I have actually utilized a great deal of various email list systems for many years. In the last number of years, I have actually been a significant advocate of digital sovereignty and having your very own system. Because of that (and the remarkable features), I have actually been using Beehiiv Academy.
So, it is certainly a weird move for me to choose to utilize BeeHiiv. Besides, it is an organized application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv evaluation, I wish to go over why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I want to address the problem of digital sovereignty while using the platform and I would certainly additionally such as to deal with why I chose to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For Newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my newsletter called My Hobby + A Huge Shift In Approach, I spoke about just how and why I chose to transform my recreational vehicle blog right into mostly a newsletter. I chose that was the business design I intended to pursue keeping that residential or commercial property.
Yet, to purposefully pursue it as a newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the email listing for Happily motor home, but FluentCRM is not a newsletter system. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, truthfully, utilizing it for e-newsletters is a little a waste. A lot more on that in a bit.
As I said because problem of the e-newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a system with tools constructed into it certain to my objective. Points such as:
- Ability to release (to the blog site) and send the e-mail at the same time without having it be 2 different activities.
- Built in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would certainly have needed a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capability to do cross-promotions with various other newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are essentially one-click subscription links. Great for promo in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are ways to do that.
- Capacity to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Built-in advertisement network, if I pick to monetize with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and generally run a premium e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Generally, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter publishers with features targeted at growth. The platform was literally built by the individuals that accumulated the modern technology for Morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the factor below. BeeHiiv is constructed from the ground up for the purpose of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various purpose.
And I ended off with this:.
I may certainly be relocating The Side over to BeeHiiv too. At least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. In fact, I simply went all out. And as a matter of fact, The side was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s own property to make sure that I can grow it a lot more deliberately also.
The goal is that each e-newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown individually. Happily motor home was young, so simple to transition. However, The Morning WP (previously The Edge) was hidden in a sea of things below at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s own. It will obviously constantly be closely linked with the Blog site Marketing Academy, however doesn’t need to belong of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was constructed for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Typical Email Checklist
There’s a difference in between a newsletter system and just an email listing.
You can organize your e-mail list just about anywhere you desire and there are a number of them around, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted choices like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The primary distinction is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of posting indicates that it is mosting likely to your site and to your email clients concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a web site. You are publishing to that web site. Yet, you are additionally sending off to all clients at the same time. The site and it’s clients are all in one. This makes monitoring of the system much simpler.
With a lot of e-mail systems, any kind of newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is built completely independently from your site. So, for example, you could release a short article to WordPress but then you would require to individually build and send an e-mail to your checklist to send it to clients. These are after that two different collections of archives and two separate actions since post and your emails are not naturally connected.
The closest point that transforms WordPress into a real newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name since it pretty much “glues” your e-newsletter to your WordPress articles and permits them to be the very same thing. Absolutely, something like Newsletter Glue would certainly be a strong option if I intended to remain to self-host every little thing. However, you would certainly lose the development devices that come with a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter naturally features a different collection of needs than a regular email checklist.
You do not typically require much marketing automation. You don’t usually require autoresponder series, occasion monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO demand, however, is one smooth posting experience and growth devices to help you build your customer base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my subscribers that I was mosting likely to switch the 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 suggest I assume Substack draws. Actually, because Substack has been about longer, it is more mature and has more features.
Although BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple things that at first obtained my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly tailored to newsletter publishers. Actually, it is literally built by the very same folks that constructed the technology behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, does not matter. However, the apparent positioning of BeeHiiv toward e-newsletter growth called me out over the more generic positioning of being a “designer”. Growth is what I’m interested in here.
- That branding and distinction additionally means that BeeHiiv has some rather big brands and large publications utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is aimed even more at solo makers. Once again, it simply informs me the client character distinction in between both business.
Sending our my newsletter by means of FluentCRM really did not exactly suck. The only factor I would certainly contemplate trembling things up is if I thought I can GROW the checklist quicker. And BeeHiiv spoke exactly to that goal.
Because of the targeting, I really do not check out BeeHiiv and Substack as straight competitors. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a various type of consumer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra direct competitors.
But, let’s dive deeper than simply the placing below.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Generally, BeeHiiv appears like it was developed by individuals who recognizing email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems a lot more tailored towards designers.
As an example, BeeHiiv supplies custom areas on subscribers. Now, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. In fact, it is a visual automation builder that functions a lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation functionality is still early-phase. It is still rather limited in triggers and the only activity is the capacity to send an email. Nevertheless, enhancements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will certainly have brand-new triggers along with brand-new actions, such as customizing customized fields, sending out webhooks, etc. I have actually currently seen enhancements to their automations simply because I began making use of the platform. As an example:
- Capability to cause automations based upon which specific embed type they was available in on.
- Ability to automatically do re-engagement (and handle individuals based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Ability to do basic conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can not do this since the target market of Substack simply wouldn’t believe to approach this like an email marketing expert.
When it involves composing your newsletters, the writing user interface of BeeHiiv is simply a lot more tailored towards e-newsletters. As a matter of fact, it really has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in how it works. I discover it to be a lot more intuitive, personally.
Substack’s writing interface behaves and tidy, but it would certainly be more equal to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is greater than simply form. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Section” and then put anything you desire in it. Then, you can place Presence options on that section to reveal it only to paid subscribers, conceal it from e-mail, conceal from customers, show just to clients, etc. Substack offers absolutely nothing similar to this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a premium membership version, BeeHiiv does not take any type of income. Actually, you actually attach up to your own Stripe account and it charges straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your earnings. Depending upon the number of subscribers you get, that 10% can be a fair bit more money than the monthly cost of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This could seem unpopular, however what it suggests is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv work with the outside using tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … nothing. No integrations in any way.
In general, I simply felt like BeeHiiv was a lot more constructed towards real email marketing. It was built by individuals that “get it”. Also the opt-in types and the landing page develops seem better developed for conversions. Development is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I would love to see BeeHiiv add, I such as the direction it is going more than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have stated, Substack placements itself toward “makers” more than e-mail marketing experts and e-newsletter proprietors. Therefore, you see some things tailored more towards people that simply believe in terms of web content production.
As an example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does sustain several magazines, they are dealt with quite individually. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to numerous magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, however … cool for individuals that may require it.
Substack likewise has more social capability built-in. For instance, it has a chat function to host chats with clients. It additionally has a “Notes” function which works type of like a social media newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you read. Interesting. Generally, Substack is established to be much more like a social media network which sustains long-form material.
In general, Substack is also more … minimal. You either care for that or do not. Directly, I do not. Nonetheless, if the objective is simpleness of user interface and, frankly, features … Substack works pretty well.
Yet, I’ll be clear below …
When it pertains to real marketing, I do not assume there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is much better suited. I looked for even more points that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, but honestly … I have a tough time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are usually through 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 comparable capacities.
ConvertKit is also positioned at makers (like Substack), however it is a lot more highly satisfying individuals that do it for business. ConvertKit has great visual automation building, it’s very own commerce platform, and extra. ConvertKit is an actually nice platform.
I’m not going to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature failure right here. ConvertKit is well known already. However, right here’s how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has extra adaptability when it concerns it’s automations. I will certainly additionally say that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit extra intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports tagging. This is simply a basic feature of email listings that enables division in a much more flexible method than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to support labeling at some time soon, frankly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Academy.
ConvertKit does currently offer the capability to sell things by means of their own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is necessary to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would certainly constantly choose an extra direct choice anyhow. For me, I favor to use my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been around much longer and for that reason has way much more integration choices. Tons of online tools and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is rather effective. For example, their plugin now even supports member-gated material along with auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Basically, this a lot more carefully puts ConvertKit right into straight competition by having you have the ability to release to your site and your email list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is badly doing not have in these type of third-party integrations right now. It’ll get there. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also active taking on the growth devices of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not just incentivize people to share your newsletter with advantages, but you can also pay per lead within the internal ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your list. These are really outstanding features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you understand ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of the most popular viral promo platforms for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall for what this suggests for the platform moving forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Academy
BeeHiiv is a lot previously in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means much less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this stage of the cycle. However, it also indicates that they are rapidly creating.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually seen virtually weekly launch of new features right into the system. And these aren’t weak little features … yet big features that are fairly vital. Their speed of development at this point has been impressive.
I also significantly appreciate just how receptive they are. As a matter of fact, among their item statements concerning some style enhancements to the website design features actually had a tiny issue with the material width. I simply replied to that email to tell them. I swiftly obtained a reply straight from the CEO:.
That exact same day, the issue was fixed.
Couple of days later on, I provided another pointer …
Certainly, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to trigger automations based upon the embed kind made use of was contributed to the system.
That sort of responsiveness and straight involvement of the group is something I really value.
Another significant point of distinction here is the price. Both systems use free plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan uses much more capability and more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also much more desirable. ConvertKit seems less expensive initially glimpse because their pricing page reveals reduced numbers, however the subscriber limits are much lower and your price quickly increases as your checklist grows.
With BeeHiiv, your very first degree paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid yearly), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 clients. That very same size checklist is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I personally utilize), you can grow your list approximately 100,000. A listing of that dimension would certainly 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 annually, also. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay annually.
BeeHiiv is in a totally various organization when it pertains to pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually increase rates? They may as time takes place. But, I’m presuming individuals like myself that are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how things continue.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
Among things you definitely need to remember is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do appear to advance instead promptly and make new item news somewhat frequently, however there are some fundamental features I actually desire they had that I need to simply wait for.
One is that they need to have a setup on membership kinds where I can choose an automation to run right at the form level. That would be amazing for many reasons. As of now, registration forms look OK, but 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 powerful.
I assume webhooks must be part of automations to make built-in automations less complicated and reduce reliance on outside tools like Zapier.
There are likewise some minor administrative user interface adjustments that would certainly be handy. For instance:
- Capacity to bulk edit/remove subscribers.
- Capability to mass edit articles (for instance, to identify a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a few fundamental areas as typical on customers (like the name).
- Some more customization options for the web site (such as more adaptable color options, headline control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Things I hope they make with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, yet it isn’t excellent and definitely not nearly as established as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM product.
It probably never will be, either. As I stated, the purpose is various so it wouldn’t a lot a great deal of feeling for BeeHiiv to come to be a full marketing automation system. I think you never know, though.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Review
I such as BeeHiiv quite a great deal. Sufficient where I chose to switch my own newsletters over to the platform regardless of my individual choice for digital sovereignty and owning my own platform.
Basically, for the e-newsletter publishing model especially, I saw sufficient worth in their platform to warrant the change.
Bear in mind, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my unique email list. I use BeeHiiv wherefore it is proficient at, yet I intentionally have points set up so that I likewise maintain my list “in home” inside of FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the very same. It is just a great insurance plan, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your listing will certainly be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will be).
So, the question is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are making use of Substack today, I ‘d most definitely take into consideration switching over to BeeHiiv. It will merely be more business-friendly. It is targeting different capacities and different needs. Plus, BeeHiiv also has import devices for Substack, so the button needs to be pretty straightforward.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d possibly stay put unless you have a big e-mail 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 additionally a pretty good chance you’re not even using several of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you do not even need them. For that reason, BeeHiiv could conveniently be a much better and extra cost effective fit.
Finally, if you plan to be really willful regarding expanding an e-newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE platform to take into consideration and keep and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is made to be, it is one of the best video games around now. This is the system to enjoy.
BeeHiiv offers a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth having a look at for yourself. And if you end up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll discover the cost-free account to be fairly feature rich.