I have utilized a lot of different email list systems over the years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a significant advocate of digital sovereignty and possessing your own platform. For that reason (and the remarkable features), I have been utilizing Beehiiv Media Collective.
So, it is certainly a strange move for me to decide to make use of BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is a hosted application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I wish to look at 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 system and I would certainly also like to address why I picked to use it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For Newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my newsletter called My Pastime + A Big Shift In Approach, I spoke about exactly how and why I made a decision to transform my motor home blog into mainly a newsletter. I decided that was business design I intended to go after keeping that building.
Yet, to purposefully pursue it as a newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the e-mail checklist for Happily recreational vehicle, yet FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, truthfully, using it for e-newsletters is a little a waste. A lot more on that in a bit.
As I said because problem of the e-newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices constructed into it particular to my objective. Points such as:
- Capability to release (to the blog) and send the e-mail concurrently without having it be 2 different actions.
- Integrated in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would have needed a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capability to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are essentially one-click membership links. Great for promotion in various 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 advertisement network, if I pick to monetize with advertisements in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capability to run a paid 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 focused on development. The system was literally constructed by the people who accumulated the technology for Early morning Brew. They know what they’re doing.
That is the factor right here. BeeHiiv is constructed from scratch for the objective of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a various purpose.
And I ended off with this:.
I may without a doubt be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv also. At the very 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 as a matter of fact, The side was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, triggered as it’s own residential property to make sure that I can expand it more deliberately 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 simple to shift. But, The Morning WP (previously The Edge) was buried in a sea of things right here at the Blog Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s very own. It will undoubtedly always be carefully connected with the Blog Marketing Academy, but does not have to be a part of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was constructed for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Just A Regular Email Checklist
There’s a distinction between a newsletter platform and just an e-mail listing.
You can host your email listing anyplace you want 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 difference?
The key distinction is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of publishing means that it is mosting likely to your site and to your e-mail clients simultaneously.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a site. You are publishing to that internet site. However, you are also dispatching to all subscribers at the same time. The site and it’s subscribers are all in one. This makes monitoring of the system much simpler.
With a lot of email systems, any kind of newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is built totally individually from your site. So, for example, you may release a post to WordPress but after that you would certainly require to individually construct and send an email to your list to send it to customers. These are after that 2 separate sets of archives and 2 separate activities because post and your e-mails are not naturally linked.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress right into a true newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name because it virtually “glues” your newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and permits them to be the exact same point. Definitely, something like Newsletter Glue would certainly be a strong option if I wanted to continue to self-host everything. However, you would certainly shed the growth devices that include a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting a newsletter naturally features a different collection of demands than a typical email checklist.
You do not generally require much marketing automation. You don’t typically require autoresponder series, occasion monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO need, however, is one seamless publishing experience and development tools to aid you develop your customer base that specify to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my subscribers that I was mosting likely to change the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many people ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the fact that I picked to choose BeeHiiv, that does not mean I assume Substack sucks. As a matter of fact, due to the fact that Substack has actually been about longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple things that at first obtained my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically customized to e-newsletter publishers. In fact, it is actually developed by the exact same individuals that built the technology behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real world, doesn’t matter. But, the evident positioning of BeeHiiv towards e-newsletter development called me out over the more generic positioning of being a “designer”. Development is what I’m interested in below.
- That branding and distinction likewise implies that BeeHiiv has some fairly large brand names and huge publications utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended even more at solo developers. Again, it just tells me the consumer avatar difference between the two business.
Sending our my e-newsletter using FluentCRM didn’t precisely suck. The only factor I would ponder trembling things up is if I assumed I can expand the checklist faster. And BeeHiiv talked specifically to that objective.
Due to the targeting, I in fact don’t watch BeeHiiv and Substack as direct competitors. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a various type of customer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra direct rivals.
But, let’s dive much deeper than just the placing here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
On the whole, BeeHiiv appears like it was built by individuals who comprehending email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears extra tailored towards makers.
For example, BeeHiiv offers customized areas on subscribers. Now, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. In fact, it is a visual automation builder that works a whole lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation functionality is still early-phase. It is still fairly restricted in triggers and the only action is the ability to send an e-mail. Nevertheless, enhancements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will have new triggers along with brand-new activities, such as modifying customized areas, sending out webhooks, etc. I’ve already seen improvements to their automations simply given that I began using the system. For example:
- Capability to set off automations based on which specific embed form they can be found in on.
- Capability to automatically do re-engagement (and take care of people based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Capability to do fundamental conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can’t do this since the target market of Substack just would not think to approach this like an e-mail marketer.
When it pertains to composing your e-newsletters, the creating interface of BeeHiiv is simply much more geared towards newsletters. As a matter of fact, it actually has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in how it works. I locate it to be much more user-friendly, personally.
Substack’s composing interface is nice and tidy, yet it would be extra comparable to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This distinction is more than just kind. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Area” and afterwards placed anything you desire in it. After that, you can place Exposure choices on that particular area to reveal it just to paid subscribers, conceal it from email, hide from customers, show just to clients, etc. Substack supplies absolutely nothing like this.
And when/if the time comes that I start a premium subscription design, BeeHiiv does not take any type of earnings. Actually, you essentially connect approximately your very own Stripe account and it charges straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your revenue. Depending upon the number of customers you get, that 10% can be a fair bit more cash than the month-to-month expense of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This might seem unpopular, however what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv work with the outdoors using tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … nothing. No integrations at all.
Generally, I simply felt like BeeHiiv was a lot more developed towards genuine email marketing. It was constructed by individuals that “get it”. Even the opt-in forms and the landing page creates appear much better constructed for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I would love to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the instructions it is going more than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have stated, Substack positions itself toward “designers” greater than email marketing experts and newsletter proprietors. Because of that, you see some points geared more towards individuals who just assume in regards to content development.
For instance, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does support numerous publications, they are treated rather independently. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to numerous magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I require, yet … cool for individuals that might require it.
Substack also has even more social performance built-in. For instance, it has a chat feature to host chats with subscribers. It also has a “Notes” feature which works kind of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share things from various other “Stacks” you’re reading. Intriguing. In general, Substack is established to be a lot more like a social network which sustains long-form web content.
Generally, Substack is additionally more … minimal. You either care for that or do not. Directly, I do not. Nevertheless, if the objective is simpleness of user interface and, truthfully, features … Substack functions pretty well.
However, I’ll be clear below …
When it comes to actual marketing, I don’t believe there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is better suited. I looked for even more points that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, yet truthfully … I have a hard time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are typically with to be the closest rivals, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are pursuing the very same target audience and have comparable capabilities.
ConvertKit is also positioned at developers (like Substack), yet it is a lot more strongly accommodating individuals that do it for organization. ConvertKit has good aesthetic automation building, it’s own business system, and a lot more. ConvertKit is a truly good system.
I’m not mosting likely to bore you with a full feature-by-feature malfunction right here. ConvertKit is popular currently. Yet, right here’s just how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has much more versatility when it concerns it’s automations. I will certainly also claim that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit a lot more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports tagging. This is just a standard feature of email checklists that makes it possible for division in a much more flexible method than BeeHiiv currently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support tagging eventually soon, honestly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Media Collective.
ConvertKit does now provide the capacity to offer points via their very own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is essential to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would always pick an extra direct alternative anyhow. For me, I favor to utilize my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about a lot longer and therefore has way more integration options. Tons of online devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their own WordPress plugin that is quite powerful. For example, their plugin now also sustains member-gated material in addition to auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your site. Basically, this a lot more very closely puts ConvertKit right into direct competitors by having you have the ability to publish to your website and your email listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is drastically doing not have in these kinds of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll arrive. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy tackling the growth tools of BeeHiiv. As an example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not just incentivize people to share your newsletter with perks, yet you can additionally pay per lead within the inner ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your listing. These are really amazing features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you know ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among one of the most popular viral promo platforms for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall surface wherefore this indicates for the system moving forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Media Collective
BeeHiiv is a lot previously in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that suggests less features and less integrations, which is natural for this stage of the cycle. Nonetheless, it also means that they are swiftly developing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually observed almost weekly launch of new features right into the system. And these aren’t puny little features … but huge features that are rather essential. Their rate of advancement at this moment has actually gone over.
I additionally very much appreciate how receptive they are. In fact, among their product announcements concerning some layout improvements to the web design features really contained a small issue with the web content width. I merely replied to that e-mail to tell them. I quickly got a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That same day, the issue was taken care of.
Couple of days later on, I gave them another tip …
Indeed, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to cause automations based on the embed form utilized was added to the system.
That sort of responsiveness and direct participation of the group is something I truly appreciate.
Another major point of differentiation here is the cost. Both systems supply complimentary plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan offers much more capability and more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
As soon as you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise FAR more positive. ConvertKit appears less expensive in the beginning glimpse since their pricing page shows lower numbers, however the subscriber limitations are FAR reduced and your price promptly increases as your checklist grows.
With BeeHiiv, your initial level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid yearly), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That same size checklist is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I directly make use of), you can grow 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 every year, too. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for simply $84/month if you pay annually.
BeeHiiv is in a totally different league when it involves pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually raise costs? They might as time takes place. Yet, I’m guessing people like myself who are already in will be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how things proceed.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among things you most definitely need to remember is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do seem to advance rather rapidly and make brand-new item announcements somewhat frequently, however there are some basic features I truly wish they had that I need to simply wait on.
One is that they require to have a setting on registration types where I could select an automation to run right at the type degree. That would certainly be outstanding for a lot of factors. Currently, registration kinds look OK, yet there’s very little setups for them to aid in segmentation.
It would be nice to have labeling at the subscriber degree. This would be effective.
I assume webhooks ought to become part of automations to make integrated automations simpler and decrease dependence on outside tools like Zapier.
There are likewise some minor management user interface changes that would certainly come in handy. As an example:
- Capability to bulk edit/remove subscribers.
- Capacity to bulk edit articles (for example, to label a number of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of basic fields as common on clients (like the name).
- Some even more customization alternatives for the site (such as more flexible shade selections, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Points I wish they finish with it in the future. BeeHiiv is respectable, however it isn’t ideal and certainly not almost as established as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM item.
It possibly never ever will certainly be, either. As I claimed, the objective is different so it would not a lot a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to end up being a complete marketing automation platform. I presume you never ever know, though.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I such as BeeHiiv rather a lot. Enough where I made a decision to change my own e-newsletters over to the platform despite my personal choice for digital sovereignty and having my very own platform.
Simply put, for the e-newsletter posting model especially, I saw sufficient worth in their system to require the adjustment.
Keep in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my special e-mail list. I utilize BeeHiiv wherefore it is proficient at, however I intentionally have points set up so that I additionally maintain my listing “in house” inside of FluentCRM.
If you make use of BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the very same. It is simply an excellent insurance policy, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your checklist will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will certainly be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are utilizing Substack today, I ‘d most definitely take into consideration switching over to BeeHiiv. It will just be a lot more business-friendly. It is targeting different capabilities and different needs. And also, BeeHiiv also has import tools for Substack, so the button ought to be rather uncomplicated.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d possibly stay put unless you have a huge email checklist and are for that reason being fleeced with their high month-to-month expense. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are repeating swiftly. There’s likewise a respectable chance you’re not even making use of several of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not even need them. For that reason, BeeHiiv might quickly be a far better and much more affordable fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be really deliberate regarding growing a newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE system to consider and keep and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is developed to be, it is just one of the most effective games in town right now. This is the system to watch.
BeeHiiv uses a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves taking a look at on your own. And if you end up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll find the totally free account to be fairly feature abundant.