I have made use of a great deal of various email list systems throughout the years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a huge supporter of digital sovereignty and having your own system. Therefore (and the incredible features), I have actually been using Beehiiv Embed Form.
So, it is indeed an unusual move for me to decide to make use of BeeHiiv. Besides, it is an organized application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv evaluation, I want to go over why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I intend to attend to the issue of digital sovereignty while utilizing the system and I ‘d additionally like to resolve why I picked to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For E-newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Large Shift In Strategy, I talked about just how and why I decided to transform my RV blog site right into mostly a newsletter. I decided that was business design I intended to pursue with that property.
But, to deliberately pursue it as a newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the e-mail listing for Gladly RV, yet FluentCRM is not a newsletter platform. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, frankly, utilizing it for newsletters is a bit of a waste. Extra on that in a little bit.
As I stated in that problem of the newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a system with devices constructed into it details to my objective. Points such as:
- Ability to publish (to the blog) and send out the email concurrently without having it be 2 different actions.
- Constructed in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would certainly require a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in ability to do cross-promotions with various other newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are basically one-click registration web links. Great for promotion in various other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are means to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your newsletter.
- Integrated ad network, if I pick to monetize with advertisements 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 does not take a cut.
Basically, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter authors with features aimed at development. The system was actually developed by the individuals who built up the modern technology for Morning Mixture. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the point below. BeeHiiv is developed from scratch for the objective of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various objective.
And I finished off with this:.
I may indeed be relocating The Side over to BeeHiiv too. At the very least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. In fact, I simply went all out. And in fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, triggered as it’s own residential property to make sure that I can expand it much more purposefully too.
The goal is that each e-newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded independently. Gladly motor home was young, so very easy to transition. Yet, The Morning WP (formerly The Edge) was hidden in a sea of things right here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s very own. It will clearly always be carefully tied with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet doesn’t have to belong of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv because it was constructed for this function. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Regular Email Listing
There’s a distinction between a newsletter platform and just an e-mail checklist.
You can host your e-mail listing everywhere you want and there are a number of them out there, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The main difference is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of publishing implies that it is going to your web site and to your email clients concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are releasing to that internet site. Yet, you are also dispatching to all subscribers at the same time. The internet site and it’s customers are all in one. This makes monitoring of the system much less complex.
With many email platforms, any type of e-newsletter you set up is done as an e-mail campaign. It is built completely separately from your web site. So, for instance, you could release an article to WordPress however after that you would require to separately build and send an email to your checklist to send it to subscribers. These are then 2 separate collections of archives and two different activities since blog posts and your e-mails are not inherently linked.
The closest point that transforms WordPress into a true e-newsletter system is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name because it pretty much “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and allows them to be the very same point. Definitely, something like Newsletter Glue would be a strong option if I wished to continue to self-host every little thing. Nonetheless, you would certainly shed the development devices that come with a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter inherently includes a various set of demands than a normal e-mail listing.
You don’t typically require much marketing automation. You don’t typically require autoresponder sequences, event monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO requirement, however, is one smooth posting experience and development devices to help you develop your client base that are specific to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my subscribers that I was mosting likely to switch over the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the truth that I selected to go with BeeHiiv, that doesn’t suggest I think Substack draws. As a matter of fact, since Substack has actually been about longer, it is more mature and has more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a pair points that initially got my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically tailored to e-newsletter authors. In fact, it is essentially developed by the same individuals who developed the innovation behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, doesn’t matter. However, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter growth called me out over the more generic positioning of being a “creator”. Development is what I’m interested in here.
- That branding and distinction likewise suggests that BeeHiiv has some rather big brand names and big publications using it. Whereas SubStack is intended even more at solo designers. Once more, it simply tells me the client avatar distinction in between both companies.
Sending our my e-newsletter via FluentCRM didn’t specifically draw. The only reason I would ponder drinking things up is if I assumed I can expand the checklist much faster. And BeeHiiv spoke specifically to that goal.
Due to the targeting, I in fact do not view BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a various kind of consumer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra straight rivals.
But, let’s dive deeper than simply the positioning below.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Generally, BeeHiiv feels like it was constructed by individuals that comprehending e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears more tailored toward makers.
For instance, BeeHiiv provides customized fields on customers. Currently, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. In fact, it is a visual automation builder that works a great deal like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still fairly minimal in triggers and the only action is the ability to send out an email. However, enhancements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will have brand-new triggers in addition to new actions, such as changing custom-made fields, sending webhooks, and so on. I have actually currently seen improvements to their automations just since I started utilizing the platform. For example:
- Capacity to activate automations based on which particular embed form they was available in on.
- Capacity to immediately do re-engagement (and manage individuals based on opens up and non-opens).
- Capacity to do basic conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can not do this because the target audience of Substack simply wouldn’t think to approach this like an email online marketer.
When it concerns composing your e-newsletters, the writing interface of BeeHiiv is just extra tailored towards e-newsletters. In fact, it in fact has similarities to the WordPress block builder in just how it works. I locate it to be extra user-friendly, directly.
Substack’s creating user interface behaves and tidy, but it would certainly be more equal to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is more than just kind. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Section” and afterwards placed anything you want in it. After that, you can place Exposure choices on that section to show it just to paid subscribers, conceal it from e-mail, hide from subscribers, show just to customers, and so on. Substack provides nothing similar to this.
And when/if the time comes that I start a costs registration version, BeeHiiv does not take any type of income. As a matter of fact, you actually link approximately your very own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your earnings. Depending on how many clients you obtain, that 10% can be quite a bit more money than the monthly cost of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This could seem nerdy, however what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv deal with the outdoors utilizing tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … nothing. No integrations at all.
Generally, I simply felt like BeeHiiv was extra constructed towards actual e-mail marketing. It was constructed by individuals that “get it”. Even the opt-in forms and the landing page creates appear better built for conversions. Development is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that 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 claimed, Substack positions itself towards “makers” more than email marketers and newsletter proprietors. Because of that, you see some points tailored a lot more towards individuals that simply believe in terms of web content production.
As an example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does support numerous magazines, they are dealt with fairly independently. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to several publications at the same time. This isn’t something I require, yet … great for individuals that could need it.
Substack likewise has more social capability built-in. As an example, it has a conversation function to host talks with subscribers. It also has a “Notes” feature which works kind of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share things from other “Stacks” you read. Interesting. On the whole, Substack is set up to be extra like a social media network which sustains long-form web content.
Generally, Substack is likewise much more … minimal. You either look after that or do not. Directly, I do not. Nonetheless, if the objective is simpleness of interface and, frankly, features … Substack functions rather well.
However, I’ll be clear below …
When it pertains to actual marketing, I do not believe there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is better suited. I looked for even more points that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, but truthfully … I have a tough time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are usually with to be the closest competitors, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are pursuing the exact same target market and have similar capacities.
ConvertKit is also placed at designers (like Substack), however it is a lot more strongly catering to people who do it for organization. ConvertKit has nice visual automation building, it’s own commerce system, and extra. ConvertKit is a truly nice system.
I’m not going to bore you with a full feature-by-feature failure here. ConvertKit is popular currently. However, below’s exactly how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has much more versatility when it pertains to it’s automations. I will also state that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit much more instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports identifying. This is simply a fundamental feature of email checklists that enables segmentation in an even more flexible method than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to sustain tagging eventually soon, honestly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Embed Form.
ConvertKit does currently supply the ability to market points by means of their own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is very important to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, nonetheless, I would constantly select a much more straight option anyway. For me, I like to utilize my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about a lot longer and for that reason has way extra integration choices. Lots of online tools and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is fairly effective. For example, their plugin currently also sustains member-gated material in addition to auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your website. Essentially, this extra closely places ConvertKit into straight competitors by having you be able to publish to your website and your email checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is seriously doing not have in these kinds of third-party integrations presently. It’ll arrive. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even active dealing with the growth devices of BeeHiiv. As an example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with rewards, yet you can likewise pay per lead within the interior advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your list. These are really amazing features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you recognize ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among the most well known viral promotion systems for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall surface wherefore this indicates for the system going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Embed Form
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that suggests less features and less integrations, which is natural for this stage of the cycle. Nevertheless, it likewise suggests that they are swiftly establishing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually seen practically regular launch of new features right into the platform. And these aren’t puny little features … yet big features that are quite important. Their rate of growth at this moment has actually been impressive.
I also significantly value just how responsive they are. Actually, among their item announcements regarding some style enhancements to the website design features actually contained a tiny trouble with the web content size. I just responded to that email to tell them. I quickly got a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That same day, the issue was dealt with.
Few days later on, I provided another pointer …
Indeed, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to trigger automations based on the embed type made use of was added to the system.
That type of responsiveness and direct participation of the team is something I truly value.
One more major point of distinction right here is the rate. Both systems supply complimentary plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan offers more capability and more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally FAR more favorable. ConvertKit seems cheaper at first glimpse because their pricing page shows lower numbers, nonetheless the subscriber limitations are much lower and your price rapidly raises as your checklist expands.
With BeeHiiv, your very first degree paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid every year), however you can have up to 10,000 clients. That exact same dimension 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 directly make use of), you can grow your checklist as much as 100,000. A checklist of that dimension would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, also, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay each year, also. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay each year.
BeeHiiv is in an entirely different league when it involves pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately boost prices? They could as time goes on. However, I’m thinking people like myself who are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see just how things proceed.
Things I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Add
Among the things you absolutely require to remember is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do appear to evolve rather swiftly and make brand-new item announcements rather typically, yet there are some standard features I really wish they had that I need to simply wait on.
One is that they need to have a setting on subscription forms where I could pick an automation to run right at the type level. That would certainly be remarkable for a lot of factors. As of now, registration kinds look OK, however there’s really little setups for them to help in segmentation.
It would behave to have identifying at the subscriber degree. This would certainly be effective.
I assume webhooks need to be part of automations to make built-in automations easier and lower reliance on outdoors tools like Zapier.
There are additionally some small administrative interface modifications that would certainly be handy. As an example:
- Capacity to mass edit/remove clients.
- Capacity to mass edit blog posts (as an example, to mark a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of fundamental fields as conventional on customers (like the name).
- Some even more personalization options for the website (such as more adaptable shade choices, headline control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Points I wish they perform with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, yet it isn’t best and definitely not nearly as established as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM item.
It most likely never ever will certainly be, either. As I claimed, the purpose is various so it would not a lot a great deal of feeling for BeeHiiv to end up being a complete marketing automation platform. I presume you never know, though.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I like BeeHiiv rather a great deal. Sufficient where I determined to switch my own e-newsletters over to the system regardless of my individual choice for digital sovereignty and having my very own system.
Basically, for the e-newsletter posting model particularly, I saw enough worth in their platform to call for the change.
Remember, I do not utilize BeeHiiv as my unique email listing. I make use of BeeHiiv wherefore it is good at, yet I intentionally have things set up to make sure that I likewise keep my listing “in home” within FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the exact same. It is just a great insurance policy, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your checklist will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will certainly be).
So, the question is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are using Substack right now, I ‘d definitely consider changing to BeeHiiv. It will simply be more business-friendly. It is targeting different abilities and various needs. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the button needs to be pretty straightforward.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d probably stay put unless you have a large email list and are therefore being wooled with their high regular monthly costs. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are repeating swiftly. There’s likewise a respectable opportunity you’re not even utilizing a few of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you don’t even need them. Because of that, BeeHiiv can easily be a far better and much more inexpensive fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be extremely intentional concerning growing a newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE platform to think about and maintain and eye on for you.
If you utilize BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is made to be, it is among the very best video games in the area now. This is the system to watch.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth taking a look at for yourself. And if you wind up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll discover the free account to be quite feature abundant.