I have utilized a great deal of various email list systems over the years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a big advocate of digital sovereignty and owning your own system. Because of that (and the outstanding features), I have been making use of Beehiiv Integrate with Carrd.
So, it is undoubtedly a weird move for me to make a decision to use BeeHiiv. Besides, it is a hosted application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv evaluation, I intend to go over why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I wish to attend to the concern of digital sovereignty while making use of the platform and I ‘d also like to resolve why I selected to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For Newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Huge Change In Approach, I talked about exactly how and why I chose to turn my recreational vehicle blog site into mainly an e-newsletter. I made a decision that was business model I wanted to seek with that said residential or commercial property.
But, to purposefully seek it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a system that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the email listing for Gladly RV, yet FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter system. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, truthfully, using it for e-newsletters is a little bit of a waste. More on that in a bit.
As I claimed in that concern of the newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a system with tools developed right into it particular to my function. Points such as:
- Ability to publish (to the blog site) and send the email at the same time without having it be 2 separate actions.
- Built in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would have needed a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Integrated ability to do cross-promotions with various other newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are basically one-click registration links. Great for promo in other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are ways to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your newsletter.
- Built-in advertisement network, if I select to monetize with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capacity to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and primarily run a costs e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Basically, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter authors with features aimed at development. The system was essentially developed by the individuals that accumulated the modern technology for Morning Mixture. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the factor below. 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 indeed be relocating The Edge over to BeeHiiv as well. A minimum of, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. As a matter of fact, I simply went all out. And actually, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Morning WP, triggered as it’s very own building to make sure that I can expand it much more deliberately as well.
The objective is that each e-newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded separately. Happily RV was young, so very easy to shift. Yet, The Early morning WP (previously The Side) was buried in a sea of things right here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s very own. It will undoubtedly always be carefully linked with the Blog Marketing Academy, but does not need to belong of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was built for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Normal Email Checklist
There’s a distinction between a newsletter platform and simply an email list.
You can host your email list just about anywhere you desire and there are a number of them out there, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted alternatives like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The primary distinction is that, with an e-newsletter system, the act of posting indicates that it is going to your website and to your email clients all at once.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are releasing to that site. Yet, you are also sending to all customers at the same time. The internet site and it’s clients are done in one. This makes monitoring of the system much easier.
With most e-mail systems, any newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is built totally independently from your site. So, for instance, you may publish a write-up to WordPress but after that you would certainly require to separately construct and send out an e-mail to your list to send it to clients. These are then two different collections of archives and two separate activities due to the fact that blog posts and your emails are not naturally connected.
The closest point that transforms WordPress into a real newsletter platform is Newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name due to the fact that it basically “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress posts and allows them to be the very same thing. Definitely, something like E-newsletter Glue would be a solid option if I intended to remain to self-host every little thing. Nonetheless, you would certainly lose the development devices that feature a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter naturally includes a different collection of needs than a typical e-mail list.
You don’t generally need much marketing automation. You do not normally need autoresponder sequences, occasion tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO requirement, though, is one seamless posting experience and growth devices to aid you construct your client base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my customers that I was going to switch the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the truth that I chose to select BeeHiiv, that does not suggest I think Substack sucks. Actually, because Substack has been about longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a pair points that at first got my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is especially customized to e-newsletter publishers. Actually, it is actually built by the very same people that constructed the innovation behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, does not matter. However, the evident positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter growth called me out over the more common positioning of being a “developer”. Growth is what I’m interested in here.
- That branding and differentiation additionally suggests that BeeHiiv has some relatively big brand names and big publications using it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo developers. Once again, it just informs me the customer avatar distinction between both business.
Sending our my e-newsletter via FluentCRM didn’t specifically suck. The only factor I would contemplate trembling points up is if I assumed I could expand the listing faster. And BeeHiiv talked specifically to that goal.
Because of the targeting, I actually don’t watch BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a various kind of customer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more direct competitors.
However, allow’s dive much deeper than simply the placing below.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv looks like it was developed by people who comprehending email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears more tailored toward makers.
For example, BeeHiiv provides personalized fields on customers. Now, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv provides Automations. In fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that functions a whole lot like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation functionality is still early-phase. It is still quite limited in triggers and the only activity is the ability to send out an email. However, improvements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will have new triggers along with brand-new activities, such as changing custom-made areas, sending out webhooks, etc. I’ve already seen enhancements to their automations simply considering that I began using the system. For example:
- Ability to cause automations based on which details embed kind they came in on.
- Capacity to immediately do re-engagement (and deal with people based on opens and non-opens).
- Capacity to do fundamental conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can not do this due to the fact that the target market of Substack simply would not think to approach this like an email online marketer.
When it involves writing your newsletters, the composing interface of BeeHiiv is simply extra tailored toward e-newsletters. In fact, it in fact has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it works. I discover it to be a lot more instinctive, directly.
Substack’s creating interface is nice and clean, but it would certainly be much more comparable to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This difference is more than simply kind. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Section” and afterwards put anything you desire in it. After that, you can place Presence choices on that particular section to reveal it just to paid customers, hide it from e-mail, conceal from customers, reveal just to clients, etc. Substack offers absolutely nothing similar to this.
And when/if the time comes that I begin a costs registration version, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any profits. As a matter of fact, you essentially attach as much as your own Stripe account and it charges directly to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your profits. Depending on how many subscribers you get, that 10% can be quite a bit even more money than the month-to-month cost of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This might appear unpopular, however what it suggests is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outside utilizing tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … nothing. No integrations whatsoever.
Generally, I just felt like BeeHiiv was extra constructed toward genuine email marketing. It was constructed by individuals who “get it”. Even the opt-in forms and the landing page makes appear far better developed for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I would love to see BeeHiiv include, I like the direction it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually claimed, Substack positions itself towards “creators” more than e-mail marketers and newsletter owners. For that reason, you see some points tailored a lot more toward individuals who just believe in terms of content creation.
For instance, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does sustain numerous magazines, they are dealt with fairly separately. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to multiple publications at the same time. This isn’t something I require, however … trendy for people who could need it.
Substack likewise has more social functionality built-in. As an example, it has a conversation feature to host talks with clients. It likewise has a “Notes” function which works type of like a social media newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you’re reading. Interesting. On the whole, Substack is set up to be a lot more like a social network which supports long-form web content.
On the whole, Substack is also more … minimalist. You either care for that or do not. Personally, I do not. However, if the goal is simpleness of interface and, truthfully, features … Substack functions pretty well.
However, I’ll be clear right here …
When it concerns actual marketing, I do not think there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is better suited. I searched for even more factors that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, yet honestly … I have a hard time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are frequently via to be the closest competitors, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are going after the exact same target audience and have comparable capabilities.
ConvertKit is additionally positioned at creators (like Substack), yet it is a lot more strongly catering to individuals who do it for organization. ConvertKit has great aesthetic automation building, it’s very own business platform, and a lot more. ConvertKit is a really great system.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature breakdown here. ConvertKit is well known currently. Yet, right here’s how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Things ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has much more adaptability when it concerns it’s automations. I will likewise state that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit much more instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports identifying. This is simply a fundamental function of e-mail checklists that allows segmentation in a far more flexible means than BeeHiiv currently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support labeling at some point quickly, truthfully. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Integrate with Carrd.
ConvertKit does currently offer the capacity to sell points through their very 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 select an extra straight option anyway. For me, I like to utilize my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been around much longer and because of that has way extra integration alternatives. Lots of online tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their own WordPress plugin that is fairly effective. For example, their plugin now even supports member-gated web content in addition to auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Essentially, this extra carefully places ConvertKit into direct competition by having you have the ability to publish to your site and your e-mail list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is significantly lacking in these type of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll get there. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy dealing with the development devices of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not just incentivize people to share your newsletter with benefits, however you can likewise pay per lead within the interior ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your list. These are truly incredible features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you recognize ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of the most popular viral promotion systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall surface wherefore this suggests for the platform going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Integrate with Carrd
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies less features and less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. However, it additionally means that they are rapidly creating.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually observed practically once a week launch of brand-new features right into the system. And these aren’t puny little features … yet big features that are rather important. Their rate of growth at this point has been impressive.
I additionally very much appreciate how responsive they are. Actually, among their item announcements regarding some style improvements to the website design features in fact had a small trouble with the material size. I merely responded to that email to tell them. I rapidly got a reply straight from the CEO:.
That exact same day, the problem was fixed.
Few days later on, I gave them another recommendation …
Certainly, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to set off automations based upon the embed kind used was contributed to the system.
That sort of responsiveness and direct participation of the team is something I really value.
One more significant point of distinction below is the rate. Both platforms supply totally free plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan uses extra capability and even more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also much more beneficial. ConvertKit appears cheaper at first glance due to the fact that their pricing web page shows lower numbers, however the client limitations are FAR reduced and your price quickly enhances as your listing expands.
With BeeHiiv, your first degree paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid annually), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That exact same dimension checklist is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their ideal plan and the one I personally make use of), you can grow your checklist as much as 100,000. A list of that size would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, too, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay each year, too. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay yearly.
BeeHiiv is in a totally different league when it pertains to pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually enhance prices? They may as time takes place. Yet, I’m presuming people like myself that are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how points proceed.
Things I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Add
One of the important things you definitely require to remember is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do seem to evolve rather rapidly and make brand-new item news rather usually, yet there are some fundamental features I truly desire they had that I need to simply wait on.
One is that they need to have a setup on membership forms where I can choose an automation to run right at the kind degree. That would be outstanding for so many reasons. As of now, subscription forms look OK, but there’s very little setups for them to help in division.
It would certainly behave to have labeling at the customer degree. This would certainly be effective.
I believe webhooks need to become part of automations to make built-in automations much easier and decrease dependence on outside devices like Zapier.
There are likewise some minor administrative user interface modifications that would be handy. For instance:
- Capability to mass edit/remove clients.
- Capability to bulk edit messages (for instance, to tag a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of standard fields as typical on subscribers (like the name).
- Some more modification alternatives for the internet site (such as more adaptable color choices, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Points I hope they make with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, however it isn’t best and certainly not nearly as created as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM product.
It probably never ever will be, either. As I said, the function is various so it would not a lot a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to end up being a complete marketing automation platform. I guess you never know, however.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Review
I such as BeeHiiv fairly a whole lot. Sufficient where I decided to switch my very own e-newsletters over to the system in spite of my individual preference for digital sovereignty and possessing my own system.
Put simply, for the newsletter publishing model particularly, I saw enough worth in their system to warrant the modification.
Bear in mind, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my unique email listing. I make use of BeeHiiv of what it is proficient at, yet I purposefully have points set up to ensure that I additionally keep my checklist “in house” within FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the exact same. It is just a good insurance policy, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your list will certainly be of high use (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will certainly be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are using Substack today, I ‘d certainly think about switching over to BeeHiiv. It will simply be much more business-friendly. It is targeting various capacities and various needs. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the button must be pretty simple.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d possibly sit tight unless you have a big email list and are therefore being wooled with their high monthly expense. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are iterating promptly. There’s additionally a respectable opportunity you’re not even using some of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you don’t also need them. Therefore, BeeHiiv can conveniently be a better and much more economical fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be really intentional concerning expanding an e-newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE system to think about and maintain and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is made to be, it is among the most effective games around right now. This is the system to see.
BeeHiiv offers a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth looking into for yourself. And if you wind up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll discover the cost-free account to be quite feature abundant.