Beacons Pricing in 2026: Plans, Fees and What Coaches Pay

Beacons pricing, as listed in October 2026, has four plans: Free at $0, Creator at $10 a month ($8.33 a month billed annually), Creator Plus at $30 ($25 annually) and Creator Max at $100 ($83.33 annually). The number that matters most is not on that list: Free and Creator also take a 9% seller fee on every sale, and only Creator Plus and Creator Max drop it to 0%. For almost any coach selling more than a few hundred dollars a month, Creator Plus is the first plan that makes sense.

We make Coachful, a coaching platform, so we have a stake in where you land. Beacons' numbers below come from its own pricing page, checked in late October 2026. We have not tested Beacons hands-on; this is what it documents and what public reviewers report. The short version is that Beacons is a good, inexpensive storefront for creators, and that the coaching work around the sale (booking, contracts, client records, program delivery) is mostly not what its pricing page is selling. That gap is where the real cost for a coach sits.

How much does Beacons cost in 2026?

Beacons costs between $0 and $100 a month, or up to $1,000 a year on annual billing, before processing fees. Annual billing is sold as "2 months free" on each paid plan. All prices are in US dollars, as listed in October 2026.

Those annual prices save $20 a year on Creator, $60 on Creator Plus and $200 on Creator Max compared with paying monthly. Beacons calls the Free plan "free forever", and we saw no time-limited trial of the paid plans described on the pricing page.

What does each Beacons plan add?

Each step up buys either more marketing capacity or a lower cut of your sales. Only one step, from Creator to Creator Plus, changes the economics of selling.

Free: a link in bio that takes 9%

Free includes the link in bio, a daily-updating media kit, unlimited digital products, affiliate links, Instagram auto-DM and analytics. For a coach, the catch is capacity. Fifty email sends a month will not cover a small newsletter, and a single page is a thin website. The AI allowance is also smaller than it first reads, because actions cost different amounts of credits: a text generation costs 1 credit and an AI email generation costs 30, so one AI email uses a Free plan's whole day.

Creator: more room, the same fee

Creator adds a free custom domain, advanced SEO and marketing options, 300 daily AI credits, 500 email sends a month and more website room. It keeps the 9% fee, which is the reason this plan is easy to misjudge. It looks like a cheap upgrade, but as soon as you sell anything meaningful you pay the $10 and the same percentage you paid on Free.

Creator Plus: the plan coaches should actually compare

Creator Plus removes the seller fee and adds Buy Now Pay Later through Klarna or Affirm, 100% of affiliate commissions, unlimited courses with video hosting, unlimited memberships, unlimited email sends and unlimited AI credits. Any coach planning to sell a course or a membership on Beacons effectively starts here, because the lower plans list one course with no video hosting.

Creator Max: service and extras

Creator Max adds Google Workspace, white-glove onboarding, priority support with a response under 6 hours, an NFC card, Beacons IRL events and larger websites (15 sites of 10 pages each). The seller fee is the same 0% as Creator Plus. Listed support times on the other plans are under 48 hours on Free, under 24 on Creator and under 12 on Creator Plus. For most solo coaches, nothing on this list earns the extra $70 a month unless page count or the faster support is a genuine constraint.

What fees does Beacons charge on top of the plan?

The fee to plan around is the 9% seller fee on Free and Creator. Beacons' own pricing FAQ describes it as a 9% commission on all sales on those plans, and 0% on Creator Plus and Creator Max. Processing is a separate question, and Beacons does not publish those rates on the page we checked.

Your processor will charge its own fee, so check the Stripe or PayPal rate for your country before you build a price on top of it. We do not estimate Beacons' processing cost here, and every total in this article excludes it. Beacons does list instant cash-outs to your Stripe or PayPal account, along with sales in more than 20 currencies.

When does Creator Plus pay for itself?

Creator Plus pays for itself once you sell more than about $222 a month, compared with staying on Creator, or about $333 a month compared with Free. The table shows what you hand to Beacons at each sales level on monthly billing. Sales figures are examples, not typical results.

On annual billing the break-even points fall to about $185 a month against Creator and about $278 against Free. A single package priced above those lines clears them in one sale, which is why the Free plan is rarely the cheap option for a coach. If you have not set your package prices yet, the package pricing calculator and our guide to value based pricing for coaches will help you work out your sales figure first.

What does a coach actually pay at three sizes?

A coach on Beacons pays $30 a month or less to Beacons once sales pass a few hundred dollars, plus whatever the rest of the stack costs. The worked examples below use illustrative sales and client counts, monthly billing and no processing fees. The last column is the part most pricing pages leave out.

Over a year, the starting coach in this example would hand Beacons $1,620 in fees on the Free plan and $300 on Creator Plus billed annually. That is the clearest single saving in this article.

The fourth column has real prices of its own, and they vary by tool, so we will not guess at a total. Price them with our guides to Calendly pricing, Acuity Scheduling pricing and HoneyBook pricing, then add the result to the Beacons line. That sum, not the $30, is the number to compare against a full platform.

What are the hidden costs and gotchas in Beacons pricing?

Beacons' prices are clear, and the surprises come from what sits outside them. These are the ones a coach should check before paying.

• The 9% applies to all sales. Beacons describes the commission on Free and Creator as applying to all sales, so a high-ticket package bears the same percentage as a small download. On a $2,000 example package, that is $180.
• Creator is not a halfway step on fees. Upgrading from Free to Creator costs $10 a month and saves nothing on the seller fee.
• Courses need Creator Plus to be practical. Free and Creator list one course with no video hosting, so video would have to be hosted elsewhere.
• Booking is not a headline feature. The word "booking" does not appear on the pricing page we read. The comparison table lists a "Multiple Calendar Integration" row for Google calendars, but no booking pages tied to client records. See how it compares in Stan Store vs Beacons.
• Automations have caps on lower tiers. The table shows limits of 5 and 20 automation sequences a month on lower tiers, and some tiers keep Beacons branding on advanced Instagram DM automations.
• Refund and cancellation terms are not on the pricing page. Read the billing terms before committing to a year, because we found no cancellation or refund wording on that page.
• No seat pricing. We found no team seats or per-coach options on the page. A coach adding a second coach has no listed path on these plans.
• Data export for coaching records is an open question. The table lists audience imports and exports for contacts. We found no documentation about exporting a wider client history.

Public sentiment is worth a look too. Beacons showed a Trustpilot score of 2 from 43 reviews when we checked on 25 October 2026. That is a small sample, and creators' experience may differ from what a handful of reviewers report, so read the recent reviews rather than relying on the score alone.

Is Beacons worth it for coaches?

Beacons is worth it if your business is mostly selling digital products to a social audience, and it is a poor fit if your income comes from delivering ongoing client work. The decision depends on what happens after the checkout.

New coaches selling their first offer

A coach testing an idea can start on Free, but plan to move as soon as you sell. The moment your monthly sales pass about $333, Free costs more than Creator Plus. If your first offer is 1:1 coaching rather than a download, you will still need somewhere to book, sign and track clients, which our guide for new coaches covers.

Content-led coaches and creators with an audience

This is the strongest fit. If you sell guides, templates and a small course from Instagram, want keyword-triggered auto-DMs and earn brand or affiliate income on the side, Creator Plus covers a lot for $30 a month. The media kit and affiliate network, with more than 12,000 brand partners listed, are real extras aimed at creator income.

1:1 coaches with packages

Beacons can take the money, but the pricing page shows no client records, contracts, habits or check-ins. You would run the work itself in other tools. Compare the total against coaching software built for the whole client relationship before you decide.

Group program coaches

Creator Plus includes unlimited courses and memberships, so a self-paced offer can work. Live cohorts need more: scheduled calls, cohort groups and accountability between sessions, which is what group coaching software is for.

Health, fitness and nutrition coaches

Selling a meal guide or training plan on Beacons is straightforward, but logging workouts and reviewing client check-ins is outside what its pricing page shows. Coachful's Fitness & Nutrition pack is built for that work. Coaching is not medical care on either platform: refer clients with symptoms, injuries, eating disorders or medication questions to a licensed clinician. Coachful is not HIPAA-certified, so clinical records belong in a clinical system.

Coaches building a team

Beacons lists no coach seats. If you plan to add coaches, look at a platform with seats and per-coach availability from the start, such as Coachful's team plans.

How does Beacons pricing compare with the alternatives?

Beacons is one of the cheaper subscriptions here even at Creator Plus, but only Coachful in this group covers booking, contracts and between-session program delivery under one login. Vendor prices are as listed in October 2026.

Stan Store

Stan Store is the closest like-for-like. It charges no seller fee from the first plan, at $29 a month or $25 annually, so a coach who would otherwise pick Beacons Creator Plus should check both. Email marketing, upsells, discount codes and affiliates sit on the $99 Creator Pro plan. Read our Stan Store pricing breakdown for the detail.

Systeme.io

Systeme.io is the strongest low-cost option if funnels and email matter more than a link-in-bio page. Its Free plan covers 2,000 contacts with 0% transaction fees, and its Trustpilot score was 4.9 from 8,696 reviews when checked on 25 October 2026. We go through it in Beacons vs Systeme.io and Systeme.io pricing.

Podia

Podia sits between a storefront and a course platform, with a 14-day trial and no card required. Its email allowance is small, at 100, 500 and 1,000 included subscribers across the three plans, so a list-heavy coach should budget for that.

Kajabi

Kajabi costs far more and targets a different job: courses, communities, funnels and email at scale. The Basic plan is capped at 5 products and 2,500 contacts and has no AI credits. See Kajabi pricing if you are weighing that jump.

Skool

Skool suits a coach whose product is a community. The Hobby plan looks cheap, but it takes 10% + 30¢ per transaction, a similar trap to Beacons' 9% on the lower plans. Payments run only through Skool Payments. More in Skool pricing, and our comparison hub has further matchups.

Where does Coachful fit if you coach for a living?

Coachful is the better choice if you deliver programs and client work rather than mostly selling products. One subscription covers booking, payments, contracts, program delivery with habits and check-ins, courses, a community, a website with funnels and email, and an AI assistant, with one login for you and one branded app for your clients. It is built for coaches who deliver programs, not just sessions, solo coaches growing into a small team, and coaches replacing 4 to 6 tools. It is based in Tallinn, Estonia, and shows a Trustpilot score of 4.5 from 21 reviews.

The difference from Beacons shows up after someone pays. Booking pages handle availability rules, buffers and time zones, with two-way Google, Apple and Outlook calendar sync and built-in video or automatic Zoom, Meet and Teams links. Coaching agreements with e-signature go out before the first call and stay on the client record. Clients then work through multi-week programs with weekly goals, daily tasks, habits and morning and evening check-ins, while you see each client's status as thriving, active, quiet or at risk.

This short walkthrough shows how the scheduling side works:

Payments run through your own Stripe Connect or Razorpay account, with one-time charges, subscriptions, payment plans, order bumps, coupons and refunds. Coachful has charged a 0% platform fee since August 2026, so you pay only Stripe or Razorpay processing. Current plans: Lite: $29/month for up to 5 clients; Solo: $49/month for up to 20 clients; Pro: $99/month with unlimited clients; Studio: $199/month with unlimited clients. Lower plans cap the number of clients, Pro is unlimited, and team plans add coach seats. Monthly plans cancel in one click, and you can start with a free trial.

It also overlaps with what draws coaches to Beacons in the first place. Coachful includes a link-in-bio page that sells, a section-based website builder, funnels, email sequences and Instagram automations that send a booking link, lead magnet or checkout in a DM when someone comments a keyword. That person lands in the same lead and client records. You can read more about scheduling and coaching contracts on their own pages.

Why Coachful stands out: a free white-glove service. From Create, you describe what you want built, such as a website, funnel, sales page, program, course outline, email sequence or link in bio, and attach reference links and files. The Coachful team builds it inside your own account, usually within about 24 hours, on every plan. Nothing gets invented, so gaps are left for you to fill rather than padded with fake credentials or testimonials. In one recent build, a leadership coach with a Squarespace renewal days away got a clean homepage with a repeated "talk with me" button. It does not cover recording videos, logo design, ad management or ongoing marketing. Read more about the white-glove service.

Here is what Coachful does not do, so you can rule it out quickly:

• It is not HIPAA-certified, offers no BAA, and is not for clinical record-keeping or insurance billing.
• It has no PayPal, and there is no permanent no-cost tier.
• The client app ships under the Coachful listing with your branding, not under your own App Store account.
• Its Instagram automations do not gate content behind a follow or capture emails inside the DM.
• It is not a course marketplace or a general website builder for non-coaching sites.

To start, take the free trial, connect Stripe or Razorpay, then either build your first offer from a template or send a white-glove request. Clients, programs and content are imported for you during onboarding if you are moving from another tool.

Who should pick Beacons over Coachful?

Pick Beacons over Coachful if you are a creator first and your coaching is a side product. Its media kit, brand deal tools and affiliate network are built for creator income. Beacons' listed advanced Instagram DM automations can also ask for a follow and collect emails inside the chat, which Coachful does not do. PayPal checkout, Klarna and Affirm are further reasons if your buyers want them.

Pick Coachful if clients pay you to change something over weeks or months. Coaches who need to know who has done their check-in, who has gone quiet and what was agreed on the last call are buying a different product from a storefront, even if both can take a payment.

How can you save money on Beacons?

The best way to save on Beacons is to avoid the 9% fee as soon as your sales justify it, then bill annually if you are sure you will stay. These steps are in order of how much they tend to matter.

1. Do the break-even math first. Above about $222 a month in sales, Creator Plus beats Creator. Above about $333, it beats Free.
2. Skip Creator if you are selling. It only pays when you need the custom domain or the extra email sends and your sales are still very low.
3. Bill annually once you are sure. That saves $60 a year on Creator Plus and $200 on Creator Max. Check the refund terms first, because they are not on the pricing page.
4. Time your upgrade to a launch. If a launch will bring in a large sum in a month, moving to Creator Plus beforehand costs $30, while 9% of $5,000 in example sales is $450.
5. Do not pay for Creator Max by default. Upgrade only if you need the page count, Google Workspace or support under 6 hours.
6. Add up the whole stack. If you pay for booking, contracts, email and a course tool next to Beacons, compare the combined bill with one platform. Our Kit pricing guide helps if email is part of that sum.

Beacons pricing FAQ

How much does Beacons cost per month?

As listed in October 2026, Beacons costs $0 on Free, $10 on Creator, $30 on Creator Plus and $100 on Creator Max with monthly billing. Annual billing brings those paid plans down to $8.33, $25 and $83.33 a month. Payment processing is separate.

Is Beacons really free?

The Free plan has no subscription cost and Beacons calls it "free forever", but it takes a 9% commission on all sales. It also limits you to 50 email sends a month and one website with one page. It is free to run and not free to sell on.

Does Beacons offer a free trial of its paid plans?

We saw no paid-plan trial described on the pricing page in October 2026. The Free plan fills that role, so you can test the link in bio and store before paying. Courses with video hosting cannot be tested that way, since they start on Creator Plus.

What is the Beacons seller fee?

It is a 9% commission Beacons takes on sales on the Free and Creator plans, including affiliate link sales. Creator Plus and Creator Max charge 0%. Your payment processor's own fee is separate and is not shown on the pricing page.

Which Beacons plan is best for coaches?

Creator Plus, for most coaches who sell anything. It removes the 9% fee, adds courses with video hosting and memberships and lifts the email cap, for $30 a month or $25 billed annually. Creator Max mainly adds service and extras, not selling power.

Can you book coaching sessions on Beacons?

The pricing page does not list booking pages with client records, and the word "booking" does not appear on it, though there is a row for connecting multiple Google calendars. If sessions are central to your business, test the flow on the Free plan before paying, or use a tool built for sessions. Coachful includes booking pages, calendar sync and session reminders in the membership.

Is Beacons cheaper than Stan Store?

Beacons is cheaper to start, with a Free plan and Creator at $10, but those plans take 9%. Stan Store starts at $29 a month with no seller fee, so it costs less than Beacons Creator once sales pass about $211 a month on monthly billing. Compared directly, Creator Plus at $30 and Stan Store's Creator at $29 are close.

What is Coachful's white-glove service?

It is a free build service on every Coachful plan. You describe what you want, such as a website, funnel, program or email sequence, and attach references, and the Coachful team builds it in your own account, usually within about 24 hours. It does not include recording videos, logo design, ad management or ongoing marketing.

Should a coach use Beacons or Coachful?

Use Beacons if you mostly sell digital products to a social audience and earn from brand deals or affiliates. Use Coachful if you deliver coaching over time and want booking, contracts, payments, programs, check-ins and a client app under one login.