Newsletter platform beehiiv adds AI website building, creator tools in major expansion

Newsletter platform beehiiv announced a massive expansion to its platform on Thursday, including offering real-time analytics and AI website creation, among other things.  

In a video announcing the release, Tyler Denk, the co-founder and CEO of Beehiiv, said that what makes newsletter platforms powerful is ownership.  

“Owning your audience, distribution, brand, and even your revenue potential,” he said. “In the age of AI and algorithms. Ownership isn’t just nice to have, it’s essential.” 

The hope is to further give creators (and journalists) more control — and opportunities — to expand and grow their businesses on the platform.  

The full product expansion includes:  

•  Allowing creators to sell digital products, such as ebooks, without beehiiv receiving commissions. Next year, creators will soon be able to sell courses and merchandise.  
   

• A feature that lets creators build websites using AI without the use of sophisticated code or developers. A version product was actually launched a few months ago and followed Beehiiv’s acquisition of the AI website builder Typedream last year.  
   
  Thursday’s announcement revealed the product now lets users build full websites by simply chatting with AI — or, vibe code a website. However, users don’t need to simply talk in words to the AI; they can also drag and drop images, for example, upload images or screenshots of other people’s websites to the AI, and have it recreate them.  
   

• The ability to host and release podcasts on a creator’s respective beehiive platform. This lets creators put their podcasts, newsletters, and websites under one platform, rather than having three separate ones.  
   

• Real-time analytics to track engagement and traffic, in addition to a breakdown of what channels drive the most users  
   

• Offering “link in bio,” so creators can link to other digital platforms, as well as their own beehiiv creations, without having to use a third-party link in bio company.  
   

• Offering professionally designed website templates, so that the website and newsletters look more high-quality. It’s also releasing newsletter templates so that websites and newsletters can have a cohesive brand look.  
   

• The ability to audience segment — meaning creators can create specific content for specific segments of their audience. Creators can now group followers by location, age, or even gender.  
   

• Automated workflows, for example, when a user subscribes, creators can set it up so that a welcome email is automatically sent to them. beehiiv started releasing features of automated workflows a few weeks ago.  
   

• Enhanced advertiser tools, including easier browsing of ad opportunities and seeing estimated payouts. Denk said that creators can upload assets, set a budget, and launch campaigns on the platform. Beehiiv also has a new ad dashboard, letting creators track the performance of their campaigns and build their own custom reports, he continued.  
   

• Paid subscriptions, without any fees taken by beehiive (it says it is the only platform that doesn’t take a cut of paid subscription revenue). The feature comes with subscription tiers and analytics.  

Beehiiv now considers itself the first platform to encapsulate the entire content creation workflow, as users on the platform can “create, publish, grow, analyze, and monetize,” without fees, plugins, code, or giving up equity.  
 
In the video, Denk said that beehiiv is no longer just a newsletter platform, but rather the operating system for the creator economy. With this expansion, it hopes to compete with the likes of Lovable, WordPress, and Patreon.  

The company was founded in 2021 and says that since then, it has sent more than 35 billion emails, with more than 55,000 creators on the platform, including Oliver Darcy with Status.  

Beehiiv last raised a $33 million Series B in April 2024 with LightSpeed Venture Partners and NEA as investors.