The short version
Beacons tries to be the whole creator back office: a link-in-bio page, a store for digital products, courses and memberships, a built-in email tool, an auto-updating media kit, invoicing, and an AI assistant for brand outreach. The free plan is the most generous in the category. The catch is the 9% fee Beacons' help center lists on every sale made on Free and on the $10 Creator plan. Upgrade to Creator Plus ($30/mo, or $300/yr) and the fee drops to 0%. At that point Beacons costs about the same as Stan's entry plan and adds a free tier, a custom domain and unlimited email sends.
For the cross-tool fee math, see our best link-in-bio tools guide.
What Beacons costs
Beacons' pricing is harder to pin down than it should be. Beacons.ai/pricing now redirects to the homepage, which shows two plans: Free and Creator Plus at $30/month. Beacons' help center article on pricing plans (last edited November 14, 2025) lists four:
- Free: $0. Unlimited links, five link-in-bio pages, a media kit, a store with a 9% transaction fee, and 50 email sends a month.
- Creator: $10/mo or $100/yr. A custom domain (free for the first year), 500 email sends, email automations and AI brand outreach. Still a 9% seller fee, except 0% on invoices.
- Creator Plus: $30/mo or $300/yr. 0% transaction fees, buy now pay later, unlimited email, memberships and courses, order bumps, custom product URLs, and removal of the Beacons logo from your page and product pages.
- Creator Max: $90/mo or $900/yr. Everything above plus Google Workspace, an NFC card and white-glove support.
The homepage free tier also lists "Smart Reply Auto-DMs," "Courses with Video Hosting" and "5 Email Automations," which doesn't fully match the help center's free-plan list. Our read: Creator Plus is clearly current. Confirm whether Creator and Creator Max are still offered when you sign up.
The fee, and a homepage line to ignore
Beacons' help center is consistent on fees: 9% on Free and Creator, 0% on Creator Plus and Creator Max. On top of that, Stripe charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, and PayPal charges 3.49% plus a fixed fee that depends on currency. The help center even answers the common complaint ("Why did I get 9% taken out of my first sale even though I paid for Beacons pro?"): the $10 plan still carries the 9% fee.
The homepage, though, says "No platform fees on the free plan" in its monetization section, while its own pricing block says "Sell with 9% Seller Fees" for the same free tier. Plan around the help center's 9%.
Example: a $29 product selling 50 times a month is $1,450 in sales. On Free, 9% is $130.50. On Creator, it's $130.50 plus $10, so $140.50. On Creator Plus, it's $30 flat (or $25/mo equivalent billed annually). Stripe's processing, about $57 for those 50 sales, applies on every plan. Creator Plus pays for itself once you sell more than about $333 a month.
One more fee wrinkle: a Beacons help article updated October 5, 2026 says that in some countries, payment-processor rules require Beacons to collect a fee from each transaction, and that "can't be resolved on the free Beacons plan." Creators outside the US should check this before building on the free tier.
Payouts
For direct sales, Beacons' help center says proceeds land "immediately" in your connected Stripe or PayPal account, and from there your processor's payout schedule applies. That's good for ownership, because your payment records live in your own processor account. Affiliate commissions from Beacons' brand-commission program work differently. You can request a cash-out at the time of sale, but those payouts go through PayPal only and take 5 to 7 business days to process.
Email: built in, exportable, with limits
Beacons has its own email tool (broadcasts, automations, sign-up blocks, imports from Mailchimp, ConvertKit/Kit and Shopify). Send limits are 50 a month on Free, 500 on Creator, and unlimited on Creator Plus, per the help center. Getting your list out: the help center describes a CSV download from the Audience tab, and "real-time automatic export via Mailchimp or Zapier," which it calls "pro features."
There's no documented native sync to KitAFFILIATE, beehiivAFFILIATE or MailerLiteAFFILIATE. If one of those is your home base, you'll use Zapier on a paid plan or do periodic CSV imports. Our advice holds either way: if Beacons becomes your email platform, export the list monthly so your only copy never sits inside a bio tool. Our newsletter writers guide covers dedicated email platforms.
Media kit and brand tools
This is where Beacons is strongest against Linktree. The media kit is on the free plan, pulls from connected Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat accounts, and updates automatically. The help center lists daily media kit updates as a paid feature. Around it sit a brand-deal profile, a rate calculator, AI brand outreach, a W-9 generator and invoicing (0% invoice fees on paid plans). Beacons is also previewing "Beam," an AI assistant it says will handle outreach and rate negotiation. Those are vendor claims about an early-access feature, not something we can assess yet.
What you own if you leave, and the domain catch
Your list: yes, via CSV on any plan. Your customers and payments: in your own Stripe or PayPal account. Your products: keep master copies yourself, because the help center doesn't document a full store export.
Your domain is the trap. Beacons lets you buy a domain inside the app, and its help center says plainly that a domain obtained through Beacons "will always remain the property of Beacons AI Inc." You have the right to use it while it's on Beacons, you don't get access to its DNS records, and transferring it to yourself costs a one-time $70. Domains bought this way are also non-refundable. The fix is simple: buy the domain from a registrar in your own name, then connect it to Beacons. The help center supports connecting an existing domain through an automated connector or manual DNS records.
Who should pick something else
If you only need links, Beacons' breadth is overhead. Linktree or Instagram's own five profile links will do. If you want a pure checkout funnel with upsells and payment plans and never want a free tier, compare Stan, which is 0% on both of its plans, with email tools on Creator Pro at $99/mo. If you want to sell without a bio page at all, see Gumroad vs Whop.
If your bio link is where brands find you, the guide to managing brand deals covers the rest of the workflow, from rate card to invoice.
SOURCES (CHECKED OCT 7, 2026)
| Claim | Source URL | Checked |
|---|---|---|
| Homepage shows Free and Creator Plus $30/mo; free tier list; "No platform fees on the free plan" and "Sell with 9% Seller Fees"; Beam "coming soon"/early access | https://beacons.ai (beacons.ai/pricing redirects here) | 2026-10-07 |
| Four plans, prices monthly/annual, plan features, 50/500/unlimited email sends | https://help.beacons.ai/en/articles/4695681 (edited Nov 14, 2025) | 2026-10-07 |
| 9% Free/Creator, 0% Creator Plus/Max; Stripe 2.9% + $0.30; PayPal 3.49% + fixed | https://help.beacons.ai/en/articles/4700289 | 2026-10-07 |
| Paid-plan features: custom domain, logo removal on Creator Plus, Zapier/Mailchimp/Zoom, daily media kit updates, 0% invoice fees | https://help.beacons.ai/en/articles/4695937 (edited Apr 6, 2026) | 2026-10-07 |
| Audience CSV export; Mailchimp/Zapier auto-export are pro features | https://help.beacons.ai/en/articles/4703745 | 2026-10-07 |
| Imports from Mailchimp, ConvertKit, Shopify | https://help.beacons.ai/en/categories/1087937 (category listing) | 2026-10-07 |
| Domain ownership stays with Beacons; no DNS access; non-refundable; $70 transfer | https://help.beacons.ai/en/articles/4696129 ; https://help.beacons.ai/en/articles/4696321 | 2026-10-07 |
| Connecting an existing domain | https://help.beacons.ai/en/articles/4696193 (edited May 22, 2026) | 2026-10-07 |
| Direct-sale proceeds immediate to Stripe/PayPal; affiliate payouts PayPal only, 5-7 business days | https://help.beacons.ai/en/articles/4699137 (edited Sep 4, 2026) ; https://help.beacons.ai/en/articles/4700481 | 2026-10-07 |
| Some countries require Beacons to collect a fee; can't resolve on free plan | https://help.beacons.ai/en/articles/14229505 (edited Oct 5, 2026) | 2026-10-07 |
| Media kit setup requires a connected social account; Snapchat connection; rate calculator, W-9, invoicing | https://help.beacons.ai/en/articles/4703937 ; https://help.beacons.ai/en/categories/1088065 | 2026-10-07 |
| Checkout options Klarna, Afterpay, Affirm, PayPal Pay Later, Apple Pay, Google Pay | https://help.beacons.ai/en/categories/1087105 (Products category listing) | 2026-10-07 |
| PLAN | PRICE | WHAT YOU GET |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Link in bio, store with 9% fee, media kit, courses with video hosting, 50 email sends/mo (help center), Beacons logo |
| Creator | $10/mo or $100/yr | monthly or annual; Custom domain (free first year), 500 email sends/mo, email automations, AI brand outreach, still 9% fee. Listed in help center (Nov 2025); not shown on current homepage |
| Creator Plus | $30/mo or $300/yr | monthly or annual; 0% fee, unlimited email sends, memberships, BNPL, order bumps, custom product URLs, logo removal, custom domain |
| Creator Max | $90/mo or $900/yr | monthly or annual; Everything in Creator Plus plus Google Workspace, NFC card, white-glove support. Help center only |
Creators who sell digital products, pitch brand deals, and want link in bio, store, email and media kit in one place. — and anyone who wants Beacons to do the heavy lifting in this category.
Avoid it if you'll sell regularly on the Free or $10 Creator plan (9% fee), or if your email list must sync natively to Kit or beehiiv without Zapier. — if that's a dealbreaker, see every monetization tool we've reviewed.
- Is Beacons free?
Yes. The free plan includes a link-in-bio page, store, media kit and basic email, but Beacons' help center lists a 9% fee on sales and shows the Beacons logo on your page.
- What fee does Beacons charge on sales?
9% on Free and the $10 Creator plan, and 0% on Creator Plus ($30/mo or $300/yr) and Creator Max, per Beacons' help center. Stripe (2.9% + $0.30) or PayPal (3.49% plus a fixed fee) processing applies on every plan.
- Can I export my email list from Beacons?
Yes, as a CSV from the Audience tab on any plan. Automatic export to Mailchimp or through Zapier requires a paid plan.
- Can I use a custom domain with Beacons?
Yes, on paid plans. Connect a domain you already own rather than buying one through Beacons. Beacons-purchased domains remain Beacons' property and cost $70 to transfer out.
- How fast does Beacons pay out?
Direct sales go straight to your connected Stripe or PayPal account. Affiliate commissions are paid via PayPal, with 5 to 7 business days of processing.
- Beacons or Linktree?
Beacons if you sell or pitch brands: it has 0% fees at $30, a custom domain and a free media kit. Linktree if you mostly link out and want native sync to Kit or beehiiv. See our Linktree review.
The most complete free-to-start creator storefront, and at $30/mo the cheapest route to 0% fees plus your own domain. Just don't buy the domain through Beacons.
Editorially reviewed. An editorial evaluation of verified product information, official documentation, pricing and features, informed by Carlos Gil's professional experience. Available demos and screenshots may inform the review; documented product use is required for a hands-on label. Read our review standards.
Editorially reviewed by Carlos Gil. Based on Beacons' homepage and help center, checked October 7, 2026. Beacons pays us nothing and the link to Beacons is a plain link. Links to email tools on this page (such as Kit and beehiiv) are affiliate links, labeled where they appear, and never affect the score. How we review.
BestCreates is written and edited by Carlos Gil. Every tool is assessed against the same documented framework — the jobs creators hire it for, ease of use, pricing accuracy, support and integrations — and each review states in the open how it was assessed.
LAST UPDATED OCT 7, 2026
SIGNED BY CARLOS GIL · FOUNDER & EDITOR, THE BEST NETWORK · OUR DISCLOSURE POLICY