I have used a great deal of different e-mail list systems for many years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a massive proponent of digital sovereignty and owning your very own system. Because of that (and the incredible features), I have actually been utilizing Beehiiv Deliverability.
So, it is certainly a weird move for me to make a decision to utilize BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is a hosted application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I want to look at why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I wish to resolve the problem of digital sovereignty while utilizing the platform and I would certainly also such as to resolve why I picked to utilize it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For Newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Pastime + A Huge Change In Technique, I talked about exactly how and why I determined to turn my RV blog site right into mainly an e-newsletter. I decided that was the business design I wished to pursue with that building.
But, to intentionally seek it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the email listing for Gladly motor home, but 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 bit of a waste. More on that in a little bit.
As I stated because issue of the newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a system with tools built right into it certain to my function. Things such as:
- Capability to publish (to the blog site) and send the e-mail concurrently without having it be 2 separate activities.
- Integrated in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Integrated ability to do cross-promotions with other newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are essentially one-click subscription web links. Great for promo in other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, however, so there are ways to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Integrated ad network, if I select to generate income from with ads in the newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capacity to run a paid newsletter upgrade and primarily run a premium e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Essentially, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter publishers with features focused on growth. The platform was actually built by the individuals who accumulated the technology for Early morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the point below. BeeHiiv is built from scratch for the function of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various objective.
And I finished off with this:.
I might certainly be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv also. At least, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. In fact, I just went all out. And as a matter of fact, The side was re-branded over to The Morning WP, set off as it’s very own residential property to make sure that I can expand it extra purposefully also.
The goal is that each e-newsletter has the capability to be branded as it’s own media entity and grown individually. Happily recreational vehicle was young, so simple to shift. Yet, The Morning WP (formerly The Edge) was hidden in a sea of things below at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s own. It will certainly always be carefully connected with the Blog site Marketing Academy, but doesn’t have to be a part of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was built for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Just A Typical Email List
There’s a distinction in between an e-newsletter platform and just an e-mail list.
You can organize your e-mail checklist anyplace 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 main difference is that, with an e-newsletter system, the act of posting implies that it is going to your web site and to your email clients simultaneously.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a web site. You are publishing to that site. However, you are additionally dispatching to all subscribers at the same time. The site and it’s clients are all in one. This makes management of the platform much simpler.
With most e-mail systems, any type of newsletter you set up is done as an e-mail campaign. It is built totally individually from your website. So, for example, you could release a write-up to WordPress however then you would require to individually develop and send out an email to your listing to send it to subscribers. These are then 2 separate sets of archives and 2 different activities due to the fact that post and your e-mails are not inherently connected.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress into a real e-newsletter platform is Newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name since it practically “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress messages and allows them to be the very same thing. Definitely, something like E-newsletter Glue would be a solid option if I wanted to continue to self-host whatever. However, you would certainly lose the development devices that feature a platform like BeeHiiv.
Posting a newsletter inherently features a various set of needs than a regular e-mail checklist.
You don’t usually require much marketing automation. You don’t typically require autoresponder series, event monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO requirement, however, is one seamless posting experience and development devices to help you develop your customer base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my clients that I was mosting likely to switch over the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals 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 indicate I assume Substack draws. As a matter of fact, due to the fact that Substack has actually been around much longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is younger, there are a pair things that at first got my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly customized to newsletter publishers. As a matter of fact, it is actually constructed by the exact same people that constructed the technology behind Early morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real world, doesn’t matter. However, the obvious positioning of BeeHiiv towards e-newsletter development called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “creator”. Growth is what I’m interested in here.
- That branding and distinction likewise suggests that BeeHiiv has some rather large brands and huge publications using it. Whereas SubStack is intended even more at solo developers. Once more, it simply informs me the consumer character difference in between the two firms.
Sending our my e-newsletter through FluentCRM didn’t exactly suck. The only factor I would certainly ponder shaking things up is if I thought I can expand the checklist much faster. And BeeHiiv talked exactly to that objective.
As a result of the targeting, I really do not check out BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a different type of consumer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more direct competitors.
Yet, let’s dive deeper than just the positioning right here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
On the whole, BeeHiiv appears like it was developed by people that comprehending e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears more tailored towards makers.
As an example, BeeHiiv uses custom fields on subscribers. Now, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv provides Automations. In fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that functions a great deal like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still fairly limited in triggers and the only action is the ability to send out an e-mail. Nonetheless, improvements are coming. Soon enough, automations will certainly have brand-new triggers as well as brand-new actions, such as modifying customized fields, sending out webhooks, etc. I have actually already seen improvements to their automations just given that I began utilizing the platform. For example:
- Capability to cause automations based upon which certain embed form they was available in on.
- Capability to immediately do re-engagement (and take care of individuals based on opens up and non-opens).
- Capability to do standard conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can’t do this due to the fact that the target market of Substack just would not think to approach this like an e-mail online marketer.
When it involves creating your newsletters, the creating user interface of BeeHiiv is simply extra tailored toward newsletters. Actually, it actually has similarities to the WordPress block builder in just how it works. I discover it to be a lot more instinctive, personally.
Substack’s writing interface is nice and tidy, but it would certainly be a lot more equivalent to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This difference is more than simply kind. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Area” and after that placed anything you desire in it. Then, you can place Exposure options on that area to reveal it only to paid customers, conceal it from e-mail, conceal from clients, show only to subscribers, and so on. Substack offers absolutely nothing like this.
And when/if the moment comes that I start a costs subscription model, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any kind of income. As a matter of fact, you literally link approximately your own Stripe account and it bills directly to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your revenue. Depending upon how many customers you obtain, that 10% can be quite a bit more money than the month-to-month price of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This might appear unpopular, yet what it suggests is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outside using devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … absolutely nothing. No integrations in any way.
On the whole, I simply seemed like BeeHiiv was more developed towards actual email marketing. It was developed by individuals who “get it”. Even the opt-in kinds and the landing page creates seem much better built for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I would like 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 claimed, Substack positions itself toward “developers” greater than e-mail marketing experts and e-newsletter owners. Therefore, you see some things tailored a lot more toward people that simply assume in terms of web content production.
As an example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does support numerous publications, they are treated quite independently. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to several publications at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, yet … cool for people who may need it.
Substack likewise has more social capability built-in. As an example, it has a conversation function to host talks with subscribers. It also has a “Notes” function which functions kind of like a social media newsfeed where you can share things from various other “Stacks” you read. Intriguing. On the whole, Substack is set up to be a lot more like a social media network which sustains long-form web content.
On the whole, Substack is also a lot more … minimal. You either look after that or do not. Personally, I don’t. Nonetheless, if the objective is simpleness of user interface and, truthfully, features … Substack functions quite well.
However, I’ll be clear here …
When it involves real marketing, I don’t assume there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is much better fit. I searched for more factors that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, but truthfully … I have a hard time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are commonly via to be the closest competitors, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are going after the exact same target market and have similar capabilities.
ConvertKit is also placed at developers (like Substack), but it is much more highly dealing with individuals that do it for company. ConvertKit has nice aesthetic automation building, it’s own commerce platform, and a lot more. ConvertKit is a really great platform.
I’m not going to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature breakdown right here. ConvertKit is popular already. But, right here’s exactly how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has extra flexibility when it concerns it’s automations. I will certainly likewise say that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit extra intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains labeling. This is simply a basic feature of email checklists that allows segmentation in a far more flexible way than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to sustain identifying at some time quickly, truthfully. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Deliverability.
ConvertKit does currently supply the capacity to offer points by means of their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is very important to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would always choose a much more direct choice anyway. For me, I prefer to use my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been around much longer and therefore has way extra integration choices. Tons of online devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is rather effective. For instance, their plugin now even supports member-gated content as well as auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Fundamentally, this much more carefully places ConvertKit into straight competitors by having you be able to release to your site and your e-mail checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is badly doing not have in these kinds of third-party integrations currently. It’ll arrive. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even hectic dealing with the development tools of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not only incentivize individuals to share your e-newsletter with benefits, yet you can likewise pay per lead within the internal ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your checklist. These are truly incredible features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you understand ConvertKit acquired Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among one of the most well known viral promo systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall surface wherefore this means for the platform going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Deliverability
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that indicates much less features and less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. Nevertheless, it additionally implies that they are rapidly establishing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually experienced virtually weekly release of new features right into the platform. And these aren’t weak little features … yet huge features that are quite crucial. Their rate of development at this point has gone over.
I likewise quite appreciate just how responsive they are. Actually, among their product news concerning some style enhancements to the web design features in fact had a tiny issue with the material size. I simply responded to that email to tell them. I rapidly got a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That exact same day, the issue was taken care of.
Few days later, I gave them one more idea …
Sure enough, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to trigger automations based upon the embed kind utilized was added to the system.
That type of responsiveness and direct involvement of the team is something I truly appreciate.
An additional major factor of differentiation right here is the cost. Both platforms provide totally free plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan offers more ability and even more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also even more beneficial. ConvertKit appears more affordable at first glimpse due to the fact that their pricing page reveals reduced numbers, nevertheless the subscriber limitations are FAR reduced and your price promptly raises as your checklist grows.
With BeeHiiv, your very first level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid every year), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 clients. That very same size listing is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their best plan and the one I directly use), you can grow your checklist as much as 100,000. A checklist 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 get all that for simply $84/month if you pay annually.
BeeHiiv remains in a totally different league when it involves pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately enhance costs? They could as time takes place. Yet, I’m thinking people like myself that are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see how points proceed.
Points I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Add
Among things you absolutely need to remember is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do appear to develop instead quickly and make brand-new item statements somewhat typically, but there are some standard features I really desire they had that I need to just await.
One is that they require to have a setting on membership types where I might pick an automation to run right at the kind level. That would be AWESOME for so many reasons. Currently, membership types look OK, yet there’s extremely little setups for them to aid in segmentation.
It would certainly be nice to have labeling at the client level. This would certainly be powerful.
I believe webhooks need to be part of automations to make integrated automations less complicated and reduce reliance on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are additionally some small management interface changes that would be handy. For example:
- Capability to bulk edit/remove subscribers.
- Capacity to bulk edit posts (for instance, to mark a number of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of standard fields as standard on customers (like the name).
- Some more customization choices for the web site (such as more adaptable color selections, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Things I wish they perform with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, yet it isn’t ideal and definitely not nearly as established as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM product.
It possibly never will be, either. As I claimed, the objective is various so it wouldn’t a lot a lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to end up being a full marketing automation system. I presume you never ever know, however.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I such as BeeHiiv quite a whole lot. Enough where I made a decision to change my own e-newsletters over to the platform despite my individual choice for digital sovereignty and having my own system.
Basically, for the e-newsletter posting version particularly, I saw sufficient worth in their platform to warrant the modification.
Keep in mind, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my unique email list. I make use of BeeHiiv wherefore it is good at, yet I purposefully have points set up to ensure that I additionally maintain my checklist “in home” within FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the same. It is simply an excellent insurance policy, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your list will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the question is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are making use of Substack today, I ‘d most definitely take into consideration changing to BeeHiiv. It will simply be more business-friendly. It is targeting different capabilities and various needs. And also, BeeHiiv also has import devices for Substack, so the button must be rather straightforward.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d probably stay unless you have a huge email listing and are therefore being wooled with their high regular monthly bill. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are repeating swiftly. There’s likewise a pretty good possibility you’re not also utilizing a few of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you don’t even require them. Because of that, BeeHiiv can quickly be a far better and extra cost effective fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be extremely intentional about 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 regarding what it is created to be, it is one of the most effective video games in town today. This is the system to see.
BeeHiiv uses a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves taking a look at on your own. And if you wind up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll locate the free account to be rather feature abundant.