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title: "Migrating your paid community to beehiiv"
updated: 2026-07-16
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# Migrating your paid community to beehiiv

> **Community Beta Disclaimer**
>
> The community feature is launching in a beta state, available to all [paid beehiiv plans](https://www.beehiiv.com/pricing). During this time, we will be prioritizing user feedback and making frequent updates that may cause some images or details in this article to differ slightly from what you see in the app.

Moving an existing paid community to beehiiv comes down to two things: bringing your **people** and bringing their **payments**. Both have established paths. Your community's content is the one thing that starts fresh, and this guide covers how to make that a feature, not a loss.

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## What migrates, and what doesn't

| Option                                                  | Migrates? | How                                                                  |
| ------------------------------------------------------- | --------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Your members                                            | Yes       | Invites (they're matched to your subscriber list, or added by email) |
| Paid subscriptions (Stripe)                             | Yes       | beehiiv's paid subscription migration tool                           |
| Your members' pricing                                   | Yes       | Migrated subscribers keep their current price, grandfathered         |
| Posts, discussions, and channels from your old platform | No        | Your beehiiv community starts fresh                                  |

  
> **Tech Note**
>
> Importing community content (posts, comments, channel history) from other platforms is **not supported**. In practice, most communities find that a fresh start rallies members: day-one energy, new introductions, and no imported ghost town of stale threads.

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## Before you migrate: set up the destination

For the smoothest migration, order matters. Do the following steps first:

1.  **Create your community** and configure it fully: design, channels, a few seeded posts. See [Creating your community on beehiiv](https://beehiivhelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/42005816196375).
2.  **Create the paid tier that will gate your community** under [**Subscriptions**](https://app.beehiiv.com/monetize/subscriptions/overview), priced 1:1 with what your members pay today. The tier must exist **before** you run the subscription migration, so you can map onto it.
3.  **Set your community's access** to that tier (whole community, or specific channels). Refer to [Setting up paid access for your community](https://beehiivhelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/42004510561559) for more information.

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## Migrate your paid subscriptions

If your current community collects payment through **Stripe**, beehiiv's migration tool moves those subscriptions onto your beehiiv tier.   
  
Follow the instructions in [How to import paid subscribers](https://beehiivhelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/12231121444759). 

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Your members keep their exact current price, regardless of the beehiiv tier's listed price, and are placed on a temporary trial until their regular renewal date so nobody gets double-billed.

> **Important Note**
>
> After migrating, pause or cancel billing on your previous platform so members aren't charged twice.
> 
>   
> Members who pay outside Stripe (comped, gifted, or app-store subscriptions) can't move through the Stripe tool. Grant them complimentary access to your paid tier instead. This is the same approach used in newsletter migrations, covered in [How to migrate from Substack to beehiiv](https://beehiivhelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/14966988360215).

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## Bring your members in

With payments mapped, invite everyone:

1.  Export your member list (emails) from your current platform.
2.  In beehiiv, open **Community >** [**Members**](https://app.beehiiv.com/community/members) **> Invite members** and upload the CSV (or use **Top engaged** if your members are already newsletter subscribers).
3.  Add a personal welcome that acknowledges the move: where you came from, why, and what's better here.

Existing subscribers are matched automatically; members who weren't subscribers get added when they join. Migrated paid members' tier access is already in place, so the community simply unlocks for them. For more information, read our guide How to invite your subscribers to your community.

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## Make the fresh start work for you

-   **Sync your newsletter and podcast** so the community has living content from minute one. Read Syncing your newsletter and podcast content into your community.
-   **Seed each channel** with a conversation starter, and pin a welcome post explaining the move.
-   **Recreate only your greatest hits.** One ‘best of the old community’ post beats importing a thousand stale threads.

For a step-by-step playbook on announcing a platform move to your members, check out [these resources from beehiiv's head of community](https://buildinggoodcompany.beehiiv.com/).

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