I have actually used a great deal of various email list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a huge advocate of digital sovereignty and having your own system. Therefore (and the amazing features), I have actually been utilizing Matt Mcgarry Newsletter Growth System.
So, it is indeed a weird move for me to determine to make use of BeeHiiv. After all, it is a hosted application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I wish to go over why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I intend to attend to the concern of digital sovereignty while making use of the system and I would certainly also such as to attend to why I picked to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For Newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Pastime + A Large Change In Strategy, I discussed exactly how and why I chose to turn my RV blog site into largely a newsletter. I determined that was business design I wanted to pursue keeping that property.
However, to purposefully pursue it as an e-newsletter, I desired a system that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the e-mail checklist for Happily RV, however FluentCRM is not a newsletter system. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, honestly, utilizing it for e-newsletters is a little bit of a waste. More on that in a bit.
As I said in that problem of the newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a system with tools developed right into it specific to my purpose. Points such as:
- Capacity to publish (to the blog) and send the email concurrently without having it be two different actions.
- Integrated in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Built-in ability to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are primarily one-click subscription links. Great for promotion 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 advertise your e-newsletter.
- Built-in advertisement network, if I pick to monetize with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capacity to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and basically run a premium e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Generally, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter authors with features targeted at development. The system was essentially developed by the people that built up the innovation for Morning Brew. They know what they’re doing.
That is the factor here. BeeHiiv is built from scratch for the objective of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a different objective.
And I finished off with this:.
I may indeed be relocating The Edge over to BeeHiiv as well. At the very least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. Actually, I simply went all out. And as a matter of fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Morning WP, set off as it’s very own building to make sure that I can grow it extra deliberately too.
The objective is that each e-newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown independently. Gladly RV was young, so easy to change. But, The Early morning WP (previously The Side) was hidden in a sea of stuff below at the Blog Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s own. It will clearly constantly be very closely tied with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet doesn’t have to belong of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv because it was constructed for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Typical Email Listing
There’s a difference in between an e-newsletter system and just an email list.
You can hold your e-mail listing everywhere you desire 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 a newsletter system, the act of publishing means that it is mosting likely to your internet site and to your e-mail customers concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a site. You are publishing to that site. Yet, you are likewise dispatching to all clients at the same time. The internet site and it’s clients are all in one. This makes monitoring of the system much less complex.
With the majority of e-mail systems, any newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is constructed entirely independently from your site. So, as an example, you could release a short article to WordPress but after that you would certainly require to separately develop and send out an email to your listing to send it to clients. These are then two different sets of archives and 2 different actions because blog posts and your emails are not inherently linked.
The closest thing that turns WordPress right into a real newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name because it basically “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and allows them to be the exact same thing. Absolutely, something like Newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid choice if I intended to remain to self-host whatever. Nonetheless, you ‘d shed the development devices that include a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter naturally features a various set of requirements than a normal e-mail list.
You don’t generally need much marketing automation. You don’t normally require autoresponder sequences, occasion tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO requirement, however, is one seamless posting experience and growth tools to assist you build your subscriber base that specify to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my customers that I was mosting likely to switch the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many people ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the reality that I picked to select BeeHiiv, that does not mean I think Substack sucks. In fact, due to the fact that Substack has actually been about much longer, it is elder and has more features.
Although BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple points that at first got my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically tailored to e-newsletter publishers. As a matter of fact, it is literally constructed by the same individuals who built the innovation behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, doesn’t matter. But, the noticeable 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 here.
- That branding and distinction also means that BeeHiiv has some fairly large brands and huge publications using it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo creators. Once more, it just tells me the consumer avatar distinction in between the two companies.
Sending our my e-newsletter via FluentCRM really did not exactly suck. The only factor I would certainly ponder trembling things up is if I believed I might GROW the listing faster. And BeeHiiv spoke specifically to that objective.
Due to the targeting, I really don’t view BeeHiiv and Substack as direct competitors. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a different sort of customer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more straight rivals.
Yet, allow’s dive deeper than simply the positioning below.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Generally, BeeHiiv appears like it was developed by individuals who recognizing e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears extra tailored towards creators.
For instance, BeeHiiv provides personalized fields on customers. Now, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. As a matter of fact, it is an aesthetic 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 quite restricted in triggers and the only activity is the capability to send an e-mail. Nevertheless, improvements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will certainly have brand-new triggers as well as brand-new actions, such as changing custom-made fields, sending out webhooks, and so on. I’ve currently seen enhancements to their automations simply because I began making use of the platform. For instance:
- Ability to activate automations based on which details embed form they came in on.
- Capacity to automatically do re-engagement (and take care of individuals based on opens up and non-opens).
- Capacity to do basic conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can not do this since the target audience of Substack simply wouldn’t believe to approach this like an email marketer.
When it concerns creating your newsletters, the composing interface of BeeHiiv is just extra tailored towards e-newsletters. As a matter of fact, it really has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it functions. I discover it to be more intuitive, directly.
Substack’s writing interface is nice and tidy, but it would certainly be a lot more equal to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is more than simply form. For example, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Area” and then put anything you want in it. After that, you can place Exposure options on that section to show it just to paid subscribers, conceal it from email, conceal from subscribers, show just to subscribers, etc. Substack provides absolutely nothing like this.
And when/if the moment comes that I start a premium membership version, BeeHiiv does not take any income. Actually, you actually link as much as your own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your profits. Relying on the amount of clients you get, that 10% can be quite a bit more cash than the regular monthly price of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This could appear unpopular, but what it suggests is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv deal with the outside utilizing devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … absolutely nothing. No integrations in any way.
In general, I simply felt like BeeHiiv was extra built toward actual e-mail marketing. It was constructed by individuals who “get it”. Also the opt-in types and the landing page makes seem much better built for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I want to see BeeHiiv add, I such as the direction it is going more than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually stated, Substack settings itself toward “creators” more than email marketing experts and e-newsletter proprietors. Because of that, you see some things geared extra toward people that simply believe in regards to material creation.
For example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does support multiple publications, they are treated quite separately. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to numerous publications at the same time. This isn’t something I need, however … amazing for individuals that may need it.
Substack likewise has more social functionality built-in. For example, it has a conversation function to host talks with clients. It additionally has a “Notes” feature which works kind of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you’re reading. Fascinating. On the whole, Substack is set up to be more like a social network which supports long-form web content.
Generally, Substack is also more … minimal. You either take care of that or do not. Personally, I do not. However, if the objective is simplicity of user interface and, honestly, features … Substack functions rather well.
Yet, I’ll be clear here …
When it involves real marketing, I don’t think there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is much better suited. I searched for even more points that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, yet truthfully … I have a difficult time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are frequently via to be the closest competitors, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are going after the very same target market and have similar capacities.
ConvertKit is additionally positioned at developers (like Substack), yet it is far more highly dealing with individuals that do it for company. ConvertKit has wonderful visual automation structure, it’s own business system, and a lot more. ConvertKit is a really nice system.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature breakdown below. ConvertKit is well known already. However, below’s just how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Points ConvertKit Is Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has much more adaptability when it concerns it’s automations. I will likewise claim that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit much more user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports labeling. This is simply a basic function of e-mail listings that makes it possible for division in a far more adaptable method than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support tagging at some time quickly, honestly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Matt Mcgarry Newsletter Growth System.
ConvertKit does now provide the ability to offer things via their own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that’s important to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would certainly always choose a much more straight alternative anyway. For me, I favor to utilize my very own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been about much longer and because of that has way extra integration alternatives. Tons of online tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is quite powerful. For instance, their plugin currently also sustains member-gated content in addition to auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your site. Fundamentally, this more closely places ConvertKit into straight competition by having you have the ability to publish to your website and your email list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is drastically lacking in these sort of third-party integrations presently. It’ll arrive. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even active taking on the growth devices of BeeHiiv. As an example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not only incentivize individuals to share your e-newsletter with perks, yet you can also pay per lead within the internal advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your list. These are actually incredible features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you understand ConvertKit acquired Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of the most well known viral promotion platforms for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall wherefore this indicates for the system moving forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Matt Mcgarry Newsletter Growth System
BeeHiiv is a lot previously in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies much less features and less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. Nevertheless, it likewise suggests that they are swiftly developing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have observed practically regular release of new features right into the platform. And these aren’t puny little features … but large features that are quite essential. Their speed of advancement at this point has actually been impressive.
I likewise quite appreciate exactly how receptive they are. In fact, one of their product news regarding some design improvements to the website design features in fact consisted of a little trouble with the web content width. I just responded to that e-mail to tell them. I quickly obtained a reply straight from the CEO:.
That exact same day, the issue was dealt with.
Couple of days later on, I provided one more idea …
Indeed, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to cause automations based upon the embed form made use of was contributed to the system.
That kind of responsiveness and direct participation of the team is something I really value.
Another significant point of distinction below is the cost. Both systems provide complimentary plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan uses a lot more ability and more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also even more positive. ConvertKit seems less expensive in the beginning look due to the fact that their pricing page shows reduced numbers, however the subscriber limitations are FAR reduced and your cost promptly increases as your checklist grows.
With BeeHiiv, your very first level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid annually), however you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That exact same dimension checklist is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I directly utilize), you can expand your listing approximately 100,000. A checklist of that size would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, as well, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay every year, as well. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay annually.
BeeHiiv is in a completely various organization when it concerns pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point boost prices? They may as time goes on. But, I’m guessing people like myself who are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see just how points continue.
Things I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Add
One of things you certainly need to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do seem to advance rather promptly and make new product announcements somewhat commonly, but there are some fundamental features I actually want they had that I require to just wait for.
One is that they need to have a setup on subscription kinds where I might choose an automation to run right at the form degree. That would certainly be outstanding for many reasons. Already, subscription types look OK, but there’s extremely little settings for them to help in division.
It would behave to have identifying at the client degree. This would be effective.
I believe webhooks should be part of automations to make integrated automations much easier and reduce dependence on outdoors tools like Zapier.
There are additionally some small administrative user interface changes that would be handy. For instance:
- Capability to mass edit/remove subscribers.
- Capacity to bulk edit blog posts (for instance, to mark a number of them at the same time).
- Having a few fundamental areas as typical on clients (like the name).
- Some more personalization choices for the web site (such as more versatile shade selections, heading control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Points I wish they finish with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t perfect and certainly not almost as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM item.
It most likely never will be, either. As I said, the objective is various so it would not a lot a great deal of feeling for BeeHiiv to end up being a full marketing automation platform. I presume you never ever recognize, however.
Last Ideas On This BeeHiiv Review
I like BeeHiiv fairly a lot. Sufficient where I determined to switch my own newsletters over to the platform despite my personal choice for digital sovereignty and possessing my very own platform.
Basically, for the e-newsletter posting model particularly, I saw adequate worth in their system to call for the change.
Remember, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my special e-mail checklist. I make use of BeeHiiv wherefore it is proficient at, but I deliberately have points establish to ensure that I additionally maintain my list “in residence” within FluentCRM.
If you make use of BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the exact same. It is just a great insurance coverage, 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 system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are using Substack now, I ‘d definitely take into consideration switching to BeeHiiv. It will simply be extra business-friendly. It is targeting various capacities and different demands. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the switch should be quite uncomplicated.
If you get on ConvertKit now, I ‘d probably stay put unless you have a big email listing and are for that reason being wooled with their high regular monthly expense. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are iterating promptly. There’s likewise a pretty good chance you’re not even making use of some of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you do not also require them. Therefore, BeeHiiv might quickly be a far better and much more budget friendly fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be very deliberate regarding growing a newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE system to take into consideration and keep and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is designed to be, it is one of the most effective video games around today. This is the platform to view.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth checking out on your own. And if you end up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll discover the free account to be rather feature rich.