Linktree and Beacons are both link-in-bio tools, but they are built for different jobs. Linktree is a dedicated link hub: fast to set up, widely recognized, and best when your goal is pointing followers to external destinations. Beacons is a full creator toolkit that sells digital products, memberships, and bookings natively on the page. Pick Linktree for a clean, recognizable list of links; pick Beacons if you want to monetize directly on the page rather than link out.
This is a practical comparison for creators deciding between the two: what each costs, how they handle selling, how far the customization goes, and what the analytics tell you. For the wider field, Linktree alternatives covers the tools beyond these two.
The Core Difference
Everything else follows from one distinction. Linktree is a link list; Beacons is a storefront that happens to start as a link list.
Linktree gives your followers a tidy page of buttons that send them somewhere else: your shop, your YouTube, your newsletter signup. It does that one job well and is the name most audiences recognize when they see a bio link. Beacons keeps the link-list surface but adds a creator business behind it, so the same page can take a payment for a preset, enroll a member, or book a call without the visitor ever leaving. If your revenue happens on other platforms, Linktree is enough. If you want the revenue to happen on the page, that is Beacons.
Pricing
Both start free, and the free plans are where the real difference hides.
Linktree's free tier covers unlimited links, with the paid Pro plan around 15 dollars a month for deeper customization and analytics, and it never takes a percentage of what you sell because it does not process sales. Beacons is free with a 9 percent transaction fee on every sale, and its Creator Pro plan at 30 dollars a month drops that fee to zero, with a VIP tier at 50 dollars (all figures from the Beacons pricing page, accessed 2026-07-18). The math flips depending on volume: a creator who sells little pays nothing meaningful on either, while a creator selling steadily on the Beacons free plan can hand over more in fees than a subscription would cost.
Monetization
This is the clearest split, and for many creators it decides the whole choice.
Beacons processes payments on the page: digital products, memberships, one-time services, tips, and bookings, all native, no third-party checkout. Linktree does not sell; it links to wherever you already sell. Neither is wrong. A creator with an established store on another platform gets nothing from native selling and benefits from Linktree's simplicity. A creator who wants the bio link to be the store, with no other infrastructure, is exactly who Beacons is built for.
Customization and Features
Both pages let you brand the surface, and both leaned hard into AI over the last two years, so the marketing sounds similar. The substance differs.
Beacons offers more blocks and page structure because it has to house a store, an email capture, and content, so the page can grow into something closer to a mini-site. Linktree stays deliberately lean, with a few standout touches like animated priority links and a TikTok whitelist that its scale earns. If you want a page that does a lot, Beacons has more surface. If you want a page a follower reads in three seconds, Linktree's restraint is the feature.
Analytics
Both report clicks, top links, and basic traffic, and both gate the deeper views behind a paid tier. For most creators that is enough to see which link works. What neither gives you cleanly is attribution across every channel at once, because the analytics live inside each platform. If you run paid campaigns or want to compare a bio link against an email link against a printed QR, the fix is the same for either tool: put a short link in front of the page and read the campaign data there. That approach is covered in tracking UTM end to end.
Which Should You Pick
The decision is not about which tool is better but which job you have.
- Pick Linktree if you want a recognizable, fast link hub, your selling happens elsewhere, or TikTok is your main platform and the whitelist matters.
- Pick Beacons if you want to sell digital products, memberships, or bookings directly on the page with no other store behind it.
A quick gut check: if you finished this section unsure, you probably want Linktree, because the moment native selling matters you already know it does. For a broader ranked view, best URL shorteners covers link tools generally, and what is link management explains the layer underneath a bio page.
The EU and Privacy Angle
One thing the head-to-head hides: both Linktree and Beacons are US companies, and a bio page quietly collects visitor data on every tap.
For a creator or brand in Europe, or one selling to European audiences, where that data is processed and under whose rules can matter as much as the feature list. If EU data residency, a signed data processing agreement, and privacy-first analytics are on your checklist, a US-hosted page may not clear it, and the GDPR framework is why that question keeps coming up. An EU-first option like Elido's bio pages puts a clean link-in-bio page on European data residency with real click analytics, and you can set one up on the free plan. It is not a native creator store like Beacons, so if on-page selling is your goal, say so and pick accordingly. The full EU-focused shortlist is in Beacons alternatives.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Beacons better than Linktree?
Neither is better outright; they solve different problems. Beacons is a full creator toolkit that sells digital products, memberships, and bookings natively on the page, so it wins if you monetize directly. Linktree is a dedicated link hub that is faster to set up, more widely recognized, and simpler if your goal is pointing followers to external sites. Match the tool to whether you sell on the page or link out.
Which is cheaper, Linktree or Beacons?
Both have a free plan, and the real cost is in the details. Linktree's paid tier runs around 15 dollars a month with no cut of sales. Beacons is free with a 9 percent transaction fee on each sale, and its Creator Pro plan at 30 dollars a month drops that fee to zero (all accessed 2026-07-18). If you sell a lot on a free plan, the transaction fee can cost more than a subscription would.
Does Beacons take a cut of sales?
Yes on the free plan, a 9 percent transaction fee on each sale, dropping to 0 percent on the paid Creator Pro plan (accessed 2026-07-18). Linktree does not take a percentage of sales because it does not process them; it links out to wherever you sell. So Beacons monetizes through fees and subscriptions, while Linktree monetizes through subscriptions alone.
Can you use both Linktree and Beacons?
You can, but you rarely should, because your bio holds one link. Running two pages splits your analytics and doubles the upkeep. Pick the one that matches your primary goal, selling on the page or routing to external destinations, and put your single bio link there. If you want tracking that spans every channel, put a short link in front of whichever page you choose.
Which is better for selling digital products?
Beacons, clearly. It processes payments for digital products, memberships, services, and bookings on the page itself, with no third-party integration. Linktree can link to an external store or checkout but does not sell natively. If direct, on-page selling is the point, Beacons is built for it; if you already sell elsewhere and just need to route traffic there, Linktree is enough.
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