I have actually used a great deal of different email list systems for many years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a substantial supporter of digital sovereignty and possessing your own platform. Because of that (and the incredible features), I have actually been making use of Beehiiv Open Rate.
So, it is without a doubt an unusual move for me to choose to use BeeHiiv. After all, it is a hosted application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I wish to discuss why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I wish to address the problem of digital sovereignty while using the system and I would certainly likewise such as to address why I chose to use it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For Newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Pastime + A Huge Change In Technique, I talked about just how and why I decided to transform my recreational vehicle blog right into mainly an e-newsletter. I made a decision that was business design I wanted to pursue keeping that residential property.
But, to deliberately pursue it as an e-newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the e-mail listing for Gladly recreational vehicle, but FluentCRM is not a newsletter platform. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, honestly, using it for e-newsletters is a little a waste. A lot more on that in a little bit.
As I stated because concern of the newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices constructed into it certain to my objective. Things such as:
- Ability to publish (to the blog site) and send out the email all at once without having it be 2 separate activities.
- Built in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capability to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are essentially one-click membership links. Great for promo in various other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, 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 choose to generate income from with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capacity to run a paid newsletter upgrade and essentially run a costs newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter authors with features focused on development. The platform was actually built by the people that developed the innovation for Morning Mixture. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the point right here. BeeHiiv is constructed from scratch for the function of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different function.
And I ended off with this:.
I may indeed be moving The Side over to BeeHiiv as well. A minimum of, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. As a matter of fact, I simply went for it. And as a matter of fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Morning WP, set off as it’s own residential property to make sure that I can expand it more deliberately too.
The goal is that each newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown independently. Happily RV was young, so simple to transition. Yet, The Morning WP (previously The Edge) 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 undoubtedly always be carefully linked with the Blog site Marketing Academy, yet doesn’t have to belong of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv since it was developed for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Normal Email Listing
There’s a difference in between an e-newsletter system and simply an e-mail checklist.
You can organize your email listing anyplace you desire 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 distinction?
The primary difference is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of publishing means that it is going to your internet 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. However, you are additionally sending off to all subscribers at the same time. The site and it’s customers are all in one. This makes administration of the platform much less complex.
With the majority of e-mail platforms, any type of newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is developed totally separately from your internet site. So, for example, you might publish a short article to WordPress yet then you would certainly require to separately construct and send out an email to your listing to send it to subscribers. These are then 2 separate collections of archives and two different activities due to the fact that blog posts and your e-mails are not inherently connected.
The closest point that turns WordPress into a real newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name since it virtually “adhesives” 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 solid option if I wanted to remain to self-host every little thing. Nevertheless, you would certainly lose the growth devices that come with a platform like BeeHiiv.
Posting a newsletter naturally comes with a various set of needs than a common email checklist.
You do not normally require much marketing automation. You do not generally need autoresponder sequences, occasion tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO need, however, is one smooth publishing experience and growth devices to help you develop your subscriber base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my subscribers that I was going to change the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had lots of people ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the reality that I picked to go with BeeHiiv, that doesn’t suggest I believe Substack sucks. As a matter of fact, because Substack has actually been around much longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is younger, there are a pair things that originally got my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically customized to e-newsletter publishers. As a matter of fact, it is literally developed by the exact same people that built the innovation behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real life, does not matter. But, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter growth called me out over the more common positioning of being a “creator”. Development is what I have an interest in below.
- That branding and distinction likewise suggests that BeeHiiv has some fairly big brands and large magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is intended even more at solo designers. Once more, it just tells me the consumer character distinction between both companies.
Sending our my e-newsletter via FluentCRM didn’t exactly suck. The only factor I would contemplate trembling things up is if I thought I might GROW the checklist faster. And BeeHiiv spoke exactly to that objective.
Because of the targeting, I actually don’t view BeeHiiv and Substack as direct competitors. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a different sort of consumer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more direct rivals.
Yet, let’s dive much deeper than simply the placing right here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
On the whole, BeeHiiv seems like it was developed by people who understanding e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears much more geared towards makers.
For example, BeeHiiv supplies customized areas on clients. Now, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. As a matter of fact, it is a visual automation builder that works a whole lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation performance is still early-phase. It is still rather limited in triggers and the only activity is the capability to send an email. However, enhancements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will certainly have new triggers along with brand-new activities, such as customizing customized areas, sending out webhooks, and so on. I’ve already seen improvements to their automations simply given that I began making use of the system. For example:
- Ability to set off automations based on which details embed type they was available in on.
- Capacity to automatically do re-engagement (and handle people based upon opens and non-opens).
- Capability to do fundamental conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never will. Substack just can not do this because the target market of Substack simply would not believe to approach this like an e-mail online marketer.
When it pertains to creating your newsletters, the composing user interface of BeeHiiv is simply extra geared toward newsletters. In fact, it in fact has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in just how it works. I discover it to be more instinctive, personally.
Substack’s creating user interface behaves and tidy, yet it would be much more equal to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This difference is greater than simply type. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Section” and afterwards placed anything you desire in it. Then, you can place Visibility options on that section to show it only to paid subscribers, conceal it from e-mail, hide from customers, show just to clients, and so on. Substack provides absolutely nothing such as this.
And when/if the time comes that I begin a costs membership model, BeeHiiv does not take any income. In fact, you actually link approximately your own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your income. Depending on the amount of clients you obtain, that 10% can be quite a bit even more money than the regular monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This could appear nerdy, but what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv deal with the outside using tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … absolutely nothing. No integrations at all.
In general, I simply seemed like BeeHiiv was a lot more constructed toward actual email marketing. It was constructed by individuals that “get it”. Even the opt-in types and the landing page develops appear better built for conversions. Development is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I want to see BeeHiiv include, I like the direction it is going greater than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually stated, Substack settings itself toward “designers” greater than e-mail marketing professionals and e-newsletter proprietors. For that reason, you see some points geared much more toward individuals that simply believe in terms of content production.
For example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does sustain numerous magazines, they are treated fairly separately. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to several publications at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, yet … amazing for people who could require it.
Substack additionally has even more social capability built-in. As an example, it has a chat function to host chats with clients. It also has a “Notes” function which functions type of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you read. Interesting. Generally, Substack is established to be a lot more like a social media network which sustains long-form content.
Overall, Substack is likewise a lot more … minimal. You either take care of that or don’t. Directly, I don’t. Nonetheless, if the objective is simplicity of interface and, frankly, features … Substack works quite well.
However, I’ll be clear right here …
When it involves real marketing, I do not think there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is much better fit. I tried to find more factors that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, yet frankly … I have a hard time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are frequently via to be the closest rivals, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are going after the very same target market and have comparable capabilities.
ConvertKit is likewise placed at developers (like Substack), yet it is much more highly satisfying individuals that do it for business. ConvertKit has nice aesthetic automation building, it’s very own commerce platform, and extra. ConvertKit is an actually wonderful system.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature malfunction here. ConvertKit is well known currently. Yet, below’s how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Points ConvertKit Is Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has a lot more adaptability when it involves it’s automations. I will additionally state that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit a lot more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports identifying. This is simply a basic function of email checklists that makes it possible for division in a much more versatile method than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to sustain marking at some point quickly, honestly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Open Rate.
ConvertKit does currently provide the ability to sell things by means of their very own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is essential to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would certainly always pick an extra straight option anyhow. For me, I like to utilize my very own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about a lot longer and because of that has way extra integration choices. Lots of online devices and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is rather powerful. As an example, their plugin now also sustains member-gated web content in addition to auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your site. Fundamentally, this a lot more very closely puts ConvertKit into direct competition by having you have the ability to publish to your website and your e-mail list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is badly doing not have in these kinds of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll arrive. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even active taking on the growth tools of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not only incentivize people to share your newsletter with advantages, but you can also pay per lead within the internal ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your listing. These are actually awesome features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you understand ConvertKit acquired Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of one of the most popular viral promo platforms for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall for what this implies for the platform moving forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Open Rate
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that suggests much less features and much less integrations, which is all-natural for this phase of the cycle. Nonetheless, it also means that they are swiftly creating.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually observed practically once a week launch of brand-new features right into the system. And these aren’t undersized little features … yet big features that are fairly vital. Their speed of development now has gone over.
I likewise quite appreciate just how responsive they are. In fact, among their product announcements about some layout enhancements to the web design features really contained a small issue with the material width. I just replied to that email to tell them. I rapidly obtained a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That exact same day, the concern was dealt with.
Few days later on, I provided one more suggestion …
Certainly, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to activate automations based upon the embed kind used was added to the system.
That type of responsiveness and direct involvement of the team is something I really appreciate.
An additional significant point of differentiation below is the price. Both systems offer complimentary plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan offers a lot more capability and even more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also much more favorable. ConvertKit appears more affordable in the beginning glance because their pricing page reveals lower numbers, nevertheless the subscriber limitations are much lower and your price swiftly enhances as your list grows.
With BeeHiiv, your initial level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid annually), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 customers. That same size listing is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their ideal plan and the one I personally make use of), you can expand your listing up to 100,000. A list of that size would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, too, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay every year, also. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for just $84/month if you pay annually.
BeeHiiv remains in a totally different organization when it involves pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually enhance prices? They could as time goes on. Yet, I’m guessing individuals like myself who are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see how points proceed.
Points I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among things you certainly need to remember is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do seem to progress instead promptly and make brand-new product statements somewhat frequently, however there are some fundamental features I truly wish they had that I require to simply wait on.
One is that they require to have a setting on subscription forms where I could select an automation to run right at the type degree. That would certainly be remarkable for so many factors. Already, subscription kinds look OK, but there’s very little setups for them to aid in segmentation.
It would certainly behave to have identifying at the customer degree. This would certainly be powerful.
I think webhooks ought to belong to automations to make built-in automations simpler and minimize dependence on outside tools like Zapier.
There are likewise some small management user interface modifications that would come in handy. For example:
- Capacity to mass edit/remove subscribers.
- Capability to bulk edit messages (for example, to label a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a few basic areas as typical on subscribers (like the name).
- Some more modification choices for the web site (such as even more versatile color selections, headline control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Things I hope they make with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, yet it isn’t perfect and definitely not almost as established as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM product.
It most likely never will certainly be, either. As I said, the objective is various so it would not a lot a lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to become a full marketing automation system. I guess you never understand, however.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I such as BeeHiiv quite a whole lot. Enough where I decided to switch my very own newsletters over to the platform in spite of my personal choice for digital sovereignty and owning my own system.
Simply put, for the e-newsletter posting model particularly, I saw adequate value in their system to require the adjustment.
Bear in mind, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my exclusive email checklist. I utilize BeeHiiv of what it is proficient at, yet I intentionally have things set up to ensure that I additionally keep my listing “in house” inside of FluentCRM.
If you make use of BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the same. It is simply a great insurance plan, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your listing will 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 use BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are making use of Substack right now, I ‘d absolutely take into consideration switching over to BeeHiiv. It will merely be much more business-friendly. It is targeting various abilities and various needs. And also, BeeHiiv also has import tools for Substack, so the button needs to be pretty straightforward.
If you get on ConvertKit now, I ‘d possibly sit tight unless you have a large email checklist and are for that reason being fleeced with their high month-to-month expense. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are repeating rapidly. There’s likewise a respectable chance you’re not also making use of some of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you do not even require them. Therefore, BeeHiiv can conveniently be a much better and extra affordable fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be very deliberate concerning growing a newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE system to consider and keep and eye on for you.
If you utilize BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is developed to be, it is one of the very best games around today. This is the platform to enjoy.
BeeHiiv provides a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth having a look at for yourself. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll find the complimentary account to be rather feature abundant.