I have made use of a great deal of different e-mail list systems for many years. In the last number of years, I have actually been a massive proponent of digital sovereignty and having your own system. For that reason (and the outstanding features), I have been using Beehiiv LinkedIn Integration.
So, it is certainly a weird move for me to choose to make use of BeeHiiv. After all, it is an organized application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv evaluation, I intend to go over why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I want to address the issue of digital sovereignty while making use of the system and I would certainly also such as to deal with why I picked to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For Newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Big Shift In Approach, I discussed how and why I decided to turn my recreational vehicle blog right into primarily an e-newsletter. I determined that was the business version I wanted to seek keeping that residential property.
However, to purposefully seek it as a newsletter, I desired a system that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the e-mail checklist for Happily RV, however FluentCRM is not a newsletter system. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, truthfully, utilizing it for newsletters is a little a waste. Extra on that particular in a bit.
As I stated in that concern of the e-newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices developed into it specific to my purpose. Things such as:
- Capacity to publish (to the blog site) and send the e-mail all at once without having it be two different actions.
- Built in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would have needed a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in ability to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are basically one-click registration web links. Great for promotion in various other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are ways to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your newsletter.
- Built-in advertisement network, if I choose to generate income from with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capacity to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and essentially run a costs newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Essentially, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter authors with features aimed at development. The platform was literally built by the people that developed the modern technology for Early morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the point below. BeeHiiv is constructed from scratch for the objective of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different function.
And I ended off with this:.
I may undoubtedly be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv too. A minimum of, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. As a matter of fact, I just went for it. And in fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Morning WP, triggered as it’s very own property so that I can expand it extra deliberately too.
The goal is that each newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded individually. Gladly motor home was young, so easy to transition. Yet, The Morning WP (previously The Edge) was buried in a sea of things right 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 clearly constantly be very closely linked with the Blog site Marketing Academy, but does not need to belong of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was constructed for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Typical Email Checklist
There’s a difference between an e-newsletter platform and just an email checklist.
You can organize your email list everywhere you desire 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 distinction?
The key difference is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of posting means that it is going to your web site and to your email customers concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are publishing to that web site. But, you are likewise sending to all clients at the same time. The web site and it’s clients are done in one. This makes administration of the platform much simpler.
With most email systems, any kind of newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is constructed totally independently from your website. So, as an example, you might publish a write-up to WordPress however then you would need to independently build and send out an e-mail to your checklist to send it to clients. These are then 2 separate sets of archives and 2 different activities because article and your emails are not naturally linked.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress right into a real newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name since it basically “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress posts and enables them to be the exact same thing. Definitely, something like E-newsletter Glue would be a solid alternative if I wanted to remain to self-host every little thing. Nevertheless, you would certainly lose the development devices that come with a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing an e-newsletter naturally comes with a various collection of requirements than a common e-mail list.
You do not usually require much marketing automation. You don’t generally require autoresponder sequences, occasion monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO demand, though, is one smooth publishing experience and development tools to aid you build your customer base that are specific to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my customers that I was mosting likely to switch the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many people ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the truth that I selected to go with BeeHiiv, that does not suggest I think Substack draws. In fact, due to the fact that Substack has been around much longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple points that at first got my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is especially customized to e-newsletter publishers. Actually, it is actually developed by the same individuals that constructed the modern technology behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real life, doesn’t matter. However, the obvious positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter growth called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “maker”. Development is what I have an interest in here.
- That branding and differentiation likewise implies that BeeHiiv has some rather large brand names and big magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is intended even more at solo creators. Once more, it just tells me the customer character distinction in between both business.
Sending our my newsletter via FluentCRM didn’t precisely suck. The only factor I would ponder shaking things up is if I thought I might expand the checklist much faster. And BeeHiiv spoke precisely to that objective.
As a result of the targeting, I in fact do not view 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 a lot more direct competitors.
But, allow’s dive deeper than just the positioning below.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv seems like it was developed by individuals that comprehending email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears extra tailored towards developers.
For instance, BeeHiiv supplies custom-made areas on clients. Now, it isn’t as created 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 lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still quite restricted in triggers and the only activity is the capacity to send an e-mail. Nevertheless, improvements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will certainly have brand-new triggers in addition to brand-new activities, such as changing custom-made areas, sending webhooks, etc. I have actually currently seen enhancements to their automations just considering that I began using the platform. For example:
- Capacity to activate automations based upon which particular embed kind they came in on.
- Capability to automatically do re-engagement (and take care of individuals based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Capacity to do standard conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack simply can’t do this due to the fact that the target audience of Substack simply wouldn’t believe to approach this like an e-mail marketer.
When it comes to creating your newsletters, the composing user interface of BeeHiiv is just extra tailored towards newsletters. As a matter of fact, it really has similarities to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it functions. I discover it to be extra instinctive, personally.
Substack’s creating interface behaves and tidy, but it would be a lot more equivalent to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This distinction is more than simply form. For example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Area” and then placed anything you want in it. Then, you can place Presence alternatives on that particular area to reveal it only to paid subscribers, conceal it from e-mail, conceal from subscribers, show only to customers, etc. Substack offers absolutely nothing similar to this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a costs subscription design, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any kind of income. Actually, you actually connect approximately your very own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your revenue. Depending upon the number of subscribers you get, that 10% can be a fair bit more money than the regular monthly cost of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This could seem unpopular, yet what it suggests is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outside making use of tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … nothing. No integrations in any way.
Overall, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was much more built towards actual e-mail marketing. It was built by individuals who “get it”. Also the opt-in kinds and the landing page designs appear far better constructed for conversions. Development is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv add, I like the instructions it is going more than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have claimed, Substack settings itself towards “developers” more than email marketing experts and newsletter owners. Therefore, you see some points tailored extra toward individuals who just assume in regards to content production.
As an example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does support multiple magazines, they are treated quite individually. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to numerous publications at the same time. This isn’t something I need, however … great for people that might need it.
Substack likewise has even more social functionality built-in. As an example, it has a conversation feature to host chats with customers. It likewise has a “Notes” feature which works kind of like a social media newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you read. Interesting. In general, Substack is set up to be more like a social media which sustains long-form web content.
In general, Substack is likewise extra … minimal. You either take care of that or do not. Directly, I don’t. Nonetheless, if the goal is simpleness of user interface and, frankly, features … Substack functions quite well.
Yet, I’ll be clear here …
When it concerns actual marketing, I don’t believe there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is better matched. I searched for 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 typically with to be the closest competitors, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are pursuing the same target audience and have comparable abilities.
ConvertKit is additionally placed at designers (like Substack), however it is much more highly accommodating people who do it for organization. ConvertKit has nice visual automation building, it’s very own commerce system, and much more. ConvertKit is a really nice platform.
I’m not going to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature malfunction here. ConvertKit is well known already. However, below’s exactly how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Points ConvertKit Is Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has much more versatility when it concerns it’s automations. I will certainly likewise say that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit extra user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports tagging. This is just a fundamental feature of e-mail checklists that makes it possible for segmentation in a far more adaptable means than BeeHiiv currently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to sustain tagging eventually quickly, honestly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv LinkedIn Integration.
ConvertKit does now provide the capacity to offer things by means of their very own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that’s important to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would constantly select a much more straight choice anyway. For me, I favor to utilize my very own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been about a lot longer and for that reason has way extra integration choices. Tons of online tools and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their own WordPress plugin that is rather powerful. As an example, their plugin currently even supports member-gated content along with auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your website. Fundamentally, this a lot more very closely puts ConvertKit right into straight competition by having you have the ability to release to your site and your email listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is significantly lacking in these sort of third-party integrations currently. It’ll get there. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even hectic tackling the development devices of BeeHiiv. As an example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not only incentivize people to share your newsletter with advantages, yet you can likewise pay per lead within the inner advertisement network of BeeHiiv to grow your checklist. These are truly incredible features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you know ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among the most well known viral promotion systems for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall surface of what this indicates for the system going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv LinkedIn Integration
BeeHiiv is a lot earlier in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that suggests less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this stage of the cycle. Nevertheless, it likewise suggests that they are swiftly creating.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually experienced virtually once a week launch of new features right into the platform. And these aren’t puny little features … but big features that are fairly vital. Their speed of growth at this point has actually been impressive.
I likewise significantly appreciate just how responsive they are. As a matter of fact, among their product announcements regarding some style enhancements to the web design features actually included a tiny problem with the web content size. I merely replied to that e-mail to tell them. I rapidly obtained a reply directly from the CEO:.
That same day, the issue was fixed.
Few days later on, I gave them another pointer …
Sure enough, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to set off automations based on the embed form used was added to the system.
That type of responsiveness and straight participation of the group is something I truly value.
An additional major point of distinction below is the price. Both platforms offer totally free plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan uses much more ability and even more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally even more beneficial. ConvertKit appears more affordable initially glance because their pricing page shows lower numbers, nevertheless the subscriber limits are much reduced and your rate quickly boosts as your list grows.
With BeeHiiv, your initial degree paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid annually), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That exact same dimension checklist is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their ideal plan and the one I personally make use of), you can grow your checklist up to 100,000. A listing of that size would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, as well, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay each year, also. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay annually.
BeeHiiv remains in an entirely different organization when it pertains to pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately boost rates? They may as time takes place. Yet, I’m guessing individuals like myself that are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see how points continue.
Things I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of the things you definitely require to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do seem to evolve rather swiftly and make new product news somewhat often, yet there are some fundamental features I truly wish they had that I require to just wait on.
One is that they require to have a setting on membership types where I could select an automation to run right at the form level. That would be incredible for so many reasons. Currently, membership kinds look OK, but there’s very little setups for them to help in division.
It would be nice to have tagging at the client level. This would be effective.
I think webhooks need to become part of automations to make integrated automations simpler and minimize dependence on outside devices like Zapier.
There are additionally some small management interface changes that would certainly be handy. For example:
- Ability to mass edit/remove customers.
- Capability to mass edit blog posts (for example, to label a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of fundamental areas as conventional on customers (like the name).
- Some more modification alternatives for the internet site (such as even more adaptable shade options, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Things I wish they perform with it in the future. BeeHiiv is respectable, however it isn’t ideal and certainly not almost as created as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM product.
It most likely never will be, either. As I stated, the purpose is different so it wouldn’t much a lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to come to be a full marketing automation platform. I presume you never ever recognize, though.
Final Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I like BeeHiiv quite a great deal. Sufficient where I determined to switch my very own e-newsletters over to the platform despite my personal choice for digital sovereignty and possessing my own platform.
Basically, for the e-newsletter publishing design particularly, I saw enough worth in their system to call for the adjustment.
Remember, I do not use BeeHiiv as my exclusive email list. I make use of BeeHiiv wherefore it is efficient, however I deliberately have points establish to ensure that I likewise keep my list “in house” inside of FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the same. It is simply an excellent insurance policy, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your list 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 question is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my point of view, if you are making use of Substack now, I ‘d absolutely take into consideration switching to BeeHiiv. It will merely be much more business-friendly. It is targeting various abilities and different needs. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the button ought to be quite simple.
If you are on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d possibly stay put unless you have a big e-mail checklist and are for that reason being wooled with their high monthly expense. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are repeating quickly. There’s likewise a pretty good possibility you’re not even making use of several of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you don’t also need them. For that reason, BeeHiiv might easily be a far better and much more inexpensive fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be really willful regarding growing an e-newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE platform to think about and maintain and eye on for you.
If you utilize BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is developed to be, it is just one of the best games in town today. This is the platform to enjoy.
BeeHiiv offers a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves checking out for yourself. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll discover the totally free account to be quite feature rich.