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 huge advocate of digital sovereignty and having your own system. Therefore (and the incredible features), I have been utilizing GrowLetter Beehiiv.
So, it is certainly an odd move for me to determine to utilize BeeHiiv. Besides, it is a hosted application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I intend to review why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I want to attend to the concern of digital sovereignty while making use of the system and I would certainly also like to deal with why I selected to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For E-newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Big Change In Approach, I talked about exactly how and why I chose to transform my RV blog into mostly an e-newsletter. I chose that was the business model I wished to pursue with that residential or commercial property.
However, to purposefully pursue it as a newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the e-mail listing for Gladly recreational vehicle, however FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, honestly, using it for e-newsletters is a little bit of a waste. More on that in a bit.
As I said in that concern of the newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a platform with tools built into it certain to my objective. Things such as:
- Capacity to release (to the blog) and send out the email concurrently without having it be two separate activities.
- Built in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would certainly have needed a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capacity to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are generally one-click membership links. Great for promo in various other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, though, so there are methods to do that.
- Capacity to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Built-in advertisement network, if I choose to generate income from with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated ability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and generally run a premium e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Generally, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter publishers with features targeted at growth. The platform was actually built by the individuals who built up the technology for Early morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the factor below. BeeHiiv is developed from scratch for the function of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different objective.
And I ended off with this:.
I might undoubtedly be relocating The Edge over to BeeHiiv too. At the very least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. Actually, I simply went for it. And as a matter of fact, The side was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s very own residential or commercial property to make sure that I can expand it a lot more deliberately too.
The goal is that each newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s own media entity and grown independently. Happily recreational vehicle was young, so easy to transition. But, The Morning WP (previously The Edge) was hidden in a sea of things right here at the Blog Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s own. It will undoubtedly constantly be closely linked with the Blog site Marketing Academy, yet doesn’t have to be a part of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was developed for this function. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Just A Normal Email List
There’s a difference in between an e-newsletter platform and just an e-mail checklist.
You can host your e-mail list anywhere you desire and there are a variety of them available, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted alternatives like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The key distinction is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of posting indicates that it is mosting likely to your internet site and to your e-mail clients at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are publishing to that internet site. Yet, you are likewise sending to all clients at the same time. The internet site and it’s customers are done in one. This makes management of the system much simpler.
With most email platforms, any type of e-newsletter you set up is done as an e-mail campaign. It is developed totally individually from your internet site. So, as an example, you may release a short article to WordPress however after that you would certainly require to separately construct and send an email to your checklist to send it to clients. These are after that two separate collections of archives and 2 separate actions because blog posts and your emails are not inherently connected.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress right into a real e-newsletter system is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name due to the fact that it pretty much “glues” your newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and allows them to be the exact same thing. Certainly, something like Newsletter Glue would be a strong choice if I wished to continue to self-host everything. Nevertheless, you ‘d lose the growth tools that include a platform like BeeHiiv.
Posting a newsletter naturally includes a different set of demands than a common e-mail listing.
You don’t typically need much marketing automation. You do not usually need autoresponder sequences, occasion monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO need, though, is one seamless posting experience and growth tools to aid you develop your client base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my customers that I was mosting likely to switch the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had lots of people ask me why I was picking it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the truth that I selected to go with BeeHiiv, that doesn’t imply I believe Substack draws. In fact, since Substack has been about longer, it is elder and has more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple things that at first got my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically customized to e-newsletter publishers. Actually, it is essentially developed by the very same individuals that built the modern technology behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, doesn’t matter. Yet, the apparent positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter development called me out over the more common positioning of being a “designer”. Growth is what I’m interested in right here.
- That branding and distinction also indicates that BeeHiiv has some rather big brand names and big magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is aimed even more at solo makers. Once more, it just informs me the consumer character distinction between both business.
Sending our my newsletter using FluentCRM really did not specifically draw. The only factor I would certainly consider drinking points up is if I believed I could GROW the listing faster. And BeeHiiv spoke exactly to that goal.
As a result of the targeting, I actually don’t see BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a various type of customer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more straight competitors.
But, allow’s dive deeper than simply the positioning below.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv seems like it was constructed by individuals that comprehending email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems more tailored toward creators.
For example, BeeHiiv uses customized fields on clients. Now, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv supplies Automations. In fact, it is a visual automation builder that functions a great deal like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation performance is still early-phase. It is still rather limited in triggers and the only action is the capacity to send an email. However, improvements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will have new triggers along with brand-new actions, such as customizing custom-made fields, sending webhooks, etc. I have actually already seen improvements to their automations just given that I started making use of the system. For instance:
- Ability to activate automations based on which details embed kind they can be found in on.
- Capacity to automatically do re-engagement (and deal with individuals based on opens up and non-opens).
- Ability to do standard conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can not do this because the target audience of Substack just would not believe to approach this like an email marketing expert.
When it comes to writing your e-newsletters, the creating user interface of BeeHiiv is simply a lot more geared towards newsletters. As a matter of fact, it in fact has similarities to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it functions. I discover it to be more user-friendly, personally.
Substack’s composing interface is nice and tidy, yet it would be much more equal to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is greater than simply type. For example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Area” and then placed anything you desire in it. After that, you can place Presence choices on that section to show it just to paid clients, hide it from e-mail, conceal from clients, reveal just to subscribers, and so on. Substack supplies nothing like this.
And when/if the moment comes that I start a premium registration design, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any type of revenue. In fact, you literally link up to your own Stripe account and it bills directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your revenue. Depending upon the number of customers you get, that 10% can be quite a bit more money than the monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This may appear unpopular, however what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv deal with the outside making use of tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … absolutely nothing. No integrations whatsoever.
Overall, I just felt like BeeHiiv was extra built toward real e-mail marketing. It was built by people who “get it”. Also the opt-in types and the landing page makes seem much better built for conversions. Development is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the direction it is going greater than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have said, Substack positions itself toward “developers” more than e-mail marketing experts and e-newsletter proprietors. Because of that, you see some things tailored a lot more toward individuals who simply believe in regards to content production.
For example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does support numerous publications, they are dealt with quite independently. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to numerous publications at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, however … great for individuals that may need it.
Substack additionally has even more social capability built-in. For instance, it has a conversation function to host talks with subscribers. It also has a “Notes” function which functions sort of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you read. Fascinating. Generally, Substack is set up to be more like a social network which sustains long-form content.
In general, Substack is likewise more … minimal. You either take care of that or do not. Personally, I do not. However, if the goal is simpleness of interface and, frankly, features … Substack functions pretty well.
But, I’ll be clear below …
When it involves real marketing, I do not assume there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is better suited. I searched for more points that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, yet frankly … I have a hard time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are usually through to be the closest rivals, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are going after the very same target market and have comparable capacities.
ConvertKit is likewise placed at creators (like Substack), but it is much more highly satisfying people who do it for company. ConvertKit has wonderful visual automation building, it’s very own business system, and a lot more. ConvertKit is a really good system.
I’m not going to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature breakdown below. ConvertKit is popular currently. Yet, here’s how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has more versatility when it pertains to it’s automations. I will likewise state that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit much more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports identifying. This is just a fundamental feature of e-mail listings that enables division in a far more versatile method than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support marking at some point soon, truthfully. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on GrowLetter Beehiiv.
ConvertKit does currently give the capacity to market things through their very own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that’s important to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nonetheless, I would always select an extra straight alternative anyway. For me, I like to utilize my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about a lot longer and because of that has way a lot more integration options. Tons of web-based devices and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their own WordPress plugin that is rather effective. For instance, their plugin currently also supports member-gated content in addition to auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your site. Fundamentally, this a lot more very closely puts ConvertKit right into direct competitors by having you be able to release to your site and your email list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is badly lacking in these sort of third-party integrations currently. It’ll get there. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even busy tackling the development tools of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not only incentivize individuals to share your e-newsletter with rewards, but you can also pay per lead within the interior ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your list. These are actually awesome features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you know ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among one of the most well known viral promo systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall for what this implies for the system going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … GrowLetter Beehiiv
BeeHiiv is a lot previously in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. Nonetheless, it also means that they are swiftly establishing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have witnessed almost regular release of new features into the platform. And these aren’t weak little features … yet large features that are fairly essential. Their rate of growth now has been impressive.
I additionally very much value just how receptive they are. As a matter of fact, one of their product statements regarding some design improvements to the website design features in fact included a small trouble with the web content size. I just replied to that e-mail to tell them. I rapidly got a reply directly from the CEO:.
That exact same day, the issue was repaired.
Few days later, I gave them another recommendation …
Indeed, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to trigger automations based on the embed type utilized was contributed to the system.
That type of responsiveness and direct involvement of the team is something I truly value.
Another significant factor of distinction here is the cost. Both platforms offer free plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan uses more capacity and even more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally FAR more desirable. ConvertKit seems less costly initially look due to the fact that their pricing page reveals reduced numbers, nevertheless the customer limitations are FAR reduced and your price rapidly enhances as your listing grows.
With BeeHiiv, your very first degree paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid annually), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 clients. That same dimension list is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their ideal plan and the one I directly make use of), you can expand your checklist up to 100,000. A list of that dimension would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, too, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay every year, also. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for just $84/month if you pay each year.
BeeHiiv is in an entirely various organization when it pertains to pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point raise rates? They could as time goes on. However, I’m thinking people like myself who are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see how points proceed.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of the important things you definitely require to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do appear to develop instead rapidly and make new product news rather usually, however there are some fundamental features I really want they had that I require to simply wait for.
One is that they require to have a setting on membership forms where I can pick an automation to run right at the type level. That would be incredible for many reasons. As of now, subscription types look OK, however there’s really little setups for them to help in segmentation.
It would certainly be nice to have tagging at the subscriber level. This would be powerful.
I assume webhooks must become part of automations to make built-in automations simpler and decrease dependence on outside tools like Zapier.
There are also some minor administrative user interface adjustments that would certainly come in handy. For example:
- Ability to bulk edit/remove customers.
- Ability to mass edit messages (for instance, to mark a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of standard areas as conventional on customers (like the name).
- Some more personalization alternatives for the web site (such as more flexible color selections, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Things I wish they perform with it in the future. BeeHiiv is respectable, yet it isn’t ideal and absolutely not virtually as established as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM item.
It probably never will certainly be, either. As I claimed, the objective is various so it would not much a lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to become a full marketing automation platform. I presume you never recognize, though.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I such as BeeHiiv quite a whole lot. Enough where I decided to change my very own newsletters over to the system despite my individual choice for digital sovereignty and owning my very own system.
Put simply, for the e-newsletter publishing design especially, I saw adequate worth in their platform to call for the change.
Bear in mind, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my exclusive e-mail listing. I use BeeHiiv of what it is good at, yet I intentionally have points establish to make sure that I additionally keep my checklist “in house” within FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the very same. It is simply an excellent insurance coverage, 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 inquiry is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are making use of Substack today, I ‘d most definitely take into consideration changing to BeeHiiv. It will simply be a lot more business-friendly. It is targeting various capacities and various needs. And also, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the switch must be rather straightforward.
If you get on ConvertKit now, I ‘d most likely sit tight unless you have a big email checklist and are consequently being wooled with their high month-to-month bill. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are iterating promptly. There’s also a respectable possibility you’re not also utilizing several of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you do not also require them. Because of that, BeeHiiv can easily be a far better and much more inexpensive fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be really deliberate concerning expanding a newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE platform to think about and maintain and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is created to be, it is one of the best games in town right now. This is the platform to watch.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves having a look at for yourself. And if you wind up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll find the complimentary account to be rather feature abundant.