I have actually used a great deal of different email list systems throughout the years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a huge proponent of digital sovereignty and having your very own platform. Because of that (and the remarkable features), I have been using Beehiiv Payments.
So, it is certainly a strange move for me to make a decision to utilize BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is a hosted application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I intend to review why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I intend to resolve the concern of digital sovereignty while making use of the system and I ‘d likewise such as to address why I selected to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For Newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Huge Shift In Approach, I talked about just how and why I made a decision to turn my recreational vehicle blog site into largely an e-newsletter. I chose that was the business model I wanted to seek keeping that building.
Yet, to purposefully pursue it as a newsletter, I wanted a system that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the email checklist for Gladly motor home, however FluentCRM is not a newsletter system. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, truthfully, utilizing it for newsletters is a bit of a waste. Much more on that particular in a bit.
As I stated in that problem of the newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices constructed into it details to my objective. Points such as:
- Capacity to release (to the blog) and send the email at the same time without having it be two different activities.
- Integrated in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would require a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capacity to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are primarily one-click membership web links. Great for promotion in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are methods to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your e-newsletter.
- Built-in advertisement network, if I pick to monetize with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and essentially run a premium e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Basically, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter publishers with features focused on development. The platform was essentially built by the people that developed the modern technology for Morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the point here. BeeHiiv is constructed from scratch for the function of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a various function.
And I ended off with this:.
I may indeed be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv too. At the very least, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. In fact, I simply went for it. And in fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Morning WP, set off as it’s very own residential property to make sure that I can grow it much more intentionally also.
The objective is that each e-newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded separately. Happily recreational vehicle was young, so very easy to transition. However, The Early morning WP (previously The Side) was hidden in a sea of things below at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s own. It will undoubtedly constantly be very closely connected with the Blog Marketing Academy, however doesn’t need to belong of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was built for this function. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Regular Email Listing
There’s a distinction in between a newsletter system and simply an email list.
You can hold your e-mail checklist anyplace you desire and there are a variety of them available, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted choices like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The key difference is that, with an e-newsletter system, the act of publishing means that it is mosting likely to your web site and to your e-mail clients at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are releasing to that website. However, you are also sending off to all clients at the same time. The internet site and it’s subscribers are all in one. This makes monitoring of the system much simpler.
With the majority of email platforms, any kind of e-newsletter you set up is done as an email campaign. It is constructed entirely individually from your site. So, as an example, you may publish an article to WordPress however after that you would need to separately construct and send out an email to your list to send it to subscribers. These are then two separate collections of archives and 2 separate activities because blog posts and your emails are not naturally connected.
The closest point that transforms WordPress right into a true e-newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name since it basically “glues” your e-newsletter to your WordPress articles and permits them to be the same thing. Absolutely, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid alternative if I intended to remain to self-host whatever. Nevertheless, you ‘d lose the development tools that feature a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter inherently includes a different set of needs than a typical email list.
You don’t normally require much marketing automation. You don’t generally need autoresponder sequences, occasion tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO demand, though, is one smooth posting experience and development devices to assist you develop your customer base that are specific to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my customers that I was going to change 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 fact that I picked to choose BeeHiiv, that doesn’t mean I believe Substack sucks. Actually, due to the fact that Substack has actually been around longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Although BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a pair things that initially obtained my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically customized to e-newsletter publishers. As a matter of fact, it is essentially developed by the very same folks who developed the modern technology behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, does not matter. However, the apparent positioning of BeeHiiv towards e-newsletter development called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “developer”. Development is what I have an interest in below.
- That branding and distinction additionally implies that BeeHiiv has some relatively large brand names and big publications using it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo developers. Once again, it simply informs me the consumer character difference between the two firms.
Sending our my e-newsletter using FluentCRM really did not specifically suck. The only factor I would consider trembling points up is if I thought I could GROW the list quicker. And BeeHiiv talked precisely to that goal.
Because of the targeting, I really don’t check out BeeHiiv and Substack as direct competitors. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a different kind of consumer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being a lot more direct competitors.
However, allow’s dive much deeper than simply the placing here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv looks like it was constructed by individuals who recognizing e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems a lot more geared toward makers.
For instance, BeeHiiv offers custom areas on subscribers. Currently, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. As a matter of 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 rather restricted in triggers and the only action is the capacity to send out an email. Nonetheless, enhancements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will have brand-new triggers in addition to brand-new activities, such as customizing personalized areas, sending out webhooks, and so on. I’ve already seen enhancements to their automations just considering that I started utilizing the system. For instance:
- Ability to set off automations based upon which particular embed type they was available in on.
- Capability to instantly do re-engagement (and handle individuals based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Ability to do basic conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never will. Substack just can not do this due to the fact that the target audience of Substack just would not believe to approach this like an email marketer.
When it pertains to creating your e-newsletters, the composing interface of BeeHiiv is simply much more geared toward newsletters. As a matter of fact, it in fact has similarities to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it functions. I find it to be extra instinctive, directly.
Substack’s creating interface is nice and tidy, but it would be much more equal to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is more than simply kind. For example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Section” and afterwards put anything you want in it. Then, you can place Exposure options on that area to show it just to paid clients, hide it from email, conceal from customers, reveal just to subscribers, and so on. Substack offers nothing similar to this.
And when/if the moment comes that I start a costs registration model, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any type of earnings. In fact, you actually link up to your own Stripe account and it charges straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your earnings. Depending on the amount of clients you get, that 10% can be a fair bit even more money than the month-to-month cost of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This could appear unpopular, however what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outdoors using tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … nothing. No integrations in all.
On the whole, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was more built toward actual email marketing. It was constructed by individuals who “get it”. Also the opt-in forms and the landing page creates appear far better built for conversions. Development is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I want to see BeeHiiv include, I like the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have said, Substack settings itself toward “designers” more than e-mail marketers and newsletter owners. For that reason, you see some things tailored much more toward people that simply assume in terms of material production.
For instance, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does support several magazines, they are treated quite individually. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to several magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, yet … trendy for individuals that might need it.
Substack additionally has even more social performance built-in. For example, it has a conversation function to host talks with subscribers. It additionally has a “Notes” feature which works sort of like a social media newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you read. Fascinating. In general, Substack is established to be more like a social network which supports long-form content.
In general, Substack is likewise much more … minimalist. You either look after that or don’t. Directly, I do not. However, if the objective is simpleness of interface and, frankly, features … Substack works rather well.
But, I’ll be clear right here …
When it concerns 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 better than BeeHiiv, but frankly … I have a difficult time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are commonly with to be the closest competitors, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are going after the same target audience and have comparable abilities.
ConvertKit is additionally positioned at designers (like Substack), however it is a lot more highly dealing with individuals that do it for organization. ConvertKit has good visual automation structure, it’s very own commerce system, and extra. ConvertKit is a really wonderful system.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature malfunction right here. ConvertKit is popular currently. Yet, here’s exactly how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Points ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has extra flexibility when it pertains to it’s automations. I will certainly likewise claim that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit extra user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains labeling. This is just a standard function of email listings that enables division in a much more versatile means than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support identifying eventually quickly, truthfully. It feels like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Payments.
ConvertKit does now offer the capacity to sell things via their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is very important to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would constantly choose a more straight alternative anyway. For me, I favor to utilize my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been around a lot longer and because of that has way a lot more integration alternatives. Lots of web-based tools and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their own WordPress plugin that is quite powerful. As an example, their plugin now even supports member-gated web content in addition to auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your site. Essentially, this extra closely places ConvertKit right into straight competition by having you have the ability to release to your site and your email list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is severely doing not have in these type of third-party integrations right now. It’ll get there. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also active taking on the growth devices of BeeHiiv. As an 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 likewise pay per lead within the internal advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your list. These are actually incredible features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you recognize ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of the most popular viral promo systems for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall surface for what this means for the system going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Payments
BeeHiiv is a lot earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies less features and less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. However, it additionally suggests that they are quickly creating.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have observed almost weekly release of new features right into the platform. And these aren’t undersized little features … yet huge features that are fairly vital. Their speed of growth at this moment has actually been impressive.
I additionally significantly value just how responsive they are. As a matter of fact, among their product news concerning some layout enhancements to the web design features actually contained a tiny issue with the content width. I just replied to that email to tell them. I rapidly got a reply directly from the chief executive officer:.
That same day, the concern was taken care of.
Few days later, I provided an additional suggestion …
Sure enough, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to trigger automations based upon the embed kind used was contributed to the system.
That sort of responsiveness and direct involvement of the team is something I really value.
Another major factor of distinction here is the cost. Both platforms provide free plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan supplies much more ability and more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
As soon as you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also much more desirable. ConvertKit seems cheaper in the beginning glimpse since their pricing page shows lower numbers, nevertheless the subscriber limits are much reduced and your rate promptly raises as your listing expands.
With BeeHiiv, your very first level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid annually), however you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That exact same dimension 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 utilize), you can grow your checklist approximately 100,000. A listing of that size would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, as well, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay annually, too. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv is in a totally various organization when it involves pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually raise rates? They could as time goes on. But, I’m thinking people like myself that are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see how points continue.
Points I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among the important things you most definitely require to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do seem to progress rather swiftly and make brand-new product news rather often, but there are some basic features I actually wish they had that I require to simply await.
One is that they need to have a setting on membership forms where I can choose an automation to run right at the kind degree. That would certainly be incredible for many factors. Currently, registration kinds look OK, however there’s very little setups for them to assist in segmentation.
It would be nice to have labeling at the customer level. This would certainly be effective.
I assume webhooks should be part of automations to make built-in automations easier and minimize dependence on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are likewise some small administrative interface modifications that would be handy. For example:
- Ability to mass edit/remove customers.
- Ability to mass edit blog posts (for example, to mark a number of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of basic fields as conventional on clients (like the name).
- Some even more customization alternatives for the site (such as more adaptable shade choices, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Things I hope they make with it in the future. BeeHiiv is respectable, but it isn’t perfect and definitely not nearly as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM product.
It possibly never ever will certainly be, either. As I stated, the purpose is various so it would not much a lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to come to be a complete marketing automation system. I presume you never ever recognize, however.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I such as BeeHiiv rather a lot. Enough where I made a decision to change my very own newsletters over to the system despite my personal preference for digital sovereignty and owning my very own platform.
Put simply, for the e-newsletter posting design particularly, I saw sufficient value in their system to require the change.
Remember, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my special email list. I utilize BeeHiiv for what it is proficient at, but I deliberately have points set up so that I additionally maintain my list “in home” within FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the very same. It is just an excellent insurance policy, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your listing will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will certainly be).
So, the question is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are utilizing Substack right now, I ‘d certainly consider changing to BeeHiiv. It will simply be more business-friendly. It is targeting different capabilities and various demands. Plus, BeeHiiv also has import devices for Substack, so the switch should be quite straightforward.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d most likely sit tight unless you have a large e-mail list and are consequently being fleeced with their high monthly costs. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are repeating promptly. There’s also a respectable possibility you’re not also utilizing several of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not also require them. Therefore, BeeHiiv can conveniently be a better and more budget-friendly fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be extremely willful about expanding a newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE system to think about and maintain and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is designed to be, it is one of the very best video games in the area right now. This is the platform to enjoy.
BeeHiiv uses a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves taking a look at on your own. And if you wind up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll discover the cost-free account to be rather feature rich.