I have utilized a great deal of various e-mail list systems for many years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a huge supporter of digital sovereignty and possessing your very own platform. Therefore (and the amazing features), I have been utilizing Beehiiv For Blogging.
So, it is undoubtedly a weird move for me to make a decision to make use of BeeHiiv. After all, it is a hosted application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I wish to look at why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I wish to deal with the problem of digital sovereignty while using the platform and I ‘d likewise such as to deal with why I picked to use it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For Newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my newsletter called My Hobby + A Huge Shift In Approach, I spoke about how and why I chose to turn my motor home blog site into mainly a newsletter. I made a decision that was the business version I intended to go after keeping that building.
But, to intentionally pursue it as a newsletter, I wanted a system that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the email listing for Gladly motor home, but FluentCRM is not a newsletter platform. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, truthfully, utilizing it for newsletters is a bit of a waste. More on that in a bit.
As I claimed because concern of the newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a system with tools constructed right into it particular to my purpose. Things such as:
- Capability to release (to the blog site) and send out the e-mail all at once without having it be 2 different actions.
- Constructed in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not 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 Hyperlinks”, which are generally one-click subscription web links. Great for promo in various other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are methods to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your newsletter.
- Built-in ad network, if I choose to generate income from with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capacity to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and generally 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 platform was literally built by the people who built up the technology for Morning Mixture. They know what they’re doing.
That is the factor right here. BeeHiiv is constructed from scratch for the objective of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different objective.
And I finished off with this:.
I might certainly be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv also. At least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. Actually, I simply went all out. And as a matter of fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Morning WP, set off as it’s very own building to ensure that I can expand it a lot more intentionally also.
The objective is that each e-newsletter has the capability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown separately. Happily recreational vehicle was young, so easy to change. Yet, The Early morning WP (formerly The Edge) was hidden in a sea of things here at the Blog Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s very own. It will clearly constantly be closely connected with the Blog site Marketing Academy, yet does not need to belong of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv since it was constructed for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Regular Email List
There’s a difference between an e-newsletter platform and just an e-mail list.
You can organize your e-mail listing anyplace you desire and there are a variety of them available, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted choices like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The main distinction is that, with a newsletter system, the act of posting suggests that it is going to your internet site and to your e-mail clients concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are publishing to that site. However, you are likewise sending off to all subscribers at the same time. The site and it’s subscribers are done in one. This makes monitoring of the platform much less complex.
With many email platforms, any e-newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is developed entirely independently from your website. So, for example, you might publish a write-up to WordPress however after that you would certainly require to independently build and send an email to your listing to send it to clients. These are after that two different sets of archives and two separate actions because blog posts and your emails are not naturally connected.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress right into a true e-newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name since it practically “glues” your e-newsletter to your WordPress messages and allows them to be the same thing. Definitely, something like Newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid option if I wanted to remain to self-host everything. However, you ‘d shed the growth tools that come with a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing an e-newsletter naturally comes with a different set of demands than a normal email listing.
You do not typically require much marketing automation. You don’t usually need autoresponder series, occasion tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO need, though, is one smooth posting experience and development devices to help you construct your subscriber 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 lots of people ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the reality that I selected to opt for BeeHiiv, that doesn’t suggest I believe Substack draws. As a matter of fact, due to the fact that Substack has been around much longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is younger, there are a pair points that at first obtained my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically tailored to e-newsletter publishers. As a matter of fact, it is actually constructed by the very same folks who developed the technology behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, does not matter. But, the obvious positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter growth called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “designer”. Development is what I have an interest in here.
- That branding and differentiation additionally indicates that BeeHiiv has some rather large brands and huge publications using it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo designers. Again, it just tells me the client character distinction between the two firms.
Sending our my newsletter by means of FluentCRM didn’t specifically draw. The only factor I would contemplate trembling things up is if I assumed I might expand the listing quicker. And BeeHiiv spoke precisely to that objective.
As a result of the targeting, I really don’t view BeeHiiv and Substack as direct competitors. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a various sort of customer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more direct rivals.
Yet, let’s dive deeper than simply the placing right here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv seems like it was constructed by people who recognizing email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears extra tailored toward creators.
For example, BeeHiiv offers personalized areas on customers. Currently, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv supplies Automations. Actually, it is a visual automation builder that functions a lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still quite restricted in triggers and the only activity is the ability to send an e-mail. However, improvements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will certainly have new triggers in addition to brand-new actions, such as customizing custom-made areas, sending out webhooks, and so on. I have actually already seen enhancements to their automations just because I began utilizing the platform. For example:
- Capability to set off automations based on which specific embed form they came in on.
- Capacity to automatically do re-engagement (and manage individuals based upon opens and non-opens).
- Capability to do fundamental conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never will. Substack just can’t do this because the target market of Substack simply would not believe to approach this like an e-mail marketing expert.
When it comes to composing your newsletters, the composing interface of BeeHiiv is simply much more geared towards newsletters. In fact, it in fact has similarities to the WordPress block builder in how it functions. I discover it to be a lot more user-friendly, directly.
Substack’s writing interface is nice and clean, yet it would certainly be more equivalent to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is greater than simply type. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Section” and after that put anything you want in it. After that, you can put Exposure choices on that section to reveal it just to paid subscribers, hide it from e-mail, hide from subscribers, show only to clients, and so on. Substack supplies nothing such as this.
And when/if the moment comes that I start a premium membership version, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any profits. Actually, you actually attach approximately your very own Stripe account and it bills directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your income. Relying on the amount of clients you obtain, that 10% can be quite a bit more cash than the month-to-month expense of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This could seem unpopular, yet what it suggests is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outdoors making use of devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … nothing. No integrations at all.
Overall, I simply seemed like BeeHiiv was more constructed toward real email marketing. It was built by individuals that “get it”. Even the opt-in types and the landing page makes seem far better constructed for conversions. Development is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I would love to see BeeHiiv include, I like the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have stated, Substack settings itself toward “makers” more than e-mail marketing professionals and newsletter owners. Therefore, you see some things geared a lot more towards individuals that simply assume in terms of material production.
For instance, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does support numerous publications, they are dealt with rather independently. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to several publications at the same time. This isn’t something I require, however … cool for individuals who could need it.
Substack also has more social performance built-in. For example, it has a chat feature to host talks with customers. It also has a “Notes” function which works kind of like a social media newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you’re reading. Interesting. Overall, Substack is set up to be extra like a social media which sustains long-form web content.
On the whole, Substack is additionally a lot more … minimalist. You either take care of that or do not. Directly, I don’t. Nevertheless, if the goal is simplicity of user interface and, honestly, features … Substack functions pretty well.
However, I’ll be clear right here …
When it comes to real marketing, I don’t believe there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is much better fit. I searched for more points that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, but truthfully … I have a tough time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are typically with to be the closest rivals, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are pursuing the exact same target market and have similar abilities.
ConvertKit is additionally positioned at developers (like Substack), but it is a lot more highly dealing with people that do it for organization. ConvertKit has nice aesthetic automation structure, it’s very own commerce platform, and extra. ConvertKit is a truly great platform.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature break down right here. ConvertKit is well known currently. However, here’s just how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Points ConvertKit Is Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has much more versatility when it involves it’s automations. I will likewise claim that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit much more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports labeling. This is just a fundamental feature of email checklists that enables division in a much more versatile means than BeeHiiv currently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain marking at some point quickly, truthfully. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv For Blogging.
ConvertKit does currently give the capacity to offer points through their very own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is necessary to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would constantly pick a much more straight choice anyway. For me, I like to utilize my very own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been around a lot longer and for that reason has way a lot more integration alternatives. Lots of web-based devices and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their own WordPress plugin that is rather powerful. For example, their plugin currently even supports member-gated web content as well as auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. In essence, this much more very closely places ConvertKit into straight competition by having you have the ability to release to your website and your e-mail listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is drastically lacking in these type of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll get there. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also active tackling the growth tools of BeeHiiv. As an example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not only incentivize people to share your newsletter with benefits, but you can also pay per lead within the inner advertisement network of BeeHiiv to grow your listing. These are really amazing features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you know ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among one of the most popular viral promotion systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall surface wherefore this means for the system going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv For Blogging
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that suggests much less features and less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. Nonetheless, it likewise implies that they are quickly establishing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually seen virtually weekly release of brand-new features right into the platform. And these aren’t puny little features … but huge features that are rather vital. Their speed of advancement at this point has been impressive.
I additionally very much appreciate exactly how receptive they are. As a matter of fact, among their item announcements regarding some layout improvements to the website design features really contained a tiny trouble with the web content width. I merely responded to that email to tell them. I promptly got a reply directly from the CEO:.
That same day, the concern was fixed.
Few days later, I provided another tip …
Indeed, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to trigger automations based upon the embed type used was included in the system.
That kind of responsiveness and direct participation of the team is something I truly appreciate.
An additional significant factor of distinction below is the price. Both systems offer free plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan offers a lot more ability and more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
As soon as you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise even more favorable. ConvertKit appears less expensive in the beginning glimpse due to the fact that their pricing web page shows lower numbers, nonetheless the client limits are FAR reduced and your price swiftly raises as your listing grows.
With BeeHiiv, your initial level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid each year), however you can have up to 10,000 customers. That same size listing is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their best plan and the one I personally use), 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 want their referral network, too, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay each year, also. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for just $84/month if you pay each year.
BeeHiiv is in a completely different league when it comes to pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately raise costs? They could as time goes on. However, I’m presuming people like myself who are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how things proceed.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among the things you certainly require to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do seem to progress rather rapidly and make new product announcements rather often, however there are some basic features I really wish they had that I need to simply wait for.
One is that they need to have a setting on membership forms where I might choose an automation to run right at the type degree. That would certainly be amazing for a lot of reasons. As of now, membership kinds look OK, however there’s extremely little settings for them to assist in segmentation.
It would behave to have tagging at the customer level. This would be powerful.
I believe webhooks should be part of automations to make built-in automations less complicated and minimize reliance on outside devices like Zapier.
There are also some minor administrative interface modifications that would certainly be handy. For instance:
- Capability to bulk edit/remove subscribers.
- Capability to mass edit articles (as an example, to mark a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a few basic areas as conventional on customers (like the name).
- Some even more modification choices for the site (such as more versatile color selections, heading control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Things I wish they do with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, yet it isn’t best and definitely not virtually as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM item.
It possibly never ever will certainly be, either. As I stated, the objective is different so it wouldn’t a lot a great deal of feeling for BeeHiiv to end up being a full marketing automation platform. I guess you never understand, however.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I like BeeHiiv quite a lot. Enough where I made a decision to switch my very own e-newsletters over to the platform regardless of my personal choice for digital sovereignty and possessing my own system.
Simply put, for the newsletter posting version especially, I saw sufficient worth in their system to necessitate the adjustment.
Remember, I do not use BeeHiiv as my unique email checklist. I use BeeHiiv wherefore it is good at, however I deliberately have points set up to ensure that I additionally keep my listing “in home” within FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the very same. It is just an excellent insurance policy, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your listing will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full 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 viewpoint, if you are utilizing Substack now, I ‘d most definitely take into consideration switching to BeeHiiv. It will just be extra business-friendly. It is targeting various capabilities and different requirements. And also, BeeHiiv also has import tools for Substack, so the button ought to be pretty straightforward.
If you get on ConvertKit now, I ‘d most likely stay put unless you have a huge email list and are therefore being fleeced with their high month-to-month bill. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are repeating rapidly. There’s additionally a respectable chance you’re not even utilizing some of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you don’t also require them. Therefore, BeeHiiv could easily be a better and extra budget friendly fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be very deliberate concerning expanding an e-newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE platform to consider and maintain and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is designed to be, it is among the best games around today. This is the system to view.
BeeHiiv offers a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves checking out for yourself. And if you wind up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll discover the free account to be quite feature rich.