# How to Vibe Code Your Own beehiiv (and Stop Paying for It)

> The newsletter platform built for growth

- Site: https://beehiiv.com
- Category: Email Marketing & Publishing
- Platforms: Web app
- Verdict: **Serious undertaking** (38/100 vibecodeable)
- Estimated effort: 4-6 weeks of focused development and debugging

## Verdict

You can build a personal publishing and email dashboard subset, but true newsletter deliverability at scale and native ad network loops make a complete clone a serious undertaking.

Building a personal-use clone of beehiiv requires combining a block-based editor, a public CMS, subscriber segmentation, and an email dispatch pipeline. While an AI agent can rapidly scaffold the Next.js frontend, database schemas, and basic email sending via Resend, you will hit severe engineering friction around robust background queue processing for tracking opens/clicks and configuring proper DNS/SPF/DKIM deliverability so your emails do not land straight in spam.

### What you can't replicate

- The massive native ad network connecting global brands with publishers
- A cross-promotion recommendation network with thousands of live newsletters
- Enterprise deliverability infrastructure across dedicated IP pools

## What it does

An all-in-one newsletter-first publishing and growth platform providing modular writing, website CMS hosting, referral networks, monetization tools, and email dispatch infrastructure.

### Core features

- Modular block-based newsletter editor with custom HTML/CSS compilation
- High-throughput transactional & marketing email queue system with bounce tracking
- No-code public web CMS and custom domain routing
- Recommendation network & cross-promotion attribution engine
- Subscriber management, segmentation, and custom fields
- Analytics tracking for opens, clicks, and web traffic
- Digital product storefronts with Stripe checkout

## The business

### Pricing

- Launch: $0
- Scale: $43/mo
- Max: $96/mo
- Enterprise: Custom

### Funding

$49.7M raised.
- Pre-Seed / Seed ($4.2M)
- Series A ($12.5M)
- Series B ($33M)
Investors: New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sapphire Sport, Creator Ventures

Founded 2021.
Team size: 130-150+.

## The hard parts

- Deliverability engineering: managing IP warmup, SPF/DKIM/DMARC loops, and ISP feedback queues without hitting spam traps
- Email client rendering fragmentation: compiling rich editor blocks into bulletproof inline-CSS HTML for Outlook and Gmail
- Asynchronous event ingestion pipelines: tracking real-time open pixels and click redirects at scale
- Cross-tenant recommendation matching and attribution logic

## How to vibe code beehiiv

### Prerequisites

- Node.js (free): Required runtime for executing the Next.js full-stack application locally.
- GitHub (free): Source control and repository hosting for deployment pipelines.
- Resend Account (free tier (3k emails/mo)): Transactional and marketing email sending API with domain verification.
- Supabase Account (free tier): Provides Postgres database, relational tables, and built-in user authentication.

### Recommended AI tools

- Claude Code: Best-in-class agentic coding tool for scaffolding full-stack features, writing backend queues, and fixing database migrations directly from the terminal.
- Cursor: Ideal AI code editor for fine-tuning complex React editor components, tailwind styling, and preview rendering.

### Stack

- Frontend: Next.js (App Router, Tailwind CSS, TipTap/ProseMirror editor)
- Backend: Next.js Server Actions & API Routes
- Database: Supabase (Postgres with pgvector and Row Level Security)
- Auth: better-auth
- Payments: Stripe
- Other: Resend (Email API), Inngest (Background jobs & email sequences), PostHog (Analytics)

### Hosting

- Vercel (Hosting the Next.js web application, public CMS routes, and API endpoints): $0-20/mo
- Supabase (Managed Postgres database and user authentication storage): $0/mo (Free Tier)

### Build guide

1. **Project Scaffolding & Database Schema Setup** — Initialize the Next.js project with TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, and configure Supabase database connections and Prisma/Drizzle or Supabase client.

```
Create a new Next.js 16 app with TypeScript and Tailwind CSS v4. Set up Supabase client connections and create initial database migrations for users, publications, subscribers, posts, and email_logs. Ensure proper relational foreign keys between publications and subscribers. Add better-auth configuration for email and password authentication.
```

2. **Modular Newsletter Editor & HTML Compiler** — Build a block-based rich text editor using TipTap or ProseMirror that supports paragraphs, images, buttons, and polls, compiling cleanly to inline-CSS HTML.

```
Build a newsletter post editor component using TipTap with custom extensions for callout boxes, buttons, image embeds, and polls. Create a robust utility function that compiles the editor JSON content into clean, responsive HTML with inline CSS styles designed to render identically across major email clients like Outlook and Gmail.
```

3. **Subscriber Management & Import Pipeline** — Implement subscriber data management, custom tags/segments, and CSV import capabilities with duplicate handling and status verification.

```
Create a subscriber management dashboard and API route for importing CSV lists. Implement tables for subscribers tracking email, status (active, unsubscribed, bounced), custom fields, and segmentation tags. Build filtering logic so creators can target specific segments when dispatching posts.
```

4. **Email Dispatch Pipeline & Tracking** — Integrate Resend API and Inngest to handle asynchronous batch email broadcasting, tracking pixels for opens, and rewritten redirect links for clicks.

```
Integrate the Resend API and Inngest background job runner to handle batch email dispatches. Implement tracking pixel generation for email opens and wrap all outbound links in newsletter emails with a redirect tracking route that records click analytics before forwarding the user to the destination URL.
```

5. **Public Web CMS & Custom Subdomains** — Build a dynamic public-facing CMS that archives published newsletter posts as clean web pages under creator subdomains.

```
Create a public-facing CMS layout and dynamic routing structure in Next.js that renders published newsletter posts as clean, SEO-optimized web articles. Implement header, footer, and subscribe form widgets matching the publication's brand settings.
```

6. **Monetization & Digital Product Storefronts** — Add Stripe integration allowing creators to set up digital product pages (downloads, guides) with instant delivery upon checkout.

```
Implement Stripe Checkout webhooks and digital product storefront pages. Creators can define products (files, links, coaching) with pricing. Build the checkout session creation flow and an automated fulfillment email containing secure download links upon successful payment.
```

### Cost vs paying

**Starting costs (one-time):**

- AI Coding Assistant (Claude Pro): $20
- Total: ~$20 one-time

**Ongoing costs (monthly):**

- Vercel Hobby/Pro & Supabase Free Tier: $0-25/mo
- Total: ~$0-25/mo

- Paying for the SaaS instead: $43/mo (Scale Plan)
- Build time: 45-60 hours
- AI tool credits: $20
- Break-even: N/A (Built for self-hosted utility and learning)

## Sources

- [beehiiv Official Website & Feature Overviews](https://beehiiv.com)
- [Business Insider - Beehiiv Series B Coverage](https://www.businessinsider.com)
- [Sacra - Beehiiv Revenue, Valuation & Funding Analysis](https://sacra.com)