I have actually utilized a great deal of different e-mail list systems for many years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a big proponent of digital sovereignty and owning your own system. Because of that (and the outstanding features), I have actually been making use of Beehiiv Email Sequence.
So, it is certainly an unusual move for me to choose to make use of BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is a hosted application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I want to look at why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I intend to address the issue of digital sovereignty while utilizing the system and I would certainly likewise like to attend to why I selected to use it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For Newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Pastime + A Huge Change In Approach, I talked about how and why I determined to transform my RV blog site right into primarily an e-newsletter. I made a decision that was the business version I intended to pursue with that said home.
However, to purposefully pursue it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the email list for Gladly motor home, yet FluentCRM is not a newsletter system. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, honestly, using it for e-newsletters is a bit of a waste. More on that in a bit.
As I stated in that concern of the newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a system with tools developed right into it certain to my function. Points such as:
- Capacity to release (to the blog) and send the email concurrently without having it be two separate actions.
- Built in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would certainly have needed a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capacity to do cross-promotions with other newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are primarily one-click registration links. Great for promo in various other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are means to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your e-newsletter.
- Integrated ad network, if I pick to monetize with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capacity to run a paid newsletter upgrade and primarily run a premium newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter publishers with features aimed at development. The system was essentially built by the individuals that built up the modern technology for Morning Brew. They recognize 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 various function.
And I finished off with this:.
I might without a doubt be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv too. At least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. Actually, I simply went all out. And as a matter of fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, triggered as it’s own building to make sure that I can grow it more purposefully also.
The goal is that each e-newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded independently. Happily RV was young, so simple to change. Yet, The Morning WP (previously The Side) was hidden in a sea of stuff below at the Blog Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s own. It will certainly always be closely connected with the Blog site Marketing Academy, however does not need to be a part of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv since it was constructed for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Normal Email List
There’s a distinction between a newsletter platform and just an email listing.
You can hold your email listing just about anywhere you want and there are a variety of them around, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted alternatives like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The primary distinction is that, with a newsletter system, the act of posting means that it is mosting likely to your internet site and to your e-mail customers at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are releasing to that web site. Yet, you are also sending off to all subscribers at the same time. The site and it’s clients are all in one. This makes management of the system much less complex.
With most e-mail platforms, any type of newsletter you set up is done as an email campaign. It is developed totally individually from your internet site. So, as an example, you might release a short article to WordPress but after that you would need to separately build and send an e-mail to your list to send it to subscribers. These are then 2 different sets of archives and two separate activities because post and your emails are not naturally connected.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress into a real newsletter system is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name since it basically “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress articles and permits them to be the very same thing. Certainly, something like Newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid option if I wanted to remain to self-host everything. Nevertheless, you ‘d lose the development tools that feature a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter inherently comes with a various collection of demands than a typical email list.
You don’t typically require much marketing automation. You do not normally require autoresponder series, occasion tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO demand, however, is one smooth publishing experience and development devices to assist you build your subscriber base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my subscribers that I was going to switch the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the fact that I picked to go with BeeHiiv, that does not mean I think Substack sucks. Actually, due to the fact that Substack has actually been about much longer, it is more mature and has more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is younger, there are a pair things that initially obtained my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically customized to e-newsletter publishers. Actually, it is essentially constructed by the exact same folks that constructed the technology behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real life, doesn’t matter. Yet, the evident positioning of BeeHiiv toward e-newsletter development called me out over the more generic positioning of being a “designer”. Growth is what I’m interested in below.
- That branding and distinction likewise indicates that BeeHiiv has some relatively big brand names and big publications utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo creators. Once again, it just tells me the client character distinction in between both companies.
Sending our my e-newsletter using FluentCRM really did not exactly suck. The only reason I would certainly ponder shaking points up is if I believed I could expand the list much faster. And BeeHiiv talked exactly to that objective.
Because of the targeting, I really don’t view BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a different sort of customer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being a lot more direct competitors.
However, let’s dive much deeper than simply the positioning below.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv appears like it was constructed by individuals that understanding email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears extra geared toward designers.
For instance, BeeHiiv supplies customized fields on subscribers. Currently, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. Actually, it is a visual automation builder that works 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 action is the capacity to send out an email. Nevertheless, improvements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will have new triggers as well as new actions, such as customizing customized areas, sending out webhooks, etc. I’ve currently seen enhancements to their automations just since I started utilizing the platform. For example:
- Capability to trigger automations based on which specific embed form they can be found in on.
- Ability to automatically do re-engagement (and handle people based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Capacity to do fundamental 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 market of Substack simply wouldn’t believe to approach this like an e-mail marketing professional.
When it pertains to composing your e-newsletters, the creating interface of BeeHiiv is simply much more tailored towards e-newsletters. As a matter of fact, it actually has similarities to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it functions. I locate it to be more intuitive, directly.
Substack’s creating interface behaves and clean, but it would certainly be much more comparable to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is greater than just form. For example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Area” and after that placed anything you want in it. After that, you can place Exposure choices on that particular area to show it just to paid subscribers, conceal it from email, hide from customers, reveal only to customers, etc. Substack supplies nothing similar to this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a costs membership design, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any kind of profits. As a matter of fact, you essentially connect up to your very own Stripe account and it charges straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your revenue. Depending upon the number of customers you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit even more cash than the monthly cost of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This may seem unpopular, but what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv deal with the outdoors using devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … nothing. No integrations in any way.
Overall, I simply felt like BeeHiiv was extra developed toward real email marketing. It was built by individuals that “get it”. Even the opt-in forms and the landing page designs seem much better built for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv add, I such as the direction it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have stated, Substack settings itself toward “designers” more than e-mail marketing professionals and e-newsletter owners. Therefore, you see some points geared much more towards people who simply think in regards to material creation.
As an example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does support multiple publications, they are dealt with quite independently. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to numerous magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I require, however … awesome for individuals who could need it.
Substack additionally has even more social capability built-in. As an example, it has a conversation feature to host talks with customers. It likewise has a “Notes” feature which works sort of like a social media newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you’re reading. Interesting. Overall, Substack is established to be much more like a social media which supports long-form web content.
Overall, Substack is also much more … minimalist. You either care for that or don’t. Personally, I do not. However, if the goal is simpleness of interface and, honestly, features … Substack works pretty well.
But, I’ll be clear below …
When it comes to actual marketing, I do not believe there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is much better suited. I tried to find even more factors that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, but truthfully … I have a hard time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are frequently through to be the closest competitors, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are going after the exact same target audience and have similar abilities.
ConvertKit is also positioned at makers (like Substack), but it is far more highly satisfying individuals that do it for business. ConvertKit has great aesthetic automation building, it’s very own business system, and a lot more. ConvertKit is an actually good system.
I’m not going to bore you with a full feature-by-feature malfunction right here. ConvertKit is well known currently. Yet, here’s how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Points ConvertKit Is Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has more flexibility when it pertains to it’s automations. I will certainly likewise state that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit extra user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains tagging. This is just a standard function of email listings that enables division in a far more flexible way than BeeHiiv currently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain identifying eventually quickly, truthfully. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Email Sequence.
ConvertKit does now give the ability to sell points using their own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is necessary to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would certainly constantly pick a more straight option anyhow. For me, I choose to use my very own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been about a lot longer and for that reason has way more integration alternatives. Tons of online tools and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is quite powerful. As an example, their plugin now even sustains member-gated material as well as auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your website. In essence, this a lot more carefully places ConvertKit into straight competitors by having you be able to publish to your website and your e-mail checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is severely doing not have in these type of third-party integrations presently. It’ll get there. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also active taking on the development devices 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 advantages, yet you can likewise pay per lead within the inner ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your list. These are actually amazing features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you understand ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among one of the most well known viral promo platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall of what this implies for the system moving forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Email Sequence
BeeHiiv is a lot previously in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. Nevertheless, it likewise implies that they are swiftly developing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have experienced practically once a week release of new features into the platform. And these aren’t undersized little features … yet huge features that are quite important. Their speed of development at this point has gone over.
I likewise very much appreciate just how receptive they are. In fact, among their item news about some design enhancements to the web design features really had a tiny issue with the content size. I merely responded to that e-mail to tell them. I promptly got a reply directly from the chief executive officer:.
That very same day, the concern was taken care of.
Couple of days later, I gave them an additional idea …
Indeed, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to set off automations based upon the embed form utilized was contributed to the system.
That sort of responsiveness and direct participation of the team is something I actually value.
One more significant factor of differentiation below is the rate. Both platforms use complimentary plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan supplies extra capacity and even more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
As soon as you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also much more desirable. ConvertKit seems less costly initially glimpse due to the fact that their pricing web page reveals lower numbers, however the customer limitations are much reduced and your price swiftly increases as your checklist expands.
With BeeHiiv, your very first level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid each year), 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 update to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I directly make use of), you can expand your listing up to 100,000. A listing of that size would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, as well, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay annually, as well. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay each year.
BeeHiiv remains in a totally different organization when it comes to pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point boost prices? They may as time goes on. However, I’m thinking people like myself who are already in will be locked-in. We’ll see just how points continue.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
Among the important things you most definitely need to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do seem to progress instead quickly and make new item news rather usually, however there are some basic features I really wish they had that I need to just wait for.
One is that they require to have a setup on subscription kinds where I could select an automation to run right at the form degree. That would certainly be remarkable for so many factors. Currently, registration types look OK, but there’s extremely little setups for them to help in segmentation.
It would certainly be nice to have identifying at the subscriber degree. This would be powerful.
I assume webhooks should belong to automations to make integrated automations less complicated and reduce reliance on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are also some minor administrative interface adjustments that would come in handy. For instance:
- Capacity to bulk edit/remove customers.
- Capability to mass edit blog posts (as an example, to label a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a few basic fields as typical on subscribers (like the name).
- Some even more customization options for the web site (such as even more versatile color selections, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Points I hope they make with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t excellent and definitely not almost as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM item.
It possibly never will certainly be, either. As I claimed, the objective is various so it wouldn’t much a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to become a full marketing automation platform. I presume you never recognize, though.
Final Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I such as BeeHiiv rather a great deal. Enough where I decided to switch my very own newsletters over to the platform regardless of my personal preference for digital sovereignty and having my own system.
Basically, for the e-newsletter publishing version especially, I saw enough worth in their system to call for the change.
Remember, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my exclusive e-mail checklist. I use BeeHiiv of what it is proficient at, but I intentionally have points establish so that I likewise keep my checklist “in home” inside of FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the very same. It is simply a great insurance policy, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your checklist will certainly be of high use (FluentCRM is a complete 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 utilizing Substack today, I ‘d certainly think about switching over to BeeHiiv. It will simply be more business-friendly. It is targeting various abilities and various requirements. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the switch needs to be pretty straightforward.
If you are on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d most likely stay put unless you have a huge e-mail list and are consequently being fleeced with their high month-to-month bill. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are iterating rapidly. There’s additionally a pretty good opportunity you’re not also using several of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you do not also need them. Therefore, BeeHiiv can quickly be a better and more economical fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be really deliberate regarding expanding an e-newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE platform to think about and keep 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 games in town now. This is the platform to watch.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth checking out for yourself. And if you end up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll find the complimentary account to be rather feature abundant.