I have utilized a great deal of various e-mail list systems throughout the years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a massive supporter of digital sovereignty and owning your own system. Therefore (and the outstanding features), I have been making use of Beehiiv Editor.
So, it is without a doubt an odd move for me to make a decision to utilize BeeHiiv. Besides, it is an organized application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I wish to discuss why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I want to address the issue of digital sovereignty while making use of the platform and I would certainly additionally such as to resolve why I chose to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For E-newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my newsletter called My Hobby + A Large Change In Technique, I talked about how and why I determined to turn my RV blog site right into primarily a newsletter. I chose that was the business design I wanted to go after keeping that property.
Yet, to intentionally pursue it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a system that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the e-mail list for Gladly motor home, but FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter system. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, honestly, using it for e-newsletters is a little a waste. Much more on that particular in a bit.
As I claimed in that problem of the e-newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a system with tools developed into it particular to my objective. Points such as:
- Capacity to publish (to the blog) and send the e-mail all at once without having it be 2 different activities.
- Integrated in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would certainly require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Integrated ability to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are primarily one-click subscription links. Great for promotion in other e-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 ad network, if I pick to monetize with ads in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in ability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and essentially run a premium newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Basically, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter authors with features focused on growth. The system was actually constructed by the individuals that built up the technology for Early morning Mixture. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the point below. BeeHiiv is developed from the ground up for the function of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various purpose.
And I finished off with this:.
I might undoubtedly be relocating The Edge over to BeeHiiv as well. At least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. As a matter of fact, I just went all out. And in fact, The side was re-branded over to The Morning WP, triggered as it’s very own residential or commercial property to ensure that I can expand it much more intentionally too.
The goal is that each e-newsletter has the capability to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded separately. Happily motor home was young, so simple to shift. Yet, The Morning WP (previously The Edge) was buried in a sea of stuff below at the Blog Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s very own. It will certainly constantly be closely connected with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet doesn’t have to belong of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was built for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Normal Email Listing
There’s a distinction in between a newsletter system and simply an email list.
You can hold your e-mail listing just about anywhere you want 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 distinction is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of posting suggests that it is mosting likely to your web site and to your email customers concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a site. You are publishing to that internet site. Yet, you are likewise dispatching to all subscribers at the same time. The web site and it’s customers are done in one. This makes management of the platform much less complex.
With the majority of email systems, any type of newsletter you set up is done as an e-mail campaign. It is constructed completely separately from your site. So, for instance, you might release a post to WordPress yet then you would certainly need to individually construct and send out an email to your listing to send it to clients. These are then two different collections of archives and 2 separate activities due to the fact that post and your e-mails are not naturally connected.
The closest thing that turns WordPress into a real newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name since it virtually “glues” your newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and permits them to be the same thing. Certainly, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a strong choice if I wanted to continue to self-host whatever. Nonetheless, you ‘d lose the growth devices that feature a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter naturally features a various set of requirements than a typical email list.
You don’t normally need much marketing automation. You do not normally need autoresponder series, occasion tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO requirement, however, is one smooth publishing experience and development tools to help you develop your customer base that specify to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my clients that I was going to switch over 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 truth that I picked to go with BeeHiiv, that doesn’t imply I think Substack draws. Actually, because Substack has been around much longer, it is elder and has more features.
Although BeeHiiv is younger, there are a pair things that originally got my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically tailored to e-newsletter authors. Actually, it is literally developed by the same folks that developed the technology behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real world, doesn’t matter. Yet, the apparent positioning of BeeHiiv towards e-newsletter growth called me out over the more generic positioning of being a “maker”. Growth is what I have an interest in here.
- That branding and differentiation additionally indicates that BeeHiiv has some rather big brand names and huge publications using it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo developers. Again, it just informs me the client avatar difference in between the two business.
Sending our my e-newsletter through FluentCRM really did not exactly suck. The only reason I would contemplate drinking things up is if I assumed I can expand the listing faster. And BeeHiiv spoke exactly to that objective.
Due to the targeting, I in fact don’t view BeeHiiv and Substack as direct competitors. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a different type of customer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being a lot more direct rivals.
However, allow’s dive deeper than just the placing right here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv looks like it was developed by individuals who understanding e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems much more geared toward developers.
As an example, BeeHiiv offers personalized fields on customers. Currently, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv provides Automations. As a matter of fact, it is a visual automation builder that works a lot like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still fairly minimal in triggers and the only action is the capacity to send an e-mail. Nevertheless, improvements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will have new triggers along with brand-new actions, such as modifying custom-made areas, sending out webhooks, and so on. I’ve currently seen enhancements to their automations simply since I started using the platform. As an example:
- Ability to activate automations based on which specific embed form they came in on.
- Capability to automatically do re-engagement (and take care of individuals based on opens and non-opens).
- Capability to do standard conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can’t do this since the target market of Substack just would not think to approach this like an email marketer.
When it involves composing your e-newsletters, the composing user interface of BeeHiiv is just much more geared towards newsletters. In fact, it actually has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in just how it works. I discover it to be extra instinctive, personally.
Substack’s writing interface is nice and tidy, but it would certainly be much more comparable to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is more than just kind. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Section” and afterwards put anything you want in it. Then, you can place Visibility choices on that section to reveal it just to paid customers, conceal it from e-mail, hide from clients, show just to clients, and so on. Substack uses nothing such as this.
And when/if the moment comes that I start a premium registration model, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any type of revenue. Actually, you literally connect as much as your own Stripe account and it charges directly to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your earnings. Depending upon the number of subscribers you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit even more cash than the monthly price of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This might appear nerdy, however what it suggests is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outdoors using devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … nothing. No integrations in any way.
In general, I simply seemed like BeeHiiv was more developed toward actual email marketing. It was developed by people that “get it”. Also the opt-in kinds and the landing page makes seem far better constructed for conversions. Development is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I would love to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the direction it is going more than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have said, Substack settings itself toward “developers” more than email marketing experts and e-newsletter owners. Therefore, you see some points geared much more toward people who simply assume in terms of web content creation.
As an example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does support several publications, they are dealt with quite separately. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to multiple publications at the same time. This isn’t something I need, however … amazing for people who might need it.
Substack additionally has even more social performance built-in. For example, it has a chat feature to host chats with clients. It likewise has a “Notes” function which works kind of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you read. Fascinating. Generally, Substack is established to be extra like a social media network which sustains long-form content.
On the whole, Substack is also a lot more … minimalist. You either take care of that or do not. Directly, I don’t. However, if the objective is simplicity of user interface and, honestly, features … Substack functions rather well.
Yet, I’ll be clear below …
When it pertains to real marketing, I don’t assume there’s much question that BeeHiiv is better fit. I searched for even more points that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, however honestly … I have a tough time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are often with to be the closest competitors, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are pursuing the exact same target audience and have similar capabilities.
ConvertKit is likewise placed at developers (like Substack), however it is far more strongly catering to people who do it for organization. ConvertKit has great aesthetic automation structure, it’s own commerce platform, and extra. ConvertKit is an actually great system.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature breakdown below. ConvertKit is popular already. But, here’s just how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has more flexibility when it concerns it’s automations. I will likewise claim that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit much more user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports marking. This is simply a basic feature of email lists that enables division in an even more adaptable method than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain marking eventually quickly, frankly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Editor.
ConvertKit does currently give the ability to offer points through their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is necessary to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would certainly always pick a much more direct alternative anyhow. For me, I choose to use my very own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been about a lot longer and therefore has way extra integration options. Lots of web-based devices and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their own WordPress plugin that is rather effective. For instance, their plugin currently also sustains member-gated web content along with auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. In essence, this a lot more carefully puts ConvertKit into direct competitors by having you be able to publish to your website and your e-mail listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is drastically lacking in these sort of third-party integrations right now. It’ll get there. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also active tackling the growth devices of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not only incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with perks, however you can likewise pay per lead within the inner ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your list. These are truly incredible features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you know ConvertKit acquired Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among one of the most popular viral promotion platforms for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall wherefore this means for the system moving forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Editor
BeeHiiv is a lot earlier in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies much less features and less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. Nonetheless, it likewise implies that they are quickly developing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually witnessed almost weekly launch of new features right into the system. And these aren’t puny little features … but big features that are quite essential. Their rate of advancement now has actually gone over.
I additionally very much value just how responsive they are. In fact, one of their product announcements regarding some design improvements to the web design features in fact consisted of a little problem with the content size. I simply replied to that email to tell them. I quickly obtained a reply straight from the CEO:.
That exact same day, the issue was fixed.
Few days later, I gave them an additional tip …
Sure enough, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to cause automations based on the embed type utilized was contributed to the system.
That kind of responsiveness and direct involvement of the team is something I actually appreciate.
One more major point of differentiation right here is the cost. Both systems supply totally free plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan offers more capacity and more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also much more positive. ConvertKit seems more affordable at first glimpse because their pricing page shows lower numbers, nonetheless the subscriber limits are much reduced and your rate rapidly enhances as your checklist grows.
With BeeHiiv, your very first degree paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid annually), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 clients. That same dimension listing is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their best plan and the one I directly use), you can expand your checklist up to 100,000. A listing of that size would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, too, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay each year, too. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for just $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv is in an entirely various organization when it comes to pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately boost prices? They could as time goes on. However, I’m thinking people like myself that are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see just how points continue.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
One of the important things you certainly require to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do seem to evolve instead swiftly and make new product news somewhat frequently, however there are some standard features I really wish they had that I need to simply wait on.
One is that they require to have a setup on registration kinds where I could choose an automation to run right at the type level. That would certainly be outstanding for numerous factors. Already, subscription forms look OK, yet there’s very little setups for them to assist in division.
It would be nice to have marking at the client level. This would certainly be powerful.
I think webhooks ought to become part of automations to make built-in automations less complicated and reduce dependence on outside devices like Zapier.
There are likewise some small management interface modifications that would be handy. For instance:
- Ability to mass edit/remove customers.
- Capability to mass edit articles (as an example, to tag a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of fundamental fields as conventional on clients (like the name).
- Some more modification alternatives for the website (such as even more flexible shade selections, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Things I wish they perform with it in the future. BeeHiiv is respectable, yet it isn’t best and absolutely not nearly as created as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM item.
It possibly never ever will certainly be, either. As I stated, the function is various so it would not much a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to become a complete marketing automation system. I think you never recognize, though.
Final Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Review
I such as BeeHiiv fairly a great deal. Sufficient where I determined to change my own e-newsletters over to the platform in spite of my personal choice for digital sovereignty and owning my very own platform.
Simply put, for the e-newsletter posting model particularly, I saw sufficient worth in their system to necessitate the modification.
Bear in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my unique e-mail list. I utilize BeeHiiv wherefore it is good at, but I purposefully have things set up to ensure that I also maintain my list “in home” inside of FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the exact same. It is just a great insurance policy, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your checklist 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 concern is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my point of view, if you are utilizing Substack now, I ‘d definitely think about switching over to BeeHiiv. It will merely be much more business-friendly. It is targeting various capacities and different needs. And also, BeeHiiv also has import devices for Substack, so the switch ought to be quite uncomplicated.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d most likely stay unless you have a big e-mail checklist and are as a result being fleeced with their high month-to-month bill. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are iterating swiftly. There’s likewise a respectable chance you’re not even utilizing a few of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not also require them. Because of that, BeeHiiv can quickly be a better and much more budget-friendly fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be really intentional regarding growing a newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE system to consider and maintain and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is created to be, it is among the very best games around right now. This is the platform to see.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves looking into on your own. And if you wind up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll find the totally free account to be rather feature abundant.