I have used a lot of different e-mail list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a massive advocate of digital sovereignty and owning your own system. For that reason (and the outstanding features), I have actually been utilizing Beehiiv DMARC.
So, it is undoubtedly a weird move for me to determine 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 go over why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I intend to address the concern of digital sovereignty while making use of the platform and I would certainly likewise like to attend to why I chose to use it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For Newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Hobby + A Large Change In Strategy, I discussed exactly how and why I chose to turn my motor home blog site right into mainly a newsletter. I made a decision that was the business model I wanted to seek with that building.
But, to intentionally seek it as a newsletter, I wanted a system that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the email listing for Gladly recreational vehicle, however FluentCRM is not a newsletter system. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, honestly, using it for newsletters is a little a waste. A lot more on that particular in a bit.
As I claimed because problem of the e-newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices built right into it specific to my purpose. Points such as:
- Ability to release (to the blog site) and send the e-mail concurrently without having it be two different activities.
- Constructed in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would require a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Integrated ability to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are primarily one-click registration links. Great for promotion in other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are means to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your newsletter.
- Integrated advertisement network, if I select to generate income from with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and essentially run a costs 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 constructed by the individuals who built up the technology for Early morning Brew. They know what they’re doing.
That is the factor right here. BeeHiiv is constructed from the ground up for the function of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different purpose.
And I ended off with this:.
I might without a doubt be moving The Side over to BeeHiiv too. A minimum of, I’m highly 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 Early morning WP, set off as it’s very own home to make sure that I can grow it much more purposefully as well.
The objective is that each e-newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s own media entity and grown separately. Gladly RV was young, so easy to change. But, The Early morning WP (previously The Side) was hidden in a sea of stuff here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s very own. It will certainly always be carefully tied with the Blog Marketing Academy, however does not have to belong of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv because it was constructed for this function. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Regular Email Listing
There’s a difference in between an e-newsletter platform and just an email listing.
You can hold your e-mail list everywhere you desire and there are a number of them available, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The key distinction is that, with a newsletter system, the act of posting means that it is mosting likely to your website and to your email subscribers simultaneously.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a site. You are publishing to that website. Yet, you are also sending to all customers at the same time. The site and it’s customers are all in one. This makes administration of the system much less complex.
With most e-mail systems, any type of e-newsletter you set up is done as an e-mail campaign. It is built totally individually from your internet site. So, for instance, you could publish a short article to WordPress yet after that you would require to separately develop and send an email to your listing to send it to customers. These are after that 2 different collections of archives and 2 different actions due to the fact that article and your emails are not inherently connected.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress into a real e-newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name due to the fact that it virtually “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress posts and allows them to be the very same thing. Absolutely, something like Newsletter Glue would be a strong option if I wanted to continue to self-host everything. Nevertheless, you ‘d shed the development devices that feature a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter naturally features a different set of requirements than a typical email listing.
You do not typically require much marketing automation. You do not typically require autoresponder series, event monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO demand, however, is one smooth posting experience and growth tools to aid you develop your client base that specify to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my subscribers that I was mosting likely to switch the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had lots of people ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the fact that I chose to go with BeeHiiv, that doesn’t indicate I think Substack draws. Actually, due to the fact that Substack has been around longer, it is more mature and has more features.
Although BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a pair points that initially got my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly tailored to newsletter publishers. As a matter of fact, it is literally built by the exact same individuals that developed the modern technology behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, does not matter. However, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv toward e-newsletter growth called me out over the more common positioning of being a “maker”. Growth is what I have an interest in below.
- That branding and differentiation additionally implies that BeeHiiv has some rather huge brands and huge magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is aimed even more at solo designers. Again, it just informs me the consumer character distinction in between both firms.
Sending our my newsletter using FluentCRM didn’t exactly draw. The only reason I would contemplate shaking points up is if I assumed I might expand the list much faster. And BeeHiiv talked exactly to that objective.
Because of the targeting, I really do not view BeeHiiv and Substack as straight competitors. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a different kind of consumer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being a lot more straight rivals.
However, allow’s dive much deeper than simply the positioning below.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv appears like it was constructed by individuals that recognizing email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems more tailored towards developers.
As an example, BeeHiiv supplies custom areas on customers. Currently, it isn’t as established 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 inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation performance is still early-phase. It is still fairly restricted in triggers and the only activity is the capability to send out an e-mail. Nevertheless, improvements are coming. Soon enough, automations will certainly have new triggers in addition to new activities, such as customizing customized areas, sending webhooks, and so on. I’ve currently seen improvements to their automations just given that I began using the platform. For example:
- Capability to set off automations based upon which particular embed type they was available in on.
- Ability to immediately do re-engagement (and deal with people based on opens up and non-opens).
- Ability to do standard conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can not do this because the target market of Substack simply would not believe to approach this like an email marketing expert.
When it involves writing your newsletters, the composing interface of BeeHiiv is simply more tailored toward newsletters. In fact, it really has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in how it functions. I locate it to be a lot more intuitive, directly.
Substack’s creating interface is nice and tidy, but it would be more comparable to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This difference is more than just form. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Area” and then placed anything you want in it. Then, you can put Visibility choices on that section to show it just to paid clients, hide it from e-mail, conceal from subscribers, show only to subscribers, and so on. Substack supplies nothing like this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a costs subscription version, BeeHiiv does not take any type of revenue. Actually, you actually connect as much as your very own Stripe account and it charges straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your earnings. Depending on how many customers you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit even more money than the month-to-month cost of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This may appear unpopular, however what it means is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv deal with the outside utilizing tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … absolutely nothing. No integrations in any way.
In general, I simply seemed like BeeHiiv was extra developed toward genuine email marketing. It was developed by people that “get it”. Even the opt-in kinds and the landing page develops appear better developed for conversions. Development is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I wish to see BeeHiiv include, I like the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually claimed, Substack settings itself towards “makers” greater than email marketers and e-newsletter proprietors. For that reason, you see some things geared extra towards individuals who just assume in terms of material production.
As an example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does sustain multiple publications, they are dealt with quite independently. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to numerous magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I need, yet … awesome for people that could require it.
Substack additionally has more social capability built-in. For instance, it has a chat function to host chats with subscribers. It likewise has a “Notes” feature which works sort of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you’re reading. Intriguing. Generally, Substack is established to be more like a social media which supports long-form material.
Generally, Substack is also extra … minimal. You either look after that or don’t. Directly, I do not. Nevertheless, if the objective is simpleness of interface and, honestly, features … Substack functions quite well.
But, I’ll be clear right here …
When it involves real marketing, I do not believe there’s much question that BeeHiiv is much better fit. I looked for more points that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, yet truthfully … I have a hard time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are usually with to be the closest rivals, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are going after the same target audience and have similar capabilities.
ConvertKit is likewise positioned at developers (like Substack), but it is far more strongly satisfying individuals that do it for company. ConvertKit has nice aesthetic automation structure, it’s very own business platform, and much more. ConvertKit is an actually good platform.
I’m not going to bore you with a complete feature-by-feature breakdown here. ConvertKit is well known already. However, here’s just how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Points ConvertKit Is Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has much more adaptability when it comes to it’s automations. I will additionally state that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit extra user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports marking. This is simply a standard function of email checklists that makes it possible for segmentation in a much more versatile method than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support tagging at some time soon, honestly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv DMARC.
ConvertKit does now provide the capacity to offer points through their own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is essential to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would certainly constantly choose an extra straight choice anyhow. For me, I prefer to use my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about a lot longer and for that reason has way more integration choices. Lots of online devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is quite powerful. For instance, their plugin now even sustains member-gated content as well as auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your site. In essence, this a lot more very closely puts ConvertKit into direct 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 type of third-party integrations right now. It’ll get there. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even hectic dealing with the development tools of BeeHiiv. As an example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not just incentivize people to share your e-newsletter with advantages, but you can also pay per lead within the inner advertisement network of BeeHiiv to grow your listing. These are really remarkable features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you know ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of one of the most well known viral promo platforms for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall wherefore this means for the system moving forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv DMARC
BeeHiiv is a lot previously in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that suggests much less features and less integrations, which is natural for this stage of the cycle. However, it likewise means that they are rapidly establishing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have seen virtually regular launch of new features into the system. And these aren’t weak little features … however huge features that are quite vital. Their rate of growth at this point has been impressive.
I likewise quite appreciate exactly how receptive they are. As a matter of fact, among their item news about some style enhancements to the web design features really had a tiny problem with the web content width. I merely responded to that email to tell them. I swiftly got a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That very same day, the concern was dealt with.
Few days later, I provided another suggestion …
Sure enough, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to cause automations based on the embed form used was included in the system.
That sort of responsiveness and direct participation of the group is something I actually appreciate.
One more major point of distinction here is the cost. Both systems use totally free plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan provides more ability 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 additionally even more desirable. ConvertKit seems less expensive at first glance since their pricing web page reveals lower numbers, nonetheless the client restrictions are much reduced and your cost quickly enhances as your checklist expands.
With BeeHiiv, your first degree paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid every year), however you can have up to 10,000 customers. That very same size checklist is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their ideal plan and the one I personally utilize), you can grow your listing up to 100,000. A list of that dimension would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, as well, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay yearly, also. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for simply $84/month if you pay yearly.
BeeHiiv remains in a completely various organization when it concerns pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point enhance prices? They may as time goes on. But, I’m guessing individuals like myself that are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see just how points proceed.
Things I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among the things you definitely require to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do seem to advance rather swiftly and make brand-new product news rather usually, but there are some standard features I actually desire they had that I need to just await.
One is that they need to have a setup on membership forms where I could select an automation to run right at the type degree. That would be AWESOME for so many reasons. Already, subscription kinds look OK, but there’s very little setups for them to aid in segmentation.
It would certainly behave to have identifying at the client level. This would be powerful.
I assume webhooks ought to belong to automations to make integrated automations easier and minimize reliance on outside tools like Zapier.
There are likewise some minor administrative interface modifications that would certainly be handy. As an example:
- Capacity to mass edit/remove customers.
- Capacity to mass edit blog posts (for example, to label a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of standard areas as basic on customers (like the name).
- Some more modification choices for the site (such as even more flexible shade selections, heading control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Points I hope they finish with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t best and absolutely not nearly as established as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM product.
It most likely never will certainly be, either. As I said, the objective is different so it wouldn’t much a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to become a complete marketing automation platform. I guess you never recognize, though.
Final Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I such as BeeHiiv rather a great deal. Enough where I made a decision to change my own newsletters over to the platform regardless of my individual preference for digital sovereignty and owning my very own system.
Put simply, for the newsletter publishing model especially, I saw enough worth in their platform to warrant the adjustment.
Keep in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my special email listing. I utilize BeeHiiv of what it is efficient, yet I intentionally have things establish to ensure that I also keep my listing “in home” inside of FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the exact same. It is just an excellent insurance plan, for one. But, 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 will certainly be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are utilizing Substack now, I ‘d absolutely consider changing to BeeHiiv. It will just be a lot more business-friendly. It is targeting various capacities and different requirements. Plus, BeeHiiv also has import devices for Substack, so the button needs to be rather straightforward.
If you are on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d possibly stay put unless you have a big e-mail listing and are as a result being wooled with their high month-to-month bill. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are repeating rapidly. There’s also a respectable chance you’re not also utilizing some of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you don’t even need them. Because of that, BeeHiiv could easily be a better and more cost effective fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be extremely deliberate about expanding 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 developed to be, it is just one of the most effective games around right now. This is the system to watch.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves looking into for yourself. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll locate the free account to be quite feature rich.