I have actually utilized a great deal of various email list systems throughout the years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a substantial advocate of digital sovereignty and having your own platform. Therefore (and the awesome features), I have actually been making use of Beehiiv Forum.
So, it is undoubtedly 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 review, I wish to go over why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I wish to resolve the concern of digital sovereignty while using the system and I ‘d additionally such as to attend to why I chose to use it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For Newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my newsletter called My Pastime + A Huge Shift In Method, I talked about how and why I made a decision to transform my RV blog into mostly an e-newsletter. I chose that was the business design I wished to pursue with that said property.
Yet, to deliberately pursue it as an e-newsletter, I desired a system that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the email list for Happily motor home, however FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter system. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, honestly, utilizing it for e-newsletters is a little bit of a waste. Extra on that in a little bit.
As I claimed because issue of the e-newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a system with devices built into it certain to my objective. Points such as:
- Capability to publish (to the blog) and send out the e-mail concurrently without having it be two different actions.
- Built in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would certainly require a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in ability to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are generally one-click membership links. Great for promo in other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are ways to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your newsletter.
- Built-in ad network, if I select to monetize with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and primarily run a premium e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Basically, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter publishers with features targeted at development. The system was actually developed by the individuals who developed the modern technology for Early morning Mixture. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the factor right here. BeeHiiv is constructed from the ground up for the purpose of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a different objective.
And I ended off with this:.
I might indeed be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv as well. A minimum of, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. Actually, I simply went all out. And as a matter of fact, The side was re-branded over to The Morning WP, set off as it’s very own residential or commercial property to ensure that I can expand it a lot more deliberately too.
The goal is that each newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded independently. Gladly motor home was young, so very easy to shift. Yet, The Early morning WP (formerly The Side) was buried in a sea of stuff here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s very own. It will certainly constantly be closely tied with the Blog Marketing Academy, however doesn’t have to belong of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was constructed for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Normal Email Checklist
There’s a difference between an e-newsletter platform and simply an email list.
You can host your email list anyplace you want and there are a variety of them around, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The primary distinction is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of publishing means that it is mosting likely to your website and to your e-mail clients simultaneously.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a web site. You are publishing to that web site. However, you are additionally sending off to all subscribers at the same time. The web site and it’s clients are all in one. This makes administration of the system much less complex.
With many e-mail platforms, any newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is built completely independently from your site. So, for instance, you might publish a write-up to WordPress however after that you would require to separately build and send an e-mail to your checklist to send it to subscribers. These are after that two different collections of archives and two separate actions due to the fact that blog posts and your e-mails are not naturally linked.
The closest point that transforms WordPress into a true e-newsletter system is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name due to the fact that it pretty much “glues” your e-newsletter to your WordPress posts and enables them to be the same thing. Definitely, something like Newsletter Glue would certainly be a strong alternative if I wanted to continue to self-host everything. However, you would certainly lose the development tools that come with a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing an e-newsletter naturally features a various collection of demands than a common email checklist.
You don’t usually require much marketing automation. You do not generally require autoresponder sequences, event monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO requirement, however, is one seamless publishing experience and growth devices to assist you construct your customer base that are specific to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my subscribers that I was mosting likely to change the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many people ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the reality that I chose to go with BeeHiiv, that doesn’t imply I assume Substack sucks. In fact, due to the fact that Substack has been around longer, it is elder and has more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple things that initially obtained my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is especially customized to e-newsletter publishers. Actually, it is literally developed by the same people that constructed the technology behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, does not matter. However, the obvious positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter development called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “maker”. Growth is what I have an interest in below.
- That branding and differentiation also indicates that BeeHiiv has some rather big brand names and large magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo makers. Again, it just informs me the consumer avatar difference in between both companies.
Sending our my e-newsletter through FluentCRM really did not exactly draw. The only reason I would certainly contemplate drinking points up is if I assumed I can expand the checklist much faster. And BeeHiiv talked specifically to that objective.
Due to the targeting, I in fact do not check out BeeHiiv and Substack as direct competitors. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a various sort of customer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra straight rivals.
But, let’s dive deeper than simply the placing below.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv seems like it was built by individuals who understanding email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems extra tailored towards designers.
For example, BeeHiiv supplies customized areas on clients. Currently, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. In fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that works a whole 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 capacity to send out an e-mail. Nonetheless, improvements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will have brand-new triggers in addition to brand-new activities, such as changing custom areas, sending webhooks, etc. I have actually currently seen enhancements to their automations just given that I began using the system. For instance:
- Capacity to trigger automations based on which particular embed type they came in on.
- Capability to automatically do re-engagement (and handle people based upon opens and non-opens).
- Capability to do standard conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can not do this due to the fact that the target audience of Substack simply would not think to approach this like an e-mail marketing expert.
When it involves creating your e-newsletters, the writing interface of BeeHiiv is just much more tailored toward e-newsletters. Actually, it really has similarities to the WordPress block builder in how it functions. I find it to be a lot more user-friendly, directly.
Substack’s creating user interface is nice and clean, but it would be a lot more equal to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is greater than just type. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Section” and then put anything you want in it. Then, you can place Presence alternatives on that particular section to reveal it just to paid subscribers, hide it from e-mail, conceal from subscribers, reveal just to subscribers, etc. Substack uses absolutely nothing such as this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a premium membership design, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any type of earnings. In fact, you literally link up to your very own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your profits. Depending on how many clients you get, that 10% can be quite a bit even more money than the month-to-month expense of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This might seem nerdy, but what it indicates 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 actually has … absolutely nothing. No integrations whatsoever.
In general, I just felt like BeeHiiv was a lot more developed toward actual email marketing. It was built by people who “get it”. Even the opt-in forms and the landing page develops seem better built for conversions. Growth is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I would love to see BeeHiiv include, I like the direction it is going greater than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually stated, Substack positions itself toward “developers” greater than e-mail marketing professionals and e-newsletter owners. Because of that, you see some things tailored much more toward individuals who just believe in regards to content creation.
For example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does support numerous magazines, they are dealt with fairly separately. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to several magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I need, yet … great for people who may require it.
Substack additionally has more social capability built-in. For example, it has a conversation feature to host chats with subscribers. It also has a “Notes” function which works sort of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you read. Fascinating. On the whole, Substack is established to be much more like a social network which sustains long-form material.
Generally, Substack is likewise extra … minimalist. You either care for that or do not. Directly, I don’t. However, if the objective is simplicity of user interface and, truthfully, features … Substack functions rather well.
However, I’ll be clear right here …
When it pertains to actual marketing, I do not assume there’s much question that BeeHiiv is better suited. I looked for even more points that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, yet truthfully … I have a tough time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are frequently via to be the closest rivals, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are going after the very same target market and have similar capabilities.
ConvertKit is also positioned at developers (like Substack), however it is a lot more strongly catering to individuals that do it for organization. ConvertKit has wonderful visual automation building, it’s very own commerce system, and more. ConvertKit is an actually wonderful platform.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature malfunction here. ConvertKit is well known currently. Yet, below’s how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has more versatility when it concerns it’s automations. I will certainly additionally say that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit a lot more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports marking. This is simply a fundamental feature of email lists that allows division in a much more adaptable means than BeeHiiv currently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support tagging at some time soon, truthfully. It seems like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Forum.
ConvertKit does currently offer the capacity to market points through their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is very important to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, nonetheless, I would constantly choose an extra straight choice anyway. For me, I prefer to utilize my own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been around a lot longer and because of that has way a lot more integration alternatives. Tons of online devices and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is rather powerful. As an example, their plugin now also supports member-gated content as well as auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your website. In essence, this more very closely puts ConvertKit into straight competitors by having you be able to release to your website and your e-mail listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is significantly doing not have in these kinds of third-party integrations currently. It’ll get there. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy tackling the development tools of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not only incentivize individuals to share your e-newsletter with rewards, however you can additionally pay per lead within the interior advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your checklist. These are truly incredible features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you understand ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of the most well known viral promo platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall surface for what this suggests for the platform moving forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Forum
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this stage of the cycle. Nevertheless, it additionally suggests that they are rapidly establishing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have observed nearly weekly launch of brand-new features into the system. And these aren’t weak little features … however big features that are quite important. Their speed of growth at this point has actually gone over.
I likewise quite appreciate just how responsive they are. In fact, among their item statements regarding some layout improvements to the web design features actually had a small problem with the material size. I merely replied to that e-mail to tell them. I rapidly got a reply directly from the chief executive officer:.
That same day, the problem was fixed.
Couple of days later on, I gave them another suggestion …
Indeed, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to activate automations based on the embed type made use of was added to the system.
That kind of responsiveness and straight participation of the group is something I really value.
Another significant point of distinction below is the rate. Both platforms use totally free plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan uses extra capability and more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally much more desirable. ConvertKit seems less expensive at first look due to the fact that their pricing page shows lower numbers, nonetheless the customer restrictions are FAR reduced and your cost rapidly raises as your checklist expands.
With BeeHiiv, your very first degree paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid annually), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 customers. That exact same dimension listing 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 expand your list approximately 100,000. A listing of that dimension would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, also, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay every year, as well. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv is in a totally different league when it concerns pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point raise rates? They might as time goes on. However, I’m thinking people like myself that are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how things continue.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among the things you absolutely need to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do appear to advance instead swiftly and make new product announcements rather typically, but there are some standard features I really desire they had that I need to simply await.
One is that they require to have a setting on subscription types where I can select an automation to run right at the form degree. That would be amazing for numerous factors. Already, registration forms look OK, yet there’s very little setups for them to help in division.
It would certainly behave to have marking at the subscriber degree. This would be effective.
I think webhooks should belong to automations to make built-in automations simpler and lower reliance on outside tools like Zapier.
There are additionally some small administrative user interface adjustments that would be handy. For example:
- Capacity to mass edit/remove customers.
- Ability to bulk edit blog posts (for example, to identify a number of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of standard fields as typical on customers (like the name).
- Some even more customization options for the web site (such as even more flexible shade options, heading control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Points I hope they do with it in the future. BeeHiiv is respectable, but it isn’t ideal and certainly not virtually as created as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM product.
It possibly never ever will certainly be, either. As I said, the purpose is different so it wouldn’t a lot a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to end up being a complete marketing automation platform. I guess you never know, though.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I like BeeHiiv rather a great deal. Sufficient where I made a decision to switch my own e-newsletters over to the system despite my personal choice for digital sovereignty and having my own platform.
Simply put, for the e-newsletter posting design especially, I saw enough worth in their platform to require the adjustment.
Remember, I do not utilize BeeHiiv as my exclusive e-mail listing. I make use of BeeHiiv for what it is efficient, but I purposefully have points set up to ensure that I likewise maintain my listing “in house” inside of FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the same. It is simply an excellent insurance plan, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your list will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will certainly be).
So, the question is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are utilizing Substack now, I ‘d most definitely consider switching over to BeeHiiv. It will merely be a lot more business-friendly. It is targeting various abilities and various needs. And also, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the button ought to be pretty uncomplicated.
If you get on ConvertKit now, I ‘d most likely stay put unless you have a large e-mail list and are for that reason being wooled with their high regular monthly bill. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are repeating quickly. There’s also a respectable possibility you’re not also making use of several of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you do not also need them. Because of that, BeeHiiv could quickly be a far better and more cost effective fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be very willful about expanding a newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE system to think about and maintain and eye on for you.
If you utilize BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is designed to be, it is among the best video games in the area right now. This is the platform to see.
BeeHiiv provides a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves having a look at on your own. And if you wind up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll discover the cost-free account to be rather feature abundant.