I have used a great deal of various email list systems throughout the years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a huge proponent of digital sovereignty and possessing your own platform. Therefore (and the outstanding features), I have actually been utilizing Beehiiv Free Trial.
So, it is certainly a strange move for me to decide to use BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is an organized application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv evaluation, I want to go over why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I want to address the problem of digital sovereignty while making use of the platform and I ‘d also such as to attend to why I chose to use it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For E-newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my newsletter called My Pastime + A Big Change In Strategy, I discussed exactly how and why I determined to transform my RV blog into mainly an e-newsletter. I determined that was business version I wished to seek with that said home.
But, to intentionally pursue it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a system that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the e-mail list for Gladly motor home, however FluentCRM is not a newsletter system. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, truthfully, utilizing it for newsletters is a little bit of a waste. Much more on that particular in a little bit.
As I stated in that issue of the newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices built right into it details to my purpose. Things such as:
- Capacity to release (to the blog) and send the e-mail simultaneously without having it be two separate activities.
- Built in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would certainly have needed a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capacity to do cross-promotions with other newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are basically one-click registration web 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 e-newsletter.
- Integrated advertisement network, if I choose to generate income from with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and generally run a costs newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Essentially, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features focused on development. The system was actually constructed by the people who developed the innovation for Early morning Mixture. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the factor here. BeeHiiv is developed from scratch for the purpose of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various objective.
And I finished off with this:.
I may without a doubt be relocating The Edge over to BeeHiiv as well. At least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. As a matter of fact, I just went all out. And as a matter of fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Morning WP, triggered as it’s very own home so that I can grow it extra intentionally as well.
The objective is that each e-newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded separately. Gladly recreational vehicle was young, so simple to transition. But, The Early morning WP (previously The Edge) was buried in a sea of stuff here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s very own. It will obviously constantly be closely linked with the Blog Marketing Academy, however does not have to belong of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv because it was built for this function. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Typical Email List
There’s a distinction in between an e-newsletter system and simply an e-mail list.
You can host your e-mail listing anyplace you want and there are a variety of them out there, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted choices like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The primary difference is that, with a newsletter platform, the act of posting suggests that it is mosting likely to your website and to your email subscribers all at once.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are publishing to that web site. But, you are likewise sending off to all customers at the same time. The internet site and it’s customers are done in one. This makes administration of the platform much less complex.
With the majority of email systems, any kind of newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is built completely independently from your site. So, for instance, you could publish an article to WordPress but after that you would certainly require to independently develop and send an email to your checklist to send it to clients. These are then 2 separate sets of archives and 2 separate activities due to the fact that blog posts and your emails are not inherently linked.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress into a real newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name due to the fact that it basically “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress articles and enables them to be the same thing. Certainly, something like E-newsletter Glue would be a solid option if I intended to remain to self-host every little thing. However, you would certainly shed the growth devices that come with a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing an e-newsletter inherently includes a various collection of needs than a common email checklist.
You don’t typically require much marketing automation. You don’t 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 help you build your subscriber base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my customers that I was mosting likely to switch over the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was picking it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the reality that I selected to opt for BeeHiiv, that does not indicate I assume Substack draws. Actually, due to the fact that Substack has been about longer, it is elder and has more features.
Although BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple things that initially obtained my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is especially tailored to e-newsletter publishers. Actually, it is literally developed by the very same individuals that developed the innovation behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real life, doesn’t matter. But, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv towards e-newsletter development called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “maker”. Development is what I’m interested in right here.
- That branding and distinction additionally suggests that BeeHiiv has some relatively large brands and large publications using it. Whereas SubStack is aimed even more at solo makers. Again, it simply tells me the customer character difference in between the two firms.
Sending our my e-newsletter using FluentCRM didn’t precisely suck. The only factor I would certainly ponder shaking things up is if I believed I might expand the checklist quicker. And BeeHiiv spoke specifically to that objective.
As a result of the targeting, I really don’t check out BeeHiiv and Substack as direct competitors. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a various type of customer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being more direct competitors.
However, allow’s dive deeper than simply the placing right here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv feels like it was developed by individuals who understanding email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems more geared towards creators.
For example, BeeHiiv offers custom areas on subscribers. Now, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. In fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that functions a whole lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation performance is still early-phase. It is still fairly restricted in triggers and the only action is the capacity to send an email. Nevertheless, improvements are coming. Soon enough, automations will certainly have brand-new triggers as well as brand-new actions, such as modifying custom-made areas, sending webhooks, and so on. I have actually currently seen improvements to their automations just given that I started utilizing the platform. For example:
- Capacity to cause automations based upon which specific embed type they can be found in on.
- Capacity to instantly do re-engagement (and deal with individuals based upon opens and non-opens).
- Ability to do fundamental conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can’t do this because the target market of Substack just would not think to approach this like an email marketing professional.
When it concerns writing your e-newsletters, the composing interface of BeeHiiv is simply more tailored toward e-newsletters. Actually, it actually has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in how it functions. I locate it to be extra user-friendly, personally.
Substack’s creating user interface behaves and clean, yet it would certainly be a lot more equivalent to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is more than simply kind. For example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Area” and afterwards placed anything you want in it. After that, you can put Presence choices on that particular section to reveal it only to paid subscribers, conceal it from e-mail, conceal from customers, show just to clients, and so on. Substack supplies nothing similar to this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a premium registration version, BeeHiiv does not take any kind of revenue. Actually, you literally attach up to your very own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your profits. Relying on the amount of customers you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit more money than the regular monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This might seem unpopular, however what it means is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outdoors utilizing devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … nothing. No integrations at all.
In general, I just felt like BeeHiiv was more built towards real e-mail marketing. It was built by individuals that “get it”. Also the opt-in types and the landing page creates seem better developed for conversions. Development is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I want to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the instructions it is going more than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have stated, Substack settings itself towards “developers” more than email online marketers and newsletter owners. For that reason, you see some things geared much more towards people that just think in regards to material production.
For example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does support multiple magazines, they are treated fairly independently. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to multiple magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I require, but … amazing for individuals that may require it.
Substack additionally has even more social capability built-in. For example, it has a chat function to host chats with customers. It additionally has a “Notes” function which works type of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share things from other “Stacks” you read. Intriguing. Overall, Substack is established to be much more like a social media network which supports long-form content.
Overall, Substack is also more … minimal. You either care for that or don’t. Personally, I don’t. Nevertheless, if the goal is simplicity of user interface and, truthfully, features … Substack functions quite well.
However, I’ll be clear right here …
When it pertains to actual marketing, I don’t think there’s much question that BeeHiiv is much better fit. I tried to find even more factors that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, yet honestly … I have a hard time finding 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 audience and have similar capabilities.
ConvertKit is likewise positioned at makers (like Substack), however it is far more strongly catering to individuals who do it for company. ConvertKit has great aesthetic automation building, it’s own business system, and extra. ConvertKit is a truly great system.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature malfunction here. ConvertKit is popular already. However, here’s how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Points ConvertKit Is Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has much more versatility when it pertains to it’s automations. I will certainly also state that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit more user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains identifying. This is simply a standard function of email lists that enables segmentation in an even more flexible way than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain identifying eventually quickly, frankly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Free Trial.
ConvertKit does currently provide the capacity to market points using their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is necessary to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nonetheless, I would always choose a much more straight choice anyway. For me, I like to use my own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been around much longer and for that reason has way a lot more integration options. Lots of online devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is rather powerful. For instance, their plugin now also supports member-gated content in addition to auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your site. Basically, this extra closely puts ConvertKit right into direct competitors by having you have the ability to publish to your site and your email list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is badly lacking in these sort of third-party integrations right now. It’ll get there. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy tackling the growth devices of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not only incentivize people to share your e-newsletter with advantages, but you can also pay per lead within the interior ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your list. These are truly outstanding features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you know ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among the most popular viral promotion systems for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall of what this implies for the system moving forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Free Trial
BeeHiiv is a lot earlier in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. However, it additionally indicates that they are quickly establishing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have experienced nearly regular release of brand-new features into the system. And these aren’t puny little features … but large features that are rather essential. Their rate of growth at this moment has actually gone over.
I also significantly appreciate exactly how responsive they are. Actually, among their item announcements about some design enhancements to the website design features really consisted of a tiny issue with the material size. I merely responded to that email to tell them. I swiftly obtained a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That same day, the concern was repaired.
Couple of days later on, I gave them an additional suggestion …
Indeed, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to cause automations based upon the embed kind used was included in the system.
That type of responsiveness and straight involvement of the group is something I truly appreciate.
One more major point of differentiation here is the rate. Both systems supply complimentary plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan uses much more capability and more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise even more positive. ConvertKit appears less costly in the beginning look because their pricing page reveals reduced numbers, nonetheless the client limitations are much reduced and your rate promptly raises as your checklist expands.
With BeeHiiv, your first level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid yearly), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 customers. That very same size listing is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I personally make use of), you can grow your list up to 100,000. A list of that size would certainly 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, also. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for simply $84/month if you pay each year.
BeeHiiv remains in an entirely various league when it pertains to pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point increase prices? They might as time goes on. Yet, I’m guessing individuals like myself who are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see just how things proceed.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of the important things you most definitely require to remember is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do seem to develop rather swiftly and make brand-new product news somewhat commonly, however there are some standard features I truly wish they had that I require to simply await.
One is that they require to have a setting on membership forms where I can pick an automation to run right at the form degree. That would be outstanding for a lot of factors. Currently, membership kinds look OK, however there’s extremely little setups for them to help in segmentation.
It would certainly be nice to have labeling at the subscriber level. This would be effective.
I think webhooks should be part of automations to make built-in automations easier and lower dependence on outdoors tools like Zapier.
There are likewise some small management user interface adjustments that would certainly be handy. As an example:
- Ability to bulk edit/remove subscribers.
- Capacity to bulk edit messages (for instance, to identify a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of standard areas as standard on subscribers (like the name).
- Some more customization options for the web site (such as more adaptable color choices, headline control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Points I hope they finish with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, yet it isn’t perfect and certainly not almost as established as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM item.
It possibly never will be, either. As I claimed, the purpose is various so it would not a lot a lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to come to be a full marketing automation platform. I presume you never understand, however.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Review
I such as BeeHiiv rather a great deal. Enough where I made a decision to change my very own newsletters over to the system regardless of my individual choice for digital sovereignty and having my very own system.
Basically, for the e-newsletter posting design especially, I saw sufficient value in their platform to require the change.
Keep in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my unique e-mail list. I make use of BeeHiiv of what it is good at, but I intentionally have points set up so that I also keep my checklist “in house” inside of FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the same. It is simply a great insurance coverage, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your listing 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 utilize BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are using Substack now, I ‘d absolutely consider switching over to BeeHiiv. It will merely be a lot more business-friendly. It is targeting different capacities and different demands. And also, BeeHiiv also has import tools for Substack, so the button should be quite simple.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d probably stay put unless you have a huge email checklist and are as a result 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 additionally a pretty good chance you’re not also using several of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not even require them. Therefore, BeeHiiv can easily be a much better and more budget-friendly fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be extremely intentional about growing a newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE system to take into consideration and keep and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is made to be, it is one of the most effective video games in town today. This is the platform to watch.
BeeHiiv provides a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth having a look at on your own. And if you end up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll discover the totally free account to be fairly feature rich.