I have made use of a great deal of various email list systems for many years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a significant proponent of digital sovereignty and possessing your very own system. Therefore (and the remarkable features), I have actually been using Beehiiv Engage My Audience.
So, it is indeed an odd move for me to decide to utilize BeeHiiv. After all, it is an organized application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I intend to go over why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I intend to deal with the concern of digital sovereignty while utilizing the platform and I ‘d likewise like to resolve why I chose to utilize it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For E-newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my newsletter called My Pastime + A Large Change In Strategy, I discussed exactly how and why I decided to turn my RV blog right into mainly an e-newsletter. I determined that was the business version I wished to go after with that said home.
However, to purposefully seek it as an e-newsletter, I desired a system that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the e-mail list for Happily motor home, but FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, truthfully, using it for e-newsletters is a bit of a waste. Much more on that particular in a little bit.
As I claimed in that concern of the newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a system with devices built right into it details to my objective. Points such as:
- Ability to release (to the blog site) and send the email concurrently without having it be two different actions.
- Constructed in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would have needed a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capacity to do cross-promotions with various other newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are basically one-click registration links. Great for promotion in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are ways to do that.
- Capacity to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your newsletter.
- Integrated advertisement network, if I choose to monetize with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated ability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and primarily run a premium newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Generally, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter authors with features targeted at growth. The system was literally developed by the individuals who accumulated the innovation for Morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the factor below. BeeHiiv is built from scratch for the objective of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different function.
And I finished off with this:.
I might undoubtedly be relocating The Side over to BeeHiiv too. At the very least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. In fact, I simply went for it. And actually, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s own building to make sure that I can expand it more purposefully as well.
The goal is that each e-newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s own media entity and grown independently. Happily motor home was young, so simple to shift. Yet, The Early morning WP (previously The Edge) was buried in a sea of things here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s own. It will obviously constantly be very closely linked with the Blog Marketing Academy, however does not have to belong of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv because it was constructed for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Just A Normal Email Checklist
There’s a distinction in between an e-newsletter system and just an email list.
You can host your e-mail list just about anywhere you desire and there are a number of them available, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted choices like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The main difference is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of posting implies that it is mosting likely to your site and to your e-mail subscribers concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are publishing to that web site. But, you are also sending to all clients at the same time. The site and it’s subscribers are done in one. This makes monitoring of the platform much easier.
With many e-mail platforms, any type of newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is developed totally separately from your website. So, as an example, you could publish a post to WordPress yet after that you would need to separately construct and send an e-mail to your list to send it to customers. These are after that two separate collections of archives and two separate activities due to the fact that article and your emails are not inherently linked.
The closest point that turns WordPress into a real e-newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name since it basically “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress messages and permits them to be the same point. Certainly, something like Newsletter Glue would be a solid alternative if I wished to continue to self-host whatever. Nonetheless, you would certainly shed the growth devices that feature a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting a newsletter inherently comes with a different set of demands than a common e-mail checklist.
You do not typically need much marketing automation. You don’t usually need autoresponder sequences, occasion monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO need, though, is one seamless posting experience and development tools to help you construct your client base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my customers that I was mosting likely to switch the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the fact that I chose to go with BeeHiiv, that doesn’t suggest I assume Substack draws. In fact, due to the fact that Substack has actually been about much longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a pair points that initially obtained my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is especially customized to e-newsletter publishers. In fact, it is actually constructed by the same people who constructed the technology behind Early morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real life, does not matter. Yet, the evident positioning of BeeHiiv toward e-newsletter development called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “maker”. Development is what I’m interested in below.
- That branding and differentiation also indicates that BeeHiiv has some rather big brand names and large magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo makers. Once again, it just informs me the consumer avatar distinction between the two companies.
Sending our my newsletter by means of FluentCRM really did not exactly suck. The only factor I would consider drinking things up is if I assumed I could expand the list quicker. And BeeHiiv talked precisely to that objective.
Because of the targeting, I really do not view BeeHiiv and Substack as direct competitors. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a various sort of consumer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra direct rivals.
But, allow’s dive much deeper than just the placing here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
On the whole, BeeHiiv appears like it was developed by people who comprehending email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems much more tailored toward developers.
As an example, BeeHiiv offers custom-made fields on customers. Now, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. As a matter of fact, it is a visual automation builder that functions a whole lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still fairly limited in triggers and the only activity is the capability to send an email. However, improvements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will certainly have new triggers as well as new activities, such as changing customized areas, sending out webhooks, etc. I have actually currently seen improvements to their automations just given that I started making use of the platform. For example:
- Ability to set off automations based on which particular embed form they came in on.
- Capacity to immediately do re-engagement (and deal with individuals based on opens and non-opens).
- Ability to do fundamental conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can not do this since the target audience of Substack simply would not think to approach this like an e-mail marketer.
When it comes to composing your newsletters, the composing interface of BeeHiiv is simply extra geared toward newsletters. As a matter of fact, it in fact has similarities to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it works. I find it to be more instinctive, directly.
Substack’s creating interface behaves and clean, however it would certainly be extra equal to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This distinction is greater than simply kind. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Area” and after that placed anything you want in it. After that, you can place Presence options on that particular area to reveal it only to paid customers, hide it from email, conceal from clients, show just to customers, etc. Substack uses absolutely nothing like this.
And when/if the time comes that I begin a costs membership version, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any kind of revenue. As a matter of fact, you literally link up to your own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your revenue. Depending on how many customers you obtain, that 10% can be quite a bit even more money than the regular monthly cost of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This may seem nerdy, however what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outdoors utilizing devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … absolutely nothing. No integrations in all.
In general, I just felt like BeeHiiv was a lot more constructed toward real e-mail marketing. It was developed by individuals that “get it”. Even the opt-in types and the landing page develops seem better built for conversions. Development is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I want 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 actually stated, Substack positions itself toward “makers” greater than email marketing professionals and e-newsletter proprietors. Because of that, you see some things tailored a lot more towards individuals that just think in terms of content development.
For instance, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does sustain several magazines, they are treated fairly separately. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to numerous publications at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, but … awesome for people that could require it.
Substack likewise has more social functionality built-in. As an example, it has a chat feature to host chats with clients. It also has a “Notes” feature which functions kind of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you read. Interesting. On the whole, Substack is set up to be much more like a social network which supports long-form content.
In general, Substack is also a lot more … minimal. You either care for that or don’t. Personally, I do not. Nonetheless, if the goal is simpleness of user interface and, honestly, features … Substack functions rather well.
Yet, I’ll be clear right here …
When it involves actual marketing, I don’t think there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is better suited. I tried to find more factors that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, yet honestly … I have a difficult time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are frequently via to be the closest rivals, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are going after the same target market and have similar abilities.
ConvertKit is also placed at designers (like Substack), yet it is a lot more highly accommodating individuals that do it for business. ConvertKit has good visual automation building, it’s own commerce system, and a lot more. ConvertKit is a truly good system.
I’m not going to bore you with a complete feature-by-feature break down right here. ConvertKit is popular currently. Yet, here’s how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has much more flexibility when it concerns it’s automations. I will additionally state that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains tagging. This is just a standard feature of email lists that makes it possible for division in a far more versatile method than BeeHiiv currently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to sustain identifying at some point soon, frankly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Engage My Audience.
ConvertKit does now give the ability to market points via their very own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that’s important to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would certainly constantly select a much more direct alternative anyway. For me, I favor to use my very own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been around a lot longer and therefore has way more integration choices. Lots of web-based devices and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is fairly powerful. As an example, their plugin now also supports member-gated material in addition to auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your website. Fundamentally, this more carefully places ConvertKit into direct competitors by having you have the ability to publish to your website and your email checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is badly lacking in these type of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll arrive. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also active dealing with the growth tools 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 perks, however you can additionally pay per lead within the interior ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your listing. These are truly awesome features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you understand ConvertKit acquired Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among the most well known viral promo platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall surface for what this means for the platform going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Engage My Audience
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that suggests much less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. Nonetheless, it also implies that they are rapidly creating.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have experienced practically weekly launch of brand-new features right into the system. And these aren’t weak little features … yet huge features that are fairly vital. Their speed of advancement now has been impressive.
I also significantly appreciate how responsive they are. In fact, among their product announcements regarding some design improvements to the web design features really consisted of a little trouble with the content width. I just responded to that email to tell them. I swiftly got a reply directly from the CEO:.
That very same day, the concern was repaired.
Couple of days later, I provided one more suggestion …
Certainly, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to cause automations based on the embed kind utilized was included in the system.
That sort of responsiveness and straight involvement of the team is something I actually appreciate.
An additional major factor of distinction right here is the cost. Both platforms offer free plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan uses much more capacity and even more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also much more desirable. ConvertKit appears less costly in the beginning look since their pricing web page shows lower numbers, nonetheless the customer limitations are FAR lower and your cost rapidly boosts as your listing grows.
With BeeHiiv, your initial degree paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid each year), however you can have up to 10,000 clients. That exact same dimension listing is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their best plan and the one I directly utilize), you can expand your checklist as much as 100,000. A listing of that size would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, as well, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay every year, also. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv remains in an entirely various organization when it concerns pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually boost prices? They might as time takes place. But, I’m guessing 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 things you absolutely require to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do appear to progress rather swiftly and make brand-new item statements rather commonly, however there are some basic features I actually desire they had that I require to just wait on.
One is that they need to have a setup on membership types where I could pick an automation to run right at the type degree. That would certainly be incredible for a lot of factors. Already, membership forms look OK, yet there’s extremely little setups for them to help in segmentation.
It would be nice to have labeling at the customer level. This would certainly be powerful.
I think webhooks must be part of automations to make built-in automations much easier and minimize dependence on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are additionally some small administrative interface changes that would certainly come in handy. For example:
- Capacity to bulk edit/remove customers.
- Ability to mass edit messages (for example, to mark a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a few fundamental fields as typical on clients (like the name).
- Some more customization alternatives for the site (such as more flexible shade choices, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Points I hope they make with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, yet it isn’t best and certainly not virtually as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM product.
It possibly never ever will certainly be, either. As I said, the objective is different so it wouldn’t a lot a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to end up being a complete marketing automation system. I guess you never ever recognize, though.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Review
I like BeeHiiv quite a whole lot. Sufficient where I made a decision to switch my very own newsletters over to the platform regardless of my personal choice for digital sovereignty and owning my very own platform.
Put simply, for the e-newsletter publishing design specifically, I saw enough value in their platform to require the modification.
Bear in mind, I do not utilize BeeHiiv as my exclusive e-mail checklist. I use BeeHiiv wherefore it is efficient, however I intentionally have points set up to make sure that I additionally keep my listing “in home” inside of FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the very same. It is simply a great insurance coverage, for one. However, 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 inquiry is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are making use of Substack today, I ‘d absolutely consider switching to BeeHiiv. It will simply be much more business-friendly. It is targeting various capabilities and various needs. Plus, BeeHiiv also has import devices for Substack, so the switch must be pretty straightforward.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d probably stay put unless you have a big email checklist and are for that reason being wooled with their high month-to-month expense. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are iterating promptly. There’s also a pretty good opportunity you’re not also utilizing some of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you do not even need them. For that reason, BeeHiiv might easily be a much better and extra budget-friendly fit.
Finally, if you plan to be really intentional regarding expanding an e-newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE system to think about and maintain and eye on for you.
If you utilize BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is created to be, it is among the most effective games in town today. This is the system to enjoy.
BeeHiiv provides a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth checking out on your own. And if you end up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll locate the totally free account to be rather feature rich.