I have actually used a great deal of various e-mail list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a significant supporter of digital sovereignty and possessing your very own system. Therefore (and the outstanding features), I have actually been using Beehiiv Templates.
So, it is without a doubt an unusual move for me to choose to use BeeHiiv. After all, it is an organized application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv evaluation, I wish to review why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I want to resolve the concern of digital sovereignty while utilizing the system and I would certainly also such as to attend to why I picked to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For E-newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my newsletter called My Pastime + A Big Change In Method, I spoke about how and why I decided to transform my recreational vehicle blog into largely a newsletter. I chose that was the business model I intended to seek keeping that property.
However, to intentionally seek it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the e-mail listing for Happily RV, yet FluentCRM is not a newsletter platform. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, truthfully, utilizing it for newsletters is a little a waste. A lot more on that in a little bit.
As I stated in that concern of the newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices constructed into it particular to my objective. Points such as:
- Capability to release (to the blog site) and send the email simultaneously without having it be 2 separate actions.
- Integrated in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would have needed a third-party device 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 membership web links. Great for promo in various other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, however, so there are ways to do that.
- Capacity to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your newsletter.
- Integrated advertisement network, if I choose to generate income from with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capacity to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and basically run a premium e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter authors with features focused on development. The system was literally built by the individuals who developed the technology for Morning Mixture. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the point here. BeeHiiv is built from scratch for the purpose of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a different function.
And I ended off with this:.
I might indeed be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv too. A minimum of, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. Actually, I simply went all out. And in fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s own home to make sure that I can expand it extra deliberately also.
The objective is that each newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s own media entity and grown individually. Gladly motor home was young, so simple to transition. However, The Early 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 very own. It will certainly constantly be closely linked with the Blog site Marketing Academy, however does not need to belong of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv because it was developed for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Simply A Typical Email Listing
There’s a difference between an e-newsletter platform and simply an e-mail list.
You can host your e-mail list just about anywhere you desire and there are a number of them around, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted alternatives like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The key distinction is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of posting indicates that it is mosting likely to your internet site and to your e-mail clients simultaneously.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a site. You are publishing to that site. But, you are additionally sending to all subscribers at the same time. The internet site and it’s clients are done in one. This makes management of the platform much simpler.
With most email platforms, any kind of e-newsletter you set up is done as an email campaign. It is built completely individually from your website. So, for example, you could release a short article to WordPress however after that you would need to individually build and send an email to your checklist to send it to subscribers. These are then two separate collections of archives and 2 different actions since post and your emails are not naturally connected.
The closest thing that turns WordPress right into a real e-newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name since it pretty much “glues” your e-newsletter to your WordPress messages and enables them to be the very same thing. Definitely, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid option if I wished to remain to self-host everything. However, you would certainly lose the development tools that feature a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting a newsletter inherently includes a various collection of requirements than a regular email list.
You do not typically need much marketing automation. You don’t generally require autoresponder series, event monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO need, however, is one smooth posting experience and development devices to help you build your client base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my clients that I was going to switch the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the truth that I picked to select BeeHiiv, that doesn’t mean I think Substack sucks. As a matter of fact, because Substack has actually been about much longer, it is more mature and has more features.
Although BeeHiiv is younger, there are a pair things that initially obtained my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically tailored to e-newsletter publishers. In fact, it is literally developed by the very same folks that built the innovation behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real world, doesn’t matter. But, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter development called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “maker”. Development is what I want here.
- That branding and distinction also means that BeeHiiv has some relatively large brands and huge magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo creators. Once more, it just tells me the consumer character distinction in between both business.
Sending our my newsletter through FluentCRM didn’t exactly draw. The only reason I would certainly contemplate shaking points up is if I believed I can expand the listing much faster. And BeeHiiv talked exactly to that objective.
As a result of the targeting, I in fact do not watch BeeHiiv and Substack as straight competitors. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a various sort of customer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more straight rivals.
Yet, let’s dive much deeper than simply the positioning here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Generally, BeeHiiv feels like it was developed by individuals that understanding e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems much more geared toward makers.
For instance, BeeHiiv uses custom fields on customers. Currently, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv provides Automations. Actually, it is an aesthetic automation builder that works a great deal like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation functionality is still early-phase. It is still rather restricted in triggers and the only activity is the capability to send an email. Nonetheless, enhancements are coming. Soon enough, automations will have new triggers in addition to new actions, such as customizing customized fields, sending out webhooks, and so on. I’ve already seen improvements to their automations just given that I started utilizing the platform. As an example:
- Ability to cause automations based upon which particular embed type they can be found in on.
- Ability to immediately do re-engagement (and handle individuals based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Capacity to do standard conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can’t do this since the target market of Substack just would not believe to approach this like an e-mail marketer.
When it comes to creating your newsletters, the creating interface of BeeHiiv is simply a lot more geared towards newsletters. In fact, it actually has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in just how it functions. I find it to be more user-friendly, directly.
Substack’s writing interface is nice and clean, but it would certainly be much more comparable to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This distinction is more than just form. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Section” and then placed anything you desire in it. After that, you can place Visibility options on that section to reveal it only to paid subscribers, hide it from e-mail, hide from customers, reveal only to subscribers, etc. Substack provides absolutely nothing like this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a premium registration model, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any type of earnings. In fact, you essentially link as much as your very own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your profits. Depending upon the number of customers you get, that 10% can be quite a bit more cash than the monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This might seem unpopular, but what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv deal with the outdoors using tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … absolutely nothing. No integrations whatsoever.
Overall, I simply felt like BeeHiiv was extra constructed towards actual e-mail marketing. It was built by individuals that “get it”. Even the opt-in kinds and the landing page develops appear far better built for conversions. Development is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I wish to see BeeHiiv include, I like the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually said, Substack positions itself towards “designers” more than e-mail online marketers and newsletter proprietors. For that reason, you see some points geared much more toward people that simply believe in regards to material production.
For instance, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does support several publications, they are dealt with fairly independently. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to numerous publications at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, yet … trendy for people who may need it.
Substack additionally has even more social capability built-in. For example, it has a conversation function to host talks with customers. It likewise has a “Notes” feature which works kind of like a social media newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you’re reading. Interesting. On the whole, Substack is established to be a lot more like a social media network which sustains long-form content.
In general, Substack is also much more … minimalist. You either take care of that or don’t. Directly, I do not. However, if the objective is simpleness of interface and, frankly, features … Substack works pretty well.
Yet, I’ll be clear right here …
When it concerns actual marketing, I don’t believe there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is better matched. I searched for more factors that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, yet honestly … I have a hard time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are commonly through to be the closest competitors, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are going after the very same target audience and have comparable capacities.
ConvertKit is likewise placed at designers (like Substack), but it is much more strongly accommodating individuals who do it for business. ConvertKit has nice visual automation structure, it’s very own commerce platform, and much more. ConvertKit is an actually nice platform.
I’m not mosting likely to bore you with a full feature-by-feature failure right here. ConvertKit is well known currently. Yet, here’s how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has much more versatility when it involves it’s automations. I will additionally claim that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit a lot more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains labeling. This is simply a standard feature of e-mail lists that makes it possible for segmentation in a far more flexible way than BeeHiiv currently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to sustain marking at some time soon, frankly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Templates.
ConvertKit does currently supply the ability to sell points using their very own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is essential to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would certainly always select a more straight option anyhow. For me, I like to use my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been around much longer and therefore has way extra integration alternatives. Tons of online tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is rather effective. As an example, their plugin currently even sustains member-gated web content along with auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your site. Fundamentally, this extra carefully puts ConvertKit into direct competition by having you be able 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 right now. It’ll get there. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even hectic tackling the development devices of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not only incentivize people to share your newsletter with advantages, yet you can also pay per lead within the internal ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your list. These are really incredible features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you understand ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of one of the most popular viral promotion systems for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall of what this indicates for the platform moving forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Templates
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means less features and less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. Nonetheless, it additionally implies that they are swiftly developing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually experienced virtually once a week release of brand-new features right into the platform. And these aren’t undersized little features … however huge features that are rather crucial. Their rate of growth at this moment has actually been impressive.
I likewise quite value exactly how receptive they are. As a matter of fact, among their product statements about some design improvements to the web design features actually included a tiny trouble with the material size. I simply responded to that e-mail to tell them. I swiftly obtained a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That very same day, the problem was fixed.
Couple of days later on, I provided an additional tip …
Certainly, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to trigger automations based on the embed type made use of was added to the system.
That type of responsiveness and direct involvement of the group is something I really appreciate.
One more significant point of differentiation below is the cost. Both systems supply complimentary plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan provides more capability and even more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise even more desirable. ConvertKit seems cheaper at first glance because their pricing web page reveals lower numbers, nevertheless the customer limits are FAR lower and your rate promptly raises as your checklist grows.
With BeeHiiv, your first degree paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid every year), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 customers. That exact same size checklist is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their ideal plan and the one I personally use), you can expand your list up to 100,000. A list of that dimension would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, also, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay every year, too. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay annually.
BeeHiiv remains in a completely different organization when it pertains to pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately raise rates? They could as time goes on. Yet, I’m thinking people like myself who are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see how points continue.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among the things you most definitely require to remember is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do appear to evolve rather promptly and make brand-new item news rather often, yet there are some standard features I truly want they had that I require to just wait on.
One is that they require to have a setup on membership kinds where I could pick an automation to run right at the form degree. That would certainly be outstanding for many reasons. Already, membership types look OK, yet there’s very little setups for them to aid in segmentation.
It would behave to have identifying at the client degree. This would be effective.
I believe webhooks need to become part of automations to make built-in automations easier and decrease reliance on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are also some small management user interface modifications that would come in handy. For instance:
- Capacity to mass edit/remove subscribers.
- Capacity to mass edit blog posts (for example, to label a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a few standard areas as typical on customers (like the name).
- Some even more modification alternatives for the web site (such as more versatile color options, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Things I wish they make with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, however it isn’t ideal and definitely not nearly as established as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM item.
It possibly never will be, either. As I claimed, the function is various so it wouldn’t much a lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to come to be a full marketing automation platform. I presume you never understand, however.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I like BeeHiiv quite a lot. Enough where I determined to change my very own newsletters over to the platform despite my personal preference for digital sovereignty and having my very own system.
Basically, for the newsletter posting model especially, I saw enough worth in their system to warrant the adjustment.
Bear in mind, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my exclusive email list. I utilize BeeHiiv wherefore it is efficient, but I purposefully have things establish so that I also maintain my list “in residence” inside of FluentCRM.
If you make use of BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the same. It is just a great insurance coverage, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your checklist will be of high use (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are utilizing Substack right now, I ‘d certainly take into consideration switching to BeeHiiv. It will simply be much more business-friendly. It is targeting different capacities and various requirements. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the switch must be pretty uncomplicated.
If you are on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d possibly stay put unless you have a big email listing and are for that reason being wooled with their high regular monthly costs. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are repeating quickly. There’s also a respectable opportunity you’re not even utilizing a few of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you don’t also require them. Therefore, BeeHiiv could easily be a better and much more inexpensive fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be really intentional concerning expanding an e-newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE system to think about and keep and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is designed to be, it is among the best games in the area right now. This is the platform to view.
BeeHiiv uses 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 complimentary account to be quite feature abundant.