I have utilized a great deal of different e-mail list systems throughout the years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a substantial proponent of digital sovereignty and possessing your own platform. For that reason (and the remarkable features), I have actually been utilizing Beehiiv Mobile App.
So, it is undoubtedly an odd move for me to determine to use BeeHiiv. Besides, it is a held application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I intend to go over why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I intend to resolve the concern of digital sovereignty while utilizing the platform and I would certainly additionally like to attend to why I selected to utilize it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For Newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Hobby + A Huge Change In Approach, I spoke about exactly how and why I determined to transform my motor home blog into primarily a newsletter. I determined that was the business version I wanted to pursue keeping that residential property.
But, to intentionally seek it as an e-newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the e-mail listing for Gladly recreational vehicle, yet FluentCRM is not a 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. Much more on that in a bit.
As I said because problem of the newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a platform with tools built into it details to my purpose. Points such as:
- Ability to release (to the blog) and send the e-mail simultaneously without having it be two different actions.
- Integrated in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would have needed a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Integrated ability to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are generally one-click registration web links. Great for promo in various other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are means to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your newsletter.
- Built-in advertisement network, if I choose to generate income from with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and essentially run a costs e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Generally, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features focused on growth. The system was literally constructed by the individuals who accumulated the modern technology for Early morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the point here. BeeHiiv is developed from the ground up for the objective of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a various function.
And I finished off with this:.
I may undoubtedly be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv as well. At least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. As a matter of fact, I just went for it. And actually, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, triggered as it’s own residential or commercial property so that I can expand it a lot more intentionally also.
The objective is that each newsletter has the capability to be branded as it’s own media entity and grown independently. Happily motor home was young, so very easy to change. But, The Morning WP (formerly The Edge) was hidden in a sea of things right here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s own. It will clearly always be closely tied with the Blog site Marketing Academy, but does not need to be a part of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv because it was built for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Typical Email Listing
There’s a difference in between an e-newsletter platform and just an e-mail checklist.
You can host your email checklist everywhere you desire and there are a variety of them available, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted choices like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The primary distinction is that, with an e-newsletter system, the act of publishing indicates that it is going to your internet site and to your email customers all at once.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a web site. You are releasing to that website. But, you are likewise dispatching to all subscribers at the same time. The website and it’s subscribers are done in one. This makes administration of the system much less complex.
With a lot of e-mail platforms, any e-newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is constructed completely separately from your web site. So, for instance, you might publish a post to WordPress yet then you would require to independently construct and send an email to your list to send it to subscribers. These are then 2 separate collections of archives and 2 different activities since article and your e-mails are not naturally linked.
The closest point that transforms WordPress right into a real e-newsletter platform is Newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name since it virtually “glues” your e-newsletter to your WordPress posts and permits them to be the same point. Absolutely, something like Newsletter Glue would be a strong choice if I wished to continue to self-host every little thing. Nonetheless, you ‘d shed the development devices that include a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter naturally comes with a different collection of demands than a regular e-mail checklist.
You do not generally need much marketing automation. You don’t normally require autoresponder sequences, event tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO need, though, is one smooth posting experience and growth devices to aid you build your customer base that are specific to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my customers that I was mosting likely to change the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had lots of people ask me why I was picking it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the reality that I chose to opt for BeeHiiv, that doesn’t indicate I assume Substack sucks. In fact, due to the fact that Substack has actually been about longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple things that initially obtained my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically customized to newsletter authors. In fact, it is literally constructed by the same folks that developed the modern technology behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real world, does not matter. However, the evident positioning of BeeHiiv towards e-newsletter development called me out over the more common positioning of being a “designer”. Development is what I want below.
- That branding and differentiation likewise suggests that BeeHiiv has some rather large brand names and huge magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is intended even more at solo designers. Once more, it simply tells me the consumer character difference between both firms.
Sending our my newsletter through FluentCRM didn’t precisely suck. The only factor I would certainly ponder trembling points up is if I assumed I might expand the checklist much faster. And BeeHiiv talked exactly to that objective.
Due to the targeting, I in fact do not view BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a various kind of customer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra straight competitors.
However, let’s dive deeper than simply the placing right here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv looks like it was developed by individuals that comprehending e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears extra geared towards designers.
For example, BeeHiiv provides customized areas on customers. Now, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv supplies Automations. Actually, it is an aesthetic automation builder that works a great deal like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation performance is still early-phase. It is still quite limited in triggers and the only action is the capacity to send an e-mail. Nonetheless, enhancements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will certainly have brand-new triggers in addition to new actions, such as changing custom-made areas, sending out webhooks, and so on. I have actually currently seen improvements to their automations simply because I began using the system. For example:
- Ability to set off automations based upon which particular embed kind they can be found in on.
- Capacity to immediately do re-engagement (and deal with people based on opens and non-opens).
- Capacity to do basic conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can’t do this because the target market of Substack just wouldn’t believe to approach this like an email marketing professional.
When it involves writing your newsletters, the composing interface of BeeHiiv is simply extra tailored towards newsletters. Actually, it actually has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it works. I locate it to be more intuitive, directly.
Substack’s creating user interface behaves and tidy, however it would certainly be extra equivalent to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This distinction is more than simply kind. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Section” and after that put anything you desire in it. After that, you can put Exposure options on that section to reveal it just to paid clients, hide it from e-mail, conceal from subscribers, reveal only to customers, etc. Substack provides absolutely nothing like this.
And when/if the time comes that I start a premium registration design, BeeHiiv does not take any type of revenue. In fact, you literally link up to your very own Stripe account and it charges straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your revenue. Depending on the amount of customers you obtain, that 10% can be quite a bit even more money than the regular monthly cost of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This could seem nerdy, but what it means is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outdoors utilizing tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … absolutely nothing. No integrations whatsoever.
In general, I just felt like BeeHiiv was more built towards real email marketing. It was constructed by people who “get it”. Even the opt-in forms and the landing page develops seem better constructed for conversions. Development is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I would love to see BeeHiiv add, I such as the direction it is going more than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually claimed, Substack settings itself toward “makers” more than email online marketers and e-newsletter proprietors. Therefore, you see some points tailored extra toward people that just think in terms of content production.
As an example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does support multiple magazines, they are treated fairly separately. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to numerous magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, but … trendy for people that may require it.
Substack additionally has more social functionality built-in. For example, it has a chat feature to host chats with customers. It additionally has a “Notes” function which functions kind of like a social media newsfeed where you can share things from other “Stacks” you read. Interesting. On the whole, Substack is established to be more like a social network which supports long-form material.
In general, Substack is also much more … minimal. You either care for that or do not. Directly, I don’t. Nevertheless, if the goal is simpleness of 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 better matched. I searched for even more points that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, yet truthfully … I have a difficult 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 very same target market and have similar capacities.
ConvertKit is also positioned at makers (like Substack), but it is a lot more strongly catering to people that do it for company. ConvertKit has good visual automation structure, it’s very own commerce platform, and much more. ConvertKit is an actually great system.
I’m not going to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature breakdown right here. ConvertKit is well known currently. Yet, below’s how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Points ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has more flexibility when it concerns it’s automations. I will certainly also claim that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit much more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains tagging. This is just a fundamental feature of e-mail lists that makes it possible for division in a far more flexible means than BeeHiiv currently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support tagging at some point soon, frankly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Mobile App.
ConvertKit does now give the capability to sell things via their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is necessary to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would certainly constantly pick an extra straight option anyhow. For me, I favor to utilize my own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been around a lot longer and therefore has way much more integration alternatives. Lots of web-based devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is fairly powerful. For instance, their plugin now also supports member-gated material as well as auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Basically, this more closely places ConvertKit into straight competition by having you have the ability to publish to your website and your e-mail list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is drastically doing not have in these type of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll get there. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even hectic tackling the growth tools of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not only incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with perks, but you can additionally pay per lead within the inner advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your checklist. These are really awesome features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you know ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of one of the most well known viral promo platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall surface of what this indicates for the system moving forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Mobile App
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that indicates less features and much less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. Nonetheless, it additionally indicates that they are quickly creating.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have seen virtually weekly release of new features right into the system. And these aren’t undersized little features … yet big features that are fairly crucial. Their rate of growth at this point has actually been impressive.
I additionally significantly value just how responsive they are. In fact, among their item announcements regarding some style enhancements to the web design features really contained a small issue with the web content width. I just replied to that e-mail to tell them. I quickly obtained a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That same day, the concern was taken care of.
Couple of days later, I provided one more pointer …
Indeed, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to activate automations based on the embed kind utilized was included in the system.
That type of responsiveness and straight participation of the team is something I actually value.
An additional major factor of distinction right here is the price. Both platforms supply complimentary plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan supplies a lot more ability and even more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally FAR more desirable. ConvertKit seems less expensive in the beginning glance due to the fact that their pricing web page reveals reduced numbers, nevertheless the subscriber limits are FAR reduced and your rate rapidly increases as your list grows.
With BeeHiiv, your initial degree paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid each year), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 customers. That exact same size list is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their best plan and the one I personally use), you can grow your listing approximately 100,000. A checklist of that size would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, as well, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay annually, also. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay annually.
BeeHiiv is in a completely various organization when it involves pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point boost rates? They might as time takes place. However, I’m thinking people like myself who are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see just how things proceed.
Points I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Add
Among things you absolutely need to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do appear to evolve instead rapidly and make brand-new item news somewhat usually, however there are some fundamental features I really desire they had that I need to just await.
One is that they need to have a setting on subscription kinds where I might choose an automation to run right at the type level. That would certainly be amazing for numerous reasons. Already, subscription forms look OK, however there’s really little setups for them to help in division.
It would be nice to have identifying at the subscriber level. This would be effective.
I believe webhooks ought to belong to automations to make integrated automations easier and lower dependence on outdoors tools like Zapier.
There are also some minor management user interface changes that would be handy. For example:
- Capability to mass edit/remove customers.
- Capacity to bulk edit messages (as an example, to tag a number of them at the same time).
- Having a few basic areas as conventional on subscribers (like the name).
- Some more personalization choices for the website (such as more versatile shade options, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Things I hope they make with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t perfect and absolutely not virtually as created as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM product.
It probably never will certainly be, either. As I said, the purpose is various so it wouldn’t much a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to end up being a complete marketing automation system. I presume you never ever know, though.
Last Ideas On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I like BeeHiiv quite a lot. Sufficient where I determined to switch my very own e-newsletters over to the platform despite my individual choice for digital sovereignty and possessing my own platform.
Basically, for the e-newsletter posting model especially, I saw adequate value in their system to warrant the adjustment.
Bear in mind, I do not utilize BeeHiiv as my exclusive email list. I make use of BeeHiiv of what it is proficient at, but I deliberately have things set up to make sure that I also keep my list “in house” inside of FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the same. It is just an excellent insurance coverage, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your listing will certainly be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will be).
So, the question is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are using Substack now, I ‘d certainly think about changing to BeeHiiv. It will just be much more business-friendly. It is targeting different capacities and various needs. And also, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the button must be quite simple.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d possibly sit tight unless you have a large email checklist and are therefore being fleeced with their high month-to-month bill. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are iterating swiftly. There’s additionally a pretty good opportunity you’re not also utilizing a few of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you do not even require them. For that reason, BeeHiiv might easily be a better and extra budget friendly fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be really willful concerning growing a newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE system to think about and maintain and eye on for you.
If you utilize BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is made to be, it is among the very best games in town now. This is the system to see.
BeeHiiv provides a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves taking a look at on your own. And if you wind up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll locate the free account to be rather feature abundant.