I have made use of a great deal of various email list systems throughout the years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a significant advocate of digital sovereignty and owning your own platform. For that reason (and the incredible features), I have actually been utilizing Beehiiv HTML Template.
So, it is certainly an unusual move for me to choose to utilize BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is an organized application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv evaluation, I wish to review why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I intend to deal with the concern of digital sovereignty while using the platform and I ‘d also like to deal with why I selected to use it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For Newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Large Shift In Approach, I spoke about exactly how and why I made a decision to turn my motor home blog right into mainly an e-newsletter. I made a decision that was business model I intended to pursue with that said home.
Yet, to deliberately seek it as a newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the e-mail list for Happily RV, but FluentCRM is not a newsletter system. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, truthfully, utilizing it for e-newsletters is a little bit of a waste. Extra on that in a little bit.
As I stated because concern of the newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a system with devices developed right into it details to my function. Things such as:
- Capacity to publish (to the blog site) and send out the email all at once without having it be 2 different activities.
- Constructed in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would certainly require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capacity to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are generally one-click membership web links. Great for promo in other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are methods to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Integrated ad network, if I choose to generate income from with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capacity to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and basically run a premium newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Essentially, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter authors with features aimed at growth. The platform was literally developed by the people who built up the innovation for Early morning Brew. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the factor below. BeeHiiv is built from scratch for the objective of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various function.
And I finished off with this:.
I might indeed be relocating The Edge over to BeeHiiv as well. At least, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. In fact, I just went all out. And as a matter of fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Morning WP, set off as it’s own residential property so that I can expand it much more purposefully as well.
The objective is that each newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown individually. Gladly RV was young, so easy to change. Yet, The Morning WP (formerly The Edge) was buried in a sea of things below 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 certainly constantly be carefully tied with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet does not need to belong of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv since it was built for this function. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Regular Email List
There’s a distinction between a newsletter platform and simply an e-mail checklist.
You can hold your email listing anywhere you want and there are a variety of them around, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted alternatives like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The main difference is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of publishing indicates that it is going to your web site and to your email customers simultaneously.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are releasing to that website. However, you are likewise dispatching to all subscribers at the same time. The site and it’s customers are all in one. This makes management of the system much simpler.
With many e-mail systems, any e-newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is constructed totally separately from your internet site. So, for example, you may release a write-up to WordPress but after that you would certainly require to separately develop and send an e-mail to your checklist to send it to clients. These are then 2 separate sets of archives and two different activities since blog posts and your e-mails are not inherently linked.
The closest point that transforms WordPress right into a true newsletter system is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name due to the fact that it pretty much “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and allows them to be the same point. Definitely, something like Newsletter Glue would be a solid option if I wished to remain to self-host every little thing. Nevertheless, you would certainly lose the development devices that feature a platform like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter inherently features a various set of demands than a typical e-mail list.
You do not normally require much marketing automation. You don’t usually require autoresponder series, occasion monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO need, however, is one smooth posting experience and development tools to aid you build your customer base that specify to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my subscribers that I was mosting likely to switch the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had lots of 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 does not suggest I think Substack draws. As a matter of fact, since Substack has actually been about longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple points that initially obtained my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically customized to newsletter publishers. As a matter of fact, it is literally developed by the same people that developed the innovation behind Early morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, does not matter. However, the apparent positioning of BeeHiiv towards e-newsletter growth called me out over the more generic positioning of being a “maker”. Development is what I have an interest in right here.
- That branding and differentiation likewise indicates that BeeHiiv has some fairly big brand names and big publications using it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo creators. Once again, it just informs me the customer character distinction in between the two business.
Sending our my newsletter through FluentCRM really did not specifically draw. The only factor I would consider trembling things up is if I believed I can GROW the checklist quicker. And BeeHiiv talked exactly to that objective.
Because of the targeting, I actually do not watch BeeHiiv and Substack as straight competitors. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a different type of customer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being more direct rivals.
However, allow’s dive much deeper than just the positioning right here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv seems like it was constructed by individuals that comprehending email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears more tailored towards makers.
For instance, BeeHiiv uses customized fields on customers. Now, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. In fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that works a lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation functionality is still early-phase. It is still fairly limited in triggers and the only action is the capability to send out an e-mail. However, improvements are coming. Soon sufficient, automations will have brand-new triggers along with new activities, such as changing customized fields, sending webhooks, and so on. I’ve currently seen enhancements to their automations just because I began utilizing the platform. For instance:
- Ability to trigger automations based upon which details embed type they was available in on.
- Ability to automatically do re-engagement (and manage people based on opens up and non-opens).
- Capacity to do standard conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never will. Substack just can’t do this since the target market of Substack simply wouldn’t believe to approach this like an email marketing expert.
When it concerns composing your e-newsletters, the writing interface of BeeHiiv is simply a lot more geared toward e-newsletters. In fact, it really has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it functions. I discover it to be more user-friendly, personally.
Substack’s creating interface behaves and clean, however it would be much more comparable to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This difference is greater than simply form. For example, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Area” and afterwards placed anything you want in it. After that, you can place Exposure choices on that particular section to show it only to paid customers, conceal it from email, hide from customers, reveal only to subscribers, etc. Substack uses absolutely nothing such as this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a premium membership model, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any earnings. Actually, you literally link up to your own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your income. Relying on the amount of subscribers you get, that 10% can be a fair bit even more cash than the monthly price of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This could seem nerdy, but what it means is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv work with the outside utilizing devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … absolutely nothing. No integrations in all.
Overall, I simply felt like BeeHiiv was a lot more constructed toward genuine e-mail marketing. It was developed by people that “get it”. Even the opt-in kinds and the landing page creates appear far better constructed for conversions. Growth is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I wish to see BeeHiiv add, I such as the instructions it is going more than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually claimed, Substack settings itself towards “makers” greater than email marketing experts and e-newsletter owners. For that reason, you see some things geared a lot more towards individuals who simply believe in terms of material production.
As an example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does sustain multiple magazines, they are treated quite independently. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to multiple magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I need, however … awesome for individuals who could require it.
Substack likewise has more social performance built-in. For example, it has a conversation feature to host chats with customers. It likewise has a “Notes” function which works type of like a social media newsfeed where you can share things from other “Stacks” you read. Interesting. Generally, Substack is set up to be more like a social media which sustains long-form material.
Overall, Substack is also extra … minimal. You either care for that or do not. Directly, I do not. Nonetheless, if the goal is simpleness of user interface and, truthfully, features … Substack functions quite well.
Yet, I’ll be clear here …
When it comes to real marketing, I don’t believe there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is much better suited. I tried to find even more factors that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, but honestly … I have a tough time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are usually with to be the closest rivals, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are going after the exact same target audience and have similar capabilities.
ConvertKit is also positioned at developers (like Substack), but it is a lot more strongly accommodating individuals who do it for company. ConvertKit has good aesthetic automation building, it’s own commerce platform, and a lot more. ConvertKit is an actually wonderful platform.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature break down below. ConvertKit is well known already. However, here’s just how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Points ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has extra flexibility when it pertains to it’s automations. I will also state that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit more user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains marking. This is just a basic feature of email lists that allows division in an even more versatile means than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain tagging eventually quickly, frankly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv HTML Template.
ConvertKit does now provide the capacity to market things using their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that’s important to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would constantly choose a more straight option anyway. For me, I like to utilize my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been around much longer and because of that has way extra integration choices. Tons of web-based devices and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is quite effective. For example, their plugin currently even supports member-gated material along with auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your site. Basically, this more carefully puts ConvertKit right into direct competition by having you have the ability to release to your website and your e-mail listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is badly lacking in these kinds of third-party integrations presently. It’ll arrive. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also active taking on the growth devices of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not only incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with perks, but you can additionally pay per lead within the inner advertisement network of BeeHiiv to grow your list. These are truly incredible features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you understand ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of the most popular viral promotion platforms for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall wherefore this indicates for the platform going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv HTML Template
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means much less features and much less integrations, which is all-natural for this phase of the cycle. Nevertheless, it also means that they are rapidly creating.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have experienced almost once a week release of brand-new features into the platform. And these aren’t weak little features … yet huge features that are rather crucial. Their rate of growth now has actually been impressive.
I likewise very much appreciate how responsive they are. Actually, one of their product announcements about some layout enhancements to the website design features really contained a small issue with the web content size. I simply responded to that email to tell them. I rapidly obtained a reply directly from the chief executive officer:.
That same day, the problem was taken care of.
Few days later, I gave them one more tip …
Sure enough, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to set off automations based on the embed form utilized was included in the system.
That type of responsiveness and direct participation of the team is something I truly appreciate.
Another major factor of distinction right here is the rate. Both platforms provide totally free plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan offers extra capability and even more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally FAR more desirable. ConvertKit seems more affordable in the beginning look due to the fact that their pricing web page reveals lower numbers, nevertheless the subscriber limitations are FAR reduced and your price rapidly enhances as your list expands.
With BeeHiiv, your very first degree paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid each year), however you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That same size checklist is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their ideal plan and the one I personally make use of), you can expand your list up to 100,000. A listing 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 remains in an entirely various league when it comes to pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually enhance rates? They may as time takes place. Yet, I’m guessing people like myself who are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see how things proceed.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
Among the things you absolutely need to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do seem to develop instead promptly and make brand-new product news rather often, but there are some basic features I truly desire they had that I require to just wait for.
One is that they require to have a setup on membership types where I can choose an automation to run right at the form degree. That would certainly be amazing for many factors. Currently, registration types look OK, however there’s really little settings for them to help in division.
It would be nice to have marking at the customer degree. This would be effective.
I believe webhooks need to become part of automations to make built-in automations easier and minimize reliance on outside devices like Zapier.
There are additionally some small administrative user interface changes that would certainly come in handy. For example:
- Capability to bulk edit/remove clients.
- Ability to mass edit posts (as an example, to identify a number of them at the same time).
- Having a few basic fields as standard on clients (like the name).
- Some even more modification alternatives for the website (such as more adaptable shade selections, heading control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Points I wish they perform with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, however it isn’t best and absolutely not virtually as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM item.
It possibly never ever will certainly be, either. As I claimed, the objective is various so it would not a lot a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to end up being a complete marketing automation platform. I presume you never ever recognize, however.
Last Ideas On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I like BeeHiiv rather a lot. Enough where I determined to switch my very own e-newsletters over to the platform regardless of my individual choice for digital sovereignty and owning my very own platform.
Simply put, for the e-newsletter publishing model specifically, I saw enough value in their system to call for the adjustment.
Bear in mind, I do not utilize BeeHiiv as my unique e-mail listing. I utilize BeeHiiv wherefore it is efficient, but I purposefully have points set up to make sure that I also keep my list “in house” inside of FluentCRM.
If you make use of BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the same. It is simply a good insurance coverage, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your list will certainly be of high use (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my point of view, if you are making use of Substack right now, I ‘d certainly consider switching to BeeHiiv. It will just be a lot more business-friendly. It is targeting different capabilities and different needs. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the button must be quite simple.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d possibly sit tight unless you have a huge email listing and are for that reason being fleeced with their high monthly expense. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are iterating promptly. There’s additionally a respectable possibility you’re not even using a few of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not even need them. For that reason, BeeHiiv might conveniently be a far better and extra budget-friendly fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be extremely intentional concerning expanding a newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE system to think about and maintain and eye on for you.
If you utilize BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is designed to be, it is just one of the most effective games around right now. This is the system to see.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth having a look at for yourself. And if you end up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll discover the complimentary account to be fairly feature rich.