I have used a great deal of various email list systems for many years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a big proponent of digital sovereignty and owning your own platform. Therefore (and the awesome features), I have actually been utilizing Beehiiv Owner.
So, it is indeed a strange move for me to choose to utilize 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 want to look at why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I wish to deal with the issue of digital sovereignty while using the system and I would certainly likewise such as to deal with why I picked to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For E-newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Huge Change In Technique, I talked about how and why I chose to transform my recreational vehicle blog into mostly a newsletter. I chose that was the business version I wanted to go after keeping that home.
However, to purposefully pursue it as a newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the email list for Gladly RV, however FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, truthfully, using it for newsletters is a little bit of a waste. Extra on that in a bit.
As I said in that problem of the newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a system with tools constructed into it particular to my function. Points such as:
- Ability to publish (to the blog site) and send out the e-mail concurrently without having it be two separate actions.
- Built in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would certainly require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capacity to do cross-promotions with other newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are basically one-click subscription links. Great for promotion in various 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 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 newsletter upgrade and essentially run a premium newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter publishers with features aimed at development. The system was essentially built by the individuals that built up the innovation for Morning Mixture. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the factor right here. BeeHiiv is constructed from the ground up for the function of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different purpose.
And I finished off with this:.
I might undoubtedly be moving The Side over to BeeHiiv also. A minimum of, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. Actually, I simply went all out. And actually, The side was re-branded over to The Morning WP, set off as it’s own home to make sure that I can expand it much more deliberately as well.
The objective is that each e-newsletter has the capability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown separately. Gladly motor home was young, so easy to transition. Yet, The Early morning WP (previously The Edge) was buried in a sea of things below 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 certainly constantly be very closely connected with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet doesn’t have to belong of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv since it was developed for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Just A Normal Email Listing
There’s a distinction in between a newsletter platform and simply an email list.
You can hold your email list anyplace 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 difference?
The main difference is that, with a newsletter platform, the act of posting means that it is going to your internet site and to your e-mail customers simultaneously.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are releasing to that internet site. Yet, you are also dispatching to all clients at the same time. The internet site and it’s clients are done in one. This makes monitoring of the system much simpler.
With most email platforms, any newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is constructed totally individually from your site. So, as an example, you could release an article to WordPress however after that you would need to separately develop and send an email to your list to send it to customers. These are after that 2 separate collections of archives and 2 separate actions because post and your e-mails are not naturally linked.
The closest thing that turns WordPress right into a true e-newsletter system is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name because it virtually “glues” your newsletter to your WordPress articles and permits them to be the very same thing. Certainly, something like E-newsletter Glue would be a solid option if I wished to continue to self-host every little thing. Nevertheless, you ‘d lose the growth tools that come with a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter inherently comes with a various collection of needs than a common email listing.
You do not normally need much marketing automation. You do not typically require autoresponder series, occasion monitoring, 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 assist you build your customer base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my subscribers that I was going to switch the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many people ask me why I was picking it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the fact that I selected to opt for BeeHiiv, that does not indicate I think Substack draws. As a matter of fact, since Substack has been about longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is younger, there are a pair points that initially obtained my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is especially customized to newsletter authors. As a matter of fact, it is actually built by the exact same people who built the modern technology behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, doesn’t matter. However, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv toward e-newsletter growth called me out over the more generic positioning of being a “creator”. Development is what I have an interest in right here.
- That branding and distinction likewise implies that BeeHiiv has some relatively big brand names and large magazines utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo designers. Once again, it simply tells me the customer avatar distinction between both companies.
Sending our my e-newsletter by means of FluentCRM really did not specifically draw. The only reason I would certainly contemplate drinking things up is if I thought I can expand the listing faster. And BeeHiiv spoke precisely to that objective.
Due to the targeting, I actually do not check out BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a different kind of customer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more direct competitors.
But, let’s dive much deeper than just the positioning right here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv looks like it was built by individuals that comprehending e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems a lot more geared toward creators.
As an example, BeeHiiv supplies customized fields on subscribers. Currently, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv supplies Automations. Actually, it is an aesthetic automation builder that functions a whole lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation performance is still early-phase. It is still quite restricted in triggers and the only activity is the capacity to send an e-mail. Nevertheless, enhancements are coming. Soon enough, automations will have new triggers along with new actions, such as customizing custom-made areas, sending out webhooks, etc. I’ve already seen improvements to their automations simply since I started using the platform. As an example:
- Capability to set off automations based on which certain embed form they came in on.
- Capability to instantly do re-engagement (and deal with individuals based upon opens and non-opens).
- Ability to do fundamental conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can’t do this since the target market of Substack simply wouldn’t believe to approach this like an email marketing expert.
When it comes to composing your newsletters, the composing user interface of BeeHiiv is simply a lot more tailored towards newsletters. Actually, it really has similarities to the WordPress block builder in just how it works. I discover it to be much more user-friendly, personally.
Substack’s writing interface behaves and tidy, but it would certainly be much more comparable to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is more than simply form. For example, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Section” and after that put anything you want in it. Then, you can put Visibility choices on that section to show it only to paid clients, hide it from email, conceal from subscribers, show only to subscribers, etc. Substack uses nothing like this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a premium membership design, BeeHiiv does not take any type of income. Actually, you literally attach up to your very own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your income. Relying on the amount of customers you get, that 10% can be quite a bit even more cash than the monthly cost of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This may appear nerdy, but what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv work with the outdoors using tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … absolutely nothing. No integrations whatsoever.
Generally, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was much more built towards actual e-mail marketing. It was constructed by individuals that “get it”. Even the opt-in forms and the landing page develops seem far better constructed for conversions. Development is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Even though 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 stated, Substack positions itself towards “developers” greater than e-mail marketing experts and e-newsletter owners. Because of that, you see some things tailored extra towards people who just assume in regards to web content creation.
For instance, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does sustain several publications, they are dealt with fairly individually. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to numerous publications at the same time. This isn’t something I require, yet … cool for individuals that may need it.
Substack likewise has more social capability built-in. For example, it has a conversation feature to host chats with subscribers. It additionally has a “Notes” function which functions sort of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you’re reading. Intriguing. Generally, Substack is established to be more like a social network which sustains long-form content.
On the whole, Substack is additionally much more … minimalist. You either take care of that or do not. Directly, I do not. Nevertheless, if the objective is simplicity of interface and, frankly, features … Substack works pretty well.
But, I’ll be clear here …
When it concerns real marketing, I do not believe there’s much question that BeeHiiv is better suited. I searched for even more points that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, but truthfully … I have a difficult time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are often via to be the closest competitors, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are pursuing the very same target audience and have comparable capacities.
ConvertKit is likewise placed at designers (like Substack), however it is much more highly accommodating people that do it for business. ConvertKit has good aesthetic automation building, it’s very own commerce platform, and much more. ConvertKit is a really nice platform.
I’m not mosting likely to bore you with a full feature-by-feature breakdown below. ConvertKit is popular currently. But, below’s just how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Points ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has a lot more versatility when it concerns it’s automations. I will additionally say that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit a lot more instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains identifying. This is just a standard feature of e-mail checklists that makes it possible for division in an even more flexible means than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain identifying at some time quickly, truthfully. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Owner.
ConvertKit does currently give the capability to market 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 constantly choose a much more direct choice anyhow. For me, I choose to use my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about much longer and therefore has way much more integration alternatives. Tons of online devices and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their own WordPress plugin that is quite powerful. For instance, their plugin now even sustains member-gated material as well as auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Fundamentally, this much more carefully puts ConvertKit into direct competition by having you be able to publish to your website and your e-mail checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is severely lacking in these sort of third-party integrations presently. It’ll get there. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even active tackling the growth tools of BeeHiiv. For instance, 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 also pay per lead within the internal advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your listing. These are really remarkable features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you understand ConvertKit acquired Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of the most well known viral promotion systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall surface for what this means for the platform going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Owner
BeeHiiv is a lot earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. Nonetheless, it likewise suggests that they are swiftly creating.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have observed virtually once a week release of brand-new features right into the platform. And these aren’t undersized little features … yet huge features that are rather vital. Their rate of advancement at this moment has gone over.
I also quite appreciate just how receptive they are. In fact, among their item news regarding some design enhancements to the website design features in fact included a small issue with the content size. I merely replied to that email to tell them. I quickly got a reply straight from the CEO:.
That same day, the problem was dealt with.
Few days later on, I provided one more idea …
Indeed, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to cause automations based upon the embed type used was included in the system.
That sort of responsiveness and straight involvement of the group is something I truly value.
Another significant factor of distinction here is the rate. Both platforms use totally free plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan provides extra ability and even more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also FAR more beneficial. ConvertKit appears less expensive in the beginning glance since their pricing page shows lower numbers, nevertheless the customer limitations are much lower and your price rapidly raises as your listing expands.
With BeeHiiv, your first degree paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid each year), however you can have up to 10,000 clients. That exact same dimension checklist 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 directly utilize), you can expand your checklist approximately 100,000. A list of that size would certainly 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, also. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay yearly.
BeeHiiv remains in a totally various league when it comes to pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately raise prices? They might as time goes on. But, 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 Add
One of things you certainly need to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do appear to advance instead swiftly and make brand-new product news rather often, but there are some standard features I actually wish they had that I require to simply wait for.
One is that they need to have a setup on registration kinds where I could pick an automation to run right at the form level. That would certainly be incredible for many factors. As of now, membership kinds look OK, however there’s very little settings for them to aid in division.
It would behave to have marking at the client degree. This would be powerful.
I think webhooks should be part of automations to make integrated automations easier and decrease dependence on outside tools like Zapier.
There are likewise some minor management user interface changes that would certainly be handy. For example:
- Capacity to mass edit/remove subscribers.
- Ability to mass edit messages (for instance, to tag a number of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of fundamental areas as common on subscribers (like the name).
- Some even more customization alternatives for the website (such as more adaptable color choices, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Points I wish they do with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, but it isn’t ideal and absolutely not almost as established 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 lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to become a full marketing automation system. I presume you never ever understand, though.
Final Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I like BeeHiiv quite a lot. Enough where I decided to change my very own e-newsletters over to the system despite my personal choice for digital sovereignty and possessing my very own system.
Simply put, for the e-newsletter posting design particularly, I saw sufficient worth in their system to call for the change.
Remember, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my unique email listing. I use BeeHiiv wherefore it is good at, yet I intentionally have things establish to make sure that I additionally maintain my listing “in house” within FluentCRM.
If you make use of BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the very same. It is just a good insurance policy, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your list will be of high use (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will certainly be).
So, the concern is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my point of view, if you are utilizing Substack today, I ‘d most definitely take into consideration changing to BeeHiiv. It will just be extra business-friendly. It is targeting different capabilities and different requirements. Plus, BeeHiiv also has import devices for Substack, so the button ought to be pretty straightforward.
If you get on ConvertKit now, I ‘d probably sit tight unless you have a huge email list and are for that reason being fleeced with their high regular monthly expense. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are repeating rapidly. There’s also a respectable possibility you’re not even using a few of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not also require them. Therefore, BeeHiiv could conveniently be a much better and extra economical fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be very willful about growing an e-newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE system to think about and maintain and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is created to be, it is just one of the best video games around right now. This is the system to watch.
BeeHiiv provides a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth taking a look at for yourself. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll locate the cost-free account to be quite feature abundant.