I have used a great deal of various e-mail list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a massive supporter of digital sovereignty and having your own platform. Therefore (and the incredible features), I have been using Beehiiv Payout Methods.
So, it is indeed an odd move for me to decide to use BeeHiiv. After all, it is a hosted application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I want to review why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I wish to resolve the concern of digital sovereignty while making use of the system and I would certainly additionally such as to attend to why I chose to utilize it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For E-newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Large Shift In Method, I talked about how and why I decided to transform my RV blog site right into primarily a newsletter. I decided that was business version I intended to seek keeping that residential or commercial property.
Yet, to intentionally pursue it as a newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the email listing for Happily motor home, yet 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 a waste. Extra on that in a bit.
As I stated in that problem of the newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a system with devices constructed into it particular to my objective. Points such as:
- Capacity to publish (to the blog) and send the email concurrently without having it be 2 different actions.
- Constructed in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would certainly have needed a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in ability to do cross-promotions with other newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are primarily one-click membership 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 e-newsletter.
- Integrated ad network, if I pick to monetize with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and primarily run a costs e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Generally, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter authors with features aimed at development. The system was essentially developed by the people that built up the technology for Morning Mixture. They know what they’re doing.
That is the factor here. BeeHiiv is constructed from the ground up for the purpose of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a various function.
And I ended off with this:.
I may without a doubt be relocating The Edge over to BeeHiiv as well. A minimum of, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. Actually, I simply went for it. And in fact, The side was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s own property so that I can expand it a lot more intentionally too.
The objective is that each newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown separately. Happily motor home was young, so easy to transition. But, The Early morning WP (formerly The Edge) was buried in a sea of things right here at the Blog Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s very own. It will undoubtedly constantly be very closely connected with the Blog Marketing Academy, however doesn’t need to be a part of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was constructed for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Just A Regular Email List
There’s a distinction in between a newsletter platform and just an e-mail list.
You can hold your email listing everywhere you want and there are a number of them around, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The primary difference is that, with a newsletter platform, the act of posting means that it is mosting likely to your website and to your email clients all at once.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a web site. You are releasing to that web site. But, you are additionally sending to all customers at the same time. The internet site and it’s subscribers are all in one. This makes monitoring of the platform much easier.
With most e-mail platforms, any kind of e-newsletter you set up is done as an e-mail campaign. It is developed totally individually from your web site. So, for instance, you might release a short article to WordPress yet after that you would certainly need to separately construct and send an e-mail to your list to send it to subscribers. These are then 2 separate collections of archives and two different activities since article and your emails are not naturally linked.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress into a true e-newsletter platform is Newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name due to the fact that it virtually “glues” your newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and enables them to be the very same thing. Definitely, something like E-newsletter Glue would be a strong option if I wished to continue to self-host everything. Nevertheless, you ‘d shed the development tools that include a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter inherently comes with a different collection of needs than a typical email list.
You do not normally require much marketing automation. You don’t typically need autoresponder series, occasion monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO requirement, though, is one seamless posting experience and development devices to help you develop your client base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my subscribers that I was going to switch the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the fact that I selected to opt for BeeHiiv, that does not imply I believe Substack sucks. Actually, due to the fact that Substack has been around longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple points that initially obtained my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically customized to e-newsletter authors. Actually, it is actually developed by the very same people that developed the technology behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, does not matter. But, the evident positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter development called me out over the more generic positioning of being a “designer”. Growth is what I have an interest in below.
- That branding and distinction also means that BeeHiiv has some relatively big brand names and large magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo creators. Once again, it simply informs me the customer character distinction between the two business.
Sending our my e-newsletter using FluentCRM really did not exactly draw. The only reason I would certainly consider drinking points up is if I believed I can expand the list faster. And BeeHiiv talked precisely to that goal.
Due to the targeting, I in fact do not watch BeeHiiv and Substack as straight competitors. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a various sort of customer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra direct competitors.
However, allow’s dive deeper than simply 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 towards makers.
As an example, BeeHiiv offers custom areas on customers. Now, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv provides Automations. In fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that functions a great deal like what we have inside of 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 sufficient, automations will certainly have new triggers along with brand-new activities, such as customizing personalized fields, sending webhooks, and so on. I have actually already seen improvements to their automations just since I started utilizing the system. For example:
- Capability to set off automations based upon which certain embed type they came in on.
- Ability to automatically do re-engagement (and take care of individuals based upon opens up 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’t do this due to the fact that the target audience of Substack just wouldn’t believe to approach this like an email online marketer.
When it comes to composing your newsletters, the composing user interface of BeeHiiv is just more tailored towards e-newsletters. As a matter of fact, it really has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it works. I discover it to be a lot more instinctive, personally.
Substack’s creating user interface is nice and clean, however it would certainly be more comparable to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is more than simply type. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Area” and after that put anything you desire in it. Then, you can place Presence options on that section to reveal it only to paid clients, hide it from e-mail, conceal from clients, reveal just to subscribers, etc. Substack provides absolutely nothing like this.
And when/if the time comes that I begin a premium subscription design, BeeHiiv does not take any type of revenue. In fact, you literally link approximately your very own Stripe account and it bills directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your earnings. Depending on the number of clients you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit more money than the monthly price of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This could appear unpopular, yet what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outside using devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … absolutely nothing. No integrations whatsoever.
Overall, I simply seemed like BeeHiiv was extra constructed towards real email marketing. It was developed by people that “get it”. Even the opt-in types and the landing page makes seem far better developed for conversions. Development is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I would love to see BeeHiiv add, I such as the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have said, Substack placements itself toward “makers” greater than e-mail marketing professionals and newsletter proprietors. Therefore, you see some things geared a lot more towards individuals who just believe in terms of content production.
As an example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does sustain multiple magazines, they are dealt with quite individually. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to multiple magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, however … amazing for people that may require it.
Substack additionally has even more social functionality built-in. For example, it has a conversation function to host talks with customers. It additionally has a “Notes” function which functions type 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 extra like a social media network which supports long-form 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 goal is simpleness of user interface and, truthfully, features … Substack functions rather well.
However, I’ll be clear below …
When it comes to real marketing, I don’t think there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is much better matched. I tried to find even more points that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, yet frankly … I have a difficult time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are often via to be the closest rivals, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are pursuing the same target audience and have similar capacities.
ConvertKit is additionally positioned at designers (like Substack), however it is much more strongly dealing with individuals that do it for company. ConvertKit has great aesthetic automation building, it’s very own commerce system, and more. ConvertKit is an actually nice system.
I’m not going to bore you with a complete feature-by-feature break down below. ConvertKit is well known currently. Yet, here’s exactly how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has more flexibility when it comes to it’s automations. I will additionally say that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit a lot more user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains marking. This is simply a standard feature of email listings that makes it possible for division in a far more adaptable method than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support labeling at some point quickly, truthfully. It seems like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Payout Methods.
ConvertKit does currently provide the capability to offer things by means of their own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is essential to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would always select a much more straight alternative anyway. For me, I favor to use my very own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been around much longer and for that reason has way extra integration options. Tons of web-based tools and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their own WordPress plugin that is fairly powerful. For instance, their plugin currently even sustains member-gated material as well as auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Essentially, this extra closely places ConvertKit right into straight competitors by having you be able to publish to your website and your email list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is badly doing not have in these kinds of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll arrive. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy taking on the growth tools of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with advantages, however you can additionally pay per lead within the inner advertisement network of BeeHiiv to grow your list. These are actually outstanding features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you recognize ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among the most popular viral promo platforms for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall for what this suggests for the platform moving forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Payout Methods
BeeHiiv is a lot earlier in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that suggests less features and much less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. However, it likewise suggests that they are swiftly establishing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually seen almost once a week launch of brand-new features right into the system. And these aren’t weak little features … however large features that are rather vital. Their rate of advancement at this moment has gone over.
I additionally quite value how receptive they are. As a matter of fact, one of their product announcements concerning some design improvements to the website design features really contained a small issue with the web content width. I simply responded to that email to tell them. I rapidly obtained a reply directly from the CEO:.
That exact same day, the concern was repaired.
Few days later on, I provided an additional suggestion …
Indeed, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to trigger automations based upon the embed type utilized was contributed to the system.
That type of responsiveness and direct participation of the group is something I really value.
Another significant factor of differentiation right here is the rate. Both systems use cost-free plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan offers extra capability and more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
As soon as you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also FAR more desirable. ConvertKit seems less expensive in the beginning glimpse due to the fact that their pricing web page reveals lower numbers, however the customer restrictions are much lower and your price swiftly boosts as your checklist expands.
With BeeHiiv, your very first degree paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid every year), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That exact same dimension checklist is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their ideal plan and the one I personally utilize), you can grow your listing approximately 100,000. A listing of that size 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 annually, also. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay annually.
BeeHiiv is in an entirely different organization when it comes to pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point enhance prices? They may as time goes on. But, I’m thinking people like myself that are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see just how things continue.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of the things you certainly need to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do seem to evolve instead rapidly and make new product news rather frequently, however there are some fundamental features I actually desire they had that I need to simply wait on.
One is that they require to have a setting on subscription types where I can select an automation to run right at the type level. That would certainly be incredible for numerous factors. As of now, registration types look OK, yet there’s extremely little setups for them to aid in division.
It would be nice to have marking at the subscriber level. This would be effective.
I believe webhooks should be part of automations to make built-in automations much easier and lower dependence on outside devices like Zapier.
There are likewise some small administrative user interface modifications that would come in handy. For instance:
- Capability to bulk edit/remove subscribers.
- Capacity to bulk edit articles (as an example, to mark a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a few fundamental areas as basic on clients (like the name).
- Some even more customization alternatives for the web site (such as even more flexible shade options, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Points I wish they perform with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t best and definitely not virtually as established as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM product.
It probably never ever will be, either. As I claimed, the function is different so it would not a lot a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to become a full marketing automation platform. I guess you never understand, though.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Review
I such as BeeHiiv fairly a whole lot. Enough where I decided to switch my own newsletters over to the platform regardless of my personal choice for digital sovereignty and having my very own platform.
Put simply, for the newsletter posting model particularly, I saw adequate value in their system to require the adjustment.
Remember, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my special email checklist. I make use of BeeHiiv of what it is good at, yet I intentionally have things set up to ensure that I also maintain my listing “in house” inside of FluentCRM.
If you make use of BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the very same. It is just a good insurance policy, for one. Yet, 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 will be).
So, the concern is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are using Substack today, I ‘d absolutely take into consideration switching to BeeHiiv. It will merely be more business-friendly. It is targeting various capacities and various requirements. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the switch should be quite uncomplicated.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d possibly stay unless you have a large email checklist and are as a result being wooled with their high month-to-month bill. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are repeating swiftly. There’s also a pretty good possibility you’re not even utilizing some of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you don’t also require them. For that reason, BeeHiiv might conveniently be a better and a lot more budget friendly fit.
Finally, if you plan to be very deliberate regarding expanding an e-newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE system to take into consideration and maintain and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is created to be, it is just one of the most effective games in the area today. This is the system to enjoy.
BeeHiiv offers a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves checking out on your own. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll find the cost-free account to be fairly feature abundant.