I have utilized a lot of different email list systems over the years. In the last number of years, I have actually been a massive proponent of digital sovereignty and owning your very own platform. For that reason (and the remarkable features), I have been using Who Created Beehiiv.
So, it is undoubtedly an odd move for me to determine to use BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is a hosted application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I intend to discuss why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I want to resolve the problem of digital sovereignty while using the platform and I would certainly additionally like to attend to why I picked to utilize it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For Newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Huge Change In Approach, I spoke about exactly how and why I made a decision to transform my RV blog into mainly an e-newsletter. I decided that was the business design I wished to go after keeping that residential property.
However, to deliberately pursue it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the e-mail list for Happily RV, however FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter system. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, honestly, using it for e-newsletters is a little a waste. More on that particular in a little bit.
As I said in that concern of the newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a system with tools developed right into it particular to my purpose. Things such as:
- Ability to publish (to the blog site) and send the email all at once without having it be two separate activities.
- Integrated in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Integrated ability to do cross-promotions with other newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are essentially one-click subscription links. Great for promotion in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are ways to do that.
- Capacity to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your e-newsletter.
- Integrated ad network, if I select to monetize with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in ability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and generally run a costs newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter authors with features focused on growth. The system was actually built by the individuals who built up the modern technology for Early morning Mixture. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the point right here. BeeHiiv is constructed from scratch for the objective of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different function.
And I ended off with this:.
I might undoubtedly be moving The Side over to BeeHiiv also. At the very least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. As a matter of fact, I just went for it. And in fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s own building to make sure that I can grow it extra purposefully too.
The goal is that each newsletter has the capability to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded individually. Happily motor home was young, so simple to change. But, The Morning WP (previously The Side) was buried in a sea of stuff right here at the Blog Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s own. It will obviously constantly be very closely tied with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet does not have to belong of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was developed for this function. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Normal Email Listing
There’s a distinction between a newsletter system and simply an email list.
You can organize your email listing anyplace 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 main distinction is that, with an e-newsletter system, the act of posting implies that it is going to your site and to your email clients at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are publishing to that web site. However, you are likewise sending to all customers at the same time. The site and it’s clients are all in one. This makes monitoring of the platform much easier.
With a lot of e-mail platforms, any kind of e-newsletter you set up is done as an e-mail campaign. It is developed completely separately from your internet site. So, for example, you could release a write-up to WordPress however after that you would certainly need to separately construct and send out an e-mail to your checklist to send it to clients. These are after that 2 different sets of archives and two separate activities because post and your emails are not naturally linked.
The closest thing that turns WordPress into a real e-newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name due to the fact that it practically “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress messages and allows them to be the very same thing. Absolutely, something like E-newsletter Glue would be a strong choice if I intended to remain to self-host every little thing. Nevertheless, you would certainly lose the growth tools that include a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter inherently includes a different set of needs than a normal email checklist.
You do not typically require much marketing automation. You do not typically need autoresponder sequences, event tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO need, though, is one smooth publishing experience and growth devices to aid you build your client base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my customers that I was mosting likely to switch over the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had lots of 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 indicate I believe Substack draws. In fact, because Substack has been around longer, it is more mature and has more features.
Although BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple things that originally got my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is especially tailored to newsletter authors. Actually, it is essentially developed by the same folks who developed the innovation behind Early morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, does not matter. But, the apparent positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter development called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “developer”. Development is what I have an interest in below.
- That branding and distinction likewise implies that BeeHiiv has some rather big brands and large magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo makers. Again, it just informs me the client character difference between the two firms.
Sending our my newsletter via FluentCRM really did not precisely draw. The only reason I would certainly ponder trembling things up is if I thought I might expand the list much faster. And BeeHiiv spoke exactly to that goal.
Because of the targeting, I in fact don’t watch BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a different type of customer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being more direct competitors.
But, allow’s dive deeper than simply the positioning here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Generally, BeeHiiv appears like it was constructed by people who comprehending e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears much more geared toward developers.
As an example, BeeHiiv offers personalized areas on subscribers. Currently, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. In fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that works 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 action is the ability to send an email. However, enhancements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will certainly have brand-new triggers along with new activities, such as changing customized fields, sending out webhooks, etc. I’ve already seen improvements to their automations simply considering that I began making use of the system. As an example:
- Ability to cause automations based on which certain embed kind they was available in on.
- Ability to immediately do re-engagement (and manage individuals based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Capacity to do standard conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can not do this since the target market of Substack simply would not think to approach this like an email marketing expert.
When it pertains to creating your e-newsletters, the writing user interface of BeeHiiv is just extra geared toward newsletters. Actually, it really has similarities to the WordPress block builder in just how it functions. I discover it to be a lot more user-friendly, personally.
Substack’s creating user interface behaves and tidy, yet it would certainly be extra comparable to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This distinction is more than simply type. For example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Section” and then put anything you desire in it. After that, you can place Exposure choices on that particular area to reveal it only to paid clients, conceal it from email, hide from customers, reveal just to subscribers, and so on. Substack provides nothing like this.
And when/if the moment comes that I start a costs subscription design, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any earnings. As a matter of fact, you essentially link as much as your very own Stripe account and it charges directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your earnings. Relying on how many customers you get, that 10% can be a fair bit even more money than the regular monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This could seem unpopular, however what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv deal with the outside utilizing devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … absolutely nothing. No integrations whatsoever.
In general, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was a lot more built towards actual email marketing. It was built by people who “get it”. Also the opt-in kinds and the landing page makes seem much better constructed for conversions. Development is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually stated, Substack placements itself toward “designers” more than email marketing professionals and e-newsletter owners. Because of that, you see some things geared a lot more towards people that just assume in terms of content development.
For instance, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does sustain numerous magazines, they are treated rather separately. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to numerous publications at the same time. This isn’t something I require, however … amazing for people that could require it.
Substack additionally has more social functionality built-in. For instance, it has a chat feature to host talks with customers. It additionally has a “Notes” function which works kind of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share things from other “Stacks” you read. Interesting. On the whole, Substack is set up to be a lot more like a social media network which sustains long-form material.
Overall, Substack is also a lot more … minimalist. You either take care of that or do not. Personally, I don’t. Nevertheless, if the objective is simpleness of interface and, truthfully, features … Substack functions pretty well.
However, I’ll be clear right here …
When it involves actual marketing, I don’t think there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is much better matched. I tried to find even more factors that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, yet truthfully … I have a hard time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are often through to be the closest competitors, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are going after the very same target audience and have similar capacities.
ConvertKit is also positioned at creators (like Substack), however it is far more strongly satisfying people that do it for organization. ConvertKit has nice aesthetic automation building, it’s very own commerce system, and much more. ConvertKit is a truly nice platform.
I’m not mosting likely to bore you with a full feature-by-feature breakdown here. ConvertKit is well known currently. Yet, here’s how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has more adaptability when it concerns it’s automations. I will likewise state that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit more user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains marking. This is simply a fundamental feature of e-mail lists that allows division in a much more adaptable way than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support marking at some time soon, honestly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing out on Who Created Beehiiv.
ConvertKit does now give the capacity to sell points via their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is very important to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would always select a much more direct option anyhow. For me, I favor to utilize my very own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been around much longer and because of that has way a lot more integration alternatives. Tons of online devices and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their own WordPress plugin that is fairly powerful. For example, their plugin now even supports member-gated material in addition to auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Essentially, this a lot more carefully puts ConvertKit into direct competitors by having you have the ability to release to your website and your e-mail listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is badly doing not have in these sort of third-party integrations presently. It’ll arrive. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even hectic dealing with the growth tools of BeeHiiv. As an example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not only incentivize people to share your e-newsletter with benefits, but you can additionally pay per lead within the internal ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your listing. These are actually amazing features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you recognize ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among the most well known viral promo systems for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall surface for what this means for the system going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Better At … Who Created Beehiiv
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies less features and less integrations, which is natural for this stage of the cycle. Nonetheless, it also indicates that they are quickly developing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually witnessed nearly weekly launch of brand-new features into the system. And these aren’t puny little features … however huge features that are rather important. Their rate of growth at this point has actually been impressive.
I additionally quite appreciate exactly how receptive they are. As a matter of fact, among their item announcements regarding some style improvements to the website design features really had a small issue with the material width. I simply responded to that e-mail to tell them. I promptly obtained a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That very same day, the problem was repaired.
Couple of days later, I gave them one more tip …
Indeed, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to set off automations based upon the embed type utilized was added to the system.
That kind of responsiveness and direct involvement of the team is something I actually value.
Another significant factor of differentiation below is the rate. Both platforms offer free plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan supplies more ability and more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise much more desirable. ConvertKit seems less costly initially look since their pricing page shows lower numbers, nonetheless the customer limitations are FAR reduced and your price promptly increases as your listing grows.
With BeeHiiv, your first level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid every year), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 customers. That very same size list 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 make use of), you can grow your list approximately 100,000. A listing of that dimension would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, also, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay annually, also. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for simply $84/month if you pay each year.
BeeHiiv is in a completely different league when it concerns pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually boost rates? They may as time takes place. But, I’m guessing people like myself who are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see how things proceed.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among the important things you most definitely require to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do seem to evolve instead swiftly and make brand-new item news rather often, however there are some basic features I actually want they had that I require to simply await.
One is that they need to have a setup on subscription kinds where I could pick an automation to run right at the type level. That would certainly be remarkable for many reasons. Currently, registration kinds look OK, yet there’s really little setups for them to aid in segmentation.
It would behave to have tagging at the client level. This would be powerful.
I believe webhooks ought to become part of automations to make integrated automations easier and lower reliance on outside devices like Zapier.
There are likewise some minor management interface adjustments that would be handy. For instance:
- Capability to mass edit/remove customers.
- Capacity to mass edit messages (for example, to mark a number of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of standard areas as standard on clients (like the name).
- Some even more personalization options for the web site (such as more versatile shade options, headline control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Things I hope they perform with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, but it isn’t excellent and certainly not virtually as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM item.
It possibly never ever will be, either. As I said, the objective is various so it would not much a lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to come to be a full marketing automation system. I presume you never recognize, though.
Last Ideas On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I like BeeHiiv rather a whole lot. Enough where I determined to change my very own newsletters over to the system despite my personal preference for digital sovereignty and having my very own system.
Basically, for the newsletter posting model particularly, I saw adequate worth in their system to require the adjustment.
Keep in mind, I do not utilize BeeHiiv as my special e-mail checklist. I make use of BeeHiiv for what it is proficient at, yet I deliberately have points establish to make sure that I additionally keep my checklist “in home” within FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the very same. It is just a good insurance plan, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your listing will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are utilizing Substack now, I ‘d certainly consider switching over to BeeHiiv. It will merely be more business-friendly. It is targeting various capabilities and different requirements. And also, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the button needs to be quite uncomplicated.
If you get on ConvertKit now, I ‘d probably stay unless you have a big email checklist and are for that reason being wooled with their high monthly bill. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are repeating swiftly. There’s likewise a pretty good opportunity you’re not even making use of a few of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you don’t even require them. Therefore, BeeHiiv might conveniently be a far better and more economical fit.
Finally, if you plan to be really deliberate about growing a newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE platform to consider and keep and eye on for you.
If you utilize BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is developed to be, it is among the best video games in the area today. This is the platform to watch.
BeeHiiv offers a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth checking out on your own. And if you wind up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll locate the complimentary account to be fairly feature abundant.