I have actually used a lot of different email list systems throughout the years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a huge proponent of digital sovereignty and possessing your own platform. Therefore (and the amazing features), I have actually been using Atozaitools Beehiiv.
So, it is undoubtedly an unusual move for me to make a decision to use BeeHiiv. After all, it is an organized application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I wish to look at why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I want to attend to the problem of digital sovereignty while using the platform and I would certainly likewise like to resolve why I selected to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For Newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Hobby + A Big Shift In Method, I spoke about how and why I determined to turn my motor home blog site right into mainly an e-newsletter. I chose that was business design I wanted to pursue with that home.
But, to purposefully pursue it as a newsletter, I wanted a system that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the email list for Happily recreational vehicle, yet FluentCRM is not a newsletter platform. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, truthfully, utilizing it for newsletters is a little bit of a waste. More on that particular in a little bit.
As I stated because concern of the e-newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a system with tools developed into it particular to my function. Things such as:
- Ability to publish (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 certainly have needed a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capability to do cross-promotions with various other newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are basically one-click registration links. Great for promo in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are ways to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your newsletter.
- Integrated ad network, if I choose to monetize with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and essentially run a costs newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Generally, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter authors with features targeted at growth. The platform was essentially developed by the individuals who built up the innovation for Early morning Mixture. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the point below. BeeHiiv is built from the ground up for the purpose of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a different purpose.
And I ended off with this:.
I may certainly be relocating The Side over to BeeHiiv too. A minimum of, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. In fact, I just went for it. And in fact, The side was re-branded over to The Morning WP, set off as it’s very own home so that I can grow it much more intentionally too.
The objective is that each newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded individually. Gladly motor home was young, so easy to change. However, The Morning WP (formerly The Side) was buried in a sea of stuff 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 very closely linked with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet does not need to belong of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv since it was constructed for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Normal Email Checklist
There’s a distinction in between a newsletter system and just an e-mail checklist.
You can organize your e-mail checklist everywhere you desire and there are a number of them available, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The main distinction is that, with a newsletter platform, the act of publishing implies that it is going to your site and to your e-mail customers at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are publishing to that internet site. Yet, you are also sending off to all customers at the same time. The site and it’s subscribers are all in one. This makes monitoring of the system much less complex.
With most email platforms, any kind of e-newsletter you set up is done as an email campaign. It is built completely independently from your website. So, as an example, you may release a post to WordPress however then you would certainly need to separately build and send an email to your listing to send it to subscribers. These are after that 2 separate collections of archives and 2 separate actions due to the fact that post and your e-mails are not inherently linked.
The closest thing that turns WordPress right into a true newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name since it basically “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress posts and allows them to be the same point. Definitely, something like Newsletter Glue would be a strong alternative if I wished to continue to self-host every little thing. Nevertheless, you ‘d shed the development tools that feature a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter naturally includes a various set of needs than a common e-mail listing.
You do not generally need much marketing automation. You don’t usually need autoresponder sequences, event tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO need, however, is one seamless posting experience and development devices to assist you construct your subscriber base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my subscribers that I was mosting likely to switch over the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many people ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the fact that I selected to opt for BeeHiiv, that does not suggest I believe Substack draws. In fact, due to the fact that Substack has been about much longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is younger, there are a pair things that initially obtained my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly customized to e-newsletter authors. In fact, it is essentially developed by the very same individuals who built the technology behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, does not matter. However, the obvious positioning of BeeHiiv toward e-newsletter growth called me out over the more common positioning of being a “designer”. Growth is what I want here.
- That branding and distinction likewise indicates that BeeHiiv has some fairly large brands and large magazines utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended even more at solo developers. Again, it simply informs me the consumer character distinction in between the two firms.
Sending our my e-newsletter using FluentCRM really did not exactly draw. The only factor I would certainly ponder drinking points up is if I thought I can expand the checklist faster. And BeeHiiv talked specifically to that objective.
Because of the targeting, I in fact do not see BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a different sort of consumer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being a lot more direct competitors.
Yet, let’s dive much deeper than just the positioning here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv feels like it was built by people that recognizing e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears a lot more tailored towards makers.
As an example, BeeHiiv supplies customized fields on customers. Currently, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. As a matter of fact, it is a visual automation builder that functions a whole lot like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still quite limited in triggers and the only activity is the ability to send an e-mail. However, improvements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will have brand-new triggers as well as brand-new activities, such as customizing customized fields, sending out webhooks, etc. I’ve currently seen improvements to their automations just since I started utilizing the platform. For instance:
- Capability to cause automations based on which details embed type they was available in on.
- Capability to immediately do re-engagement (and take care of people based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Capacity to do standard conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can’t do this due to the fact that the target audience of Substack just wouldn’t think to approach this like an email marketing expert.
When it concerns writing your newsletters, the writing interface of BeeHiiv is simply a lot more geared towards e-newsletters. Actually, it in fact has similarities to the WordPress block builder in how it functions. I discover it to be a lot more instinctive, directly.
Substack’s writing interface behaves and tidy, but it would certainly be much more equivalent to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This distinction is greater than simply kind. For example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Area” and then put anything you want in it. Then, you can place Exposure alternatives on that area to reveal it only to paid customers, conceal it from e-mail, conceal from clients, reveal just to clients, etc. Substack offers nothing like this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a costs subscription model, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any type of profits. Actually, you essentially connect as much as your very own Stripe account and it bills directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your profits. Depending upon how many customers you get, that 10% can be a fair bit even more money than the monthly cost of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This might seem nerdy, but what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outdoors making use of devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … absolutely nothing. No integrations at all.
On the whole, I simply felt like BeeHiiv was extra built towards real email marketing. It was built by individuals that “get it”. Also the opt-in forms and the landing page develops seem better developed for conversions. Growth is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I wish to see BeeHiiv add, I such as the direction it is going more than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually stated, Substack positions itself toward “developers” more than e-mail online marketers and newsletter owners. Therefore, you see some things tailored more towards individuals that just believe in terms of content production.
For example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does sustain multiple magazines, they are dealt with quite individually. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to several magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, yet … awesome for individuals that may require it.
Substack also has even more social capability built-in. For example, it has a chat feature to host chats with customers. It also has a “Notes” feature which functions sort of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you read. Fascinating. Generally, Substack is established to be more like a social network which sustains long-form material.
Overall, Substack is likewise extra … minimalist. You either take care of that or don’t. Directly, I don’t. Nevertheless, if the goal is simpleness of user interface and, truthfully, features … Substack works quite well.
Yet, I’ll be clear here …
When it pertains to real marketing, I don’t think there’s much question that BeeHiiv is better fit. I tried to find more factors that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, however frankly … I have a difficult time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are often via to be the closest rivals, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are going after the very same target market and have comparable capacities.
ConvertKit is additionally placed at designers (like Substack), but it is far more strongly catering to individuals that do it for service. ConvertKit has wonderful aesthetic automation structure, it’s own commerce platform, and much more. ConvertKit is an actually good platform.
I’m not going to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature malfunction right here. ConvertKit is popular currently. However, here’s how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has a lot more versatility when it involves it’s automations. I will certainly also state that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports tagging. This is simply a standard feature of email listings that allows segmentation in an even more versatile means than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to support labeling eventually soon, truthfully. It seems like an oversight that it is missing Atozaitools Beehiiv.
ConvertKit does now offer the ability to offer points via their very own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is essential to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would always pick an extra straight option anyway. For me, I favor to use my very own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about much longer and because of that has way much more integration alternatives. Lots of online tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their own WordPress plugin that is quite powerful. For instance, their plugin now also supports member-gated material as well as auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. In essence, this extra carefully places ConvertKit right into direct competitors by having you have the ability to publish to your website and your e-mail checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is severely doing not have in these kinds of third-party integrations right now. It’ll arrive. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also hectic tackling the development devices of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not just incentivize people to share your e-newsletter with perks, yet you can also pay per lead within the internal advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your list. These are truly amazing features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you understand ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of one of the most popular viral promo systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall of what this means for the platform going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Atozaitools Beehiiv
BeeHiiv is a lot previously in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that suggests less features and less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. Nevertheless, it additionally suggests that they are rapidly developing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually witnessed practically weekly launch of new features into the platform. And these aren’t puny little features … yet big features that are fairly important. Their rate of advancement at this moment has gone over.
I likewise quite appreciate how responsive they are. As a matter of fact, one of their item statements regarding some layout improvements to the website design features really had a small trouble with the content size. I merely replied to that e-mail to tell them. I promptly got a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That very same day, the concern was taken care of.
Few days later, I provided one more tip …
Indeed, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to activate automations based upon the embed form made use of was added to the system.
That sort of responsiveness and straight involvement of the group is something I truly value.
Another significant factor of differentiation below is the rate. Both platforms use complimentary plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan provides more capability and even more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
As soon as you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally much more desirable. ConvertKit seems more affordable in the beginning look due to the fact that their pricing web page shows lower numbers, nonetheless the subscriber limits are much lower and your cost quickly enhances as your checklist grows.
With BeeHiiv, your initial level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid each year), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That exact same size checklist is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their best plan and the one I personally use), you can grow your listing approximately 100,000. A listing of that dimension would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, also, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay every year, also. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv remains in an entirely different league when it concerns pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately increase rates? They might as time takes place. But, I’m thinking people like myself that are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see just how points proceed.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of the things you definitely require to remember is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do appear to progress instead swiftly and make brand-new item statements somewhat often, yet there are some basic features I really desire they had that I need to just wait for.
One is that they require to have a setup on registration types where I could select an automation to run right at the kind degree. That would certainly be remarkable for numerous reasons. Already, membership forms look OK, yet there’s very little settings for them to aid in division.
It would behave to have marking at the subscriber degree. This would certainly be effective.
I believe webhooks need to be part of automations to make built-in automations simpler and minimize dependence on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are additionally some small management interface modifications that would certainly be handy. As an example:
- Capability to bulk edit/remove subscribers.
- Ability to mass edit articles (for instance, to mark a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of fundamental areas as basic on clients (like the name).
- Some more personalization options for the site (such as even more flexible color choices, heading control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Things I wish they finish with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, yet it isn’t best and absolutely not virtually as established as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM item.
It possibly never will certainly be, either. As I stated, the purpose is different so it wouldn’t much a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to become a full marketing automation platform. I guess you never ever know, however.
Last Ideas On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I like BeeHiiv rather a lot. Enough where I decided to change my very own newsletters over to the platform regardless of my personal choice for digital sovereignty and possessing my own system.
Put simply, for the newsletter posting version especially, I saw enough value in their platform to warrant the modification.
Remember, I do not use BeeHiiv as my special email listing. I utilize BeeHiiv wherefore it is efficient, but I intentionally have things establish to make sure that I also maintain my listing “in residence” within FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the same. It is simply a good insurance coverage, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your list will certainly be of high use (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are using Substack today, I ‘d most definitely think about changing to BeeHiiv. It will just be extra business-friendly. It is targeting different capacities and various demands. And also, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the switch must be rather straightforward.
If you are on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d probably sit tight unless you have a big e-mail checklist and are for that reason being fleeced with their high month-to-month bill. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are iterating promptly. There’s additionally a respectable chance you’re not even utilizing a few of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you do not also require them. Because of that, BeeHiiv can easily be a far better and much more economical fit.
Finally, if you plan to be very willful concerning expanding an e-newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE platform to take into consideration and maintain and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is developed to be, it is one of the best games in the area today. This is the system to see.
BeeHiiv provides a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth having a look at on your own. And if you wind up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll find the free account to be fairly feature abundant.