I have utilized a great deal of different e-mail list systems throughout the years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a big supporter of digital sovereignty and having your own system. For that reason (and the amazing features), I have actually been making use of Beehiiv Users.
So, it is certainly a strange move for me to decide to utilize BeeHiiv. After all, it is a hosted application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I wish to look at why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I wish to address the issue of digital sovereignty while making use of the platform and I would certainly additionally like to attend to why I picked to utilize it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For E-newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Pastime + A Big Shift In Technique, I talked about just how and why I determined to transform my RV blog into mostly an e-newsletter. I chose that was the business design I wanted to seek with that said building.
However, to deliberately seek it as a newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the email checklist for Happily motor home, but FluentCRM is not a newsletter platform. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, honestly, utilizing it for e-newsletters is a little bit of a waste. Much more on that in a bit.
As I stated because concern of the e-newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a platform with tools constructed right into it specific to my objective. Things such as:
- Ability to publish (to the blog site) and send the e-mail concurrently without having it be two separate actions.
- Built in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would have needed a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capability to do cross-promotions with various other newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are primarily one-click subscription web links. Great for promotion in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are means to do that.
- Capacity 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.
- Integrated capacity to run a paid newsletter upgrade and basically run a costs e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter authors with features targeted at growth. The platform was literally built by the people who built up the modern technology for Early morning Brew. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the point right here. BeeHiiv is constructed from the ground up for the purpose of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different purpose.
And I finished off with this:.
I may indeed be relocating The Side over to BeeHiiv too. At the very least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. In fact, I simply went all out. And as a matter of fact, The side was re-branded over to The Morning WP, triggered as it’s own property to ensure that I can expand it more intentionally too.
The objective is that each newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded individually. Gladly RV was young, so very easy to change. Yet, The Early morning WP (previously The Edge) was buried in a sea of stuff 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 undoubtedly constantly be closely tied with the Blog Marketing Academy, however doesn’t need to be a part of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv because it was built for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Simply A Typical Email List
There’s a distinction between an e-newsletter platform and just an e-mail listing.
You can hold your e-mail checklist everywhere you want and there are a variety of them around, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted choices like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The main distinction is that, with an e-newsletter system, the act of publishing suggests that it is mosting likely to your internet site and to your email clients simultaneously.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are releasing to that internet site. Yet, you are additionally sending off to all clients at the same time. The web site and it’s clients are all in one. This makes management of the platform much easier.
With many email platforms, any type of newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is developed completely individually from your website. So, for example, you might publish a short article to WordPress however then you would require to individually build and send an email to your listing to send it to customers. These are after that two separate sets of archives and two separate actions because blog posts and your emails are not naturally linked.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress into a true newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name since it virtually “glues” your newsletter to your WordPress messages and enables them to be the exact same point. Definitely, something like Newsletter Glue would be a strong alternative if I wanted to continue to self-host everything. However, you ‘d shed the development devices that feature a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing an e-newsletter inherently includes a different set of requirements than a normal email list.
You do not generally need much marketing automation. You do not generally require autoresponder series, event monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO requirement, though, is one seamless publishing experience and growth tools to assist you develop your customer base that specify 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 people ask me why I was picking it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the truth that I picked to choose BeeHiiv, that does not mean I believe Substack draws. In 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 interest:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly customized to e-newsletter authors. Actually, it is literally constructed by the very same people who constructed the innovation behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, doesn’t matter. Yet, the apparent positioning of BeeHiiv towards e-newsletter growth called me out over the more common positioning of being a “designer”. Growth is what I have an interest in here.
- That branding and distinction additionally indicates that BeeHiiv has some fairly huge brand names and huge magazines utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is aimed even more at solo makers. Once again, it simply informs me the consumer avatar difference between the two business.
Sending our my newsletter by means of FluentCRM really did not specifically draw. The only reason I would certainly contemplate shaking things up is if I assumed I could GROW the listing much faster. And BeeHiiv talked precisely to that goal.
Due to the targeting, I actually don’t view BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a various sort of consumer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more direct rivals.
But, allow’s dive deeper than just the placing right here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv feels like it was developed by individuals who recognizing e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears much more geared towards creators.
As an example, BeeHiiv supplies personalized areas on customers. Now, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv supplies Automations. In fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that works a lot 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 activity is the capability to send an e-mail. Nonetheless, improvements are coming. Soon sufficient, automations will have new triggers as well as brand-new activities, such as modifying customized areas, sending out webhooks, and so on. I’ve already seen enhancements to their automations simply since I started utilizing the system. For example:
- Ability to cause automations based upon which certain embed type they came in on.
- Ability to automatically do re-engagement (and take care of people based on opens and non-opens).
- Capacity to do standard conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can not do this because the target market of Substack just wouldn’t think to approach this like an email online marketer.
When it concerns composing your newsletters, the creating user interface of BeeHiiv is simply a lot more tailored toward newsletters. In fact, it in fact has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it works. I discover it to be much more instinctive, personally.
Substack’s writing interface is nice and clean, however it would certainly be more comparable to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is more than just kind. For example, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Area” and afterwards placed anything you desire in it. After that, you can place Presence choices on that section to reveal it just to paid customers, hide it from e-mail, hide from clients, show only to subscribers, etc. Substack provides nothing similar to this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a costs registration model, BeeHiiv does not take any kind of earnings. Actually, you essentially connect approximately your own Stripe account and it charges straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your income. Depending on the number of clients you get, that 10% can be quite a bit more cash than the regular monthly cost of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This could seem unpopular, however what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv deal with the outdoors utilizing tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … absolutely nothing. No integrations at all.
Generally, I simply felt like BeeHiiv was a lot more developed toward actual e-mail marketing. It was developed by people who “get it”. Even the opt-in kinds and the landing page creates appear far better built for conversions. Growth is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I would love to see BeeHiiv add, I like the direction it is going more than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually claimed, Substack positions itself towards “makers” greater than e-mail marketing experts and e-newsletter proprietors. For that reason, you see some points tailored more towards people who just assume in regards to web content development.
For example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does sustain numerous magazines, they are treated rather individually. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to multiple publications at the same time. This isn’t something I require, yet … trendy for individuals that could require it.
Substack additionally has even more social capability built-in. For example, it has a conversation function to host chats with customers. It likewise has a “Notes” feature which functions type of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you’re reading. Interesting. Generally, Substack is established to be a lot more like a social network which sustains long-form material.
Generally, Substack is additionally much more … minimalist. You either care for that or do not. Personally, I don’t. Nevertheless, if the goal is simpleness of interface and, honestly, features … Substack works pretty well.
However, I’ll be clear right here …
When it pertains to actual marketing, I don’t assume there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is better matched. I tried to find more points that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, but honestly … I have a hard time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are commonly with to be the closest competitors, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are going after the exact same target market and have similar abilities.
ConvertKit is additionally placed at creators (like Substack), but it is far more highly satisfying people that do it for company. ConvertKit has great visual automation structure, it’s own business platform, and more. ConvertKit is a truly wonderful system.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature break down below. ConvertKit is popular already. Yet, right here’s just how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has a lot more versatility when it concerns it’s automations. I will additionally say that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit much more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports identifying. This is just a standard feature of e-mail listings that allows segmentation in a far more versatile way than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to support tagging at some point quickly, truthfully. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Users.
ConvertKit does currently offer the capacity to sell points by means of their very own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is very important to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would certainly always pick an extra straight option anyway. For me, I like to use my very own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been about a lot longer and therefore has way extra integration choices. Tons of web-based tools and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is fairly powerful. For example, their plugin now also sustains member-gated web content in addition to auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your website. In essence, this extra closely places ConvertKit into direct competitors by having you be able to publish to your website and your e-mail listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is drastically doing not have in these type of third-party integrations currently. It’ll arrive. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy taking on the growth devices of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not only incentivize people to share your e-newsletter with advantages, but you can likewise pay per lead within the internal advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your listing. These are really outstanding features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you know ConvertKit acquired Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among one of the most well known viral promo platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall surface wherefore this implies for the system moving forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Users
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this stage of the cycle. Nevertheless, it also indicates that they are swiftly developing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have seen practically weekly launch of new features into the platform. And these aren’t weak little features … yet big features that are fairly crucial. Their speed of development now has gone over.
I likewise quite appreciate just how receptive they are. In fact, one of their product news concerning some design enhancements to the website design features actually had a small issue with the web content size. I merely responded to that email to tell them. I quickly got a reply directly from the CEO:.
That same day, the problem was fixed.
Couple of days later on, I provided another tip …
Sure enough, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to set off automations based upon the embed form used was contributed to the system.
That type of responsiveness and straight participation of the team is something I truly appreciate.
One more significant point of differentiation here is the cost. Both platforms offer cost-free plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan supplies more ability and more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise much more positive. ConvertKit appears less expensive at first glance due to the fact that their pricing web page reveals reduced numbers, nonetheless the client restrictions are FAR lower and your cost promptly increases as your listing grows.
With BeeHiiv, your very first level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid every year), however you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That same dimension listing is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their ideal plan and the one I personally make use of), you can expand your checklist up to 100,000. A checklist of that dimension would 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 yearly, also. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay annually.
BeeHiiv remains in a completely different league when it concerns pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point raise prices? They may as time takes place. However, I’m guessing people like myself who are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see how points continue.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
One of the important things you most definitely need to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do seem to develop rather quickly and make new item news somewhat often, but there are some standard features I really want they had that I require to just wait on.
One is that they require to have a setting on registration kinds where I might select an automation to run right at the form level. That would be incredible for a lot of factors. As of now, subscription forms look OK, however there’s extremely little settings for them to help in division.
It would be nice to have marking at the customer level. This would certainly be effective.
I assume webhooks must belong to automations to make built-in automations easier and minimize reliance on outdoors tools like Zapier.
There are additionally some minor administrative interface changes that would be handy. As an example:
- Capability to mass edit/remove clients.
- Capability to bulk edit posts (for instance, to identify a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of fundamental areas as conventional on subscribers (like the name).
- Some more personalization alternatives for the internet site (such as more flexible color options, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Points I hope they make with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, however it isn’t best and definitely not nearly as created as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM product.
It most likely never will certainly be, either. As I claimed, the function is different so it wouldn’t a lot a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to come to be a complete marketing automation platform. I guess you never ever recognize, though.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I like BeeHiiv quite a lot. Enough where I determined to change my own newsletters over to the platform in spite of my individual choice for digital sovereignty and possessing my very own platform.
Basically, for the e-newsletter posting version specifically, I saw adequate worth in their system to call for the change.
Bear in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my exclusive email list. I make use of BeeHiiv of what it is proficient at, but I intentionally have points establish to make sure that I also keep my list “in residence” within FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the exact same. It is simply a great insurance policy, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your listing will be of high use (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will certainly be).
So, the question is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are using Substack today, I ‘d definitely think about changing to BeeHiiv. It will just be much more business-friendly. It is targeting various capabilities and various requirements. And also, BeeHiiv also has import tools for Substack, so the switch needs to be rather straightforward.
If you are on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d possibly stay put unless you have a huge e-mail listing and are consequently being fleeced with their high month-to-month costs. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are repeating promptly. There’s likewise a respectable chance you’re not even using several of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not even require them. Because of that, BeeHiiv might conveniently be a far better and a lot more budget friendly fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be very intentional concerning expanding a newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE system to think about and keep and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is developed to be, it is just one of the most effective video games in town today. This is the platform to view.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth looking into on your own. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll find the cost-free account to be fairly feature rich.