I have used a great deal of different e-mail list systems throughout the years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a massive proponent of digital sovereignty and possessing your very own system. Because of that (and the outstanding features), I have actually been making use of Beehiiv Markdown.
So, it is certainly an odd move for me to decide to make use of BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is an organized application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv evaluation, I intend to go over why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I wish to address the concern of digital sovereignty while utilizing the system and I ‘d also such as to resolve why I selected to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For E-newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my newsletter called My Pastime + A Huge Shift In Method, I spoke about how and why I decided to transform my RV blog site into largely a newsletter. I chose that was business design I intended to seek keeping that residential or commercial property.
However, to intentionally seek it as a newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the e-mail checklist for Gladly recreational vehicle, 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 little a waste. A lot more on that in a bit.
As I stated in that problem of the newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a system with devices built into it certain to my objective. Things such as:
- Capability to release (to the blog site) and send the email at the same time without having it be two separate activities.
- Built in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would certainly require a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capability to do cross-promotions with other newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are essentially one-click registration web links. Great for promotion in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, however, so there are means to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Integrated advertisement network, if I pick to generate income from with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated ability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and basically run a costs newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Essentially, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features targeted at development. The system was essentially built by the individuals who accumulated the modern technology for Early morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the point below. BeeHiiv is built from the ground up for the objective of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a various purpose.
And I finished off with this:.
I may indeed be relocating The Side over to BeeHiiv too. At least, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. As a matter of fact, I just went all out. And in fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Morning WP, set off as it’s very own residential or commercial property to make sure that I can expand it a lot more purposefully as well.
The goal is that each e-newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown separately. Gladly recreational vehicle was young, so simple to change. Yet, The Morning WP (formerly The Side) was buried in a sea of things below 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 always be closely linked with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet does not need to be a part of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was constructed for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Regular Email List
There’s a distinction in between a newsletter system and simply an e-mail checklist.
You can organize your e-mail listing anywhere you desire and there are a number of them out there, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted choices like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The key distinction is that, with an e-newsletter system, the act of publishing suggests that it is mosting likely to your web site and to your e-mail customers concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are releasing to that web site. Yet, you are likewise dispatching to all customers at the same time. The site and it’s clients are all in one. This makes management of the system much less complex.
With many email platforms, any type of newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is constructed totally individually from your internet site. So, as an example, you may release a write-up to WordPress yet then you would certainly require to separately construct and send an e-mail to your list to send it to subscribers. These are after that 2 separate collections of archives and two different activities due to the fact that article and your e-mails are not inherently linked.
The closest point that transforms WordPress into a true e-newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name since it basically “glues” your newsletter to your WordPress articles and enables them to be the same thing. Definitely, something like E-newsletter Glue would be a solid choice if I wished to continue to self-host every little thing. Nevertheless, you would certainly shed the growth devices that come with a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing an e-newsletter inherently features a different collection of requirements than a common email list.
You don’t typically need much marketing automation. You do not usually require autoresponder sequences, event monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO demand, however, is one smooth publishing experience and growth tools to assist you develop your subscriber base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my clients that I was mosting likely to switch the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the fact that I chose to go with BeeHiiv, that does not imply I think Substack draws. As a matter of fact, due to the fact that Substack has been around much longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is younger, there are a pair points that originally obtained my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is especially customized to e-newsletter authors. As a matter of fact, it is literally constructed by the exact same folks that built the modern technology behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, does not matter. Yet, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv toward e-newsletter development called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “creator”. Development is what I want below.
- That branding and differentiation likewise means that BeeHiiv has some relatively huge brand names and huge publications utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is aimed even more at solo creators. Once more, it simply informs me the client avatar distinction between both business.
Sending our my newsletter by means of FluentCRM didn’t precisely suck. The only reason I would consider shaking things up is if I assumed I could expand the list quicker. And BeeHiiv talked specifically to that objective.
As a result of the targeting, I actually don’t view BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a various type of consumer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more direct competitors.
But, let’s dive much deeper than simply the placing below.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv feels like it was developed by people that understanding e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems extra tailored towards makers.
As an example, BeeHiiv provides personalized areas on clients. Currently, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv supplies Automations. In fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that functions a great deal like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still fairly restricted in triggers and the only activity is the ability to send an email. Nonetheless, enhancements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will certainly have new triggers as well as new activities, such as customizing customized areas, sending out webhooks, and so on. I’ve currently seen enhancements to their automations just given that I started utilizing the platform. As an example:
- Capacity to set off automations based upon which details embed kind they was available in on.
- Capability to immediately do re-engagement (and take care of people based upon opens and non-opens).
- Capability to do standard conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can not 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 writing your e-newsletters, the creating interface of BeeHiiv is simply a lot more geared towards newsletters. Actually, it actually has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in how it works. I find it to be a lot more user-friendly, directly.
Substack’s composing user interface is nice and tidy, but it would be more comparable to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This difference is more than simply form. For example, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Section” and then put anything you desire in it. Then, you can place Visibility alternatives on that section to show it just to paid customers, conceal it from e-mail, hide from clients, reveal only to clients, and so on. Substack provides absolutely nothing similar to this.
And when/if the time comes that I begin a costs registration model, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any type of revenue. As a matter of fact, you essentially attach approximately your own Stripe account and it charges straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your earnings. Depending on how many subscribers you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit more money than the monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This could seem unpopular, but what it means is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv deal with the outdoors utilizing devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … nothing. No integrations in all.
Overall, I simply felt like BeeHiiv was a lot more developed toward actual e-mail marketing. It was developed by people that “get it”. Also the opt-in forms and the landing page designs appear much better built for conversions. Development is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv add, I like the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have said, Substack placements itself toward “designers” greater than e-mail online marketers and e-newsletter proprietors. Because of that, you see some points tailored more toward individuals who simply believe in terms of content creation.
As an example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does support numerous magazines, they are dealt with rather independently. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to several publications at the same time. This isn’t something I require, yet … trendy for people who might need it.
Substack likewise has more social capability built-in. For instance, it has a chat feature to host chats with clients. It additionally 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. On the whole, Substack is set up to be much more like a social network which supports long-form web content.
On the whole, Substack is likewise extra … minimal. You either care for that or do not. Personally, I do not. Nonetheless, if the goal is simpleness of user interface and, honestly, features … Substack functions quite well.
However, I’ll be clear below …
When it involves real marketing, I don’t assume there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is much better suited. I tried to find even more factors that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, yet truthfully … I have a tough time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are commonly with to be the closest competitors, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are pursuing the very same target market and have comparable abilities.
ConvertKit is likewise placed at developers (like Substack), however it is far more strongly satisfying individuals who do it for company. ConvertKit has nice visual automation structure, it’s very own commerce platform, and extra. ConvertKit is an actually great platform.
I’m not going to bore you with a complete feature-by-feature failure below. ConvertKit is popular already. However, below’s how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has a lot more adaptability when it comes to it’s automations. I will certainly additionally claim that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit extra instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports marking. This is simply a basic feature of e-mail lists that makes it possible for segmentation in a much more versatile method than BeeHiiv currently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support identifying at some time soon, truthfully. It seems like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Markdown.
ConvertKit does currently provide the capacity to offer things using their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is very important to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would always choose a more straight alternative anyway. For me, I prefer to use my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been around a lot longer and because of that has way a lot more integration options. Lots of online tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is fairly effective. For example, their plugin now also supports member-gated web content along with auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your website. Basically, this extra carefully places ConvertKit right into straight competitors by having you be able to publish to your site and your e-mail listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is seriously lacking in these sort of third-party integrations right now. It’ll arrive. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also hectic taking on the growth 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, yet you can additionally pay per lead within the interior ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your listing. These are truly amazing features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you know ConvertKit acquired Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among the most popular viral promotion systems for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall surface for what this suggests for the platform going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Markdown
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies less features and less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. Nevertheless, it also suggests that they are quickly establishing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have seen practically once a week release of brand-new features right into the platform. And these aren’t weak little features … but big features that are quite vital. Their speed of development at this moment has actually been impressive.
I also very much value just how responsive they are. In fact, one of their product announcements about some layout improvements to the website design features really consisted of a small issue with the web content size. I merely replied to that e-mail to tell them. I swiftly obtained a reply straight from the CEO:.
That exact same day, the concern was fixed.
Couple of days later, I provided another idea …
Sure enough, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to set off automations based on the embed type made use of was added to the system.
That sort of responsiveness and direct involvement of the team is something I truly value.
An additional significant factor of distinction here is the price. Both platforms supply free plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan offers a lot more capacity and more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise even more positive. ConvertKit appears more affordable initially glimpse since their pricing web page shows lower numbers, however the client limits are FAR lower and your rate quickly boosts as your checklist grows.
With BeeHiiv, your initial degree paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid each year), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That same size list is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their best plan and the one I personally make use of), you can expand your checklist up to 100,000. A list of that size would certainly 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, also. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for just $84/month if you pay yearly.
BeeHiiv is in a completely various organization when it comes to pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually raise rates? They might as time takes place. Yet, I’m guessing people like myself who are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how points proceed.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
One of the things you most definitely need to remember is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do appear to evolve rather quickly and make new item announcements rather typically, but there are some standard features I truly desire they had that I require to just wait for.
One is that they need to have a setting on registration types where I might select an automation to run right at the type degree. That would be remarkable for so many factors. Already, subscription types look OK, however there’s really little settings for them to aid in segmentation.
It would behave to have marking at the client level. This would be powerful.
I believe webhooks must belong to automations to make integrated automations simpler and minimize reliance on outside tools like Zapier.
There are also some small management user interface adjustments that would certainly come in handy. For example:
- Capability to mass edit/remove subscribers.
- Capability to bulk edit messages (for example, to identify a number of them at the same time).
- Having a few fundamental areas as basic on clients (like the name).
- Some even more personalization options for the internet site (such as more versatile shade choices, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Things I wish they finish with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t excellent and certainly not almost as established as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM item.
It probably never will certainly be, either. As I said, the function is various so it would not a lot a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to become a complete marketing automation system. I presume you never understand, however.
Last Ideas On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I like BeeHiiv fairly a whole lot. Enough where I chose to change my own e-newsletters over to the system in spite of my individual preference for digital sovereignty and owning my own system.
Simply put, for the e-newsletter posting model specifically, I saw enough value in their platform to call for the modification.
Bear in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my unique email checklist. I use BeeHiiv wherefore it is proficient at, but I deliberately have things establish to make sure that I likewise maintain my checklist “in residence” inside of FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the exact same. It is simply an excellent insurance policy, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your listing will certainly be of high usage (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are using Substack now, I ‘d absolutely consider switching to BeeHiiv. It will merely be much more business-friendly. It is targeting different abilities and different demands. Plus, BeeHiiv also has import tools for Substack, so the button needs to be pretty uncomplicated.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d possibly stay put unless you have a big email checklist and are for that reason being fleeced with their high monthly costs. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are repeating swiftly. There’s likewise a respectable chance you’re not also using a few of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not also need them. Because of that, BeeHiiv could easily be a better and more budget friendly fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be very deliberate concerning expanding a newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE system to consider and keep and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is created to be, it is one of the most effective games in the area right now. This is the platform to watch.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves checking out for yourself. And if you wind up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll discover the free account to be rather feature abundant.