I have made use of a great deal of different e-mail list systems for many years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a huge supporter of digital sovereignty and having your very own platform. Because of that (and the awesome features), I have been utilizing Beehiiv RSS To Send.
So, it is certainly a weird move for me to make a decision to use BeeHiiv. Besides, it is a hosted application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I wish to review why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I intend to address the problem of digital sovereignty while utilizing the system and I would certainly additionally such as to attend to why I selected to utilize it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For Newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my newsletter called My Hobby + A Large Shift In Method, I spoke about exactly how and why I determined to turn my recreational vehicle blog into primarily an e-newsletter. I chose that was the business design I wished to pursue with that home.
But, to intentionally pursue it as a newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the email checklist for Gladly motor home, yet FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, frankly, utilizing it for newsletters is a little a waste. Extra on that particular in a bit.
As I stated in that concern of the newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a system with tools built into it particular to my function. Things such as:
- Capacity to publish (to the blog site) and send the email at the same time without having it be 2 different actions.
- Constructed in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would require a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capacity to do cross-promotions with various other newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are basically one-click subscription links. Great for promo in various other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, though, so there are methods to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your newsletter.
- Built-in advertisement network, if I select to generate income from with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capacity to run a paid newsletter upgrade and generally run a costs e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Basically, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter authors with features focused on growth. The platform was actually built by the people that developed the modern technology for Morning Brew. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the factor here. BeeHiiv is constructed from scratch for the objective of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different objective.
And I finished off with this:.
I might indeed be relocating The Edge over to BeeHiiv also. At least, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. In fact, I just went all out. And in fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s very own property to make sure that I can expand it a lot more deliberately too.
The objective is that each newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s own media entity and grown separately. Happily motor home was young, so very easy to shift. Yet, The Early morning WP (previously The Edge) was hidden in a sea of stuff below at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s own. It will undoubtedly always be carefully tied with the Blog Marketing Academy, but doesn’t have to be a part of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was built for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Normal Email Checklist
There’s a difference between an e-newsletter platform and simply an e-mail listing.
You can organize your email list just about anywhere you want and there are a variety of them available, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The primary distinction is that, with a newsletter system, the act of publishing indicates 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 releasing to that website. However, you are additionally sending off to all subscribers at the same time. The site and it’s subscribers are all in one. This makes administration of the system much less complex.
With most email systems, any kind of newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is developed totally separately from your web site. So, for instance, you could release an article to WordPress however then you would certainly require to individually build and send out an email to your list to send it to subscribers. These are after that 2 separate sets of archives and two different activities due to the fact that article and your e-mails are not inherently connected.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress right into a real newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name due to the fact that it virtually “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress articles and permits them to be the exact same point. Absolutely, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a strong choice if I intended to continue to self-host every little thing. Nonetheless, you ‘d shed the development devices that come with a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter inherently comes with a various set of requirements than a typical e-mail list.
You don’t generally need much marketing automation. You don’t generally need autoresponder series, event tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO demand, though, is one smooth posting experience and growth devices to aid you construct your customer base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my clients that I was going 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 fact that I picked to opt for BeeHiiv, that does not indicate I assume Substack draws. Actually, since Substack has been about much longer, it is more mature and has more features.
Although BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple things that originally got my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly tailored to e-newsletter authors. In fact, it is literally developed by the very same people who built the modern technology behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, does not matter. Yet, the apparent positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter growth called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “developer”. Growth is what I want here.
- That branding and differentiation likewise means that BeeHiiv has some rather big brand names and big magazines utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo creators. Again, it simply tells me the consumer avatar difference between both companies.
Sending our my newsletter via FluentCRM really did not exactly suck. The only reason I would consider shaking points up is if I thought I could expand the checklist faster. And BeeHiiv talked specifically to that goal.
Due to the targeting, I really don’t check out BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a different sort of consumer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more direct competitors.
Yet, let’s dive much deeper than simply the placing below.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
On the whole, BeeHiiv looks like it was constructed by people that recognizing e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems extra geared towards creators.
As an example, BeeHiiv uses custom-made areas on clients. Currently, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. Actually, it is a visual automation builder that works a great deal like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still fairly minimal in triggers and the only action is the capacity to send out an e-mail. However, improvements are coming. Soon enough, automations will certainly have new triggers in addition to new activities, such as modifying personalized fields, sending webhooks, and so on. I have actually already seen improvements to their automations simply because I began making use of the system. For example:
- Ability to cause automations based on which certain embed type they came in on.
- Capability to immediately do re-engagement (and take care of people based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Ability to do basic conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack simply can not do this because the target market of Substack simply wouldn’t think to approach this like an email marketing professional.
When it concerns composing your newsletters, the composing interface of BeeHiiv is simply a lot more geared toward e-newsletters. As a matter of fact, it really has similarities to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it works. I locate it to be a lot more intuitive, directly.
Substack’s writing user interface behaves and tidy, yet it would certainly be more equal to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is greater than simply type. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Section” and after that placed anything you want in it. Then, you can place Exposure options on that particular area to reveal it only to paid clients, hide it from email, hide from subscribers, show just to subscribers, and so on. Substack supplies nothing similar to this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a premium subscription model, BeeHiiv does not take any income. Actually, you literally connect approximately your own Stripe account and it bills directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your profits. Depending on the amount of clients you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit more cash than the regular monthly cost of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This could appear unpopular, but what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv deal with the outdoors using tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … nothing. No integrations at all.
Generally, I simply seemed like BeeHiiv was more built toward real e-mail marketing. It was developed by people who “get it”. Even the opt-in forms and the landing page creates appear far better constructed for conversions. Development is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I would like 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 stated, Substack positions itself toward “developers” greater than email online marketers and newsletter owners. Because of that, you see some things geared much more towards individuals that just believe in terms of web content creation.
For instance, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does support numerous magazines, they are dealt with rather separately. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to multiple magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I require, yet … cool for people that might need it.
Substack likewise has more social performance built-in. As an example, it has a chat function to host talks with clients. It also has a “Notes” feature which works kind of like a social media newsfeed where you can share things from other “Stacks” you read. Interesting. In general, Substack is established to be a lot more like a social media network which supports long-form content.
On the whole, Substack is also much more … minimalist. You either take care of that or do not. Personally, I do not. However, if the goal is simplicity of user interface and, truthfully, features … Substack works quite well.
However, I’ll be clear below …
When it pertains to real marketing, I don’t believe there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is better fit. I searched for more factors that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, yet honestly … I have a difficult time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are frequently via to be the closest rivals, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are pursuing the same target audience and have comparable capacities.
ConvertKit is likewise positioned at developers (like Substack), but it is far more strongly accommodating individuals who do it for company. ConvertKit has great visual automation structure, it’s own commerce system, and a lot more. ConvertKit is a truly good system.
I’m not going to bore you with a complete feature-by-feature malfunction right here. ConvertKit is popular currently. But, right here’s how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Points ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has much more flexibility when it comes to it’s automations. I will certainly additionally state that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit much more user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains identifying. This is just a fundamental function of email checklists that enables division in a much more flexible method than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to support labeling at some point soon, frankly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv RSS To Send.
ConvertKit does now supply the capacity to sell things using their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is essential to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would constantly pick a much more direct option anyhow. For me, I favor to use my own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about much longer and for that reason has way more integration options. Lots of web-based tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their own WordPress plugin that is rather powerful. For instance, their plugin currently also sustains member-gated content in addition to auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your site. Essentially, this extra carefully puts ConvertKit into straight competitors by having you be able to release to your website and your e-mail listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is significantly doing not have in these type of third-party integrations currently. It’ll get there. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even active tackling the development tools of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not only incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with benefits, but you can likewise pay per lead within the inner ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your listing. These are truly outstanding features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you understand ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among one of the most well known viral promotion systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall surface wherefore this suggests for the system going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv RSS To Send
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means less features and less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. Nonetheless, it likewise indicates that they are quickly developing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually seen nearly weekly launch of brand-new features into the system. And these aren’t puny little features … however large features that are rather crucial. Their rate of growth at this point has actually gone over.
I likewise significantly value how responsive they are. As a matter of fact, one of their item statements regarding some design enhancements to the web design features really had a small issue with the material size. I just replied to that e-mail to tell them. I swiftly got a reply directly from the CEO:.
That same day, the issue was repaired.
Few days later, I gave them another suggestion …
Indeed, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to set off automations based on the embed kind utilized was included in the system.
That kind of responsiveness and straight participation of the group is something I really value.
An additional significant factor of distinction here is the price. Both platforms use complimentary plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan supplies extra ability and even more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise even more desirable. ConvertKit appears more affordable initially look due to the fact that their pricing web page shows reduced numbers, nonetheless the client limitations are FAR reduced and your price rapidly increases as your listing expands.
With BeeHiiv, your initial degree paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid each year), however you can have up to 10,000 customers. That same dimension list is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their best plan and the one I directly utilize), you can expand your list up to 100,000. A listing of that dimension would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, as well, that places 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 various league when it pertains to pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually raise prices? They might as time takes place. But, I’m presuming people like myself that are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see just how things continue.
Things I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of the things you absolutely require to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do appear to progress rather rapidly and make new item statements rather commonly, but there are some fundamental features I truly want they had that I require to just await.
One is that they need to have a setup on membership forms where I might select an automation to run right at the form degree. That would be remarkable for a lot of reasons. Already, membership types look OK, but there’s extremely little settings for them to help in division.
It would certainly be nice to have labeling at the customer level. This would be effective.
I assume webhooks should be part of automations to make integrated automations easier and decrease reliance on outside tools like Zapier.
There are likewise some small management interface adjustments that would certainly be handy. For example:
- Capability to mass edit/remove clients.
- Capability to mass edit blog posts (as an example, to tag a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of basic fields as basic on subscribers (like the name).
- Some more modification alternatives for the internet site (such as more adaptable shade selections, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Things I wish they do with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, yet it isn’t excellent and definitely not virtually as created as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM item.
It possibly never will certainly be, either. As I stated, the objective is different so it wouldn’t much a great deal of feeling for BeeHiiv to end up being a complete marketing automation system. I guess you never recognize, though.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I such as BeeHiiv fairly a great deal. Sufficient where I chose to change my own newsletters over to the system despite my personal preference for digital sovereignty and owning my very own platform.
Basically, for the newsletter publishing version specifically, I saw enough worth in their system to require the modification.
Bear in mind, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my special e-mail checklist. I use BeeHiiv for what it is proficient at, but I purposefully have things establish to make sure that I additionally maintain my checklist “in residence” inside of FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the very same. It is simply an excellent insurance policy, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your listing will certainly be of high usage (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will certainly be).
So, the concern is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are using Substack now, I ‘d certainly consider switching over to BeeHiiv. It will merely be more business-friendly. It is targeting various capacities and various needs. And also, BeeHiiv also has import tools for Substack, so the switch needs to be pretty simple.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d most likely sit tight unless you have a large e-mail listing and are for that reason being wooled with their high month-to-month costs. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are repeating quickly. There’s additionally a respectable opportunity you’re not even utilizing some of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you don’t also require them. Therefore, BeeHiiv can easily be a much better and extra budget friendly fit.
Finally, if you plan to be really willful regarding growing a newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE system to consider and maintain 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 best video games in the area right now. This is the system to watch.
BeeHiiv uses a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth taking a look at for yourself. And if you wind up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll locate the free account to be quite feature rich.