I have made use of a lot of different e-mail list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a huge advocate of digital sovereignty and owning your very own system. For that reason (and the outstanding features), I have been using Beehiiv Newsletter Reviews.
So, it is undoubtedly a strange move for me to determine to utilize BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is an organized application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv evaluation, I wish to look at why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I wish to attend to the problem of digital sovereignty while making use of the platform and I would certainly additionally such as to deal with why I picked to use it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For E-newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my newsletter called My Pastime + A Big Shift In Technique, I talked about how and why I made a decision to turn my motor home blog into mostly a newsletter. I determined that was the business version I wished to seek with that residential property.
However, to intentionally pursue it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the e-mail checklist for Gladly motor home, however FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, frankly, utilizing it for e-newsletters is a little bit of a waste. Extra on that in a little bit.
As I said because issue of the newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a system with devices constructed into it certain to my objective. Points such as:
- Ability to publish (to the blog) and send out the email all at once without having it be 2 different actions.
- Constructed in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would have needed a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capacity to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are primarily one-click membership links. Great for promotion in various other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, though, so there are ways to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Integrated ad network, if I pick to generate income from with ads in the newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated ability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and primarily run a costs e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features focused on development. The system was literally constructed by the individuals that accumulated the innovation for Morning Mixture. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the point below. BeeHiiv is constructed from scratch for the function of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different purpose.
And I finished off with this:.
I might indeed be moving The Edge 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 all out. And as a matter of fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s own building to ensure that I can expand it a lot more purposefully as well.
The goal is that each newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s own media entity and grown independently. Gladly recreational vehicle was young, so simple to change. Yet, The Morning WP (previously The Side) was hidden 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 very own. It will obviously constantly be closely linked with the Blog site Marketing Academy, but does not have to be a part of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv because it was built for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Simply A Regular Email List
There’s a distinction in between a newsletter system and just an e-mail list.
You can host your e-mail checklist everywhere you want 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 distinction is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of posting implies that it is going to your website and to your email customers all at once.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a web site. You are publishing to that internet site. Yet, you are additionally dispatching to all customers at the same time. The site and it’s clients are all in one. This makes management of the platform much easier.
With many e-mail systems, any type of e-newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is built totally independently from your site. So, as an example, you may publish an article to WordPress but then you would require to individually develop and send out an e-mail to your listing to send it to clients. These are after that two separate collections of archives and two separate activities due to the fact that article and your e-mails are not naturally connected.
The closest point that transforms WordPress right into a real e-newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name since it virtually “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and permits them to be the same thing. Definitely, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a strong alternative if I intended to continue to self-host everything. Nonetheless, you would certainly lose the growth devices that come with a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter inherently includes a different collection of needs than a typical email listing.
You do not typically need much marketing automation. You don’t generally need autoresponder sequences, event monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO need, however, is one smooth publishing experience and development tools to assist you build your subscriber base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my clients 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 reality that I selected to opt for BeeHiiv, that does not imply I believe Substack sucks. In fact, since Substack has been about longer, it is elder and has more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a pair points that initially got my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically tailored to e-newsletter authors. As a matter of fact, it is actually constructed by the exact same people who built the innovation behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real life, doesn’t matter. However, the apparent positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter development called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “designer”. Growth is what I have an interest in here.
- That branding and differentiation additionally means that BeeHiiv has some fairly huge brand names and large magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo creators. Again, it just informs me the client character distinction between the two companies.
Sending our my newsletter via FluentCRM really did not precisely suck. The only reason I would certainly contemplate shaking things up is if I assumed I might GROW the checklist faster. And BeeHiiv spoke exactly to that objective.
Due to the targeting, I really do not check out BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a various sort of customer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra direct competitors.
However, let’s dive deeper than simply the placing right here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv looks like it was constructed by individuals who understanding email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears more tailored toward developers.
For example, BeeHiiv provides personalized fields on customers. Now, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. In fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that functions a lot like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation functionality is still early-phase. It is still fairly restricted in triggers and the only activity is the ability to send out an email. Nevertheless, enhancements are coming. Soon enough, automations will have brand-new triggers as well as new activities, such as modifying custom-made fields, sending webhooks, etc. I’ve already seen improvements to their automations simply since I started utilizing the platform. For example:
- Capability to trigger automations based on which details embed kind they can be found in on.
- Capability to automatically do re-engagement (and take care of individuals based on opens 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 not do this since the target market of Substack simply would not think to approach this like an email marketer.
When it concerns creating your newsletters, the writing user interface of BeeHiiv is simply extra geared towards e-newsletters. As a matter of fact, it actually has similarities to the WordPress block builder in just how it works. I discover it to be much more instinctive, personally.
Substack’s writing interface is nice and clean, yet it would be extra equal to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is more than just type. For example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Area” and then placed anything you want in it. Then, you can place Presence choices on that particular section to show it just to paid clients, hide it from e-mail, hide from clients, reveal just to subscribers, and so on. Substack uses absolutely nothing similar to this.
And when/if the time comes that I start a costs subscription model, BeeHiiv does not take any kind of profits. Actually, you essentially connect as much as your own Stripe account and it charges directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your earnings. Depending on how many clients you obtain, that 10% can be quite a bit more cash than the month-to-month price of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This could seem unpopular, but what it suggests is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv deal with the outdoors using devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … absolutely nothing. No integrations at all.
In general, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was a lot more built toward genuine e-mail marketing. It was developed by people that “get it”. Also the opt-in types and the landing page creates appear better built for conversions. Development is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv add, I such as the instructions it is going more than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually said, Substack settings itself toward “creators” more than e-mail marketers and newsletter owners. Therefore, you see some points geared much more towards people who just assume in terms of web content development.
As an example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does sustain several magazines, they are treated fairly individually. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to numerous publications at the same time. This isn’t something I require, however … awesome for individuals that could need it.
Substack likewise has even more social functionality built-in. For instance, it has a conversation function to host chats with subscribers. It additionally has a “Notes” function which functions kind of like a social media newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you read. Fascinating. Overall, Substack is established to be a lot more like a social media which sustains long-form web content.
Overall, Substack is likewise extra … minimalist. You either take care of that or do not. Personally, I do not. Nonetheless, if the goal is simpleness of interface and, honestly, features … Substack functions pretty well.
But, I’ll be clear right here …
When it pertains to real marketing, I do not assume there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is much better fit. I searched for more factors that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, however truthfully … I have a tough time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are often with to be the closest competitors, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are pursuing the very same target audience and have comparable capabilities.
ConvertKit is likewise placed at designers (like Substack), yet it is a lot more strongly catering to individuals that do it for service. ConvertKit has wonderful aesthetic automation structure, it’s very own commerce system, and a lot more. ConvertKit is a truly nice system.
I’m not mosting likely to bore you with a full feature-by-feature malfunction below. ConvertKit is popular already. Yet, here’s how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Points ConvertKit Is Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has extra flexibility when it concerns it’s automations. I will additionally claim that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit much more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains labeling. This is simply a fundamental function of e-mail listings that makes it possible for segmentation in a far more flexible way than BeeHiiv currently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support labeling at some time quickly, honestly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Newsletter Reviews.
ConvertKit does currently supply the capacity to sell points through their very own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is necessary to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nonetheless, I would constantly select a more straight alternative anyway. For me, I prefer to use my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been around much longer and therefore has way much more integration alternatives. Tons of online devices and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their own WordPress plugin that is quite powerful. For instance, their plugin now also sustains member-gated web content in addition to auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your site. In essence, this extra carefully places ConvertKit right into direct competitors by having you be able to publish to your site and your email list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is drastically doing not have in these kinds of third-party integrations presently. It’ll get there. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also hectic dealing with the growth devices of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your e-newsletter with benefits, however you can also pay per lead within the internal advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your list. These are really amazing features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you understand ConvertKit acquired Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among one of the most well known viral promotion systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall wherefore this means for the platform moving forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Newsletter Reviews
BeeHiiv is a lot previously in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that indicates less features and less integrations, which is natural for this stage of the cycle. Nevertheless, it likewise suggests that they are swiftly establishing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually experienced virtually regular launch of brand-new features right into the platform. And these aren’t weak little features … however big features that are quite crucial. Their speed of development at this point has gone over.
I also very much appreciate how responsive they are. In fact, one of their product news about some design enhancements to the website design features actually consisted of a small problem with the content size. I just replied to that email to tell them. I quickly got a reply straight from the CEO:.
That same day, the issue was repaired.
Few days later on, I provided an additional tip …
Sure enough, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to set off automations based upon the embed kind made use of was contributed to the system.
That type of responsiveness and straight participation of the group is something I truly value.
An additional significant factor of differentiation here is the rate. Both systems supply complimentary plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan provides much more capability and even more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise FAR more beneficial. ConvertKit appears less costly initially glance due to the fact that their pricing page reveals reduced numbers, nevertheless the customer limitations are much reduced and your cost quickly increases as your listing expands.
With BeeHiiv, your first level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid annually), however you can have up to 10,000 clients. That exact same size list is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their ideal plan and the one I directly use), you can expand your listing up to 100,000. A list of that size would 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 yearly, too. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay annually.
BeeHiiv remains in a completely different organization when it pertains to pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually boost prices? They may as time goes on. But, I’m presuming people like myself who are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see how points proceed.
Points I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of the important things you most definitely require to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do appear to progress instead rapidly and make brand-new product announcements rather usually, but there are some fundamental features I actually wish they had that I require to just await.
One is that they require to have a setup on subscription types where I might select an automation to run right at the form level. That would be remarkable for so many reasons. As of now, membership forms look OK, but there’s extremely little setups for them to help in division.
It would certainly be nice to have identifying at the client degree. This would certainly be effective.
I think webhooks must be part of automations to make integrated automations less complicated and decrease reliance on outside devices like Zapier.
There are likewise some minor management interface changes that would certainly come in handy. For example:
- Capability to mass edit/remove clients.
- Capability to mass edit posts (for instance, to identify a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of standard areas as standard on clients (like the name).
- Some more customization options for the site (such as more adaptable shade choices, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Points I hope they perform with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t excellent and absolutely not nearly as created as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM item.
It possibly never ever will certainly be, either. As I claimed, the function is various so it would not a lot a lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to end up being a full marketing automation platform. I guess you never understand, however.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Review
I such as BeeHiiv fairly a whole lot. Sufficient where I decided to switch my very own e-newsletters over to the system regardless of my individual choice for digital sovereignty and possessing my own system.
Simply put, for the newsletter posting design especially, I saw adequate worth in their system to warrant the modification.
Remember, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my exclusive e-mail checklist. I utilize BeeHiiv of what it is good at, but I intentionally have things set up to ensure that I also maintain my list “in residence” inside of FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the very same. It is simply a great insurance coverage, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your listing will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will certainly be).
So, the question is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are using Substack today, I ‘d certainly think about switching over to BeeHiiv. It will merely be a lot more business-friendly. It is targeting various capacities and various needs. And also, BeeHiiv also has import tools for Substack, so the button must be rather uncomplicated.
If you get on ConvertKit now, I ‘d most likely stay put unless you have a big email listing and are for that reason being wooled with their high regular monthly expense. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are iterating quickly. There’s likewise a pretty good possibility you’re not even utilizing several of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not also require them. Because of that, BeeHiiv can quickly be a much better and more inexpensive fit.
Finally, if you plan to be really intentional regarding growing an e-newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE platform to consider and maintain and eye on for you.
If you utilize BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is developed to be, it is just one of the best games in town now. This is the platform to enjoy.
BeeHiiv offers a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves looking into for yourself. And if you end up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll find the free account to be quite feature rich.