I have utilized a lot of various email list systems for many years. In the last number of years, I have actually been a massive supporter of digital sovereignty and having your very own platform. For that reason (and the incredible features), I have been using Beehiiv Landing Page Examples.
So, it is without a doubt a weird move for me to make a decision to utilize BeeHiiv. After all, it is an organized application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I intend to go over why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I wish to attend to the concern of digital sovereignty while making use of the system and I would certainly also such as to deal with why I selected to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For E-newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Big Shift In Strategy, I discussed just how and why I made a decision to turn my motor home blog site right into largely a newsletter. I decided that was the business design I wished to seek with that said residential property.
Yet, to intentionally pursue it as a newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the email list for Gladly RV, however FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is built 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 little bit.
As I said in that concern of the newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a system with tools built right into it certain to my function. Things such as:
- Capability to release (to the blog site) and send out the e-mail at the same time without having it be 2 separate activities.
- Constructed in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would certainly have needed a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Built-in ability to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are basically one-click membership links. Great for promo in various other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are methods to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your newsletter.
- Built-in ad network, if I choose to monetize with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in ability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and essentially run a costs e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Essentially, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features aimed at growth. The platform was actually developed by the individuals who built up the modern technology for Early morning Brew. They know what they’re doing.
That is the factor right here. BeeHiiv is built from the ground up for the function of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various function.
And I finished off with this:.
I might certainly be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv as well. A minimum of, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. Actually, 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 property to ensure that I can expand it more deliberately also.
The goal is that each newsletter has the capability to be branded as it’s own media entity and grown independently. Gladly recreational vehicle was young, so simple to transition. However, The Morning WP (previously The Side) was hidden in a sea of things here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s own. It will certainly constantly be very closely tied with the Blog Marketing Academy, however does not have to belong of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was constructed for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Normal Email Checklist
There’s a difference between an e-newsletter system and just an email checklist.
You can organize your email list anywhere you want and there are a number of them around, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The primary difference is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of posting suggests that it is going to your web site and to your e-mail customers at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are publishing to that site. But, you are additionally sending off to all customers at the same time. The internet site and it’s customers are done in one. This makes monitoring of the system much easier.
With most e-mail platforms, any e-newsletter you set up is done as an email campaign. It is built totally separately from your website. So, as an example, you might release a write-up to WordPress but then you would certainly need to individually build and send an email to your listing to send it to customers. These are then 2 different sets of archives and two different actions due to the fact that post and your e-mails are not inherently linked.
The closest point that turns WordPress right into a real e-newsletter platform is Newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name due to the fact that it pretty much “glues” your newsletter to your WordPress articles and permits them to be the exact same thing. Definitely, something like E-newsletter Glue would be a solid alternative if I intended to continue to self-host everything. Nonetheless, you ‘d shed the development devices that feature a platform like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter naturally features a different set of demands than a normal e-mail checklist.
You do not typically require much marketing automation. You do not typically need autoresponder series, occasion tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO demand, though, is one seamless posting experience and growth tools to aid you construct your customer base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my subscribers that I was mosting likely to change the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had lots of people ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the truth that I picked to opt for BeeHiiv, that does not mean I believe Substack draws. As a matter of fact, since Substack has been around much longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple things that at first got my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically tailored to newsletter publishers. Actually, it is actually built by the same people that developed the technology behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real life, doesn’t matter. However, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv towards e-newsletter growth called me out over the more generic positioning of being a “creator”. Growth is what I have an interest in right here.
- That branding and differentiation likewise means that BeeHiiv has some rather big brands and huge publications using it. Whereas SubStack is intended even more at solo creators. Once again, it simply tells me the customer character distinction in between both companies.
Sending our my newsletter using FluentCRM really did not exactly suck. The only factor I would certainly ponder trembling things up is if I assumed I might expand the listing faster. And BeeHiiv spoke exactly to that goal.
As a result of the targeting, I actually do not check out BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a different sort of customer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being more direct rivals.
Yet, let’s dive deeper than just the placing right here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv looks like it was constructed by people that recognizing e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems much more tailored toward creators.
As an example, BeeHiiv provides customized areas on clients. Currently, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. In fact, it is a visual 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 fairly limited in triggers and the only activity is the ability to send an e-mail. Nevertheless, improvements are coming. Soon enough, automations will have new triggers in addition to brand-new activities, such as customizing personalized fields, sending webhooks, etc. I have actually already seen improvements to their automations just because I began making use of the system. As an example:
- Capacity to cause automations based upon which certain embed type they can be found in on.
- Ability to immediately do re-engagement (and manage people based on opens up and non-opens).
- Ability to do basic conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can not do this due to the fact that the target audience of Substack simply would not think to approach this like an e-mail marketer.
When it involves writing your e-newsletters, the creating interface of BeeHiiv is just a lot more geared towards newsletters. As a matter of fact, it in fact has similarities to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it works. I locate it to be much more intuitive, personally.
Substack’s writing interface is nice and tidy, but it would be extra comparable to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is more than simply form. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Section” and afterwards placed anything you want in it. After that, you can put Presence choices on that particular area to reveal it only to paid customers, hide it from e-mail, hide from subscribers, show only to subscribers, etc. Substack provides absolutely nothing similar to this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a costs membership design, BeeHiiv does not take any type of income. Actually, you actually attach up to your own Stripe account and it charges directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your revenue. Depending on how many subscribers you get, that 10% can be a fair bit more money than the month-to-month expense of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This could seem nerdy, however what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv deal with the outdoors utilizing devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … nothing. No integrations in all.
In general, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was much more constructed toward actual email marketing. It was built by people that “get it”. Even the opt-in forms and the landing page designs seem better built for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I want to see BeeHiiv include, I like the instructions it is going more than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually said, Substack settings itself toward “designers” greater than email marketing experts and e-newsletter proprietors. For that reason, you see some things geared extra toward people that simply think in terms of material development.
For instance, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does sustain several publications, they are dealt with fairly separately. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to multiple magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I require, but … trendy for people that could need it.
Substack also has even more social performance built-in. For example, it has a chat function to host chats with clients. It also has a “Notes” function which works kind of like a social media newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you read. Interesting. In general, Substack is established to be much more like a social media which supports long-form content.
In general, Substack is also more … minimal. You either take care of that or don’t. Directly, I do not. Nonetheless, if the goal is simpleness of interface and, honestly, features … Substack works pretty well.
However, I’ll be clear below …
When it comes to real marketing, I don’t believe there’s much question that BeeHiiv is much better suited. I looked for more points that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, yet truthfully … I have a hard time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are frequently with to be the closest rivals, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are going after the same target audience and have similar abilities.
ConvertKit is also positioned at designers (like Substack), however it is a lot more strongly satisfying individuals who do it for organization. ConvertKit has nice aesthetic automation structure, it’s very own commerce system, and much more. ConvertKit is a truly nice system.
I’m not going to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature failure here. ConvertKit is well known already. But, below’s exactly how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has more flexibility when it concerns it’s automations. I will certainly likewise claim that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit extra instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports marking. This is just a fundamental feature of e-mail listings that makes it possible for division in a far more flexible way than BeeHiiv currently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support tagging eventually soon, frankly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Landing Page Examples.
ConvertKit does now give the ability to market things via their 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 always pick a much more straight choice anyway. For me, I favor to utilize my very own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been around much longer and because of that has way more integration alternatives. Tons of online tools and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is fairly effective. For example, their plugin currently even sustains member-gated web content as well as auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your site. In essence, this more carefully puts ConvertKit into direct competitors by having you be able to publish to your site and your e-mail checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is badly lacking in these type of third-party integrations right now. It’ll arrive. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also active taking on the growth devices of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not only incentivize people to share your newsletter with benefits, but you can additionally pay per lead within the internal advertisement network of BeeHiiv to grow your checklist. These are really remarkable features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you know ConvertKit acquired Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among the most popular viral promo platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall surface of what this indicates for the system moving forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Landing Page Examples
BeeHiiv is a lot earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that suggests much less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. However, it additionally indicates that they are quickly developing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually observed practically weekly launch of brand-new features into the system. And these aren’t undersized little features … but big features that are rather essential. Their rate of development now has actually been impressive.
I additionally very much value exactly how responsive they are. Actually, among their item announcements concerning some layout enhancements to the web design features really included a little trouble with the content width. I merely responded to that email to tell them. I promptly got a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That very same day, the issue was repaired.
Few days later on, I provided an additional idea …
Sure enough, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to cause automations based on the embed form used was included in the system.
That type of responsiveness and straight involvement of the group is something I truly value.
One more significant point of distinction here is the cost. Both systems provide complimentary plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan offers more ability and even more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally FAR more desirable. ConvertKit seems less expensive at first glance since their pricing page reveals reduced numbers, however the subscriber limits are much lower and your price quickly increases as your listing grows.
With BeeHiiv, your very first degree paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid yearly), however you can have up to 10,000 customers. That same dimension list is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I personally utilize), you can expand your checklist approximately 100,000. A listing of that size would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, also, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay annually, also. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for just $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv is in a totally various organization when it concerns pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point increase prices? They might as time takes place. Yet, I’m presuming people like myself who are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see just how things continue.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among the important things you most definitely need to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do appear to evolve rather promptly and make brand-new item statements somewhat typically, but there are some standard features I really want they had that I need to just wait for.
One is that they need to have a setup on registration kinds where I could choose an automation to run right at the type degree. That would be incredible for many reasons. Currently, subscription forms look OK, however there’s really little settings for them to aid in division.
It would certainly be nice to have marking at the customer degree. This would be powerful.
I assume webhooks ought to become part of automations to make built-in automations less complicated and reduce reliance on outdoors tools like Zapier.
There are also some small administrative interface changes that would certainly be handy. For instance:
- Capacity to mass edit/remove clients.
- Capacity to bulk edit messages (for instance, to mark a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of basic fields as conventional on subscribers (like the name).
- Some even more modification alternatives for the site (such as more versatile shade selections, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Things I hope they do with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, however it isn’t excellent and absolutely not virtually as created as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM product.
It possibly never will certainly be, either. As I said, the purpose is various so it would not a lot a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to end up being a full marketing automation system. I think you never know, however.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I like BeeHiiv rather a whole lot. Sufficient where I determined to switch my own newsletters over to the system despite my personal preference for digital sovereignty and having my very own system.
Put simply, for the e-newsletter posting version specifically, I saw sufficient value in their platform to necessitate the change.
Keep in mind, I do not utilize BeeHiiv as my special email checklist. I use BeeHiiv wherefore it is good at, but I deliberately have points set up to make sure that I additionally maintain my list “in residence” inside of FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the exact same. It is simply a good insurance policy, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your checklist will be of high use (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the question is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are using Substack today, I ‘d most definitely think about switching over to BeeHiiv. It will simply be much more business-friendly. It is targeting various capacities and different demands. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the switch ought to be rather simple.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d possibly stay put unless you have a huge e-mail checklist and are therefore being wooled with their high monthly bill. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are iterating promptly. There’s additionally a pretty good possibility you’re not also using a few of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you don’t also need them. Therefore, BeeHiiv might easily be a better and much more budget friendly fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be really deliberate regarding expanding a newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE system to take into consideration and keep and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is made to be, it is just one of the best video games in town today. This is the system to view.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth looking into for yourself. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll discover the free account to be rather feature rich.