I have actually used a great deal of different email list systems throughout the years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a massive proponent of digital sovereignty and having your own system. Because of that (and the awesome features), I have been using Beehiiv Automations.
So, it is indeed an unusual move for me to make a decision to use BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is a held application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv evaluation, I intend to review why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I wish to resolve the concern of digital sovereignty while using the platform and I ‘d also such as to deal with why I selected to use it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For Newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Pastime + A Huge Change In Approach, I talked about just how and why I determined to transform my motor home blog right into mostly a newsletter. I determined that was the business model I wished to go after keeping that residential or commercial property.
Yet, to deliberately seek it as an e-newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the email list for Gladly motor home, but FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter system. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, truthfully, utilizing it for e-newsletters is a bit of a waste. Extra on that in a little bit.
As I said because problem of the newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a platform with tools built right into it details to my function. Points such as:
- Capability to release (to the blog) and send out the email all at once without having it be two different actions.
- Constructed in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would have needed a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capability to do cross-promotions with other newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are generally one-click subscription links. Great for promo in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, however, so there are ways to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your e-newsletter.
- Integrated advertisement network, if I choose to monetize with advertisements in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capacity to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and generally run a premium newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Essentially, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features focused on growth. The system was actually built by the people that developed the technology for Morning Mixture. They know what they’re doing.
That is the factor below. BeeHiiv is built from scratch for the purpose of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different purpose.
And I ended off with this:.
I may certainly be moving The Side over to BeeHiiv also. At least, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. As a matter of fact, I simply went all out. And as a matter of fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Morning WP, triggered as it’s very own property to ensure that I can expand it much more purposefully as well.
The goal is that each newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded independently. Happily motor home was young, so simple to transition. However, The Early morning WP (formerly The Edge) was buried in a sea of things right here at the Blog Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s own. It will clearly always be closely tied with the Blog site Marketing Academy, yet does not need to be a part of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv because it was constructed for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Simply A Regular Email List
There’s a distinction between an e-newsletter platform and simply an e-mail listing.
You can organize your email checklist anyplace you want and there are a variety of them available, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted alternatives like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The primary distinction is that, with an e-newsletter system, the act of posting suggests that it is mosting likely to your web site and to your email subscribers simultaneously.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are publishing to that website. But, you are likewise sending off to all customers at the same time. The site and it’s customers are all in one. This makes monitoring of the system much easier.
With the majority of email systems, any type of e-newsletter you set up is done as an e-mail campaign. It is constructed completely individually from your site. So, for example, you might release an article to WordPress but after that you would certainly require to individually build and send out an e-mail to your checklist to send it to clients. These are then 2 different collections of archives and two different activities because post and your e-mails are not inherently connected.
The closest thing that turns WordPress right into a real e-newsletter platform is Newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name since it basically “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress messages and permits them to be the exact same thing. Definitely, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid option if I wished to continue to self-host every little thing. Nonetheless, you ‘d shed the growth devices that come with a platform like BeeHiiv.
Posting a newsletter inherently comes with a different collection of requirements than a normal email listing.
You do not generally require much marketing automation. You don’t generally require autoresponder series, event monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO demand, however, is one seamless posting experience and growth devices to aid you build your client base that are specific to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my clients that I was going to switch the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had lots of people ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the truth that I chose to go with BeeHiiv, that does not imply I assume Substack sucks. In fact, because Substack has been around much longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple points that initially obtained my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically tailored to newsletter authors. Actually, it is essentially built by the very same folks that built the innovation behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, does not matter. But, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter development called me out over the more generic positioning of being a “creator”. Growth is what I’m interested in here.
- That branding and differentiation likewise suggests that BeeHiiv has some fairly big brand names and big magazines utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo creators. Once again, it simply tells me the consumer character distinction between the two business.
Sending our my newsletter through FluentCRM really did not specifically draw. The only reason I would contemplate trembling points up is if I believed I can expand the listing quicker. And BeeHiiv spoke precisely to that objective.
Because of the targeting, I actually don’t watch BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a various kind of consumer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra direct competitors.
However, let’s dive deeper than just the positioning here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv looks like it was constructed by people that understanding email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems a lot more geared toward creators.
For instance, BeeHiiv uses personalized areas on clients. Currently, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv provides Automations. Actually, it is an aesthetic automation builder that works a great deal like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still rather restricted in triggers and the only action is the capacity to send an e-mail. Nevertheless, improvements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will have brand-new triggers along with new activities, such as changing customized fields, sending out webhooks, etc. I’ve currently seen enhancements to their automations just considering that I started using the system. As an example:
- Ability to set off automations based upon which particular embed kind they was available in on.
- Ability to immediately do re-engagement (and handle people based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Capability to do fundamental conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack simply can’t do this because the target audience of Substack just would not believe to approach this like an e-mail marketing expert.
When it comes to creating your e-newsletters, the composing interface of BeeHiiv is just much more tailored toward newsletters. In fact, it in fact has similarities to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it works. I locate it to be much more user-friendly, personally.
Substack’s composing user interface behaves and tidy, however it would certainly be a lot more equivalent to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is greater than simply type. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Section” and after that placed anything you want in it. Then, you can place Exposure options on that area to reveal it just to paid customers, hide it from email, conceal from customers, show only to clients, etc. Substack provides absolutely nothing such as this.
And when/if the time comes that I start a costs membership version, BeeHiiv does not take any kind of revenue. As a matter of fact, you actually link as much as your very own Stripe account and it charges straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your profits. Relying on how many clients you obtain, that 10% can be quite a bit even more money than the month-to-month price of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This may appear nerdy, but what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outdoors utilizing tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … nothing. No integrations in all.
On the whole, I just felt like BeeHiiv was more built toward actual email marketing. It was constructed by individuals that “get it”. Even the opt-in forms and the landing page makes seem better constructed for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv add, I like the direction it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have stated, Substack positions itself towards “makers” greater than e-mail online marketers and newsletter proprietors. Because of that, you see some things tailored extra towards people who simply assume in terms of material development.
For example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does support several magazines, they are treated rather independently. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to several publications at the same time. This isn’t something I need, yet … great for people that could need it.
Substack likewise has even more social functionality built-in. For example, it has a chat function to host talks with clients. It likewise has a “Notes” feature which works sort of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you read. Fascinating. Overall, Substack is established to be more like a social media network which sustains long-form material.
On the whole, Substack is also a lot more … minimalist. You either look after that or do not. Personally, I don’t. Nevertheless, if the objective is simpleness of user interface and, honestly, features … Substack works rather well.
However, I’ll be clear right here …
When it concerns actual marketing, I don’t think there’s much question that BeeHiiv is much better fit. I tried to find more factors that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, but frankly … I have a tough time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are commonly via to be the closest competitors, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are going after the same target audience and have comparable capacities.
ConvertKit is additionally placed at makers (like Substack), yet it is far more strongly satisfying individuals that do it for business. ConvertKit has great aesthetic automation structure, it’s own business system, and a lot more. ConvertKit is a truly great platform.
I’m not going to bore you with a complete feature-by-feature malfunction below. ConvertKit is well known already. But, right here’s how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has more versatility when it comes to it’s automations. I will certainly also claim that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit a lot more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports labeling. This is simply a standard feature of e-mail checklists that enables division in a far more adaptable way than BeeHiiv currently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain tagging at some time soon, honestly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Automations.
ConvertKit does now offer the capability to market things via their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that’s important to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would constantly choose a much more straight alternative anyway. For me, I choose to use my own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been around much longer and therefore has way a lot more integration alternatives. Lots of web-based devices and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their own WordPress plugin that is quite powerful. As an example, their plugin now also supports member-gated content along with auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Essentially, this extra closely puts ConvertKit into direct competitors by having you be able to publish to your site and your email listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is badly lacking in these type of third-party integrations presently. It’ll get there. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even busy tackling the growth tools of BeeHiiv. As an example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not only incentivize people to share your e-newsletter with rewards, but you can additionally pay per lead within the interior advertisement network of BeeHiiv to grow your listing. These are really outstanding features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you recognize ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among the most well known viral promo systems for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall wherefore this suggests for the platform going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Automations
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies less features and less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. However, it also implies that they are quickly creating.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have observed virtually regular launch of new features into the system. And these aren’t undersized little features … but huge features that are rather essential. Their speed of advancement now has gone over.
I also very much value just how receptive they are. In fact, one of their product news regarding some design enhancements to the web design features actually had a small issue with the material width. I simply responded to that email to tell them. I rapidly obtained a reply directly from the CEO:.
That exact same day, the problem was dealt with.
Few days later on, I provided an additional suggestion …
Certainly, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to activate automations based on the embed form used was added to the system.
That kind of responsiveness and direct involvement of the team is something I really value.
Another significant point of differentiation below is the rate. Both platforms offer complimentary plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan provides a lot more capability and more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally even more favorable. ConvertKit appears less costly in the beginning glimpse since their pricing web page shows lower numbers, nevertheless the client restrictions are much lower and your rate quickly enhances as your list expands.
With BeeHiiv, your initial level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid yearly), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 customers. That exact same size checklist is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their ideal plan and the one I personally utilize), you can grow your checklist up to 100,000. A checklist of that size would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, also, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay each year, also. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for simply $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv is in a totally different organization when it pertains to pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually raise rates? They might as time takes place. But, I’m presuming individuals like myself who are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how things continue.
Things I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of the things you definitely need to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do appear to advance instead rapidly and make new product announcements rather frequently, however there are some standard features I actually want they had that I require to just await.
One is that they require to have a setting on membership forms where I could pick an automation to run right at the type degree. That would be remarkable for many reasons. Currently, subscription types look OK, however there’s extremely little setups for them to aid in segmentation.
It would certainly be nice to have tagging at the subscriber degree. This would certainly be effective.
I believe webhooks need to be part of automations to make integrated automations less complicated and lower dependence on outside tools like Zapier.
There are additionally some small administrative user interface changes that would come in handy. As an example:
- Capacity to mass edit/remove customers.
- Ability to mass edit articles (for instance, to tag a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a few basic fields as typical on subscribers (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 imperfections. Things I hope they perform with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, yet it isn’t ideal and definitely not almost as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM product.
It most likely never will be, either. As I claimed, the purpose is different so it would not a lot a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to come to be a full marketing automation system. I think you never ever recognize, however.
Final Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I like BeeHiiv fairly a great deal. Enough where I determined to change my own e-newsletters over to the platform in spite of my personal choice for digital sovereignty and having my very own system.
Basically, for the newsletter posting design specifically, I saw enough worth in their platform to require the change.
Bear in mind, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my unique e-mail listing. I make use of BeeHiiv of what it is efficient, yet I intentionally have points establish to make sure that I additionally maintain my checklist “in home” within FluentCRM.
If you make use of BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the same. It is simply a good insurance coverage, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your checklist will certainly be of high use (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are making use of Substack now, I ‘d most definitely consider switching over to BeeHiiv. It will just be much more business-friendly. It is targeting various capacities and different demands. And also, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the button should be rather simple.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d most likely stay unless you have a huge email checklist and are as a result being wooled with their high month-to-month costs. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are repeating promptly. There’s also a respectable possibility you’re not even utilizing a few of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you don’t also need them. Therefore, BeeHiiv can conveniently be a far better and much more economical fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be very deliberate about expanding a newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE system to consider and maintain and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is made to be, it is just one of the best games in town today. This is the platform to watch.
BeeHiiv offers 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.