I have actually made use of a great deal of different e-mail list systems over the years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a big proponent of digital sovereignty and possessing your own system. Therefore (and the amazing features), I have been using For The Long Run Beehiiv.
So, it is undoubtedly a strange move for me to decide to use BeeHiiv. Besides, it is an organized application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I intend to look at why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I intend to deal with the problem of digital sovereignty while utilizing the system and I ‘d likewise like to resolve why I selected to utilize it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For Newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Large Change In Technique, I discussed how and why I decided to transform my motor home blog into primarily a newsletter. I made a decision that was business design I intended to pursue with that said property.
But, to deliberately seek it as an e-newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the e-mail checklist for Happily RV, yet FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, truthfully, using it for newsletters is a little bit of a waste. Extra on that particular in a little bit.
As I claimed because problem of the e-newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a platform with tools built into it specific to my objective. Things such as:
- Ability to publish (to the blog) and send out the e-mail concurrently without having it be 2 different actions.
- Integrated in e-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 e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are generally one-click membership web links. Great for promotion in other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are ways to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Built-in advertisement network, if I pick to monetize with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and basically run a premium e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Generally, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter authors with features focused on growth. The platform was essentially developed by the people who accumulated the innovation for Morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the point right here. BeeHiiv is constructed from the ground up for the purpose of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a various objective.
And I ended off with this:.
I may indeed be moving The Side over to BeeHiiv too. A minimum of, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. As a matter of fact, I just went all out. And as a matter of fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s very own residential or commercial property to make sure that I can expand it much more purposefully also.
The objective is that each newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s own media entity and grown separately. Happily RV was young, so very 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 dividing it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s own. It will certainly always be closely tied with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet doesn’t need to be a part of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was constructed for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Typical Email Checklist
There’s a difference between a newsletter platform and just an email listing.
You can organize your email listing everywhere you want and there are a number of them around, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The primary difference is that, with an e-newsletter system, the act of publishing implies that it is going to your internet site and to your e-mail customers at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are publishing to that site. However, you are likewise sending off to all subscribers at the same time. The web site and it’s subscribers are all in one. This makes monitoring of the platform much less complex.
With a lot of e-mail platforms, any kind of e-newsletter you set up is done as an email campaign. It is built entirely independently from your internet site. So, as an example, you might release an article to WordPress but then you would require to separately construct and send an e-mail to your list to send it to customers. These are then 2 separate sets of archives and 2 different actions due to the fact that blog posts and your emails are not inherently connected.
The closest point that turns WordPress into a real e-newsletter platform is Newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name due to the fact that it basically “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress posts and allows them to be the very same thing. Definitely, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid choice if I wished to remain to self-host whatever. Nonetheless, you ‘d lose the development devices that feature a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter inherently features a different collection of needs than a typical email list.
You don’t normally need much marketing automation. You do not usually require autoresponder series, occasion tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO demand, however, is one smooth posting experience and development devices to aid you construct your client base that are specific to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my customers that I was going to switch the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the truth that I chose to go with BeeHiiv, that does not indicate I think Substack draws. In fact, since Substack has actually been around longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple points that at first obtained my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly tailored to e-newsletter publishers. As a matter of fact, it is actually developed by the very same folks who built the innovation behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real life, does not matter. Yet, the evident positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter growth called me out over the more common positioning of being a “maker”. Development is what I’m interested in right here.
- That branding and distinction additionally indicates that BeeHiiv has some relatively big brands and large magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo developers. Once again, it simply tells me the client avatar difference between both firms.
Sending our my newsletter through FluentCRM didn’t exactly draw. The only factor I would certainly ponder drinking points up is if I believed I can GROW the checklist much faster. And BeeHiiv spoke exactly to that objective.
Because of the targeting, I actually don’t watch BeeHiiv and Substack as direct competitors. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a different type of consumer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being a lot more straight rivals.
Yet, let’s dive much deeper than simply the positioning below.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv feels like it was developed by people that understanding e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears a lot more geared toward makers.
For instance, BeeHiiv provides personalized fields on clients. Now, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. As a matter of fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that works a great deal like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation functionality is still early-phase. It is still rather limited in triggers and the only activity is the ability to send out an e-mail. Nonetheless, improvements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will certainly have new triggers along with new activities, such as customizing customized areas, sending webhooks, and so on. I have actually currently seen enhancements to their automations simply because I started making use of the platform. For instance:
- Ability to set off automations based on which specific embed form they came in on.
- Ability to automatically do re-engagement (and deal with individuals based on opens and non-opens).
- Capacity to do fundamental conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never will. Substack just can’t do this due to the fact that the target market of Substack just wouldn’t think to approach this like an email online marketer.
When it pertains to creating your e-newsletters, the creating user interface of BeeHiiv is simply more geared towards e-newsletters. As a matter of fact, it in fact has similarities to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it works. I locate it to be extra instinctive, directly.
Substack’s composing user interface is nice and clean, but it would be more equal to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This difference is more than just form. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Area” and after that placed anything you want in it. After that, you can put Presence alternatives on that section to show it just to paid subscribers, hide it from e-mail, hide from customers, reveal only to customers, and so on. Substack supplies absolutely nothing similar to this.
And when/if the time comes that I begin a costs subscription version, BeeHiiv does not take any type of revenue. Actually, you literally attach up to your own Stripe account and it charges directly to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your profits. Depending on how many clients you get, that 10% can be quite a bit more cash than the monthly cost of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This could seem unpopular, but what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv work with the outdoors using tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … nothing. No integrations whatsoever.
On the whole, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was much more built toward genuine e-mail marketing. It was built by individuals that “get it”. Even the opt-in kinds and the landing page creates appear much better constructed for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually stated, Substack settings itself toward “designers” more than e-mail marketers and newsletter proprietors. Therefore, you see some things tailored extra toward individuals that just believe in regards to material creation.
For instance, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does sustain numerous magazines, they are treated quite independently. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to several magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I need, however … cool for people that could require it.
Substack also has more social capability built-in. For instance, it has a chat feature to host chats with customers. It also has a “Notes” function which works type of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you read. Intriguing. On the whole, Substack is established to be extra like a social media which supports long-form web content.
In general, Substack is likewise more … minimalist. You either care for that or do not. Personally, I do not. However, if the objective is simplicity of interface and, truthfully, features … Substack works rather well.
However, I’ll be clear here …
When it involves actual marketing, I don’t assume there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is better fit. I searched for even more points that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, but frankly … I have a difficult time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are often with to be the closest rivals, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are pursuing the very same target audience and have similar capabilities.
ConvertKit is also placed at developers (like Substack), yet it is a lot more strongly satisfying individuals who do it for organization. ConvertKit has nice aesthetic automation building, it’s very own commerce platform, and much more. ConvertKit is a truly nice platform.
I’m not going to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature breakdown here. ConvertKit is well known already. But, here’s how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has much more adaptability when it comes to it’s automations. I will also say that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit much more instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports identifying. This is simply a fundamental function of email listings that enables division in an even more adaptable means than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to sustain tagging eventually quickly, truthfully. It seems like an oversight that it is missing For The Long Run Beehiiv.
ConvertKit does currently supply the ability to market things via their 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 always pick an extra direct alternative anyway. For me, I favor to use my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been about much longer and therefore has way more integration choices. Lots of online tools and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their own WordPress plugin that is fairly powerful. As an example, their plugin currently also supports member-gated material in addition to auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your website. In essence, this more very closely puts ConvertKit into direct competitors by having you have the ability to publish to your site and your email list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is severely lacking in these kinds of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll get there. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy dealing with the development devices of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not only incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with rewards, however you can also pay per lead within the internal ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your list. These are truly incredible features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you know ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of one of the most well known viral promotion platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall surface for what this suggests for the platform moving forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … For The Long Run Beehiiv
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that indicates less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. However, it also suggests that they are swiftly creating.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have seen almost weekly launch of brand-new features into the system. And these aren’t weak little features … yet big features that are rather essential. Their rate of development at this moment has actually gone over.
I additionally quite appreciate just how receptive they are. As a matter of fact, one of their item news about some layout improvements to the website design features in fact contained a small trouble with the web content size. I just responded to that email to tell them. I quickly got a reply directly from the chief executive officer:.
That same day, the problem was repaired.
Couple of days later on, I gave them an additional idea …
Indeed, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to activate automations based upon the embed type used was contributed to the system.
That kind of responsiveness and straight participation of the group is something I truly appreciate.
An additional major point of distinction right here is the price. Both systems offer free plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan supplies a lot more capacity and even more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise even more desirable. ConvertKit appears more affordable initially glimpse since their pricing web page reveals lower numbers, nonetheless the client limits are FAR reduced and your price quickly enhances as your checklist expands.
With BeeHiiv, your first level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid every year), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 customers. That very same dimension checklist is going 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 expand your checklist up to 100,000. A list of that dimension would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, too, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay every year, as well. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay yearly.
BeeHiiv remains in an entirely various league when it concerns pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point enhance costs? They may as time goes on. Yet, I’m presuming individuals like myself that are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how things proceed.
Points I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among things you definitely need to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do seem to advance rather promptly and make new product statements rather usually, but there are some fundamental features I truly wish they had that I need to simply await.
One is that they require to have a setting on registration forms where I might pick an automation to run right at the form level. That would be AWESOME for so many factors. As of now, registration forms look OK, yet there’s very little settings for them to aid in segmentation.
It would be nice to have tagging at the subscriber level. This would certainly be effective.
I assume webhooks should become part of automations to make built-in automations much easier and reduce reliance on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are also some minor management user interface modifications that would be handy. For instance:
- Capability to bulk edit/remove subscribers.
- Capability to mass edit posts (for example, to mark a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a few standard areas as conventional on clients (like the name).
- Some more personalization options for the site (such as even more flexible shade options, heading control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Points I hope they finish with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, yet it isn’t ideal and definitely not virtually as created as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM product.
It most likely never ever will be, either. As I said, the function is various so it wouldn’t a lot a great deal of feeling for BeeHiiv to come to be a full marketing automation system. I think you never ever recognize, though.
Final Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I like BeeHiiv fairly a lot. Sufficient where I determined to change my own e-newsletters over to the platform regardless of my individual choice for digital sovereignty and having my very own system.
Put simply, for the newsletter publishing design particularly, I saw sufficient worth in their platform to require the change.
Bear in mind, I do not utilize BeeHiiv as my exclusive e-mail listing. I use BeeHiiv wherefore it is proficient at, but I intentionally have points set up to ensure that I likewise maintain my listing “in home” within FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the exact same. It is just an excellent insurance plan, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your checklist will be of high use (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will be).
So, the concern is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are making use of Substack right now, I ‘d certainly consider changing to BeeHiiv. It will just be more business-friendly. It is targeting different capacities and different requirements. Plus, BeeHiiv also has import devices for Substack, so the switch needs to be quite simple.
If you are on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d most likely stay put unless you have a huge e-mail checklist and are as a result being fleeced with their high regular monthly expense. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are iterating swiftly. There’s also a respectable possibility you’re not even utilizing some of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you don’t even need them. For that reason, BeeHiiv could easily be a better and much more affordable fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be very deliberate regarding expanding a newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE system to take into consideration and maintain and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is made to be, it is one of the very best video games around today. This is the system to see.
BeeHiiv uses 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 discover the totally free account to be rather feature rich.