I have actually made use of a lot of various e-mail list systems over the years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a massive advocate of digital sovereignty and having your very own platform. For that reason (and the amazing features), I have actually been using Axios Beehiiv.
So, it is undoubtedly an odd move for me to decide to make use of BeeHiiv. Besides, it is a held application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I intend to review why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I intend to address the problem of digital sovereignty while making use of the platform and I would certainly additionally such as to address why I picked to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For E-newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Hobby + A Big Change In Technique, I discussed exactly how and why I made a decision to turn my motor home blog into mainly an e-newsletter. I determined that was the business version I intended to seek keeping that building.
But, to intentionally seek it as a newsletter, I wanted a system that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the e-mail checklist for Gladly RV, but FluentCRM is not a newsletter system. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, truthfully, utilizing it for newsletters is a little a waste. A lot more on that particular in a little bit.
As I said because problem of the e-newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices constructed right into it certain to my objective. Points such as:
- Ability to publish (to the blog site) and send out the e-mail simultaneously without having it be two different actions.
- Constructed in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would certainly require a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capacity to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are primarily one-click subscription links. Great for promo in other 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 newsletter.
- Integrated advertisement network, if I select to generate income from with ads in the e-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 newsletter publishers with features focused on development. The platform was essentially developed by the people who accumulated the innovation for Morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the factor here. BeeHiiv is built from scratch for the purpose of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various purpose.
And I ended off with this:.
I may without a doubt 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. As a matter of fact, I simply went for it. And in fact, The side was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, triggered as it’s very own property so that I can expand it a lot more deliberately too.
The goal is that each newsletter has the capability to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded separately. Happily recreational vehicle was young, so easy to shift. But, The Early morning WP (formerly The Side) was buried in a sea of things below at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s own. It will undoubtedly constantly be closely connected with the Blog Marketing Academy, however doesn’t have to belong of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was constructed for this function. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Typical Email Listing
There’s a distinction in between an e-newsletter platform and just an e-mail checklist.
You can host your e-mail list everywhere you desire and there are a number 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 an e-newsletter platform, the act of publishing indicates that it is mosting likely to your web site and to your email subscribers all at once.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a web site. You are publishing to that internet site. But, you are also dispatching to all customers at the same time. The website and it’s customers are all in one. This makes management of the system much simpler.
With the majority of e-mail systems, any type of newsletter you set up is done as an email campaign. It is developed totally independently from your web site. So, for instance, you might release a post to WordPress but after that you would require to independently build and send an e-mail to your listing to send it to customers. These are then 2 different sets of archives and two different activities due to the fact that article and your e-mails are not inherently linked.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress into a true e-newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name since it practically “glues” your newsletter to your WordPress posts and enables them to be the exact same thing. Definitely, something like Newsletter Glue would be a strong option if I intended to remain to self-host every little thing. Nevertheless, you would certainly lose the growth tools that feature a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter naturally comes with a different collection of demands than a common email list.
You do not usually require much marketing automation. You don’t typically need autoresponder sequences, event monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO requirement, though, is one seamless posting experience and growth devices to aid you build your customer base that specify to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my clients that I was mosting likely to switch the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was picking it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the truth that I selected to opt for BeeHiiv, that doesn’t indicate I believe Substack draws. As a matter of fact, since Substack has actually been around longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Although BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple points that initially got my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is especially customized to newsletter authors. In fact, it is essentially built by the same individuals that developed the technology behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, doesn’t matter. However, the obvious positioning of BeeHiiv toward e-newsletter growth called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “designer”. Growth is what I’m interested in below.
- That branding and distinction additionally means that BeeHiiv has some rather big brand names and large magazines utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended even more at solo creators. Once again, it just informs me the consumer avatar difference in between both firms.
Sending our my e-newsletter through FluentCRM didn’t precisely draw. The only factor I would consider drinking things up is if I believed I might expand the checklist quicker. And BeeHiiv spoke precisely to that objective.
As a result of the targeting, I actually do not view BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a different type of consumer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra direct competitors.
But, allow’s dive much deeper than just the placing here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Generally, BeeHiiv looks like it was developed by people that recognizing e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears much more geared towards developers.
For example, BeeHiiv provides customized fields on customers. Now, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. As a matter of fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that functions a great deal like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still quite restricted in triggers and the only activity is the capacity to send out an email. Nonetheless, enhancements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will have new triggers in addition to brand-new activities, such as customizing customized areas, sending out webhooks, and so on. I have actually already seen improvements to their automations just considering that I began using the platform. For instance:
- Ability to cause automations based upon which particular embed type they was available in on.
- Capability to automatically do re-engagement (and manage people based on opens and non-opens).
- Capacity to do standard conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never will. Substack just can’t do this because the target audience of Substack just would not think to approach this like an e-mail marketing professional.
When it pertains to writing your e-newsletters, the creating user interface of BeeHiiv is simply a lot more tailored towards e-newsletters. As a matter of fact, it really has similarities to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it functions. I locate it to be much more user-friendly, directly.
Substack’s composing user interface behaves and clean, but it would certainly be a lot more equivalent to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This difference is more than just form. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Section” and then put anything you desire in it. After that, you can place Visibility alternatives on that area to reveal it just to paid clients, hide it from e-mail, hide from customers, reveal just to customers, etc. Substack provides nothing like this.
And when/if the time comes that I start a premium subscription version, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any type of profits. In fact, you literally attach approximately your very own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your income. Relying on how many customers you get, that 10% can be a fair bit more money than the monthly price of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This could appear unpopular, but what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv deal with the outside utilizing devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … absolutely nothing. No integrations in any way.
Overall, I just felt like BeeHiiv was much more constructed towards actual e-mail marketing. It was constructed by people who “get it”. Also the opt-in types and the landing page designs appear better developed for conversions. Development is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv include, I like the instructions it is going more than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually claimed, Substack settings itself toward “creators” greater than e-mail online marketers and newsletter owners. Therefore, you see some points geared extra towards people who just assume in terms of content production.
For example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does support multiple magazines, they are treated quite separately. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to numerous magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I need, however … amazing for people who might need it.
Substack additionally has more social functionality built-in. For example, it has a chat feature to host talks with subscribers. It additionally has a “Notes” function which functions type of like a social media newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you’re reading. Intriguing. In general, Substack is set up to be more like a social media network which supports long-form web content.
On the whole, Substack is also a lot more … minimalist. You either care for that or do not. Directly, I don’t. Nonetheless, if the goal is simpleness of interface and, frankly, features … Substack works quite well.
Yet, I’ll be clear right here …
When it pertains to real marketing, I don’t believe there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is much better suited. I looked for even more factors that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, but honestly … I have a difficult time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are frequently through to be the closest rivals, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are going after the very same target audience and have comparable capacities.
ConvertKit is additionally positioned at developers (like Substack), but it is much more strongly satisfying people who do it for service. ConvertKit has nice aesthetic automation building, it’s own business platform, and extra. ConvertKit is an actually nice system.
I’m not mosting likely to bore you with a full feature-by-feature breakdown right here. ConvertKit is popular currently. Yet, right here’s exactly how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has extra versatility when it involves it’s automations. I will additionally claim that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit a lot more instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports identifying. This is simply a standard feature of email lists that makes it possible for division in an even more flexible way than BeeHiiv currently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to sustain labeling at some time quickly, frankly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Axios Beehiiv.
ConvertKit does now supply the capability to sell points by means of their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that’s important to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would always pick an extra straight option anyhow. For me, I like to utilize my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about a lot longer and because of that has way extra integration alternatives. Tons of online devices and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is fairly powerful. As an example, their plugin currently even supports member-gated material along with auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your site. In essence, this a lot more carefully places ConvertKit into direct competitors by having you have the ability to publish to your website and your email checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is severely lacking in these type of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll get there. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even hectic tackling the growth tools of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not only incentivize people to share your e-newsletter with rewards, however you can additionally pay per lead within the internal ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your listing. These are truly amazing features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you understand ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of one of the most popular viral promo systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall wherefore this suggests for the system moving forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Axios Beehiiv
BeeHiiv is a lot earlier in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies much less features and much less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. Nonetheless, it likewise suggests that they are rapidly developing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have observed virtually regular launch of brand-new features into the platform. And these aren’t weak little features … however large features that are rather vital. Their rate of development now has gone over.
I additionally significantly appreciate how receptive they are. As a matter of fact, one of their product news regarding some layout enhancements to the website design features really had a little issue with the content width. I merely responded to that email to tell them. I swiftly got a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That very same day, the concern was taken care of.
Few days later on, I provided an additional suggestion …
Certainly, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to trigger automations based upon the embed form made use of was added to the system.
That sort of responsiveness and straight participation of the group is something I truly value.
An additional significant point of differentiation right here is the cost. Both systems provide complimentary plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan supplies extra ability and even more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally FAR more favorable. ConvertKit seems cheaper in the beginning look since their pricing web page shows lower numbers, nonetheless the subscriber limits are much reduced and your price promptly boosts as your checklist grows.
With BeeHiiv, your initial level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid annually), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 clients. That exact same size listing is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their ideal plan and the one I directly make use of), you can expand your listing up to 100,000. A listing of that size would certainly 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 yearly, too. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay annually.
BeeHiiv is in a totally different organization when it concerns pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point boost costs? They might as time takes place. However, I’m thinking people like myself who are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see how points continue.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
Among the things you absolutely need to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do seem to evolve rather rapidly and make new item announcements rather usually, however there are some fundamental features I really desire they had that I need to simply await.
One is that they need to have a setup on subscription forms where I could pick an automation to run right at the form degree. That would be amazing for numerous reasons. Already, registration types look OK, however there’s really little settings for them to assist in division.
It would be nice to have labeling at the client level. This would certainly be effective.
I assume webhooks must belong to automations to make built-in automations less complicated and decrease dependence on outside tools like Zapier.
There are also some minor administrative interface modifications that would be handy. For instance:
- Capability to bulk edit/remove clients.
- Capability to mass edit messages (for example, to tag a number of them at the same time).
- Having a few basic fields as standard on clients (like the name).
- Some more customization options for the site (such as even more adaptable shade choices, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Things I hope they finish with it in the future. BeeHiiv is respectable, however it isn’t perfect and certainly not nearly as created as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM product.
It probably never ever will be, either. As I stated, the objective is various so it wouldn’t a lot a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to come to be a complete marketing automation system. I presume you never ever know, however.
Final Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Review
I such as BeeHiiv fairly a whole lot. Sufficient where I chose to change my own e-newsletters over to the platform in spite of my personal preference for digital sovereignty and having my very own system.
Put simply, for the newsletter publishing model especially, I saw sufficient worth in their platform to necessitate the change.
Keep in mind, I do not utilize BeeHiiv as my exclusive e-mail list. I make use of BeeHiiv for what it is good at, yet I deliberately have things establish so that I likewise keep my list “in residence” within FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the very same. It is simply a good insurance coverage, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your listing will certainly be of high use (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation platform 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 making use of Substack today, I ‘d certainly take into consideration switching over to BeeHiiv. It will simply be a lot more business-friendly. It is targeting different capacities and various demands. And also, BeeHiiv also has import devices for Substack, so the button must be quite simple.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d possibly stay put unless you have a huge email listing and are for that reason being wooled with their high monthly costs. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are iterating rapidly. There’s additionally a respectable possibility you’re not even utilizing some of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you don’t also require them. Because of that, BeeHiiv might easily be a better and more affordable fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be really deliberate concerning expanding an e-newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE system to consider and maintain and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is made to be, it is just one of the best games in town right now. This is the system to watch.
BeeHiiv offers 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 locate the free account to be quite feature rich.