The newsletter industry is experiencing unprecedented growth. Beehiiv, the platform built by former Morning Brew employees, has nearly doubled its newsletter base from 26,911 in 2023 to over 52,809 in 2024. By mid-2025, newsletters on the platform reach 350 million people, and open rates averaging 37-55% dwarf traditional email marketing benchmarks.
For WordPress site owners running Gravity Forms, capturing this newsletter opportunity has required an awkward workaround: routing every subscriber through Zapier or Make. That changes today with the release of Beehiiv for Gravity Forms—the first and only native Gravity Forms add-on that connects directly to Beehiiv.
Why Beehiiv Has Become the Newsletter Platform of Choice
Before diving into the integration, understanding why Beehiiv matters helps explain why this plugin fills such a significant gap.
Beehiiv was founded by the team behind Morning Brew, one of the most successful newsletter businesses ever built. They understood what newsletter creators actually need: powerful growth tools, sophisticated monetization options, and infrastructure that scales without penalizing success.
Growth That Speaks for Itself
The platform’s trajectory tells the story. According to Beehiiv’s 2025 State of Email Newsletters report:
- Newsletter growth: 96.2% year-over-year increase from 2023 to 2024
- Reach: 350 million people across the Beehiiv network by mid-2025
- Revenue: $30 million ARR by June 2025, up from $19.8 million at end of 2024
- Creator earnings: Jumped from $8 million in 2024 to $19 million in 2025 through paid subscriptions
- Email volume: Over 10 billion emails sent through the platform in 2024
Why Creators Choose Beehiiv Over Alternatives
Beehiiv differentiates itself from competitors like Substack and traditional email marketing platforms in several key ways:
- No revenue cut: Unlike Substack’s 10% fee on paid subscriptions, Beehiiv doesn’t take a percentage of creator earnings
- Free tier that actually works: Support for up to 2,500 subscribers at no cost
- Better pricing at scale: The Max plan costs $109/month compared to $350/month for equivalent Mailchimp features
- Built-in growth tools: Recommendation network, referral programs, and boost marketplace included
- Superior engagement: Average open rates of 37.67% versus 19-23% on general email platforms
Success stories like Milk Road, which scaled to 250,000 subscribers and got acquired in under a year on Beehiiv, demonstrate the platform’s potential for serious newsletter businesses.
The Integration Gap: Why Gravity Forms Users Needed This
Gravity Forms powers sophisticated form workflows on millions of WordPress sites. Its conditional logic, multi-page capabilities, and extensive add-on ecosystem make it the form builder of choice for developers and agencies.
But connecting Gravity Forms to Beehiiv has been unnecessarily complicated. Until now, WordPress site owners had only two options:
Option 1: Zapier or Make
The standard approach required routing every subscriber through a third-party automation platform. This method comes with significant drawbacks:
- Additional monthly costs: Zapier’s free tier limits you to 100 tasks per month. Active forms quickly exceed this, pushing you into paid plans starting at $19.99/month
- Workflow complexity: Building and maintaining automation workflows adds technical overhead
- Task limits during traffic spikes: High-traffic campaigns can exhaust your automation quota, causing subscribers to be missed
- Another point of failure: When Zapier has issues (and it does), your subscriber collection breaks silently
- Limited Beehiiv-specific features: Zapier can’t easily handle custom field mapping, double opt-in control, or UTM tracking the way a native integration can
Option 2: Manual Export and Import
Some site owners export Gravity Forms entries to CSV and manually import them into Beehiiv. This approach wastes time, delays subscriber onboarding, and creates opportunities for errors.
What Was Missing
A direct connection. A native add-on that speaks Gravity Forms on one side and Beehiiv’s API on the other, with no intermediary platform taking a cut or adding complexity.
Introducing Beehiiv for Gravity Forms
Beehiiv for Gravity Forms is the first native Gravity Forms add-on that connects directly to your Beehiiv publications. Developed by Odd Jar and released on January 29, 2025, it eliminates the Zapier workaround entirely.
The premise is straightforward: turn any Gravity Form into a newsletter signup form that sends subscribers directly to Beehiiv. No automation platform in the middle, no extra monthly fees, no workflow debugging.
Key Features
The plugin handles Beehiiv-specific functionality that generic automation tools struggle to replicate:
Direct Publication Connection
Connect any Gravity Form to your Beehiiv publications with zero code. The plugin uses Beehiiv’s official API to create subscribers instantly when forms are submitted.
Custom Field Mapping
Beehiiv’s custom fields let you store subscriber data beyond just email addresses—names, companies, interests, purchase history, or any information you collect. The plugin maps any Gravity Forms field to any Beehiiv custom field, preserving rich subscriber data that helps you segment and personalize your newsletters.
Double Opt-In Control
Override your publication’s default double opt-in setting on a per-form basis. Running a webinar registration where you want immediate delivery? Set opt-in to Off. Building a cold lead magnet funnel where verification matters? Set it to On. Or leave it at Default to respect your publication settings.
Built-In UTM Tracking
Every subscriber can be tagged with UTM parameters: source, medium, campaign, and referring site. These appear in your Beehiiv analytics, showing exactly which forms and campaigns drive subscriber growth. You can even use Gravity Forms merge tags to pull dynamic values from form fields.
Subscriber Reactivation
When someone who previously unsubscribed signs up again through your form, you control whether to reactivate their subscription. This feature respects user choice while giving you flexibility for re-engagement campaigns.
Conditional Logic Support
Use Gravity Forms’ conditional logic to control when the Beehiiv feed runs. Only subscribe people who check a newsletter checkbox. Only add subscribers from specific countries. Apply any condition Gravity Forms supports.
Multiple Publication Support
If you run multiple Beehiiv publications, the plugin handles all of them. Create different feeds for different publications, even on the same form.
Async Processing
Subscriber creation happens asynchronously, so form submissions never slow down. Your users get instant confirmation while the Beehiiv sync happens in the background.
Entry-Level Logging
Every form entry records its Beehiiv subscription status, including the subscription ID and any error messages. Troubleshooting subscriber issues takes seconds instead of hours.
Direct Integration vs. Zapier: A Clear Comparison
Understanding the practical differences helps evaluate which approach fits your situation:
| Factor | Beehiiv for Gravity Forms | Zapier Integration |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly Cost | $0 after license | $0-$69+/month depending on volume |
| Setup Time | 5-10 minutes | 10-20 minutes per workflow |
| Task Limits | None | 100-2,000+ depending on plan |
| Custom Field Mapping | Native support | Requires additional configuration |
| Double Opt-In Control | Per-form settings | Limited/complex |
| UTM Tracking | Built-in with merge tags | Requires custom setup |
| Conditional Logic | Uses Gravity Forms native | Separate filter configuration |
| Reliability | Direct API, fewer failure points | Depends on Zapier uptime |
| Entry Logging | Subscription ID stored per entry | Logged in Zapier separately |
For sites with moderate form volume, Zapier’s free tier might work. But once you’re collecting more than 100 subscribers per month, the cost-benefit calculation shifts decisively toward a direct integration.
How to Set Up Beehiiv for Gravity Forms
The setup process takes about five minutes:
- Install and activate the plugin on your WordPress site (requires Gravity Forms)
- Get your Beehiiv API key from your Beehiiv account settings
- Enter the API key in the plugin settings
- Create a new feed on any Gravity Form you want to connect
- Select your publication and map your email field
- Configure optional settings: custom fields, double opt-in, UTM tracking, conditional logic
That’s it. The next form submission creates a subscriber in Beehiiv automatically.
Who Should Use This Plugin
Beehiiv for Gravity Forms makes the most sense for:
- Newsletter creators on WordPress who want seamless subscriber collection without automation overhead
- Agencies building client sites that need reliable, maintainable integrations
- E-commerce stores using Gravity Forms for lead magnets or post-purchase signups
- Course creators and coaches who want to build their newsletter alongside their WordPress business
- Anyone currently paying for Zapier primarily to connect these two tools
Pricing
Beehiiv for Gravity Forms offers two licensing options:
- Annual – Single Site: $39/year
- Lifetime – Unlimited Sites: $250 one-time
Both options include all features and updates. A 14-day refund policy applies if the plugin doesn’t meet your needs.
For context, Zapier’s Starter plan costs $19.99/month ($240/year) with a 750-task limit. If you’re collecting more than a few hundred subscribers monthly, the math clearly favors the direct integration.
The Newsletter Opportunity Is Now
Email newsletters are experiencing a renaissance. With social media algorithms becoming increasingly unpredictable and advertising costs rising, owning your audience through email has never been more valuable.
Beehiiv has positioned itself as the platform for serious newsletter creators—those who want growth tools, monetization options, and infrastructure that doesn’t penalize success. The 96% year-over-year growth in newsletters on the platform suggests creators are voting with their feet.
For WordPress site owners running Gravity Forms, Beehiiv for Gravity Forms removes the last friction point between your forms and your newsletter. No more Zapier configurations to maintain. No more monthly automation costs. No more worrying about task limits during your best-performing campaigns.
Just a direct connection between two powerful tools, working exactly as they should.