I have actually used a lot of different email list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a significant supporter of digital sovereignty and having your own system. Therefore (and the remarkable features), I have been making use of Beehiiv Best Newsletters.
So, it is indeed an odd move for me to make a decision to make use of BeeHiiv. Besides, it is a hosted application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I intend to go over why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I want to attend to the problem of digital sovereignty while utilizing the platform and I ‘d likewise such as to address why I chose to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For E-newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my newsletter called My Pastime + A Big Change In Approach, I spoke about just how and why I decided to turn my motor home blog site right into largely a newsletter. I determined that was business model I wanted to go after with that home.
But, to intentionally seek it as an e-newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the email listing for Gladly RV, yet FluentCRM is not a newsletter system. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, truthfully, using it for e-newsletters is a little bit of a waste. More on that particular in a little bit.
As I said because issue of the newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a system with devices built into it specific to my objective. Points such as:
- Capacity to publish (to the blog) and send out the email at the same time without having it be two separate actions.
- Built in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would require a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Integrated ability to do cross-promotions with various other newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are primarily one-click subscription links. Great for promo in various other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are means to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your newsletter.
- Integrated ad network, if I pick to generate income from with advertisements in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capacity to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and generally run a premium newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features aimed at growth. The system was essentially constructed by the individuals who accumulated the innovation for Early morning Mixture. They know what they’re doing.
That is the point below. BeeHiiv is constructed from the ground up for the function of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different purpose.
And I finished off with this:.
I may undoubtedly be relocating The Side over to BeeHiiv too. At the very least, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. Actually, I simply went for it. And actually, The side was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, triggered as it’s very own building so that I can grow it much more intentionally as well.
The objective is that each newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded independently. Happily recreational vehicle was young, so very easy to transition. But, The Morning WP (formerly The Edge) was buried in a sea of stuff below at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s own. It will clearly constantly be carefully tied with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet does not need to be a part of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv because it was constructed for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Just A Regular Email Listing
There’s a distinction between a newsletter platform and simply an e-mail checklist.
You can host your e-mail checklist just about anywhere you want and there are a number of them out there, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted alternatives like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The key difference is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of posting suggests that it is mosting likely to your site and to your e-mail clients at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are releasing to that internet site. But, you are likewise sending to all customers at the same time. The website and it’s customers are done in one. This makes administration of the platform much simpler.
With the majority of e-mail platforms, any kind of e-newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is developed entirely separately from your web site. So, for example, you could release an article to WordPress however then you would certainly require to separately build and send out an email to your list to send it to clients. These are then 2 separate sets of archives and two separate activities due to the fact that post and your e-mails are not inherently connected.
The closest point that turns WordPress into a real e-newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name due to the fact that it pretty much “glues” your newsletter to your WordPress posts and enables them to be the same thing. Certainly, something like Newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid option if I intended to continue to self-host whatever. Nevertheless, you would certainly shed the development devices that feature a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting a newsletter inherently features a different collection of demands than a regular email checklist.
You don’t generally require much marketing automation. You do not usually need autoresponder sequences, event tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO need, however, is one seamless posting experience and growth devices to aid you develop your client base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my subscribers that I was going to change 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 reality that I picked to select BeeHiiv, that doesn’t mean I believe Substack sucks. As a matter of fact, because Substack has actually been about longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple things that originally obtained my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically customized to e-newsletter authors. In fact, it is essentially developed by the exact same folks that built the innovation behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, doesn’t matter. However, 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’m interested in here.
- That branding and distinction likewise suggests that BeeHiiv has some rather big brand names and big magazines utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is aimed even more at solo creators. Once again, it just informs me the customer character difference between both business.
Sending our my e-newsletter by means of FluentCRM didn’t specifically draw. The only reason I would consider shaking things up is if I assumed I can expand the list much faster. And BeeHiiv talked precisely to that objective.
Because of the targeting, I actually don’t view BeeHiiv and Substack as direct competitors. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a various sort of consumer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being a lot more straight rivals.
However, let’s dive much deeper than just the positioning below.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv seems like it was developed by individuals who recognizing e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems much more tailored toward makers.
For example, BeeHiiv uses custom fields on customers. Currently, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv supplies Automations. In fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that works a whole lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still quite minimal in triggers and the only action is the capacity to send out an e-mail. Nevertheless, improvements are coming. Soon enough, automations will certainly have new triggers as well as brand-new actions, such as changing personalized fields, sending out webhooks, etc. I have actually already seen improvements to their automations just since I began utilizing the platform. For example:
- Capability to activate automations based upon which certain embed form they was available in on.
- Ability to instantly do re-engagement (and manage people based on opens up and non-opens).
- Capacity to do basic conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can not do this due to the fact that the target audience of Substack just wouldn’t think to approach this like an e-mail marketing expert.
When it pertains to composing your newsletters, the composing user interface of BeeHiiv is simply a lot more tailored toward e-newsletters. In fact, it in fact has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in how it works. I locate it to be a lot more intuitive, personally.
Substack’s composing interface behaves and clean, however it would certainly be much more equivalent to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is more than just form. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Area” and afterwards put anything you desire in it. After that, you can place Exposure options on that particular section to reveal it just to paid subscribers, hide it from e-mail, hide from clients, show just to subscribers, and so on. Substack provides nothing such as this.
And when/if the time comes that I begin a costs registration version, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any earnings. As a matter of fact, you essentially link approximately your very own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your earnings. Depending on the amount of subscribers you obtain, that 10% can be quite a bit more cash than the month-to-month price of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This could appear nerdy, yet what it suggests is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outdoors utilizing tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … nothing. No integrations at all.
Generally, I simply felt like BeeHiiv was more developed toward actual email marketing. It was constructed by people that “get it”. Also the opt-in kinds and the landing page designs appear better developed for conversions. Growth is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I would love to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the instructions it is going more than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually said, Substack settings itself toward “developers” more than email marketing professionals and newsletter owners. Because of that, you see some things tailored extra towards people who just assume in regards to web content development.
For example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does sustain several publications, they are dealt with quite separately. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to several publications at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, however … amazing for individuals that could need it.
Substack additionally has even more social performance built-in. For instance, it has a conversation feature to host talks with subscribers. It likewise has a “Notes” function which works type of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share things from other “Stacks” you’re reading. Intriguing. Generally, Substack is established to be a lot more like a social media which sustains long-form content.
On the whole, Substack is also more … minimalist. You either look after that or do not. Personally, I do not. Nonetheless, if the goal is simplicity of interface and, truthfully, features … Substack works pretty well.
But, I’ll be clear here …
When it comes to actual marketing, I don’t assume there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is better fit. I tried to find even more points that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, however truthfully … I have a difficult time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are commonly via to be the closest rivals, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are pursuing the exact same target audience and have comparable abilities.
ConvertKit is likewise positioned at makers (like Substack), however it is much more highly catering to people that do it for business. ConvertKit has good aesthetic automation structure, it’s own business system, and extra. ConvertKit is a truly wonderful platform.
I’m not going to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature malfunction below. ConvertKit is popular already. But, right here’s exactly how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has much more versatility when it comes to it’s automations. I will certainly also claim that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit a lot more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports tagging. This is just a basic feature of e-mail checklists that allows segmentation in a much more flexible way than BeeHiiv currently does. I expect BeeHiiv to support tagging eventually soon, honestly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Best Newsletters.
ConvertKit does now offer the capability to offer points via their very own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is very important to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, nonetheless, I would always pick an extra straight choice anyway. For me, I favor to utilize my very own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about much longer and therefore has way a lot more integration alternatives. Tons of online tools and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their own WordPress plugin that is fairly powerful. For example, their plugin currently also sustains member-gated web content along with auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Essentially, this extra carefully places ConvertKit into straight competition by having you be able to release to your website and your email listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is drastically lacking in these sort of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll get there. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even active tackling the development tools of BeeHiiv. As an example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not only incentivize individuals to share your e-newsletter with advantages, yet you can likewise pay per lead within the inner ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your list. These are truly remarkable features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you recognize ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among the most popular viral promotion platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall of what this suggests for the platform going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Best Newsletters
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that suggests less features and less integrations, which is all-natural for this phase of the cycle. Nevertheless, it likewise suggests that they are rapidly establishing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually seen virtually regular release of new features into the system. And these aren’t puny little features … but huge features that are rather important. Their speed of advancement now has been impressive.
I likewise very much value just how receptive they are. In fact, among their item announcements about some layout improvements to the web design features actually had a little issue with the web content size. I simply responded to that e-mail to tell them. I swiftly obtained a reply straight from the CEO:.
That same day, the problem was taken care of.
Few days later on, I gave them an additional recommendation …
Certainly, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to cause automations based upon the embed type made use of was contributed to the system.
That kind of responsiveness and straight involvement of the team is something I really value.
Another major point of differentiation right here is the price. Both platforms use cost-free plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan offers much more ability and even more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also much more desirable. ConvertKit appears cheaper in the beginning look due to the fact that their pricing page reveals reduced numbers, however the client limits are FAR lower and your rate rapidly increases as your listing grows.
With BeeHiiv, your first level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid every year), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 customers. That exact same size list is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I personally utilize), you can grow your checklist as much as 100,000. A list of that dimension 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 each year, too. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay annually.
BeeHiiv is in an entirely various league when it involves pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually enhance prices? They might as time takes place. However, I’m guessing individuals like myself that are already in will be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how points proceed.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
Among things you certainly need to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do seem to progress rather quickly and make new product announcements rather usually, however there are some standard features I actually want they had that I require to just await.
One is that they require to have a setting on membership kinds where I might select an automation to run right at the form level. That would be incredible for many reasons. As of now, registration kinds look OK, however there’s extremely little setups for them to assist in division.
It would behave to have marking at the customer level. This would certainly be powerful.
I assume webhooks should belong to automations to make integrated automations less complicated and minimize dependence on outside devices like Zapier.
There are additionally some small management user interface adjustments that would certainly come in handy. For instance:
- Capability to bulk edit/remove clients.
- Capacity to bulk edit posts (as an example, to label a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a few standard areas as basic on customers (like the name).
- Some even more modification choices for the site (such as more flexible color options, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Things I hope they make with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, yet it isn’t best and definitely not nearly as created as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM product.
It most likely never will be, either. As I claimed, the purpose 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 know, though.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Review
I such as BeeHiiv rather a lot. Enough where I decided to change my very own e-newsletters over to the system in spite of my individual choice for digital sovereignty and having my very own system.
Put simply, for the newsletter publishing version specifically, I saw adequate value in their system to require the modification.
Remember, I do not use BeeHiiv as my special e-mail list. I use BeeHiiv of what it is efficient, but I intentionally have points set up so that I additionally maintain my listing “in residence” within FluentCRM.
If you make use of BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the very same. It is just a good insurance coverage, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your checklist will certainly be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the concern is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are using Substack right now, I ‘d absolutely think about changing to BeeHiiv. It will simply be extra business-friendly. It is targeting different abilities and different needs. And also, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the button should be pretty straightforward.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d probably stay put unless you have a big email listing and are therefore being wooled with their high month-to-month bill. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are iterating rapidly. There’s also a pretty good opportunity you’re not also making use of a few of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you don’t even require them. Therefore, BeeHiiv could conveniently be a far better and a lot more cost effective fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be very intentional regarding growing an e-newsletter, I believe 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 created to be, it is among the best video games around now. This is the system to see.
BeeHiiv provides a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves taking a look at on your own. And if you end up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll locate the totally free account to be quite feature rich.