I have utilized a lot of different email list systems throughout the years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a huge proponent of digital sovereignty and having your own platform. Therefore (and the awesome features), I have actually been making use of Beehiiv Bootstrapped Giants.
So, it is without a doubt a strange move for me to make a decision to utilize BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is a held application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I wish to look at why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I wish to address the issue of digital sovereignty while using the platform and I would certainly also like to resolve why I chose to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For Newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Hobby + A Big Shift In Approach, I spoke about exactly how and why I made a decision to transform my recreational vehicle blog site into largely a newsletter. I determined that was the business design I wanted to pursue keeping that residential property.
But, to deliberately seek it as a newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the email list for Gladly recreational vehicle, however FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, honestly, utilizing it for newsletters is a bit of a waste. More on that in a bit.
As I stated in that issue of the newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices built right into it specific to my function. Points such as:
- Capacity to publish (to the blog) and send out the email simultaneously without having it be two different actions.
- Built in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would have needed a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capacity to do cross-promotions with other newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are generally one-click registration web links. Great for promo in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are methods to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Integrated ad network, if I select to generate income from with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capacity to run a paid newsletter upgrade and generally run a premium e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Basically, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter publishers with features aimed at growth. The system was literally constructed by the individuals that built up the modern technology for Morning Mixture. They know what they’re doing.
That is the point below. BeeHiiv is constructed from the ground up for the purpose of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different function.
And I finished off with this:.
I might without a doubt be moving The Side over to BeeHiiv as well. At least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. In fact, I simply went for it. And as a matter of fact, The side was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s own residential or commercial property to ensure that I can expand it a lot more purposefully as well.
The objective is that each e-newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded individually. Gladly motor home was young, so simple to shift. But, The Morning WP (formerly The Edge) was buried in a sea of stuff below 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 very closely connected with the Blog site Marketing Academy, but doesn’t have to belong of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv since it was developed for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Normal Email Listing
There’s a difference between a newsletter platform and simply an e-mail listing.
You can organize your e-mail listing anywhere you want and there are a variety of them out there, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted alternatives like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The primary difference is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of posting indicates that it is mosting likely to your web site and to your e-mail customers simultaneously.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are releasing to that web site. But, you are also dispatching to all subscribers at the same time. The web site and it’s clients are done in one. This makes administration of the platform much easier.
With most e-mail systems, any type of newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is constructed totally individually from your site. So, for instance, you may release a short article to WordPress yet after that you would need to separately develop and send an email to your checklist to send it to customers. These are then 2 different sets of archives and 2 separate actions due to the fact that post and your emails are not inherently linked.
The closest point that turns WordPress into a real e-newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name due to the fact that it basically “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress posts and permits them to be the very same point. Definitely, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a strong alternative if I wished to remain to self-host every little thing. However, you ‘d shed the growth devices that feature a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing an e-newsletter inherently includes a various set of requirements than a common e-mail listing.
You don’t usually require much marketing automation. You don’t normally 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 development tools to aid you construct your client base that are specific to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my customers that I was mosting likely to switch the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many people ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the fact that I picked to choose BeeHiiv, that does not indicate I believe Substack draws. Actually, because Substack has been around much longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Although BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple things that originally got my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically customized to newsletter publishers. Actually, it is actually constructed by the very same individuals who developed the technology behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, doesn’t matter. However, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv towards e-newsletter development called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “maker”. Development is what I want here.
- That branding and distinction also suggests that BeeHiiv has some fairly huge brand names and big publications utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo creators. Again, it just tells me the client character distinction between the two business.
Sending our my e-newsletter using FluentCRM really did not specifically draw. The only factor I would ponder shaking things up is if I assumed I might GROW the list much faster. And BeeHiiv talked specifically to that goal.
Because of the targeting, I really don’t view BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a various type of customer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more direct competitors.
However, let’s dive much deeper than just the placing below.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv looks like it was built by people that comprehending e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems a lot more geared toward creators.
As an example, BeeHiiv offers custom areas on customers. Now, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack does not.
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 performance is still early-phase. It is still quite restricted in triggers and the only activity is the capacity to send an email. However, improvements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will have new triggers as well as new activities, such as customizing personalized fields, sending out webhooks, and so on. I’ve already seen enhancements to their automations just considering that I began making use of the platform. For example:
- Ability to set off automations based on which particular embed type they was available in on.
- Capability to instantly do re-engagement (and handle individuals based on opens and non-opens).
- Capability to do basic conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can not do this because the target audience of Substack just would not think to approach this like an email marketing professional.
When it pertains to composing your e-newsletters, the composing user interface of BeeHiiv is simply more tailored towards newsletters. As a matter of fact, it in fact has similarities to the WordPress block builder in just how it works. I find it to be more intuitive, personally.
Substack’s writing interface behaves and clean, but it would certainly be a lot more equal to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is greater than simply type. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Area” and then put anything you desire in it. After that, you can place Visibility choices on that particular section to show it just to paid subscribers, hide it from e-mail, conceal from subscribers, show just to clients, and so on. Substack uses nothing such as this.
And when/if the moment comes that I start a premium registration model, BeeHiiv does not take any type of earnings. As a matter of fact, you literally link as much as your own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your profits. Depending on the number of subscribers you get, that 10% can be a fair bit more cash than the month-to-month cost of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This may seem nerdy, however what it means is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outdoors making use of devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … absolutely nothing. No integrations in all.
Overall, I just felt like BeeHiiv was a lot more built towards real email marketing. It was built by individuals that “get it”. Even the opt-in types and the landing page develops appear much better constructed for conversions. Development is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I wish to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the direction it is going more than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have stated, Substack settings itself towards “creators” more than e-mail marketers and newsletter owners. Therefore, you see some things geared a lot more toward people that simply assume in regards to web content development.
For instance, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does support numerous magazines, they are dealt with rather individually. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to several publications at the same time. This isn’t something I need, but … great for individuals who might need it.
Substack also has more social capability built-in. For example, it has a conversation feature to host chats with clients. It also has a “Notes” feature which functions type of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you’re reading. Intriguing. In general, Substack is established to be more like a social media network which supports long-form web content.
In general, Substack is additionally more … minimal. You either care for that or do not. Directly, I do not. Nonetheless, if the goal is simplicity of user interface and, truthfully, features … Substack works quite well.
Yet, I’ll be clear here …
When it comes to actual marketing, I do not think there’s much question that BeeHiiv is much better suited. I looked for even more factors that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, but truthfully … I have a tough time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are often via to be the closest rivals, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are going after the very same target audience and have comparable capacities.
ConvertKit is also positioned at creators (like Substack), but it is much more highly dealing with individuals who do it for organization. ConvertKit has wonderful visual automation structure, it’s very own business system, and extra. ConvertKit is a truly nice platform.
I’m not going to bore you with a complete feature-by-feature breakdown below. ConvertKit is well known already. Yet, here’s how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Points ConvertKit Is Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has extra adaptability when it pertains to it’s automations. I will certainly likewise state that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit a lot more instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports marking. This is simply a basic feature of e-mail checklists that makes it possible for segmentation in a much more adaptable means than BeeHiiv currently does. I expect BeeHiiv to support tagging at some point soon, frankly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Bootstrapped Giants.
ConvertKit does currently give the ability to offer things through their very own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that’s important to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would certainly constantly pick a much more direct alternative anyhow. For me, I choose to utilize my own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been around a lot longer and for that reason has way more integration options. Tons of web-based devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is quite powerful. For example, their plugin now also sustains member-gated material as well as auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. In essence, this more very closely puts ConvertKit into direct competitors by having you have the ability to publish to your website and your e-mail listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is severely lacking in these type of third-party integrations presently. It’ll arrive. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even busy dealing with the development devices of BeeHiiv. As an example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not only incentivize people to share your newsletter with perks, but you can additionally pay per lead within the inner advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your checklist. These are truly remarkable features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you recognize ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of the most well known viral promotion platforms for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall for what this means for the system moving forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Bootstrapped Giants
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that suggests much less features and much less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. Nevertheless, it likewise indicates that they are rapidly establishing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually experienced nearly regular release of brand-new features right into the system. And these aren’t puny little features … yet large features that are rather crucial. Their speed of advancement now has actually gone over.
I additionally significantly value how responsive they are. As a matter of fact, among their item news about some layout improvements to the website design features in fact consisted of a small trouble with the material width. I just replied to that e-mail to tell them. I quickly got a reply directly from the CEO:.
That same day, the concern was dealt with.
Couple of days later on, I gave them one more recommendation …
Indeed, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to activate automations based upon the embed kind used was contributed to the system.
That kind of responsiveness and direct participation of the group is something I actually value.
An additional significant point of distinction right here is the rate. Both platforms supply free plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan offers a lot more capacity and more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also much more beneficial. ConvertKit seems less costly initially glimpse due to the fact that their pricing page reveals lower numbers, however the customer restrictions are FAR lower and your price quickly enhances as your list grows.
With BeeHiiv, your initial level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid annually), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 customers. That same size 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 expand your list as much as 100,000. A list of that dimension would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, also, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay yearly, also. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv remains in a totally various league when it pertains to pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually enhance prices? They might as time goes on. Yet, I’m guessing individuals like myself who are already in will be locked-in. We’ll see just how points proceed.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among the things you definitely need to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do seem to progress rather promptly and make brand-new item news rather often, but there are some basic features I really desire they had that I require to simply wait for.
One is that they need to have a setup on registration types where I can select an automation to run right at the form degree. That would be AWESOME for so many reasons. Already, subscription forms look OK, however there’s very little settings for them to aid in segmentation.
It would certainly behave to have labeling at the customer degree. This would certainly be effective.
I believe webhooks should belong to automations to make built-in automations easier and lower reliance on outside devices like Zapier.
There are also some minor management interface changes that would certainly be handy. For instance:
- Ability to mass edit/remove customers.
- Capacity to bulk edit messages (for example, to identify a number of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of standard areas as basic on subscribers (like the name).
- Some more modification choices for the website (such as more adaptable color choices, heading control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Points I hope they do with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, yet it isn’t excellent and certainly not virtually as established as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM product.
It most likely never will be, either. As I stated, the purpose is various so it would not a lot a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to come to be a complete marketing automation platform. I presume you never know, however.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Review
I such as BeeHiiv quite a lot. Sufficient where I decided to change my very own e-newsletters over to the platform in spite of my personal preference for digital sovereignty and owning my own platform.
Basically, for the e-newsletter publishing design especially, I saw sufficient worth in their system to require the adjustment.
Bear in mind, I do not utilize BeeHiiv as my special email checklist. I use BeeHiiv wherefore it is efficient, but I deliberately have points establish to make sure that I additionally maintain my listing “in home” inside of FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the very same. It is just a great insurance policy, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your listing will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation system 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 most definitely take into consideration switching to BeeHiiv. It will merely be a lot more business-friendly. It is targeting various capacities and different requirements. And also, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the button needs to be quite straightforward.
If you are on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d possibly stay put unless you have a huge e-mail listing and are for that reason being wooled with their high month-to-month costs. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are iterating rapidly. There’s likewise a respectable chance you’re not even utilizing some of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you don’t even require them. Therefore, BeeHiiv might easily be a much better and a lot more budget friendly fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be very willful about expanding an e-newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE platform to think about and maintain and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is created to be, it is one of the very best games around right now. This is the system to watch.
BeeHiiv offers a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth taking a look at on your own. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll find the complimentary account to be rather feature abundant.