I have actually utilized a lot of various e-mail list systems throughout the years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a huge supporter of digital sovereignty and possessing your very own system. Therefore (and the outstanding features), I have been using Beehiiv Lead Magnet.
So, it is certainly 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 review, I wish to go over why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I wish to attend to the issue of digital sovereignty while using the system and I would certainly also like to resolve why I chose to utilize it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For E-newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Hobby + A Big Change In Method, I discussed how and why I chose to turn my motor home blog site into primarily a newsletter. I determined that was business model I wanted to go after keeping that home.
But, to deliberately pursue it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the email listing for Gladly recreational vehicle, but FluentCRM is not a newsletter system. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, truthfully, using it for newsletters is a bit of a waste. A lot more on that in a bit.
As I said in that issue of the e-newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a system with tools built into it particular to my purpose. Things such as:
- Capability to publish (to the blog) and send out the e-mail at the same time without having it be two separate actions.
- Built in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would certainly have needed a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in ability to do cross-promotions with various other newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are basically one-click registration links. Great for promotion in other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are methods to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your newsletter.
- Integrated advertisement network, if I choose to generate income from with ads in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in ability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and essentially run a costs newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Essentially, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter publishers with features aimed at development. The platform was essentially constructed by the individuals who developed the innovation for Morning Mixture. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the point here. BeeHiiv is developed from scratch for the function of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a different objective.
And I finished off with this:.
I may certainly be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv too. A minimum of, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. Actually, I just went all out. And as a matter of fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Morning WP, triggered as it’s own property to ensure that I can grow it a lot more purposefully as well.
The goal is that each e-newsletter has the capability to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded separately. Happily RV was young, so easy to shift. However, The Morning WP (formerly The Side) was buried in a sea of things right 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 closely tied with the Blog site Marketing Academy, yet doesn’t need to belong of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv since it was developed for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Simply A Normal Email List
There’s a difference between a newsletter system and simply an email list.
You can hold your email list everywhere you want 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 main distinction is that, with a newsletter system, the act of posting means that it is going to your internet site and to your e-mail clients at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are releasing to that web site. Yet, you are likewise sending off to all customers at the same time. The website and it’s subscribers are done in one. This makes administration of the system much simpler.
With the majority of e-mail platforms, any type of newsletter you set up is done as an e-mail campaign. It is built completely separately from your site. So, for example, you might publish a write-up to WordPress yet after that you would require to separately build and send an email to your listing to send it to customers. These are after that 2 separate collections of archives and 2 different actions since article and your emails are not naturally linked.
The closest point that transforms WordPress into a true newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name because it practically “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress articles and permits them to be the same point. Certainly, something like Newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid option if I wished to continue to self-host whatever. Nonetheless, you would certainly shed the development devices that come with a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter naturally comes with a various set of needs than a common email checklist.
You don’t typically need much marketing automation. You do not typically require autoresponder sequences, occasion tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO requirement, however, is one seamless publishing experience and growth tools to assist you construct your client base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my clients that I was mosting likely to switch over 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 reality that I selected to select BeeHiiv, that does not suggest I believe Substack draws. As a matter of fact, due to the fact that Substack has been about much longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple things that originally got my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is especially customized to e-newsletter publishers. In fact, it is essentially constructed by the exact same people who built the innovation behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, doesn’t matter. However, 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 also means that BeeHiiv has some rather large brand names and large magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is intended even more at solo designers. Once more, it simply informs me the client character difference in between both firms.
Sending our my newsletter via FluentCRM didn’t exactly draw. The only factor I would ponder trembling things up is if I believed I could expand the listing faster. And BeeHiiv spoke exactly to that goal.
As a result of the targeting, I actually don’t check out BeeHiiv and Substack as direct competitors. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a different type of customer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra direct competitors.
However, allow’s dive much deeper than simply the placing below.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Generally, BeeHiiv seems like it was built by individuals that comprehending email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears a lot more geared toward makers.
As an example, BeeHiiv offers custom fields on clients. 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 functions a whole 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 capability to send out an e-mail. Nevertheless, improvements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will have brand-new triggers in addition to brand-new activities, such as changing customized fields, sending out webhooks, and so on. I’ve currently seen enhancements to their automations just given that I started making use of the platform. For instance:
- Capability to trigger automations based upon which specific embed kind they came in on.
- Capability to automatically do re-engagement (and deal with people based on opens and non-opens).
- Capability to do fundamental conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can’t do this because the target market of Substack simply wouldn’t think to approach this like an e-mail marketing expert.
When it involves writing your e-newsletters, the creating interface of BeeHiiv is simply extra tailored toward e-newsletters. In fact, it really has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it works. I find it to be more user-friendly, directly.
Substack’s writing interface is nice and tidy, however it would be a lot more equivalent to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This distinction is more than just form. For example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Section” and afterwards put anything you want in it. Then, you can place Presence choices on that section to show it just to paid customers, hide it from email, conceal from clients, reveal just to clients, and so on. Substack offers nothing such as this.
And when/if the moment comes that I start a costs membership model, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any kind of profits. As a matter of fact, you literally attach up to your very own Stripe account and it charges directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your income. Depending upon how many subscribers you obtain, that 10% can be quite a bit even more cash than the monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This might appear nerdy, however what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv deal with the outside utilizing tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … nothing. No integrations in any way.
In general, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was much more built towards genuine email marketing. It was constructed by individuals who “get it”. Also the opt-in forms and the landing page creates seem far better developed for conversions. Development is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I would love to see BeeHiiv add, I like the direction it is going more than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have said, Substack placements itself towards “makers” more than email marketers and newsletter proprietors. Therefore, you see some points geared much more towards individuals who simply assume in regards to content production.
For example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does sustain multiple magazines, they are treated rather independently. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to numerous magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, however … cool for individuals who might need it.
Substack likewise has even more social performance built-in. As an example, it has a conversation function to host talks with subscribers. It additionally has a “Notes” feature which functions kind of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you’re reading. Fascinating. Overall, Substack is set up to be extra like a social media network which supports long-form content.
Generally, Substack is additionally more … minimalist. You either care for that or do not. Personally, I don’t. Nevertheless, if the objective is simpleness of user interface and, truthfully, features … Substack functions rather well.
But, I’ll be clear below …
When it comes to actual marketing, I do not think there’s much question that BeeHiiv is better matched. I tried to find more points that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, however frankly … I have a hard time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are often with to be the closest rivals, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are going after the exact same target audience and have comparable capacities.
ConvertKit is also placed at creators (like Substack), however it is a lot more strongly dealing with people who do it for service. ConvertKit has nice visual automation structure, it’s own business platform, and more. ConvertKit is a truly great platform.
I’m not going to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature malfunction below. ConvertKit is well known currently. Yet, right here’s how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Things ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has a lot more flexibility when it comes to it’s automations. I will certainly likewise say that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit much more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports identifying. This is just a basic feature of e-mail lists that makes it possible for segmentation in an even more adaptable way than BeeHiiv currently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain identifying eventually quickly, truthfully. It seems like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Lead Magnet.
ConvertKit does currently give the ability to market things using their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is very important to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nonetheless, I would constantly pick an extra straight alternative anyhow. For me, I like to utilize my very own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been about a lot longer and for that reason has way much more integration choices. Lots of online devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their own WordPress plugin that is rather effective. For instance, their plugin now also sustains member-gated web content in addition to auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your site. Essentially, this extra very closely places ConvertKit right into straight competitors by having you have the ability to release to your website and your e-mail list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is seriously lacking in these sort of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll get there. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also hectic tackling the development devices of BeeHiiv. As an example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not only incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with rewards, yet you can also pay per lead within the internal advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your checklist. These are really outstanding features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you know ConvertKit acquired Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of one of the most well known viral promo systems for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall wherefore this implies for the system going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Lead Magnet
BeeHiiv is much 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 also indicates that they are rapidly creating.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have experienced nearly once a week launch of brand-new features right into the platform. And these aren’t weak little features … yet large features that are quite crucial. Their rate of development at this moment has gone over.
I also quite value how responsive they are. In fact, among their product announcements regarding some layout improvements to the web design features actually consisted of a small trouble with the content size. I simply responded to that e-mail to tell them. I quickly obtained a reply straight from the CEO:.
That exact same day, the issue was taken care of.
Few days later on, I provided an additional suggestion …
Sure enough, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to trigger automations based on the embed form used was added to the system.
That sort of responsiveness and straight participation of the group is something I really value.
An additional major point of distinction here is the rate. Both platforms offer complimentary plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan provides much more ability and more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally FAR more favorable. ConvertKit appears less expensive at first glance because their pricing page reveals lower numbers, nonetheless the customer limitations are FAR lower and your cost promptly boosts as your list grows.
With BeeHiiv, your first level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid each year), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 clients. That same size checklist is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their best plan and the one I personally utilize), you can grow your list up to 100,000. A list of that dimension 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 remains in a totally different organization when it concerns pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point enhance costs? They may as time goes on. However, I’m thinking individuals like myself that are already in will be locked-in. We’ll see how points continue.
Points I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among the important things you certainly require to remember is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do appear to advance instead quickly and make brand-new item news rather usually, yet there are some basic features I actually desire they had that I require to just wait on.
One is that they need to have a setting on subscription types where I might pick an automation to run right at the form degree. That would be remarkable for a lot of factors. Currently, subscription forms look OK, however there’s extremely little setups for them to aid in division.
It would certainly be nice to have tagging at the client level. This would certainly be effective.
I assume webhooks need to be part of automations to make integrated automations less complicated and reduce dependence on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are likewise some small administrative user interface changes that would certainly come in handy. For instance:
- Capacity to bulk edit/remove clients.
- Capability to bulk edit posts (as an example, to identify a number of them at the same time).
- Having a few standard fields as conventional on clients (like the name).
- Some more customization options for the website (such as more versatile color selections, headline control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Things I wish they perform with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, yet it isn’t excellent and absolutely not almost as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM product.
It possibly never ever will certainly be, either. As I said, the purpose is different so it would not a lot a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to come to be a complete marketing automation system. I think you never recognize, though.
Last Ideas On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I like BeeHiiv rather a great deal. Enough where I made a decision to change my own newsletters over to the system regardless of my personal choice for digital sovereignty and owning my very own system.
Put simply, for the newsletter publishing version especially, I saw enough worth in their platform to call for the change.
Remember, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my special email listing. I utilize BeeHiiv wherefore it is good at, but I intentionally have points establish to make sure that I also maintain my listing “in house” inside of FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the exact same. It is just an excellent insurance policy, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your checklist will be of high use (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will certainly be).
So, the concern is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are making use of Substack now, I ‘d definitely think about changing to BeeHiiv. It will merely be a lot more business-friendly. It is targeting different abilities and various demands. And also, BeeHiiv also has import tools for Substack, so the switch should be quite straightforward.
If you get on ConvertKit now, I ‘d possibly stay put unless you have a big e-mail list and are for that reason being fleeced with their high regular monthly bill. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are iterating swiftly. There’s additionally a pretty good possibility you’re not also utilizing some of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not even need them. Because of that, BeeHiiv can conveniently be a far better and extra affordable fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be extremely intentional regarding growing an e-newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE system to think about and maintain and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is made to be, it is just one of the best games in the area right now. This is the system to enjoy.
BeeHiiv offers a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth checking out for yourself. And if you end up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll find the free account to be quite feature abundant.