Beacons Pricing: What Each Plan Costs and What Forces the Upgrade

Beacons pricing starts with a free plan and climbs to $90 a month at the top, with a transaction fee on sales that quietly does a lot of the work in between. Beacons is one of the stronger creator commerce suites out there, bundling a store, email tools, and a media kit into the link-in-bio page. But the price you actually pay depends less on the sticker on each tier and more on which features force you to upgrade. Below is what every Beacons plan costs as of July 2026, where the transaction fee bites, and how to tell which tier you truly need before you commit.

What Beacons costs, plan by plan

Beacons runs a free tier plus three paid ones, with monthly and discounted annual billing. Here are the figures as confirmed on Beacons' own pricing page in July 2026:

• Free, $0 per month. The link-in-bio page, unlimited digital products, and basic email sends. It carries a 9% transaction fee on everything you sell.
• Creator, $10 per month (about $8.33 per month billed annually). Adds a free custom domain, more email sends, and advanced SEO features. The 9% transaction fee still applies here.
• Creator Plus, $30 per month (about $25 per month billed annually). This is where the transaction fee drops to 0%, plus unlimited course hosting, unlimited email, and more.
• Creator Max, $90 per month (about $75 per month billed annually). Everything in Plus, plus white-glove onboarding, priority support, and extras aimed at established creators.

Two things jump out. First, there is a real free plan, which is good. Second, and this is the one people miss: the free plan and the $10 Creator plan carry the same 9% cut of your sales. You do not escape the transaction fee by paying $10 a month. You escape it by paying $30.

The fee that does the real work

The headline prices ($0, $10, $30, $90) are only half the story. The other half is the 9% transaction fee, and it changes the math completely depending on how much you sell.

If you sell nothing through Beacons, the fee is irrelevant and the free or Creator plan is cheap. But if selling is the point, that 9% is a slice of every single sale, and it stacks up fast. Sell $1,000 in a month on the free or Creator plan and Beacons takes $90 of it in platform fees, on top of the normal payment processing every tool charges. At that volume, the $30 Creator Plus plan (0% fee) is already cheaper than the $10 Creator plan (9% fee), because the fee you avoid is worth more than the extra $20 in subscription.

Here is the rough crossover. On a 9% fee, the $20 difference between Creator ($10) and Creator Plus ($30) pays for itself once you sell about $220 a month, because 9% of $220 is roughly $20. Above that, the higher-priced plan with no fee is the cheaper plan. This is the trap in tiered creator pricing: the cheapest sticker price is often not the cheapest total cost once your sales cross a threshold.

So the question is not "which plan is cheapest?" It is "how much do I sell, and does the fee or the subscription cost me more?"

Which features force the upgrade

Beyond the fee, a handful of features tend to be the reason creators move up a tier. Knowing them in advance saves you from paying for a plan you did not need, or from getting stuck on one that quietly taxes your sales.

• Removing the 9% fee. The single biggest reason to jump from free or Creator up to Creator Plus. If you sell more than a couple hundred dollars a month, this is usually the deciding factor.
• Custom domain. Unlocks at the $10 Creator plan, so if a branded URL matters to you, that is your floor.
• Course hosting and unlimited email. These sit on Creator Plus and above, so creators running an education or newsletter business often land there regardless of the fee math.
• Hands-on support and onboarding. The Creator Max tier at $90 a month is really about service and extras for creators already earning enough to justify it.

Match the tier to the one feature you actually need, not to the longest feature list. Most creators do not need Creator Max. Many who sell regularly are better off on Creator Plus than on the cheaper Creator plan, purely because of the fee.

Is Beacons worth it?

For a creator building a real commerce business inside the link-in-bio page, Beacons is a genuinely capable suite, and the 0% fee on Creator Plus is fair once you are selling enough to reach it. The tool does a lot: store, courses, email, media kit, all in one place. If you want your selling and your bio link to live in the same product, it is a strong pick.

The catch is that "all in one place" also means the price ladder is steep, and the transaction fee makes the low tiers more expensive than they look for anyone selling actively. If you mostly want a link-in-bio page and are not running a store through it, you are paying for a commerce engine you are not using.

ByteSize (our tool, described honestly)

We build ByteSize, so treat this as the pitch it is, but a straight one. ByteSize is a link-in-bio page for creators, and it is a simpler, cheaper product than Beacons with a narrower job.

• One flat price, no sales cut. The free Start plan is free forever with unlimited links and embedded content (it carries a ByteSize badge). Creator Pro is $9 per month, a single tier, which removes the badge and unlocks analytics (page visits, traffic sources, and locations), priority link placement, and deeper customization. There is no ladder to climb and no transaction fee, because we do not process your sales.
• Content stays in sync. Your YouTube uploads auto-sync onto the page automatically. TikTok and Instagram posts you add as embeds, and Spotify or Apple Music render as playable players, so the page shows your latest work instead of a list of links.

The honest limitation, and it is the important one for this comparison: ByteSize is not a commerce platform. We link out to your store or merch rather than taking payments, so there is no built-in checkout, no course hosting, and no email marketing suite. If your business runs on selling digital products directly from your bio page, Beacons does things we do not. If you want a great-looking page that stays current and points fans to wherever you sell, without a per-sale fee, that is the trade we are built for. See the full ByteSize vs Beacons comparison for the side-by-side.

If you are shopping around, our best Linktree alternatives roundup and free Linktree alternatives list both cover Beacons and where it fits. You can also claim a ByteSize handle and see your page with real content before deciding.

The honest bottom line

Beacons pricing looks like $0 to $90 a month, but the number that decides your real cost is the 9% transaction fee on the free and $10 tiers. If you sell through your page, that fee, not the subscription, is usually the reason to move up to the $30 Creator Plus plan, where it disappears. Work out your monthly sales first, then pick the tier: for active sellers the crossover comes fast, and the cheapest sticker price is rarely the cheapest total. If you are not selling through the page at all, a simpler link-in-bio tool without a commerce ladder will cost you less and do the bio-link job just as well.

Comparing more tools? Our Carrd pricing guide covers the cheapest end of the market, is Stan Store worth it runs the numbers on a paid-only seller tool, and Linktree pricing explained breaks down the incumbent.

FAQ

Is Beacons free?

Yes, Beacons has a genuine free plan at $0 per month. It includes the link-in-bio page, unlimited digital products, and basic email sends. The catch is a 9% transaction fee on anything you sell through it. The free plan is fine if you are not selling much, but that fee makes it expensive once your sales grow.

How much does Beacons cost per month?

As of July 2026, Beacons has four tiers: Free ($0), Creator ($10 per month), Creator Plus ($30 per month), and Creator Max ($90 per month). Annual billing lowers the effective monthly cost on the paid plans. The free and Creator plans also carry a 9% transaction fee on sales, which the Plus and Max plans remove.

What is the Beacons transaction fee?

Beacons charges a 9% transaction fee on sales on its free and $10 Creator plans. The fee drops to 0% on the Creator Plus ($30 per month) and Creator Max ($90 per month) plans. This is separate from standard payment processing fees, which every platform passes through. For active sellers, avoiding the 9% fee is often the main reason to upgrade.

Which Beacons plan should I choose?

Base it on how much you sell. If you rarely sell through the page, the free or $10 Creator plan is fine. If you sell more than roughly a couple hundred dollars a month, Creator Plus at $30 a month usually costs less overall, because it removes the 9% fee. Creator Max at $90 is aimed at established creators who want hands-on support and extras.

Is Beacons better than Linktree?

They aim at different things. Beacons leans harder into creator commerce, with a store, courses, and email built in, while Linktree is more of a straightforward link hub with monetization added on. Beacons can be better if you run a selling business from your bio page. If you mainly want a tidy, well-known link list, Linktree or a simpler tool may fit better. See our Linktree pricing guide for that comparison.

Is there a cheaper Beacons alternative without the sales fee?

Yes. Because ByteSize links out to your store rather than processing payments, there is no transaction fee on what you sell, and the pricing is a single flat tier: free to start, or Creator Pro at $9 per month. The tradeoff is that ByteSize is a link-in-bio page, not a commerce suite, so it has no built-in checkout or course hosting. If you want those, Beacons offers more; if you want a fresh, content-driven page with no per-sale cut, ByteSize is the leaner option.