I have actually made use of a great deal of different email list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a massive proponent of digital sovereignty and having your very own platform. Therefore (and the outstanding features), I have actually been making use of Beehiiv Creator Spotlight.
So, it is indeed an unusual move for me to determine to use BeeHiiv. Besides, it is a hosted application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I want to review why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I want to deal with the issue of digital sovereignty while making use of the platform and I ‘d also such as to resolve why I picked to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For E-newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my newsletter called My Pastime + A Big Change In Technique, I talked about exactly how and why I chose to transform my recreational vehicle blog site into primarily a newsletter. I made a decision that was business model I wanted to seek keeping that residential or commercial property.
Yet, to purposefully seek it as a newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the e-mail list for Happily RV, yet FluentCRM is not a newsletter platform. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, frankly, using it for e-newsletters is a bit of a waste. A lot more on that particular in a bit.
As I said in that concern of the e-newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a system with devices built into it details to my objective. Points such as:
- Ability to publish (to the blog site) and send out the e-mail all at once without having it be 2 different actions.
- Integrated in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would certainly have needed a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capability to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are primarily one-click registration links. Great for promotion in various other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are methods to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Integrated advertisement network, if I pick to monetize with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in ability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and generally run a costs e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features aimed at development. The system was essentially developed by the people that accumulated the modern technology for Early morning Brew. They know what they’re doing.
That is the factor right here. BeeHiiv is developed from the ground up for the purpose of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different purpose.
And I ended off with this:.
I may indeed be relocating The Side over to BeeHiiv as well. A minimum of, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. Actually, 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 building to make sure that I can expand it more deliberately also.
The goal is that each e-newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded independently. Gladly motor home was young, so easy to change. But, The Early morning WP (formerly The Side) was hidden in a sea of stuff below 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 clearly always be very closely tied with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet does not need to be a part of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv since it was built for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Simply A Typical Email List
There’s a difference in between an e-newsletter system and just an e-mail list.
You can hold your e-mail list anyplace you desire and there are a variety of them available, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The primary distinction is that, with an e-newsletter system, the act of publishing suggests that it is mosting likely to your web site and to your e-mail clients all at once.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a web site. You are releasing to that website. However, you are additionally dispatching to all customers at the same time. The website and it’s clients are done in one. This makes administration of the platform much simpler.
With a lot of email platforms, any kind of e-newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is constructed totally individually from your web site. So, as an example, you could release a short article to WordPress however then you would certainly require to individually construct and send an email to your list to send it to customers. These are after that 2 separate collections of archives and 2 separate activities since post and your e-mails are not naturally connected.
The closest point that turns WordPress into a true newsletter system is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name since it practically “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and permits them to be the exact same thing. Definitely, something like E-newsletter Glue would be a solid choice if I wished to continue to self-host every little thing. Nonetheless, you ‘d shed the development tools that include a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter naturally includes a different set of demands than a normal e-mail list.
You don’t normally require much marketing automation. You do not usually need autoresponder sequences, event monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO demand, though, is one seamless posting experience and growth tools to assist you develop your customer base that specify to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my customers that I was going to change 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 chose to choose BeeHiiv, that doesn’t suggest I think Substack draws. As a matter of fact, due to the fact that Substack has actually been around much longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple points that at first obtained my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically customized to newsletter authors. Actually, it is essentially developed by the exact same people who constructed the innovation behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real life, does not matter. Yet, the obvious positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter development called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “creator”. Growth is what I want here.
- That branding and differentiation also means that BeeHiiv has some relatively huge brands and huge publications utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo designers. Again, it just tells me the customer avatar difference in between both firms.
Sending our my newsletter via FluentCRM didn’t exactly suck. The only factor I would contemplate drinking things up is if I believed I might GROW the listing much faster. And BeeHiiv talked precisely to that objective.
As a result of the targeting, I in fact do not see BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a different type of customer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being a lot more direct rivals.
Yet, allow’s dive deeper than just the placing below.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv looks like it was constructed by people who understanding email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears much more geared toward designers.
For instance, BeeHiiv offers custom-made areas on clients. Currently, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. In fact, it is a visual automation builder that works a whole lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation functionality is still early-phase. It is still fairly restricted in triggers and the only action is the capacity to send out an e-mail. Nevertheless, improvements are coming. Soon enough, automations will have new triggers as well as new activities, such as customizing personalized areas, sending out webhooks, and so on. I’ve currently seen improvements to their automations just because I began utilizing the system. For instance:
- Capacity to cause automations based on which particular embed form they was available in on.
- Capacity to instantly do re-engagement (and manage individuals based upon opens and non-opens).
- Capability to do basic conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never will. Substack just can’t do this due to the fact that the target audience of Substack just would not think to approach this like an email marketing expert.
When it pertains to creating your newsletters, the composing interface of BeeHiiv is simply extra tailored towards e-newsletters. As a matter of fact, it in fact has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it works. I find it to be extra intuitive, directly.
Substack’s writing interface behaves and clean, but it would certainly be a lot more comparable to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This distinction is greater than simply kind. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Section” and then put anything you desire in it. Then, you can place Presence choices on that section to reveal it just to paid clients, hide it from e-mail, hide from clients, reveal just to clients, etc. Substack uses absolutely nothing such as this.
And when/if the time comes that I begin a costs subscription version, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any earnings. Actually, you actually attach approximately your very own Stripe account and it bills directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your profits. Depending upon the amount of clients you get, that 10% can be quite a bit more money than the monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This might seem unpopular, yet what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outdoors making use of tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … nothing. No integrations whatsoever.
Overall, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was a lot more developed towards genuine email marketing. It was constructed by individuals who “get it”. Even the opt-in types and the landing page makes appear much better constructed for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I would love to see BeeHiiv add, I like the instructions it is going more than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have said, Substack settings itself toward “designers” greater than email online marketers and newsletter owners. Because of that, you see some points tailored a lot more toward people who just assume in terms of content development.
For instance, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does support numerous publications, they are dealt with fairly individually. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to multiple magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, but … awesome for people who could need it.
Substack likewise has more social performance built-in. As an example, it has a conversation function to host chats with clients. It also has a “Notes” feature which functions type of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you’re reading. Interesting. Overall, Substack is established to be a lot more like a social media network which sustains long-form material.
Generally, Substack is likewise more … minimal. You either take care of that or do not. Directly, I don’t. Nevertheless, if the objective is simplicity of interface and, honestly, features … Substack works rather well.
But, I’ll be clear here …
When it pertains to actual marketing, I do not assume there’s much question that BeeHiiv is much better suited. I looked for even more points that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, yet truthfully … I have a difficult time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are often through to be the closest competitors, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are pursuing the exact same target market and have comparable capacities.
ConvertKit is likewise placed at designers (like Substack), but it is a lot more highly accommodating individuals who do it for organization. ConvertKit has good visual automation building, it’s own commerce platform, and a lot more. ConvertKit is a really nice platform.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature failure right here. ConvertKit is popular currently. But, right here’s just how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Points ConvertKit Is Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has much more adaptability when it concerns it’s automations. I will certainly additionally claim that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit a lot more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains tagging. This is just a standard feature of email listings that enables segmentation in a much more adaptable method than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support marking eventually soon, truthfully. It feels like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Creator Spotlight.
ConvertKit does now give the capability to market points through their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that’s important to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, nonetheless, I would constantly select an extra direct option anyway. For me, I choose to use my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about a lot longer and for that reason has way a lot more integration choices. Lots of web-based devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is rather powerful. For example, their plugin now also supports member-gated material in addition to auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your site. In essence, this much more carefully places ConvertKit into straight competitors by having you have the ability to publish to your site and your e-mail checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is significantly doing not have in these type of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll arrive. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also active taking on 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 advantages, but you can likewise pay per lead within the internal advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your list. These are truly awesome features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you understand ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of the most popular viral promo platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall wherefore this means for the system going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Creator Spotlight
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that indicates less features and less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. Nonetheless, it also indicates that they are rapidly developing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually experienced virtually regular release of new features into the system. And these aren’t puny little features … however huge features that are quite important. Their speed of growth at this point has gone over.
I likewise quite appreciate how responsive they are. In fact, among their product news about some layout improvements to the web design features actually had a little problem with the web content size. I simply replied to that e-mail to tell them. I swiftly got a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That exact same day, the issue was repaired.
Couple of days later, I gave them one more idea …
Sure enough, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to activate automations based on the embed kind utilized was contributed to the system.
That sort of responsiveness and straight participation of the group is something I actually appreciate.
An additional significant factor of distinction below is the price. Both platforms provide totally free plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan offers much more capacity and even more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
As soon as you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally even more beneficial. ConvertKit seems less expensive at first glimpse due to the fact that their pricing web page reveals lower numbers, nonetheless the client limits are FAR lower and your price quickly increases as your list expands.
With BeeHiiv, your first level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid annually), however you can have up to 10,000 customers. That same dimension checklist is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I personally utilize), you can expand 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 puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay yearly, also. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for just $84/month if you pay each year.
BeeHiiv remains in a totally various organization when it pertains to pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately increase costs? They might as time takes place. But, I’m thinking individuals like myself who are already in will be locked-in. We’ll see how things proceed.
Points I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of the things you absolutely need to remember is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do appear to develop instead rapidly and make new product news rather usually, yet there are some basic features I really want they had that I need to just wait on.
One is that they need to have a setup on subscription types where I could choose an automation to run right at the kind level. That would certainly be outstanding for many reasons. Already, registration forms look OK, yet there’s very little setups for them to help in segmentation.
It would behave to have labeling at the subscriber level. This would be powerful.
I think webhooks need to become part of automations to make built-in automations less complicated and lower reliance on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are also some minor management user interface changes that would certainly be handy. For instance:
- Ability to bulk edit/remove clients.
- Capacity to bulk edit articles (as an example, to tag a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a few standard areas as conventional on subscribers (like the name).
- Some more modification options for the web site (such as even more flexible color choices, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Things I hope they do with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t ideal and absolutely not virtually as created 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 feeling for BeeHiiv to become a complete marketing automation platform. I guess you never recognize, however.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Review
I such as BeeHiiv quite a great deal. Sufficient where I made a decision to switch my own e-newsletters over to the platform in spite of my individual preference for digital sovereignty and possessing my very own system.
Put simply, for the e-newsletter publishing version particularly, I saw enough worth in their system to require the adjustment.
Remember, I do not use BeeHiiv as my exclusive e-mail list. I utilize BeeHiiv wherefore it is good at, yet I purposefully have things establish so that I likewise keep my list “in residence” within FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the very same. It is just a good insurance plan, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your list 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 concern is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are using Substack today, I ‘d certainly take into consideration switching over to BeeHiiv. It will just be more business-friendly. It is targeting various abilities and various needs. And also, BeeHiiv also has import devices for Substack, so the button must be rather straightforward.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d most likely sit tight unless you have a large email checklist and are consequently being fleeced with their high month-to-month bill. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are repeating swiftly. There’s additionally a respectable possibility you’re not also making use of a few of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not also need them. Therefore, BeeHiiv could easily be a far better and much more affordable fit.
Finally, if you plan to be very deliberate concerning expanding an e-newsletter, I believe 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 made to be, it is one of the most effective games in town today. This is the platform to view.
BeeHiiv offers a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves checking out on your own. And if you wind up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll discover the totally free account to be rather feature abundant.