I have used a great deal of various email list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a massive advocate of digital sovereignty and owning your very own system. For that reason (and the incredible features), I have actually been utilizing Alex & Books Beehiiv.
So, it is certainly a weird move for me to make a decision to make use of BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is an organized application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I want to look at why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I want to address the concern of digital sovereignty while using the system and I would certainly also like to deal with why I picked to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For E-newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my newsletter called My Pastime + A Huge Shift In Technique, I spoke about just how and why I chose to turn my recreational vehicle blog right into mostly an e-newsletter. I chose that was business version I wanted to seek with that property.
However, to intentionally seek it as an e-newsletter, I desired a system that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the email list for Gladly RV, however FluentCRM is not a newsletter platform. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, truthfully, using it for newsletters is a little a waste. A lot more on that particular in a bit.
As I stated in that concern of the newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a platform with tools developed into it specific to my function. Things such as:
- Capability to publish (to the blog) and send the e-mail concurrently without having it be two separate actions.
- Built in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capacity to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are generally one-click registration web links. Great for promotion in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, though, so there are methods to do that.
- Capacity to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your e-newsletter.
- Integrated ad network, if I pick to monetize with ads in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capacity to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and primarily run a costs e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Basically, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features targeted at growth. The system was actually developed by the individuals who accumulated the innovation for Early morning Mixture. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the factor right here. BeeHiiv is constructed from scratch for the function of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a different purpose.
And I finished off with this:.
I may indeed be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv as well. At least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. As a matter of fact, I just went for it. And as a matter of fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, triggered as it’s very own building so that I can expand it extra intentionally as well.
The goal is that each newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded independently. Happily RV was young, so simple to shift. However, The Early morning WP (formerly The Side) was hidden in a sea of things right here at the Blog Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s very own. It will clearly constantly be closely connected with the Blog Marketing Academy, but doesn’t need to belong of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv because it was built for this function. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Typical Email Checklist
There’s a difference in between a newsletter platform and just an e-mail checklist.
You can host your email listing everywhere you desire 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 distinction?
The primary difference is that, with a newsletter system, the act of publishing means that it is going to your internet site and to your e-mail clients all at once.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a site. You are publishing to that website. However, you are likewise dispatching to all clients at the same time. The site and it’s clients are done in one. This makes management of the system much simpler.
With most email systems, any newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is built completely individually from your internet site. So, for instance, you could publish a short article to WordPress but after that you would certainly require to individually develop and send an email to your list to send it to clients. These are then two different sets of archives and two separate actions due to the fact that post and your e-mails are not inherently linked.
The closest thing that turns WordPress right into a true e-newsletter platform is Newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name because it pretty much “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress posts and allows them to be the same point. Definitely, something like Newsletter Glue would be a solid choice if I wanted to remain to self-host whatever. Nonetheless, you would certainly shed the growth tools that feature a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing an e-newsletter inherently includes a various collection of needs than a normal e-mail checklist.
You do not typically require much marketing automation. You don’t normally need autoresponder series, event monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO demand, however, is one seamless posting experience and development tools to aid you build your subscriber base that specify to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my clients that I was going to switch the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the reality that I picked to go with BeeHiiv, that does not mean I assume Substack draws. Actually, since Substack has been about much longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Although BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a pair things that at first got my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically tailored to newsletter publishers. As a matter of fact, it is literally constructed by the very same individuals who developed the technology behind Early morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real world, doesn’t matter. But, the apparent positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter development called me out over the more generic positioning of being a “creator”. Development is what I want right here.
- That branding and differentiation likewise implies that BeeHiiv has some rather huge brands and big magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo designers. Once again, it simply informs me the customer character distinction between the two business.
Sending our my e-newsletter by means of FluentCRM didn’t exactly draw. The only reason I would ponder drinking things up is if I assumed I can GROW the listing quicker. And BeeHiiv talked specifically to that objective.
Due to the targeting, I actually do not check out BeeHiiv and Substack as direct competitors. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a different kind of customer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra direct competitors.
However, let’s dive deeper than simply the placing here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv appears like it was developed by people who recognizing email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears a lot more geared towards makers.
For instance, BeeHiiv supplies custom-made fields on subscribers. Now, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. In 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 rather minimal in triggers and the only action is the capability to send an email. Nonetheless, improvements are coming. Soon enough, automations will certainly have new triggers along with brand-new actions, such as modifying personalized areas, sending webhooks, and so on. I’ve currently seen improvements to their automations simply considering that I began using the system. As an example:
- Ability to cause automations based upon which specific embed type they can be found in on.
- Capacity to automatically do re-engagement (and handle people 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 will. Substack just can’t do this due to the fact that the target audience of Substack simply would not think to approach this like an e-mail marketer.
When it comes to creating your newsletters, the writing interface of BeeHiiv is simply much more tailored toward e-newsletters. Actually, it actually has similarities to the WordPress block builder in just how it works. I find it to be much more intuitive, directly.
Substack’s writing interface is nice and tidy, yet it would 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 after that put anything you want in it. After that, you can place Exposure alternatives on that particular section to show it just to paid customers, conceal it from email, hide from customers, show just to customers, and so on. Substack uses absolutely nothing like this.
And when/if the time comes that I start a costs subscription design, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any kind of income. As a matter of fact, you essentially connect approximately your very own Stripe account and it charges straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your income. Depending on how many customers you get, that 10% can be quite a bit more cash than the month-to-month cost of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This might seem unpopular, but what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv work with the outdoors making use of devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … absolutely nothing. No integrations at all.
In general, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was extra developed toward actual e-mail marketing. It was constructed by people that “get it”. Even the opt-in forms and the landing page creates appear far better constructed for conversions. Growth is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I wish to see BeeHiiv include, I like the instructions it is going more than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have said, Substack positions itself towards “developers” more than email marketing experts and e-newsletter owners. Therefore, you see some points tailored much more toward people that just believe in regards to content development.
For instance, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does sustain numerous magazines, they are treated rather individually. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to several magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I need, but … amazing for people who could require it.
Substack also has more social functionality built-in. For instance, it has a chat function to host chats with subscribers. It also has a “Notes” feature which works kind of like a social media newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you’re reading. Intriguing. In general, Substack is established to be extra like a social media which sustains long-form material.
In general, Substack is likewise extra … minimalist. You either take care of that or do not. Personally, I don’t. Nonetheless, if the objective is simplicity of user interface and, frankly, features … Substack works pretty well.
Yet, I’ll be clear below …
When it pertains to actual marketing, I don’t assume there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is much better fit. I looked for more factors that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, however honestly … I have a hard time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are typically via to be the closest competitors, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are going after the very same target market and have similar capacities.
ConvertKit is also placed at makers (like Substack), yet it is much more strongly dealing with individuals that do it for organization. ConvertKit has nice visual automation building, it’s own commerce platform, and more. ConvertKit is a truly wonderful platform.
I’m not mosting likely to bore you with a complete feature-by-feature breakdown here. ConvertKit is well known already. But, below’s how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Points ConvertKit Is Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has much more versatility when it pertains to it’s automations. I will certainly also state that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit a lot more user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports marking. This is just a basic function of e-mail checklists that enables segmentation in an even more versatile method than BeeHiiv currently does. I expect BeeHiiv to support identifying at some time soon, truthfully. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Alex & Books Beehiiv.
ConvertKit does now provide the capacity to market things by means of their very own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is essential to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, nonetheless, I would constantly pick a more direct choice anyway. For me, I favor to use my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about much longer and therefore has way extra integration choices. Lots of web-based tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their own WordPress plugin that is fairly powerful. As an example, their plugin now even sustains member-gated content along with auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your site. Basically, this extra carefully puts ConvertKit right into direct competitors by having you be able to publish to your site and your email checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is badly lacking in these type of third-party integrations presently. It’ll get there. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also active tackling the development tools of BeeHiiv. As an example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your e-newsletter with perks, yet you can also pay per lead within the internal advertisement network of BeeHiiv to grow your listing. These are really amazing features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you understand ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among one of the most popular viral promotion platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall surface wherefore this implies for the platform going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Alex & Books Beehiiv
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies much less features and less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. Nonetheless, it also indicates that they are rapidly establishing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have observed practically once a week launch of new features right into the platform. And these aren’t undersized little features … but huge features that are fairly essential. Their speed of growth now has been impressive.
I additionally significantly value just how receptive they are. In fact, among their item news regarding some design improvements to the website design features really had a little trouble with the web content size. I simply responded to that e-mail to tell them. I quickly got a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That exact same day, the issue was repaired.
Couple of days later on, I provided an additional suggestion …
Indeed, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to cause automations based on the embed form used was added to the system.
That sort of responsiveness and direct involvement of the team is something I really value.
Another significant point of distinction right here is the cost. Both platforms offer totally free plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan uses a lot more capability and more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally much more beneficial. ConvertKit seems less expensive initially look because their pricing web page shows lower numbers, nevertheless the customer restrictions are FAR lower and your price quickly boosts as your checklist expands.
With BeeHiiv, your initial level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid each year), however 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 best plan and the one I directly use), you can grow your list up to 100,000. A listing of that dimension would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, as well, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay yearly, too. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for simply $84/month if you pay yearly.
BeeHiiv is in a completely different organization when it comes to pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point increase rates? They might as time goes on. Yet, I’m presuming people like myself who are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see how points continue.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
One of the things you most definitely need to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do appear to advance instead rapidly and make new product statements somewhat usually, yet there are some basic features I really want they had that I require to just wait for.
One is that they need to have a setup on membership kinds where I might choose an automation to run right at the kind degree. That would be outstanding for so many reasons. As of now, subscription types look OK, but there’s extremely little settings for them to help in segmentation.
It would certainly behave to have tagging at the subscriber level. This would be powerful.
I think webhooks must belong to automations to make integrated automations less complicated and lower reliance on outside tools like Zapier.
There are likewise some minor management interface modifications that would be handy. For example:
- Capability to mass edit/remove clients.
- Capacity to bulk edit articles (as an example, to label a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a few basic fields as standard on subscribers (like the name).
- Some even more personalization choices for the internet site (such as more versatile shade selections, headline control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Things I hope they do with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t excellent and absolutely not almost as established as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM item.
It possibly never will certainly be, either. As I claimed, the objective is various so it wouldn’t a lot a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to become a complete marketing automation system. I presume you never recognize, however.
Final Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Review
I like BeeHiiv rather a whole lot. Sufficient where I chose to change my very own newsletters over to the platform despite my personal preference for digital sovereignty and owning my very own system.
Basically, for the e-newsletter posting design particularly, I saw sufficient worth in their platform to necessitate the adjustment.
Remember, I do not use BeeHiiv as my unique email listing. I make use of BeeHiiv of what it is good at, but I purposefully have points establish so that I likewise keep my listing “in house” within FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the very same. It is just a good insurance policy, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your list will be of high use (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the question is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are utilizing Substack today, I ‘d absolutely think about changing to BeeHiiv. It will merely be more business-friendly. It is targeting different capabilities and different needs. Plus, BeeHiiv also has import devices for Substack, so the switch ought to be quite simple.
If you get on ConvertKit now, I ‘d most likely stay unless you have a big e-mail listing and are consequently being fleeced with their high monthly costs. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are repeating swiftly. There’s additionally 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 might quickly be a better and extra budget-friendly fit.
Finally, if you plan to be very intentional concerning growing a newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE system to take into consideration and maintain and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is developed to be, it is just one of the very best video games around now. This is the system to view.
BeeHiiv uses a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves checking out on your own. And if you wind up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll locate the cost-free account to be quite feature abundant.