved to a home built for newsletters, and you brought your paying readers with you because you asked them properly.
That is how you migrate ConvertKit to Beehiiv newsletter creators with confidence, in waves, and with the old platform still warm.