I have actually used a great deal of different e-mail list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a big supporter of digital sovereignty and owning your very own system. Because of that (and the amazing features), I have actually been making use of Beehiiv Marketer Milk.
So, it is indeed an odd move for me to make a decision to utilize BeeHiiv. After all, it is an organized application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I intend to go over why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I wish to resolve the concern of digital sovereignty while making use of the system and I would certainly additionally such as to address why I selected to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For Newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Pastime + A Big Change In Approach, I spoke about just how and why I decided to transform my recreational vehicle blog site into primarily an e-newsletter. I decided that was business version I intended to seek keeping that home.
Yet, to deliberately seek it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the e-mail listing for Gladly recreational vehicle, however FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter system. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, frankly, using it for e-newsletters is a little a waste. Extra on that in a little bit.
As I claimed because concern of the e-newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a system with devices constructed into it details to my function. Points such as:
- Ability to release (to the blog) and send the email simultaneously without having it be 2 different actions.
- Integrated in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would require a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capability to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are primarily one-click membership links. Great for promotion in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, however, so there are ways to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Built-in advertisement network, if I select to monetize with advertisements in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and essentially run a premium newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Basically, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter authors with features focused on development. The platform was essentially constructed by the individuals that accumulated the innovation for Early morning Brew. They know what they’re doing.
That is the factor below. BeeHiiv is developed from scratch for the purpose of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various function.
And I ended off with this:.
I might certainly be moving The Side over to BeeHiiv as well. At least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. As a matter of fact, I simply went for it. And actually, The side was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s own property to ensure that I can grow it much more purposefully as well.
The goal is that each e-newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s own media entity and grown separately. Gladly recreational vehicle was young, so easy to shift. However, The Early morning WP (previously The Edge) was hidden in a sea of stuff here at the Blog Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s very own. It will undoubtedly always be very closely connected with the Blog site Marketing Academy, but doesn’t have to be a part of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv because it was constructed for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Regular Email Checklist
There’s a distinction between an e-newsletter system and just an e-mail checklist.
You can host your email checklist everywhere you desire and there are a variety of them out there, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted alternatives like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The primary difference is that, with a newsletter platform, the act of posting implies that it is mosting likely to your web site and to your email customers at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are releasing to that website. Yet, you are likewise sending off to all customers at the same time. The web site and it’s clients are all in one. This makes monitoring of the system much easier.
With many email systems, any kind of e-newsletter you set up is done as an e-mail campaign. It is constructed totally separately from your internet site. So, for instance, you may release a post to WordPress however then you would need to separately build and send an e-mail to your list to send it to subscribers. These are then two separate sets of archives and two different activities since blog posts and your e-mails are not naturally connected.
The closest point that turns WordPress into a true newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name since it virtually “glues” your e-newsletter to your WordPress messages and allows them to be the exact same point. Definitely, something like E-newsletter Glue would be a solid alternative if I wished to remain to self-host every little thing. Nevertheless, you ‘d lose the growth devices that include a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting a newsletter naturally comes with a different collection of demands than a regular email listing.
You don’t generally need much marketing automation. You do not typically need autoresponder series, occasion monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO need, however, is one smooth posting experience and growth tools to aid you construct your subscriber base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my customers that I was going to change the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was picking it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the truth that I chose to select BeeHiiv, that does not suggest I think Substack draws. As a matter of fact, because Substack has actually been around much longer, it is more mature and has more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a pair things that originally obtained my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is especially customized to newsletter publishers. As a matter of fact, it is actually built by the very same people that developed the innovation behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, does not matter. However, the obvious positioning of BeeHiiv towards e-newsletter development called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “designer”. Growth is what I’m interested in here.
- That branding and distinction also means that BeeHiiv has some relatively huge brands and big magazines utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo developers. Again, it simply tells me the consumer character difference between the two business.
Sending our my e-newsletter through FluentCRM didn’t precisely draw. The only reason I would ponder shaking things up is if I assumed I could GROW the listing faster. And BeeHiiv spoke specifically to that goal.
As a result of the targeting, I really do not check out BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a various type of customer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being more direct competitors.
Yet, allow’s dive deeper than just the placing right here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
On the whole, BeeHiiv appears like it was built by people who recognizing e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears extra tailored toward developers.
For instance, BeeHiiv provides custom areas on customers. Currently, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv supplies Automations. As a matter of fact, it is a visual automation builder that works a great deal like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation functionality is still early-phase. It is still quite minimal in triggers and the only action is the capacity to send an email. Nevertheless, improvements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will certainly have brand-new triggers along with new activities, such as modifying personalized areas, sending webhooks, and so on. I have actually already seen improvements to their automations just given that I started using the platform. For instance:
- Ability to set off automations based on which certain embed type they was available in on.
- Capacity to instantly do re-engagement (and handle people based on opens up and non-opens).
- Capability to do fundamental conditional reasoning 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 just wouldn’t believe to approach this like an e-mail marketer.
When it involves writing your newsletters, the composing interface of BeeHiiv is just more geared toward newsletters. In fact, it in fact has similarities to the WordPress block builder in just how it functions. I locate it to be much more intuitive, personally.
Substack’s creating interface is nice and clean, but it would certainly be extra comparable to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is more than simply form. For example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Area” and then placed anything you desire in it. After that, you can put Presence choices on that particular area to reveal it only to paid customers, hide it from e-mail, hide from customers, show just to subscribers, etc. Substack offers nothing like this.
And when/if the time comes that I begin a costs subscription model, BeeHiiv does not take any profits. As a matter of fact, you essentially attach as much as your very own Stripe account and it bills directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your earnings. Depending upon how many subscribers you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit even more money than the monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This could seem unpopular, however what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv deal with the outdoors using devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … absolutely nothing. No integrations in any way.
In general, I simply felt like BeeHiiv was extra constructed toward actual email marketing. It was developed by people that “get it”. Also the opt-in types and the landing page designs appear much better constructed for conversions. Development is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I want to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the direction it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually stated, Substack settings itself toward “designers” more than email marketers and newsletter proprietors. Because of that, you see some points tailored more towards people who simply think in terms of material creation.
As an example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does sustain multiple magazines, they are dealt with quite independently. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to multiple publications at the same time. This isn’t something I require, but … great for individuals that may need it.
Substack also has even more social capability built-in. As an example, it has a chat feature to host talks with subscribers. It additionally has a “Notes” feature which functions sort of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you’re reading. Fascinating. Overall, Substack is established to be much more like a social network which supports long-form content.
On the whole, Substack is also a lot more … minimalist. You either look after that or don’t. Directly, I don’t. Nevertheless, if the objective is simplicity of user interface and, frankly, features … Substack works rather well.
But, I’ll be clear here …
When it pertains to actual marketing, I don’t assume there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is better fit. I searched for more factors that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, but frankly … I have a hard time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are usually via to be the closest rivals, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are pursuing the same target audience and have comparable capabilities.
ConvertKit is additionally positioned at makers (like Substack), yet it is a lot more strongly dealing with individuals that do it for organization. ConvertKit has nice visual automation building, it’s very own business platform, and much more. ConvertKit is an actually good platform.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature break down here. ConvertKit is popular already. Yet, below’s just how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Points ConvertKit Is Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has extra adaptability when it involves it’s automations. I will certainly likewise say that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains labeling. This is simply a fundamental function of e-mail checklists that enables segmentation in a much more adaptable method than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain tagging at some point soon, truthfully. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Marketer Milk.
ConvertKit does currently offer the ability to market things using their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that’s important to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, nonetheless, I would certainly constantly choose an extra direct alternative anyway. For me, I choose to use my own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been around a lot longer and for that reason has way extra integration choices. Lots of web-based devices and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is rather powerful. For instance, their plugin currently even supports member-gated web content as well as auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Fundamentally, this extra closely places ConvertKit into straight competition by having you have the ability to release to your website and your email list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is badly lacking in these kinds of third-party integrations currently. It’ll get there. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy taking on the growth tools of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not only incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with perks, yet you can additionally pay per lead within the inner ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your listing. These are really remarkable features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you know ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of the most well known viral promotion platforms for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall surface wherefore this implies for the system going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Marketer Milk
BeeHiiv is a lot earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that indicates much less features and less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. Nevertheless, it likewise implies that they are quickly developing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually seen nearly weekly release of new features right into the platform. And these aren’t puny little features … however big features that are quite essential. Their speed of development now has gone over.
I likewise quite appreciate how receptive they are. As a matter of fact, one of their product announcements about some design enhancements to the website design features in fact had a little problem with the content width. I simply replied to that e-mail to tell them. I quickly obtained a reply directly from the CEO:.
That very same day, the issue was fixed.
Couple of days later, I provided an additional suggestion …
Sure enough, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to activate automations based on the embed type utilized was added to the system.
That sort of responsiveness and direct involvement of the team is something I actually appreciate.
Another significant point of distinction right here is the price. Both platforms offer complimentary plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan uses more capability and more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise much more desirable. ConvertKit appears cheaper in the beginning glimpse due to the fact that their pricing web page reveals reduced numbers, nonetheless the subscriber restrictions are FAR lower and your rate promptly increases as your checklist grows.
With BeeHiiv, your initial degree paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid yearly), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 customers. That same dimension listing 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 checklist of that dimension would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, also, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay yearly, too. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay annually.
BeeHiiv is in an entirely different organization when it involves pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually raise prices? They may as time takes place. However, I’m presuming individuals like myself that are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how things continue.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of things you absolutely require to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do seem to develop rather swiftly and make brand-new item news rather often, however there are some fundamental features I actually desire they had that I need to just wait for.
One is that they need to have a setting on subscription kinds where I might pick an automation to run right at the form degree. That would be incredible for a lot of factors. Already, registration types look OK, however there’s really little setups for them to assist in segmentation.
It would behave to have labeling at the client level. This would be effective.
I believe webhooks need to become part of automations to make built-in automations easier and minimize dependence on outdoors tools like Zapier.
There are also some minor management interface modifications that would certainly be handy. As an example:
- Capacity to bulk edit/remove clients.
- Capacity to mass edit articles (for instance, to label a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of basic areas as typical on customers (like the name).
- Some more modification alternatives for the internet site (such as more versatile shade choices, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Things I wish they make with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, however it isn’t perfect and definitely not nearly as established as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM product.
It most likely never will certainly be, either. As I said, the purpose is different so it wouldn’t much a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to come to be a complete marketing automation system. I presume you never recognize, however.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I such as BeeHiiv fairly a lot. Enough where I made a decision to change my own e-newsletters over to the platform in spite of my individual choice for digital sovereignty and possessing my own system.
Put simply, for the e-newsletter publishing version particularly, I saw adequate value in their platform to warrant the change.
Remember, I do not utilize BeeHiiv as my exclusive e-mail listing. I make use of BeeHiiv wherefore it is proficient at, yet I intentionally have points set up to ensure that I also maintain my listing “in home” within FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the very same. It is just a great insurance coverage, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your checklist will be of high usage (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 using Substack today, I ‘d absolutely take into consideration switching to BeeHiiv. It will simply be much more business-friendly. It is targeting different abilities and different needs. And also, BeeHiiv also has import tools for Substack, so the button ought to be pretty simple.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d most likely stay unless you have a huge e-mail list 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 iterating promptly. There’s also a respectable chance you’re not also utilizing some of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not also require them. For that reason, BeeHiiv could easily be a far better and much more affordable fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be really deliberate regarding growing a newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE system to think about and keep and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is created to be, it is one of the very best video games in town now. This is the platform to see.
BeeHiiv provides 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 complimentary account to be rather feature abundant.