The ladder kernel of the Bethe–Salpeter equation is amended by introducing a different flavor dependence of the dressing functions in the heavy-quark sector. Compared with earlier work this allows for the simultaneous calculation of the mass spectrum and leptonic decay constants of light pseudoscalar mesons, the $$D_u$$
D
u
, $$D_s$$
D
s
, $$B_u$$
B
u
, $$B_s$$
B
s
and $$B_c$$
B
c
mesons and the heavy quarkonia $$\eta _c$$
η
c
and $$\eta _b$$
η
b
within the same framework at a physical pion mass. The corresponding Bethe–Salpeter amplitudes are projected onto the light front and we reconstruct the distribution amplitudes of the mesons in the full theory. A comparison with the first inverse moment of the heavy meson distribution amplitude in heavy quark effective theory is made.