I have actually made use of a lot of various email list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a significant advocate of digital sovereignty and owning your very own platform. Because of that (and the remarkable features), I have been utilizing Beehiiv Paywall.
So, it is indeed a weird move for me to determine to utilize BeeHiiv. Besides, it is a hosted application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv evaluation, I wish to go over why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I intend to address the problem of digital sovereignty while using the platform and I would certainly additionally such as to resolve why I selected to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For Newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Big Change In Strategy, I spoke about how and why I made a decision to turn my RV blog into primarily a newsletter. I decided that was business design I wished to go after with that property.
Yet, to deliberately seek it as an e-newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the e-mail checklist for Happily RV, yet FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter system. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, honestly, using it for newsletters is a little bit of a waste. Much more on that in a bit.
As I claimed in that concern of the e-newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a system with tools constructed into it details to my objective. Things such as:
- Ability to publish (to the blog site) and send out the e-mail simultaneously without having it be two different activities.
- Integrated in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would certainly require a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in ability to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are essentially one-click subscription web links. Great for promotion in various other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, however, so there are means to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your newsletter.
- Integrated advertisement network, if I select to generate income from with advertisements in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and essentially run a premium newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter authors with features focused on growth. The platform was literally built by the individuals who accumulated the innovation for Morning Mixture. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the factor here. BeeHiiv is constructed from scratch for the purpose of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various purpose.
And I finished off with this:.
I might certainly be relocating The Side over to BeeHiiv as well. A minimum of, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. Actually, I simply went all out. And in fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Morning WP, triggered as it’s own residential property so that I can expand it much more deliberately also.
The goal is that each e-newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded independently. Happily recreational vehicle was young, so easy to change. Yet, The Early morning WP (previously The Edge) was hidden in a sea of stuff 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 obviously constantly be very closely tied with the Blog site Marketing Academy, yet doesn’t have to be a part of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv because it was developed for this function. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Simply A Normal Email List
There’s a distinction in between an e-newsletter system and just an email list.
You can host your email checklist everywhere you want and there are a number of them available, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted alternatives like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The key difference is that, with a newsletter platform, the act of posting implies that it is mosting likely to your internet site and to your e-mail customers at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a web site. You are releasing to that website. However, you are additionally sending to all clients at the same time. The website and it’s clients are done in one. This makes monitoring of the system much simpler.
With many e-mail systems, any type of e-newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is developed totally separately from your web site. So, for example, you could release a post to WordPress yet then you would need to separately construct and send out an e-mail to your checklist to send it to clients. These are after that two separate collections of archives and two separate activities because post and your emails are not naturally connected.
The closest thing that turns WordPress right into a true newsletter platform is Newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name because it pretty much “glues” your e-newsletter to your WordPress articles and permits them to be the exact same thing. Definitely, something like Newsletter Glue would be a strong option if I intended to remain to self-host whatever. Nevertheless, you would certainly shed the development tools that feature a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter naturally includes a various collection of demands than a typical e-mail checklist.
You do not normally require much marketing automation. You don’t typically require autoresponder series, occasion tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO demand, though, is one smooth posting experience and development devices to help you build your customer base that are specific 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 choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the truth that I chose to opt for BeeHiiv, that doesn’t mean I believe Substack draws. As a matter of fact, since Substack has been around much longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a pair points that at first got my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically tailored to newsletter publishers. As a matter of fact, it is actually built by the very same people who built the innovation behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real world, doesn’t matter. But, the evident positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter development called me out over the more common positioning of being a “maker”. Growth is what I want below.
- That branding and distinction likewise implies that BeeHiiv has some rather large brands and large publications utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo creators. Once again, it simply informs me the client character difference between the two business.
Sending our my e-newsletter by means of FluentCRM didn’t precisely draw. The only factor I would certainly consider drinking points up is if I assumed I might GROW the listing faster. And BeeHiiv talked precisely to that goal.
Due to the targeting, I in fact don’t check out BeeHiiv and Substack as direct competitors. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a different type of customer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being a lot more straight rivals.
But, let’s dive deeper than simply the placing right here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
On the whole, BeeHiiv appears like it was developed by individuals who understanding e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears a lot more geared toward creators.
For instance, BeeHiiv provides custom-made fields on subscribers. Currently, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. In fact, it is an aesthetic 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 quite limited in triggers and the only activity is the capacity to send out an e-mail. Nevertheless, enhancements are coming. Soon enough, automations will have brand-new triggers in addition to brand-new actions, such as customizing customized fields, sending webhooks, etc. I have actually already seen enhancements to their automations just since I began using the platform. For example:
- Capacity to trigger automations based on which specific embed form they was available in on.
- Capability to instantly do re-engagement (and handle individuals based on opens up and non-opens).
- Capacity to do standard conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack simply can not do this since the target audience of Substack just wouldn’t believe to approach this like an email marketer.
When it comes to writing your e-newsletters, the writing interface of BeeHiiv is simply much more geared towards e-newsletters. As a matter of fact, it in fact has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it functions. I locate it to be much more user-friendly, personally.
Substack’s creating interface behaves and clean, yet it would be more equivalent to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This distinction is more than simply form. For example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Section” and afterwards placed anything you want in it. Then, you can place Visibility alternatives on that particular section to reveal it only to paid subscribers, conceal it from email, hide from customers, reveal only to clients, etc. Substack uses absolutely nothing similar to this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a costs registration design, BeeHiiv does not take any type of earnings. Actually, you actually connect as much as your own Stripe account and it charges directly to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your revenue. Depending upon how many subscribers you get, that 10% can be a fair bit more cash than the regular monthly price of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This could appear unpopular, however what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv work with the outside utilizing tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … nothing. No integrations in all.
On the whole, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was much more constructed toward actual e-mail marketing. It was developed by individuals who “get it”. Also the opt-in kinds and the landing page creates seem much better developed for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I want to see BeeHiiv include, I like the direction it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have stated, Substack positions itself toward “creators” greater than email marketing experts and e-newsletter owners. Because of that, you see some things geared extra toward individuals who simply think in regards to web content production.
For instance, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does sustain numerous magazines, they are dealt with quite independently. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to several publications at the same time. This isn’t something I need, but … trendy for individuals that might need it.
Substack also has more social performance built-in. For instance, it has a conversation feature to host chats with subscribers. It also has a “Notes” feature which works type of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share things from other “Stacks” you read. Fascinating. In general, Substack is established to be much more like a social network which sustains long-form web content.
Generally, Substack is additionally much more … minimalist. You either look after that or don’t. Directly, I do not. Nevertheless, if the objective is simpleness of user interface and, truthfully, features … Substack works quite well.
Yet, I’ll be clear right here …
When it involves actual marketing, I do not assume there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is better fit. I searched for more factors that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, however frankly … I have a hard time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are typically with to be the closest rivals, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are going after the same target audience and have similar capacities.
ConvertKit is likewise positioned at makers (like Substack), but it is a lot more highly dealing with people who do it for business. ConvertKit has good aesthetic automation structure, it’s own business system, and a lot more. ConvertKit is an actually great platform.
I’m not going to bore you with a full feature-by-feature break down below. ConvertKit is popular already. Yet, below’s just how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Points ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has extra versatility when it pertains to it’s automations. I will certainly also claim that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains marking. This is just a fundamental function of e-mail checklists that enables segmentation in a much more versatile means than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain identifying at some point soon, truthfully. It seems like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Paywall.
ConvertKit does currently give the ability to offer points through their very own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that’s important to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would certainly constantly choose a much more direct option anyhow. For me, I choose to utilize my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been around a lot longer and therefore has way more integration alternatives. Lots of online devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is quite effective. As an example, their plugin now also sustains member-gated material as well as auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your site. Basically, this a lot more closely puts ConvertKit into direct competitors by having you be able to publish to your site and your e-mail list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is drastically doing not have in these kinds of third-party integrations presently. It’ll get there. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also hectic taking on the development tools of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not only incentivize people to share your newsletter with perks, but you can also pay per lead within the interior ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your list. These are truly remarkable features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you recognize 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 composing on the wall surface of what this indicates for the system going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Paywall
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means much less features and much less integrations, which is all-natural for this phase of the cycle. Nevertheless, it also indicates that they are swiftly establishing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually seen virtually weekly release of new features into the platform. And these aren’t puny little features … but large features that are fairly essential. Their rate of development at this point has actually gone over.
I additionally quite value just how receptive they are. In fact, among their product news concerning some design improvements to the web design features really consisted of a small problem with the material size. I merely responded to that e-mail to tell them. I swiftly obtained a reply directly from the CEO:.
That exact same day, the problem was fixed.
Couple of days later on, I gave them another suggestion …
Certainly, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to set off automations based upon the embed form utilized was included in the system.
That sort of responsiveness and direct involvement of the group is something I really value.
One more significant factor of differentiation right here is the price. Both platforms use free plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan uses much more ability and more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally much more desirable. ConvertKit appears cheaper at first look because their pricing web page reveals lower numbers, nevertheless the subscriber limits are much reduced and your cost promptly enhances as your checklist grows.
With BeeHiiv, your initial level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid each year), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That very same size listing is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their best plan and the one I directly make use of), you can expand your list approximately 100,000. A checklist of that dimension would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, as well, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay every year, as well. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay yearly.
BeeHiiv is in an entirely various league when it comes to pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point boost costs? They may as time takes place. However, I’m presuming people like myself who are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see just how points proceed.
Points I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of the important things you most definitely require to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do seem to evolve instead promptly and make brand-new product news rather typically, but there are some fundamental features I actually desire they had that I require to simply wait on.
One is that they need to have a setting on membership kinds where I could select an automation to run right at the form degree. That would certainly be remarkable for a lot of factors. Currently, registration forms look OK, however there’s very little settings for them to assist in segmentation.
It would certainly be nice to have marking at the subscriber degree. This would be powerful.
I believe webhooks ought to belong to automations to make built-in automations easier and minimize reliance on outside tools like Zapier.
There are additionally some small management interface adjustments that would come in handy. As an example:
- Ability to mass edit/remove subscribers.
- Capability to bulk edit blog posts (for instance, to tag a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a few fundamental areas as conventional on customers (like the name).
- Some even more personalization alternatives for the site (such as even more flexible color selections, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Points I wish they perform with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t excellent and definitely not nearly as created as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM item.
It possibly never ever will be, either. As I said, the function is different so it would not much a great deal of feeling for BeeHiiv to end up being a complete marketing automation platform. I think you never ever recognize, however.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I like BeeHiiv rather a whole lot. Sufficient where I chose to change my own e-newsletters over to the system despite my individual preference for digital sovereignty and possessing my very own system.
Put simply, for the e-newsletter posting design especially, I saw adequate value in their system to require the modification.
Keep in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my special email listing. I utilize BeeHiiv for what it is good at, yet I intentionally have things establish so that I also keep my checklist “in house” within FluentCRM.
If you make use of BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the same. It is simply a great insurance plan, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your checklist will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will certainly be).
So, the question is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my point of view, if you are utilizing Substack today, I ‘d certainly consider switching over to BeeHiiv. It will simply be a lot more business-friendly. It is targeting different abilities and different requirements. Plus, BeeHiiv also has import devices for Substack, so the switch must be pretty straightforward.
If you are on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d most likely sit tight unless you have a big e-mail checklist and are for that reason being wooled with their high regular monthly expense. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are repeating rapidly. There’s also a respectable chance you’re not even making use of several of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not also need them. Because of that, BeeHiiv can conveniently be a better and more cost effective fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be really willful concerning growing a newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE platform to take into consideration and keep and eye on for you.
If you utilize BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is designed to be, it is among the very best games in the area right now. This is the system to view.
BeeHiiv offers a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth taking a look at for yourself. And if you end up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll discover the cost-free account to be rather feature abundant.