Beehiiv and Kit are engaged in the most passive aggressive marketing competition ever

Yesterday, the email marketing company ConvertKit rebranded to "Kit."

It was the culmination of 10 months of work, so the Kit staff was understandably quite excited:

But as they were celebrating their triumph, a competitor was in the video lab cooking up a response.

That competitor was beehiiv. And that response was nothing short of savage:

To the outside eye this might seem like an uncalled-for dig, but this beef has been brewing for a looooong time.

The combatants

Kit and beehiiv are very, very similar. They are both email newsletter platforms at their core, but they brand themselves a bit differently. Whereas beehiiv really leans into their newsletter chops, Kit pitches itself as the "email-first operating system for creators".

But, for all intents and purposes, they provide the same service. Thus, they are competing for the same customer, and they know it.

Both of them have pages comparing themselves to the other, with beehiiv even having a whole article on how to switch from Kit to beehiiv.

More entertainingly for us, they also have frequently taken shots at each other on social media.

Fight!

If you scroll through the pages of Nathan Barry (CEO of Kit) and Tyler Denk (CEO of beehiiv), you'll find example after example of them taking a little shot at the other.

Here's Nathan taking a little swipe at beehiiv's reliance on VC funding.

Here's Tyler dunking on a (alleged) Kit influencer.

Beehiiv having deliverability issues? Expect a sales pitch from Nathan.

ConvertKit hiring a new marketing director? Yeah, Tyler wishes you luck.

Nathan celebrating an all time record month?

Here comes Tyler.

And he's absolutely relentless.

I can go on and on, but you get the gist. These guys have no hesitation publicly going for the other's jugular.

Method to the madness

Beyond the pure joy of dunking on a competitor, these little battles are actually helping both businesses. Why? Because these battles capture eye balls and build hype.

Tyler's latest video dunk got over 200,000 views, and posts like these regularly receive tens of thousands of views.

Considering that you see countless posts comparing the two on X, this is a ton of free marketing.

This "beef marketing" is being used a lot lately, and it consistently works. The Friend AI necklace battle captured the attention of the entire tech world. Supabase and Cal used their beef to go #1 and #2 on Product Hunt. And Kit and beehiiv have pulled in millions of impressions from their beef.

So, if you're an indie hacker looking for an organic marketing boost, it might be time to consider throwing some shots at your competitor.