I have actually utilized a great deal of various email list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a huge supporter of digital sovereignty and owning your very own platform. Therefore (and the outstanding features), I have actually been using Beehiiv Roadmap.
So, it is undoubtedly a weird move for me to decide to make use of BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is a held application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I want to review why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I wish to deal with the issue of digital sovereignty while making use of the system and I would certainly likewise like to address why I chose to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For Newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Large Shift In Method, I spoke about exactly how and why I determined to transform my RV blog into mostly a newsletter. I chose that was business model I wished to pursue with that said home.
However, to intentionally seek it as a newsletter, I wanted a system that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the e-mail checklist for Gladly motor home, but FluentCRM is not a newsletter system. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, honestly, using it for e-newsletters is a bit of a waste. Extra on that particular in a bit.
As I said because problem of the e-newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a system with devices constructed right into it particular to my function. Things such as:
- Capacity to release (to the blog site) and send out the e-mail all at once without having it be two separate activities.
- Constructed in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Built-in ability to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are essentially one-click subscription web links. Great for promotion in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are ways to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Integrated advertisement network, if I select to generate income from with ads in the newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capacity to run a paid newsletter upgrade and generally run a premium newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features focused on development. The platform was actually built by the individuals that built up the technology for Morning Brew. They know what they’re doing.
That is the factor below. BeeHiiv is built from scratch for the purpose of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a different function.
And I finished off with this:.
I may without a doubt be moving The Side over to BeeHiiv too. At least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. In fact, I simply went for it. And in fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Morning WP, set off as it’s own building to make sure that I can grow it more purposefully as well.
The goal is that each newsletter has the capability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded separately. Gladly RV was young, so easy to shift. However, The Early morning WP (previously The Edge) was buried in a sea of things right here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s very own. It will undoubtedly always be very closely connected with the Blog Marketing Academy, however does not have to be a part of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was built for this function. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Regular Email List
There’s a distinction between an e-newsletter platform and simply an e-mail checklist.
You can hold your email list anyplace you want and there are a variety of them out there, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted alternatives like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The key distinction is that, with a newsletter platform, the act of publishing means that it is mosting likely to your internet site and to your email subscribers concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are releasing to that site. However, you are likewise dispatching to all clients at the same time. The internet site and it’s clients are all in one. This makes administration of the platform much less complex.
With a lot of e-mail systems, any kind of e-newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is developed completely separately from your internet site. So, for instance, you might release a write-up to WordPress but after that you would require to separately build and send an email to your checklist to send it to customers. These are then two different sets of archives and 2 separate actions since article and your emails are not inherently linked.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress right into a true newsletter platform is Newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name because it basically “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress articles and enables them to be the exact same thing. Absolutely, something like Newsletter Glue would be a solid option if I wished to remain to self-host everything. Nonetheless, you would certainly lose the development devices that come with a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter naturally features a different collection of requirements than a typical e-mail list.
You don’t normally need much marketing automation. You do not generally need autoresponder series, occasion monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO requirement, however, is one smooth posting experience and development devices to assist you construct your subscriber base that are specific to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my subscribers that I was going to switch over the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the truth that I chose to go with BeeHiiv, that does not mean I believe Substack sucks. As a matter of fact, since Substack has been about longer, it is elder and has more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple things that originally obtained my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly tailored to e-newsletter authors. As a matter of fact, it is literally constructed by the very same individuals that developed the modern technology behind Early morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, does not matter. However, the obvious positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter development called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “maker”. Growth is what I want here.
- That branding and distinction also suggests that BeeHiiv has some rather huge brand names and huge magazines utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo developers. Once again, it simply tells me the client character distinction in between both companies.
Sending our my newsletter via FluentCRM didn’t precisely draw. The only reason I would consider drinking things up is if I believed I can GROW the listing much faster. And BeeHiiv talked precisely to that objective.
Due to the targeting, I in fact do not check out BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a various kind of consumer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being more straight competitors.
Yet, allow’s dive deeper than just the positioning below.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
On the whole, BeeHiiv feels like it was developed by individuals who comprehending email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems extra tailored toward developers.
For instance, BeeHiiv supplies personalized fields on customers. Now, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv provides Automations. Actually, it is an aesthetic automation builder that functions a 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 activity is the ability to send out an e-mail. Nevertheless, enhancements are coming. Soon sufficient, automations will certainly have new triggers as well as brand-new activities, such as changing custom-made fields, sending out webhooks, etc. I’ve currently seen improvements to their automations simply considering that I started utilizing the platform. For example:
- Capability to set off automations based upon which details embed kind they can be found in on.
- Capability to immediately do re-engagement (and take care of individuals based on opens and non-opens).
- Capacity to do standard conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can not do this due to the fact that the target market of Substack just would not think to approach this like an email marketer.
When it comes to writing your e-newsletters, the creating user interface of BeeHiiv is just more tailored towards e-newsletters. In fact, it really has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it works. I find it to be extra user-friendly, directly.
Substack’s writing interface behaves and clean, yet it would be much more equal to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This difference is more than simply form. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Area” and afterwards put anything you desire in it. After that, you can put Exposure alternatives on that section to reveal it only to paid subscribers, conceal it from e-mail, hide from subscribers, show only to customers, etc. Substack provides nothing similar to this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a costs subscription version, BeeHiiv does not take any type of earnings. As a matter of fact, you actually link as much as your very own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your earnings. Relying on how many customers you obtain, that 10% can be quite a bit even more money than the regular monthly cost of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This might seem unpopular, but what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outside making use of devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … nothing. No integrations at all.
In general, I simply seemed like BeeHiiv was more constructed towards genuine email marketing. It was built by individuals that “get it”. Also the opt-in kinds and the landing page designs seem better developed for conversions. Development is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I wish to see BeeHiiv add, I like the direction it is going more than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have stated, Substack placements itself towards “makers” more than email online marketers and newsletter proprietors. For that reason, you see some things geared a lot more towards individuals that just assume in terms of content creation.
For instance, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does sustain multiple magazines, they are treated fairly individually. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to numerous magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, however … great for people that might need it.
Substack likewise has even more social capability built-in. For instance, it has a conversation function to host talks with clients. It additionally has a “Notes” function which functions kind of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you read. Fascinating. In general, Substack is set up to be a lot more like a social media which sustains long-form web content.
In general, Substack is additionally more … minimal. You either look after that or do not. Directly, I don’t. Nevertheless, if the goal is simplicity of interface and, truthfully, features … Substack works quite well.
But, I’ll be clear below …
When it comes to real marketing, I don’t think there’s much question that BeeHiiv is better fit. I searched for more factors that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, however frankly … I have a tough time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are often with to be the closest rivals, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are going after the exact same target market and have similar capabilities.
ConvertKit is additionally positioned at makers (like Substack), but it is far more strongly catering to people that do it for business. ConvertKit has nice aesthetic automation structure, it’s very own business system, and much more. ConvertKit is a really wonderful system.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature failure right here. ConvertKit is popular currently. But, here’s how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Points ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has extra adaptability when it concerns it’s automations. I will likewise say that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit a lot more instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains marking. This is just a standard feature of email lists that makes it possible for segmentation in a much more versatile method than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to support identifying at some time quickly, frankly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Roadmap.
ConvertKit does currently provide the capability to market points using their very 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 constantly choose a much more direct choice anyway. For me, I prefer to use my very own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been around much longer and therefore has way extra integration choices. Tons of web-based devices and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is quite powerful. For example, their plugin currently also sustains member-gated material as well as auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your website. Basically, this extra closely places ConvertKit into straight competition by having you have the ability to publish to your site and your e-mail checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is significantly lacking in these sort of third-party integrations presently. It’ll get there. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even active dealing with the development devices of BeeHiiv. As an example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not just incentivize people to share your e-newsletter with perks, but you can likewise pay per lead within the interior advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your checklist. These are really amazing features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you know ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among the most popular viral promotion platforms for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall surface of what this implies for the system moving forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Roadmap
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that indicates much less features and much less integrations, which is all-natural for this phase of the cycle. Nevertheless, it also means that they are quickly developing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually seen almost weekly launch of brand-new features right into the system. And these aren’t undersized little features … however huge features that are quite important. Their speed of advancement now has gone over.
I also very much appreciate just how responsive they are. As a matter of fact, among their item news regarding some style enhancements to the web design features really contained a tiny trouble with the content width. I just replied to that e-mail to tell them. I quickly got a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That exact same day, the problem was repaired.
Few days later on, I provided another idea …
Sure enough, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to set off automations based upon the embed kind made use of was included in the system.
That sort of responsiveness and straight participation of the group is something I truly value.
An additional major point of differentiation below is the cost. Both platforms supply totally free plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan provides much more capability and more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise FAR more beneficial. ConvertKit appears cheaper at first look because their pricing page reveals lower numbers, however the subscriber limitations are much reduced and your rate promptly increases as your list grows.
With BeeHiiv, your very first degree paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid annually), however you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That very same dimension listing is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I personally utilize), you can expand your list as much as 100,000. A listing of that size would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, as well, that places 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 yearly.
BeeHiiv remains in a completely different league when it pertains to pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately raise costs? They might as time takes place. But, I’m guessing individuals like myself who are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see how points proceed.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of things you absolutely require to remember is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do appear to advance instead promptly and make new item announcements somewhat frequently, however there are some fundamental features I really want they had that I need to simply await.
One is that they require to have a setting on membership kinds where I could select an automation to run right at the kind level. That would be outstanding for many reasons. As of now, membership forms look OK, yet there’s really little setups for them to aid in division.
It would behave to have labeling at the client degree. This would certainly be powerful.
I believe webhooks need to become part of automations to make integrated automations easier and minimize dependence on outside devices like Zapier.
There are likewise some minor management user interface modifications that would come in handy. As an example:
- Capability to mass edit/remove clients.
- Capability to bulk edit blog posts (for example, to mark a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of fundamental areas as conventional on subscribers (like the name).
- Some more customization alternatives for the website (such as more adaptable shade selections, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Things I wish they finish with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, however it isn’t best and absolutely not almost as established as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM product.
It probably never will certainly be, either. As I stated, the purpose is different so it would not much a lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to become a complete marketing automation system. I guess you never understand, however.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Review
I such as BeeHiiv fairly a great deal. Sufficient where I determined to change my own newsletters over to the system regardless of my personal preference for digital sovereignty and possessing my own system.
Basically, for the e-newsletter posting design specifically, I saw enough value in their platform to necessitate the change.
Bear in mind, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my unique e-mail listing. I utilize BeeHiiv for what it is efficient, but I intentionally have points set up so that I also keep my listing “in house” inside of FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the very same. It is simply an excellent insurance policy, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your listing will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation platform 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 making use of Substack right now, I ‘d definitely consider switching to BeeHiiv. It will just be more business-friendly. It is targeting different capabilities and various requirements. And also, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the button should be pretty straightforward.
If you are on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d probably stay put unless you have a big email listing and are as a result being wooled with their high regular monthly expense. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are repeating promptly. There’s likewise a pretty good chance you’re not also making use of some of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not also require them. Therefore, BeeHiiv can conveniently be a better and much more affordable fit.
Finally, if you plan to be extremely willful regarding expanding a newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE system to think about and maintain and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is designed to be, it is among the best games in town now. This is the platform to watch.
BeeHiiv provides a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves looking into for yourself. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll find the cost-free account to be rather feature abundant.