I have utilized a great deal of various email list systems throughout the years. In the last number of years, I have actually been a big proponent of digital sovereignty and owning your own platform. Therefore (and the remarkable features), I have actually been utilizing Beehiiv For Content Creators.
So, it is certainly an unusual move for me to choose to use BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is a held application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I wish to discuss why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I intend to address the problem of digital sovereignty while using the system and I would certainly also like to resolve why I chose to use it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For E-newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Hobby + A Big Change In Strategy, I talked about just how and why I determined to turn my motor home blog into largely an e-newsletter. I decided that was business model I intended to pursue with that residential or commercial property.
Yet, to deliberately seek 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 recreational vehicle, but FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, honestly, using it for e-newsletters is a bit of a waste. Extra on that particular in a little bit.
As I said because problem of the e-newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a platform with tools developed right into it specific to my purpose. Points such as:
- Ability to publish (to the blog site) and send the email simultaneously without having it be 2 different activities.
- Constructed in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would certainly require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capacity to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are generally one-click subscription links. Great for promo in various other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are means to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your newsletter.
- Built-in ad network, if I pick to monetize with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capacity to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and basically run a premium e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter authors with features focused on growth. The system was actually built by the individuals that built up the innovation for Early morning Mixture. They know what they’re doing.
That is the point here. BeeHiiv is built from scratch for the objective of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various function.
And I ended off with this:.
I may certainly be relocating The Edge over to BeeHiiv as well. At least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. As a matter of fact, I simply went for it. And in fact, The side was re-branded over to The Morning WP, triggered as it’s own residential property to make sure that I can expand it more intentionally as well.
The goal is that each e-newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown individually. Gladly RV was young, so easy to shift. However, The Morning WP (formerly The Edge) was hidden in a sea of things right 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 obviously always be carefully linked with the Blog site Marketing Academy, yet does not need to belong of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv because it was built for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Regular Email Checklist
There’s a difference in between an e-newsletter system and simply an email list.
You can organize your email checklist anyplace you want and there are a variety of them out there, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted alternatives like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The main distinction is that, with an e-newsletter system, the act of publishing implies that it is going to your internet site and to your email clients concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are publishing to that site. Yet, you are additionally dispatching to all subscribers at the same time. The web site and it’s clients are done in one. This makes administration of the platform much easier.
With a lot of e-mail systems, any newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is developed entirely individually from your internet site. So, as an example, you might release a write-up to WordPress however after that you would certainly need to separately construct and send an e-mail to your listing to send it to clients. These are then 2 different collections of archives and two different actions due to the fact that post and your emails are not naturally linked.
The closest point that transforms WordPress right into a true e-newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name since it pretty much “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress posts and allows them to be the exact same point. Absolutely, something like Newsletter Glue would certainly be a strong option if I wanted to remain to self-host everything. However, you would certainly shed the growth devices that come with a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter inherently features a different set of requirements than a typical e-mail list.
You do not typically require much marketing automation. You don’t generally require autoresponder sequences, event monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO requirement, though, is one smooth publishing experience and growth devices to aid you develop your client base that are specific to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my subscribers that I was mosting likely to switch the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many people ask me why I was picking it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the truth that I picked to choose BeeHiiv, that does not indicate I think Substack draws. Actually, due to the fact that Substack has actually been around much longer, it is more mature and has more features.
Although BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple points that originally obtained my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is especially customized to e-newsletter authors. In fact, it is actually constructed by the very same individuals that developed the innovation behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, doesn’t matter. Yet, the obvious positioning of BeeHiiv toward e-newsletter growth called me out over the more common positioning of being a “creator”. Development is what I want here.
- That branding and distinction also implies that BeeHiiv has some rather large brand names and large publications using it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo makers. Again, it simply tells me the client avatar distinction between both firms.
Sending our my e-newsletter by means of FluentCRM didn’t specifically suck. The only factor I would certainly consider shaking points up is if I assumed I might expand the listing quicker. And BeeHiiv spoke specifically to that objective.
Because of the targeting, I really don’t check out BeeHiiv and Substack as direct competitors. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a various kind of consumer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra straight rivals.
However, let’s dive deeper than just the placing below.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv seems like it was constructed by people that understanding e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems extra geared toward designers.
For instance, BeeHiiv provides customized fields on clients. Now, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv provides Automations. Actually, it is a visual 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 action is the capability to send an e-mail. Nonetheless, enhancements are coming. Soon sufficient, automations will certainly have brand-new triggers as well as new actions, such as changing custom fields, sending out webhooks, etc. I’ve already seen improvements to their automations just considering that I started making use of the platform. As an example:
- Capacity to cause automations based on which particular embed type they can be found in on.
- Capability to instantly do re-engagement (and handle people based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Capacity to do standard conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack simply can’t do this since the target audience of Substack just wouldn’t believe to approach this like an e-mail online marketer.
When it concerns composing your e-newsletters, the creating user interface of BeeHiiv is just a lot more geared towards e-newsletters. Actually, it really has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it works. I find it to be extra user-friendly, directly.
Substack’s writing user interface behaves and tidy, however it would certainly be a lot more equivalent to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This difference is more than simply form. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Area” and afterwards put anything you desire in it. After that, you can place Visibility options on that section to show it just to paid clients, conceal it from email, hide from clients, reveal only to subscribers, and so on. Substack supplies nothing similar to this.
And when/if the time comes that I begin a costs subscription model, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any kind of profits. As a matter of fact, you literally attach as much as your own Stripe account and it charges directly to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your revenue. Relying on the number of subscribers you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit even more money than the monthly price of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This may seem unpopular, yet what it suggests is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv work with the outdoors utilizing tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … nothing. No integrations whatsoever.
In general, I simply seemed like BeeHiiv was much more constructed towards actual e-mail marketing. It was built by people that “get it”. Also the opt-in kinds and the landing page creates appear far better constructed for conversions. Growth is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I want to see BeeHiiv add, I like the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have stated, Substack placements itself towards “creators” more than email marketing experts and e-newsletter owners. Because of that, you see some points geared extra toward people who simply believe in terms of content development.
For example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does support numerous publications, they are treated quite individually. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to multiple magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, yet … great for individuals who could need it.
Substack likewise has more social performance built-in. For example, it has a chat function to host chats with customers. It also has a “Notes” function which functions sort of like a social media newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you’re reading. Fascinating. Generally, Substack is established to be much more like a social network which sustains long-form material.
Overall, Substack is likewise more … minimal. You either take care of that or don’t. Personally, I don’t. However, if the goal is simplicity of user interface and, honestly, features … Substack works pretty well.
Yet, I’ll be clear right here …
When it concerns actual marketing, I don’t assume there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is much better suited. I looked for even more points that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, but frankly … I have a hard time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are usually via to be the closest rivals, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are pursuing the same target audience and have similar capabilities.
ConvertKit is likewise positioned at designers (like Substack), however it is a lot more strongly accommodating individuals that do it for business. ConvertKit has good aesthetic automation structure, it’s own business platform, and more. ConvertKit is a really good system.
I’m not going to bore you with a complete feature-by-feature malfunction here. ConvertKit is popular currently. Yet, right here’s exactly how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has a lot more adaptability when it involves it’s automations. I will also claim that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit a lot more instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports tagging. This is simply a standard feature of email lists that enables division in a far more versatile means than BeeHiiv currently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain identifying eventually quickly, frankly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv For Content Creators.
ConvertKit does currently offer the capacity to market points by means of their very own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that’s important to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would constantly choose a more straight alternative anyway. For me, I favor to use my own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about a lot longer and because of that has way extra integration options. Tons of web-based devices and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is fairly effective. As an example, their plugin now also sustains member-gated web content in addition to auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Fundamentally, this more closely puts ConvertKit into direct competitors by having you have the ability to release to your site and your e-mail listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is significantly doing not have in these sort of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll arrive. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also active dealing with the development tools of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with perks, yet you can additionally pay per lead within the interior advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your checklist. These are really incredible features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you know ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among the most well known viral promotion platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall surface for what this means for the platform moving forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv For Content Creators
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s item 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 rapidly creating.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually experienced nearly regular release of brand-new features right into the platform. And these aren’t weak little features … but big features that are rather important. Their rate of development at this moment has been impressive.
I also quite value how responsive they are. As a matter of fact, one of their item news regarding some design improvements to the website design features really had a little trouble with the material size. I just replied to that email to tell them. I promptly got a reply directly from the CEO:.
That exact same day, the problem was fixed.
Couple of days later on, I provided another pointer …
Sure enough, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to set off automations based on the embed kind utilized was included in the system.
That sort of responsiveness and direct involvement of the team is something I actually appreciate.
One more major point of distinction below is the cost. Both platforms supply totally free plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan offers much more capacity and even more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally much more positive. ConvertKit appears less costly in the beginning glimpse because their pricing page shows reduced numbers, nevertheless the subscriber limitations are FAR reduced and your price swiftly boosts as your checklist grows.
With BeeHiiv, your first level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid every year), however you can have up to 10,000 customers. That exact same dimension 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 directly utilize), you can grow your checklist as much as 100,000. A list of that size would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, as well, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay yearly, as well. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay annually.
BeeHiiv is in a totally various league when it pertains to pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually boost costs? They might as time takes place. However, I’m thinking people like myself who are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see just how points continue.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
Among things you most definitely need to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do appear to evolve rather promptly and make brand-new item statements somewhat often, however there are some standard features I actually wish they had that I need to just wait on.
One is that they require to have a setup on registration kinds where I could select an automation to run right at the form degree. That would certainly be amazing for so many factors. Currently, membership types look OK, but there’s extremely little settings for them to help in division.
It would behave to have tagging at the subscriber degree. This would be powerful.
I think webhooks should be part of automations to make built-in automations easier and minimize reliance on outside devices like Zapier.
There are also some small management user interface changes that would be handy. As an example:
- Capability to mass edit/remove customers.
- Ability to mass edit messages (for example, to mark a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a few standard areas as typical on clients (like the name).
- Some more personalization choices for the internet site (such as even more adaptable color options, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Things I hope they perform with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t best and absolutely not virtually as created as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM item.
It probably never will certainly be, either. As I said, the function is different so it wouldn’t a lot a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to end up being a full marketing automation platform. I guess you never know, though.
Final Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I like BeeHiiv quite a lot. Enough where I made a decision to change my very own e-newsletters over to the platform regardless of my personal preference for digital sovereignty and having my own platform.
Basically, for the newsletter publishing model specifically, I saw adequate worth in their platform to require the change.
Remember, I do not utilize BeeHiiv as my exclusive e-mail checklist. I use BeeHiiv wherefore it is good at, however I purposefully have points establish to ensure that I additionally maintain my list “in residence” inside of FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the same. It is just a good insurance policy, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your list will certainly be of high use (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will certainly be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are utilizing Substack right now, I ‘d certainly think about changing to BeeHiiv. It will just be extra business-friendly. It is targeting different abilities and different requirements. And also, BeeHiiv also has import tools for Substack, so the switch ought to be rather straightforward.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d possibly stay put unless you have a big e-mail checklist and are as a result being wooled with their high month-to-month bill. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are iterating rapidly. There’s also a respectable chance you’re not also utilizing some of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you don’t also require them. For that reason, BeeHiiv could easily be a far better and much more budget-friendly fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be very deliberate regarding growing an e-newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE platform to consider and maintain and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is developed to be, it is among the most effective games in town right now. This is the system to watch.
BeeHiiv uses a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth looking into on your own. And if you wind up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll discover the totally free account to be fairly feature rich.