I have actually made use of a lot of various email list systems throughout the years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a substantial proponent of digital sovereignty and possessing your own platform. Therefore (and the outstanding features), I have been making use of Beehiiv For Crypto.
So, it is without a doubt a weird move for me to decide to use BeeHiiv. After all, it is a hosted application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I wish to go over why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I wish to resolve the problem of digital sovereignty while making use of the system and I would certainly likewise like to address why I chose to utilize it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For E-newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Hobby + A Big Change In Approach, I talked about just how and why I chose to turn my recreational vehicle blog into largely a newsletter. I chose that was business model I intended to pursue with that said home.
But, to intentionally seek it as a newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the email list for Gladly motor home, yet FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter system. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, frankly, using it for newsletters is a little bit of a waste. More on that in a little bit.
As I claimed in that concern of the e-newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a system with tools developed into it specific to my function. Things such as:
- Capacity to release (to the blog site) and send the e-mail at the same time without having it be 2 different actions.
- Built in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would certainly have needed a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capacity to do cross-promotions with various other newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are primarily one-click subscription web links. Great for promo in other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are means to do that.
- Capacity to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Built-in advertisement network, if I choose to generate income from with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated ability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and essentially run a premium e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Basically, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter authors with features targeted at growth. The system was essentially developed by the individuals who accumulated the innovation for Morning Mixture. They know what they’re doing.
That is the point here. BeeHiiv is constructed from scratch for the objective of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a different objective.
And I finished off with this:.
I may certainly 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 simply went all out. And in fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, triggered as it’s own home to ensure that I can expand it much more deliberately also.
The objective is that each newsletter has the capability to be branded as it’s own media entity and grown separately. Happily RV was young, so simple to change. However, The Morning WP (previously The Edge) was hidden in a sea of things here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s very own. It will clearly constantly be carefully tied with the Blog site Marketing Academy, but doesn’t need to be a part of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was constructed for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Typical Email Listing
There’s a difference in between an e-newsletter platform and simply an e-mail checklist.
You can host your e-mail listing just about anywhere you want and there are a number of them around, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted alternatives like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The key distinction is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of posting means that it is mosting likely to your website and to your email subscribers concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a web site. You are releasing to that website. However, you are likewise sending off to all clients at the same time. The website and it’s clients are all in one. This makes monitoring of the system much easier.
With the majority of email systems, any type of e-newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is built entirely individually from your website. So, for example, you may release a write-up to WordPress but then you would certainly need to independently build and send out an email to your listing to send it to subscribers. These are then two different sets of archives and 2 separate actions due to the fact that blog posts and your emails are not naturally linked.
The closest point that transforms WordPress right into a real newsletter system is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name due to the fact that it practically “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress messages and enables them to be the same point. Absolutely, something like Newsletter Glue would be a solid alternative if I intended to remain to self-host everything. Nevertheless, you would certainly lose the development devices that include a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter naturally comes with a different set of requirements than a typical e-mail checklist.
You do not usually need much marketing automation. You do not normally need autoresponder sequences, occasion tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO need, though, is one seamless publishing experience and growth tools to aid you develop your subscriber base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my customers that I was going to switch over the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many people ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the reality that I selected to select BeeHiiv, that doesn’t mean I assume Substack sucks. Actually, because Substack has actually been about longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Although BeeHiiv is younger, there are a pair points that at first obtained my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically customized to newsletter authors. In fact, it is literally constructed by the very same people who constructed the technology behind Early morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real world, does not matter. But, the apparent positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter development called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “maker”. Development is what I have an interest in below.
- That branding and differentiation likewise means that BeeHiiv has some rather big brands and huge magazines utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo creators. Once again, it just tells me the customer character distinction between the two companies.
Sending our my e-newsletter through FluentCRM really did not specifically draw. The only factor I would certainly consider shaking points up is if I assumed I might expand the checklist quicker. And BeeHiiv talked precisely to that objective.
Due to the targeting, I really do not check out BeeHiiv and Substack as straight competitors. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a various sort of consumer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more direct competitors.
But, allow’s dive much deeper than just the positioning below.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
On the whole, BeeHiiv seems like it was built by people who understanding email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems much more geared towards designers.
For instance, BeeHiiv uses custom-made areas on clients. Currently, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv supplies Automations. Actually, it is an aesthetic automation builder that works a whole lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still quite minimal in triggers and the only activity is the capability to send an e-mail. However, enhancements are coming. Soon enough, automations will have brand-new triggers along with brand-new actions, such as modifying customized fields, 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 upon which details embed kind they was available in on.
- Capability to instantly do re-engagement (and deal with individuals based upon opens and non-opens).
- Capability to do basic conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never will. Substack just can not do this due to the fact that the target audience of Substack just would not think to approach this like an e-mail marketing professional.
When it involves composing your newsletters, the writing interface of BeeHiiv is simply much more tailored towards newsletters. As a matter of fact, it actually has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in just how it works. I locate it to be much more user-friendly, directly.
Substack’s composing user interface is nice and tidy, but it would be more equivalent to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is more than simply form. For example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Area” and then placed anything you desire in it. After that, you can put Presence alternatives on that area to show it just to paid subscribers, hide it from email, hide from clients, reveal only to customers, and so on. Substack offers absolutely nothing like this.
And when/if the time comes that I start a premium registration model, BeeHiiv does not take any kind of earnings. Actually, you actually link up to your very own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your income. Depending on how many subscribers you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit more cash than the regular monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This may appear unpopular, but what it means 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 actually has … absolutely nothing. No integrations whatsoever.
Overall, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was extra developed towards actual e-mail marketing. It was developed by people who “get it”. Even the opt-in kinds and the landing page designs seem much better built for conversions. Development is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv add, I such as the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have said, Substack settings itself towards “designers” greater than e-mail marketing professionals and e-newsletter owners. Therefore, you see some points geared more towards people who just think in regards to material production.
For example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does support several publications, they are treated fairly independently. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to numerous magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, yet … awesome for people that may require it.
Substack also has even more social performance built-in. For example, it has a conversation function to host chats with clients. It also has a “Notes” function which works sort of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share things from other “Stacks” you’re reading. Intriguing. On the whole, Substack is set up to be extra like a social media network which sustains long-form content.
In general, Substack is additionally much more … minimalist. You either care for that or don’t. Personally, I do not. Nonetheless, if the objective is simpleness of user interface and, truthfully, features … Substack works rather well.
But, I’ll be clear below …
When it comes to actual marketing, I don’t think there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is better matched. I tried to find even more points that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, but truthfully … I have a difficult time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are usually through to be the closest competitors, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are going after the very same target audience and have comparable abilities.
ConvertKit is likewise placed at creators (like Substack), yet it is a lot more highly accommodating people who do it for company. ConvertKit has nice aesthetic automation building, it’s own commerce system, and more. ConvertKit is a truly great system.
I’m not going to bore you with a complete feature-by-feature failure here. ConvertKit is well known currently. Yet, right here’s just how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has more versatility when it comes to it’s automations. I will likewise say that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit a lot more user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports tagging. This is just a fundamental function of email checklists that allows division in an even more flexible means than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support identifying eventually quickly, truthfully. It seems like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv For Crypto.
ConvertKit does now supply the ability to market things by means of their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is very important to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would certainly constantly pick a more direct option anyway. For me, I prefer to utilize my very own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about much longer and for that reason has way much more integration choices. Tons of online devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their own WordPress plugin that is quite effective. As an example, their plugin currently even sustains member-gated web content along with auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your site. Essentially, this much more closely places ConvertKit into direct competitors by having you have the ability to publish to your site and your email listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is significantly lacking in these kinds of third-party integrations right now. It’ll arrive. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy taking on the growth devices of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with rewards, however you can likewise pay per lead within the inner ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your listing. These are actually remarkable features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you recognize ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among the most popular viral promotion platforms for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall of what this implies for the platform moving forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv For Crypto
BeeHiiv is a lot earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies less features and less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. However, it also implies that they are quickly creating.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have witnessed nearly once a week release of brand-new features into the platform. And these aren’t weak little features … but big features that are fairly important. Their speed of development now has actually been impressive.
I additionally quite value how receptive they are. In fact, one of their product statements about some layout enhancements to the web design features actually consisted of a tiny issue with the content size. I simply responded to that e-mail to tell them. I swiftly obtained a reply directly from the chief executive officer:.
That exact same day, the issue was taken care of.
Couple of days later on, I gave them one more idea …
Sure enough, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to trigger automations based on the embed kind used was added to the system.
That kind of responsiveness and straight participation of the team is something I actually appreciate.
An additional significant point of differentiation below is the price. Both platforms provide complimentary plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan uses a lot more ability and even more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally much more favorable. ConvertKit seems cheaper at first glance because their pricing web page shows lower numbers, nevertheless the customer restrictions are FAR reduced and your price rapidly raises as your checklist grows.
With BeeHiiv, your very first level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid annually), however you can have up to 10,000 clients. That exact same dimension list is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their best plan and the one I directly make use of), you can expand your listing up to 100,000. A checklist of that dimension would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, too, 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 yearly.
BeeHiiv is in a totally various league when it comes to pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point enhance prices? They might as time goes on. Yet, I’m guessing people like myself that are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how points proceed.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among the important things you most definitely require to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do appear to evolve instead quickly and make brand-new item announcements rather commonly, yet there are some standard features I really desire they had that I need to just await.
One is that they require to have a setup on subscription forms where I could choose an automation to run right at the kind level. That would certainly be remarkable for many factors. As of now, registration forms look OK, but there’s extremely little settings for them to aid in segmentation.
It would certainly behave to have tagging at the client level. This would be effective.
I assume webhooks must become part of automations to make integrated automations less complicated and lower dependence on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are additionally some small management user interface adjustments that would certainly come in handy. For instance:
- Capability to mass edit/remove clients.
- Ability to mass edit messages (as an example, to label a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a few standard areas as typical on customers (like the name).
- Some even more customization choices for the website (such as more versatile color choices, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Things I wish they make with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, however it isn’t perfect and certainly not nearly as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM item.
It possibly never ever will be, either. As I stated, the purpose is different so it wouldn’t much a lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to come to be a complete marketing automation platform. I presume you never understand, however.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I like BeeHiiv fairly a lot. Enough where I made a decision to change my very own newsletters over to the platform despite my individual preference for digital sovereignty and owning my own system.
Basically, for the e-newsletter posting design especially, I saw adequate value in their platform to necessitate the change.
Bear in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my special email checklist. I use BeeHiiv for what it is good at, however I purposefully have things establish to ensure that I likewise maintain my checklist “in home” inside of FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the very same. It is just a great insurance policy, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your listing will be of high use (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will certainly be).
So, the concern is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are using Substack now, I ‘d most definitely consider changing to BeeHiiv. It will simply be a lot more business-friendly. It is targeting various capabilities and different requirements. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the switch should be pretty simple.
If you get on ConvertKit now, I ‘d probably stay put unless you have a large email list and are consequently being fleeced with their high month-to-month costs. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are repeating swiftly. There’s also a respectable chance you’re not also making use of a few of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you do not even require them. Therefore, BeeHiiv could quickly be a better and a lot more inexpensive fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be very intentional regarding expanding a newsletter, I believe 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 regarding what it is created to be, it is one of the very best video games around now. This is the system to view.
BeeHiiv uses a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves checking out for yourself. And if you end up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll find the cost-free account to be rather feature abundant.