I have actually used a great deal of different e-mail list systems over the years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a substantial proponent of digital sovereignty and possessing your own system. Because of that (and the amazing features), I have actually been utilizing Beehiiv Arnold Schwarzenegger.
So, it is undoubtedly an unusual move for me to make a decision to use BeeHiiv. After all, it is an organized application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I intend to discuss why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I intend to deal with the concern of digital sovereignty while using the system and I would certainly also like to resolve why I chose to utilize it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For E-newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my newsletter called My Pastime + A Large Change In Method, I discussed exactly how and why I made a decision to turn my motor home blog site right into mostly a newsletter. I chose that was business version I wished to go after with that home.
But, to intentionally seek it as an e-newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the e-mail list for Gladly RV, yet FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, frankly, utilizing it for newsletters is a little bit of a waste. Extra on that particular in a little bit.
As I stated because concern of the newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a system with devices developed right into it specific to my function. Things such as:
- Capacity to publish (to the blog) and send out the email simultaneously without having it be 2 different actions.
- Constructed in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Built-in ability to do cross-promotions with other newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are basically one-click registration links. Great for promotion in various other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are ways to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your e-newsletter.
- Built-in advertisement network, if I choose to monetize with ads in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capacity to run a paid newsletter upgrade and essentially run a premium e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter authors with features targeted at development. The platform was actually developed by the people that accumulated the technology for Morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the point below. BeeHiiv is developed from scratch for the objective of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various objective.
And I ended off with this:.
I may without a doubt be relocating The Side over to BeeHiiv also. At least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. Actually, I simply went for it. And actually, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Morning WP, triggered as it’s very own property to ensure that I can expand it a lot more purposefully as well.
The goal is that each newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded individually. Gladly RV was young, so simple to transition. However, The Morning WP (formerly 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 obviously constantly be very closely tied with the Blog Marketing Academy, however doesn’t need to be a part of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was built for this function. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Typical Email List
There’s a difference in between a newsletter system and just an e-mail list.
You can organize your e-mail checklist everywhere you desire and there are a number of them available, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The key distinction is that, with a newsletter platform, the act of publishing means that it is going to your website and to your email clients at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a site. You are publishing to that website. Yet, you are also dispatching to all subscribers at the same time. The web site and it’s clients are all in one. This makes administration of the platform much easier.
With many email platforms, any kind of e-newsletter you set up is done as an e-mail campaign. It is constructed entirely individually from your site. So, for example, you may release an article to WordPress however after that you would need to individually develop and send an email to your checklist to send it to subscribers. These are after that two separate sets of archives and 2 different actions due to the fact that article and your emails are not naturally linked.
The closest point that turns WordPress into a real newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name since it pretty much “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress posts and enables them to be the exact same thing. Certainly, something like Newsletter Glue would be a strong choice if I intended to remain to self-host everything. However, you would certainly shed the development devices that feature a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing an e-newsletter inherently includes a various collection of demands than a regular e-mail list.
You do not usually require much marketing automation. You do not usually need autoresponder series, event tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO need, though, is one smooth posting experience and growth tools to help you construct your customer base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my clients that I was going to switch over the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many people ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the reality that I selected to choose BeeHiiv, that doesn’t imply I believe Substack sucks. In fact, due to the fact that Substack has actually been about longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Although BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple things that initially obtained my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically tailored to newsletter authors. In fact, it is essentially built by the very same folks that developed the innovation behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, doesn’t matter. But, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter development called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “designer”. Growth is what I want below.
- That branding and differentiation likewise implies that BeeHiiv has some relatively huge brand names and large publications using it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo makers. Once again, it simply informs me the consumer avatar difference in between the two companies.
Sending our my e-newsletter via FluentCRM really did not exactly draw. The only reason I would certainly consider drinking points up is if I believed I can GROW the checklist quicker. And BeeHiiv spoke exactly to that goal.
Because of the targeting, I actually do not watch BeeHiiv and Substack as straight competitors. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a different sort of customer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra straight rivals.
However, allow’s dive deeper than simply the positioning right here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
On the whole, BeeHiiv seems like it was developed by people who comprehending email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems extra geared towards developers.
As an example, BeeHiiv uses custom areas on clients. Currently, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. As a matter of fact, it is a visual automation builder that functions a whole lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still fairly restricted in triggers and the only activity is the capability to send an e-mail. However, enhancements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will certainly have brand-new triggers along with brand-new activities, such as customizing custom-made areas, sending out webhooks, etc. I’ve currently seen enhancements to their automations simply considering that I started making use of the system. For example:
- Capacity to trigger automations based on which specific embed form they came in on.
- Ability to automatically do re-engagement (and handle people based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Ability to do standard conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can not do this due to the fact that the target audience of Substack just would not believe to approach this like an e-mail marketing professional.
When it concerns writing your newsletters, the composing user interface of BeeHiiv is just a lot more tailored toward newsletters. In fact, it really has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it functions. I find it to be a lot more instinctive, directly.
Substack’s composing user interface is nice and clean, but it would be extra equivalent to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This distinction is more than just kind. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Area” and then placed anything you want in it. Then, you can put Visibility options on that particular area to show it just to paid clients, hide it from e-mail, hide from customers, reveal just to subscribers, etc. Substack provides nothing such as this.
And when/if the time comes that I start a premium subscription design, BeeHiiv does not take any type of profits. As a matter of fact, you essentially connect approximately your very own Stripe account and it bills directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your revenue. Depending on the amount of customers you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit even more cash than the monthly price of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This may appear nerdy, however what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv deal with the outside utilizing tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … nothing. No integrations at all.
Generally, I just felt like BeeHiiv was extra developed towards actual email marketing. It was built by individuals who “get it”. Also the opt-in forms and the landing page makes seem much better developed for conversions. Growth is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have said, Substack positions itself toward “developers” more than email marketing professionals and e-newsletter owners. For that reason, you see some points geared a lot more towards individuals who simply believe in terms of web content development.
For instance, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does sustain multiple magazines, they are treated rather individually. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to multiple publications at the same time. This isn’t something I need, yet … amazing for individuals who might require it.
Substack also has more social performance built-in. As an example, it has a conversation feature to host talks with customers. It additionally has a “Notes” function which works type of like a social media newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you’re reading. Intriguing. On the whole, Substack is set up to be more like a social media which supports long-form material.
On the whole, Substack is likewise a lot more … minimalist. You either take care of that or don’t. Personally, I don’t. Nevertheless, if the objective is simpleness of user interface and, honestly, features … Substack works quite well.
Yet, I’ll be clear right here …
When it concerns real marketing, I don’t believe there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is much better suited. I looked for even more points that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, but frankly … I have a difficult time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are commonly via to be the closest rivals, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are going after the exact same target market and have comparable capacities.
ConvertKit is also placed at makers (like Substack), however it is much more highly accommodating people who do it for service. ConvertKit has nice visual automation building, it’s very own business system, and much more. ConvertKit is a really great system.
I’m not going to bore you with a full feature-by-feature malfunction here. ConvertKit is popular already. However, right here’s exactly how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Points ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has much more adaptability when it concerns it’s automations. I will also claim that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit a lot more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports tagging. This is just a basic function of e-mail listings that allows division in an even more versatile method than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support labeling at some point quickly, frankly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Arnold Schwarzenegger.
ConvertKit does currently provide the ability to offer things via their very own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is very important to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would certainly constantly choose a more direct choice anyhow. For me, I like to use my own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about much longer and for that reason has way extra integration choices. Tons of web-based tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their own WordPress plugin that is rather effective. For instance, their plugin now also sustains member-gated web content as well as auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your site. In essence, this more very closely places ConvertKit into straight competitors by having you have the ability to publish to your site and your email listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is significantly doing not have in these kinds of third-party integrations presently. It’ll arrive. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also active taking on the development devices of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your e-newsletter with perks, however you can also pay per lead within the inner advertisement network of BeeHiiv to grow your list. These are truly remarkable features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you know ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of one of the most popular viral promotion systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall surface for what this indicates for the system going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Arnold Schwarzenegger
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that indicates less features and much less integrations, which is all-natural for this phase of the cycle. Nonetheless, it also implies that they are rapidly developing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually seen practically regular release of new features into the platform. And these aren’t weak little features … yet large features that are rather essential. Their rate of growth at this moment has gone over.
I likewise very much value just how responsive they are. Actually, one of their product statements regarding some design enhancements to the website design features really contained a tiny problem with the web content width. I just responded to that email to tell them. I swiftly got a reply straight from the CEO:.
That same day, the concern was fixed.
Couple of days later, I gave them an additional recommendation …
Certainly, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to cause automations based upon the embed kind used was added to the system.
That kind of responsiveness and direct participation of the group is something I actually value.
An additional significant factor of distinction below is the rate. Both systems use free plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan supplies a lot more capability and more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
As soon as you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also even more positive. ConvertKit seems less costly in the beginning glimpse since their pricing page reveals reduced numbers, nonetheless the client restrictions are much reduced and your rate rapidly enhances as your listing expands.
With BeeHiiv, your first degree paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid each year), however you can have up to 10,000 clients. That very same dimension checklist is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their ideal plan and the one I directly make use of), you can grow your listing up to 100,000. A list of that dimension would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, too, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay every year, too. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay yearly.
BeeHiiv is in an entirely different league when it pertains to pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately raise costs? They might as time goes on. Yet, I’m thinking people like myself that are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see how things proceed.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of the important things you absolutely need to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do seem to advance instead swiftly and make new product announcements somewhat typically, yet there are some standard features I actually want they had that I require to just await.
One is that they require to have a setup on subscription types where I might select an automation to run right at the kind level. That would certainly be AWESOME for a lot of factors. Already, subscription forms look OK, however there’s really little setups for them to aid in division.
It would be nice to have labeling at the subscriber degree. This would certainly be effective.
I think webhooks ought to become part of automations to make integrated automations much easier and reduce dependence on outside devices like Zapier.
There are additionally some minor management interface changes that would certainly be handy. For example:
- Ability to mass edit/remove clients.
- Capability to mass edit articles (for instance, to tag a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of standard areas as typical on customers (like the name).
- Some even more personalization alternatives for the internet site (such as more flexible color selections, headline control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Points I wish they do with it in the future. BeeHiiv is respectable, but it isn’t best and absolutely not almost as established as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM item.
It most likely never ever will be, either. As I stated, the purpose is different so it would not a lot a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to come to be a full marketing automation platform. I think you never know, however.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Review
I like BeeHiiv fairly a lot. Sufficient where I decided to change my very own e-newsletters over to the system despite my personal choice for digital sovereignty and owning my very own platform.
Simply put, for the newsletter posting model particularly, I saw sufficient value in their system to require the change.
Remember, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my unique email listing. I use BeeHiiv wherefore it is efficient, however I deliberately have points establish to ensure that I likewise keep my checklist “in house” inside of FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the very same. It is simply an excellent insurance coverage, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your list will certainly be of high usage (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are making use of Substack now, I ‘d definitely think about changing to BeeHiiv. It will just be much more business-friendly. It is targeting various capabilities and various demands. And also, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the button must be pretty simple.
If you are on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d most likely sit tight unless you have a big e-mail listing and are as a result being fleeced with their high month-to-month costs. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are iterating swiftly. There’s also a pretty good opportunity you’re not even utilizing a few of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you do not even need them. For that reason, BeeHiiv might conveniently be a far better and extra affordable fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be really willful regarding expanding an e-newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE system to consider and keep and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is designed to be, it is among the very best games in the area right now. This is the system to enjoy.
BeeHiiv offers a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves looking into on your own. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll discover the totally free account to be rather feature abundant.