I have utilized a lot of different e-mail list systems throughout the years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a huge proponent of digital sovereignty and possessing your very own platform. Therefore (and the incredible features), I have actually been utilizing Beehiiv Dark Mode.
So, it is certainly a strange move for me to choose to utilize BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is a held application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I wish to go over why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I want to deal with the concern of digital sovereignty while utilizing the platform and I ‘d likewise such as to deal with why I chose to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For E-newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my newsletter called My Pastime + A Big Change In Approach, I spoke about just how and why I chose to turn my RV blog site into mostly an e-newsletter. I made a decision that was business design I wished to go after with that said building.
Yet, to purposefully pursue it as a newsletter, I desired a system that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the email listing for Gladly RV, but FluentCRM is not a newsletter platform. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, honestly, using it for newsletters is a bit of a waste. A lot more on that in a little bit.
As I claimed because problem of the e-newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices built into it specific to my function. Points such as:
- Capacity to publish (to the blog) and send out the email at the same time without having it be two different activities.
- Built in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would certainly have needed a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capacity to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are basically one-click registration web links. Great for promo in other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are ways to do that.
- Capacity to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Integrated ad network, if I pick to monetize with ads in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in ability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and generally run a premium e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Essentially, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features focused on growth. The platform was literally constructed by the individuals who accumulated the innovation for Early morning Brew. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the factor here. BeeHiiv is constructed from scratch for the purpose of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various purpose.
And I ended off with this:.
I may without a doubt be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv too. At the very least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. Actually, I just went all out. And actually, The side was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s own building to ensure that I can expand it more deliberately also.
The objective is that each newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded separately. Happily motor home was young, so simple to change. But, The Early morning WP (previously The Edge) was hidden 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 certainly constantly be carefully connected with the Blog site Marketing Academy, but doesn’t need to belong of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv since it was constructed for this function. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Simply A Typical Email Listing
There’s a distinction between an e-newsletter system and simply an email list.
You can host your email list anywhere you want 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 distinction?
The key difference is that, with an e-newsletter system, the act of publishing implies that it is going to your site and to your email clients at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a web site. You are publishing to that website. Yet, you are likewise sending to all subscribers at the same time. The web site and it’s customers are done in one. This makes monitoring of the system much simpler.
With a lot of e-mail systems, any type of e-newsletter you set up is done as an e-mail campaign. It is constructed completely individually from your website. So, as an example, you might release a write-up to WordPress however after that you would certainly need to individually develop and send out an e-mail to your listing to send it to subscribers. These are then 2 separate collections of archives and two separate activities due to the fact that post and your emails are not inherently connected.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress right into a real newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name since it basically “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and allows them to be the same thing. Certainly, something like Newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid alternative if I intended to continue to self-host whatever. Nevertheless, you ‘d lose the growth devices that include a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter inherently includes a different set of needs than a common email listing.
You do not normally need much marketing automation. You don’t usually need autoresponder sequences, event monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO requirement, however, is one seamless publishing experience and development devices to assist you build your customer base that specify to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my clients that I was mosting likely to switch the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had lots of people ask me why I was picking it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the fact that I selected to opt for BeeHiiv, that does not imply I think Substack draws. As a matter of fact, since Substack has actually been around longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple things that at first obtained my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically tailored to e-newsletter publishers. Actually, it is actually built by the very same people that built the innovation behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real life, doesn’t matter. Yet, the obvious positioning of BeeHiiv toward e-newsletter development called me out over the more generic positioning of being a “creator”. Development is what I’m interested in here.
- That branding and differentiation additionally suggests that BeeHiiv has some fairly huge brand names and big publications utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo makers. Once again, it just informs me the consumer avatar distinction between the two firms.
Sending our my newsletter through FluentCRM really did not precisely draw. The only reason I would certainly ponder trembling points up is if I believed I could GROW the listing faster. And BeeHiiv spoke precisely to that objective.
As a result of the targeting, I in fact don’t view BeeHiiv and Substack as straight competitors. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a different sort of customer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being more straight competitors.
But, allow’s dive much deeper than just the positioning right here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv seems like it was built by individuals who understanding e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems a lot more geared toward makers.
For instance, BeeHiiv provides personalized areas on customers. Now, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. As a matter of fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that works a whole lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation performance is still early-phase. It is still quite limited in triggers and the only activity is the ability to send an email. Nevertheless, enhancements are coming. Soon enough, automations will have new triggers as well as new activities, such as changing customized fields, sending webhooks, and so on. I’ve already seen improvements to their automations just given that I began utilizing the platform. As an example:
- Capability to cause automations based upon which details embed kind they can be found in on.
- Ability to instantly do re-engagement (and handle individuals based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Capability to do fundamental conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack simply can not do this because the target market of Substack simply wouldn’t believe to approach this like an e-mail marketing professional.
When it pertains to composing your newsletters, the composing interface of BeeHiiv is simply much more geared towards newsletters. Actually, it actually has similarities to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it works. I find it to be much more user-friendly, directly.
Substack’s writing interface behaves and tidy, but it would certainly be a lot more equal to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is greater than just kind. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Area” and after that put anything you want in it. After that, you can put Presence options on that area to show it only to paid customers, conceal it from e-mail, conceal from clients, reveal just to customers, etc. Substack supplies absolutely nothing similar to this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a costs registration design, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any type of earnings. Actually, you actually link as much as your very own Stripe account and it bills directly to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your profits. Relying on the amount of customers you get, that 10% can be quite a bit more cash than the regular monthly price of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This may appear unpopular, but what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv deal with the outdoors making use of tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … absolutely nothing. No integrations in all.
Overall, I simply felt like BeeHiiv was extra developed towards real email marketing. It was constructed by individuals who “get it”. Even the opt-in kinds and the landing page creates seem better built for conversions. Growth is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I wish to see BeeHiiv add, I like the direction it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have claimed, Substack placements itself towards “developers” greater than email marketing professionals and e-newsletter proprietors. Therefore, you see some points tailored much more towards individuals who just believe in regards to content production.
For example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does sustain numerous magazines, they are treated rather independently. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to numerous magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, but … awesome for individuals that could require it.
Substack also has even more social functionality built-in. As an example, it has a chat function to host talks with subscribers. It additionally has a “Notes” function which functions sort of like a social media newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you read. Intriguing. Overall, Substack is set up to be more like a social media which sustains long-form web content.
On the whole, Substack is additionally much more … minimalist. You either care for that or don’t. Personally, I don’t. However, if the goal is simpleness of user interface and, honestly, features … Substack works quite well.
However, I’ll be clear right here …
When it concerns real marketing, I don’t think there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is much better matched. I tried to find even more points that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, however truthfully … I have a difficult time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are commonly with to be the closest rivals, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are pursuing the exact same target market and have similar capabilities.
ConvertKit is additionally placed at makers (like Substack), yet it is far more strongly catering to people who do it for business. ConvertKit has good visual automation structure, it’s very own commerce platform, and much more. ConvertKit is a really good platform.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature failure below. ConvertKit is well known currently. But, right here’s how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Points ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has extra adaptability when it involves it’s automations. I will certainly also say that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit more instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains marking. This is just a standard feature of email checklists that enables division in a much more adaptable method than BeeHiiv currently does. I expect BeeHiiv to support tagging at some point quickly, frankly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Dark Mode.
ConvertKit does now give the ability to sell points through their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is necessary to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would always select a much more straight choice anyhow. For me, I like to utilize my very own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been around a lot longer and therefore has way extra integration choices. Lots of web-based devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is fairly powerful. For example, their plugin currently also sustains member-gated content in addition to auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Fundamentally, this much more very closely puts ConvertKit into direct competitors by having you be able to publish to your website and your e-mail listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is badly lacking in these kinds of third-party integrations currently. It’ll arrive. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even busy taking on 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 e-newsletter with perks, however you can likewise pay per lead within the interior ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your list. These are truly incredible features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you know ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of the most popular viral promo platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall surface of what this indicates for the platform going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Dark Mode
BeeHiiv is a lot earlier in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means much less features and less integrations, which is natural for this stage of the cycle. Nonetheless, it likewise suggests that they are rapidly developing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually experienced virtually once a week launch of brand-new features into the platform. And these aren’t weak little features … but big features that are quite important. Their speed of development now has been impressive.
I additionally significantly value just how responsive they are. Actually, one of their item announcements concerning some style enhancements to the website design features in fact included a tiny issue with the material size. I just responded to that email to tell them. I rapidly obtained a reply directly from the CEO:.
That same day, the problem was dealt with.
Few days later on, I gave them one more suggestion …
Indeed, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to trigger automations based on the embed type made use of was included in the system.
That type of responsiveness and straight participation of the group is something I really value.
One more major factor of differentiation here is the price. Both systems provide free plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan uses much more capability and even more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
As soon as you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally even more desirable. ConvertKit appears more affordable in the beginning look because their pricing web page shows reduced numbers, nevertheless the subscriber limitations are FAR lower and your cost quickly raises as your list grows.
With BeeHiiv, your very first level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid annually), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That same size checklist is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their best plan and the one I personally use), you can expand your list approximately 100,000. A list of that dimension would 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 annually, too. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay annually.
BeeHiiv is in a totally different organization when it involves pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately enhance prices? They may as time takes place. But, I’m guessing people like myself that are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see how points proceed.
Points I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Add
One of things you absolutely require to remember is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do appear to advance rather swiftly and make new product news somewhat often, however there are some fundamental features I actually want they had that I need to just await.
One is that they require to have a setting on membership types where I can pick an automation to run right at the type degree. That would certainly be outstanding for a lot of factors. Currently, subscription forms look OK, but there’s really little setups for them to help in division.
It would be nice to have tagging at the customer level. This would certainly be powerful.
I assume webhooks must belong to automations to make built-in automations easier and reduce dependence on outside tools like Zapier.
There are additionally some small administrative interface modifications that would come in handy. As an example:
- Ability to mass edit/remove clients.
- Capability to mass edit articles (for example, to mark a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of basic fields as common on customers (like the name).
- Some even more modification alternatives for the internet site (such as even more adaptable shade selections, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Things I wish they do with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t perfect and definitely not almost as established as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM product.
It probably never ever will certainly be, either. As I said, the purpose is different so it wouldn’t much a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to end up being a full marketing automation system. I guess you never ever recognize, however.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I such as BeeHiiv quite a great deal. Sufficient where I made a decision to change my very own e-newsletters over to the platform in spite of my personal choice for digital sovereignty and possessing my very own platform.
Put simply, for the newsletter publishing model particularly, I saw adequate worth in their system to necessitate the change.
Keep in mind, I do not utilize BeeHiiv as my unique e-mail listing. I use BeeHiiv wherefore it is proficient at, yet I intentionally have things set up to make sure that I additionally maintain my checklist “in house” inside of FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the same. It is just an excellent insurance coverage, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your listing will certainly be of high use (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will certainly be).
So, the question is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my point of view, if you are using Substack today, I ‘d most definitely take into consideration switching to BeeHiiv. It will just be more business-friendly. It is targeting various capabilities and different needs. Plus, BeeHiiv also has import devices for Substack, so the switch needs to be quite straightforward.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d possibly stay put unless you have a large email listing and are consequently being fleeced with their high month-to-month expense. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are repeating quickly. There’s additionally a pretty good opportunity you’re not also utilizing a few of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not also need them. Therefore, BeeHiiv could easily be a far better and a lot more inexpensive fit.
Finally, if you plan to be very deliberate regarding growing a newsletter, I think 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 designed to be, it is among the very best games around today. This is the system to view.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth checking out on your own. And if you wind up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll find the cost-free account to be quite feature rich.