I have utilized a great deal of different email list systems throughout the years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a big advocate of digital sovereignty and having your very own system. Therefore (and the incredible features), I have actually been using Preeya Beehiiv.
So, it is indeed a strange move for me to make a decision to use BeeHiiv. Besides, it is a hosted application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I intend to go over why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I wish to deal with the problem of digital sovereignty while utilizing the platform and I would certainly also like to resolve why I selected to utilize it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For Newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Hobby + A Big Shift In Strategy, I talked about how and why I decided to transform my motor home blog site right into primarily a newsletter. I determined that was the business model I wished to seek with that building.
But, to deliberately pursue it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a system that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the e-mail checklist for Happily motor home, yet FluentCRM is not a newsletter system. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, frankly, utilizing it for newsletters is a little bit of a waste. Much more on that particular in a little bit.
As I stated in that issue of the e-newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a system with devices built into it particular to my function. Things such as:
- Capability to release (to the blog site) and send out the email concurrently without having it be 2 different activities.
- Constructed in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capability to do cross-promotions with other newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are essentially one-click registration web links. Great for promo in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, though, so there are methods to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your newsletter.
- Built-in ad network, if I pick to generate income from with ads in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and primarily run a premium e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Generally, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter authors with features targeted at growth. The platform was literally developed by the individuals who built up the modern technology for Early morning Mixture. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the point below. BeeHiiv is developed from the ground up for the function of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different function.
And I finished off with this:.
I may indeed be relocating The Edge over to BeeHiiv too. At the very least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. As a matter of fact, I simply went for it. And as a matter of fact, The side was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s very own building to ensure that I can expand it extra purposefully too.
The objective is that each e-newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown individually. Gladly motor home was young, so very easy to shift. However, The Morning WP (previously The Side) was buried in a sea of things right here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s very own. It will obviously constantly be carefully tied with the Blog site Marketing Academy, however doesn’t have to be a part of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was developed for this function. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Just A Regular Email List
There’s a distinction in between a newsletter platform and simply an e-mail listing.
You can organize your email listing just about anywhere you desire and there are a variety of them around, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The key difference is that, with a newsletter platform, the act of publishing implies that it is mosting likely to your internet site and to your email customers at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a site. You are releasing to that internet site. But, you are also dispatching to all subscribers at the same time. The web site and it’s customers are all in one. This makes administration of the platform much easier.
With many e-mail platforms, any type of newsletter you set up is done as an e-mail campaign. It is constructed entirely separately from your web site. So, as an example, you may release a write-up to WordPress however then you would need to separately develop and send an e-mail to your checklist to send it to customers. These are then 2 separate collections of archives and 2 separate activities since article and your e-mails are not inherently linked.
The closest thing that turns WordPress right into a real newsletter platform is Newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name since it practically “glues” your newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and allows them to be the very same thing. Definitely, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a strong option if I intended to remain to self-host whatever. Nonetheless, you ‘d lose the development tools that include a platform like BeeHiiv.
Posting a newsletter naturally features a different collection of demands than a common email list.
You do not normally require much marketing automation. You don’t usually require autoresponder sequences, event monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO requirement, however, is one seamless posting experience and development tools to help you build your customer base that are specific to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my subscribers that I was mosting likely to change the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many people ask me why I was picking it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the reality that I selected to opt for BeeHiiv, that does not imply I think Substack draws. In fact, since Substack has actually been about longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a pair things that at first obtained my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is especially tailored to e-newsletter authors. As a matter of fact, it is literally developed by the very same people that constructed the modern technology behind Early morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, doesn’t matter. However, the obvious positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter growth called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “designer”. Development is what I have an interest in right here.
- That branding and differentiation additionally suggests that BeeHiiv has some fairly large brand names and huge publications utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo developers. Again, it simply tells me the customer avatar difference in between both business.
Sending our my newsletter by means of FluentCRM didn’t specifically suck. The only reason I would certainly contemplate shaking things up is if I thought I can GROW the checklist quicker. And BeeHiiv spoke precisely to that objective.
Due to the targeting, I really don’t view BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a different type of customer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra straight rivals.
Yet, let’s dive deeper than just the positioning here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv seems like it was constructed by people that recognizing email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears much more geared toward developers.
For instance, BeeHiiv supplies personalized areas on customers. Now, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv provides Automations. Actually, it is an aesthetic automation builder that functions a lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation functionality is still early-phase. It is still rather limited in triggers and the only activity is the capability to send out an e-mail. However, improvements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will have new triggers in addition to brand-new activities, such as modifying personalized fields, sending out webhooks, etc. I have actually currently seen enhancements to their automations simply considering that I started using the system. For example:
- Capability to cause automations based upon which particular embed form they came in on.
- Capability to automatically do re-engagement (and handle individuals based on opens up and non-opens).
- Capacity to do standard conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never will. Substack just can not do this due to the fact that the target market of Substack just would not believe to approach this like an e-mail marketing professional.
When it comes to creating your e-newsletters, the writing user interface of BeeHiiv is simply extra geared towards newsletters. Actually, it really has similarities to the WordPress block builder in how it works. I discover it to be extra user-friendly, personally.
Substack’s writing interface is nice and tidy, yet it would certainly be extra comparable to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is more than simply type. For example, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Section” and afterwards placed anything you want in it. After that, you can put Exposure options on that area to reveal it just to paid subscribers, hide it from e-mail, conceal from clients, show just to customers, and so on. Substack uses absolutely nothing similar to this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a premium membership design, BeeHiiv does not take any income. In fact, you literally attach as much as your own Stripe account and it charges straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your profits. Relying on the number of subscribers you obtain, that 10% can be quite a bit more money than the regular monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This could appear nerdy, but what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outdoors using devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … absolutely nothing. No integrations whatsoever.
Generally, I simply felt like BeeHiiv was extra constructed towards real e-mail marketing. It was built by people who “get it”. Also the opt-in types and the landing page creates appear much better built for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I would love to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the direction it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have claimed, Substack positions itself toward “creators” greater than e-mail marketers and newsletter proprietors. Because of that, you see some points tailored more toward individuals that simply believe in terms of material production.
As an example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does sustain multiple magazines, they are treated fairly individually. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to multiple magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I need, but … awesome for individuals who might need it.
Substack also has even more social capability built-in. For instance, it has a conversation feature to host chats with subscribers. It additionally has a “Notes” function which works kind of like a social media newsfeed where you can share things from various other “Stacks” you’re reading. Interesting. Generally, Substack is established to be a lot more like a social network which sustains long-form content.
On the whole, Substack is additionally more … minimal. You either care for that or do not. Personally, I do not. Nevertheless, if the goal is simplicity of user interface and, frankly, features … Substack works pretty well.
Yet, I’ll be clear here …
When it involves real marketing, I do not think there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is better fit. I looked for more points that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, yet truthfully … I have a tough time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are usually with to be the closest rivals, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are pursuing the exact same target audience and have similar abilities.
ConvertKit is additionally positioned at makers (like Substack), but it is far more highly satisfying people who do it for business. ConvertKit has great visual automation building, it’s own commerce platform, and a lot more. ConvertKit is an actually wonderful platform.
I’m not going to bore you with a complete feature-by-feature break down right here. ConvertKit is popular already. Yet, below’s just how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Points ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has a lot more flexibility when it pertains to it’s automations. I will additionally say that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit more instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports marking. This is simply a fundamental feature of e-mail lists that enables division in a far more versatile method than BeeHiiv currently does. I expect BeeHiiv to support tagging eventually soon, honestly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing out on Preeya Beehiiv.
ConvertKit does currently give the capacity to offer things using their very own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is very important to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would certainly constantly select a more direct option anyway. For me, I choose to utilize my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been around a lot longer and therefore has way a lot more integration choices. Lots of web-based devices and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their own WordPress plugin that is quite powerful. For instance, their plugin now also sustains member-gated content along with auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Fundamentally, this more closely places ConvertKit into straight competitors by having you have the ability to release to your website and your email list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is seriously lacking in these type of third-party integrations right now. It’ll arrive. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy dealing with the growth tools of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not just incentivize people to share your e-newsletter with rewards, yet you can likewise pay per lead within the internal ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your checklist. These are truly outstanding features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you understand ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of the most popular viral promotion systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall surface wherefore this suggests for the system moving forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Better At … Preeya Beehiiv
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that indicates much less features and less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. Nevertheless, it likewise implies that they are swiftly creating.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have seen virtually weekly launch of new features into the platform. And these aren’t weak little features … however huge features that are quite vital. Their speed of advancement at this moment has actually been impressive.
I likewise quite appreciate just how receptive they are. As a matter of fact, one of their item announcements about some layout improvements to the web design features really had a little issue with the web content size. I just replied to that e-mail to tell them. I promptly got a reply directly from the chief executive officer:.
That very same day, the issue was repaired.
Couple of days later on, I gave them one more tip …
Sure enough, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to trigger automations based upon the embed kind utilized was added to the system.
That sort of responsiveness and straight involvement of the team is something I actually appreciate.
Another major factor of distinction below is the cost. Both systems offer free plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan supplies extra capability and more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
As soon as you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally FAR more favorable. ConvertKit seems more affordable at first glimpse since their pricing web page shows reduced numbers, nevertheless the client limits are much lower and your cost swiftly enhances as your listing expands.
With BeeHiiv, your initial level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid every year), however you can have up to 10,000 customers. That exact same size checklist is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their best plan and the one I directly utilize), you can grow your checklist approximately 100,000. A list of that size would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, also, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay annually, too. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay yearly.
BeeHiiv remains in an entirely various league when it comes to pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point enhance prices? They may as time takes place. Yet, I’m guessing people like myself that are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see just how points proceed.
Things I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of the things you most definitely require to remember is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do appear to develop instead quickly and make brand-new product news rather frequently, however there are some standard features I truly wish they had that I need to simply await.
One is that they need to have a setting on registration kinds where I can select an automation to run right at the form degree. That would certainly be amazing for so many factors. Already, subscription types look OK, yet there’s extremely little settings for them to help in division.
It would certainly be nice to have marking at the client level. This would be effective.
I believe webhooks must become part of automations to make built-in automations much easier and decrease dependence on outdoors tools like Zapier.
There are likewise some small management interface adjustments that would certainly be handy. For instance:
- Ability to mass edit/remove customers.
- Ability to bulk edit posts (for instance, to mark a number of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of basic areas as common on subscribers (like the name).
- Some more modification choices for the site (such as more adaptable shade selections, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Things I wish they finish with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, yet it isn’t excellent and certainly not almost as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM item.
It possibly never ever will certainly be, either. As I claimed, the objective is different so it wouldn’t much a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to end up being a full marketing automation platform. I guess you never ever recognize, however.
Final Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I such as BeeHiiv fairly a great deal. Sufficient where I made a decision to switch my very own newsletters over to the platform despite my individual preference for digital sovereignty and possessing my own system.
Put simply, for the newsletter posting design specifically, I saw enough worth in their system to call for the change.
Keep in mind, I do not utilize BeeHiiv as my special e-mail listing. I make use of BeeHiiv for what it is efficient, yet I purposefully have points set up to ensure that I likewise keep my checklist “in home” inside of FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the same. It is simply a great insurance policy, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your listing will certainly be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will certainly be).
So, the question is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are utilizing Substack right now, I ‘d certainly take into consideration switching over to BeeHiiv. It will simply be extra business-friendly. It is targeting different capacities and different demands. And also, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the switch should be rather simple.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d most likely stay put unless you have a large e-mail checklist and are consequently being fleeced with their high monthly costs. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are repeating promptly. There’s additionally a respectable possibility you’re not also using some of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you don’t even need them. Therefore, BeeHiiv could easily be a much better and more economical fit.
Finally, if you plan to be very intentional regarding expanding an e-newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE platform to consider and maintain and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is created to be, it is among the most effective video games in the area right now. This is the system to watch.
BeeHiiv uses a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves checking out on your own. And if you end up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll find the cost-free account to be quite feature rich.