I have actually utilized a great deal of various email list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a huge advocate of digital sovereignty and having your very own system. Therefore (and the awesome features), I have actually been utilizing Beehiiv Export Subscribers.
So, it is without a doubt an unusual move for me to decide to use BeeHiiv. Besides, it is a hosted application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv evaluation, I want to review why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I want to address the problem of digital sovereignty while making use of the platform and I would certainly likewise like to deal with why I selected to use it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For Newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Big Shift In Strategy, I discussed exactly how and why I determined to transform my RV blog site right into largely a newsletter. I decided that was business model I wished to go after keeping that residential or commercial property.
Yet, to intentionally seek it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a system that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the email checklist for Gladly motor home, however FluentCRM is not a newsletter platform. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, frankly, utilizing it for e-newsletters is a bit of a waste. A lot more on that particular in a bit.
As I claimed in that issue of the e-newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices constructed right into it certain to my objective. Things such as:
- Ability to publish (to the blog) and send out the email simultaneously without having it be 2 separate actions.
- Integrated in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capability to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are essentially one-click membership links. Great for promo in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, however, so there are means to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your e-newsletter.
- Integrated advertisement network, if I select to monetize with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in ability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and generally run a costs e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Generally, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter authors with features targeted at development. The system was essentially developed by the people who accumulated the innovation for Early morning Mixture. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the factor right here. BeeHiiv is built from the ground up for the purpose of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a different purpose.
And I finished off with this:.
I may indeed be moving The Side over to BeeHiiv as well. At least, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. Actually, I simply went all out. And in fact, The side was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s own building to make sure that I can grow it extra intentionally as well.
The objective is that each newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded individually. Gladly recreational vehicle was young, so easy to transition. Yet, The Morning WP (previously The Edge) was buried in a sea of things here at the Blog Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s very own. It will obviously constantly be very closely tied with the Blog Marketing Academy, however does not have to be a part of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was developed for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Normal Email Checklist
There’s a difference between an e-newsletter system and just an email checklist.
You can host your email checklist anyplace you want and there are a variety of them available, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted alternatives like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The key distinction is that, with a newsletter system, the act of posting indicates that it is going to your website and to your e-mail customers concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are publishing to that site. Yet, you are additionally sending to all clients at the same time. The site and it’s subscribers are all in one. This makes management of the platform much less complex.
With many email systems, any e-newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is built entirely independently from your site. So, for example, you might release a write-up to WordPress but then you would need to individually construct and send an e-mail to your checklist to send it to clients. These are then two separate collections of archives and 2 separate activities due to the fact that blog posts and your e-mails are not naturally linked.
The closest thing that turns WordPress into a true newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name since it virtually “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress messages and permits them to be the very same point. Absolutely, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid option if I intended to remain to self-host whatever. However, you ‘d shed the growth tools that feature a platform like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter inherently includes a different set of demands than a normal email listing.
You don’t typically need much marketing automation. You do not normally require autoresponder sequences, event tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO need, however, is one smooth posting experience and development tools to assist you build your customer base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my customers that I was going to change the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many people ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the fact that I selected to select BeeHiiv, that doesn’t indicate I think 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.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a pair things that originally got my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly customized to e-newsletter authors. In fact, it is essentially built by the exact same folks who built the technology behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, does not matter. Yet, the apparent positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter growth called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “developer”. Development is what I’m interested in below.
- That branding and distinction additionally suggests that BeeHiiv has some fairly large brands and huge publications using it. Whereas SubStack is aimed even more at solo makers. Once more, it simply tells me the customer character difference in between the two business.
Sending our my newsletter by means of FluentCRM really did not precisely draw. The only factor I would certainly consider shaking things up is if I thought I might GROW the listing faster. And BeeHiiv spoke exactly to that objective.
As a result of the targeting, I in fact do not view BeeHiiv and Substack as direct competitors. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a different sort of customer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being more straight competitors.
But, let’s dive much deeper than just the positioning right here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv feels like it was built by individuals that recognizing e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems a lot more geared towards makers.
For instance, BeeHiiv offers personalized fields on subscribers. Now, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv provides Automations. In fact, it is an aesthetic 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 fairly restricted in triggers and the only activity is the ability to send an email. Nonetheless, improvements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will certainly have new triggers in addition to brand-new actions, such as modifying custom-made fields, sending out webhooks, and so on. I’ve already seen enhancements to their automations just considering that I began using the platform. As an example:
- Ability to cause automations based upon which specific embed kind they was available in on.
- Capacity to instantly do re-engagement (and deal with people based on opens up and non-opens).
- Ability to do basic conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can not do this since the target market of Substack just would not believe to approach this like an e-mail marketing professional.
When it concerns creating your e-newsletters, the creating user interface of BeeHiiv is just extra tailored toward e-newsletters. Actually, it in fact has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in how it works. I discover it to be extra user-friendly, directly.
Substack’s creating interface is nice and clean, but it would be more equal to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is greater than simply kind. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Section” and after that put anything you desire in it. After that, you can place Presence choices on that particular section to show it only to paid clients, hide it from email, hide from customers, reveal just to clients, etc. Substack uses nothing like this.
And when/if the time comes that I start a premium subscription model, BeeHiiv does not take any profits. As a matter of fact, you actually connect as much as your own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your revenue. Depending on the amount of subscribers you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit even more money than the month-to-month price of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This might seem unpopular, but what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv work with the outside making use of devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … absolutely nothing. No integrations whatsoever.
On the whole, I simply seemed like BeeHiiv was extra developed toward real email marketing. It was constructed by individuals who “get it”. Even the opt-in forms and the landing page designs appear much better built for conversions. Development is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I would love to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the direction it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually claimed, Substack positions itself toward “makers” greater than email marketing experts and newsletter owners. For that reason, you see some things tailored extra toward individuals that simply think in terms of web content development.
For instance, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does sustain numerous magazines, they are treated quite separately. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to several magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I require, however … amazing for people who may need it.
Substack additionally has more social performance built-in. For example, it has a chat function to host chats with customers. It also has a “Notes” feature which functions kind of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share things from various other “Stacks” you read. Intriguing. Overall, Substack is established to be much more like a social media network which sustains long-form material.
On the whole, Substack is additionally much more … minimal. You either care for that or don’t. Directly, I do not. Nonetheless, if the goal is simpleness of user interface and, frankly, features … Substack works rather well.
But, I’ll be clear right here …
When it involves real marketing, I do not think there’s much question that BeeHiiv is much better suited. I searched for even more factors that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, however truthfully … I have a difficult time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are often through to be the closest competitors, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are going after the very same target audience and have similar capacities.
ConvertKit is also placed at developers (like Substack), yet it is much more highly satisfying individuals who do it for business. ConvertKit has great visual automation building, it’s own commerce platform, and more. ConvertKit is a truly good platform.
I’m not going to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature breakdown below. ConvertKit is well known already. Yet, right here’s exactly how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has more adaptability when it pertains to it’s automations. I will certainly also state that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit more user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains labeling. This is simply a standard function of e-mail checklists that allows division in an even more flexible way than BeeHiiv currently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support identifying at some time quickly, frankly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Export Subscribers.
ConvertKit does now provide the capacity to market things through their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is essential to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would certainly constantly pick a much more direct alternative anyhow. For me, I favor to use my own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about much longer and because of that has way much more integration options. Tons of online tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is fairly powerful. For instance, their plugin now also supports member-gated content along with auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Essentially, this a lot more very closely puts ConvertKit into straight competition by having you be able to publish to your site and your email listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is severely lacking in these kinds of third-party integrations currently. It’ll arrive. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also active taking on the growth devices of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not just incentivize people to share your e-newsletter with benefits, however you can additionally pay per lead within the internal ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your listing. These are actually awesome features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you understand ConvertKit acquired Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of one of the most popular viral promo systems for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall for what this implies for the system going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Export Subscribers
BeeHiiv is a lot previously in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means much less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. However, it likewise means that they are quickly creating.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually experienced practically once a week release of brand-new features into the platform. And these aren’t weak little features … but large features that are fairly essential. Their rate of advancement now has been impressive.
I likewise quite appreciate exactly how responsive they are. As a matter of fact, one of their product statements regarding some design improvements to the web design features in fact included a tiny trouble with the material size. I just replied to that e-mail to tell them. I rapidly obtained a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That very same day, the concern was dealt with.
Few days later on, I provided an additional idea …
Indeed, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to trigger automations based on the embed type made use of was contributed to the system.
That sort of responsiveness and direct involvement of the team is something I really value.
One more significant factor of differentiation below is the cost. Both platforms supply totally free plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan uses extra capability and even more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise much more favorable. ConvertKit seems less expensive at first glance since their pricing page reveals lower numbers, nevertheless the client limits are much lower and your rate rapidly enhances as your list expands.
With BeeHiiv, your initial degree paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid yearly), however you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That very same dimension listing is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I personally utilize), you can expand your list as much as 100,000. A listing of that dimension 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 every year, as well. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for just $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv is in a totally different organization when it comes to pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually enhance costs? They could as time goes on. Yet, I’m guessing people like myself who are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how points proceed.
Things I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Add
One of the important things you certainly need to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do seem to progress instead promptly and make new item news rather often, yet there are some standard features I truly desire they had that I need to just wait for.
One is that they need to have a setting on membership types where I could pick an automation to run right at the kind degree. That would be remarkable for a lot of factors. Already, membership types look OK, but there’s really little settings for them to aid in division.
It would be nice to have labeling at the client level. This would certainly be effective.
I assume webhooks need to become part of automations to make built-in automations much easier and reduce reliance on outside tools like Zapier.
There are additionally some minor management user interface changes that would be handy. For instance:
- Capacity to bulk edit/remove clients.
- Ability to mass edit posts (for instance, to mark a number of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of standard fields as common on subscribers (like the name).
- Some even more customization choices for the website (such as more versatile color selections, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Things I wish they perform with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, yet it isn’t ideal and absolutely not nearly as created as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM product.
It possibly never ever will certainly be, either. As I said, the objective is various so it wouldn’t a lot a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to become a full marketing automation system. I presume you never recognize, however.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Review
I like BeeHiiv rather a lot. Enough where I decided to switch my own newsletters over to the platform regardless of my personal preference for digital sovereignty and having my very own platform.
Put simply, for the newsletter publishing version specifically, I saw enough value in their system to require the adjustment.
Remember, I do not use BeeHiiv as my unique e-mail listing. I utilize BeeHiiv for what it is efficient, but I intentionally have points establish to make sure that I additionally maintain my list “in home” inside of FluentCRM.
If you make use of BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the very same. It is simply an excellent insurance plan, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your checklist will certainly be of high usage (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will certainly be).
So, the question is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are utilizing Substack today, I ‘d certainly take into consideration switching over to BeeHiiv. It will simply be much more business-friendly. It is targeting different abilities and different demands. And also, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the switch ought to be quite straightforward.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d possibly stay put unless you have a large email list and are as a result being wooled with their high regular monthly expense. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are repeating quickly. There’s likewise a pretty good opportunity you’re not even making use of several of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you don’t even require them. Therefore, BeeHiiv can easily be a much better and a lot more economical fit.
Finally, if you plan to be extremely willful concerning expanding an e-newsletter, I assume 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 designed to be, it is just one of the very best video games around right now. This is the platform to see.
BeeHiiv offers a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves taking a look at on your own. And if you end up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll discover the totally free account to be rather feature rich.