Linktree vs Beacons comparison: 2026 prices, fees, tools

Linktree vs Beacons: the short answer

Beacons takes a 9% seller fee on the Free and Creator plans; 0% starts at Creator Plus, $30 a month¹. Beacons prices and Linktree plan features below were checked on each company's own pages on Nov 5, 2026.

\* Linktree's pricing page sets dollar amounts by visitor location, so the page we read published no single USD list. The latest dated third-party read (linke.ro, USD prices read July 2, 2026) lists Starter at $8, Pro at $15 and Premium at $35 a month⁴.

For brand teams reading this: a creator's bio page is often their storefront and media kit in one, and Beacons media kits update daily with audience and engagement data from linked social accounts¹.

If neither tool fits, Beacons alternatives sorted by the job you need done maps the rest.

What each plan costs in 2026

Over 12 months, Creator costs $100 instead of $120. Plus costs $300 instead of $360, and Max costs $1,000 instead of $1,200¹.

Max adds Google Workspace over Plus, along with white-glove onboarding and priority support. That costs $70 more a month, or $700 more a year on annual billing, with the same 0% seller fee on both¹.

Some comparison pages still list Max at $75⁵ or $90⁴. Beacons' own page shows $100¹. Budget with that number.

Linktree has an Agency or Enterprise option. It offers team seats, dedicated support and custom contracts².

On Linktree pricing, the dollar amounts are set by location, so prices vary by region. linke.ro reports Pro rose from $9 to $15 in late November 2025⁴.

Older comparisons still show Starter at $5⁶ or Pro at $9⁷. Check your own price on linktr.ee/s/pricing. Do it before you buy.

For a plan-by-plan look at the Beacons side, see Beacons pricing 2026: plans, the 9% fee and what you keep.

When Beacons' 9% fee costs more than a plan

On the Free plan, Beacons takes 9% of each sale. Creator Plus charges a flat $30 a month with no seller fee¹. The break-even is $30 divided by 0.09, or $333.33 in monthly sales, and below that, Free wins.

Pay for Plus annually and it works out to $25 a month, which drops the line to $277.78. Above those lines, Plus wins.

What 9% looks like in practice: monthly sales of $100 cost $9, $250 cost $22.50, $1,000 cost $90 and $2,000 cost $180¹.

Creator is not a fee saver. At $10 a month it keeps the 9% fee and adds features on top of Free. Those adds include a free custom domain and 300 daily AI credits, and email sends rise to 500 a month¹.

At $500 in monthly sales, Free costs $45 in fees. Creator costs $55, the $10 plan plus $45 in fees. Creator Plus costs $30 flat.

On cost alone, Creator is never the cheapest option. You buy it for the features.

One widely read comparison claims the $10 plan removes transaction fees⁶. Beacons' own page lists 0% seller fees only from Creator Plus up¹.

On Linktree, Pro lists 0% Linktree fees on selling². The Stripe processing fee, typically 2.9% plus $0.30 per purchase and varying by country, applies on every plan that can sell⁸⁹. No plan takes a percentage of direct sales, since Premium includes everything in Pro and also lists 0%². Free and Starter can only share free products, not sell paid ones³.

Worked example: on a $25 digital product sold through Linktree Pro, Stripe takes $1.03 and you keep about $23.98. The same sale on Beacons Free costs $2.25 in seller fees, so you keep $22.75 before any card processing, which Beacons does not list on its pricing page.

Selling products and getting paid

Paid digital products on Linktree require Pro or Premium, though free ones can be shared on any plan. Direct earnings from Bookings, along with digital products and courses, are limited to supported countries, including the United States and Canada³. Products can be priced anywhere from $1 to $10,000⁹.

Money from a Linktree sale lands in your Stripe account right after purchase, and Stripe pays out to your bank on the schedule you choose. You are the seller of record, so refunds and taxes sit with you, and all fees are non-refundable⁹. Adult content can't be sold or shared this way³.

Partner earnings work differently. On Linktree's Shops and sponsored links, plus affiliate opportunities, the fee is a cut of the commission, already reflected in what the catalog shows⁸. You also pay a $0.25 Stripe fee each time you cash out²⁸. As an example, four payouts in a month means $1.00 in payout fees.

Beacons lets you sell unlimited digital products even on the free plan. It supports 20+ currencies including USD, EUR, GBP and CAD. Creator Plus adds Buy Now Pay Later through Klarna or Affirm. It also includes unlimited courses and memberships¹.

You can also build affiliate links to about 12,000 brand partners. The affiliate transaction fee is 9% on Free and Creator and 0% on Plus and Max, so Plus creators keep 100% of their commissions¹.

If a store-first tool is on your shortlist, Beacons vs Stan Store fees, plans and fit covers that matchup.

Brand deals: media kits, rate cards and invoices

The daily-updating media kit from the table above comes on every Beacons plan. So do rate cards, a pricing calculator, media kit analytics and invoices that you generate, send and track yourself. An AI Brand Outreach Email Generator writes pitch emails that include your media kit, with unlimited generations on all plans¹.

Linktree's pricing page lists no media kit and no invoicing. Deal income there runs through sponsored links and the affiliate marketplace. Those partner earnings are only available to creators in the United States⁸.

What neither tool does, per their own pages: answer brand emails for you or negotiate rates. You send and chase each invoice from Beacons yourself¹. Beacons' pricing page doesn't describe holding a brand's payment until your posts are live.

If the brand inbox is your bottleneck, Rateful takes a different approach. Each TikTok Shop creator gets a deals address at handle@rateful.ai, and Sam, the AI manager, answers it. Sam negotiates to the rate card you set and never goes below your minimum, and accepting a deal always needs your OK.

Rateful collects the brand's payment before you film. On your own deals, your deposit is released before filming, and Rateful holds only the rest until the posts are live. The agreement states the exact payment plan.

Rateful takes 0% of your deals. You pay nothing until your first deal closes, and payouts are US only for now. It is not a link in bio replacement, though each creator does get a bookable page at rateful.ai/@handle with their packages and recent videos, along with their numbers.

If you are building your kit by hand, start with this free media kit template for TikTok creators. For the deal-flow side, Rateful vs Linktree for brand deals compares the two approaches.

Design, email, analytics and TikTok

On TikTok specifically, Linktree says its domain is trusted by Instagram, TikTok and Facebook². At the same time, Linktree's own help center has an article explaining why Instagram or TikTok may show a warning when someone opens a Linktree¹⁰. Treat third-party claims that either domain is "whitelisted" or "blocked" as unproven. Neither company guarantees it.

Trials, cancelling and billing fine print

Linktree offers a 7-day free trial on Pro². You cancel from the Billing page, and paid features stay on until the current billing period ends. A $1 charge after subscribing is a temporary pre-authorization hold by your bank¹⁰.

Plans in the US and Canada get sales tax (or GST/HST, QST, PST) added at checkout. Linktree is also running a limited test of ads on Free Linktrees, so a free page may show advertising you didn't choose¹⁰.

Beacons' pricing page does not state a free trial of its paid plans. The free tier plays that role. It costs nothing and includes the media kit and store.

• Choose Beacons Free if your sales are under about $333 a month and you want brand-deal tools like the media kit and rate cards.
• Go with Beacons Creator Plus if your sales run over that line, since the flat $30 replaces the 9% cut.
• Pick Linktree Pro if you want a simple, well-known page with a 0% Linktree cut on sales, after checking your local price on linktr.ee/s/pricing.