I have utilized a great deal of different e-mail list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a significant supporter of digital sovereignty and having your own platform. Because of that (and the amazing features), I have actually been utilizing AI Growth Hackerz Beehiiv.
So, it is undoubtedly an unusual move for me to decide to use BeeHiiv. After all, it is a held application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I wish to look at why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I intend to attend to the concern of digital sovereignty while utilizing the system and I ‘d likewise like to deal with why I chose to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For Newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my newsletter called My Hobby + A Large Change In Method, I talked about just how and why I chose to transform my recreational vehicle blog site right into primarily an e-newsletter. I decided that was the business design I intended to seek with that said residential property.
However, to intentionally pursue it as an e-newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the email list for Happily motor home, yet FluentCRM is not a newsletter system. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, honestly, using it for newsletters is a little bit of a waste. Extra on that in a little bit.
As I claimed because problem of the e-newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices developed into it specific to my objective. Things such as:
- Ability to release (to the blog site) and send out the email simultaneously without having it be two separate activities.
- Built in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would have needed a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capacity to do cross-promotions with other newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are essentially one-click registration web links. Great for promo in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, however, so there are ways to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your newsletter.
- Built-in ad network, if I pick to generate income from with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and primarily run a costs e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Essentially, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter authors with features aimed at development. The system was essentially developed by the people who developed the modern technology for Morning Mixture. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the factor here. BeeHiiv is developed from scratch for the function of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a various function.
And I finished off with this:.
I might without a doubt be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv too. At the very least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. As a matter of fact, I simply went all out. And in fact, The side was re-branded over to The Morning WP, set off as it’s own building to make sure that I can grow it extra deliberately also.
The goal is that each e-newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded independently. Happily recreational vehicle was young, so very easy to transition. But, The Morning WP (previously The Side) was hidden in a sea of stuff here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s own. It will undoubtedly always be carefully connected with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet doesn’t have to be a part of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was built for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Normal Email List
There’s a difference in between a newsletter system and simply an email list.
You can host your e-mail checklist everywhere you want and there are a variety of them around, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted alternatives like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The key distinction is that, with a newsletter platform, the act of posting implies that it is going to your site and to your email customers simultaneously.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are releasing to that web site. Yet, you are additionally sending off to all clients at the same time. The site and it’s subscribers are all in one. This makes monitoring of the system much simpler.
With a lot of e-mail platforms, any e-newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is constructed totally individually from your site. So, for instance, you might publish a post to WordPress but then you would certainly require to individually develop and send an e-mail to your list to send it to subscribers. These are after that two different sets of archives and 2 different actions since blog posts and your e-mails are not inherently connected.
The closest point that turns WordPress into a true newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name due to the fact that it practically “glues” your e-newsletter to your WordPress posts and allows them to be the exact same point. Certainly, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid choice if I intended to remain to self-host every little thing. Nevertheless, you would certainly lose the growth devices that include a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing an e-newsletter naturally features a various set of needs than a common e-mail listing.
You do not usually need much marketing automation. You don’t usually require autoresponder sequences, event tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO need, though, is one seamless publishing experience and growth tools to assist you develop your subscriber base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my clients that I was going to change the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the reality that I chose to select BeeHiiv, that doesn’t mean I assume Substack sucks. In fact, because Substack has actually been around longer, it is elder and has more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is younger, there are a pair points that at first got my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically customized to e-newsletter authors. As a matter of fact, it is actually constructed by the same people who built the technology behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, does not matter. But, the apparent positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter growth called me out over the more generic positioning of being a “designer”. Development is what I’m interested in here.
- That branding and distinction additionally means that BeeHiiv has some rather large brand names and big magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo creators. Once again, it simply informs me the consumer avatar difference in between the two companies.
Sending our my newsletter by means of FluentCRM really did not specifically suck. The only reason I would contemplate drinking points up is if I assumed I might GROW the checklist quicker. And BeeHiiv talked specifically to that goal.
Because of the targeting, I really don’t watch BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a different sort of consumer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being more direct rivals.
However, let’s dive deeper than just the placing below.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv appears like it was constructed by individuals that recognizing email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems much more tailored toward designers.
For instance, BeeHiiv provides custom fields on customers. Currently, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. As a matter of fact, it is a visual automation builder that works a whole lot like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation functionality is still early-phase. It is still quite minimal in triggers and the only activity is the ability to send out an email. However, improvements are coming. Soon enough, automations will have brand-new triggers along with new actions, such as customizing custom-made fields, sending webhooks, and so on. I’ve already seen improvements to their automations simply given that I began using the platform. For example:
- Capacity to trigger automations based upon which particular embed form they can be found in on.
- Capability to instantly do re-engagement (and manage individuals based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Capacity to do basic conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can not do this because the target market of Substack just would not believe to approach this like an email marketer.
When it concerns composing your newsletters, the writing user interface of BeeHiiv is simply a lot more geared toward newsletters. Actually, it in fact has similarities to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it functions. I find it to be extra instinctive, directly.
Substack’s writing interface is nice and clean, however it would certainly be much more equal to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This difference is greater than simply kind. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Area” and afterwards placed anything you want in it. After that, you can place Presence alternatives on that area to reveal it just to paid subscribers, conceal it from e-mail, hide from subscribers, reveal only to customers, and so on. Substack uses absolutely nothing like this.
And when/if the moment comes that I start a costs membership version, BeeHiiv does not take any kind of profits. As a matter of fact, you essentially link as much as your own Stripe account and it charges straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your earnings. Depending on the amount of customers you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit even more money than the month-to-month price of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This may appear unpopular, but what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv work with the outdoors using devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … absolutely nothing. No integrations in all.
Generally, I just felt like BeeHiiv was more built toward real e-mail marketing. It was developed by individuals who “get it”. Even the opt-in types and the landing page develops appear much better developed for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I want to see BeeHiiv add, I like the direction it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually claimed, Substack placements itself towards “developers” greater than email marketing experts and e-newsletter owners. For that reason, you see some things tailored much more toward individuals who simply think in regards to web content production.
For instance, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does support several publications, they are dealt with fairly separately. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to several magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I require, however … trendy for people who could need it.
Substack also has even more social functionality built-in. As an example, it has a conversation feature to host chats with customers. It additionally has a “Notes” function which works type of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you read. Interesting. Generally, Substack is established to be much more like a social network which supports long-form web content.
Overall, Substack is additionally extra … minimal. You either take care of that or don’t. Personally, I don’t. Nonetheless, if the goal is simplicity of interface and, honestly, features … Substack functions rather well.
However, I’ll be clear here …
When it comes to actual marketing, I don’t believe there’s much question that BeeHiiv is much better matched. I tried to find even more factors that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, yet honestly … I have a hard time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are typically via to be the closest rivals, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are going after the same target audience and have comparable capabilities.
ConvertKit is also positioned at designers (like Substack), yet it is far more highly satisfying individuals that do it for business. ConvertKit has good visual automation structure, it’s own commerce system, and extra. ConvertKit is a truly nice system.
I’m not going to bore you with a complete feature-by-feature breakdown right here. ConvertKit is popular already. But, right here’s how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Things ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has extra flexibility when it pertains to it’s automations. I will additionally claim that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit a lot more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains marking. This is just a standard feature of e-mail listings that makes it possible for segmentation in an even more versatile method than BeeHiiv currently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support tagging eventually soon, honestly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing out on AI Growth Hackerz Beehiiv.
ConvertKit does currently provide the capability to market points by means of their very own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is necessary to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would constantly choose an extra straight alternative anyway. For me, I like to use my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been about a lot longer and therefore has way extra integration choices. Lots of web-based tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is fairly powerful. For instance, their plugin now even sustains member-gated content along with auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Essentially, this much more very closely places ConvertKit right into direct competitors by having you have the ability to release to your website and your email list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is severely lacking in these sort of third-party integrations right now. It’ll arrive. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also active tackling the growth devices of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not only incentivize individuals to share your e-newsletter with perks, but you can likewise pay per lead within the inner advertisement network of BeeHiiv to grow your list. These are actually outstanding features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you understand ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among the most popular viral promo platforms for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall wherefore this means for the platform moving forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … AI Growth Hackerz Beehiiv
BeeHiiv is a lot previously in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this stage of the cycle. Nevertheless, it likewise indicates that they are swiftly developing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually witnessed practically once a week launch of new features into the platform. And these aren’t weak little features … but large features that are rather crucial. Their rate of development now has actually been impressive.
I likewise very much appreciate just how receptive they are. In fact, among their item news about some style improvements to the website design features in fact included a small trouble with the material width. I simply responded to that email to tell them. I rapidly got a reply directly from the chief executive officer:.
That very same day, the problem was fixed.
Few days later on, I gave them another suggestion …
Sure enough, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to cause automations based upon the embed form used was contributed to the system.
That type of responsiveness and straight involvement of the team is something I really appreciate.
One more significant factor of differentiation right here is the cost. Both systems supply complimentary plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan offers extra capacity and even more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also even more positive. ConvertKit appears cheaper in the beginning look because their pricing web page shows reduced numbers, nevertheless the client restrictions are FAR lower and your rate swiftly enhances as your checklist grows.
With BeeHiiv, your very first level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid annually), however you can have up to 10,000 clients. That exact same size listing is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their best plan and the one I personally make use of), you can expand your list up to 100,000. A checklist of that size would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, too, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay yearly, as well. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay yearly.
BeeHiiv is in a completely various organization when it involves pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point raise prices? They might as time goes on. But, I’m presuming people like myself that are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see how points proceed.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among the important things you absolutely require to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do seem to develop rather swiftly and make brand-new product announcements somewhat usually, yet there are some fundamental features I truly wish they had that I require to simply wait on.
One is that they need to have a setup on registration types where I can pick an automation to run right at the form level. That would be incredible for many factors. As of now, subscription types look OK, yet there’s really little setups for them to help in division.
It would be nice to have marking at the subscriber degree. This would certainly be powerful.
I think webhooks ought to become part of automations to make integrated automations easier and decrease reliance on outside devices like Zapier.
There are also some minor management user interface modifications that would come in handy. As an example:
- Capacity to mass edit/remove subscribers.
- Ability to mass edit blog posts (for instance, to tag a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of basic fields as conventional on subscribers (like the name).
- Some even more modification alternatives for the internet site (such as even more versatile color selections, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Points I wish they finish with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t perfect and absolutely not almost as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM item.
It probably never will be, either. As I claimed, the objective is different so it wouldn’t a lot a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to become a complete marketing automation system. I presume you never ever know, though.
Last Ideas On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I such as BeeHiiv quite a lot. Enough where I determined to change my own newsletters over to the system despite my personal choice for digital sovereignty and owning my very own system.
Basically, for the newsletter posting design particularly, I saw sufficient value in their platform to require the change.
Remember, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my unique e-mail checklist. I make use of BeeHiiv of what it is good at, however I purposefully have points set up so that I also keep my checklist “in house” within FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the same. It is simply a great insurance policy, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your listing will certainly be of high use (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will certainly be).
So, the question is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are using Substack right now, I ‘d most definitely take into consideration changing to BeeHiiv. It will simply be a lot more business-friendly. It is targeting different abilities and various demands. Plus, BeeHiiv also has import devices for Substack, so the switch should be quite uncomplicated.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d probably sit tight unless you have a huge email listing and are therefore being wooled with their high month-to-month expense. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are repeating rapidly. There’s additionally a respectable opportunity you’re not also utilizing a few of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you don’t even require them. Therefore, BeeHiiv might easily be a much better and extra affordable fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be very willful concerning growing an e-newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE platform to consider and keep and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is made to be, it is one of the most effective games around today. This is the system to see.
BeeHiiv uses a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth taking a look at for yourself. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll discover the free account to be rather feature rich.