I have utilized a lot of different e-mail list systems throughout the years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a significant advocate of digital sovereignty and possessing your own platform. Because of that (and the incredible features), I have actually been using Beehiiv Dedicated IP Addresses.
So, it is without a doubt a strange move for me to make a decision to utilize BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is an organized application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv evaluation, I wish to review why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I want to attend to the issue of digital sovereignty while making use of the system and I would certainly likewise such as to attend to why I chose to utilize it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For E-newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Hobby + A Large Change In Strategy, I talked about how and why I determined to turn my RV blog right into largely a newsletter. I decided that was business version I wanted to pursue with that said home.
Yet, to intentionally pursue it as a newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the e-mail checklist for Happily recreational vehicle, however FluentCRM is not a newsletter platform. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, truthfully, using it for newsletters is a little a waste. Much more on that particular in a bit.
As I said in that concern of the e-newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a system with devices developed right into it particular to my function. Things such as:
- Capability to release (to the blog) and send the e-mail all at once without having it be 2 separate activities.
- Built in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would have needed a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in ability to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are essentially one-click subscription web links. Great for promotion in other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, however, so there are ways to do that.
- Capacity to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your newsletter.
- Built-in ad network, if I choose to monetize with advertisements in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in ability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and primarily run a premium e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Generally, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter authors with features aimed at growth. The system was literally constructed by the people that built up the innovation for Morning Mixture. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the factor below. BeeHiiv is developed from the ground up for the purpose of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a various objective.
And I finished off with this:.
I may without a doubt be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv too. At least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. Actually, I just went for it. And as a matter of fact, The side was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, triggered as it’s own building to ensure that I can grow it more purposefully as well.
The goal is that each e-newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown independently. Gladly motor home was young, so very easy to transition. But, The Morning WP (previously The Edge) was buried in a sea of stuff right here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s very own. It will certainly always be very closely tied with the Blog site Marketing Academy, but doesn’t need to be a part of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv since it was developed for this function. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Simply A Regular Email List
There’s a distinction in between a newsletter platform and just an email checklist.
You can organize your email listing just about anywhere you want and there are a variety of them out there, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The key difference is that, with a newsletter system, the act of publishing implies that it is mosting likely to your site and to your email subscribers at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a site. You are publishing to that web site. But, you are additionally sending to all clients at the same time. The web site and it’s clients are all in one. This makes monitoring of the system much easier.
With many e-mail systems, any type of e-newsletter you set up is done as an email campaign. It is developed completely individually from your website. So, for instance, you could publish a post to WordPress yet then you would require to individually develop and send an email to your checklist to send it to subscribers. These are then two separate collections of archives and two different activities due to the fact that article and your e-mails are not naturally linked.
The closest thing that turns WordPress right into a true newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name since it practically “glues” your e-newsletter to your WordPress messages and allows them to be the same thing. Definitely, something like E-newsletter Glue would be a strong choice if I wanted to continue to self-host whatever. Nonetheless, you ‘d lose the growth devices that come with a platform like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter naturally features a different collection of demands than a typical e-mail list.
You do not generally need much marketing automation. You don’t normally require autoresponder series, occasion monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO need, however, is one smooth publishing experience and development devices to help you develop your subscriber base that are specific to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my clients that I was going to change 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 fact that I picked to go with BeeHiiv, that doesn’t mean I believe Substack sucks. Actually, because Substack has been about much longer, it is elder and has more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is younger, there are a pair points that initially got my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically customized to e-newsletter publishers. Actually, it is essentially constructed by the exact same folks who constructed the technology behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, doesn’t matter. Yet, the apparent positioning of BeeHiiv towards e-newsletter development called me out over the more common positioning of being a “designer”. Development is what I want below.
- That branding and differentiation additionally indicates that BeeHiiv has some fairly large brand names and large publications using it. Whereas SubStack is aimed even more at solo makers. Once again, it simply informs me the customer avatar difference in between the two business.
Sending our my newsletter using FluentCRM really did not exactly suck. The only factor I would certainly contemplate drinking points up is if I thought I might expand the listing much faster. And BeeHiiv spoke exactly to that goal.
Because of the targeting, I actually don’t see BeeHiiv and Substack as direct competitors. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a various type of customer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being more direct competitors.
However, let’s dive deeper than just the positioning below.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Generally, BeeHiiv looks like it was developed by individuals who understanding e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems a lot more geared toward designers.
For example, BeeHiiv supplies custom-made areas on clients. Currently, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv supplies Automations. As a matter of fact, it is a visual automation builder that functions a great deal like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still rather limited in triggers and the only action is the capability to send out an email. Nevertheless, enhancements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will certainly have new triggers as well as brand-new activities, such as changing personalized areas, sending webhooks, and so on. I’ve already seen enhancements to their automations just since I began using the platform. For example:
- Capability to cause automations based on which certain embed type they was available in on.
- Capability to instantly do re-engagement (and take care of people based on opens and non-opens).
- Capacity to do fundamental conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can’t do this due to the fact that the target audience of Substack just wouldn’t believe to approach this like an e-mail marketing professional.
When it comes to composing your newsletters, the creating user interface of BeeHiiv is just a lot more tailored towards e-newsletters. Actually, it in fact has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it works. I locate it to be much more instinctive, directly.
Substack’s composing user interface is nice and clean, however it would certainly be much more comparable to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is more than just form. For example, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Section” and afterwards placed anything you want in it. Then, you can put Visibility alternatives on that area to show it just to paid clients, hide it from e-mail, conceal from customers, show only to customers, etc. Substack supplies absolutely nothing such as this.
And when/if the time comes that I begin a costs membership design, BeeHiiv does not take any kind of revenue. Actually, you actually connect approximately your very own Stripe account and it charges straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your earnings. Depending upon the amount of subscribers you obtain, that 10% can be quite a bit even more cash than the regular monthly price of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This may appear nerdy, however what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv work with the outside making use of devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … nothing. No integrations in any way.
On the whole, I simply seemed like BeeHiiv was much more developed toward actual e-mail marketing. It was constructed by people that “get it”. Also the opt-in types and the landing page makes appear far better built for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I want to see BeeHiiv add, I like the direction it is going more than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have said, Substack settings itself towards “developers” greater than e-mail online marketers and e-newsletter proprietors. For that reason, you see some points geared extra towards individuals who simply think in regards to web content development.
As an example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does support several publications, they are treated quite separately. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to multiple magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I require, however … amazing for individuals who could need it.
Substack also has more social performance built-in. For instance, it has a chat feature to host talks with subscribers. It also has a “Notes” function which works sort of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you’re reading. Interesting. In general, Substack is established to be a lot more like a social network which sustains long-form web content.
Overall, Substack is also more … minimal. You either care for that or do not. Directly, I don’t. Nonetheless, if the objective is simplicity of user interface and, truthfully, features … Substack functions pretty well.
But, I’ll be clear here …
When it involves actual marketing, I don’t believe there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is better fit. I tried to find even more points that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, yet truthfully … I have a hard time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are often with to be the closest rivals, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are pursuing the same target market and have comparable capacities.
ConvertKit is also placed at makers (like Substack), however it is much more strongly dealing with people that do it for company. ConvertKit has great aesthetic automation structure, it’s very own business system, and more. ConvertKit is a truly nice system.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature break down below. ConvertKit is well known already. However, below’s exactly how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has much more flexibility when it involves it’s automations. I will certainly also claim that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit extra instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains identifying. This is just a fundamental feature of e-mail checklists that enables segmentation in a much more versatile method than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain identifying eventually quickly, truthfully. It feels like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Dedicated IP Addresses.
ConvertKit does currently offer the capacity to sell things by means of their very own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is essential to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nonetheless, I would always select a more straight option anyhow. For me, I like to use my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been about much longer and therefore has way a lot more integration options. Tons of online tools and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their own WordPress plugin that is rather powerful. As an example, their plugin now even sustains member-gated content along with auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your site. In essence, this more carefully puts ConvertKit right into straight competition by having you have the ability to publish to your site and your e-mail listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is seriously doing not have in these kinds of third-party integrations presently. It’ll get there. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy tackling the growth tools of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not just incentivize people to share your e-newsletter with rewards, yet you can also pay per lead within the inner ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your listing. These are really outstanding features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you recognize ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among one of the most well known viral promo systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall surface wherefore this indicates for the system going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Dedicated IP Addresses
BeeHiiv is a lot earlier in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies less features and less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. Nevertheless, it additionally suggests that they are swiftly establishing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually witnessed virtually weekly launch of brand-new features into the system. And these aren’t undersized little features … but big features that are quite vital. Their speed of development at this moment has actually gone over.
I additionally quite value how responsive they are. Actually, among their item announcements about some style improvements to the web design features in fact included a small problem with the web content width. I merely responded to that email to tell them. I swiftly obtained a reply straight from the CEO:.
That same day, the concern was fixed.
Few days later on, I provided one more idea …
Sure enough, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to activate automations based on the embed form used was added to the system.
That type of responsiveness and straight participation of the team is something I really appreciate.
An additional major point of distinction right here is the rate. Both systems provide free plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan provides 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 likewise even more positive. ConvertKit seems less costly at first glimpse due to the fact that their pricing web page shows lower numbers, nonetheless the client limits are FAR lower and your rate swiftly boosts as your listing grows.
With BeeHiiv, your very first degree paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid annually), however 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 finest plan and the one I personally utilize), you can grow your list approximately 100,000. A checklist of that dimension would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, also, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay every year, too. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for simply $84/month if you pay yearly.
BeeHiiv remains in a completely different league when it pertains to pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually increase costs? They might as time goes on. However, I’m presuming individuals like myself that are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how points proceed.
Points I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of things you definitely need to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do seem to progress instead quickly and make brand-new product statements rather frequently, however there are some standard features I truly wish they had that I need to simply wait for.
One is that they require to have a setting on membership kinds where I can pick an automation to run right at the kind degree. That would certainly be AWESOME for many reasons. As of now, membership forms look OK, yet there’s really little setups for them to assist in division.
It would be nice to have labeling at the subscriber degree. This would be effective.
I assume webhooks need to be part of automations to make built-in automations less complicated and reduce dependence on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are additionally some small management interface changes that would certainly be handy. For instance:
- Ability to mass edit/remove subscribers.
- Capability to bulk edit articles (for instance, to identify a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of fundamental fields as standard on clients (like the name).
- Some even more modification alternatives for the internet site (such as more adaptable shade selections, headline control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Points I wish they perform with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t excellent and certainly not virtually as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM item.
It probably never ever will be, either. As I claimed, the objective is various so it would not much a lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to end up being a full marketing automation system. I guess you never know, though.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Review
I like BeeHiiv fairly a lot. Enough where I determined to change my own e-newsletters over to the platform in spite of my personal preference for digital sovereignty and owning my own system.
Simply put, for the newsletter publishing model specifically, I saw sufficient value in their platform to warrant the modification.
Keep in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my special email list. I make use of BeeHiiv of what it is good at, yet I deliberately have things set up to ensure that I also maintain my listing “in residence” within FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the exact same. It is simply an excellent insurance coverage, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your list will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the concern is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are using Substack right now, I ‘d certainly take into consideration switching over to BeeHiiv. It will simply be much more business-friendly. It is targeting different capacities and various needs. And also, BeeHiiv also has import tools for Substack, so the switch must be rather straightforward.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d probably sit tight unless you have a large email checklist and are as a result being fleeced with their high month-to-month expense. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are iterating rapidly. There’s additionally a respectable chance you’re not also utilizing several of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not even need them. For that reason, BeeHiiv might conveniently be a much better and extra cost effective fit.
Finally, if you plan to be really intentional regarding growing 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 concerning what it is made to be, it is just one of the most effective video games around today. This is the platform to enjoy.
BeeHiiv offers a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves looking into for yourself. And if you wind up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll discover the cost-free account to be quite feature rich.