Beacons Pricing 2026: 9% Free-Plan Fee & What You Really Pay
Beacons advertises a free plan — and it is genuinely usable. But the pricing story lives in the fine print: a 9% seller fee on the free and $10 tiers, the Beacons logo on free pages, email caps, and upgrades that only pay off at certain sales volumes. If you are deciding whether to sell from a Beacons page — or whether to move your shop somewhere that charges 0% on payments buyers make to you directly — here is the whole picture, with real numbers and sources.
Founder, MinglyLink
Is Beacons free?
Yes, Beacons has a $0 plan, but it takes 9% of every sale, keeps Beacons branding on your page and caps email at 50 sends a month. The seller fee drops to 0% only on Creator Plus ($30 a month) or Creator Max, and your payment processor’s fee applies on every plan.
1 Beacons plans and fees
Prices from Beacons’ own pricing page, checked on 26 September 2026 (the product is Beacons, often written “Beacons AI”; same tool).
| Plan | Billed monthly | Billed annually | Beacons fee per sale | Branding | Also includes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 9% | Beacons branding | Bio page, media kit, unlimited digital products, 50 email sends a month, 30 AI credits a day |
| Creator | $10/mo | $8.33/mo ($100/yr) | 9% | Beacons branding | Custom domain, 300 AI credits a day |
| Creator Plus | $30/mo | $25/mo ($300/yr) | 0% | Branding can be removed | Keep 100% of affiliate commissions |
| Creator Max | $90–$100/mo (Beacons’ pages disagree) | $900/yr | 0% | Branding can be removed | Everything in Creator Plus |
Payment-processor fees (Stripe 2.9% + 30¢, PayPal 3.49% plus a fixed fee) apply on top of any seller fee, on every plan — that part is true of every platform, including ours.
TL;DR
- • Beacons has four tiers in 2026: Free ($0), Creator ($10/mo), Creator Plus ($30/mo) and Creator Max ($900/yr) — annual billing saves ~2 months.
- • The Free and Creator plans charge a 9% seller fee on everything you sell. It drops to 0% from Creator Plus up.
- • Selling more than ~$330/month (~$280 on annual billing)? The Creator Plus plan is already cheaper than staying "free."
- • Want $0/month and a 0% MinglyLink fee (buyers pay you directly by cash, transfer or your payment link)? That combination is what MinglyLink offers.
- • Weighing Beacons against Linktree and Later plan by plan? See Linktree vs Beacons vs Later.
2 What the Free Plan Actually Includes
Credit where due: Beacons' free plan is one of the more generous in the link-in-bio space. You get a customizable bio page, a daily-updating media kit (genuinely useful for brand pitches), the ability to sell unlimited digital products, basic email marketing, and a taste of their AI tools.
The limits you will actually feel:
- The 9% seller fee — the big one; more on the math below.
- 50 email sends per month — enough to test email marketing, not enough to use it.
- Beacons branding on your page, and no custom domain until the $10 tier.
- Upgrade prompts — Beacons monetizes by converting free users, so expect the nudges.
3 Fees per sale
Percentages feel abstract, so here is a concrete sale. You sell a $100 digital product on the Beacons free plan, which carries the 9% seller fee[1]:
- • Beacons seller fee (9%): −$9.00
- • Payment processing (~2.9% + 30¢): −$3.20
- • You keep: ~$87.80
On MinglyLink the same $100 order carries no MinglyLink fee: paid through a card payment link, about $96.80 reaches you after a typical US card fee (2.9% + 30¢); paid in cash or by bank transfer, no platform or card fee comes off. Same product, same customer, $9 difference per $100.
The break-even logic follows directly: once you sell more than about $330/month, the 9% fee (~$30) costs more than the $30 Creator Plus plan (on annual billing, $25/month, the line is ~$280). Below that volume, the free plan is rationally "cheap"; above it, staying free is the expensive choice — which is precisely how the pricing is designed.
One thing Beacons gets right: it does not sit on your money. Its help centre says sales go straight into your own Stripe or PayPal account when the customer pays, so the payout timing is your processor’s. Affiliate commissions are the exception: Beacons pays those through PayPal within 5–7 business days.
4 When Upgrading Makes Sense (and When It Doesn't)
Stay on Free if you are testing the waters: occasional sales, no email marketing, and you do not mind the branding.
Creator ($10/mo) is oddly positioned — you pay a subscription and still pay the 9% fee. It makes sense mainly if the custom domain and larger email allowance matter to you before your sales volume does.
Creator Plus ($30/mo) is the real upgrade: 0% seller fees, no Beacons branding and 100% of your affiliate commissions. If you consistently sell more than ~$330/month, it pays for itself against the free plan's fees.
Creator Max ($900/yr) is for creators running a business on Beacons who want support, onboarding, and the extras — the fee math is the same as Creator Plus.
5 Beacons vs the Alternatives
Beacons is a strong all-in-one if you will actually use the media kit, email marketing, and AI tools — that bundle is its honest advantage. If what you mainly want is a bio page that sells things, the fee structure deserves a hard look.
MinglyLink takes the opposite approach: everything free, forever — bio page, full customization, built-in shop and booking calendar, analytics — with nothing paywalled. MinglyLink takes 0% of your sales. Buyers place the order on your page and pay you directly, however you agree: cash on delivery, bank transfer or your own payment link, outside MinglyLink. When card payments through MinglyLink launch, they will carry the card processor’s fee plus a small MinglyLink fee; orders paid to you directly stay at 0%. On top of that, a 60% ad revenue share pays you for the traffic you already have. The trade-offs: we are newer, there is no media kit builder, and you send digital files to buyers yourself. Full head-to-head in our Beacons vs MinglyLink comparison.
Also worth knowing: Linktree charges a commerce fee on its Free plan and only drops it on its most expensive tier — see Linktree pricing for the 2026 numbers — and Lnk.bio uses cheap one-time purchases, with a 5% fee on its shop and booking add-ons — we broke its model down in the Lnk.bio pricing guide. For the wider field, see the Linktree alternatives that are actually free, what 15 tools charge per sale in the link-in-bio fees table, and, if you sell digital products, the Stan Store alternatives.
6 Frequently Asked Questions
Is Beacons really free?
Beacons has a genuinely free plan — you can build a link-in-bio page, generate a media kit, and sell digital products at $0/month. The costs are indirect: a 9% seller fee on everything you sell, 50 email sends per month, and Beacons branding. Free to use, not free to sell on.
What are Beacons transaction fees?
Beacons charges a 9% seller fee on the Free and Creator ($10/month) plans, on top of payment-processor charges (Stripe 2.9% + $0.30, PayPal 3.49% plus a fixed fee). The seller fee drops to 0% on Creator Plus ($30/month) and Creator Max.
How much is Beacons per month in 2026?
Four tiers: Free ($0), Creator ($10/month, or $100 billed annually), Creator Plus ($30/month, or $300 annually) and Creator Max ($900 billed annually; Beacons lists the monthly price as $100 on its pricing page and $90 in its help centre). Annual billing works out to roughly two months free.
Does the Beacons free plan include a store?
Yes — the free plan lets you sell unlimited digital products from your bio page, which is more generous than most competitors. The catch is the 9% seller fee on every sale and the 50-email-per-month cap on marketing.
How much does Beacons take per sale?
On the Free and Creator plans Beacons keeps 9% of each sale; on Creator Plus and Creator Max it keeps 0%. Your payment processor charges its own fee on every plan. On a $100 sale on the free plan that is $9 to Beacons plus about $3.20 to Stripe.
When does Beacons pay out?
Beacons does not hold your sales: its help centre says the money goes straight into your own Stripe or PayPal account when the customer pays, so the timing is your processor’s. Affiliate commissions are paid through PayPal within 5–7 business days.
What is a free alternative to Beacons with no seller fee?
MinglyLink — a free link-in-bio page with a built-in shop and booking calendar, nothing paywalled. 0% MinglyLink fee: buyers pay you directly (cash, transfer or your payment link). On top, a 60% ad revenue share pays you for your page traffic. See our Beacons vs MinglyLink comparison for the full picture.