I have actually utilized a lot of various e-mail list systems for many years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a substantial proponent of digital sovereignty and possessing your own platform. Therefore (and the outstanding features), I have actually been utilizing Bullseye Beehiiv.
So, it is indeed an unusual move for me to decide to make use of BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is a held 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 want to deal with the issue of digital sovereignty while using the system and I ‘d also like to attend to why I chose to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For Newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Hobby + A Huge Shift In Approach, I spoke about how and why I made a decision to transform my RV blog site right into primarily a newsletter. I decided that was business version I wished to go after with that said property.
However, to purposefully pursue it as an e-newsletter, I desired a system that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the e-mail list for Happily motor home, but FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter system. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, honestly, utilizing it for e-newsletters is a little bit of a waste. A lot more on that particular in a little bit.
As I said because concern of the newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a system with tools developed right into it details to my purpose. Points such as:
- Capability to release (to the blog) and send out the email concurrently without having it be two different activities.
- Built in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would have needed a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capacity to do cross-promotions with various other newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are primarily one-click registration web links. Great for promo in various other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are methods to do that.
- Capacity to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Built-in ad network, if I pick to monetize with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and essentially run a costs newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Generally, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter authors with features aimed at growth. The platform was essentially constructed by the people that built up the innovation for Early morning Brew. They know what they’re doing.
That is the point below. BeeHiiv is constructed from the ground up for the purpose of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a various function.
And I finished off with this:.
I might undoubtedly be relocating The Side 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 as a matter of fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s own residential or commercial property to make sure that I can expand it extra intentionally too.
The objective is that each e-newsletter has the capability to be branded as it’s own media entity and grown independently. Gladly RV was young, so easy to change. Yet, The Morning WP (previously The Side) was hidden in a sea of things here at the Blog Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s very own. It will certainly always be carefully linked with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet does not need to belong of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv since it was built for this function. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Simply A Normal Email List
There’s a difference in between a newsletter system and simply an e-mail list.
You can organize your email listing just about anywhere you desire and there are a number of them available, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The primary distinction is that, with a newsletter system, the act of posting means that it is mosting likely to your internet site and to your email subscribers simultaneously.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a web site. You are releasing to that site. Yet, you are additionally sending off to all customers at the same time. The internet site and it’s customers are done in one. This makes management of the platform much less complex.
With a lot of e-mail systems, any newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is built completely independently from your website. So, for example, you could release a write-up to WordPress but then you would need to separately build and send an email to your listing to send it to subscribers. These are then two separate collections of archives and 2 separate activities because article and your emails are not naturally connected.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress into a real newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name since it virtually “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress messages and allows them to be the exact same point. Absolutely, something like Newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid choice if I wished to continue to self-host whatever. However, you would certainly lose the growth tools that feature a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter inherently includes a different set of requirements than a normal e-mail list.
You don’t generally require much marketing automation. You do not generally need autoresponder sequences, occasion tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO requirement, however, is one seamless publishing experience and development devices to aid you construct your client base that are specific to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my subscribers that I was going to switch the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many people ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the fact that I selected to choose BeeHiiv, that does not indicate I believe Substack sucks. Actually, since Substack has actually been about much longer, it is more mature and has more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple points that originally got my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly customized to newsletter authors. In fact, it is essentially built by the exact same folks that developed the technology behind Early morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, doesn’t matter. But, the evident positioning of BeeHiiv towards e-newsletter growth called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “designer”. Growth is what I’m interested in right here.
- That branding and distinction also suggests that BeeHiiv has some rather big brands and huge publications utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo makers. Once more, it simply informs me the customer character difference between the two companies.
Sending our my newsletter through FluentCRM didn’t precisely draw. The only factor I would ponder shaking points up is if I thought I might expand the listing faster. And BeeHiiv talked exactly to that goal.
As a result of the targeting, I really don’t check out BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a various sort of customer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more straight competitors.
However, allow’s dive deeper than just the positioning below.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv looks like it was developed by individuals who understanding email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears extra tailored towards designers.
For instance, BeeHiiv supplies customized areas on customers. Currently, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv supplies Automations. As a matter of fact, it is a visual 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 minimal in triggers and the only activity is the capacity to send an email. Nevertheless, enhancements are coming. Soon enough, automations will certainly have new triggers along with new activities, such as customizing custom areas, sending out webhooks, and so on. I have actually already seen improvements to their automations simply considering that I started using the system. For instance:
- Ability to activate automations based on which particular embed kind they can be found in on.
- Ability to instantly do re-engagement (and take care of people based upon opens and non-opens).
- Ability to do fundamental conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can’t do this due to the fact that the target audience of Substack just wouldn’t believe to approach this like an email online marketer.
When it pertains to writing your e-newsletters, the writing interface of BeeHiiv is simply extra 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 discover it to be a lot more user-friendly, directly.
Substack’s composing user interface behaves and tidy, yet it would certainly be more comparable to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is more than simply kind. For example, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Area” and then placed anything you desire in it. Then, you can put Visibility choices on that section to reveal it just to paid clients, hide it from email, conceal from subscribers, reveal just to subscribers, and so on. Substack offers absolutely nothing such as this.
And when/if the time comes that I begin a costs membership model, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any revenue. In fact, you literally attach approximately your very own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your profits. Depending upon the amount of customers you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit more money than the regular monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This might seem unpopular, however what it suggests is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outdoors making use of tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … absolutely nothing. No integrations in any way.
On the whole, I simply felt like BeeHiiv was a lot more built towards real e-mail marketing. It was constructed by people who “get it”. Also the opt-in forms and the landing page makes seem much better constructed for conversions. Growth is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I wish to see BeeHiiv add, I like the instructions it is going more than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have stated, Substack positions itself towards “makers” more than e-mail marketing professionals and e-newsletter owners. Therefore, you see some things tailored extra toward people that simply think in terms of web content creation.
For example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does sustain multiple magazines, they are dealt with fairly separately. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to multiple magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, however … amazing for individuals that may need it.
Substack also has even more social performance built-in. For instance, it has a chat feature to host talks with clients. It also has a “Notes” feature which works type of like a social media newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you read. Interesting. On the whole, Substack is set up to be more like a social network which supports long-form web content.
In general, Substack is additionally extra … minimalist. You either look after that or do not. Personally, I don’t. Nonetheless, if the goal is simpleness of user interface and, honestly, features … Substack works quite well.
But, I’ll be clear right here …
When it comes to real marketing, I do not think there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is better fit. I tried to find more factors that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, however frankly … I have a tough time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are often through to be the closest rivals, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are pursuing the exact same target audience and have comparable capacities.
ConvertKit is also placed at developers (like Substack), but it is a lot more strongly dealing with people who do it for business. ConvertKit has nice aesthetic automation building, it’s very own business system, and much more. ConvertKit is a truly nice system.
I’m not going to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature break down below. ConvertKit is popular currently. Yet, right here’s just how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Points ConvertKit Is Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has extra versatility when it comes to it’s automations. I will certainly also say that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit more instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports labeling. This is just a basic function of email checklists that enables segmentation in a much more versatile method than BeeHiiv currently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support marking at some time quickly, frankly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing Bullseye Beehiiv.
ConvertKit does currently supply the capability to sell things through 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 certainly constantly choose a much more direct option anyway. For me, I like to utilize my own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about much longer and for that reason has way extra integration options. Lots of web-based tools and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is rather powerful. For instance, their plugin currently even sustains member-gated material along with auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Essentially, this a lot more very closely places ConvertKit right into direct competitors by having you be able to publish to your site and your e-mail checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is severely lacking in these kinds of third-party integrations right now. It’ll arrive. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even busy tackling the development tools 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 perks, but you can also pay per lead within the internal ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your checklist. These are really outstanding features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you recognize ConvertKit acquired Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among one of the most popular viral promotion platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall surface for what this indicates for the system moving forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Bullseye Beehiiv
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that indicates less features and much less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. However, it likewise means that they are quickly creating.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have witnessed almost regular release of brand-new features into the platform. And these aren’t weak little features … however huge features that are quite important. Their rate of development now has gone over.
I additionally very much value exactly how responsive they are. In fact, among their product announcements about some layout improvements to the website design features really included a little problem with the web content size. I simply responded to that email to tell them. I quickly obtained a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That same day, the concern was repaired.
Couple of days later, I gave them one more recommendation …
Certainly, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to activate automations based upon the embed type used was included in the system.
That sort of responsiveness and straight participation of the team is something I really appreciate.
Another significant point of distinction here is the rate. Both systems supply free plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan uses a lot more ability and more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally FAR more beneficial. ConvertKit appears less expensive initially glimpse because their pricing web page reveals lower numbers, nevertheless the subscriber limits are much reduced and your cost promptly increases as your checklist grows.
With BeeHiiv, your first degree paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid each year), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That exact same size checklist is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I directly utilize), you can expand your list approximately 100,000. A checklist of that size would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, too, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay every year, also. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay yearly.
BeeHiiv remains in a completely different league when it involves pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point increase costs? They may as time takes place. But, I’m presuming people like myself who are already in will be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how points continue.
Points I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Add
Among the things you definitely need to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do seem to evolve rather promptly and make brand-new item announcements rather commonly, however there are some fundamental features I truly desire they had that I require to just wait for.
One is that they need to have a setup on registration kinds where I could select an automation to run right at the kind degree. That would certainly be incredible for numerous factors. As of now, registration forms look OK, however there’s very little setups for them to help in segmentation.
It would behave to have tagging at the customer level. This would be effective.
I assume webhooks should be part of automations to make integrated automations much easier and minimize dependence on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are additionally some minor management interface changes that would certainly be handy. For instance:
- Capability to bulk edit/remove clients.
- Capacity to mass edit posts (for example, to tag a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of fundamental areas as typical on subscribers (like the name).
- Some even more personalization options for the website (such as more versatile shade options, headline control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Points I hope they do with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, however it isn’t ideal and absolutely not almost as established as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM product.
It possibly never will be, either. As I stated, the function is various so it would not a lot a lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to become a full marketing automation platform. I presume you never ever understand, though.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I such as BeeHiiv fairly a great deal. Sufficient where I determined to switch my very own e-newsletters over to the system regardless of my individual preference for digital sovereignty and owning my very own system.
Basically, for the e-newsletter publishing design especially, I saw enough value in their platform to call for the adjustment.
Remember, I do not utilize BeeHiiv as my special e-mail listing. I utilize BeeHiiv of what it is efficient, but I intentionally have things set up to ensure that I also keep my list “in home” inside of FluentCRM.
If you make use of BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the exact same. It is simply an excellent insurance plan, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your listing will be of high use (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will certainly be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my point of view, if you are making use of Substack right now, I ‘d definitely think about changing to BeeHiiv. It will merely be more business-friendly. It is targeting different capabilities and different demands. Plus, BeeHiiv also has import tools for Substack, so the switch should be quite uncomplicated.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d most likely sit tight unless you have a huge e-mail checklist and are therefore being wooled with their high monthly bill. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are iterating quickly. There’s likewise a pretty good opportunity you’re not also using several of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you don’t also require them. Therefore, BeeHiiv can conveniently be a better and more budget-friendly fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be really deliberate regarding growing 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 about what it is created to be, it is one of the very best video games in town now. This is the platform to see.
BeeHiiv uses a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves taking a look at on your own. And if you wind up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll discover the cost-free account to be rather feature abundant.