I have made use of a lot of different e-mail list systems for many years. In the last number of years, I have actually been a substantial advocate of digital sovereignty and owning your very own system. Therefore (and the awesome features), I have actually been making use of Beehiiv Dr. Jen Ashton.
So, it is indeed an odd move for me to make a decision to use BeeHiiv. Besides, it is a held application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I want to review why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I want to address the problem of digital sovereignty while utilizing the platform and I would certainly also like to address why I picked to use it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For E-newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my newsletter called My Hobby + A Huge Shift In Approach, I discussed how and why I made a decision to transform my motor home blog site into primarily an e-newsletter. I made a decision that was business design I wished to pursue keeping that property.
Yet, to intentionally seek it as an e-newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the e-mail checklist for Gladly motor home, however FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter system. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, frankly, using it for newsletters is a little a waste. More on that particular in a bit.
As I claimed in that problem of the newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices constructed right into it details to my function. Things such as:
- Ability to release (to the blog site) and send out the e-mail simultaneously without having it be 2 separate actions.
- Constructed in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would certainly have needed a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capacity to do cross-promotions with other newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are primarily one-click membership web links. Great for promo in various other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, though, so there are ways to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your e-newsletter.
- Integrated ad network, if I pick to generate income from with ads in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and generally run a premium e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Essentially, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter publishers with features aimed at growth. The system was essentially constructed by the individuals who built up the innovation for Early morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the factor here. BeeHiiv is developed from the ground up for the purpose of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various function.
And I finished off with this:.
I might undoubtedly be moving The Side 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 for it. And as a matter of fact, The side was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, triggered as it’s very own building to make sure that I can grow it more intentionally also.
The objective is that each newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded individually. Gladly recreational vehicle was young, so easy to transition. But, The Morning WP (formerly The Edge) 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 expand it on it’s very own. It will certainly constantly be carefully tied with the Blog site Marketing Academy, but does not need to belong of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv since it was developed for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Typical Email Checklist
There’s a difference between a newsletter platform and just an e-mail listing.
You can host your email list anyplace you want and there are a variety of them out there, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The main distinction is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of publishing suggests that it is going to your internet site and to your e-mail clients simultaneously.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a site. You are releasing to that internet site. Yet, you are likewise sending to all clients at the same time. The site and it’s customers are done in one. This makes monitoring of the system much less complex.
With many e-mail platforms, any kind of e-newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is built totally individually from your web site. So, as an example, you might publish a short article to WordPress yet then you would require to independently develop and send an e-mail to your checklist to send it to subscribers. These are after that two separate collections of archives and two different actions due to the fact that post and your e-mails are not naturally linked.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress right into a real e-newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name since it basically “glues” your e-newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and enables them to be the very same point. Certainly, something like Newsletter Glue would be a solid alternative if I wanted to remain to self-host whatever. However, you ‘d lose the development tools that feature a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing an e-newsletter inherently includes a different set of requirements than a common email checklist.
You do not normally require much marketing automation. You don’t generally need autoresponder sequences, event tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO requirement, however, is one smooth publishing experience and growth tools to assist you build your customer base that specify to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my customers that I was going to switch the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the reality that I selected to choose BeeHiiv, that does not suggest I assume Substack sucks. As a matter of fact, due to the fact that Substack has been about longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Although BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple points that at first obtained my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is especially tailored to e-newsletter publishers. Actually, it is literally constructed by the very same folks that built the technology behind Early morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, does not matter. Yet, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter growth called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “maker”. Growth is what I want right here.
- That branding and differentiation additionally suggests that BeeHiiv has some fairly huge brands and huge magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo makers. Once again, it simply tells me the client character difference between both companies.
Sending our my e-newsletter via FluentCRM didn’t specifically suck. The only factor I would certainly consider drinking things up is if I assumed I could expand the listing faster. And BeeHiiv spoke precisely to that objective.
Because of the targeting, I really do not see BeeHiiv and Substack as direct competitors. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a different kind of customer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra direct competitors.
But, allow’s dive much deeper than simply the positioning here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Generally, BeeHiiv seems like it was built by individuals that understanding e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears much more geared towards makers.
For example, BeeHiiv uses custom-made fields on clients. Currently, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv supplies Automations. In fact, it is a visual automation builder that works a whole lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation performance is still early-phase. It is still fairly limited in triggers and the only action is the ability to send an email. However, enhancements are coming. Soon enough, automations will have brand-new triggers in addition to brand-new activities, such as modifying personalized areas, sending webhooks, and so on. I have actually currently seen improvements to their automations just because I started utilizing the platform. As an example:
- Capacity to cause automations based upon which certain embed type they can be found in on.
- Ability to instantly do re-engagement (and take care of people based on opens up and non-opens).
- Capacity to do basic conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can’t do this due to the fact that the target market of Substack simply wouldn’t think to approach this like an e-mail online marketer.
When it involves writing your e-newsletters, the writing interface of BeeHiiv is simply more tailored towards e-newsletters. Actually, it actually has similarities to the WordPress block builder in just how it works. I discover it to be a lot more intuitive, directly.
Substack’s composing user interface behaves and tidy, however it would be much more equivalent to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is greater than just type. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Area” and after that placed anything you desire in it. Then, you can place Visibility choices on that area to show it just to paid customers, conceal it from email, conceal from customers, reveal just to customers, and so on. Substack supplies absolutely nothing like this.
And when/if the moment comes that I start a costs registration design, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any earnings. As a matter of fact, you essentially attach as much as your very own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your profits. Depending upon the amount of customers you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit even more cash than the regular monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This could appear unpopular, yet what it implies 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 … nothing. No integrations whatsoever.
On the whole, I simply felt like BeeHiiv was much more developed towards genuine e-mail marketing. It was built by people who “get it”. Even the opt-in types and the landing page creates appear much better developed for conversions. Development is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv add, I such as the instructions it is going more than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have claimed, Substack placements itself toward “makers” more than e-mail online marketers and newsletter owners. Because of that, you see some things geared extra towards people who just assume in terms of material development.
For example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does sustain several magazines, they are dealt with quite separately. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to numerous publications at the same time. This isn’t something I require, but … cool for individuals who might need it.
Substack likewise has even more social capability built-in. For example, it has a conversation function to host chats with clients. It also has a “Notes” function which functions sort of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you read. Intriguing. Generally, Substack is established to be more like a social network which supports long-form web content.
Overall, Substack is additionally much more … minimalist. You either take care of that or do not. Directly, I don’t. Nevertheless, if the objective is simpleness of user interface and, frankly, features … Substack works rather well.
But, I’ll be clear here …
When it involves real marketing, I don’t think there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is much better matched. I tried to find even more points that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, however frankly … I have a difficult time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are frequently with to be the closest competitors, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are going after the very same target market and have similar abilities.
ConvertKit is additionally placed at developers (like Substack), but it is a lot more strongly dealing with people who do it for business. ConvertKit has wonderful visual automation structure, it’s own commerce platform, and extra. ConvertKit is a really nice system.
I’m not mosting likely to bore you with a complete feature-by-feature break down right here. ConvertKit is well known currently. But, right here’s exactly how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has more adaptability when it concerns it’s automations. I will certainly also state that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit much more instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports tagging. This is simply a standard feature of email lists that enables division in an even more flexible means than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain labeling at some time quickly, truthfully. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Dr. Jen Ashton.
ConvertKit does now give the capability to sell things using their very own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that’s important to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would constantly select an extra direct choice anyway. For me, I favor to use my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been around much longer and therefore has way much more integration options. Lots of online tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their own WordPress plugin that is quite powerful. For instance, their plugin now even supports member-gated content as well as auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your site. Fundamentally, this more closely places ConvertKit right into straight competitors by having you have the ability to release to your site and your e-mail listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is seriously doing not have in these type of third-party integrations presently. It’ll arrive. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also hectic taking on the growth tools of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with perks, yet you can also pay per lead within the interior ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your list. These are really outstanding features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you recognize ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of one of the most popular viral promo systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall surface for what this indicates for the platform going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Dr. Jen Ashton
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that indicates much less features and much less integrations, which is all-natural for this phase of the cycle. Nevertheless, it likewise indicates that they are swiftly creating.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have witnessed almost regular launch of new features right into the platform. And these aren’t puny little features … however large features that are fairly essential. Their rate of development at this moment has been impressive.
I additionally quite appreciate just how receptive they are. In fact, among their item statements concerning some design enhancements to the website design features actually had a tiny trouble with the material size. I merely responded to that email to tell them. I quickly got a reply directly from the CEO:.
That same day, the concern was taken care of.
Few days later on, I provided another pointer …
Indeed, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to trigger automations based on the embed form used was included in the system.
That sort of responsiveness and straight participation of the group is something I truly value.
An additional major point of distinction right here is the price. Both platforms use free plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan supplies extra ability and more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
As soon as you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also much more favorable. ConvertKit appears more affordable initially glance because their pricing web page shows lower numbers, nonetheless the customer limitations are FAR lower and your cost quickly boosts as your list grows.
With BeeHiiv, your very first level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid annually), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 clients. That very same dimension list 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 personally use), you can expand your list as much as 100,000. A list of that dimension would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, as well, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay yearly, as well. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for simply $84/month if you pay yearly.
BeeHiiv is in an entirely various league when it comes to pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point boost rates? They might as time takes place. But, I’m guessing individuals like myself who are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see how things proceed.
Points I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Add
Among the things you most definitely require to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do appear to develop rather rapidly and make brand-new product news somewhat usually, however there are some basic features I truly want they had that I require to simply await.
One is that they require to have a setting on membership forms where I can pick an automation to run right at the form degree. That would certainly be AWESOME for numerous factors. Already, subscription kinds look OK, yet there’s very little setups for them to help in segmentation.
It would certainly behave to have tagging at the customer degree. This would be powerful.
I think webhooks ought to become part of automations to make integrated automations less complicated and decrease reliance on outside devices like Zapier.
There are also some small management interface adjustments that would come in handy. For instance:
- Capability to bulk edit/remove subscribers.
- Capacity to bulk edit articles (for instance, to identify a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a few fundamental fields as typical on customers (like the name).
- Some more customization choices for the internet site (such as even more flexible color selections, heading control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Points I hope they do with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, yet it isn’t excellent and absolutely not almost as established as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM item.
It possibly never ever will be, either. As I claimed, the objective is various so it would not a lot a lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to come to be a complete marketing automation platform. I guess you never ever recognize, though.
Final Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I such as BeeHiiv rather a lot. Sufficient where I decided to change my very own e-newsletters over to the system regardless of my individual choice for digital sovereignty and having my very own system.
Put simply, for the newsletter publishing version especially, I saw enough value in their platform to necessitate the adjustment.
Remember, I do not utilize BeeHiiv as my exclusive e-mail listing. I use BeeHiiv wherefore it is good at, however I purposefully have points establish so that I likewise keep my checklist “in residence” inside of FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the very same. It is simply a great insurance plan, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your checklist will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my point of view, if you are utilizing Substack right now, I ‘d definitely take into consideration switching over to BeeHiiv. It will merely be much more business-friendly. It is targeting various capabilities and different demands. And also, BeeHiiv also has import devices for Substack, so the switch must be pretty uncomplicated.
If you are on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d most likely sit tight unless you have a large e-mail listing and are consequently being wooled with their high regular monthly bill. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are iterating swiftly. There’s additionally a pretty good opportunity you’re not even making use of several of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you don’t even require them. Because of that, BeeHiiv might easily be a better and more cost effective fit.
Finally, if you plan to be extremely deliberate concerning growing an e-newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE platform to take into consideration and keep and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is made to be, it is one of the most effective games in town today. This is the platform to enjoy.
BeeHiiv provides a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves checking out on your own. And if you wind up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll discover the cost-free account to be rather feature abundant.