I have actually utilized a lot of various e-mail list systems throughout the years. In the last number of years, I have actually been a significant proponent of digital sovereignty and having your own platform. For that reason (and the incredible features), I have been making use of Culture Critic Beehiiv.
So, it is indeed an unusual move for me to decide to use BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is an organized application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I intend to look at why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I intend to deal with the problem of digital sovereignty while using the platform and I ‘d likewise like to attend to why I chose to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For E-newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Large Shift In Strategy, I spoke about how and why I decided to transform my recreational vehicle blog right into largely a newsletter. I determined that was the business model I wanted to go after keeping that building.
But, to purposefully pursue it as a newsletter, I desired a system that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the email list for Happily recreational vehicle, yet FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter system. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, truthfully, using it for e-newsletters is a bit of a waste. Much more on that particular in a bit.
As I said in that issue of the newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a system with tools developed into it particular to my function. Things such as:
- Capability to release (to the blog) and send the e-mail simultaneously without having it be 2 different activities.
- Built in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would certainly have needed a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in ability to do cross-promotions with other newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are essentially one-click registration links. Great for promo in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are ways to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your e-newsletter.
- Integrated advertisement network, if I choose to generate income from with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated ability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and primarily run a costs e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Essentially, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter authors with features aimed at growth. The system was essentially constructed by the individuals that built up the modern technology for Early morning Brew. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the factor right here. BeeHiiv is constructed from scratch for the function of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a different function.
And I finished off with this:.
I might without a doubt be relocating The Side over to BeeHiiv as well. At the very least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. Actually, I just went for it. And in fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Morning WP, set off as it’s very own building to ensure that I can expand it more intentionally too.
The goal is that each e-newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded separately. Gladly motor home was young, so simple to shift. But, The Morning WP (formerly The Side) was hidden in a sea of things here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s own. It will undoubtedly constantly be very closely linked with the Blog site Marketing Academy, but doesn’t need to be a part of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv because it was built for this function. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Normal Email Listing
There’s a difference in between an e-newsletter system and just an e-mail checklist.
You can organize your email listing anywhere you want and there are a number of them around, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The primary difference is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of posting suggests that it is mosting likely to your web site and to your email customers at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are publishing to that website. However, you are additionally sending off to all customers at the same time. The internet site and it’s subscribers are done in one. This makes monitoring of the system much simpler.
With a lot of e-mail systems, any newsletter you set up is done as an e-mail campaign. It is developed totally individually from your site. So, for instance, you could release a short article to WordPress but then you would need to individually develop and send an e-mail to your list to send it to clients. These are then 2 separate sets of archives and two separate activities because post and your e-mails are not inherently connected.
The closest point that turns WordPress right into a true e-newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting 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 be a strong choice if I wished to remain to self-host everything. Nonetheless, you would certainly lose the development devices that feature a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter naturally includes a different collection of demands than a common email checklist.
You do not usually need much marketing automation. You don’t usually require autoresponder series, event monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO demand, though, is one smooth posting experience and development tools to assist you build your customer base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my subscribers that I was going to change the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many people ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the fact that I chose to go with BeeHiiv, that doesn’t imply I assume Substack sucks. Actually, because Substack has actually been around longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is younger, there are a pair points that initially obtained my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly customized to e-newsletter publishers. As a matter of fact, it is literally constructed by the exact same individuals that constructed the modern technology behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, does not matter. But, the evident positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter development called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “designer”. Growth is what I have an interest in here.
- That branding and distinction likewise suggests that BeeHiiv has some fairly huge brand names and large publications utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is aimed even more at solo designers. Again, it just tells me the client character distinction in between both business.
Sending our my e-newsletter by means of FluentCRM didn’t precisely draw. The only factor I would contemplate trembling things up is if I thought I could GROW the listing faster. And BeeHiiv talked precisely to that goal.
As a result of the targeting, I really don’t check out BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a different kind of customer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being more straight competitors.
However, let’s dive deeper than just the positioning here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv appears like it was constructed by people that understanding email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears a lot more geared toward designers.
As an example, BeeHiiv supplies custom fields on subscribers. Now, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv supplies Automations. In fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that works a whole lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still fairly limited in triggers and the only action is the capacity to send an email. However, enhancements are coming. Soon enough, automations will certainly have brand-new triggers as well as brand-new activities, such as customizing custom fields, sending out webhooks, etc. I have actually already seen improvements to their automations simply given that I started using the system. As an example:
- Capacity to cause automations based upon which specific embed type they came in on.
- Ability to instantly do re-engagement (and handle individuals based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Ability to do standard conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never will. Substack just can’t do this because the target audience of Substack just wouldn’t think to approach this like an e-mail online marketer.
When it comes to writing your newsletters, the writing user interface of BeeHiiv is simply much more geared toward e-newsletters. In fact, it really has similarities to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it functions. I locate it to be extra instinctive, personally.
Substack’s composing user interface behaves and tidy, yet it would be extra equal to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is more than simply type. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Section” and then placed anything you want in it. Then, you can place Exposure alternatives on that particular section to reveal it only to paid subscribers, hide it from email, conceal from clients, reveal just to customers, etc. Substack provides nothing such as this.
And when/if the moment comes that I start a premium membership model, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any kind of profits. In fact, you literally connect up to your very own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your revenue. Depending upon the number of clients you get, that 10% can be a fair bit more cash than the month-to-month expense of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This might seem unpopular, but what it suggests is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv work with the outdoors utilizing tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … absolutely nothing. No integrations whatsoever.
Generally, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was a lot more built towards actual email marketing. It was developed by people who “get it”. Even the opt-in kinds and the landing page designs seem better constructed for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I want to see BeeHiiv add, I like the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually said, Substack positions itself towards “developers” more than email marketers and e-newsletter proprietors. For that reason, you see some points geared a lot more towards people that just believe in regards to web content creation.
As an example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does support multiple publications, they are dealt with rather individually. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to multiple publications at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, but … trendy for people who might need it.
Substack likewise has even more social capability built-in. As an example, it has a chat function to host chats with subscribers. It also has a “Notes” feature which works sort of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you read. Fascinating. Generally, Substack is established to be much more like a social network which supports long-form content.
On the whole, Substack is also a lot more … minimalist. You either take care of that or do not. Personally, I don’t. Nevertheless, if the goal is simpleness of interface and, frankly, features … Substack functions rather well.
Yet, I’ll be clear below …
When it comes to real marketing, I don’t think there’s much question that BeeHiiv is much better matched. I tried to find more factors that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, yet frankly … I have a difficult time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are commonly via to be the closest competitors, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are going after the exact same target market and have comparable capacities.
ConvertKit is likewise placed at designers (like Substack), however it is much more strongly catering to people that do it for organization. ConvertKit has great visual automation structure, it’s own commerce system, and extra. ConvertKit is a really wonderful system.
I’m not going to bore you with a complete feature-by-feature failure below. ConvertKit is well known currently. But, below’s how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Points ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has much more flexibility when it concerns it’s automations. I will likewise say that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains marking. This is simply a basic feature of email checklists that allows segmentation in an even more flexible way than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support identifying at some point soon, frankly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing Culture Critic Beehiiv.
ConvertKit does now offer the capability to sell points using their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is necessary to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would certainly always choose a more direct option anyhow. For me, I choose to use my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been around much longer and because of that 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 quite effective. For instance, their plugin currently even supports member-gated web content along with auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your website. In essence, this much more closely puts ConvertKit right into direct competition by having you be able to publish to your website and your e-mail listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is significantly lacking in these sort of third-party integrations currently. It’ll get there. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also hectic taking on the development tools of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not only incentivize people to share your e-newsletter with rewards, however you can likewise pay per lead within the inner advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your list. These are actually awesome features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you recognize ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of one of the most well known viral promo platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall of what this indicates for the platform going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Better At … Culture Critic Beehiiv
BeeHiiv is a lot previously in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means much less features and much less integrations, which is all-natural for this phase of the cycle. Nevertheless, it likewise indicates that they are quickly developing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually experienced virtually regular release of new features into the platform. And these aren’t weak little features … however huge features that are fairly essential. Their rate of growth at this point has been impressive.
I additionally significantly appreciate exactly how receptive they are. As a matter of fact, one of their product statements about some design enhancements to the website design features actually contained a tiny issue with the web content size. I merely replied to that email to tell them. I rapidly got a reply directly from the CEO:.
That exact same day, the issue was repaired.
Few days later on, I gave them one more recommendation …
Sure enough, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to set off automations based upon the embed type utilized was included in the system.
That type of responsiveness and straight involvement of the team is something I truly value.
One more major factor of distinction below is the cost. Both systems offer totally free plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan supplies much more capacity and more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
As soon as you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally even more desirable. ConvertKit seems cheaper initially glimpse since their pricing page shows lower numbers, nevertheless the client restrictions are much lower and your rate rapidly increases as your list grows.
With BeeHiiv, your very first level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid yearly), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 customers. That same size 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 directly utilize), you can grow your listing approximately 100,000. A listing of that dimension would certainly 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 annually, also. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay yearly.
BeeHiiv remains in an entirely various organization when it concerns pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually raise rates? They might as time goes on. However, I’m thinking individuals like myself who are already in will be locked-in. We’ll see just how things continue.
Things I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among things you definitely require to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do seem to advance instead rapidly and make brand-new product announcements rather often, but there are some fundamental features I truly want they had that I require to just wait on.
One is that they require to have a setup on membership forms where I could pick an automation to run right at the form degree. That would certainly be incredible for so many factors. As of now, membership forms look OK, yet there’s really little setups for them to aid in division.
It would certainly behave to have tagging at the customer degree. This would be powerful.
I assume webhooks must become part of automations to make integrated automations easier and reduce dependence on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are additionally some small management user interface modifications that would certainly come in handy. As an example:
- Ability to mass edit/remove clients.
- Capability to mass edit messages (for instance, to tag a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of standard areas as standard on clients (like the name).
- Some more modification options for the site (such as even more versatile color options, headline control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Things I hope they do with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t perfect and absolutely not nearly as created as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM item.
It probably never ever will certainly be, either. As I claimed, the objective is different so it wouldn’t much a great deal of feeling for BeeHiiv to end up being a full marketing automation system. I think you never ever recognize, however.
Last Ideas On This BeeHiiv Review
I such as BeeHiiv quite a great deal. Sufficient where I decided to change my own newsletters over to the system despite my individual preference for digital sovereignty and possessing my very own platform.
Put simply, for the newsletter posting version specifically, I saw sufficient worth in their system to require the adjustment.
Remember, I do not use BeeHiiv as my unique email checklist. I use BeeHiiv for what it is good at, however I purposefully have things set up so that I additionally keep my checklist “in home” inside of FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the same. It is simply an excellent insurance policy, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your listing will certainly be of high use (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the concern is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are making use of Substack today, I ‘d most definitely consider changing to BeeHiiv. It will just be extra business-friendly. It is targeting different capabilities and different needs. And also, BeeHiiv also has import devices for Substack, so the button must be rather simple.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d probably sit tight unless you have a big e-mail list and are for that reason being wooled with their high monthly bill. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are repeating quickly. There’s additionally a respectable chance you’re not even utilizing some of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you do not also require them. For that reason, BeeHiiv can quickly be a much better and a lot more affordable fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be really deliberate about growing a newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE system to think about and keep and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is designed to be, it is one of the very best video games around now. This is the platform to watch.
BeeHiiv uses a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves checking out on your own. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll locate the totally free account to be fairly feature abundant.