Link-in-bio and newsletter tools for creators: free plans, prices, and what you can export

This is general information, not financial or tax advice. Check the linked official sources or ask a qualified accountant or tax adviser.

A follower list belongs to the platform. An email list you can download, on an address you control, belongs to you. This page compares seven tools on exactly that: what the free plan includes, what the cheapest paid plan costs, whether you can get your subscribers out, and whether your own domain works. How to move followers onto an email list lawfully, and what each platform lets you export, is in can you export your followers?. What the rest of a creator's tools cost is in the creator tool stack.

Every price and plan limit below comes from the vendor's own pricing page, and every export rule from the vendor's own help centre, all opened on 3 October 2026. Prices are in the currency and billing basis the page showed; Tallyterms does not convert currencies. Tools are listed alphabetically within each group; the order is not a ranking.

How do link-in-bio and newsletter tools compare?

Checked 2026-10-03 "Cheapest paid plan" is the lowest-priced paid tier the pricing page shows. Annual prices split into months are marked "shown as".

Checked 2026-10-03

Kit's and beehiiv's pricing pages lead with the yearly price; the month-to-month price is behind a billing toggle on each page.

What does "owning your audience" mean in practice?

Two things decide whether you can leave a tool without losing your audience.

1. The list comes out with email addresses. An export of email addresses is a list you can import elsewhere. An export of page views or clicks is not. Linktree's Premium "Data export" is the second kind: its help page says the CSV covers activity, cities, countries, devices and referrers. Its email sign-ups are a separate export, from the Audience page.
2. The address people visit is yours. If your bio link and newsletter archive live on your own domain, you can change the tool behind them and the address in every old post keeps working. On a vendor subdomain, a move means updating every place the old link appears.

A third point matters once you sell: fees on revenue. Beacons Free charges 9% seller fees, and its Creator Plus plan lists 0%. Linktree lists "Sell and earn with 0% fees" from Pro. beehiiv says it takes 0% of paid-subscription and digital-product revenue, minus Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. Substack keeps 10%.

Which link-in-bio tools let you take your contacts with you?

Beacons shows the widest free export. Its feature table ticks "Audience Imports / Exports" on all four plans, Free included, described as the option to "export your contacts from your Beacons signups". The free plan caps sending at 50 emails a month, so the free tier works as a collection point that you export from. A custom domain starts on Creator.

Linktree collects email sign-ups through a Contact Form on every plan. Its help page describes exporting form submissions as a CSV, sent by email behind a passcode you set. Automatic syncing to Mailchimp or Google Sheets is "Available on Pro and Premium plans", and the pricing page lists "Mailing list integrations" among the features Pro adds. The pricing page does not list a custom domain on any tier.

Carrd stores no subscriber list of its own. On Pro Standard and above, its signup forms send entries to an email service you choose, from a list that includes beehiiv, Kit and MailerLite. The list then lives in that service, under that service's export rules. Pro Standard costs $19 a year and also adds custom domains. Carrd offers a 7-day Pro trial.

A link-in-bio tool earns its place when you need more links than your profile holds, a store, or email capture on the page. The tool-stack page covers what Instagram's own links do.

Which newsletter tools let you export your list, and on what terms?

All four document an export. The details differ.

• Kit: filter Subscribers by "Confirmed subscriber", select all, then Export. The CSV includes first name, email address, created date, status, tags, location, attribution data and custom fields. The download link arrives by email and "Export links expire after five days".
• beehiiv: Settings, then Export Data. A Quick export lists subscribers by email, status and tier; a Full export adds custom fields and statistics. Available on all plans to workspace admins. "Download links for exported data are valid for 24 hours."
• MailerLite: select subscribers, choose the columns, then export as "CSV file" or "CSV for Excel file". "Only account administrators are able to use this feature."
• Substack: Settings, then Exports, then "Create new export". The zip holds your posts, subscriber list and related statistics, and you are notified by email when it is ready. Its going-paid page tells writers: "Own all of your content and your subscriber list."

Importing is the other half. Kit's pricing page offers free migrations. Substack says it imports mailing lists from beehiiv, Mailchimp, Ghost and others. beehiiv's help centre has a guide to migrating from Kit, list and content included. A list you can export as a CSV is a list another tool can import.

What does a 1,000-subscriber newsletter cost a year?

A worked example. Prices are the vendors' own from the table (checked 2026-10-03), at 1,000 subscribers, on yearly billing where the page offers it.

At 1,000 free subscribers, three of the four cost nothing. MailerLite's free plan caps at 250 subscribers, so a 1,000-subscriber list is on Comfort: its 1,000-subscriber tier is $19 billed monthly or $17.10 a month billed yearly (checked 2026-10-03).

Paid subscriptions change the sum. Substack has no plan fee and keeps 10% of revenue; beehiiv takes 0% but needs Lite, the first plan with paid subscriptions, at $49 a month on yearly billing (checked 2026-10-03). Card or Stripe fees apply on both and are left out here.

Below about $490 a month in paid-subscription revenue, Substack's 10% costs less than a year of beehiiv Lite. Above it, the flat plan costs less. Rerun it with your own numbers: annual plan price ÷ 0.10 is the yearly revenue where a flat plan and a 10% cut cost the same. Your subscriber count can also move you to a higher beehiiv tier; check the price for your list size on its pricing page.

How do you choose without getting locked in?

1. Run a test export in the first week. Export your list, open the file, and confirm email addresses are in it. Note how long the link stays valid: five days on Kit, 24 hours on beehiiv.
2. Point a domain you own at the tool. Free on Kit and beehiiv, on paid plans elsewhere, $50 once on Substack. Then a later move does not break the links in old posts.
3. Collect emails where you can export them. A link-in-bio form that only syncs on a paid tier still needs a free export route. Beacons and Linktree both describe one; Carrd sends entries to your email tool.
4. Price the fee on sales, not just the plan. A 9% seller fee or a 10% revenue share grows with your sales; a plan price does not. Run the break-even above before you sell.
5. Book the cost as a business expense. Software counts toward the costs that set your rates in how to price a sponsored post.
6. Re-check before each renewal. Plan names and limits change. Every figure here carries its checked date.

Frequently asked questions

Can I move my newsletter from one tool to another?

Yes, if you can export the list. Kit, beehiiv, MailerLite and Substack each document a subscriber export, and Kit, Substack and beehiiv each describe importing lists from other tools. Paid subscribers are a separate case: beehiiv's help article on importing paid subscribers moves them by connecting the previous platform's Stripe account.

Does a link-in-bio tool keep the emails it collects?

The emails sit in the tool's account until you export or sync them. Beacons ticks contact export on every plan. Linktree describes a CSV export of form submissions and lists automatic syncing from Pro. Carrd keeps no list of its own and sends form entries to your email service.

Sources

Opened and checked on 2026-10-03.

• Beacons, pricing: plan prices, seller fees, email sends, custom domain, audience imports and exports.
• Carrd, Go Pro: Pro Lite and Pro Standard prices, custom domains, forms and the services they send to, 7-day trial.
• Linktree, pricing: plan prices in euros, plan features, mailing list integrations from Pro, data export on Premium.
• Linktree Help, How to collect email sign-ups on your Linktree: contact form, CSV export, sync on Pro and Premium.
• Linktree Help, Download a CSV of your Insights activity: Premium only; activity, cities, countries, devices, referrers.
• beehiiv, pricing: Free and Lite limits and prices, 0% take rate, Stripe fee.
• beehiiv Help, Exporting post content or subscriber data: Quick and Full exports, all plans, 24-hour links.
• Kit, pricing: Free and Creator limits and prices, customizable domain, free migrations.
• Kit Help, How to export subscribers in Kit: CSV fields, five-day links.
• MailerLite, pricing: Free limits, Comfort tiers in USD and EUR, custom domains by plan.
• MailerLite Help, How to export subscribers: CSV formats, administrators only.
• Substack, Go paid: 90% to the writer, subscriber list ownership.
• Substack, Switch to Substack: list imports from other tools.
• Substack Help, How do I export my posts?: zip export of posts and subscriber list.
• Substack Help, How do I set up my custom domain on Substack?: one-time $50 fee.