xoxo.bio vs Beacons
Beacons has a genuinely free tier and charges a 9% seller fee on it. Creator Plus is $30/month and drops that seller fee to 0%. xoxo.bio has no free tier: Creator is $27/month, Creator Pro is $97/month, and the platform fee is 0% on both.
So the two paid plans land within a few dollars of each other. The real decision is whether you want a free plan that takes a cut while you find your footing, or a paid plan from day one with direct Stripe payouts and full control of the page.
Beacons pricing and features checked August 2026 from their public pages. Plans change - check the source links at the bottom before you decide.
| xoxo.bio | Beacons | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $27/month (Creator), 21-day free trial | $0/month free plan, or $30/month Creator Plus |
| Platform fee on sales | 0% on both plans | 9% seller fee on Free, 0% on Creator Plus |
| Card processing | Stripe's standard rate, billed to your own Stripe account | Not disclosed on the public pricing page |
| Where the money lands | Your own Stripe account via Stripe Connect | Not stated on the pricing page - worth confirming before a launch |
| Digital downloads | Native | Native |
| Hosted video courses | Native, with a real player and per-lesson progress | Native course product with video hosting |
| Memberships | Native on both plans | Unlimited memberships on Creator Plus only |
| Bookings and calls | Native, with time zone support | Not listed on the pricing page |
| Email capture and sending | Native signup blocks and broadcasts | Native, 5 automations on Free and unlimited sends on Creator Plus |
| Custom domain | Included | Included on Creator Plus |
| Page editing | Edit directly on the live page, saves as you type | Template and dashboard editor |
The fee math, at three revenue levels
Beacons' free plan is the cheapest way to start and the most expensive way to grow, because the 9% seller fee scales with you. At $500/month in sales it costs $45 - less than either paid plan. At $2,000/month it costs $180. At $10,000/month it costs $900.
Beacons Creator Plus at $30/month and xoxo.bio Creator at $27/month both take 0%, so their cost is flat no matter how well a launch goes. The crossover against Beacons Free lands at roughly $330/month in sales: below that, the free plan wins on cost; above it, either paid plan does.
Stripe's standard card rate of 2.9% + $0.30 applies on both platforms - no storefront can remove the card networks' cut.
Whose Stripe account the money lands in
xoxo.bio uses Stripe Connect. You complete Stripe's onboarding, sales are charged directly on your own Stripe account, and payouts follow Stripe's normal schedule to your bank. Refunds, disputes and customer records live with you.
Beacons does not state its payout model on its public pricing page. That is not a criticism - plenty of platforms keep it in the help centre - but it is the single thing worth confirming before your first big launch, because it determines who controls payout timing and holds.
How much of the page you control
Both platforms are template-driven at heart. The difference in xoxo.bio is that the editor is the live page: you click the thing you want to change, change it, and it saves as you go, with no preview-versus-editor gap. Themes, button shapes, header layouts, backgrounds and section headers are all editable.
Beacons leans harder on breadth - media kits, brand-deal tooling and AI credits sit alongside the storefront. If brand partnerships are a meaningful part of your income, that is a real advantage that xoxo.bio does not try to match.
Choose xoxo.bio if
- You are already selling and want a flat fee instead of a percentage
- You want sales charged directly on your own Stripe account
- You sell across formats - downloads, courses, calls and memberships - in one page
- You care about the page looking like yours, not like a template
Choose Beacons if
- You are not selling yet and need a genuinely free page
- Brand deals and media kits matter more to you than checkout control
- Your monthly sales sit below roughly $330, where 9% costs less than a subscription
- You want AI copy and design credits bundled into the plan
Common questions
- Is Beacons cheaper than xoxo.bio?
- On the free plan, yes, until you sell about $330 a month - at which point the 9% seller fee costs more than xoxo.bio's $27/month Creator plan. Beacons Creator Plus at $30/month is slightly more than Creator and both charge 0% platform fee.
- Does xoxo.bio have a free plan?
- No. There is a 21-day free trial on both plans, but no permanent free tier. A flat subscription is a bad deal at zero revenue, so if you are not selling yet, a free plan elsewhere is the honest recommendation.
- Can I move my Beacons page to xoxo.bio?
- There is no automated import. Rebuilding links and product listings is usually an evening of work. Build the new page fully, test a real purchase with your own card, then swap your bio link and leave the old page up for a couple of weeks as a fallback.
- Do I need my own Stripe account?
- Yes. xoxo.bio runs on Stripe Connect, so you complete Stripe's onboarding once and every sale is charged on your account. That is what makes 0% platform fees and normal payout timing possible.
Try it before you move your link
Build the whole page and run a real test purchase during the 21-day trial. Switch your bio link only when you are happy with it.
Start your 21-day trialSources
Beacons is a trademark of its owner. This comparison is written by xoxo.bio and reflects public information at the date above; we are not affiliated with Beacons.