I have actually made use of a great deal of various e-mail list systems throughout the years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a substantial proponent of digital sovereignty and possessing your own system. For that reason (and the remarkable features), I have actually been utilizing Does Beehiiv Have a Free Version.
So, it is without a doubt an odd move for me to choose to use BeeHiiv. After all, it is a hosted application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv evaluation, I intend to go over why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I wish to address the issue of digital sovereignty while using the system and I would certainly also such as to address why I chose to utilize it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For Newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Large Shift In Method, I talked about how and why I decided to transform my recreational vehicle blog site into mainly a newsletter. I decided that was business design I wished to pursue keeping that residential property.
Yet, to intentionally seek it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the e-mail checklist for Gladly RV, yet FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, truthfully, utilizing it for newsletters is a bit of a waste. A lot more on that in a bit.
As I claimed in that concern of the e-newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices built into it specific to my function. Things such as:
- Capability to release (to the blog) and send the email concurrently without having it be 2 separate activities.
- Constructed in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would require a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capacity to do cross-promotions with other newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are generally one-click registration links. Great for promo in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are means to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your newsletter.
- Built-in ad network, if I select to monetize with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated ability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and essentially run a costs e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Basically, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features targeted at development. The system was literally developed by the individuals who developed the modern technology for Early morning Mixture. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the point below. BeeHiiv is constructed from the ground up for the function of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different objective.
And I ended off with this:.
I may undoubtedly be relocating The Edge over to BeeHiiv also. At least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. In fact, I just went all out. And as a matter of fact, The side was re-branded over to The Morning WP, set off as it’s very own home so that I can expand it more deliberately also.
The objective is that each e-newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded independently. Gladly RV was young, so easy to transition. But, The Early morning WP (formerly The Edge) was hidden in a sea of things here at the Blog Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s very own. It will clearly constantly be closely linked with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet does not have to belong of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv since it was constructed for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Regular Email List
There’s a difference between an e-newsletter system and simply an e-mail checklist.
You can organize your e-mail checklist just about anywhere you desire and there are a number of them available, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted alternatives like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The main difference is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of posting suggests that it is going to your site and to your e-mail customers at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a web site. You are publishing to that website. But, you are likewise sending to all clients at the same time. The website and it’s clients are all in one. This makes monitoring of the platform much simpler.
With the majority of email platforms, any kind of e-newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is developed totally separately from your site. So, for example, you may release an article to WordPress yet then you would certainly need to independently build and send out an e-mail to your checklist to send it to clients. These are after that two separate sets of archives and two separate actions due to the fact that post and your e-mails are not naturally linked.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress right into a real newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name due to the fact that it pretty much “glues” your e-newsletter to your WordPress messages and enables them to be the same point. Certainly, something like E-newsletter Glue would be a strong alternative if I wished to remain to self-host whatever. Nevertheless, you would certainly shed the development tools that feature a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter inherently features a various set of demands than a typical email checklist.
You do not typically need much marketing automation. You do not generally need autoresponder series, occasion tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO demand, though, is one smooth publishing experience and development tools to aid you develop your subscriber base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my customers that I was mosting likely 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 fact that I picked to go with BeeHiiv, that doesn’t indicate I believe Substack sucks. In fact, since Substack has actually been around longer, it is elder and has more features.
Although BeeHiiv is younger, there are a pair things that originally obtained my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically tailored to e-newsletter publishers. Actually, it is literally developed by the very same people who built the modern technology behind Early morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real world, does not matter. Yet, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter growth called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “developer”. Growth is what I’m interested in here.
- That branding and differentiation also indicates that BeeHiiv has some fairly big brands and huge publications utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo designers. Once again, it simply tells me the customer character difference between both business.
Sending our my newsletter using FluentCRM didn’t specifically draw. The only factor I would ponder drinking things up is if I believed I can GROW the listing quicker. And BeeHiiv talked specifically to that goal.
Due to the targeting, I really don’t see BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a various kind of customer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being more direct rivals.
Yet, allow’s dive deeper than simply the positioning right here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Generally, BeeHiiv feels like it was built by people that comprehending email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems more geared towards developers.
For example, BeeHiiv uses customized areas on subscribers. Now, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv uses 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 functionality is still early-phase. It is still fairly restricted in triggers and the only action is the capacity to send out an e-mail. Nonetheless, enhancements are coming. Soon sufficient, automations will have brand-new triggers in addition to brand-new actions, such as customizing custom areas, sending out webhooks, and so on. I’ve currently seen improvements to their automations just since I started utilizing the platform. For instance:
- Capacity to trigger automations based upon which details embed type they can be found in on.
- Ability to immediately do re-engagement (and handle individuals based on opens and non-opens).
- Capacity to do fundamental conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can’t do this since the target audience of Substack simply would not think to approach this like an email marketing expert.
When it comes to composing your newsletters, the creating user interface of BeeHiiv is simply more geared towards e-newsletters. Actually, it really has similarities to the WordPress block builder in how it functions. I find it to be much more instinctive, directly.
Substack’s creating user interface behaves and tidy, yet it would certainly be extra equal to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This distinction is more than simply form. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Section” and then placed anything you want in it. After that, you can put Visibility alternatives on that area to show it only to paid clients, conceal it from email, conceal from customers, show just to clients, etc. Substack offers nothing like this.
And when/if the time comes that I start a costs membership design, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any earnings. Actually, you literally attach up to your own Stripe account and it charges directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your earnings. Depending on the amount of clients you get, that 10% can be a fair bit even more money than the regular monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This could seem nerdy, however what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outdoors making use of tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … absolutely nothing. No integrations whatsoever.
Generally, I just felt like BeeHiiv was extra developed toward genuine email marketing. It was built by individuals who “get it”. Even the opt-in types and the landing page designs seem much better constructed for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the instructions it is going more than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually stated, Substack positions itself toward “makers” more than email marketers and e-newsletter proprietors. Therefore, you see some points tailored extra toward people that simply assume in terms of web content creation.
As an example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does support several magazines, they are treated quite individually. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to multiple magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, but … cool for individuals that may require it.
Substack additionally has even more social capability built-in. For example, it has a chat function to host chats with subscribers. It also has a “Notes” feature which functions kind of like a social media newsfeed where you can share things from various other “Stacks” you’re reading. Fascinating. On the whole, Substack is set up to be a lot more like a social network which sustains long-form web content.
In general, Substack is also extra … minimalist. You either look after that or don’t. Personally, I do not. Nevertheless, if the objective is simpleness of user interface and, truthfully, features … Substack works quite well.
Yet, I’ll be clear below …
When it involves real marketing, I don’t assume there’s much question that BeeHiiv is better suited. I looked for even more factors that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, but honestly … I have a hard time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are typically through to be the closest rivals, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are pursuing the same target audience and have comparable capacities.
ConvertKit is likewise placed at creators (like Substack), but it is a lot more strongly satisfying people that do it for business. ConvertKit has good aesthetic automation structure, it’s own commerce system, and extra. ConvertKit is an actually nice platform.
I’m not going to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature malfunction below. ConvertKit is popular already. Yet, below’s just how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has extra adaptability when it involves it’s automations. I will additionally say that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports identifying. This is simply a standard feature of e-mail checklists that enables segmentation in a far more versatile method than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support tagging eventually quickly, frankly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Does Beehiiv Have a Free Version.
ConvertKit does currently offer the capacity to sell points using their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is necessary to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nonetheless, I would always pick a much more straight choice anyway. For me, I like to utilize my own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been about much longer and because of that has way extra integration options. Tons of web-based devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is fairly effective. As an example, their plugin now also sustains member-gated web content along with auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your site. In essence, this much more very closely places ConvertKit into straight competitors by having you be able to publish to your website and your e-mail listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is significantly doing not have in these sort of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll arrive. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy taking on the growth tools of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not only incentivize people to share your e-newsletter with benefits, yet you can also pay per lead within the interior ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your list. These are truly awesome features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you recognize ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among the most popular viral promotion systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall surface of what this suggests for the platform moving forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Better At … Does Beehiiv Have a Free Version
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that indicates less features and much less integrations, which is all-natural for this phase of the cycle. Nonetheless, it also means that they are quickly developing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have experienced nearly regular release of new features right into the system. And these aren’t weak little features … yet big features that are rather essential. Their rate of advancement at this moment has been impressive.
I likewise quite appreciate exactly how responsive they are. As a matter of fact, one of their item announcements about some layout enhancements to the web design features actually had a small issue with the content width. I merely responded to that email to tell them. I promptly obtained a reply straight from the CEO:.
That same day, the issue was taken care of.
Few days later on, I provided an additional pointer …
Sure enough, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to cause automations based on the embed type made use of was added to the system.
That type of responsiveness and direct participation of the team is something I truly value.
Another major point of distinction below is the price. Both systems supply cost-free plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan offers more capability and more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also FAR more positive. ConvertKit seems less costly initially look due to the fact that their pricing web page reveals reduced numbers, nevertheless the subscriber limitations are much lower and your cost rapidly raises as your list grows.
With BeeHiiv, your first level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid every year), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 clients. That same size listing is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their best plan and the one I directly use), you can expand your checklist approximately 100,000. A checklist of that dimension would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, as well, that puts 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 an entirely different organization when it involves pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point increase costs? They might as time goes on. However, I’m thinking individuals like myself that are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see how points proceed.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
Among the important things you absolutely need to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do seem to evolve rather quickly and make brand-new product announcements rather usually, yet there are some standard features I truly desire they had that I require to simply await.
One is that they require to have a setting on subscription types where I might pick an automation to run right at the form level. That would certainly be incredible for numerous factors. Already, registration forms look OK, but there’s very little setups for them to assist in segmentation.
It would certainly be nice to have identifying at the customer level. This would be effective.
I assume webhooks need to belong to automations to make built-in automations much easier and reduce dependence on outdoors tools like Zapier.
There are also some minor management interface changes that would be handy. For instance:
- Capacity to bulk edit/remove subscribers.
- Capacity to bulk edit messages (for example, to mark a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a few fundamental areas as basic on clients (like the name).
- Some more customization alternatives for the site (such as even more flexible color choices, heading control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Things I wish they do with it in the future. BeeHiiv is respectable, however it isn’t perfect and definitely not nearly as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM product.
It most likely never ever will be, either. As I said, the objective is different so it would not much a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to come to be a full marketing automation system. I presume you never ever know, though.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I such as BeeHiiv quite a lot. Sufficient where I made a decision to change my own newsletters over to the system in spite of my individual preference for digital sovereignty and possessing my own platform.
Simply put, for the newsletter publishing design particularly, I saw enough value in their platform to require the change.
Remember, I do not use BeeHiiv as my unique e-mail list. I utilize BeeHiiv of what it is efficient, yet I purposefully have points establish to make sure that I also maintain my listing “in house” inside of FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the exact same. It is just a great insurance policy, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your list will certainly be of high use (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my point of view, if you are using Substack right now, I ‘d definitely think about switching over to BeeHiiv. It will merely be extra business-friendly. It is targeting various capacities and various needs. And also, BeeHiiv also has import tools for Substack, so the switch must be rather simple.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d possibly stay unless you have a huge e-mail listing and are consequently being fleeced with their high regular monthly expense. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are repeating swiftly. There’s additionally a pretty good possibility you’re not even utilizing a few of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you don’t even need them. For that reason, BeeHiiv might easily be a better and extra budget friendly fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be really willful about growing an e-newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE platform to take into consideration and keep and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is made to be, it is one of the best games in the area today. This is the platform to watch.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves checking out on your own. And if you wind up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll locate the totally free account to be rather feature rich.