I have utilized a lot of different email list systems throughout the years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a massive proponent of digital sovereignty and owning your very own system. Because of that (and the awesome features), I have been utilizing Beehiiv Fonts.
So, it is indeed an odd move for me to choose to utilize BeeHiiv. Besides, it is an organized application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv evaluation, I intend to go over why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I wish to deal with the problem of digital sovereignty while making use of the platform and I would certainly also like to attend to why I picked to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For E-newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my newsletter called My Pastime + A Big Shift In Method, I discussed how and why I decided to turn my RV blog right into largely a newsletter. I decided that was the business model I wished to pursue with that building.
Yet, to purposefully pursue it as an e-newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the email listing for Happily motor home, yet FluentCRM is not a newsletter platform. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, truthfully, using it for newsletters is a bit of a waste. Much more on that particular in a little bit.
As I stated because problem of the e-newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a platform with tools built right into it particular to my function. Points such as:
- Ability to release (to the blog) and send out the e-mail all at once without having it be 2 separate actions.
- Constructed in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would require a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capacity to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are generally one-click registration web links. Great for promo in various other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, though, so there are methods to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your e-newsletter.
- Built-in ad network, if I pick to monetize with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capacity to run a paid newsletter upgrade and essentially run a costs newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features targeted at growth. The system was actually developed by the individuals who accumulated the technology for Morning Brew. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the point here. BeeHiiv is constructed from scratch for the purpose of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various objective.
And I finished off with this:.
I may undoubtedly be moving The Side over to BeeHiiv as well. A minimum of, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. In fact, I just went for it. And actually, The side was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s very own property so that I can grow it extra intentionally also.
The goal is that each newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown separately. Gladly motor home was young, so easy to transition. Yet, The Early morning WP (previously The Edge) was buried in a sea of stuff right here at the Blog Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s own. It will obviously constantly be carefully connected with the Blog Marketing Academy, but does not need to belong of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv because it was built for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Regular Email List
There’s a distinction between an e-newsletter platform and simply an email checklist.
You can hold your email list just about anywhere you want and there are a number of them available, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The primary difference is that, with a newsletter platform, the act of publishing indicates that it is mosting likely to your site and to your e-mail customers concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a site. You are releasing to that internet site. But, you are additionally sending off to all clients at the same time. The website and it’s clients are all in one. This makes management of the system much less complex.
With many e-mail systems, any newsletter you set up is done as an email campaign. It is developed entirely independently from your internet site. So, as an example, you may release a write-up to WordPress however then you would certainly require to independently develop and send an email to your listing to send it to customers. These are then two separate collections of archives and two separate actions due to the fact that post and your e-mails are not naturally linked.
The closest thing that turns WordPress right into a real e-newsletter system is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name because it practically “glues” your newsletter to your WordPress messages and enables them to be the exact same point. Certainly, something like Newsletter Glue would be a strong choice if I wished to continue to self-host whatever. However, you ‘d lose the growth devices that include a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing an e-newsletter naturally comes with a various set of needs than a regular email checklist.
You don’t typically require much marketing automation. You don’t normally need autoresponder sequences, event tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO requirement, though, is one seamless publishing experience and growth devices to assist you construct 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 e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many people ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the fact that I picked to select BeeHiiv, that does not mean I believe Substack draws. In fact, due to the fact that Substack has been around longer, it is elder and has more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a pair points that initially got my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly tailored to newsletter authors. Actually, it is actually constructed by the very same folks who built the innovation behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, does not matter. Yet, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter development called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “developer”. Development is what I have an interest in below.
- That branding and distinction likewise implies that BeeHiiv has some fairly huge brands and huge magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo makers. Once again, it simply informs me the customer character distinction in between both firms.
Sending our my e-newsletter via FluentCRM really did not specifically draw. The only factor I would certainly ponder shaking points up is if I assumed I might GROW the checklist faster. And BeeHiiv talked specifically to that objective.
As a result of the targeting, I in fact don’t check out BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a various sort of customer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being more straight competitors.
However, let’s dive deeper than just the positioning below.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Generally, BeeHiiv seems like it was constructed by people that comprehending email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems much more tailored toward developers.
For example, BeeHiiv offers custom-made areas on subscribers. Now, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. In fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that functions a whole lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation functionality is still early-phase. It is still rather minimal in triggers and the only activity is the capacity to send an e-mail. Nevertheless, enhancements are coming. Soon sufficient, automations will have brand-new triggers in addition to brand-new activities, such as customizing personalized fields, sending webhooks, and so on. I’ve already seen improvements to their automations just considering that I began using the platform. For instance:
- Ability to set off automations based upon which certain embed type they was available in on.
- Capacity to automatically do re-engagement (and take care of individuals based on opens up and non-opens).
- Capability to do standard conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can’t do this due to the fact that the target audience of Substack simply wouldn’t think to approach this like an email marketing expert.
When it involves composing your e-newsletters, the composing interface of BeeHiiv is just much more tailored towards e-newsletters. As a matter of fact, it in fact has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in how it works. I discover it to be much more intuitive, directly.
Substack’s creating user interface is nice and clean, however it would be more equal to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This distinction is greater than simply kind. For example, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Section” and afterwards placed anything you want in it. Then, you can place Visibility options on that particular section to reveal it only to paid subscribers, conceal it from email, conceal from subscribers, reveal just to subscribers, etc. Substack provides absolutely nothing similar to this.
And when/if the time comes that I start a costs subscription model, BeeHiiv does not take any kind of income. In fact, you literally attach as much as your own Stripe account and it charges straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your revenue. Depending upon how many customers you obtain, that 10% can be quite a bit more money than the month-to-month cost of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This might seem unpopular, however what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outside making use of 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 much more developed toward genuine email marketing. It was developed by individuals who “get it”. Even the opt-in types and the landing page designs appear better built for conversions. Growth is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv include, I like the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have stated, Substack settings itself towards “creators” more than email online marketers and e-newsletter owners. For that reason, you see some points geared much more toward individuals who just think in terms of content production.
For instance, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does support numerous publications, they are dealt with quite individually. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to multiple magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I need, but … cool for individuals who might need it.
Substack also has even more social capability built-in. For instance, it has a conversation feature to host talks with customers. It likewise has a “Notes” function which functions sort of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you’re reading. Interesting. On the whole, Substack is established to be much more like a social network which sustains long-form web content.
Generally, Substack is likewise a lot more … minimalist. You either look after that or do not. Directly, I do not. Nevertheless, if the objective is simpleness of user interface and, frankly, features … Substack functions quite well.
But, I’ll be clear below …
When it comes to real marketing, I do not assume there’s much question that BeeHiiv is much better suited. I searched for even more points that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, however frankly … I have a tough time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are frequently with to be the closest rivals, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are pursuing the very same target market and have similar capabilities.
ConvertKit is also positioned at developers (like Substack), but it is much more highly accommodating people who do it for company. ConvertKit has good aesthetic automation building, it’s very own commerce system, and extra. ConvertKit is an actually nice platform.
I’m not going to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature malfunction right here. ConvertKit is well known already. However, right here’s 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 certainly additionally claim that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit a lot more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains marking. This is simply a basic feature of e-mail lists that allows segmentation in a far more versatile means than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support labeling eventually quickly, truthfully. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Fonts.
ConvertKit does currently provide the capacity to offer points through their own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is essential to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, nonetheless, I would constantly choose an extra direct option anyway. For me, I like to use my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been around a lot longer and therefore has way a lot more integration choices. Tons of online devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their own WordPress plugin that is rather effective. For example, their plugin currently even sustains member-gated web content as well as auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your site. Fundamentally, this a lot more very closely places ConvertKit right into direct competitors by having you have the ability to publish to your website and your e-mail list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is seriously doing not have in these kinds of third-party integrations right now. It’ll get there. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy taking on the growth tools of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not only incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with benefits, but you can likewise pay per lead within the internal ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your checklist. These are actually remarkable features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you understand ConvertKit acquired Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among one of the most popular viral promo systems for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall surface wherefore this indicates for the system moving forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Fonts
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s item 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 suggests that they are rapidly creating.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have seen virtually once a week release of brand-new features right into the system. And these aren’t undersized little features … however huge features that are rather important. Their speed of growth now has actually gone over.
I additionally quite appreciate how responsive they are. In fact, among their product statements regarding some style improvements to the web design features actually had a small issue with the content size. I simply responded to that e-mail to tell them. I rapidly got a reply directly from the chief executive officer:.
That very same day, the concern was dealt with.
Few days later on, I provided one more tip …
Sure enough, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to trigger automations based upon the embed type utilized was included in the system.
That type of responsiveness and straight participation of the group is something I truly value.
Another major factor of distinction here is the price. Both platforms supply complimentary plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan provides extra capability and more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
As soon as you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also much more favorable. ConvertKit appears cheaper at first look due to the fact that their pricing page reveals lower numbers, however the customer limits are FAR reduced and your price quickly enhances as your checklist expands.
With BeeHiiv, your initial level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid yearly), however you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That same size checklist is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their ideal plan and the one I personally make use of), you can grow your checklist up to 100,000. A checklist of that size would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, too, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay every year, also. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for just $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv is in a totally different league when it pertains to pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually raise rates? They may as time takes place. Yet, I’m guessing people like myself that are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see just how points continue.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among the important things you definitely require to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do seem to progress instead promptly and make new item announcements rather commonly, yet there are some standard features I truly desire they had that I require to just wait on.
One is that they need to have a setting on subscription types where I might choose an automation to run right at the type level. That would certainly be outstanding for so many reasons. Currently, membership forms look OK, but there’s extremely little setups for them to help in segmentation.
It would behave to have labeling at the client level. This would certainly be powerful.
I think webhooks should become part of automations to make built-in automations simpler and reduce reliance on outdoors tools like Zapier.
There are also some minor administrative user interface modifications that would come in handy. As an example:
- Capability to mass edit/remove clients.
- Ability to bulk edit blog posts (for instance, to label a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a few fundamental areas as conventional on clients (like the name).
- Some even more customization alternatives for the website (such as more versatile color choices, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Points I hope they do with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, yet it isn’t excellent and definitely not almost as created as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM product.
It probably never will be, either. As I claimed, the objective is various so it wouldn’t much a lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to come to be a full marketing automation system. I think you never recognize, though.
Final Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Review
I like BeeHiiv quite a great deal. Enough where I decided to change my very own e-newsletters over to the platform in spite of my personal preference for digital sovereignty and possessing my very own platform.
Basically, for the newsletter posting version especially, I saw enough value in their platform to necessitate the change.
Remember, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my special e-mail list. I utilize BeeHiiv of what it is good at, however I deliberately have things set up to make sure that I likewise keep my checklist “in house” inside of FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the same. It is simply a good insurance coverage, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your checklist will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the question is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my point of view, if you are using Substack now, I ‘d most definitely consider changing to BeeHiiv. It will merely be more business-friendly. It is targeting various capacities and different needs. And also, BeeHiiv also has import devices for Substack, so the button ought to be quite straightforward.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d probably stay put unless you have a huge email checklist and are consequently being wooled with their high monthly expense. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are repeating swiftly. There’s additionally a pretty good possibility you’re not even utilizing several of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you do not even require them. For that reason, BeeHiiv could easily be a far better and extra economical fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be really intentional about growing an e-newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE system to take into consideration and maintain and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is designed to be, it is one of the most effective video games in the area right now. This is the system to watch.
BeeHiiv offers a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth taking a look at for yourself. And if you wind up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll locate the complimentary account to be fairly feature rich.