AudienceBench

beehiiv Community Explained: Free vs Paid Access, Channels, Roles, and Plan Limits (2026)

How beehiiv Community works: four access options, paid channels, sync, invites, roles, moderation, and what Free, Lite, and Pro allow, per beehiiv docs.

By AudienceBench Editorial · Published · Pricing & docs checked

beehiiv Community adds a members-only discussion space to your publication: a feed, channels, comments, direct messages, and optional paid access, all at yourpublication.com/community. Readers join with the same subscriber account they already use for your newsletter, so there’s no separate login and no Discord server or Facebook group to manage on the side.

This guide explains how it works according to beehiiv’s own documentation: the setup wizard, the four access options, free and paid channels, newsletter and podcast sync, invites, member roles, moderation, analytics, and, most importantly, what each plan actually allows. beehiiv’s docs don’t all agree on some of these points, and we flag every conflict we found.

Our sources: eight beehiiv help articles on Community (getting started, creating a community, paid access, channels, roles, moderation, invites, and analytics), beehiiv’s help articles on the free trial, changing plans, and post audience options, the Community feature page, beehiiv’s Community product update, the October 2026 pricing announcement, and the pricing page with its expanded feature table. We checked all of them on November 11, 2026.

How we researched this: Everything here comes from beehiiv’s official help center, feature pages, blog, and pricing page. We haven’t run a beehiiv community ourselves, so there are no screenshots, engagement numbers, or member counts of our own. Where beehiiv’s docs conflict or leave something out, we say so.

About our links: beehiiv links on this page are affiliate links (/go/beehiiv). That’s the only program we earn from on this page, and it doesn’t change what we recommend. A free community on beehiiv’s Free plan may be all you need.

The short version

Detail
What it isA feed, channels, comments, reactions, DMs, and group chats on your beehiiv site at /community
How manyOne community per publication
PlansListed on every plan, including Free, on the pricing page (some help text still says “all paid plans”; see below)
Paid accessNeeds Stripe plus at least one paid subscription tier, which means Lite or higher
Access optionsFree for all · Pay to join · Free with paid channels · Pay to join + upgrade for more
Feed historyFree 90 days, Lite 12 months, Pro unlimited
NotificationsFree 5,000/mo, Lite 25,000/mo, Pro 250,000/mo
HelpersModerators: Free none, Lite 3, Pro unlimited. Managers: Free none, Lite 1, Pro 9
beehiiv’s cut0% of paid subscription revenue; Stripe’s standard 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction still applies

Our take in one line: if you already publish on beehiiv, a free community costs nothing to try. A paid community starts making sense on Lite. If you want tiered premium channels, or more than three moderators, you’ll need Pro.

Try beehiiv free

What beehiiv Community includes

beehiiv’s getting-started article lists these building blocks:

  • Feed: the home for all posts. You and your members can post updates and start threads, and you can pin important posts to the top of a channel.
  • Channels: focused areas such as General, Announcements, or one channel per topic. Every community starts with a General channel, and it can’t be deleted.
  • Newsletter and podcast sync: your newsletter posts and podcast episodes can be published into the community automatically.
  • Comments and reactions: threaded replies and reactions on posts.
  • Members and roles: control who can moderate and manage.
  • Direct and group messages: one-to-one or group chats between members, which you can switch on or off for the whole community.
  • Onboarding messages: an automatic welcome sent by email or direct message.
  • Events: embed your Luma calendar.
  • Notifications: an in-app notification center plus email.
  • Paid access: gate the whole community or specific channels behind paid tiers.
  • beehiiv Agent and MCP: ask beehiiv’s AI tools about your community and growth.

The pricing page’s Community section adds more rows that are marked “Yes” on every plan, Free included: @-mentions, member profiles, global search, a mobile app (PWA), badges, invites, newsletter sync with archive backfill, podcast sync, moderation, and basic community analytics. One extra, the member directory, is listed for Lite and up but not Free.

The feature page also says members join with their existing beehiiv subscriber account, with “no separate community login to create.”

Which plan do you need?

What the pricing page says

Here are the Community rows from beehiiv’s pricing-page feature table, as captured November 11, 2026:

Community featureFreeLiteProEnterprise
Post history90 days12 monthsUnlimitedUnlimited
Notifications5,000/mo25,000/mo250,000/moCustom
Member access controlBy tierBy tier & attributeBy tier & attributeBy tier & attribute
Custom profile fields510UnlimitedUnlimited
Community moderators—3UnlimitedUnlimited
Community managers—19Unlimited
Member directory—YesYesYes
Feed posts, channels, DMs & group chats, mobile app (PWA), invites, sync, Luma events, moderation, basic analyticsYesYesYesYes

The pricing FAQ is direct about it: “Website, podcast, community, and digital products are included on every plan.” beehiiv’s October 2026 pricing announcement says the same thing and specifically notes that the free plan (formerly Launch) “now includes Community.”

Where the docs disagree

  • “All paid plans” vs every plan. The body of the help article Creating your community on beehiiv (updated Oct 1, 2026) still says “Community is available on all paid plans,” and beehiiv’s July 17, 2026 product update says the same. Yet the article’s own header lists Plan: All Plans, and so does every other Community help article we checked. The pricing page and the October 1 announcement put Community on Free. We’d go with the newer pricing page, but if Free matters to you, check that the Community menu shows up in your own dashboard. Every Community help article we checked carries a notice that it is “currently being updated to reflect recent releases.”
  • Paid access on Free. The table lists Free’s member access control as “By tier,” but Free also shows — for paid subscription tiers, and paid access requires a paid tier. In practice a paid community or paid channel means Lite or higher.

The tiered-ladder catch on Lite

The Pay to join + upgrade for more option puts the whole community behind one tier and specific channels behind a higher tier. That requires at least two paid tiers. beehiiv’s feature table lists Paid subscription tiers: Lite 1, Pro unlimited. beehiiv doesn’t spell this out on its Community pages, but it follows from those two facts: on Lite you get one paid tier, which is enough for “Pay to join” or “Free with paid channels” but not for a two-level ladder. For the ladder you’d need Pro. (Our paid subscriptions setup guide covers creating tiers.)

What it costs

Community has no separate price. You pay for the beehiiv plan. Pricing-page figures on November 11, 2026:

SubscribersLite (yearly / monthly billing)Pro (yearly / monthly billing)
1,000$49 / $59 per month$95 / $109 per month
2,500$69 / $79 per month$129 / $149 per month
10,000$119 / $139 per month$199 / $239 per month

Free costs $0 up to 2,500 subscribers. beehiiv’s FAQ says it takes 0% of paid subscription and digital product revenue, “minus Stripe’s standard processing fee of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.” For the full tier list, see beehiiv pricing explained.

A subscriber-count detail: the invite article says that when someone who isn’t yet a subscriber joins your community, “they’re added to your newsletter subscriber list too.” beehiiv prices plans by unique subscribed email addresses, so growing the community from outside your list can push you toward the next subscriber tier.

How to create a community

From the left panel of your dashboard, open Community and select Create your community. A four-step wizard saves your choices as you go:

  1. Community basics: a name (required, up to 100 characters), an optional description, and the community URL.
  2. Access: choose free or paid (the four options below). This step only appears if you already have paid tiers set up.
  3. Build: choose which features to switch on. You can change all of them later in Settings:
    • Sync newsletter posts (on by default): each post you send is also published to the community.
    • Sync podcast episodes: only shown if your publication has a podcast.
    • Backfill historical posts (off by default): imports your past newsletter posts too. Large archives “can take a little while.”
    • Enable mobile app (on by default): members can install the community as an app and get push notifications.
    • Direct messages (on by default).
  4. Design: background, primary, and text colors, with a live preview. Then select Create community.

beehiiv then creates a General channel (plus Newsletters and Podcasts channels if syncing is on) and adds your workspace team as the first members, with you as an admin.

Per post, beehiiv’s post-flow help article says you can use a Community site toggle on the Audience page to publish the post to your community and pick which channel it lands in. Only web posts are eligible; email-only posts can’t go to the community (more on audience options in our guide to hiding beehiiv posts from Google).

The four access options

OptionWho can joinPaid channels inside?Tiers needed
Free for allAnyone you invite, at no costNoNone
Pay to joinSubscribers on one of the selected paid tiersNo1+
Free with paid channelsAnyone; specific channels gated to paid tiersYes1+
Pay to join + upgrade for morePaid tier to join; some channels need a higher tierYes2+ (Pro, per the tier limits above)

Before any paid option appears, you need a connected Stripe account and at least one paid tier under Subscriptions. You can change access later under Community → Settings → Access (Free to join or Fully paywalled). beehiiv adds one warning: “If you switch an existing free community to paid, decide how to handle your existing members before flipping the switch.” It doesn’t say what happens to members who aren’t on a paid tier, so treat that switch with care.

What members see:

  • In a paid community, new members hit the paywall during the join flow and have to subscribe to a qualifying tier.
  • Locked channels stay visible but closed. beehiiv frames the lock as a built-in upgrade prompt.
  • Posts from gated channels show up as locked cards instead of full content.
  • When a member subscribes to the required tier, the locked channels unlock automatically.

Channels

Go to Community → Manage → Channels. The table lists every channel with its access type and creation date, and you can search or filter by free or paid.

  • Create: pick Create free channel or Create paid channel, then enter a name (required; the URL slug is generated for you) and an optional description that members see on hover. For a paid channel, select the tier or tiers that unlock it.
  • Edit: use the 3-dots menu to rename a channel or change its tiers. Changes take effect immediately.
  • Reorder: drag with the 6-dots handle. This sets the order in members’ sidebars.
  • Delete: type delete to confirm. This removes the channel and all of its posts, and can’t be undone. General can’t be deleted.

There’s no documented limit on the number of channels (“You can add as many channels as you would like”). beehiiv’s own advice is to start small: General, one or two topic channels, and one premium channel if you’re monetizing.

Inviting your subscribers

Go to Community → Members → Invite members, then pick one of three sources:

  • Top engaged: your most engaged subscribers, ranked by beehiiv’s engagement data. beehiiv recommends starting here.
  • Upload CSV of email addresses.
  • Paste emails by hand.

You can invite up to 1,000 people at a time. Existing members and duplicates are skipped automatically. Inviting a saved segment is listed as “coming soon.” You can add a personal message to the invite email and keep the reminder email on, which sends one follow-up to anyone who hasn’t joined after 3 days. The Members page tracks Invited, Joined, and Pending counts and has a Resend invite option.

beehiiv suggests finishing your design and channels and publishing a few posts first, “so new members land in a living community.”

Member roles

The roles article (updated Oct 1, 2026) describes four roles:

MemberModeratorManagerAdmin
Workspace seat neededNoNoWorkspace Member seat or higherWorkspace Admin seat
Dashboard accessCommunity onlyCommunity onlyCommunity + dashboardCommunity + dashboard
Post, comment, react; edit own content✓✓✓✓
Pin posts; close/hide comments; remove any post or comment✓✓✓
Create and manage channels✓✓
Review reported content✓✓
Configure newsletter/podcast sync✓✓

According to the role descriptions, Managers can also remove members and appoint Moderators but can’t grant the Manager or Admin roles. Admins have full control. Your workspace team is mapped automatically: Workspace Admin → Community Admin, Workspace Member → Community Manager, Workspace Contributor → Community Moderator. To change someone’s role, go to Community → Members, open the 3-dots menu, and choose Manage roles. Changes take effect immediately.

Plan limits apply to helpers: the pricing page lists 3 moderators and 1 manager on Lite, unlimited moderators and 9 managers on Pro, and none on Free. Team seats (Free 1, Lite 2, Pro 10) also cap who can be a Manager or Admin, since those roles need a workspace seat.

Doc conflict: the Community feature page’s FAQ says team members can be “Admin, Moderator, or Contributor,” which doesn’t match the help center’s Member / Moderator / Manager / Admin roles. The moderation article also says reported content is reviewable by moderators “who are also members or admin” in your publication, while the roles table limits report review to Managers and Admins. The safe reading: a Moderator without a workspace seat can clean up posts and comments inline but can’t open the reports queue.

Moderation

beehiiv describes three layers:

  • Inline moderation: from any post or comment’s menu, moderators can remove content (with an optional reason), close or hide comments, and pin posts.
  • Reports queue: in Community → Discussions → Reported, filter by Pending or Resolved and by post or comment. Each report can be marked as resolved, the content deleted, or the author banned from the community (they can’t rejoin “unless you allow it”). Reported DMs have their own tab, and you only see the reported message, not the whole conversation.
  • Automated moderation: beehiiv reviews every post, comment, and DM against its content policies. It removes severe violations (for example hate speech, violence, or sexually explicit content) automatically. Lower-severity issues such as spam or profanity go into your queue with beehiiv listed as the reporter.

Members can report any content except their own, once per item. Someone who has reported the same thing repeatedly can choose Report to beehiiv to escalate past you. beehiiv suggests pinning your community guidelines on day one.

Analytics

The Community overview page tracks new members, posts created, comments/replies, and member participation (the percentage of members who took part in the selected period), each compared with the previous period. Banned members are excluded. Widgets show new members, popular members, popular channels, and top posts. beehiiv calls member participation “the number that predicts survival” once a community is seeded. Basic community analytics are listed on every plan.

Free trial and downgrades

  • Trial: beehiiv’s 14-day Pro trial (no credit card) caps community notification emails at 25,000/month, feed history at 12 months, and custom profile fields at 5, and limits community roles to the workspace owner. Paid subscriptions are held back until you upgrade, so you can’t test a paid community during the trial.
  • Downgrading to Free: the change-plan article (updated Oct 5, 2026) says community feed history becomes limited. Members and guests can’t scroll to older posts, but moderators still see everything, pinned posts and direct links keep working, and “nothing is deleted.” Older posts come back when you upgrade. beehiiv doesn’t say what happens to paid channels, or to moderator and manager roles beyond Free’s limits, after a downgrade.

Where beehiiv’s docs leave gaps

  • Free plan availability: the pricing page says Community is on every plan, but one help article and the July product update say “all paid plans” (see above).
  • Switching a free community to paid: beehiiv says to plan for existing members first but doesn’t say whether non-paying members lose access, keep it, or are prompted to pay.
  • Downgrade from Pro to Lite: there’s no guidance on communities that rely on multiple tiers or have more than 3 moderators.
  • “Member access control: By tier & attribute” on Lite and up isn’t explained in any Community help article we found.
  • Role names: the feature page says “Contributor,” the help center says Member/Moderator/Manager/Admin.
  • Who reviews reports: Moderators (moderation article) vs Managers and Admins only (roles table).

Checklist

  • Confirm the Community menu appears in your dashboard (especially on Free)
  • For paid access: connect Stripe and create at least one paid tier (Lite+), or two tiers for a ladder (Pro)
  • Run the wizard: name, access, sync and backfill choices, DMs, mobile app, colors
  • Add a few channels (start small) and pin your community guidelines
  • Publish a few conversation starters before inviting anyone
  • Invite Top engaged subscribers first (up to 1,000 per batch), with the 3-day reminder on
  • Assign moderators within your plan’s limit (Lite: 3) and give managers a workspace seat
  • Check the Discussions → Reported queue and the participation metric each week

Setting up a new newsletter from scratch? Our free Newsletter Launch Checklist covers what to check before your first send.

Our take

beehiiv Community’s main advantage is that it’s already connected to your list: subscribers join with the account they have, your posts sync in, and paid access uses the same tiers and Stripe setup as your paid newsletter. beehiiv takes no cut of that revenue. If you only want a free discussion space, the Free plan appears to cover it, with a 90-day feed history and no extra moderators. For a paid community or paid channels, Lite is the realistic starting point. Pro is worth it if you want a two-level ladder (one tier to join, a higher tier for premium channels), more than three moderators, or unlimited history.

If you need advanced community-platform features beehiiv doesn’t document, such as courses inside the community or native video, look at a dedicated community tool instead. The case for beehiiv is having the newsletter and the community in one place.

Try beehiiv · beehiiv pricing explained · beehiiv paid subscriptions setup · beehiiv group subscriptions

Sources

All sources below were checked November 11, 2026.