I have made use of a lot of different email list systems over the years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a significant supporter of digital sovereignty and possessing your very own system. Therefore (and the remarkable features), I have actually been using Beehiiv Email Recommendations.
So, it is without a doubt an odd move for me to determine to utilize BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is an organized application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I intend to go over why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I want to attend to the issue of digital sovereignty while making use of the platform and I would certainly additionally such as to address why I selected to utilize it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For Newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Pastime + A Huge Change In Strategy, I talked about exactly how and why I determined to transform my recreational vehicle blog into mostly a newsletter. I determined that was business model I wished to seek keeping that property.
However, to intentionally pursue it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the e-mail listing for Happily RV, however 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 bit of a waste. Much more on that particular in a little bit.
As I said because issue of the newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices built right into it details to my function. Points such as:
- Capability to publish (to the blog) and send the e-mail at the same time without having it be two separate activities.
- Built in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capability to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are essentially one-click subscription web links. Great for promotion in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, however, so there are ways to do that.
- Capacity to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your newsletter.
- Built-in ad network, if I select to generate income from with advertisements in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in ability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and generally run a costs e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Basically, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter authors with features aimed at growth. The platform was actually developed by the people who built up the technology for Morning Mixture. They know what they’re doing.
That is the point right here. BeeHiiv is built from the ground up for the function of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a different purpose.
And I finished off with this:.
I may indeed be moving 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, set off as it’s own building to ensure that I can grow it a lot more purposefully also.
The objective is that each newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded independently. Gladly motor home was young, so easy to shift. Yet, The Early morning WP (previously The Side) was buried in a sea of stuff here at the Blog Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s own. It will obviously constantly be closely tied with the Blog site Marketing Academy, yet doesn’t have to belong of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv since it was built for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Normal Email List
There’s a distinction in between an e-newsletter system and simply an e-mail listing.
You can host your email checklist just about anywhere you desire and there are a number of them around, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted alternatives like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The main difference is that, with an e-newsletter system, the act of publishing means that it is mosting likely to your internet site and to your e-mail clients simultaneously.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a web site. You are releasing to that internet site. Yet, you are likewise sending to all clients at the same time. The website and it’s customers are done in one. This makes monitoring of the platform much simpler.
With a lot of email platforms, any kind of e-newsletter you set up is done as an email campaign. It is developed entirely independently from your web site. So, as an example, you might release an article to WordPress but after that you would require to separately build and send an email to your listing to send it to subscribers. These are then two separate sets of archives and two separate activities because blog posts and your e-mails are not inherently linked.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress right into a real e-newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name since it basically “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress articles and enables them to be the exact same point. Absolutely, something like Newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid option if I wished to continue to self-host everything. However, you ‘d shed the growth devices that feature a platform like BeeHiiv.
Posting a newsletter inherently includes a various set of demands than a typical email listing.
You don’t generally need much marketing automation. You do not normally require autoresponder sequences, event monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO need, however, is one seamless posting experience and growth tools to aid you build your subscriber base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my clients that I was going to change the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many people ask me why I was picking it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the fact that I chose to select BeeHiiv, that does not mean I believe Substack sucks. Actually, because Substack has actually been around much longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Although BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a pair points that initially obtained my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically tailored to newsletter authors. In fact, it is literally developed by the same individuals who constructed the innovation behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real life, does not matter. But, the evident positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter development called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “developer”. Development is what I have an interest in below.
- That branding and distinction likewise means that BeeHiiv has some relatively big brands and huge publications utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended even more at solo makers. Once again, it simply informs me the customer character distinction in between both business.
Sending our my e-newsletter using FluentCRM didn’t precisely draw. The only factor I would certainly consider trembling points up is if I thought I could GROW the checklist much faster. And BeeHiiv talked specifically to that goal.
Due to the targeting, I actually don’t view BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a various kind of consumer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more straight competitors.
Yet, allow’s dive deeper than simply the placing right here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv feels like it was developed by people that recognizing e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears extra tailored toward developers.
As an example, BeeHiiv provides custom-made areas on customers. Currently, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv supplies Automations. Actually, it is a visual automation builder that functions a great deal like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still rather minimal 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 new triggers in addition to brand-new actions, such as changing custom-made areas, sending webhooks, etc. I’ve currently seen enhancements to their automations just since I began using the system. For example:
- Capacity to activate automations based on which particular embed form they can be found in on.
- Capacity to immediately do re-engagement (and manage people based on opens and non-opens).
- Capacity to do fundamental conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never will. Substack just can’t do this due to the fact that the target market of Substack simply would not believe to approach this like an e-mail online marketer.
When it involves creating your newsletters, the composing interface of BeeHiiv is simply a lot more tailored towards e-newsletters. As a matter of fact, it really has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it works. I find it to be much more instinctive, personally.
Substack’s writing interface is nice and clean, yet it would be much more equivalent to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is more than simply kind. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Area” and after that put anything you desire in it. Then, you can put Presence choices on that section to reveal it just to paid clients, conceal it from e-mail, conceal from subscribers, reveal just to subscribers, etc. Substack uses nothing similar to this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a costs registration model, BeeHiiv does not take any type of income. Actually, you actually attach as much as your very own Stripe account and it charges directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your earnings. Depending upon the number of clients you obtain, that 10% can be quite a bit more money than the monthly price of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This might appear unpopular, however what it means is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outdoors utilizing tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … nothing. No integrations in all.
Generally, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was much more developed toward genuine e-mail marketing. It was constructed by people who “get it”. Also the opt-in forms and the landing page develops seem far better constructed for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv include, I like the direction it is going greater than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have claimed, Substack placements itself towards “developers” greater than email marketers and newsletter proprietors. Therefore, you see some things geared extra towards people who just think in regards to material development.
For instance, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does support several magazines, they are treated rather independently. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to multiple publications at the same time. This isn’t something I require, however … great for people that could need it.
Substack additionally has more social functionality built-in. As an example, it has a conversation function to host chats with subscribers. It likewise has a “Notes” function which functions kind of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share things from other “Stacks” you’re reading. Intriguing. On the whole, Substack is established to be more like a social media network which supports long-form web content.
Overall, Substack is additionally extra … minimal. You either take care of that or do not. Directly, I don’t. Nonetheless, if the objective is simplicity of user interface and, honestly, features … Substack functions rather well.
But, I’ll be clear right here …
When it concerns actual marketing, I do not think there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is better suited. I tried to find more points that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, however truthfully … I have a tough time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are often via to be the closest rivals, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are pursuing the exact same target audience and have similar capabilities.
ConvertKit is additionally placed at designers (like Substack), but it is much more strongly dealing with people that do it for company. ConvertKit has nice aesthetic automation building, it’s very own business platform, and extra. ConvertKit is an actually great platform.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature malfunction below. ConvertKit is well known already. But, right here’s how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has more versatility when it comes to it’s automations. I will certainly likewise state that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit a lot more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains marking. This is simply a fundamental function of email lists that enables division in an even more flexible way than BeeHiiv currently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support marking at some point quickly, honestly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Email Recommendations.
ConvertKit does now supply the capability to market things through their very own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is necessary to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, nonetheless, I would certainly constantly choose an extra straight alternative anyway. For me, I favor to utilize my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been around 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 very own WordPress plugin that is fairly effective. For example, their plugin currently even sustains member-gated content in addition to auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your site. Essentially, this extra closely places ConvertKit right into direct competitors by having you have the ability to publish to your website and your e-mail listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is drastically doing not have in these sort of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll arrive. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even hectic tackling the development devices of BeeHiiv. As an example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not only incentivize people to share your newsletter with benefits, yet you can additionally pay per lead within the internal ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your list. These are actually amazing features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you recognize ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of one of the most popular viral promo systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall of what this indicates for the platform moving forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Email Recommendations
BeeHiiv is a lot previously in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that suggests less features and much less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. Nevertheless, it likewise means that they are rapidly developing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually witnessed almost regular release of brand-new features right into the platform. And these aren’t undersized little features … but large features that are rather essential. Their speed of development at this point has actually gone over.
I likewise very much value how responsive they are. As a matter of fact, one of their item statements about some design improvements to the web design features really contained a little trouble with the web content size. I merely replied to that e-mail to tell them. I rapidly got a reply straight from the CEO:.
That same day, the problem was fixed.
Few days later on, I gave them another idea …
Certainly, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to set off automations based on the embed type utilized was contributed to the system.
That sort of responsiveness and direct involvement of the team is something I actually appreciate.
An additional major factor of differentiation below is the cost. Both systems provide cost-free plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan uses much more capacity and more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also FAR more favorable. ConvertKit seems less costly at first glimpse because their pricing web page reveals reduced numbers, nonetheless the subscriber limitations are much lower and your cost promptly enhances as your listing expands.
With BeeHiiv, your first level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid yearly), however you can have up to 10,000 clients. That exact same dimension 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 listing of that dimension would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, too, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay annually, as well. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay yearly.
BeeHiiv is in an entirely different league when it pertains to pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately enhance rates? They could as time goes on. But, I’m thinking people like myself who are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how things continue.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of the important things you most definitely require to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do appear to advance instead rapidly and make new product news somewhat frequently, yet there are some fundamental features I really desire they had that I require to simply wait on.
One is that they need to have a setting on membership kinds where I could pick an automation to run right at the type degree. That would certainly be outstanding for numerous reasons. As of now, membership types look OK, but there’s very little settings for them to assist in segmentation.
It would certainly be nice to have tagging at the client degree. This would certainly be powerful.
I think webhooks need to become part of automations to make built-in automations much easier and minimize dependence on outdoors tools like Zapier.
There are also some small management interface modifications that would certainly be handy. For example:
- Ability to bulk edit/remove subscribers.
- Capacity to mass edit blog posts (for example, to mark a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of basic areas as standard on customers (like the name).
- Some more modification options for the internet site (such as more versatile shade choices, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Things I wish they make with it in the future. BeeHiiv is respectable, but it isn’t ideal and absolutely not almost as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM item.
It possibly never will be, either. As I said, the purpose is various so it would not a lot a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to end up being a complete marketing automation system. I guess you never ever know, though.
Last Ideas On This BeeHiiv Review
I such as BeeHiiv rather a whole lot. Sufficient where I made a decision to switch my very own newsletters over to the platform despite my personal choice for digital sovereignty and possessing my very own platform.
Simply put, for the newsletter posting model specifically, I saw enough value in their platform to warrant the adjustment.
Remember, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my exclusive email checklist. I utilize BeeHiiv of what it is good at, however I purposefully have points set up so that I additionally maintain my list “in residence” inside of FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the exact same. It is just a great insurance plan, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your list will certainly be of high use (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will be).
So, the question is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my point of view, if you are using Substack today, I ‘d definitely think about switching to BeeHiiv. It will just be more business-friendly. It is targeting various capacities and various requirements. And also, BeeHiiv also has import devices for Substack, so the switch must be pretty simple.
If you are on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d most likely stay unless you have a huge email list and are consequently being wooled with their high month-to-month costs. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are iterating swiftly. There’s also a respectable opportunity you’re not also using several of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you do not also need them. Because of that, BeeHiiv could conveniently be a much better and extra economical fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be extremely deliberate regarding expanding an e-newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE platform to consider and maintain and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is designed to be, it is just one of the most effective games in the area now. This is the platform to view.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves having a look at for yourself. And if you wind up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll locate the complimentary account to be quite feature abundant.