I have utilized a great deal of various email list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a massive proponent of digital sovereignty and having your own platform. Therefore (and the remarkable features), I have been making use of Beehiiv Newsletter App.
So, it is undoubtedly an odd move for me to make a decision to use BeeHiiv. Besides, it is a held application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I wish to look at why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I wish to attend to the concern of digital sovereignty while utilizing the platform and I ‘d additionally such as to address why I chose to utilize it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For Newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my newsletter called My Pastime + A Large Shift In Strategy, I discussed just how and why I determined to turn my RV blog right into mainly an e-newsletter. I made a decision that was business version I wanted to pursue with that said residential or commercial property.
Yet, to purposefully seek it as a newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the email checklist for Happily RV, yet FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, frankly, utilizing it for e-newsletters is a little a waste. Extra on that in a bit.
As I stated because issue of the e-newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a platform with tools developed into it certain to my function. Things such as:
- Ability to release (to the blog site) and send out the e-mail all at once without having it be two different actions.
- Constructed in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would have needed a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capacity to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are generally one-click subscription web links. Great for promotion in other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are methods to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your newsletter.
- Built-in advertisement network, if I select to monetize with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and basically run a costs e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter publishers with features targeted at development. The system was essentially constructed by the people who accumulated the technology for Early morning Mixture. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the point below. BeeHiiv is constructed from the ground up for the function of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a different purpose.
And I ended off with this:.
I might undoubtedly be moving The Side over to BeeHiiv also. At the very least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. In fact, I simply went all out. And as a matter of fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, triggered as it’s own residential or commercial property so that I can grow it extra intentionally also.
The objective is that each e-newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s own media entity and grown individually. Gladly RV was young, so simple to shift. However, The Morning WP (formerly The Edge) was buried in a sea of stuff right here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s own. It will clearly constantly be carefully tied with the Blog site Marketing Academy, but does not need to be a part of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv because it was developed for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Typical Email Checklist
There’s a distinction in between an e-newsletter platform and just an e-mail checklist.
You can host your email checklist anyplace you desire and there are a variety of them out there, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The primary distinction is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of publishing suggests that it is mosting likely to your website and to your email clients simultaneously.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are releasing to that site. Yet, you are likewise dispatching to all clients at the same time. The site and it’s clients are done in one. This makes management of the platform much less complex.
With many email systems, any kind of e-newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is developed totally separately from your website. So, for instance, you might release an article to WordPress but after that you would certainly require to separately develop and send an email to your listing to send it to clients. These are after that 2 separate collections of archives and two different actions because post and your emails are not naturally connected.
The closest point that transforms WordPress into a true newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name because it pretty much “glues” your newsletter to your WordPress posts and allows them to be the exact same point. Certainly, something like E-newsletter Glue would be a solid option if I wanted to remain to self-host everything. However, you would certainly shed the development devices that come with a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing an e-newsletter inherently includes a various set of demands than a normal email list.
You don’t usually require much marketing automation. You do not usually require autoresponder series, occasion monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO demand, though, is one smooth posting experience and growth tools to aid you construct your subscriber base that are specific to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my customers that I was mosting likely to switch over the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had lots of people ask me why I was picking it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the reality that I picked to choose BeeHiiv, that doesn’t indicate I believe Substack sucks. As a matter of fact, since Substack has been about longer, it is more mature and has more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple things that originally got my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically tailored to newsletter authors. In fact, it is essentially built by the very same individuals that constructed the modern technology behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real world, doesn’t matter. However, the evident positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter growth called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “developer”. Development is what I want right here.
- That branding and differentiation likewise implies that BeeHiiv has some fairly large brands and big publications using it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo developers. Once more, it just informs me the customer character distinction between the two firms.
Sending our my newsletter by means of FluentCRM didn’t exactly draw. The only reason I would certainly consider shaking things up is if I believed I could expand the checklist faster. And BeeHiiv spoke specifically to that objective.
Because of the targeting, I actually don’t view BeeHiiv and Substack as direct competitors. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a various kind of customer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra straight rivals.
But, allow’s dive deeper than just the positioning right here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
On the whole, BeeHiiv seems like it was built by individuals that recognizing e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems a lot more geared towards creators.
For example, BeeHiiv uses customized areas on customers. Currently, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv provides Automations. Actually, it is an aesthetic automation builder that works a lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation performance is still early-phase. It is still fairly limited in triggers and the only action is the ability to send an email. Nevertheless, enhancements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will certainly have brand-new triggers along with brand-new activities, such as customizing custom fields, sending out webhooks, and so on. I have actually already seen improvements to their automations just since I began making use of the system. For instance:
- Capacity to trigger automations based upon which specific embed type they came in on.
- Ability to instantly do re-engagement (and manage individuals based upon opens and non-opens).
- Ability to do basic conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can’t do this because the target market of Substack simply would not believe to approach this like an e-mail marketing professional.
When it involves creating your newsletters, the composing interface of BeeHiiv is simply a lot more geared towards newsletters. As a matter of fact, it actually has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in how it functions. I discover it to be a lot more intuitive, directly.
Substack’s composing interface is nice and clean, however it would be a lot more equal to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is greater than just kind. For example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Area” and afterwards placed anything you want in it. After that, you can place Presence options on that area to show it only to paid subscribers, hide it from e-mail, conceal from customers, reveal just to clients, and so on. Substack supplies absolutely nothing like this.
And when/if the moment comes that I start a premium subscription version, BeeHiiv does not take any type of income. As a matter of fact, you actually link approximately your very own Stripe account and it charges directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your income. Relying on the amount of clients you get, that 10% can be a fair bit even more money than the regular monthly price of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This might seem unpopular, yet what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv deal with the outdoors making use of devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … nothing. No integrations whatsoever.
Generally, I simply seemed like BeeHiiv was much more built towards real e-mail marketing. It was constructed by people who “get it”. Also the opt-in kinds and the landing page develops seem far better built for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I want to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the instructions it is going more than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have said, Substack placements itself towards “makers” more than e-mail marketers and newsletter proprietors. Because of that, you see some points geared a lot more towards people who simply think in regards to web content creation.
As an example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does support numerous magazines, they are dealt with quite individually. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to several publications at the same time. This isn’t something I require, but … awesome for individuals that may require it.
Substack also has more social capability built-in. As an example, it has a conversation function to host talks with clients. It also has a “Notes” feature which functions kind of like a social media newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you’re reading. Fascinating. Generally, Substack is established to be more like a social network which supports long-form material.
On the whole, Substack is additionally a lot more … minimal. You either look after that or don’t. Personally, I do not. Nevertheless, if the goal is simpleness of user interface and, honestly, features … Substack functions rather well.
However, I’ll be clear here …
When it comes to actual marketing, I don’t believe there’s much question that BeeHiiv is much better matched. I looked for more factors that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, however honestly … I have a hard time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are frequently via to be the closest rivals, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are going after the same target audience and have similar capacities.
ConvertKit is also positioned at creators (like Substack), yet it is a lot more highly satisfying people who do it for company. ConvertKit has great aesthetic automation structure, it’s own commerce platform, and much more. ConvertKit is a truly great system.
I’m not going to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature break down right here. ConvertKit is popular already. But, below’s how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has extra adaptability when it pertains to it’s automations. I will certainly additionally claim that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit much more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains identifying. This is just a standard feature of e-mail lists that enables division in an even more adaptable way than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to sustain labeling eventually quickly, truthfully. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Newsletter App.
ConvertKit does now supply the capacity to sell points through their very own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is essential to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would certainly always pick a much more direct choice anyway. For me, I prefer to use my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been about a lot longer and therefore has way more integration choices. Tons of online devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their own WordPress plugin that is quite effective. For instance, their plugin currently even supports member-gated content along with auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your site. In essence, this more very closely places ConvertKit right into direct competitors by having you have the ability to publish to your website and your email list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is seriously 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 also hectic dealing with the growth devices of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not only incentivize people to share your newsletter with benefits, yet you can additionally pay per lead within the internal ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your list. These are actually outstanding features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you recognize ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of one of the most popular viral promotion platforms for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall of what this implies for the system going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Newsletter App
BeeHiiv is a lot earlier in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies much less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this stage of the cycle. Nonetheless, it also indicates that they are swiftly creating.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have witnessed practically once a week launch of brand-new features right into the platform. And these aren’t undersized little features … however big features that are fairly important. Their rate of growth now has gone over.
I additionally quite value how receptive they are. As a matter of fact, one of their product statements concerning some layout improvements to the web design features really consisted of a little trouble with the material width. I simply responded to that email to tell them. I swiftly obtained a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That exact same day, the concern was fixed.
Couple of days later on, I gave them an additional recommendation …
Sure enough, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to cause automations based on the embed form utilized was added to the system.
That sort of responsiveness and direct involvement of the group is something I really appreciate.
An additional major point of differentiation below is the cost. Both systems use complimentary plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan offers more capability and more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally much more positive. ConvertKit seems cheaper in the beginning look because their pricing page shows lower numbers, nonetheless the subscriber limits are FAR reduced and your price promptly increases as your listing grows.
With BeeHiiv, your initial degree paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid each year), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 clients. That very same dimension listing is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I directly utilize), you can grow your checklist up to 100,000. A checklist 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 yearly, also. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for just $84/month if you pay annually.
BeeHiiv is in an entirely different league when it involves pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point enhance prices? They could as time takes place. Yet, I’m presuming individuals like myself that are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see how points proceed.
Things I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Add
Among the important things you most definitely require to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do appear to advance instead rapidly and make new product news rather typically, however there are some fundamental features I actually want they had that I require to simply await.
One is that they require to have a setup on subscription forms where I can pick an automation to run right at the kind level. That would be outstanding for numerous reasons. Currently, registration types look OK, but there’s extremely little setups for them to help in segmentation.
It would certainly be nice to have labeling at the client degree. This would be powerful.
I think webhooks ought to belong to automations to make built-in automations much easier and lower reliance on outdoors tools like Zapier.
There are likewise some small administrative user interface modifications that would certainly be handy. For example:
- Capability to bulk edit/remove customers.
- Capacity to bulk edit posts (as an example, to mark a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of fundamental areas as basic on clients (like the name).
- Some even more customization alternatives for the site (such as even more flexible shade options, heading control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Things I hope they finish with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t excellent and absolutely not almost as created as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM product.
It most likely never ever will certainly be, either. As I stated, the objective is various so it wouldn’t a lot a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to become a full marketing automation system. I presume you never ever know, however.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Review
I such as BeeHiiv fairly a whole lot. Enough where I decided to switch my very own newsletters over to the platform in spite of my individual preference for digital sovereignty and having my own platform.
Simply put, for the e-newsletter posting model particularly, I saw adequate value in their platform to call for the change.
Bear in mind, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my unique e-mail checklist. I utilize BeeHiiv for what it is proficient at, yet I intentionally have points establish to ensure that I also maintain my list “in house” inside of FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the very same. It is simply an excellent insurance plan, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your list will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will certainly be).
So, the question is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are using Substack today, I ‘d definitely consider changing to BeeHiiv. It will simply be a lot more business-friendly. It is targeting different abilities and various requirements. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the switch should be quite straightforward.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d most likely stay put unless you have a large email listing and are for that reason being fleeced with their high monthly costs. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are iterating rapidly. There’s also a pretty good chance you’re not even using a few of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you don’t also need them. Because of that, BeeHiiv can quickly be a much better and extra inexpensive fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be really deliberate concerning expanding an e-newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE system to take into consideration and maintain and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is created to be, it is one of the most effective games in town right now. This is the system to see.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves looking into for yourself. And if you wind up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll locate the totally free account to be quite feature rich.