I have used a great deal of various email list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a substantial proponent of digital sovereignty and possessing your very own system. For that reason (and the incredible features), I have actually been making use of Beehiiv Landing Page Templates.
So, it is certainly a weird move for me to choose to utilize BeeHiiv. Besides, it is an organized application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I wish to go over why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I want to attend to the problem of digital sovereignty while making use of the platform and I ‘d additionally such as to resolve why I selected to utilize it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For Newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Pastime + A Large Shift In Method, I discussed just how and why I chose to turn my motor home blog into largely a newsletter. I determined that was business model I wished to seek keeping that residential or commercial property.
But, to purposefully pursue it as an e-newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the email checklist for Happily RV, however FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is constructed 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 in a bit.
As I said because issue of the newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a system with tools constructed into it details to my function. Points such as:
- Capability to release (to the blog site) and send the email simultaneously without having it be two different activities.
- Constructed in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capability to do cross-promotions with various other newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are basically one-click subscription links. Great for promotion in various other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, though, so there are methods to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Integrated ad network, if I select to generate income from with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and primarily run a premium e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Basically, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features focused on growth. The system was actually built by the people who built up the innovation for Morning Mixture. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the point below. BeeHiiv is built from scratch for the objective of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a different function.
And I finished off with this:.
I might without a doubt be relocating The Side over to BeeHiiv as well. A minimum of, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. In fact, I simply went for it. And actually, The side was re-branded over to The Morning WP, triggered as it’s own building to make sure that I can grow it much more purposefully also.
The objective is that each e-newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s own media entity and grown separately. Gladly RV was young, so very easy to change. Yet, The Morning WP (formerly The Edge) was hidden in a sea of things here at the Blog 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 carefully linked with the Blog site Marketing Academy, yet doesn’t have to belong of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv because it was built for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Normal Email List
There’s a distinction in between an e-newsletter system and simply an e-mail list.
You can organize your e-mail checklist anywhere you want and there are a number of them around, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted alternatives like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The main distinction is that, with a newsletter platform, the act of posting indicates that it is mosting likely to your internet site and to your e-mail subscribers concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are publishing to that website. Yet, you are additionally sending off to all customers at the same time. The internet site and it’s subscribers are all in one. This makes administration of the platform much easier.
With a lot of email systems, any e-newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is constructed totally independently from your site. So, as an example, you may publish a short article to WordPress but after that you would certainly require to separately construct and send out an email to your listing to send it to customers. These are then 2 separate sets of archives and 2 different actions because article and your e-mails are not inherently linked.
The closest point that turns WordPress right into a real newsletter system is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name due to the fact that it virtually “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress messages and allows them to be the exact same thing. Certainly, something like E-newsletter Glue would be a strong alternative if I intended to continue to self-host whatever. Nevertheless, you ‘d lose the growth tools that feature a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter naturally includes a different collection of demands than a typical e-mail list.
You do not typically require much marketing automation. You don’t typically require autoresponder series, event tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO demand, though, is one seamless publishing experience and growth devices to aid you develop your customer base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my clients that I was going to switch the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the truth that I picked to choose BeeHiiv, that doesn’t indicate I think Substack draws. In fact, because Substack has been around longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple things that at first obtained my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is especially tailored to newsletter publishers. As a matter of fact, it is essentially built by the same individuals that built the technology behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, doesn’t matter. Yet, the evident positioning of BeeHiiv towards e-newsletter development called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “maker”. Development is what I have an interest in right here.
- That branding and differentiation likewise means that BeeHiiv has some relatively huge brand names and huge publications utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is aimed even more at solo makers. Once more, it just tells me the consumer character distinction between both companies.
Sending our my newsletter using FluentCRM didn’t precisely draw. The only factor I would ponder shaking points up is if I thought I might GROW the checklist much faster. And BeeHiiv talked specifically to that objective.
Due to the targeting, I really don’t 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 extra straight rivals.
Yet, allow’s dive deeper than simply the positioning here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv seems like it was constructed by people that understanding email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems more geared towards makers.
For instance, BeeHiiv uses custom fields on customers. Now, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. Actually, it is a visual 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 quite restricted in triggers and the only activity is the capacity to send out an email. Nonetheless, improvements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will certainly have new triggers along with new actions, such as modifying customized fields, sending webhooks, and so on. I’ve currently seen improvements to their automations just considering that I started using the system. For example:
- Capability to set off automations based on which details embed type they came in on.
- Capacity to automatically do re-engagement (and take care of people based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Capability to do standard conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can’t do this due to the fact that the target audience of Substack simply would not believe to approach this like an e-mail marketer.
When it concerns composing your e-newsletters, the composing interface of BeeHiiv is just extra tailored towards newsletters. Actually, it in fact has similarities to the WordPress block builder in just how it functions. I locate it to be much more user-friendly, directly.
Substack’s writing user interface behaves and clean, yet it would certainly be much more comparable to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is more than just form. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Section” and then put anything you desire in it. After that, you can place Visibility alternatives on that area to reveal it only to paid subscribers, hide it from e-mail, conceal from clients, show only to customers, and so on. Substack uses absolutely nothing such as this.
And when/if the time comes that I begin a costs subscription design, BeeHiiv does not take any type of income. Actually, you actually connect up to your own Stripe account and it charges straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your income. Relying on how many customers you get, that 10% can be a fair bit more money than the month-to-month expense of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This may appear nerdy, however what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv work with the outdoors utilizing devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … nothing. No integrations in all.
Overall, I just felt like BeeHiiv was extra built toward genuine email marketing. It was built by people who “get it”. Also the opt-in kinds and the landing page creates appear much better constructed for conversions. Development is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv add, I like the instructions it is going more than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have stated, Substack placements itself towards “creators” greater than e-mail marketers and newsletter proprietors. For that reason, you see some things tailored a lot more toward people that simply believe in regards to content creation.
For instance, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does support numerous publications, they are dealt with rather independently. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to several publications at the same time. This isn’t something I require, yet … cool for people that might require it.
Substack additionally has even more social performance built-in. As an example, it has a conversation feature to host chats with clients. It additionally has a “Notes” feature which works type of like a social media newsfeed where you can share things from other “Stacks” you’re reading. Fascinating. On the whole, Substack is established to be extra like a social media which supports long-form web content.
Overall, Substack is likewise a lot more … minimal. You either take care of that or don’t. Directly, I don’t. However, if the objective is simpleness of interface and, truthfully, features … Substack works rather well.
But, I’ll be clear below …
When it involves actual marketing, I don’t think there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is better suited. I looked for more factors that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, but frankly … I have a hard time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are frequently with to be the closest rivals, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are going after the same target audience and have similar abilities.
ConvertKit is also positioned at developers (like Substack), yet it is a lot more strongly satisfying people that do it for business. ConvertKit has nice aesthetic automation building, it’s own commerce system, and much more. ConvertKit is a truly nice system.
I’m not mosting likely to bore you with a full feature-by-feature break down here. ConvertKit is well known already. But, here’s how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has a lot more adaptability when it concerns it’s automations. I will certainly also state that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit extra intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains labeling. This is simply a standard function of email listings that allows segmentation in a much more versatile method than BeeHiiv currently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain marking eventually quickly, frankly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Landing Page Templates.
ConvertKit does currently provide the ability to market points by means of their very own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that’s important to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would certainly always select an extra straight option anyhow. For me, I favor to use my very own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been around much longer and therefore has way a lot more integration options. Tons of web-based devices and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their own WordPress plugin that is fairly powerful. For example, their plugin currently even sustains member-gated material along with auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your site. In essence, this extra very closely puts ConvertKit into straight competitors by having you have the ability to release to your site and your e-mail checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is drastically doing not have in these kinds of third-party integrations currently. It’ll get there. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even hectic taking on the growth tools of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not just incentivize people to share your newsletter with benefits, however you can also pay per lead within the inner ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your listing. These are really remarkable features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you recognize ConvertKit acquired Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of one of the most popular viral promo platforms for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall wherefore this implies for the system going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Landing Page Templates
BeeHiiv is a lot previously in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that suggests less features and less integrations, which is all-natural for this phase of the cycle. Nevertheless, it also implies that they are swiftly developing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have seen practically once a week release of new features right into the system. And these aren’t weak little features … however large features that are rather essential. Their speed of advancement now has actually been impressive.
I likewise significantly value exactly how receptive they are. Actually, among their item news concerning some design improvements to the web design features actually had a little issue with the web content width. I just responded to that email to tell them. I rapidly got a reply directly from the CEO:.
That very same day, the problem was repaired.
Few days later on, I provided an additional pointer …
Sure enough, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to trigger automations based on the embed form made use of was added to the system.
That type of responsiveness and direct participation of the group is something I truly value.
An additional significant factor of distinction here is the rate. Both systems supply free plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan uses extra capability and more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
As soon as you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise FAR more desirable. ConvertKit appears less expensive initially look because their pricing web page reveals reduced numbers, nevertheless the client limits are FAR lower and your cost swiftly increases as your list grows.
With BeeHiiv, your first level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid yearly), however you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That exact same size list is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I personally use), you can grow your listing approximately 100,000. A listing of that dimension 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 every year, too. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for just $84/month if you pay annually.
BeeHiiv remains in an entirely various organization when it comes to pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually raise rates? They may as time goes on. Yet, I’m thinking individuals like myself that are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how things proceed.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
One of the important things you absolutely need to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do seem to advance instead quickly and make brand-new product statements somewhat frequently, however there are some basic features I actually want they had that I need to just wait for.
One is that they need to have a setup on subscription kinds where I might choose an automation to run right at the kind degree. That would certainly be AWESOME for so many reasons. As of now, registration forms look OK, but there’s extremely little setups for them to aid in division.
It would be nice to have identifying at the client level. This would certainly be effective.
I think webhooks should become part of automations to make integrated automations less complicated and minimize dependence on outside devices like Zapier.
There are also some minor management user interface changes that would certainly be handy. For example:
- Capability to mass edit/remove customers.
- Capacity to bulk edit messages (as an example, to mark a number of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of basic areas as conventional on clients (like the name).
- Some even more modification options for the site (such as more flexible color selections, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Points I hope they do with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, yet it isn’t excellent and certainly not virtually as established as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM item.
It possibly never will be, either. As I said, the objective is various so it would not a lot a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to end up being a full marketing automation platform. I presume you never ever understand, however.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I like BeeHiiv rather a great deal. Sufficient where I decided to switch my own newsletters over to the platform despite my personal preference for digital sovereignty and possessing my own platform.
Put simply, for the e-newsletter publishing design especially, I saw adequate worth in their system to call for the change.
Bear in mind, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my special e-mail listing. I use BeeHiiv wherefore it is good at, but I deliberately have things establish to make sure that I additionally keep my checklist “in home” within FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the exact same. It is simply a good insurance coverage, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your checklist will be of high use (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the concern is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my point of view, if you are utilizing Substack now, I ‘d most definitely take into consideration switching over to BeeHiiv. It will simply be much more business-friendly. It is targeting different capacities and different demands. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the switch ought to be pretty straightforward.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d possibly stay put unless you have a large e-mail checklist and are consequently being fleeced with their high regular monthly costs. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are repeating swiftly. There’s also a pretty good chance you’re not also using some of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you don’t even require them. Because of that, BeeHiiv could quickly be a better and extra affordable fit.
Finally, if you plan to be really deliberate concerning growing a 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 about what it is made to be, it is one of the best games in town today. This is the platform to view.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves taking a look at on your own. And if you wind up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll discover the complimentary account to be quite feature rich.