I have used a great deal of various e-mail list systems over the years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a big proponent of digital sovereignty and owning your own system. Therefore (and the amazing features), I have been making use of Beehiiv For Health.
So, it is undoubtedly an odd move for me to determine to use BeeHiiv. Besides, it is a held application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I want to review why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I wish to resolve the concern of digital sovereignty while making use of the platform and I would certainly additionally such as 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 e-newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Huge Shift In Technique, I talked about just how and why I decided to turn my RV blog right into largely a newsletter. I made a decision that was the business design I wished to go after with that said home.
But, to purposefully seek it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a system that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the e-mail listing for Gladly RV, however FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter system. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, frankly, using it for newsletters is a little bit of a waste. Much more on that in a bit.
As I stated in that problem of the e-newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a system with tools developed into it certain to my objective. Points such as:
- Ability to release (to the blog site) and send the e-mail concurrently without having it be 2 different actions.
- Integrated in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would require a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capacity to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are basically one-click subscription web links. Great for promotion in various other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are means to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Integrated ad network, if I choose to generate income from with advertisements in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capacity to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and generally run a premium newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter publishers with features focused on development. The system was actually built by the individuals that built up the innovation for Early morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the factor here. BeeHiiv is developed from scratch for the purpose of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a various purpose.
And I finished off with this:.
I may certainly be relocating The Side over to BeeHiiv as well. A minimum of, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. In fact, I simply went all out. And in fact, The side was re-branded over to The Morning WP, set off as it’s very own residential property to make sure that I can grow it more purposefully too.
The goal is that each e-newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded individually. Gladly motor home was young, so simple to shift. Yet, The Early morning WP (previously The Side) was buried in a sea of stuff below at the Blog Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s own. It will obviously always be very closely tied with the Blog Marketing Academy, however doesn’t need to be a part of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was developed for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Normal Email List
There’s a distinction in between an e-newsletter system and simply an email list.
You can hold your email list just about anywhere you desire 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 main difference is that, with a newsletter system, the act of posting suggests that it is mosting likely to your web site and to your email customers concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a site. You are releasing to that site. However, you are also dispatching to all customers at the same time. The website and it’s subscribers are all in one. This makes monitoring of the system much simpler.
With many email platforms, any type of newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is developed entirely separately from your site. So, as an example, you could release a post to WordPress however after that you would need to individually develop and send an e-mail to your list to send it to clients. These are after that two separate sets of archives and two separate activities since post and your e-mails are not inherently connected.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress into a true e-newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name since it pretty much “glues” your newsletter to your WordPress messages and enables them to be the very same point. Certainly, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a strong choice if I wished to continue to self-host everything. However, you ‘d lose the growth devices that include a platform like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter naturally features a different collection of requirements than a regular email listing.
You do not normally require much marketing automation. You don’t generally need autoresponder series, event tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO demand, though, is one smooth publishing experience and development devices to aid you build your subscriber base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my customers that I was mosting likely 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 reality that I selected to choose BeeHiiv, that doesn’t mean I think Substack sucks. As a matter of fact, due to the fact that Substack has been around longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a pair points that originally obtained my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is especially tailored to newsletter authors. In fact, it is essentially developed by the same people that constructed the innovation behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real world, does not matter. Yet, the evident positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter growth called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “creator”. Growth is what I’m interested in right here.
- That branding and differentiation also suggests that BeeHiiv has some rather large brand names and huge magazines utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is aimed even more at solo designers. Again, it simply informs me the customer avatar difference in between both firms.
Sending our my newsletter via FluentCRM didn’t exactly suck. The only reason I would consider trembling things up is if I believed I could GROW the listing quicker. And BeeHiiv spoke precisely to that objective.
Because of the targeting, I really do not view BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a various sort of customer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more direct rivals.
However, allow’s dive much deeper than simply the placing below.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv looks like it was constructed by individuals that recognizing e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears much more tailored towards designers.
As an example, BeeHiiv offers customized fields on clients. Now, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. Actually, it is a visual 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 quite minimal in triggers and the only action is the capability to send out an e-mail. Nevertheless, enhancements are coming. Soon sufficient, automations will have new triggers in addition to brand-new activities, such as changing custom fields, sending out webhooks, and so on. I have actually already seen enhancements to their automations simply considering that I started making use of the system. For example:
- Capability to trigger automations based on which details embed type they can be found in on.
- Capability to immediately do re-engagement (and handle people based on opens up and non-opens).
- Capability to do basic conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can not do this because the target audience of Substack just wouldn’t think to approach this like an e-mail marketing expert.
When it concerns writing your newsletters, the creating user interface of BeeHiiv is just much more geared towards newsletters. As a matter of fact, it actually has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in just how it functions. I locate it to be more intuitive, personally.
Substack’s creating interface behaves and clean, however it would certainly be a lot more equivalent to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This difference is more than just form. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Area” and then placed anything you desire in it. After that, you can place Visibility choices on that area to reveal it just to paid customers, conceal it from e-mail, hide from subscribers, reveal just to subscribers, etc. Substack uses absolutely nothing such as this.
And when/if the time comes that I begin a costs subscription design, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any kind of revenue. Actually, you essentially link up to your very own Stripe account and it charges straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your income. Depending on the number of customers you obtain, that 10% can be quite a bit more cash than the monthly price of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This may seem nerdy, 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 literally has … nothing. No integrations in all.
Generally, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was more built towards real e-mail marketing. It was developed by individuals that “get it”. Even the opt-in kinds and the landing page creates seem better constructed for conversions. Growth is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I want to see BeeHiiv include, I like the instructions it is going more than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have said, Substack settings itself towards “creators” more than e-mail marketers and newsletter proprietors. Because of that, you see some things tailored a lot more towards people that just believe in terms of content creation.
For instance, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does sustain numerous publications, they are treated rather individually. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to numerous magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I need, however … trendy for individuals that could need it.
Substack also has more social functionality built-in. For instance, it has a chat function to host talks with subscribers. It also has a “Notes” function which functions kind of like a social media newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you read. Intriguing. Overall, Substack is set up to be extra like a social network which sustains long-form content.
In general, Substack is also much more … minimalist. You either take care of that or do not. Directly, I don’t. Nevertheless, if the objective is simpleness of user interface and, honestly, features … Substack functions rather well.
But, I’ll be clear right here …
When it concerns real marketing, I don’t think there’s much question that BeeHiiv is much better suited. I tried to find more factors that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, yet honestly … I have a tough time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are frequently with to be the closest competitors, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are pursuing the same target audience and have comparable abilities.
ConvertKit is also positioned at developers (like Substack), however it is a lot more strongly dealing with people who do it for company. ConvertKit has wonderful aesthetic automation building, it’s very own commerce system, and much more. ConvertKit is an actually great system.
I’m not going to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature failure below. ConvertKit is popular currently. Yet, right here’s just how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Points ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has a lot more adaptability when it involves it’s automations. I will certainly additionally say that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit more instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports marking. This is just a fundamental function of email checklists that makes it possible for segmentation in an even more adaptable means than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain tagging at some point soon, truthfully. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv For Health.
ConvertKit does now give the ability to offer points through their own platform. 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 more straight option anyhow. For me, I favor to utilize my own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about a lot longer and for that reason has way a lot more integration choices. Lots of web-based devices and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their own WordPress plugin that is fairly powerful. For example, their plugin now even sustains member-gated material as well as auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your site. Fundamentally, this a lot more closely places ConvertKit into straight competition by having you be able to release to your site and your email listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is drastically doing not have in these kinds of third-party integrations right now. It’ll arrive. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even hectic taking on the growth devices of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not only incentivize people to share your newsletter with rewards, yet you can additionally pay per lead within the interior advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your checklist. These are actually amazing features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you recognize ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of one of the most popular viral promotion platforms for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall surface of what this means for the system going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv For Health
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that indicates much less features and less integrations, which is all-natural for this phase of the cycle. Nonetheless, it likewise implies that they are swiftly creating.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have witnessed practically once a week release of brand-new features into the system. And these aren’t undersized little features … however large features that are fairly vital. Their speed of advancement now has actually been impressive.
I likewise quite value just how responsive they are. Actually, among their product announcements concerning some layout improvements to the web design features in fact included a tiny problem with the material size. I just replied to that e-mail to tell them. I promptly got a reply directly from the CEO:.
That same day, the problem was fixed.
Couple of days later on, I provided an additional tip …
Certainly, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to cause automations based upon the embed form utilized was contributed to the system.
That sort of responsiveness and straight participation of the team is something I truly value.
Another major factor of distinction here is the price. Both platforms supply complimentary plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan uses a lot more ability 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 initially look because their pricing page shows reduced numbers, however the subscriber restrictions are much lower and your rate swiftly boosts as your listing grows.
With BeeHiiv, your first level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid each year), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 clients. That very same size list is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their ideal plan and the one I directly utilize), you can grow your checklist as much as 100,000. A listing of that dimension would 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 annually, too. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay each year.
BeeHiiv is in an entirely different league when it comes to pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually enhance costs? They could as time goes on. But, I’m presuming people like myself that are already in will be locked-in. We’ll see how points proceed.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
Among the things you definitely need to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do seem to progress rather promptly and make new item news rather usually, however there are some basic features I truly desire they had that I need to just await.
One is that they need to have a setup on registration forms where I could select an automation to run right at the kind level. That would certainly be amazing for so many reasons. Currently, subscription forms look OK, but there’s really little settings for them to help in segmentation.
It would behave to have labeling at the subscriber level. This would certainly be powerful.
I believe webhooks ought to be part of automations to make integrated automations much easier and reduce reliance on outside tools like Zapier.
There are also some small management interface changes that would come in handy. As an example:
- Capacity to mass edit/remove customers.
- Capability to bulk edit posts (as an example, to mark a number of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of standard areas as conventional on clients (like the name).
- Some more customization alternatives for the internet site (such as even more adaptable shade choices, headline control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Points I hope they finish with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, yet it isn’t perfect and absolutely not nearly as created as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM item.
It possibly never will be, either. As I said, the function is various so it wouldn’t much a lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to become a complete marketing automation system. I guess you never ever know, though.
Final Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I such as BeeHiiv fairly a great deal. Sufficient where I made a decision to switch my very own e-newsletters over to the system despite my personal preference for digital sovereignty and owning my very own platform.
Basically, for the e-newsletter posting version especially, I saw sufficient worth in their system to call for the modification.
Bear in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my exclusive email listing. I make use of BeeHiiv for what it is efficient, yet I purposefully have points set up to make sure that I also maintain my checklist “in home” inside of FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the same. It is simply a great insurance policy, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your list will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will certainly be).
So, the question is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are making use of Substack today, I ‘d certainly take into consideration changing to BeeHiiv. It will just be much more business-friendly. It is targeting different abilities and various needs. And also, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the switch ought to be rather simple.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d most likely stay put unless you have a big e-mail checklist and are consequently being fleeced with their high regular monthly bill. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are iterating rapidly. There’s also a pretty good opportunity you’re not even using some of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you don’t even need them. For that reason, BeeHiiv could easily be a better and extra affordable fit.
Finally, if you plan to be very deliberate concerning growing a newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE system to consider and keep and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is created to be, it is just one of the best video games in town right now. This is the platform to view.
BeeHiiv offers a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves taking a look at for yourself. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll find the cost-free account to be rather feature abundant.