I have actually made use of a great deal of various e-mail list systems throughout the years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a significant advocate of digital sovereignty and owning your very own platform. For that reason (and the outstanding features), I have actually been utilizing Beehiiv iOS App.
So, it is certainly a weird move for me to choose to use BeeHiiv. After all, it is a hosted application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I want to look at why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I intend to address the concern of digital sovereignty while utilizing the platform and I would certainly also like to attend to why I selected to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For E-newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Pastime + A Big Shift In Technique, I discussed how and why I determined to transform my RV blog into largely a newsletter. I chose that was the business design I intended to pursue with that building.
Yet, to intentionally pursue it as an e-newsletter, I desired a system that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the email checklist for Gladly RV, but FluentCRM is not a newsletter platform. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, truthfully, utilizing it for e-newsletters is a bit of a waste. More on that particular in a bit.
As I stated because issue of the e-newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a system with tools constructed right into it specific to my purpose. Points such as:
- Capacity to release (to the blog) and send out the email at the same time without having it be 2 different actions.
- Integrated in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not 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 platform.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are generally one-click registration links. Great for promo in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are means to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your newsletter.
- Integrated advertisement network, if I select to monetize with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in ability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and essentially run a premium e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Essentially, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter authors with features aimed at development. The system was actually developed by the individuals that built up the modern technology for Early morning Mixture. They know what they’re doing.
That is the point here. BeeHiiv is developed from scratch for the objective of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different objective.
And I ended off with this:.
I may undoubtedly be relocating The Edge over to BeeHiiv also. A minimum of, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. Actually, I just went all out. And as a matter of fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, triggered as it’s own building to make sure that I can expand it more purposefully as well.
The goal is that each e-newsletter has the capability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded individually. Gladly RV was young, so easy to change. However, The Morning WP (formerly The Edge) was hidden in a sea of things right here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s own. It will certainly constantly be closely connected with the Blog site Marketing Academy, however does not have to belong of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv because it was built for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Just A Normal Email List
There’s a distinction in between a newsletter system and just an e-mail listing.
You can organize your e-mail list 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 a newsletter system, the act of posting implies that it is mosting likely to your internet site and to your email clients at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a site. You are releasing to that website. But, you are likewise sending off to all customers at the same time. The website and it’s clients are done in one. This makes administration of the system much simpler.
With most e-mail systems, any type of newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is built entirely separately from your web site. So, for example, you may publish a write-up to WordPress yet after that you would need to independently build and send an email to your checklist to send it to subscribers. These are after that 2 separate sets of archives and 2 different activities because blog posts and your emails are not naturally linked.
The closest point that turns WordPress into a true newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name because it basically “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and enables them to be the very same point. Definitely, something like Newsletter Glue would certainly be a strong alternative if I wished to remain to self-host everything. Nevertheless, you ‘d lose the development tools that include a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting a newsletter naturally comes with a different set of needs than a common e-mail list.
You don’t usually need much marketing automation. You do not generally require autoresponder sequences, occasion tracking, 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 develop your subscriber base that are specific to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my customers that I was going to switch 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 reality that I chose to choose BeeHiiv, that does not indicate I think Substack draws. In fact, since Substack has actually been about much longer, it is more mature and has more features.
Although BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a pair things that originally obtained my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically customized to newsletter publishers. In fact, it is literally built by the same folks that built the technology behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, doesn’t matter. Yet, the obvious positioning of BeeHiiv towards e-newsletter development called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “maker”. Growth is what I want here.
- That branding and distinction also implies that BeeHiiv has some fairly large brand names and big publications using it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo designers. Once again, it just tells me the client avatar distinction between both companies.
Sending our my e-newsletter using FluentCRM really did not exactly draw. The only factor I would contemplate drinking things up is if I thought I could GROW the listing much faster. And BeeHiiv spoke precisely to that objective.
Due to the targeting, I in fact do not view BeeHiiv and Substack as straight competitors. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a various type of consumer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being more straight rivals.
Yet, let’s dive deeper than just the placing right here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv appears like it was built by people that recognizing e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears a lot more geared toward creators.
As an example, BeeHiiv offers customized fields on customers. Currently, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. As a matter of fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that works a great deal like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation performance is still early-phase. It is still rather minimal in triggers and the only activity is the ability to send out an e-mail. Nonetheless, improvements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will certainly have new triggers along with brand-new actions, such as modifying customized areas, sending webhooks, etc. I’ve already seen improvements to their automations simply since I began using the system. For instance:
- Capacity to activate automations based upon which details embed type they came in on.
- Ability to instantly do re-engagement (and take care of individuals based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Ability to do fundamental conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can not 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 concerns creating your newsletters, the writing interface of BeeHiiv is simply much more geared towards newsletters. Actually, it in fact has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in just how it functions. I find it to be extra user-friendly, directly.
Substack’s creating interface is nice and clean, but it would certainly be more comparable to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is greater than just kind. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Area” and after that put anything you desire in it. After that, you can put Visibility choices on that area to reveal it just to paid customers, hide it from email, hide from customers, reveal just to clients, and so on. Substack uses absolutely nothing similar to this.
And when/if the time comes that I start a premium subscription version, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any revenue. In fact, you literally connect up to your very own Stripe account and it bills directly to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your profits. Depending upon how many clients you obtain, that 10% can be quite a bit even more cash than the monthly cost of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This could seem unpopular, yet what it means is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outdoors making use of tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … absolutely nothing. No integrations at all.
Generally, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was more developed toward actual e-mail marketing. It was developed by individuals that “get it”. Even the opt-in forms and the landing page makes seem better constructed for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I would love 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 positions itself toward “developers” greater than e-mail marketers and newsletter owners. Therefore, you see some points geared much more towards individuals who just assume in regards to web content production.
As an example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does support numerous publications, they are treated rather individually. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to numerous publications at the same time. This isn’t something I need, but … great for people that might require it.
Substack also has even more social performance built-in. As an example, it has a chat feature to host talks with subscribers. It additionally has a “Notes” function which works kind of like a social media newsfeed where you can share things from other “Stacks” you’re reading. Interesting. Overall, Substack is established to be extra like a social media which sustains long-form content.
Generally, Substack is additionally much more … minimalist. You either look after that or do not. Directly, I don’t. Nevertheless, if the objective is simpleness of interface and, frankly, features … Substack functions pretty well.
But, I’ll be clear right here …
When it involves actual marketing, I don’t assume there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is much better suited. I looked for even more factors that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, but honestly … I have a hard time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are usually via to be the closest competitors, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are going after the exact same target audience and have comparable capacities.
ConvertKit is likewise positioned at developers (like Substack), however it is far more strongly dealing with people that do it for company. ConvertKit has wonderful visual automation building, it’s very own commerce system, and extra. ConvertKit is a really wonderful system.
I’m not going to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature break down right here. ConvertKit is well known currently. But, here’s exactly how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Points ConvertKit Is Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has a lot more flexibility when it concerns it’s automations. I will additionally state that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit extra intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports tagging. This is just a fundamental function of e-mail checklists that enables segmentation in an even more adaptable method than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain identifying eventually quickly, honestly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv iOS App.
ConvertKit does currently provide the ability to market points through their very own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is necessary to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would constantly select a much more direct alternative anyhow. For me, I favor to use my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been around a lot longer and therefore has way more integration choices. Tons of online tools and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their own WordPress plugin that is rather powerful. For instance, their plugin currently even sustains member-gated web content as well as auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your website. Basically, this a lot more very closely places ConvertKit into direct competitors by having you have the ability to release to your site and your email list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is significantly doing not have in these sort of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll get there. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also active taking on the growth devices of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with advantages, yet you can additionally pay per lead within the internal advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your checklist. These are truly incredible features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you know ConvertKit acquired Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of one of the most popular viral promotion platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall wherefore this suggests for the platform going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv iOS App
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means much less features and less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. However, it also indicates that they are rapidly creating.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually experienced nearly weekly launch of new features into the system. And these aren’t undersized little features … but big features that are quite important. Their speed of growth at this moment has been impressive.
I additionally very much appreciate just how receptive they are. In fact, one of their product statements regarding some layout improvements to the web design features actually included a tiny issue with the material width. I simply replied to that email to tell them. I swiftly obtained a reply straight from the CEO:.
That same day, the problem was fixed.
Few days later, I gave them another suggestion …
Certainly, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to activate automations based upon the embed form used was included in the system.
That sort of responsiveness and straight involvement of the team is something I really value.
One more significant factor of distinction here is the price. Both systems use cost-free plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan uses extra ability and more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
As soon as you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise FAR more favorable. ConvertKit appears cheaper in the beginning look because their pricing web page reveals lower numbers, nonetheless the customer restrictions are FAR reduced and your cost rapidly increases as your list expands.
With BeeHiiv, your initial level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid each year), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 clients. That exact same size checklist is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their ideal plan and the one I personally utilize), you can expand your list up to 100,000. A list of that size would 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 annually, also. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay each year.
BeeHiiv is in a totally different organization when it pertains to pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately boost rates? They could as time takes place. But, I’m thinking people like myself who are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see how points continue.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
One of things you most definitely require to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do seem to evolve instead rapidly and make new product news somewhat usually, yet there are some standard features I truly want they had that I require to just await.
One is that they need to have a setting on subscription types where I could select an automation to run right at the kind degree. That would be outstanding for many factors. Already, subscription kinds look OK, however there’s extremely little settings for them to help in segmentation.
It would behave to have identifying at the customer degree. This would certainly be effective.
I think webhooks should belong to automations to make integrated automations easier and lower dependence on outdoors tools like Zapier.
There are likewise some small management interface modifications that would certainly be handy. For example:
- Capacity to bulk edit/remove subscribers.
- Capability to mass edit blog posts (for example, to tag a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a few standard areas as typical on subscribers (like the name).
- Some more customization choices for the internet site (such as more adaptable shade options, heading control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Things I hope they finish with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t excellent and certainly not nearly as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM product.
It possibly never ever will certainly be, either. As I stated, the objective is various so it would not a lot a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to come to be a complete marketing automation system. I presume you never ever understand, though.
Final Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I like BeeHiiv fairly a great deal. Sufficient where I made a decision to change my very own e-newsletters over to the platform despite my individual preference for digital sovereignty and owning my own system.
Basically, for the newsletter posting design specifically, I saw sufficient value in their system to require the adjustment.
Keep in mind, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my exclusive email checklist. I use BeeHiiv wherefore it is good at, but I deliberately have things set up so that I also maintain my listing “in home” within FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the very same. It is just a good insurance plan, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your checklist will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the question is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are utilizing Substack today, I ‘d most definitely consider changing to BeeHiiv. It will simply be a lot more business-friendly. It is targeting various capabilities and different needs. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the button must be rather straightforward.
If you are on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d possibly stay unless you have a big email list and are as a result being wooled with their high monthly costs. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are iterating swiftly. There’s also a pretty good chance you’re not even utilizing several of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you don’t even require them. Because of that, BeeHiiv can easily be a better and a lot more budget-friendly fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be really intentional concerning expanding a newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE system to take into consideration and keep and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is developed to be, it is one of the very best video games in the area today. This is the platform to enjoy.
BeeHiiv offers a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves looking into on your own. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll find the complimentary account to be fairly feature abundant.