I have actually utilized a lot of various e-mail list systems over the years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a significant supporter of digital sovereignty and having your own platform. Because of that (and the awesome features), I have actually been using Is Beehiiv or Substack Better.
So, it is certainly an odd move for me to make a decision to utilize BeeHiiv. After all, it is an organized application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I want to go over why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I wish to attend to the issue of digital sovereignty while using the platform and I would certainly additionally like to address why I selected to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For E-newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Hobby + A Huge Shift In Approach, I spoke about exactly how and why I decided to turn my RV blog right into largely an e-newsletter. I chose that was business model I wanted to pursue with that building.
But, to deliberately seek it as a newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the email checklist for Gladly motor home, but FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter system. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, honestly, utilizing it for newsletters is a little bit of a waste. Much more on that particular in a little bit.
As I claimed in that problem of the newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices developed into it details to my objective. Points such as:
- Ability to publish (to the blog site) and send out the e-mail at the same time without having it be two different actions.
- Built in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would certainly require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Integrated ability to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are generally one-click subscription web links. Great for promo in various 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 ad network, if I pick to generate income from with advertisements in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and essentially run a premium newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Essentially, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter authors with features focused on development. The platform was literally constructed by the people that accumulated the innovation for Morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the factor here. BeeHiiv is constructed from scratch for the function of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different objective.
And I ended off with this:.
I may undoubtedly be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv as well. At the very least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. As a matter of fact, I simply went for it. And in fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Morning WP, triggered as it’s own building so that I can expand it more deliberately also.
The goal is that each newsletter has the capability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded individually. Gladly recreational vehicle was young, so simple to change. However, The Early morning WP (previously The Side) was buried 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 very own. It will certainly constantly be carefully linked with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet does not need to be a part of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv because it was constructed for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Normal Email Checklist
There’s a difference between a newsletter platform and simply an e-mail listing.
You can host your e-mail listing everywhere you want and there are a variety of them available, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The key difference is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of posting means that it is going to your internet site and to your email customers all at once.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a web site. You are releasing to that site. Yet, you are likewise dispatching to all customers at the same time. The web site and it’s clients are done in one. This makes management of the system much simpler.
With most email systems, any newsletter you set up is done as an e-mail campaign. It is developed completely independently from your website. So, for instance, you might publish a write-up to WordPress but then you would need to individually build and send out an email to your checklist to send it to subscribers. These are then two separate collections of archives and two separate actions because post and your emails are not naturally linked.
The closest point that transforms WordPress right into a real newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name due to the fact that it virtually “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress posts and allows them to be the exact same thing. Absolutely, something like Newsletter Glue would certainly be a strong option if I wanted to continue to self-host every little thing. Nevertheless, you would certainly shed the growth tools that feature a platform like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter naturally comes with a various collection of requirements than a typical email listing.
You don’t usually require much marketing automation. You do not typically require autoresponder series, event monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO requirement, however, is one seamless publishing experience and growth devices to help you construct your client base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my customers that I was mosting likely to change the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the fact that I selected to go with BeeHiiv, that does not mean I think Substack draws. In fact, because Substack has actually been around longer, it is elder and has more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple points that initially got my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is especially customized to e-newsletter authors. In fact, it is actually constructed by the exact same people that built the innovation behind Early morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, doesn’t matter. However, the evident positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter growth called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “maker”. Growth is what I want below.
- That branding and distinction additionally means that BeeHiiv has some relatively huge brands and big publications utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is aimed even more at solo designers. Once again, it just informs me the client avatar difference in between both business.
Sending our my newsletter by means of FluentCRM didn’t precisely draw. The only reason I would certainly consider drinking points up is if I thought I might GROW the checklist faster. And BeeHiiv spoke precisely to that objective.
Due to the targeting, I actually do not watch BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a various kind of customer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more direct rivals.
Yet, let’s dive much deeper than just the placing right here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
On the whole, BeeHiiv appears like it was built by people that comprehending e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears extra geared towards designers.
For example, BeeHiiv provides custom-made fields on customers. Now, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. Actually, it is an aesthetic automation builder that works a lot like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still rather restricted in triggers and the only activity is the capacity to send out an email. However, enhancements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will have brand-new triggers as well as brand-new actions, such as changing custom-made areas, sending out webhooks, and so on. I’ve currently seen enhancements to their automations just since I began using the platform. For instance:
- Ability to cause automations based upon which certain embed type they can be found in on.
- Capacity to instantly do re-engagement (and manage people based on opens and non-opens).
- Capacity to do standard conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can’t do this due to the fact that the target market of Substack just wouldn’t think to approach this like an e-mail marketing professional.
When it concerns creating your e-newsletters, the creating interface of BeeHiiv is just much more geared toward newsletters. As a matter of fact, it really has similarities to the WordPress block builder in just how it functions. I discover it to be more intuitive, directly.
Substack’s creating interface behaves and tidy, yet it would certainly be extra equivalent to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is greater than just form. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Area” and after that placed anything you desire in it. Then, you can put Visibility alternatives on that section to reveal it only to paid subscribers, hide it from e-mail, hide from customers, reveal just to subscribers, etc. Substack supplies absolutely nothing such as this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a costs membership model, BeeHiiv does not take any earnings. Actually, you literally link as much as your own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your earnings. Relying on the amount of clients you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit even more cash than the monthly price of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This may seem nerdy, however what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv deal with the outside making use of tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … absolutely nothing. No integrations in any way.
In general, I simply seemed like BeeHiiv was much more constructed towards genuine e-mail marketing. It was constructed by individuals that “get it”. Even the opt-in forms and the landing page makes seem far better developed for conversions. Growth is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv include, I like the direction it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually stated, Substack settings itself towards “makers” more than e-mail marketing experts and newsletter proprietors. Because of that, you see some points tailored extra towards individuals who simply assume in regards to content development.
For example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does support multiple magazines, they are treated fairly separately. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to multiple publications at the same time. This isn’t something I require, however … trendy for individuals that may require it.
Substack likewise has even more social capability built-in. As an example, it has a chat feature to host talks with clients. It also has a “Notes” feature which works kind of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you’re reading. Interesting. Overall, Substack is established to be more like a social media network which sustains long-form content.
On the whole, Substack is additionally much more … minimal. You either look after that or do not. Directly, I do not. Nonetheless, if the goal is simplicity of user interface and, honestly, features … Substack functions pretty well.
Yet, I’ll be clear below …
When it comes to real marketing, I do not believe there’s much question that BeeHiiv is much better matched. I searched for even more points that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, but frankly … I have a hard time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are frequently via 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 comparable capacities.
ConvertKit is likewise positioned at designers (like Substack), but it is much more strongly dealing with people that do it for service. ConvertKit has nice visual automation building, it’s own business platform, and extra. ConvertKit is an actually wonderful platform.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature break down here. ConvertKit is well known already. However, right here’s exactly how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Points ConvertKit Is Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has a lot more versatility when it involves it’s automations. I will also claim that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit more user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports tagging. This is just a basic function of e-mail lists that enables segmentation in a far more adaptable method than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to sustain identifying eventually quickly, frankly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing Is Beehiiv or Substack Better.
ConvertKit does currently supply the ability to market points via their very own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is essential 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 prefer to utilize my very own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about a lot longer and because of that has way more integration choices. Lots of online tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is fairly effective. As an example, their plugin currently also supports member-gated material as well as auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your site. Fundamentally, this more carefully places ConvertKit right into direct competition by having you be able to release to your site and your email listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is significantly doing not have in these kinds of third-party integrations currently. It’ll arrive. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also hectic tackling the growth devices 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 benefits, however you can additionally pay per lead within the inner ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your listing. These are actually awesome features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you know ConvertKit acquired Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of one of the most well known viral promotion platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall surface of what this implies for the platform going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Is Beehiiv or Substack Better
BeeHiiv is a lot previously in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that suggests less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this stage of the cycle. Nonetheless, it additionally suggests that they are rapidly establishing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have experienced virtually once a week launch of brand-new features into the system. And these aren’t puny little features … yet huge features that are rather crucial. Their rate of growth at this point has been impressive.
I also significantly appreciate just how receptive they are. In fact, one of their item news concerning some design improvements to the website design features actually contained a tiny problem with the web content width. I just replied to that email to tell them. I swiftly got a reply straight from the CEO:.
That very same day, the issue was fixed.
Few days later, I gave them an additional pointer …
Indeed, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to trigger automations based upon the embed kind utilized was contributed to the system.
That sort of responsiveness and direct participation of the group is something I truly value.
One more major factor of differentiation below is the price. Both systems supply free plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan uses much more ability and more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise FAR more positive. ConvertKit appears less expensive in the beginning glance since their pricing web page reveals reduced numbers, nonetheless the client limitations are much reduced and your price rapidly increases as your listing expands.
With BeeHiiv, your first level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid yearly), however you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That very same dimension checklist 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 personally utilize), you can grow your listing as much as 100,000. A listing of that size would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, as well, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay each year, also. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for simply $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv remains in a totally different organization when it concerns pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually boost costs? They may as time goes on. But, I’m thinking people like myself who are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see just how things continue.
Things I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of things you certainly need to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do appear to develop instead swiftly and make brand-new item announcements somewhat usually, however there are some standard features I really desire they had that I require to simply wait on.
One is that they need to have a setup on membership forms where I might choose an automation to run right at the kind degree. That would certainly be remarkable for numerous factors. Currently, registration kinds look OK, however there’s very little setups for them to aid in division.
It would be nice to have identifying at the subscriber degree. This would be powerful.
I believe webhooks need to belong to automations to make integrated automations much easier and reduce reliance on outside tools like Zapier.
There are also some minor administrative interface adjustments that would certainly be handy. As an example:
- Capability to mass edit/remove subscribers.
- Capability to mass edit posts (for example, to mark a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a few basic areas as conventional on subscribers (like the name).
- Some more modification choices for the internet site (such as more flexible shade options, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Points I wish they finish with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, but it isn’t ideal and absolutely not nearly as established as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM product.
It probably never ever will be, either. As I stated, the purpose is various so it would not a lot a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to end up being a complete marketing automation platform. I think you never understand, though.
Final Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I like BeeHiiv rather a great deal. Sufficient where I determined to change my very own e-newsletters over to the system in spite of my individual preference for digital sovereignty and possessing my own system.
Put simply, for the newsletter publishing model especially, I saw sufficient value in their system to require the modification.
Remember, I do not use BeeHiiv as my unique e-mail listing. I make use of BeeHiiv wherefore it is efficient, yet I deliberately have things establish to ensure that I additionally maintain my listing “in house” inside of FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the same. It is just 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 full marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will certainly be).
So, the question is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are utilizing Substack today, I ‘d certainly take into consideration switching to BeeHiiv. It will merely be much more business-friendly. It is targeting various capabilities and various requirements. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the button ought to be quite uncomplicated.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d most likely sit tight unless you have a large email listing and are for that reason being wooled with their high regular monthly costs. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are iterating swiftly. There’s also a respectable opportunity you’re not even using a few of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you don’t also need them. Therefore, BeeHiiv can conveniently be a better and more inexpensive fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be extremely willful regarding expanding a newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE system to consider and keep and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is made to be, it is among the most effective games around right now. This is the system to watch.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves looking into on your own. And if you end up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll find the complimentary account to be quite feature abundant.