I have actually used a great deal of different e-mail list systems over the years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a big advocate of digital sovereignty and owning your very own system. Because of that (and the amazing features), I have actually been making use of Can I Use Beehiiv For Free.
So, it is certainly an unusual move for me to make a decision to use BeeHiiv. Besides, it is an organized application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I intend to discuss why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I intend to attend to the issue of digital sovereignty while making use of the platform and I ‘d likewise like to resolve why I chose to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For Newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Hobby + A Large Change In Method, I discussed just how and why I made a decision to transform my motor home blog site into primarily an e-newsletter. I made a decision that was the business design I wanted to pursue with that property.
But, to deliberately pursue it as a newsletter, I desired a system that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the email list for Gladly recreational vehicle, but FluentCRM is not a newsletter platform. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, honestly, using it for newsletters is a little a waste. Extra on that in a bit.
As I stated in that concern of the e-newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a system with devices constructed into it particular to my objective. Things such as:
- Ability to release (to the blog site) and send out the email concurrently without having it be 2 separate actions.
- Built in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capacity to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are primarily one-click membership web links. Great for promotion in other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are means to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your newsletter.
- Built-in ad network, if I select to generate income from with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in ability 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 newsletter authors with features focused on development. The system was essentially built by the individuals that accumulated the modern technology for Early morning Mixture. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the factor here. BeeHiiv is constructed from the ground up for the objective of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a various objective.
And I ended off with this:.
I might indeed be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv as well. At least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. Actually, I just went all out. And in fact, The side was re-branded over to The Morning WP, set off as it’s own residential or commercial property to make sure that I can grow it more intentionally as well.
The goal is that each newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded independently. Happily motor home was young, so simple to transition. But, The Morning WP (previously The Edge) was hidden in a sea of things below at the Blog Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s own. It will certainly always be carefully linked with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet does not need to be a part of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv since it was developed for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Regular Email List
There’s a distinction in between a newsletter platform and just an email list.
You can organize your email listing everywhere you want and there are a number of them out there, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The main difference is that, with an e-newsletter system, the act of publishing means that it is mosting likely to your internet site and to your e-mail subscribers concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a site. You are publishing to that web site. But, you are likewise sending off to all customers at the same time. The site and it’s subscribers are all in one. This makes management of the platform much less complex.
With a lot of e-mail platforms, any newsletter you set up is done as an e-mail campaign. It is constructed totally individually from your website. So, for instance, you might release an article to WordPress however after that you would need to individually construct and send out an email to your list to send it to subscribers. These are after that two different sets of archives and two separate activities because article and your e-mails are not inherently linked.
The closest point that turns WordPress right into a true e-newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name due to the fact that it pretty much “glues” your newsletter to your WordPress articles and permits them to be the very same point. Definitely, something like Newsletter Glue would be a solid option if I wanted to remain to self-host whatever. Nevertheless, you ‘d lose the development tools that come with a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter naturally comes with a various set of needs than a regular email list.
You don’t generally need much marketing automation. You don’t usually need autoresponder series, event tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO demand, however, is one smooth publishing experience and development tools to help you build your client base that specify to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my clients that I was going to switch over the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the reality that I chose to go with BeeHiiv, that does not suggest I think Substack sucks. In fact, because Substack has been around longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Although BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a pair things that at first obtained my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly tailored to newsletter publishers. In fact, it is essentially constructed by the very same individuals that built the technology behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, does not matter. However, the obvious positioning of BeeHiiv toward e-newsletter growth called me out over the more common positioning of being a “designer”. Development is what I’m interested in here.
- That branding and distinction likewise suggests that BeeHiiv has some rather big brand names and large publications using it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo makers. Again, it just tells me the client avatar difference between the two firms.
Sending our my e-newsletter using FluentCRM didn’t specifically suck. The only factor I would ponder shaking points up is if I thought I might expand the checklist faster. And BeeHiiv spoke precisely to that objective.
Because of the targeting, I actually do not see BeeHiiv and Substack as straight competitors. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a different sort of customer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more straight competitors.
However, let’s dive deeper than just the positioning here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv appears like it was developed by people that recognizing e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems a lot more geared towards developers.
For instance, BeeHiiv provides custom-made fields on clients. Now, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. But, 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 within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation functionality is still early-phase. It is still fairly restricted in triggers and the only activity is the capability to send out an email. However, improvements are coming. Soon enough, automations will certainly have new triggers along with new activities, such as customizing customized fields, sending webhooks, etc. I have actually currently seen enhancements to their automations just since I began making use of the platform. For example:
- Capability to activate automations based upon which particular embed type they can be found in on.
- Ability to immediately do re-engagement (and handle people based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Ability to do basic conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can’t do this due to the fact that the target audience of Substack simply would not think to approach this like an e-mail marketing expert.
When it involves creating your newsletters, the creating interface of BeeHiiv is just extra tailored towards e-newsletters. Actually, it really has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in just how it works. I discover it to be much more intuitive, personally.
Substack’s creating interface is nice and clean, but it would certainly be much more equivalent to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This difference is greater than simply form. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Area” and after that placed anything you want in it. After that, you can put Presence choices on that particular area to show it just to paid clients, conceal it from e-mail, hide from subscribers, reveal only to customers, and so on. Substack uses absolutely nothing similar to this.
And when/if the time comes that I begin a premium membership model, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any type of income. Actually, you actually connect as much as your own Stripe account and it bills directly to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your revenue. Relying on the amount of clients you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit more cash than the month-to-month cost of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This might appear nerdy, yet what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv deal with the outdoors making use of devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … absolutely nothing. No integrations in any way.
Generally, I simply seemed like BeeHiiv was more built towards real email marketing. It was developed by individuals who “get it”. Also the opt-in kinds and the landing page makes appear better developed for conversions. Development is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I want 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 settings itself towards “creators” greater than email marketing professionals and newsletter owners. For that reason, you see some things tailored a lot more towards individuals that just assume in terms of web content development.
As an example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does support several publications, they are treated fairly separately. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to multiple magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I require, yet … cool for individuals who could need it.
Substack likewise has more social capability built-in. For instance, it has a chat function to host talks with subscribers. It also has a “Notes” feature which works kind of like a social media newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you read. Fascinating. On the whole, Substack is established to be more like a social media network which sustains long-form content.
Generally, Substack is additionally extra … minimalist. You either care for that or don’t. Directly, I do not. Nonetheless, if the objective is simplicity of interface and, honestly, features … Substack works rather well.
However, I’ll be clear below …
When it concerns actual marketing, I don’t think there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is better matched. I looked for more factors that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, yet frankly … I have a hard time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are commonly through to be the closest rivals, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are going after the same target market and have similar abilities.
ConvertKit is also placed at developers (like Substack), yet it is a lot more strongly accommodating individuals who do it for service. ConvertKit has nice visual automation building, it’s very own business system, and extra. ConvertKit is a truly nice system.
I’m not mosting likely to bore you with a complete feature-by-feature failure right here. ConvertKit is popular already. However, right here’s just how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has extra adaptability when it concerns it’s automations. I will certainly likewise say that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit much more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains tagging. This is simply a basic feature of email listings that makes it possible for division in an even more adaptable way than BeeHiiv currently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support identifying at some point quickly, truthfully. It seems like an oversight that it is missing Can I Use Beehiiv For Free.
ConvertKit does currently give the ability to offer things using their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is very important to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would constantly choose a much more direct choice anyhow. For me, I like to utilize my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about a lot longer and therefore has way much more integration choices. Tons of web-based devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is quite effective. For example, their plugin currently also sustains member-gated material in addition to auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your site. Essentially, this a lot more carefully puts ConvertKit right into straight competition by having you have the ability to release to your site and your email list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is severely lacking in these kinds of third-party integrations right now. It’ll get there. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy taking on the development devices of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not only incentivize individuals to share your e-newsletter with benefits, but you can additionally pay per lead within the inner advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your listing. These are truly remarkable features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you recognize ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of one of the most well known viral promotion platforms for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall surface for what this means for the system moving forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Can I Use Beehiiv For Free
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means less features and less integrations, which is all-natural for this phase of the cycle. Nevertheless, it likewise indicates that they are rapidly establishing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually experienced nearly weekly launch of brand-new features right into the platform. And these aren’t puny little features … but big features that are rather essential. Their rate of development at this point has gone over.
I additionally very much appreciate exactly how responsive they are. In fact, one of their product announcements concerning some style improvements to the website design features actually contained a small issue with the content width. I simply replied to that e-mail to tell them. I quickly got a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That same day, the problem was taken care of.
Couple of days later on, I provided another recommendation …
Sure enough, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to set off automations based on the embed kind made use of was included in the system.
That sort of responsiveness and direct participation of the group is something I actually value.
An additional significant point of distinction here is the price. Both platforms provide totally free plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan uses more ability and more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally even more beneficial. ConvertKit seems more affordable in the beginning look because their pricing page reveals reduced numbers, nonetheless the customer limits are much reduced and your rate swiftly increases as your listing grows.
With BeeHiiv, your initial degree paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid yearly), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That exact same size list is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I directly use), you can grow your checklist as much as 100,000. A checklist of that dimension would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, also, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay yearly, as well. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv is in a totally various league when it involves pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point increase costs? They may as time takes place. Yet, I’m presuming people like myself that are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how things continue.
Points I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among the important things you certainly require to remember is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do appear to progress instead swiftly and make brand-new item statements rather usually, but there are some basic features I truly wish they had that I require to just wait on.
One is that they need to have a setting on membership forms where I can choose an automation to run right at the kind level. That would certainly be incredible for many reasons. Currently, subscription types look OK, yet there’s really little settings for them to assist in segmentation.
It would be nice to have tagging at the subscriber level. This would be powerful.
I assume webhooks ought to be part of automations to make built-in automations much easier and lower dependence on outside tools like Zapier.
There are also some minor management interface adjustments that would come in handy. As an example:
- Capability to bulk edit/remove subscribers.
- Ability to mass edit blog posts (for instance, to mark a number of them at the same time).
- Having a few basic areas as standard on customers (like the name).
- Some more modification choices for the web site (such as more flexible shade selections, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Things I hope they do with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, however it isn’t perfect and definitely not almost as created as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM product.
It most likely never ever will be, either. As I stated, the function 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, though.
Final Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I like BeeHiiv rather a lot. Enough where I decided to switch my own e-newsletters over to the system regardless of my personal choice for digital sovereignty and possessing my very own platform.
Simply put, for the e-newsletter posting design specifically, I saw sufficient value in their system to require the modification.
Bear in mind, I do not utilize BeeHiiv as my exclusive email checklist. I utilize BeeHiiv for what it is good at, however I intentionally have points set up to ensure that I additionally keep my listing “in residence” within FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the exact same. It is simply a good insurance coverage, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your listing will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will be).
So, the concern is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are utilizing Substack today, I ‘d absolutely take into consideration switching to BeeHiiv. It will merely be more business-friendly. It is targeting various abilities and various requirements. And also, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the switch ought to be quite simple.
If you are on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d possibly stay put unless you have a huge email listing and are therefore being fleeced with their high regular monthly bill. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are iterating quickly. There’s additionally a respectable opportunity you’re not also utilizing several of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you don’t even need them. Therefore, BeeHiiv might quickly be a much better and more budget friendly fit.
Finally, if you plan to be extremely intentional concerning growing an e-newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE system to consider and keep and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is made to be, it is one of the most effective video games in town right now. This is the system to watch.
BeeHiiv provides a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth checking out on your own. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll discover the complimentary account to be quite feature abundant.