I have utilized a lot of different email list systems for many years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a massive advocate of digital sovereignty and owning your own system. Because of that (and the remarkable features), I have been using Beehiiv For Podcasters.
So, it is certainly a weird move for me to decide to make use of BeeHiiv. Besides, it is a held application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I want to discuss why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I intend to address the concern of digital sovereignty while using the platform and I ‘d also such as to deal with why I selected to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For E-newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my newsletter called My Hobby + A Big Shift In Strategy, I discussed exactly how and why I decided to turn my RV blog site right into primarily a newsletter. I decided that was the business design I intended to go after keeping that residential or commercial property.
However, to purposefully seek it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the email listing for Gladly recreational vehicle, but FluentCRM is not a newsletter system. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, truthfully, utilizing it for newsletters is a little bit of a waste. Extra on that in a bit.
As I said because problem of the newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a system with tools developed right into it specific to my function. Things such as:
- Capacity to publish (to the blog site) and send the email all at once without having it be 2 different actions.
- Integrated in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would have needed a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capacity to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are basically one-click subscription links. Great for promotion in various other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are means to do that.
- Capacity to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your newsletter.
- Integrated ad network, if I choose to generate income from with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and generally run a costs newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Generally, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features focused on growth. The platform was literally constructed by the individuals who built up the technology for Early morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the point below. BeeHiiv is developed from scratch for the purpose of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various objective.
And I ended off with this:.
I might 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 just went for it. And as a matter of fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s very own building to make sure that I can expand it much more deliberately as well.
The goal is that each e-newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded separately. Happily motor home was young, so simple to shift. However, The Early morning WP (formerly The Edge) was hidden in a sea of stuff here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s own. It will undoubtedly constantly be closely connected with the Blog site Marketing Academy, yet does not need to belong of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was built for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Just A Typical Email Listing
There’s a distinction between a newsletter system and simply an e-mail checklist.
You can hold your e-mail checklist just about anywhere you desire and there are a number of them around, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The primary difference is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of posting means 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 releasing to that website. Yet, you are likewise sending off to all customers at the same time. The web site and it’s customers are all in one. This makes monitoring of the system much less complex.
With the majority of e-mail systems, any type of newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is built completely individually from your website. So, for instance, you could publish a write-up to WordPress yet after that you would need to individually construct and send out an email to your listing to send it to clients. These are after that 2 separate sets of archives and 2 different actions since article and your e-mails are not inherently linked.
The closest point that turns WordPress right into a real e-newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name because it pretty much “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress posts and enables them to be the exact same thing. Certainly, something like Newsletter Glue would be a strong option if I wanted to continue to self-host whatever. Nevertheless, you ‘d lose the development tools that feature a platform like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter naturally features a various set of needs than a normal email list.
You do not generally need much marketing automation. You do not typically require autoresponder sequences, occasion tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO requirement, however, is one smooth posting experience and development tools to assist you develop your client base that specify to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my clients that I was mosting likely to change the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many people ask me why I was picking it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the truth that I selected to opt for BeeHiiv, that does not indicate I believe Substack sucks. As a matter of fact, due to the fact that Substack has actually been around much longer, it is elder and has more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple points that initially obtained my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly tailored to e-newsletter authors. In fact, it is actually built by the same folks who built the technology behind Early morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, does not matter. However, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter development called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “maker”. Development is what I want right here.
- That branding and differentiation additionally suggests that BeeHiiv has some relatively large brand names and huge magazines utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo creators. Again, it simply informs me the consumer avatar distinction in between both companies.
Sending our my newsletter via FluentCRM really did not exactly draw. The only factor I would consider trembling things up is if I thought I could GROW the listing quicker. And BeeHiiv spoke exactly to that objective.
Because of the targeting, I actually do not check out BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a different kind of customer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more straight competitors.
But, let’s dive much deeper than simply the placing here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Generally, BeeHiiv looks like it was constructed by individuals who recognizing email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears a lot more tailored toward makers.
For instance, 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 offers Automations. Actually, it is an aesthetic automation builder that functions a great deal like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation functionality is still early-phase. It is still quite minimal in triggers and the only activity is the capability to send out an e-mail. However, improvements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will have brand-new triggers along with new actions, such as customizing personalized fields, sending out webhooks, etc. I’ve currently seen enhancements to their automations simply given that I began utilizing the platform. For example:
- Capacity to cause automations based on which specific embed kind they came in on.
- Capability to immediately do re-engagement (and manage people based on opens up and non-opens).
- Capacity to do basic 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 e-mail online marketer.
When it involves writing your newsletters, the composing user interface of BeeHiiv is just extra geared towards newsletters. Actually, it really has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in how it works. I discover it to be much more user-friendly, directly.
Substack’s writing interface is nice and clean, but it would certainly be extra equivalent to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This difference is greater than just kind. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Section” and afterwards put anything you want in it. Then, you can put Presence options on that particular area to show it only to paid customers, hide it from email, hide from customers, show only to subscribers, etc. Substack offers nothing like this.
And when/if the time comes that I begin a premium membership design, BeeHiiv does not take any type of earnings. Actually, you essentially attach as much as your very own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your earnings. Depending on the number of subscribers you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit more money than the monthly cost of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This might appear nerdy, however what it means 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 whatsoever.
Overall, I simply seemed like BeeHiiv was more built toward actual e-mail marketing. It was constructed by people that “get it”. Also the opt-in kinds and the landing page creates appear better developed for conversions. Development is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I wish to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have stated, Substack placements itself towards “creators” greater than email online marketers and e-newsletter owners. Therefore, you see some points tailored much more toward individuals that simply assume in terms of content development.
For example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does support multiple magazines, they are treated rather separately. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to multiple magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I require, but … great for people who could require it.
Substack additionally has even more social capability built-in. For instance, it has a chat feature to host talks with subscribers. It likewise has a “Notes” function which works type of like a social media newsfeed where you can share things from other “Stacks” you’re reading. Fascinating. In general, Substack is established to be more like a social media network which supports long-form web content.
Generally, Substack is also a lot more … minimal. You either take care of that or do not. Directly, I do not. Nevertheless, if the goal is simplicity of user interface and, truthfully, features … Substack functions rather well.
But, I’ll be clear here …
When it comes to actual marketing, I don’t believe there’s much question that BeeHiiv is much better matched. I searched for more factors that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, however honestly … I have a tough time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are often via to be the closest rivals, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are pursuing the exact same target audience and have similar capabilities.
ConvertKit is also positioned at makers (like Substack), however it is a lot more highly catering to people who do it for service. ConvertKit has nice visual automation building, it’s very own business platform, and more. ConvertKit is a truly nice system.
I’m not going to bore you with a full feature-by-feature malfunction below. ConvertKit is popular currently. Yet, here’s just how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has much more adaptability when it pertains to it’s automations. I will certainly additionally say that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit more user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports tagging. This is simply a standard feature of email checklists that allows division in a far more flexible way than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support labeling eventually soon, truthfully. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv For Podcasters.
ConvertKit does currently provide the capacity to market points using their very own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that’s important to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would certainly always select a much more direct choice anyway. For me, I choose to utilize my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been around much longer and therefore has way extra integration options. Tons of web-based devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is fairly powerful. For example, their plugin now also sustains member-gated web content in addition to auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your site. Essentially, this much more closely places ConvertKit right into direct competitors by having you be able to publish to your site and your email listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is severely lacking in these type of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll arrive. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy taking on the growth tools of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your e-newsletter with advantages, but you can also pay per lead within the interior ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your checklist. These are really outstanding features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you recognize ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of the most well known viral promotion systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall surface for what this means for the system going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv For Podcasters
BeeHiiv is a lot previously in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means much less features and much less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. Nevertheless, it likewise means that they are swiftly creating.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have witnessed almost once a week launch of brand-new features right into the system. And these aren’t undersized little features … but large features that are fairly important. Their rate of development at this moment has actually gone over.
I also significantly appreciate just how responsive they are. Actually, among their product news regarding some layout improvements to the website design features really had a small issue with the web content size. I simply responded to that email to tell them. I rapidly obtained a reply straight from the CEO:.
That very same day, the issue was repaired.
Few days later on, I provided an additional recommendation …
Sure enough, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to set off automations based upon the embed form made use of was added to the system.
That type of responsiveness and direct involvement of the group is something I really value.
An additional major factor of differentiation here is the price. Both platforms provide complimentary plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan uses much more capability and more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also even more beneficial. ConvertKit seems less expensive at first glance since their pricing web page shows reduced numbers, however the subscriber limitations are FAR lower and your cost rapidly raises as your listing expands.
With BeeHiiv, your very first level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid each year), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 clients. That same dimension list is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I directly utilize), you can grow your checklist as much as 100,000. A checklist of that dimension would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, also, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay each year, as well. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay each year.
BeeHiiv is in an entirely different organization when it pertains to pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately enhance prices? They could as time goes on. But, I’m presuming individuals like myself who are already in will be locked-in. We’ll see how points continue.
Things I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Add
Among the things you certainly need to remember is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do appear to develop instead promptly and make brand-new product statements rather commonly, however there are some fundamental features I actually desire they had that I need to simply wait for.
One is that they need to have a setup on registration kinds where I might select an automation to run right at the kind degree. That would certainly be remarkable for a lot of factors. Currently, membership kinds look OK, but there’s extremely little setups for them to help in division.
It would certainly behave to have identifying at the subscriber degree. This would certainly be powerful.
I assume webhooks need to belong to automations to make built-in automations much easier and reduce reliance on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are likewise some minor management interface modifications that would certainly be handy. As an example:
- Capacity to bulk edit/remove clients.
- Capability to bulk edit blog posts (for example, to label a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a few fundamental fields as basic on clients (like the name).
- Some more customization options for the site (such as more adaptable color choices, heading control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Points I wish they make with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, however it isn’t excellent and certainly not virtually as created as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM item.
It most likely never will certainly be, either. As I said, the function is various so it would not a lot a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to come to be a full marketing automation system. I presume you never understand, though.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I like BeeHiiv rather a whole lot. Sufficient where I made a decision to change my own e-newsletters over to the platform in spite of my individual preference for digital sovereignty and owning my own platform.
Put simply, for the newsletter posting model especially, I saw enough value in their system to call for the modification.
Bear in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my special email listing. I utilize BeeHiiv for what it is proficient at, but I deliberately have points establish so that I likewise maintain my listing “in house” within FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the exact same. It is just a good insurance plan, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your list will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will be).
So, the question is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are utilizing Substack now, I ‘d definitely think about changing to BeeHiiv. It will simply be much more business-friendly. It is targeting different capabilities and different demands. Plus, BeeHiiv also has import tools for Substack, so the switch must be pretty uncomplicated.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d most likely stay put unless you have a large e-mail checklist and are for that reason being wooled with their high monthly bill. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are iterating quickly. There’s additionally a pretty good chance you’re not also making use of several of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not also require them. For that reason, BeeHiiv might quickly be a much better and more budget friendly fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be very deliberate concerning expanding an e-newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE platform to consider and keep and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is designed to be, it is one of the very best video games in town now. This is the system to enjoy.
BeeHiiv supplies 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 find the cost-free account to be fairly feature rich.