I have used a great deal of various email list systems throughout the years. In the last number of years, I have actually been a huge proponent of digital sovereignty and owning your very own system. Therefore (and the awesome features), I have actually been utilizing Beehiiv Affiliate Commission.
So, it is without a doubt an odd move for me to choose to make use of BeeHiiv. After all, it is a held application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I want to look at why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I want to resolve the problem of digital sovereignty while using the platform and I ‘d also like to resolve why I chose to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For E-newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Hobby + A Large Shift In Technique, I spoke about how and why I decided to transform my RV blog site right into mostly an e-newsletter. I determined that was the business model I intended to pursue with that said residential or commercial property.
But, to purposefully pursue it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a system that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the email list for Happily RV, yet FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter system. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, truthfully, utilizing it for e-newsletters is a little bit of a waste. Extra on that particular in a little bit.
As I said in that problem of the e-newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a platform with tools developed into it certain to my objective. Things such as:
- Ability to release (to the blog site) and send out the email all at once without having it be 2 different actions.
- Integrated in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would certainly require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capacity to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are essentially one-click registration links. Great for promotion in other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are methods to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your newsletter.
- Integrated advertisement network, if I pick to monetize with advertisements in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capacity to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and generally run a premium e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter authors with features aimed at growth. The platform was actually constructed by the individuals who accumulated the innovation for Morning Mixture. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the factor here. BeeHiiv is developed from the ground up for the objective of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a various objective.
And I finished off with this:.
I may without a doubt be relocating The Side over to BeeHiiv also. At the very least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. Actually, I just went all out. And actually, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, triggered as it’s own property to ensure that I can expand it a lot more deliberately also.
The goal is that each e-newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown separately. Gladly RV was young, so easy to transition. Yet, The Early morning WP (formerly The Side) was buried in a sea of things here at the Blog Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s very own. It will obviously always be closely tied with the Blog site Marketing Academy, yet does not need to be a part of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv since it was constructed for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Typical Email Checklist
There’s a distinction in between an e-newsletter platform and just an email checklist.
You can organize your email listing anywhere 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 distinction?
The key distinction is that, with a newsletter platform, the act of posting suggests that it is going to your website and to your e-mail customers all at once.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a web site. You are publishing to that web site. But, you are also sending to all customers at the same time. The site and it’s subscribers are done in one. This makes administration of the platform much easier.
With many email systems, any type of newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is constructed entirely individually from your site. So, for example, you may release a post to WordPress but after that you would certainly need to independently build and send an email to your listing to send it to subscribers. These are after that 2 separate collections of archives and two separate activities due to the fact that post and your emails are not naturally connected.
The closest point that transforms WordPress into a true e-newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name due to the fact that it practically “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress posts and permits them to be the very same thing. Certainly, something like Newsletter Glue would be a solid choice if I wanted to remain to self-host every little thing. Nevertheless, you ‘d shed the development devices that include a platform like BeeHiiv.
Posting a newsletter inherently comes with a different collection of needs than a typical e-mail checklist.
You do not usually need much marketing automation. You do not usually need autoresponder series, occasion tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO requirement, though, is one seamless publishing experience and growth tools to help you build your customer base that are specific to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my clients that I was going to switch 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 picked to select BeeHiiv, that doesn’t suggest I believe Substack sucks. In fact, because Substack has been about longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Although BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple points that at first got my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is especially customized to e-newsletter authors. In fact, it is actually built by the exact same individuals who constructed the technology behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real life, does not matter. Yet, the obvious positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter growth called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “developer”. Growth is what I want below.
- That branding and distinction additionally indicates that BeeHiiv has some relatively big brand names and huge magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is intended even more at solo creators. Again, it simply tells me the customer avatar difference in between the two firms.
Sending our my newsletter using FluentCRM didn’t precisely suck. The only reason I would certainly consider shaking things up is if I thought I can expand the listing much faster. And BeeHiiv talked exactly to that objective.
Due to the targeting, I actually do not watch BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a various sort of customer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra direct rivals.
However, let’s dive deeper than just the placing here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv seems like it was constructed by individuals that recognizing email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears extra tailored toward creators.
For example, BeeHiiv provides customized fields on subscribers. Now, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv provides Automations. In fact, it is a visual automation builder that functions a lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still quite restricted in triggers and the only action is the ability to send an email. Nevertheless, enhancements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will certainly have new triggers as well as new actions, such as changing custom fields, sending out webhooks, and so on. I’ve currently seen improvements to their automations just since I started making use of the platform. As an example:
- Ability to set off automations based upon which details embed type they was available in on.
- Capability to automatically do re-engagement (and handle individuals based upon opens and non-opens).
- Capacity to do fundamental conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can not do this because the target audience of Substack just wouldn’t think to approach this like an e-mail marketing professional.
When it concerns creating your newsletters, the creating user interface of BeeHiiv is simply a lot more geared toward newsletters. Actually, it actually has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in how it functions. I locate it to be more instinctive, personally.
Substack’s composing interface is nice and clean, yet it would be extra equivalent to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This distinction is more than simply kind. For example, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Area” and after that put anything you want in it. Then, you can place Presence options on that section to reveal it just to paid subscribers, conceal it from email, conceal from clients, reveal only to customers, and so on. Substack provides nothing similar to this.
And when/if the time comes that I start a premium registration model, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any type of revenue. Actually, you essentially link as much as your own Stripe account and it charges straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your earnings. Relying on the number of customers you get, that 10% can be quite a bit even more cash than the monthly cost of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This could appear nerdy, but what it means is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv work with the outside utilizing devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … absolutely nothing. No integrations in any way.
Generally, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was a lot more developed towards actual email marketing. It was built by people that “get it”. Even the opt-in forms and the landing page makes seem better developed for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I wish to see BeeHiiv add, I such as the instructions it is going more than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have said, Substack settings itself toward “designers” more than e-mail marketing experts and e-newsletter owners. Because of that, you see some points tailored extra towards people who simply believe in regards to web content production.
For instance, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does support multiple publications, they are treated rather separately. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to multiple publications at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, yet … cool for people who might require it.
Substack also has even more social functionality built-in. For example, it has a chat function to host talks with subscribers. 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. Intriguing. In general, Substack is set up to be extra like a social media which sustains long-form content.
Overall, Substack is also a lot more … minimalist. You either care for that or do not. Personally, I don’t. Nevertheless, if the goal is simpleness of interface and, honestly, features … Substack works pretty well.
But, I’ll be clear right here …
When it concerns real marketing, I do not assume there’s much question that BeeHiiv is better matched. I looked for even more factors that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, but frankly … I have a difficult time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are often through to be the closest competitors, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are pursuing the exact same target audience and have similar capacities.
ConvertKit is likewise positioned at developers (like Substack), but it is a lot more strongly accommodating individuals who do it for business. ConvertKit has wonderful visual automation building, it’s own commerce platform, and a lot more. ConvertKit is a truly wonderful system.
I’m not mosting likely to bore you with a full feature-by-feature failure below. ConvertKit is popular currently. Yet, right here’s exactly how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has much more flexibility when it involves it’s automations. I will additionally state that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit a lot more instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains marking. This is simply a standard feature of email checklists that enables division in a much more adaptable method than BeeHiiv currently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain marking eventually quickly, honestly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Affiliate Commission.
ConvertKit does currently provide the capability to sell things through their own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is necessary to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would always choose an extra direct option anyhow. For me, I like to utilize my own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been around much longer and because of that has way more integration choices. Lots of web-based tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is fairly effective. For example, their plugin now also supports member-gated material as well as auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your website. In essence, this a lot more carefully places ConvertKit right into direct competition by having you have the ability to publish to your website and your e-mail list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is badly doing not have in these sort of third-party integrations right now. It’ll arrive. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even active taking on the growth tools 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, but you can likewise pay per lead within the internal ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your listing. These are truly outstanding features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you recognize ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of one of the most well known viral promo systems for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall surface of what this suggests for the platform going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Affiliate Commission
BeeHiiv is a lot earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies much less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this stage of the cycle. However, it additionally suggests that they are rapidly creating.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually seen practically once a week release of brand-new features into the system. And these aren’t puny little features … yet huge features that are quite crucial. Their speed of growth at this point has been impressive.
I also significantly appreciate how responsive they are. As a matter of fact, among their item statements concerning some style enhancements to the website design features in fact included a small issue with the material size. I merely responded to that email to tell them. I quickly obtained a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That exact same day, the issue was fixed.
Few days later, I provided one more pointer …
Certainly, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to set off automations based on the embed kind utilized was contributed to the system.
That type of responsiveness and straight participation of the team is something I actually value.
An additional major point of differentiation right here is the cost. Both platforms supply complimentary plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan supplies 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 likewise even more beneficial. ConvertKit appears less expensive initially glimpse because their pricing page shows lower numbers, however the client restrictions are much reduced and your price quickly enhances as your checklist expands.
With BeeHiiv, your first degree paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid yearly), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That same dimension checklist is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I directly utilize), you can expand your list approximately 100,000. A checklist of that dimension would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, too, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay every year, too. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv remains in a totally various league when it concerns pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually increase rates? They could as time takes place. But, I’m presuming people like myself that are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how points continue.
Things I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of the things you absolutely require to remember is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do appear to advance instead quickly and make new product news rather often, yet there are some basic features I really want they had that I need to simply wait for.
One is that they need to have a setup on registration types where I might choose an automation to run right at the type level. That would be amazing for so many reasons. Currently, subscription forms look OK, yet there’s very little setups for them to help in segmentation.
It would behave to have marking at the client degree. This would certainly be powerful.
I believe webhooks need to be part of automations to make built-in automations easier and reduce reliance on outside devices like Zapier.
There are additionally some small administrative interface modifications that would certainly come in handy. For instance:
- Capability to bulk edit/remove clients.
- Ability to mass edit posts (for example, to tag a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of standard areas as common on customers (like the name).
- Some even more personalization alternatives for the web site (such as more flexible color choices, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Points I wish they make with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, yet it isn’t excellent and absolutely not virtually as created as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM item.
It probably never will certainly be, either. As I stated, the objective is different so it wouldn’t much a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to end up being a full marketing automation system. I guess you never ever recognize, however.
Final Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I like BeeHiiv rather a lot. Enough where I chose to switch my own newsletters over to the system in spite of my individual preference for digital sovereignty and owning my own platform.
Simply put, for the newsletter posting design specifically, I saw sufficient worth in their platform to call for the change.
Bear in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my exclusive email list. I use BeeHiiv for what it is proficient at, however I purposefully have points set up so that I also maintain my list “in home” inside of FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the very same. It is just a good insurance policy, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your checklist will be of high use (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will certainly be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my point of view, if you are making use of Substack right now, I ‘d most definitely take into consideration changing to BeeHiiv. It will simply be a lot more business-friendly. It is targeting various abilities and different requirements. And also, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the switch should be quite simple.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d probably sit tight unless you have a big e-mail listing 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 quickly. There’s also a respectable chance you’re not also utilizing some of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not even require them. For that reason, BeeHiiv might quickly be a much better and extra economical fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be very intentional regarding growing a newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE platform to consider and maintain and eye on for you.
If you utilize BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is designed to be, it is just one of the best video games around now. This is the platform to view.
BeeHiiv uses a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth taking a look at on your own. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll locate the complimentary account to be fairly feature abundant.