I have actually made use of a lot of different email list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a substantial proponent of digital sovereignty and having your very own platform. Because of that (and the amazing features), I have been utilizing Digital Asset Investor Beehiiv.
So, it is undoubtedly a weird move for me to choose to make use of BeeHiiv. After all, it is an organized application and I am paying monthly 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 wish to resolve the concern of digital sovereignty while making use of the platform and I would certainly additionally such as to deal with why I selected to utilize it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For Newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Hobby + A Big Shift In Technique, I spoke about exactly how and why I determined to transform my RV blog into mostly an e-newsletter. I made a decision that was business version I wished to seek with that said residential property.
Yet, to purposefully seek it as a newsletter, I wanted a system that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the email list for Gladly recreational vehicle, however FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, honestly, using it for newsletters is a little bit of a waste. More on that particular in a bit.
As I said in that issue of the newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a system with devices built into it certain to my function. Points such as:
- Ability to release (to the blog) and send out the e-mail simultaneously without having it be two separate activities.
- Constructed in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would certainly have needed a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capacity to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are essentially one-click subscription links. Great for promotion in various other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, however, so there are means to do that.
- Capacity to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your e-newsletter.
- Integrated advertisement network, if I select to monetize with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated ability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and primarily run a premium newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Essentially, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features aimed at growth. The system was essentially developed by the individuals who developed the modern technology for Early morning Brew. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the point right here. BeeHiiv is developed from scratch for the purpose of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different objective.
And I ended off with this:.
I might undoubtedly be relocating The Side over to BeeHiiv as well. At least, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. Actually, I simply went all out. And actually, The side was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, triggered as it’s very own property to ensure that I can grow it much more purposefully too.
The objective is that each e-newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown independently. Gladly recreational vehicle was young, so simple to change. Yet, The Morning WP (previously The Side) was hidden in a sea of things here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s very own. It will undoubtedly always be very closely tied with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet doesn’t have to belong of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv since it was constructed for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Typical Email Listing
There’s a distinction in between an e-newsletter platform and simply an email checklist.
You can host your e-mail listing everywhere you desire and there are a variety of them available, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted choices like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The main difference is that, with a newsletter platform, the act of publishing means that it is mosting likely to your site and to your e-mail subscribers at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a site. You are releasing to that site. However, you are also sending off to all customers at the same time. The site and it’s customers are done in one. This makes management of the platform much easier.
With most email platforms, any newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is built entirely separately from your site. So, as an example, you could publish a write-up to WordPress yet then you would certainly require to independently develop and send out an email to your listing to send it to subscribers. These are after that 2 different collections of archives and 2 different actions since post and your e-mails are not naturally linked.
The closest point that turns WordPress right into a real e-newsletter system is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name because it pretty much “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress articles and enables them to be the exact same thing. Certainly, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a strong alternative if I intended to remain to self-host every little thing. Nevertheless, you would certainly shed the development tools that include a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter inherently includes a various collection of needs than a typical email list.
You do not normally require much marketing automation. You do not generally require autoresponder series, occasion tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO requirement, though, is one smooth publishing experience and growth tools to help you construct your subscriber base that specify to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my clients that I was going to switch over the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the fact that I picked to go with BeeHiiv, that doesn’t imply I think Substack draws. In fact, due to the fact that Substack has been about longer, it is elder and has more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple points that at first got my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is especially customized to e-newsletter authors. Actually, it is literally constructed by the very same people that developed the modern technology behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, does not matter. However, the evident positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter development called me out over the more common positioning of being a “designer”. Development is what I have an interest in right here.
- That branding and distinction also indicates that BeeHiiv has some rather huge brand names and huge publications using it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo creators. Once more, it simply tells me the client character distinction in between both business.
Sending our my newsletter through FluentCRM didn’t exactly suck. The only reason I would ponder trembling points up is if I thought I could expand the list faster. And BeeHiiv spoke precisely to that goal.
As a result of the targeting, I in fact don’t view BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a different kind of customer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being more direct rivals.
Yet, allow’s dive much deeper than just the placing here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
On the whole, BeeHiiv feels like it was developed by people that recognizing e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems a lot more tailored toward developers.
As an example, BeeHiiv supplies custom areas on customers. Currently, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv supplies Automations. As a matter of fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that functions a great deal like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation performance is still early-phase. It is still quite limited in triggers and the only action is the ability to send an e-mail. However, enhancements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will have new triggers in addition to brand-new activities, such as changing custom fields, sending webhooks, and so on. I have actually already seen improvements to their automations simply because I started making use of the system. For instance:
- Capacity to cause automations based upon which specific embed kind they can be found in on.
- Ability to automatically do re-engagement (and take care of individuals based upon opens and non-opens).
- Capability to do basic conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can’t do this since the target market of Substack simply wouldn’t believe to approach this like an e-mail online marketer.
When it pertains to writing your e-newsletters, the writing interface of BeeHiiv is just more geared towards newsletters. In fact, it in fact has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it functions. I discover it to be extra intuitive, directly.
Substack’s creating user interface behaves and clean, yet it would certainly be a lot more equivalent to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This distinction is more than simply form. For example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Area” and afterwards put anything you want in it. After that, you can put Visibility choices on that particular area to show it only to paid clients, conceal it from email, hide from subscribers, reveal only to subscribers, etc. Substack uses nothing such as this.
And when/if the moment comes that I start a premium subscription model, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any income. In fact, you essentially attach approximately your very own Stripe account and it bills directly to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your earnings. Depending upon how many subscribers you get, that 10% can be quite a bit even more money than the monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This may seem unpopular, yet what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outdoors using tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … absolutely nothing. No integrations in any way.
Generally, I simply seemed like BeeHiiv was much more constructed toward real e-mail marketing. It was constructed by people that “get it”. Also the opt-in kinds and the landing page makes appear better constructed for conversions. Development is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I wish to see BeeHiiv include, I like the direction it is going more than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have said, Substack positions itself toward “creators” greater than email online marketers and e-newsletter owners. For that reason, you see some things geared much more towards people who simply believe in terms of content development.
For example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does sustain numerous magazines, they are treated rather independently. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to multiple publications at the same time. This isn’t something I require, yet … amazing for people who may need it.
Substack likewise has even more social performance built-in. For example, it has a chat feature to host chats with customers. It likewise has a “Notes” feature which works sort of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share things from various other “Stacks” you read. Intriguing. On the whole, Substack is set up to be more like a social media network which supports long-form material.
Generally, Substack is likewise extra … minimal. You either take care of that or do not. Personally, I do not. However, if the objective is simplicity of interface and, truthfully, features … Substack works quite well.
Yet, I’ll be clear below …
When it involves actual marketing, I do not think there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is much better suited. I looked for more points that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, however honestly … I have a hard time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are often via to be the closest rivals, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are pursuing the very same target market and have similar capabilities.
ConvertKit is additionally positioned at designers (like Substack), however it is a lot more strongly satisfying individuals who do it for service. ConvertKit has great visual automation building, it’s own commerce system, and much more. ConvertKit is an actually nice system.
I’m not mosting likely to bore you with a full feature-by-feature break down right here. ConvertKit is well known already. However, below’s exactly how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Points ConvertKit Is Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has more versatility when it comes to it’s automations. I will likewise say that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit much more user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports marking. This is simply a standard function of email lists that allows division in an even more flexible method than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to sustain tagging eventually soon, truthfully. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Digital Asset Investor Beehiiv.
ConvertKit does now provide the ability to offer things via their very own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is very important to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would certainly always select a much more direct choice anyhow. For me, I favor to utilize my very own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been about much longer and for that reason has way a lot more integration choices. Tons of web-based devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is fairly powerful. For example, their plugin now also sustains member-gated content in addition to auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your site. Essentially, this much more closely places ConvertKit into direct competitors by having you be able to publish to your site and your e-mail list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is badly doing not have in these kinds of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll arrive. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy tackling the growth tools of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not only incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with benefits, but you can likewise pay per lead within the internal ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your listing. These are really amazing features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you recognize ConvertKit acquired Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of the most popular viral promo platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall wherefore this implies for the platform going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Digital Asset Investor Beehiiv
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies much less features and less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. Nevertheless, it also means that they are quickly developing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually seen nearly regular release of brand-new features into the platform. And these aren’t puny little features … yet big features that are rather essential. Their rate of advancement now has gone over.
I also quite value how receptive they are. In fact, among their product news about some design enhancements to the web design features actually had a little issue with the content width. I just responded to that email to tell them. I rapidly obtained a reply directly from the chief executive officer:.
That same day, the problem was dealt with.
Few days later on, I provided an additional pointer …
Certainly, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to trigger automations based on the embed kind used was contributed to the system.
That type of responsiveness and straight involvement of the team is something I truly appreciate.
An additional significant factor of distinction below is the cost. Both systems supply cost-free plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan supplies more capacity and even more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
As soon as you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise FAR more desirable. ConvertKit appears more affordable initially glimpse because their pricing web page reveals lower numbers, however the subscriber limits are much reduced and your cost swiftly raises as your checklist expands.
With BeeHiiv, your initial level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid each year), however you can have up to 10,000 customers. That same dimension listing is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I personally use), you can grow your list approximately 100,000. A checklist of that size would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, as well, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay yearly, also. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv is in an entirely different organization when it comes to pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately enhance prices? They may as time takes place. However, I’m presuming people like myself that are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how things continue.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among the things you most definitely require to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do seem to progress instead rapidly and make new item statements somewhat commonly, however there are some basic features I truly want they had that I require to simply wait on.
One is that they require to have a setting on registration kinds where I could select an automation to run right at the type degree. That would be incredible for numerous factors. Currently, subscription types look OK, yet there’s really little setups for them to aid in segmentation.
It would certainly be nice to have labeling at the subscriber degree. This would be effective.
I believe webhooks should be part of automations to make built-in automations easier and lower reliance on outside tools like Zapier.
There are also some minor management user interface changes that would be handy. For example:
- Capacity to bulk edit/remove subscribers.
- Ability to bulk edit articles (for example, to tag a number of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of fundamental fields as basic on clients (like the name).
- Some even more customization options for the internet site (such as more versatile color choices, headline control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Points I wish they finish with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, yet it isn’t best and absolutely not almost as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM item.
It possibly never ever will be, either. As I stated, the function is different so it wouldn’t a lot a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to end up being a full marketing automation system. I think you never understand, however.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Review
I such as BeeHiiv quite a great deal. Sufficient where I made a decision to change my very own e-newsletters over to the system regardless of my individual choice for digital sovereignty and owning my own system.
Basically, for the e-newsletter posting version particularly, I saw sufficient worth in their platform to necessitate the adjustment.
Keep in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my exclusive email list. I use BeeHiiv wherefore it is good at, but I intentionally have points establish to make sure that I likewise maintain my checklist “in house” within FluentCRM.
If you make use of BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the exact same. It is simply an excellent insurance plan, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your listing will certainly be of high usage (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will certainly be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are making use of Substack today, I ‘d absolutely think about changing to BeeHiiv. It will simply be much more business-friendly. It is targeting various capabilities and various demands. And also, BeeHiiv also has import tools for Substack, so the switch ought to be pretty simple.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d most likely sit tight unless you have a huge email list and are consequently being wooled with their high regular monthly costs. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are iterating swiftly. There’s also a pretty good chance you’re not even making use of several of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you don’t even require them. Therefore, BeeHiiv can easily be a better and extra cost effective fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be very deliberate concerning expanding a newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE system to take into consideration and keep and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is made to be, it is just one of the very best games around now. This is the platform to see.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth taking a look at for yourself. And if you wind up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll locate the free account to be fairly feature abundant.