I have actually utilized a great deal of various e-mail list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a huge proponent of digital sovereignty and owning your very own platform. Because of that (and the outstanding features), I have actually been making use of Beehiiv Income.
So, it is undoubtedly a weird move for me to determine to utilize BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is an organized application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I want to look at why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I wish to address the problem of digital sovereignty while making use of the system and I ‘d additionally such as to attend to why I picked to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For Newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Hobby + A Huge Change In Strategy, I talked about exactly how and why I determined to turn my recreational vehicle blog right into primarily a newsletter. I made a decision that was business version I intended to seek keeping that building.
Yet, to deliberately pursue it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the email listing for Gladly RV, however FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter system. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, frankly, using it for e-newsletters is a little bit of a waste. Much more on that particular in a bit.
As I stated because problem of the newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices built into it particular to my purpose. Things such as:
- Capability to release (to the blog) and send out the e-mail all at once without having it be two different actions.
- Constructed in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would certainly have needed a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capacity to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are essentially one-click registration links. Great for promotion in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are methods to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your newsletter.
- Built-in ad network, if I pick to generate income from with ads in the newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and essentially run a premium e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter authors with features aimed at development. The platform was essentially constructed by the people that accumulated the modern technology for Early morning Mixture. They know what they’re doing.
That is the point here. BeeHiiv is constructed from the ground up for the objective of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a various objective.
And I ended off with this:.
I might without a doubt be moving The Side over to BeeHiiv also. At least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. In fact, I simply went all out. And actually, The side was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s very own building so that I can grow it extra intentionally as well.
The goal is that each e-newsletter has the capability to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded individually. Gladly RV was young, so simple to shift. However, The Morning WP (formerly The Side) was buried in a sea of things right 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 clearly constantly be closely connected with the Blog site Marketing Academy, but does not have to belong of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was developed for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Typical Email List
There’s a difference between a newsletter platform and simply an email checklist.
You can organize your email checklist anyplace you desire and there are a number of them available, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted choices like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The key distinction is that, with a newsletter system, the act of publishing implies that it is mosting likely to your web site and to your e-mail clients at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are releasing to that website. However, you are additionally dispatching to all customers at the same time. The website and it’s subscribers are all in one. This makes management of the platform much easier.
With a lot of e-mail systems, 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 publish a post to WordPress but after that you would require to individually develop and send an email to your listing to send it to customers. These are then two different collections of archives and 2 different activities because article and your emails are not inherently linked.
The closest thing that turns WordPress right into a true e-newsletter platform is Newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name since it practically “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and enables them to be the same point. Absolutely, something like Newsletter Glue would be a strong option if I intended to continue to self-host every little thing. However, you ‘d shed the growth devices that feature a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing an e-newsletter naturally features a various set of requirements than a typical e-mail checklist.
You do not generally require much marketing automation. You do not normally need autoresponder sequences, occasion monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO need, though, is one seamless publishing experience and growth devices to assist you develop your client base that specify to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my customers that I was going to switch the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many people ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the reality that I chose to select BeeHiiv, that doesn’t suggest I think Substack sucks. As a matter of fact, since Substack has been around much longer, it is more mature and has more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple points that originally got my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly tailored to e-newsletter publishers. As a matter of fact, it is essentially developed by the very same individuals who built the modern technology behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, doesn’t matter. However, the apparent positioning of BeeHiiv towards e-newsletter development called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “developer”. Development is what I’m interested in below.
- That branding and distinction also implies that BeeHiiv has some rather large brand names and huge publications utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo makers. Once more, it simply informs me the consumer avatar distinction between both firms.
Sending our my newsletter by means of FluentCRM didn’t precisely draw. The only factor I would contemplate trembling things up is if I believed I might expand the list faster. And BeeHiiv talked precisely to that goal.
Because of the targeting, I in fact don’t see BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a various type of customer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being a lot more straight rivals.
Yet, let’s dive much deeper than just the positioning right here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv feels like it was developed by individuals who recognizing email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears a lot more tailored toward creators.
For example, BeeHiiv uses custom fields on customers. Currently, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv supplies Automations. In fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that works a lot like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation functionality is still early-phase. It is still quite limited in triggers and the only activity is the capability to send an email. However, enhancements are coming. Soon sufficient, automations will certainly have brand-new triggers as well as new activities, such as modifying custom-made areas, sending webhooks, etc. I have actually currently seen enhancements to their automations just since I started making use of the platform. For instance:
- Ability to trigger automations based on which specific embed form they was available in on.
- Ability to instantly do re-engagement (and handle people based upon opens and non-opens).
- Ability to do fundamental conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never will. Substack just can not do this since the target audience of Substack just wouldn’t believe to approach this like an e-mail marketing professional.
When it concerns creating your e-newsletters, the writing user interface of BeeHiiv is simply a lot more geared toward e-newsletters. In fact, it really has similarities to the WordPress block builder in how it works. I find it to be more user-friendly, personally.
Substack’s creating user interface is nice and tidy, but it would be more comparable to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is more than simply form. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Section” and afterwards put anything you want in it. After that, you can place Exposure options on that particular section to show it just to paid clients, conceal it from email, conceal from clients, show only to clients, and so on. Substack uses absolutely nothing like this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a premium membership model, BeeHiiv does not take any type of revenue. As a matter of fact, you essentially connect approximately your own Stripe account and it bills directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your profits. Depending upon the number of subscribers you obtain, that 10% can be quite a bit even more cash than the month-to-month cost of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This could appear nerdy, but what it suggests is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv work with the outside making use of tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … nothing. No integrations at all.
Overall, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was extra constructed towards actual e-mail marketing. It was developed by people who “get it”. Also the opt-in forms and the landing page creates appear much better constructed for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I would love to see BeeHiiv add, I such as the instructions it is going more than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have said, Substack settings itself toward “makers” greater than e-mail marketing professionals and newsletter proprietors. For that reason, you see some things geared much more toward individuals who simply assume in regards to web content creation.
For example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does support numerous publications, they are treated rather individually. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to numerous publications at the same time. This isn’t something I require, however … awesome for people who may need it.
Substack additionally has even more social capability built-in. For example, it has a conversation feature to host chats with clients. It additionally has a “Notes” feature which functions kind of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you read. Fascinating. In general, Substack is established to be a lot more like a social media network which supports long-form material.
Overall, Substack is also a lot more … minimalist. You either care for that or do not. Personally, I don’t. Nevertheless, if the objective is simplicity of user interface and, honestly, features … Substack works rather well.
Yet, I’ll be clear right here …
When it comes to actual marketing, I do not assume there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is better suited. I tried to find even more factors that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, however honestly … I have a hard time discovering 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 competitors. Both are pursuing the very same target market and have similar abilities.
ConvertKit is additionally positioned at creators (like Substack), yet it is far more strongly catering to individuals that do it for company. ConvertKit has nice visual automation building, it’s own commerce platform, and much more. ConvertKit is an actually great platform.
I’m not going to bore you with a complete feature-by-feature break down below. ConvertKit is well known currently. Yet, below’s just how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Points ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has extra flexibility when it involves it’s automations. I will certainly also claim that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit more user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports identifying. This is just a basic function of e-mail listings that enables segmentation in an even more adaptable means than BeeHiiv currently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain tagging at some point quickly, honestly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Income.
ConvertKit does now provide the capability to offer points by means of their own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that’s important to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would certainly constantly select an extra straight option anyway. For me, I choose to use my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about a lot longer and therefore has way much more integration alternatives. Lots of online devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their own WordPress plugin that is rather powerful. For example, their plugin currently even supports member-gated content along with auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Fundamentally, this a lot more very closely places ConvertKit into straight competition by having you have the ability to release to your site and your e-mail checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is severely lacking in these kinds of third-party integrations presently. It’ll get there. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also active dealing with the growth devices of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not just incentivize people to share your e-newsletter with advantages, however you can likewise pay per lead within the interior advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your list. These are actually amazing features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you know ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of the most popular viral promotion systems for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall for what this indicates for the platform moving forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Income
BeeHiiv is a lot previously in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies less features and less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. Nevertheless, it likewise implies that they are rapidly establishing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually experienced nearly weekly release of brand-new features right into the system. And these aren’t weak little features … however large features that are rather essential. Their rate of growth at this moment has actually been impressive.
I likewise quite value how responsive they are. Actually, one of their product statements about some layout enhancements to the website design features in fact consisted of a small issue with the web content width. I just replied to that e-mail to tell them. I rapidly got a reply directly from the CEO:.
That very same day, the concern was taken care of.
Few days later on, I provided an additional suggestion …
Certainly, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to trigger automations based upon the embed form used was included in the system.
That type of responsiveness and straight participation of the team is something I really appreciate.
Another significant factor of differentiation right here is the price. Both systems provide cost-free plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan supplies extra ability and even more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also FAR more favorable. ConvertKit appears more affordable in the beginning glimpse since their pricing page shows lower numbers, nonetheless the customer restrictions are FAR reduced and your rate quickly boosts as your checklist expands.
With BeeHiiv, your very first level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid yearly), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 clients. That same size listing is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I directly use), you can expand your checklist as much as 100,000. A listing of that size would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, as well, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay yearly, too. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay yearly.
BeeHiiv is in an entirely various league when it involves pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately boost rates? They could as time takes place. But, I’m thinking individuals like myself that are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see how points continue.
Points I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Add
One of the important things you certainly require to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do seem to evolve instead swiftly and make brand-new product news rather typically, but there are some standard features I really desire they had that I need to simply wait on.
One is that they need to have a setting on membership kinds where I might choose an automation to run right at the form level. That would be incredible for numerous factors. Already, membership forms look OK, however there’s extremely little setups for them to help in segmentation.
It would certainly behave to have marking at the customer level. This would be powerful.
I think webhooks need to belong to automations to make built-in automations easier and decrease reliance on outside tools like Zapier.
There are also some small administrative user interface changes that would be handy. For instance:
- Ability to bulk edit/remove clients.
- Capability to bulk edit posts (for instance, to tag a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of basic fields as basic on subscribers (like the name).
- Some even more personalization options for the web site (such as more adaptable shade selections, heading control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Things I hope they do with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t ideal and definitely not virtually as created as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM item.
It probably never ever will be, either. As I said, the purpose is various so it wouldn’t a lot a lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to become a full marketing automation system. I think you never ever know, however.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I such as BeeHiiv fairly a whole lot. Enough where I determined to change my own e-newsletters over to the system despite my personal preference for digital sovereignty and possessing my own platform.
Basically, for the e-newsletter posting model specifically, I saw enough worth in their system to necessitate the modification.
Bear in mind, I do not utilize BeeHiiv as my exclusive e-mail list. I utilize BeeHiiv of what it is efficient, yet I deliberately have things set up to make sure that I also keep my listing “in house” within FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the same. It is just an excellent insurance plan, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your listing will 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 viewpoint, if you are utilizing Substack now, I ‘d certainly take into consideration changing to BeeHiiv. It will merely be more business-friendly. It is targeting different capacities and different requirements. And also, BeeHiiv also has import tools for Substack, so the button must be quite straightforward.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d possibly stay unless you have a huge email listing and are as a result being wooled with their high regular monthly expense. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are repeating quickly. There’s additionally a pretty good possibility you’re not also making use of several of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you do not even require them. Because of that, BeeHiiv might conveniently be a better and a lot more affordable fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be very deliberate about expanding an e-newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE system to think about and maintain and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is designed to be, it is just one of the best video games around now. This is the system to see.
BeeHiiv uses a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth having a look at for yourself. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll find the totally free account to be fairly feature rich.