I have utilized a lot of different email list systems throughout the years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a significant supporter of digital sovereignty and having your own system. Therefore (and the amazing features), I have actually been using How Do I Verify My Identity on Beehiiv.
So, it is undoubtedly a strange move for me to choose to utilize BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is an organized application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I want to discuss why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I intend to address the issue of digital sovereignty while making use of the platform and I ‘d additionally such as to deal with why I selected 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 Technique, I discussed how and why I chose to transform my RV blog site right into primarily an e-newsletter. I determined that was the business model I intended to seek keeping that building.
However, to deliberately pursue it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a system that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the e-mail checklist for Gladly motor home, however FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, truthfully, utilizing it for newsletters is a little a waste. A lot more on that particular in a bit.
As I claimed because issue of the newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices built right into it details to my objective. Points such as:
- Capacity to release (to the blog) and send out the email concurrently without having it be two separate actions.
- Constructed in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would certainly require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Built-in ability to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are essentially one-click registration links. Great for promotion in various other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, 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 choose to monetize with ads in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and essentially run a costs newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Essentially, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter publishers with features focused on development. The platform was essentially constructed by the individuals that built up the innovation for Morning Brew. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the factor here. BeeHiiv is constructed from the ground up for the purpose of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different objective.
And I ended off with this:.
I may indeed be relocating The Edge over to BeeHiiv too. At the very least, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. Actually, I just went all out. And in fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Morning WP, triggered as it’s own property to make sure that I can expand it extra intentionally also.
The goal is that each newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded independently. Happily RV was young, so easy to shift. But, The Morning WP (previously The Side) was buried in a sea of stuff here at the Blog Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s own. It will obviously always be very closely linked with the Blog site Marketing Academy, however does not need to belong of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv since it was developed for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Regular Email Checklist
There’s a difference in between an e-newsletter platform and simply an e-mail listing.
You can organize your email checklist anyplace you want and there are a variety of them around, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted choices like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The main difference is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of publishing indicates that it is going to your web site and to your e-mail subscribers concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a web site. You are releasing to that web site. But, you are likewise sending off to all subscribers at the same time. The internet site and it’s clients are done in one. This makes management of the system much easier.
With many email systems, any kind of newsletter you set up is done as an email campaign. It is built entirely independently from your web site. So, for example, you may publish a post to WordPress however then you would require to independently develop and send out an e-mail to your checklist to send it to customers. These are then 2 different sets of archives and two separate actions because blog posts and your e-mails are not inherently linked.
The closest thing that turns WordPress into a true newsletter system is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name because it practically “glues” your newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and allows them to be the very same thing. Definitely, something like Newsletter Glue would be a solid choice if I wanted to continue to self-host every little thing. Nonetheless, you would certainly lose the development tools that come with a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter naturally comes with a different collection of needs than a regular e-mail list.
You do not normally need much marketing automation. You do not typically require autoresponder series, event tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO demand, though, is one seamless posting experience and growth tools to aid 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 lots of people ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the truth that I chose to opt for BeeHiiv, that doesn’t indicate I assume Substack sucks. In fact, due to the fact that Substack has been about much longer, it is more mature and has more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a pair things that at first obtained my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is especially customized to e-newsletter publishers. Actually, it is literally built by the exact same people who built the modern technology behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real world, doesn’t matter. But, the obvious positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter growth called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “creator”. Growth is what I have an interest in here.
- That branding and differentiation additionally means that BeeHiiv has some fairly big brand names and big magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo makers. Again, it just tells me the consumer avatar distinction between both business.
Sending our my e-newsletter via FluentCRM didn’t specifically suck. The only factor I would certainly ponder shaking things up is if I thought I could expand the list much faster. And BeeHiiv talked exactly to that objective.
As a result of the targeting, I in fact don’t watch BeeHiiv and Substack as straight competitors. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a various sort of consumer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being a lot more direct rivals.
Yet, let’s dive much deeper than just the positioning below.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
On the whole, BeeHiiv feels like it was constructed by people that understanding email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears a lot more tailored towards creators.
For example, BeeHiiv offers personalized fields on clients. Currently, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv supplies Automations. Actually, it is a visual automation builder that works a whole lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation functionality is still early-phase. It is still quite limited in triggers and the only action is the capability to send an e-mail. However, enhancements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will have new triggers along with new activities, such as changing personalized areas, sending webhooks, etc. I’ve currently seen enhancements to their automations simply because I began utilizing the platform. As an example:
- Ability to set off automations based upon which particular embed kind they can be found in on.
- Capacity to automatically do re-engagement (and deal with people based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Ability to do basic conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can’t do this since the target market of Substack just wouldn’t believe to approach this like an email online marketer.
When it comes to creating your newsletters, the creating interface of BeeHiiv is simply extra geared toward newsletters. Actually, it actually has similarities to the WordPress block builder in just how it functions. I discover it to be extra user-friendly, personally.
Substack’s composing interface is nice and clean, yet it would certainly be extra equivalent to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is greater than simply kind. For example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Area” and afterwards put anything you desire in it. After that, you can put Presence choices on that particular area to show it only to paid clients, conceal it from email, hide from subscribers, reveal just to customers, and so on. Substack provides absolutely nothing similar to this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a costs membership version, BeeHiiv does not take any kind of income. As a matter of fact, you actually attach approximately your very own Stripe account and it charges directly to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your income. Relying on the number of clients you get, that 10% can be quite a bit even more cash than the regular monthly price of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This might appear nerdy, yet what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv deal with the outside making use of devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … absolutely nothing. No integrations in all.
Overall, I simply felt like BeeHiiv was much more built toward genuine e-mail marketing. It was constructed by people that “get it”. Also the opt-in forms and the landing page develops appear much better built for conversions. Growth 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 claimed, Substack positions itself toward “developers” greater than e-mail marketing professionals and e-newsletter proprietors. Therefore, you see some points tailored extra towards people who just think in terms of content creation.
For example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does support multiple publications, they are treated quite individually. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to several publications at the same time. This isn’t something I require, yet … amazing for individuals that might require it.
Substack additionally has even more social functionality built-in. For instance, it has a conversation feature to host chats with customers. It also has a “Notes” feature which works kind of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share things from other “Stacks” you read. Intriguing. Overall, Substack is set up to be much more like a social network which supports long-form material.
On the whole, Substack is likewise extra … minimalist. You either take care of that or do not. Directly, I don’t. Nevertheless, if the goal is simpleness of user interface and, frankly, features … Substack works rather well.
But, I’ll be clear here …
When it comes to real marketing, I don’t think there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is much better suited. I looked for more points that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, however honestly … I have a difficult time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are typically via to be the closest rivals, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are going after the same target audience and have similar capacities.
ConvertKit is additionally placed at developers (like Substack), however it is much more highly catering to people that do it for service. ConvertKit has nice visual automation structure, it’s own business platform, and much more. ConvertKit is a really good system.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature failure right here. ConvertKit is well known already. But, here’s how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Points ConvertKit Is Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has much more adaptability when it comes to it’s automations. I will likewise claim that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit much more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains labeling. This is just a standard function of e-mail listings that enables division in a far more adaptable method than BeeHiiv currently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support tagging at some point soon, truthfully. It seems like an oversight that it is missing How Do I Verify My Identity on Beehiiv.
ConvertKit does now supply the capacity to offer points using their own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is very important to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would always pick a much more direct option anyhow. For me, I prefer to utilize my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been around a lot longer and therefore has way much more integration choices. Lots of web-based tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is rather powerful. For example, their plugin currently even sustains member-gated web content along with auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. In essence, this a lot more closely puts ConvertKit into direct competition by having you have the ability to publish to your site and your e-mail list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is seriously lacking in these sort of third-party integrations right now. It’ll arrive. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also active dealing with the growth tools of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not just incentivize people to share your e-newsletter with advantages, yet you can also pay per lead within the inner ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your listing. These are actually incredible features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you know ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among one of the most well known viral promo platforms for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall wherefore this means for the platform moving forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Better At … How Do I Verify My Identity on Beehiiv
BeeHiiv is a lot earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies less features and much less integrations, which is all-natural for this phase of the cycle. Nevertheless, it likewise suggests that they are quickly creating.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have experienced practically weekly release of new features right into the platform. And these aren’t puny little features … however large features that are rather essential. Their speed of advancement now has actually been impressive.
I likewise quite value just how receptive they are. In fact, one of their item statements about some layout enhancements to the web design features in fact had a little issue with the web content width. I just replied to that email to tell them. I quickly got a reply directly from the chief executive officer:.
That same day, the issue was taken care of.
Couple of days later on, I provided one more pointer …
Certainly, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to activate automations based upon the embed form made use of was contributed to the system.
That type of responsiveness and straight participation of the team is something I really appreciate.
Another significant point of differentiation here is the price. Both systems use totally free plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan supplies extra ability and even more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise even more favorable. ConvertKit seems less costly in the beginning glance since their pricing page reveals reduced numbers, however the client limits are FAR reduced and your cost quickly increases as your checklist expands.
With BeeHiiv, your first level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid yearly), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 customers. That same dimension checklist is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I personally use), you can grow your listing approximately 100,000. A listing 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 annually, also. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for simply $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv remains in an entirely various organization when it involves pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately increase prices? They might as time takes place. But, I’m guessing individuals like myself who are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see how points continue.
Things I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Add
Among things you absolutely require to remember is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do seem to advance instead quickly and make brand-new product news somewhat usually, yet there are some basic features I really desire they had that I need to simply await.
One is that they need to have a setup on membership kinds where I could choose an automation to run right at the form level. That would certainly be remarkable for numerous factors. Already, membership forms look OK, yet there’s really little setups for them to aid in segmentation.
It would be nice to have tagging at the customer degree. This would be powerful.
I assume webhooks ought to be part of automations to make built-in automations much easier and minimize dependence on outside devices like Zapier.
There are additionally some small management interface adjustments that would certainly come in handy. For instance:
- Capability to mass edit/remove customers.
- Capacity to bulk edit posts (as an example, to identify a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a few basic fields as standard on subscribers (like the name).
- Some more customization alternatives for the internet site (such as even more flexible shade selections, headline control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Things I wish they make with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, yet it isn’t ideal and certainly not virtually as established as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM item.
It probably never ever will certainly be, either. As I said, the function is various so it would not much a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to become a complete marketing automation platform. I guess you never understand, however.
Final Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Review
I like BeeHiiv rather a whole lot. Enough where I determined to change my own e-newsletters over to the platform despite my personal preference for digital sovereignty and possessing my own system.
Put simply, for the e-newsletter posting version especially, I saw sufficient worth in their system to require the change.
Bear in mind, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my exclusive e-mail checklist. I utilize BeeHiiv wherefore it is good at, but I purposefully have points establish to ensure that I additionally maintain my list “in house” within FluentCRM.
If you make use of 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 ever will be).
So, the concern is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are making use of Substack now, I ‘d most definitely consider switching to BeeHiiv. It will just be extra business-friendly. It is targeting different abilities and different requirements. And also, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the button needs to be pretty uncomplicated.
If you get on ConvertKit now, I ‘d most likely stay put unless you have a large e-mail list and are therefore being fleeced with their high month-to-month expense. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are repeating quickly. There’s additionally a pretty good chance you’re not also utilizing several of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not even require them. Because of that, BeeHiiv might conveniently be a better and a lot more inexpensive fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be very intentional about growing an e-newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE platform to think about and keep and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is developed to be, it is one of the 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 for yourself. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll discover the complimentary account to be rather feature rich.