I have made use of a lot of different email list systems throughout the years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a massive proponent of digital sovereignty and owning your own platform. Because of that (and the incredible features), I have been making use of Beehiiv Newsletter Ads.
So, it is undoubtedly a weird move for me to determine to make use of BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is a hosted application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv evaluation, I wish to look at why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I intend to address the concern of digital sovereignty while making use of the platform and I would certainly also like to deal with why I selected to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For E-newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my newsletter called My Hobby + A Large Change In Method, I talked about just how and why I made a decision to turn my RV blog into largely an e-newsletter. I determined that was business design I wanted to pursue with that building.
Yet, to intentionally pursue it as a newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the e-mail checklist for Gladly RV, but FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter system. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, truthfully, using it for newsletters is a little a waste. Extra on that in a bit.
As I said in that issue of the newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a system with devices built into it specific to my objective. Things such as:
- Capability to publish (to the blog) and send the email at the same time without having it be two different activities.
- Constructed in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would certainly require a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in ability to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are generally one-click membership web links. Great for promotion in other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are methods to do that.
- Capacity to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your newsletter.
- Built-in advertisement network, if I pick to generate income from with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capacity to run a paid newsletter upgrade and essentially run a costs e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features targeted at development. The platform was essentially constructed by the people who accumulated the modern technology for Morning Brew. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the factor here. BeeHiiv is developed from scratch for the objective of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various function.
And I finished off with this:.
I may indeed be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv too. A minimum of, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. In fact, I just went for it. And as a matter of fact, The side was re-branded over to The Morning WP, triggered as it’s own home so that I can expand it much more deliberately as well.
The goal is that each newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded independently. Gladly motor home was young, so very easy to shift. However, The Early morning WP (formerly The Edge) was buried in a sea of things right here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s own. It will undoubtedly always be very closely linked with the Blog site Marketing Academy, however does not have to be a part of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv since it was developed for this function. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Just A Typical Email Listing
There’s a distinction between an e-newsletter platform and just an e-mail list.
You can hold your e-mail checklist anywhere you desire and there are a number of them out there, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The main distinction is that, with a newsletter platform, the act of publishing means that it is going to your site and to your e-mail customers all at once.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are publishing to that website. But, you are also sending to all subscribers at the same time. The internet site and it’s customers are done in one. This makes administration of the platform much easier.
With most email systems, any type of e-newsletter you set up is done as an e-mail campaign. It is built completely independently from your internet site. So, for instance, you could publish a post to WordPress yet after that you would require to independently build and send an email to your list to send it to customers. These are then two different sets of archives and two different actions since post and your emails are not inherently linked.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress into a real newsletter platform is Newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name due to the fact that it virtually “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and permits them to be the exact same thing. Definitely, something like Newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid alternative if I wished to continue to self-host whatever. Nevertheless, you ‘d lose the growth devices that come with a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter naturally comes with a various set of requirements than a regular e-mail list.
You don’t usually require much marketing automation. You do not normally need autoresponder series, occasion tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO demand, though, is one smooth publishing experience and growth tools to help you develop your customer base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my subscribers that I was going to switch over the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many people ask me why I was picking it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the truth that I chose to go with BeeHiiv, that does not imply I think Substack sucks. Actually, due to the fact that Substack has been around longer, it is elder and has more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is younger, there are a pair points that initially obtained my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically tailored to newsletter publishers. As a matter of fact, it is actually built by the same people that developed the modern technology behind Early morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real world, does not matter. However, the evident positioning of BeeHiiv toward e-newsletter development called me out over the more common positioning of being a “developer”. Development is what I have an interest in right here.
- That branding and distinction additionally implies that BeeHiiv has some fairly big brand names and huge publications using it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo developers. Again, it just tells me the client character difference between both companies.
Sending our my newsletter via FluentCRM really did not specifically suck. The only reason I would certainly consider drinking points up is if I believed I could GROW the checklist faster. And BeeHiiv spoke exactly to that goal.
As a result of the targeting, I in fact don’t check out BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a different sort of customer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more straight rivals.
Yet, allow’s dive much deeper than simply the placing here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Generally, BeeHiiv feels like it was developed by people who comprehending e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems more geared toward makers.
As an example, BeeHiiv uses custom fields on clients. Currently, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. Actually, 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 fairly restricted in triggers and the only activity is the capability to send an email. Nonetheless, enhancements are coming. Soon sufficient, automations will certainly have new triggers along with brand-new activities, such as modifying custom-made fields, sending webhooks, etc. I’ve currently seen enhancements to their automations just considering that I began making use of the system. As an example:
- Capacity to activate automations based on which specific embed type they can be found in on.
- Ability to automatically do re-engagement (and handle individuals based upon opens and non-opens).
- Capability to do fundamental conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can not do this since the target audience of Substack simply wouldn’t believe to approach this like an e-mail marketer.
When it concerns composing your newsletters, the writing interface of BeeHiiv is simply more geared towards e-newsletters. As a matter of fact, it really has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in just how it works. I discover it to be more user-friendly, directly.
Substack’s writing user interface behaves and clean, yet it would certainly be extra equal to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is greater than simply type. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Section” and after that placed anything you desire in it. After that, you can put Exposure alternatives on that particular area to reveal it just to paid subscribers, conceal it from email, conceal from customers, show just to clients, etc. Substack provides nothing similar to this.
And when/if the time comes that I start a premium membership design, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any income. As a matter of fact, you essentially attach up to your own Stripe account and it charges directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your income. Depending on the amount of clients you get, that 10% can be a fair bit even more cash than the regular monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This might seem nerdy, however what it means is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outdoors using devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … nothing. No integrations in all.
Generally, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was much more developed towards genuine email marketing. It was built by people who “get it”. Also the opt-in types and the landing page creates seem much better developed for conversions. Development is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I wish to see BeeHiiv add, I like the direction it is going more than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually stated, Substack positions itself towards “developers” greater than e-mail marketing experts and e-newsletter proprietors. For that reason, you see some things geared more towards individuals who just think in regards to content creation.
As an example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does sustain several magazines, they are treated quite individually. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to numerous magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I need, however … trendy for individuals that could need it.
Substack likewise has more social functionality built-in. For example, it has a conversation feature to host talks with subscribers. It additionally has a “Notes” feature which functions type of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share things from other “Stacks” you’re reading. Interesting. Overall, Substack is set up to be a lot more like a social media network which sustains long-form web content.
On the whole, Substack is likewise much more … minimal. You either care for that or don’t. Directly, I don’t. However, if the objective is simpleness of interface and, honestly, features … Substack works rather well.
But, I’ll be clear below …
When it comes to real marketing, I don’t assume there’s much question that BeeHiiv is much better fit. I searched for more points that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, yet honestly … I have a tough time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are frequently via to be the closest competitors, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are going after the exact same target audience and have similar capacities.
ConvertKit is likewise placed at designers (like Substack), yet it is much more strongly dealing with individuals who do it for business. ConvertKit has good aesthetic automation structure, it’s very own business system, and a lot more. ConvertKit is an actually great platform.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature break down right here. ConvertKit is well known currently. But, below’s just how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has a lot more adaptability when it pertains to it’s automations. I will certainly likewise state that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit a lot more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports marking. This is just a fundamental function of e-mail listings that makes it possible for segmentation in a much more versatile way than BeeHiiv currently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain identifying at some point soon, honestly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Newsletter Ads.
ConvertKit does currently supply the ability to offer things via their own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that’s important to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nonetheless, I would certainly constantly pick a much more direct choice anyway. For me, I choose to utilize my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been about much longer and for that reason has way extra integration alternatives. Tons of online devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is fairly powerful. For example, their plugin currently even sustains member-gated content along with auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your site. Basically, this extra carefully places ConvertKit into straight competitors by having you have the ability to publish to your site and your email listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is drastically doing not have in these type of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll get there. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy tackling the growth devices 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 advantages, however you can additionally pay per lead within the interior ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your list. These are really awesome features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you know ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of the most well known viral promo systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall surface of what this indicates for the platform moving forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Newsletter Ads
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies much less features and less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. Nonetheless, it additionally suggests that they are rapidly creating.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually observed nearly once a week release of brand-new features right into the system. And these aren’t undersized little features … yet huge features that are fairly important. Their speed of advancement now has gone over.
I also significantly appreciate exactly how receptive they are. Actually, one of their item news concerning some layout enhancements to the website design features in fact contained a little problem with the content width. I merely replied to that email to tell them. I swiftly got a reply directly from the CEO:.
That exact same day, the issue was taken care of.
Few days later on, I provided one more recommendation …
Sure enough, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to set off automations based upon the embed form made use of was contributed to the system.
That sort of responsiveness and straight involvement of the team is something I really value.
Another significant factor of distinction here is the cost. Both systems provide free plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan supplies more capability and more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally much more desirable. ConvertKit appears less costly initially glimpse because their pricing page shows lower numbers, nevertheless the subscriber limitations are much lower and your cost promptly raises as your checklist grows.
With BeeHiiv, your initial degree paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid yearly), however you can have up to 10,000 clients. That same size checklist is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I directly make use of), you can expand your listing approximately 100,000. A checklist of that dimension would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, too, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay each year, too. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for simply $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv remains in a completely various organization when it comes to pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually boost prices? They may as time takes place. Yet, I’m presuming individuals like myself who are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see just how things proceed.
Points I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Add
Among things you absolutely need to remember is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do seem to advance rather rapidly and make brand-new product news rather typically, yet there are some fundamental features I actually desire they had that I need to just await.
One is that they require to have a setting on registration forms where I might select an automation to run right at the kind degree. That would certainly be AWESOME for many factors. Already, membership kinds look OK, however there’s very little setups for them to assist in division.
It would be nice to have labeling at the client level. This would be effective.
I think webhooks must be part of automations to make integrated automations much easier and reduce reliance on outdoors tools like Zapier.
There are also some small management user interface adjustments that would certainly be handy. For example:
- Capability to bulk edit/remove clients.
- Capacity to mass edit blog posts (for example, to tag a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of basic fields as basic on customers (like the name).
- Some even more customization options for the site (such as more versatile color options, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Points I hope they finish with it in the future. BeeHiiv is respectable, however it isn’t excellent and definitely not virtually as created as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM item.
It probably never will be, either. As I stated, the purpose is various so it would not much a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to end up being a full marketing automation platform. I guess you never ever recognize, however.
Final Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I like BeeHiiv quite a lot. Sufficient where I made a decision to switch my own newsletters over to the platform in spite of my personal choice for digital sovereignty and owning my very own system.
Put simply, for the newsletter publishing design particularly, I saw enough worth in their platform to require the change.
Keep in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my unique e-mail checklist. I utilize BeeHiiv wherefore it is efficient, yet I purposefully have points set up to make sure that I also maintain my list “in residence” inside of FluentCRM.
If you make use of BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the same. It is just 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 full marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will be).
So, the question is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my point of view, if you are using Substack right now, I ‘d certainly take into consideration switching over to BeeHiiv. It will merely be more business-friendly. It is targeting different capacities and various needs. And also, BeeHiiv also has import devices for Substack, so the button ought to be rather uncomplicated.
If you are on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d possibly sit tight unless you have a big email listing and are consequently being fleeced with their high monthly bill. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are iterating promptly. There’s likewise a pretty good possibility you’re not even using several of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you do not even need them. Therefore, BeeHiiv can conveniently be a much better and more budget friendly fit.
Finally, if you plan to be very deliberate concerning expanding a newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE platform to consider and maintain and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is designed to be, it is one of the very best games in town today. This is the platform to watch.
BeeHiiv offers a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth looking into on your own. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll locate the cost-free account to be fairly feature abundant.