I have used a lot of different e-mail list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a big proponent of digital sovereignty and having your own platform. Because of that (and the awesome features), I have been utilizing Beehiiv Monetization.
So, it is undoubtedly an unusual move for me to determine to use BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is a hosted application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I intend to discuss why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I wish to attend to the problem of digital sovereignty while utilizing the system and I would certainly additionally such as to deal with why I picked to utilize it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For E-newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my newsletter called My Hobby + A Big Change In Approach, I talked about exactly how and why I determined to turn my RV blog right into mostly an e-newsletter. I determined that was the business version I wanted to pursue with that said home.
Yet, to intentionally pursue it as an e-newsletter, I desired a system that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the e-mail list for Gladly motor home, however FluentCRM is not a newsletter platform. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, honestly, using it for e-newsletters is a little a waste. Much more on that particular in a bit.
As I said because issue of the newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a system with tools built right into it particular to my objective. Points such as:
- Capacity to release (to the blog) and send the e-mail concurrently without having it be 2 separate activities.
- Built in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would have needed a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capability to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are generally one-click membership links. Great for promotion in various other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, though, so there are methods to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your newsletter.
- Built-in advertisement network, if I choose to monetize with ads in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capacity to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and essentially run a costs newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter authors with features targeted at growth. The platform was actually developed by the people who accumulated the modern technology for Morning Brew. They know what they’re doing.
That is the factor below. BeeHiiv is built from scratch for the function of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different function.
And I ended off with this:.
I may indeed be moving The Side over to BeeHiiv as well. At least, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. In fact, I simply went for it. And as a matter of fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, triggered as it’s very own residential property to make sure that I can grow it much more purposefully too.
The objective is that each newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded individually. Gladly recreational vehicle was young, so easy to change. Yet, The Early morning WP (previously The Edge) was buried in a sea of things below at the Blog Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s own. It will obviously always be carefully linked with the Blog Marketing Academy, however doesn’t need to belong of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv since it was built for this function. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Simply A Typical Email Listing
There’s a difference in between an e-newsletter system and simply an e-mail list.
You can host your e-mail list just about anywhere you desire and there are a variety of them around, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted choices like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The main difference is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of publishing implies that it is going to your website and to your email subscribers all at once.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are publishing to that site. Yet, you are also sending to all customers at the same time. The website and it’s subscribers are all in one. This makes monitoring of the platform much easier.
With a lot of e-mail systems, any type of newsletter you set up is done as an email campaign. It is built totally separately from your web site. So, as an example, you could release a post to WordPress but then you would require to separately construct and send an e-mail to your checklist to send it to clients. These are then two different collections of archives and 2 separate activities because article and your e-mails are not inherently linked.
The closest point that turns WordPress into a true newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name since it virtually “glues” your e-newsletter to your WordPress articles and permits them to be the exact same point. Definitely, something like E-newsletter Glue would be a strong option if I wished to remain to self-host every little thing. However, you would certainly lose the growth tools that include a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter naturally features a various set of requirements than a regular email checklist.
You do not usually require much marketing automation. You do not normally require autoresponder sequences, event tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO need, though, is one seamless publishing experience and development tools to help you construct your client base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my clients 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 fact that I picked to go with BeeHiiv, that does not mean I think Substack sucks. In fact, due to the fact that Substack has actually been around longer, it is more mature and has more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a pair points that originally got my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly customized to newsletter authors. As a matter of fact, it is literally developed by the exact same individuals who built the technology behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real world, doesn’t matter. But, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv towards e-newsletter development called me out over the more common positioning of being a “designer”. Growth is what I’m interested in here.
- That branding and distinction also indicates that BeeHiiv has some fairly large brands and huge publications utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended even more at solo developers. Once again, it just informs me the consumer character difference in between both companies.
Sending our my e-newsletter via FluentCRM really did not specifically draw. The only factor I would consider trembling points up is if I assumed I might GROW the checklist quicker. And BeeHiiv spoke precisely to that objective.
As a result of the targeting, I actually don’t watch BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a different kind of customer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being more straight rivals.
However, let’s dive much deeper than just the placing here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Generally, BeeHiiv appears like it was constructed by people who comprehending email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems more tailored toward developers.
For instance, BeeHiiv uses custom areas on subscribers. Now, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. In fact, it is a visual automation builder that works a whole lot like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still quite restricted in triggers and the only action is the capability to send out an email. Nonetheless, enhancements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will certainly have brand-new triggers in addition to new activities, such as modifying personalized fields, sending out webhooks, and so on. I’ve already seen enhancements to their automations just given that I started making use of the platform. For example:
- Ability to trigger automations based on which certain embed kind they can be found in on.
- Capability to immediately do re-engagement (and handle people based on opens and non-opens).
- Capability to do standard conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack simply can not do this because the target audience of Substack simply wouldn’t believe to approach this like an e-mail marketer.
When it pertains to writing your newsletters, the composing interface of BeeHiiv is simply more tailored towards e-newsletters. Actually, it actually has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in how it works. I discover it to be extra user-friendly, directly.
Substack’s writing user interface is nice and tidy, but it would be extra equivalent to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is greater than just kind. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Area” and afterwards placed anything you want in it. After that, you can put Exposure options on that particular area to reveal it just to paid subscribers, conceal it from e-mail, conceal from subscribers, show just to customers, etc. Substack provides nothing like this.
And when/if the time comes that I start a costs subscription version, BeeHiiv does not take any type of revenue. In fact, you essentially link approximately your very own Stripe account and it charges straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your earnings. Depending upon the amount of clients you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit even more money than the month-to-month expense of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This could seem unpopular, however what it suggests is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outdoors making use of tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … nothing. No integrations in any way.
On the whole, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was a lot more developed toward genuine email marketing. It was constructed by individuals that “get it”. Even the opt-in kinds and the landing page makes seem better developed for conversions. Growth is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I would love to see BeeHiiv include, I like the direction it is going more than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually said, Substack positions itself towards “designers” greater than email marketers and e-newsletter proprietors. For that reason, you see some things tailored much more towards people who just think in terms of material development.
For example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does support numerous magazines, they are treated rather individually. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to several magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, but … great for people who could need it.
Substack also has more social performance built-in. For example, it has a chat feature to host chats with subscribers. It also has a “Notes” feature which works kind of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you read. Interesting. In general, Substack is set up to be a lot more like a social network which supports long-form web content.
On the whole, Substack is likewise more … minimalist. You either take care of that or don’t. Personally, I do not. Nevertheless, if the goal is simpleness of interface and, honestly, features … Substack functions quite well.
Yet, I’ll be clear right here …
When it involves real marketing, I do not assume there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is much better suited. I looked for even more factors that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, but honestly … I have a tough time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are commonly with to be the closest rivals, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are going after the very same target market and have comparable capabilities.
ConvertKit is additionally positioned at designers (like Substack), but it is far more strongly accommodating people that do it for business. ConvertKit has great visual automation building, it’s very own business platform, and more. ConvertKit is a truly nice platform.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature break down right here. ConvertKit is well known currently. However, right here’s just how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Points ConvertKit Is Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has extra flexibility when it comes to it’s automations. I will additionally say that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit much more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports marking. This is just a fundamental feature of e-mail lists that makes it possible for division in an even more flexible way than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to support marking eventually soon, honestly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Monetization.
ConvertKit does currently give the ability to sell things via their very own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is necessary to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would always pick a much more straight choice anyhow. For me, I like to utilize my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been around a lot longer and therefore has way a lot more integration alternatives. Lots of online devices and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is rather effective. As an example, their plugin currently also sustains member-gated web content along with auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Fundamentally, this much more carefully places ConvertKit into straight competitors by having you be able to release to your site and your email listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is seriously lacking in these sort of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll arrive. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even busy dealing with the growth devices of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with benefits, however you can likewise pay per lead within the interior ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your list. These are truly incredible features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you know ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of the most popular viral promotion systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall for what this means for the platform going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Monetization
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that indicates much less features and less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. However, it likewise indicates that they are rapidly developing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have observed almost once a week release of new features right into the platform. And these aren’t undersized little features … however large features that are rather essential. Their speed of advancement at this point has actually been impressive.
I also significantly appreciate how responsive they are. As a matter of fact, one of their product news regarding some design enhancements to the web design features actually consisted of a little problem with the content size. I simply responded to that email to tell them. I promptly got a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That exact same day, the concern was fixed.
Few days later, I gave them one more idea …
Indeed, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to set off automations based upon the embed kind made use of was included in the system.
That type of responsiveness and direct participation of the team is something I really value.
Another major factor of distinction below is the price. Both systems supply totally free plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan uses a lot more capability and more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally much more desirable. ConvertKit appears less expensive at first look due to the fact that their pricing web page shows lower numbers, however the customer restrictions are FAR lower and your cost quickly increases as your listing expands.
With BeeHiiv, your first level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid yearly), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 clients. That exact same dimension checklist is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their ideal plan and the one I personally use), you can grow your listing up to 100,000. A checklist of that size would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, too, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay annually, too. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay each year.
BeeHiiv remains in a completely different league when it pertains to pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point enhance rates? They could as time goes on. Yet, I’m guessing people like myself that are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see how things proceed.
Things I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Add
Among things you definitely need to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do seem to progress instead quickly and make new item statements somewhat typically, however there are some basic features I truly desire they had that I require to simply wait on.
One is that they require to have a setting on membership types where I could choose an automation to run right at the kind level. That would be outstanding for so many factors. Currently, registration forms look OK, however there’s very little settings for them to help in division.
It would behave to have identifying at the subscriber degree. This would be effective.
I think webhooks should belong to automations to make integrated automations simpler and reduce reliance on outside devices like Zapier.
There are likewise some minor management interface changes that would be handy. As an example:
- Ability to bulk edit/remove clients.
- Capacity to bulk edit posts (for instance, to label a number of them at the same time).
- Having a few fundamental areas as standard on clients (like the name).
- Some more customization options for the internet site (such as even more adaptable color choices, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Things I hope they do with it in the future. BeeHiiv is respectable, but it isn’t excellent and definitely not virtually as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM item.
It probably never will be, either. As I said, the purpose is various so it wouldn’t a lot a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to end up being a full marketing automation platform. I think you never ever understand, though.
Final Ideas 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 individual preference for digital sovereignty and having my own platform.
Simply put, for the newsletter publishing design especially, I saw sufficient value in their platform to necessitate the adjustment.
Bear in mind, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my unique e-mail list. I utilize BeeHiiv for what it is proficient at, however I intentionally have points set up so that I likewise keep my list “in house” inside of FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the same. It is simply a good insurance coverage, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your listing will certainly be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will certainly be).
So, the concern is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are utilizing Substack today, I ‘d most definitely consider switching to BeeHiiv. It will merely be more business-friendly. It is targeting various capabilities and various needs. And also, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the button should be rather simple.
If you are on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d probably sit tight unless you have a huge e-mail list and are as a result being fleeced with their high regular monthly costs. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are iterating promptly. There’s likewise a pretty good chance you’re not also utilizing a few of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you don’t also require them. Therefore, BeeHiiv could easily be a better and extra budget friendly fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be extremely intentional regarding expanding a newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE platform to take into consideration and keep and eye on for you.
If you utilize BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is made to be, it is among the most effective games around now. This is the platform to watch.
BeeHiiv uses a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves looking into for yourself. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll discover the free account to be rather feature rich.