I have made use of a lot of different email list systems throughout the years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a big advocate of digital sovereignty and owning your very own platform. For that reason (and the incredible features), I have actually been using Beehiiv Posts.
So, it is indeed an odd move for me to determine to use BeeHiiv. After all, it is an organized application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I wish to discuss why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I want to address the issue of digital sovereignty while utilizing the system and I would certainly also like to resolve why I chose to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For Newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Hobby + A Large Shift In Method, I talked about exactly how and why I determined to transform my recreational vehicle blog site right into largely an e-newsletter. I decided that was the business version I wanted to go after with that property.
Yet, to deliberately pursue it as an e-newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the email listing for Gladly RV, yet FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, frankly, using it for e-newsletters is a bit of a waste. Extra on that in a bit.
As I said in that issue of the e-newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a system with tools built right into it details to my purpose. Points such as:
- Ability to publish (to the blog) and send the email concurrently without having it be two separate activities.
- Built in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would have needed a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capability to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are basically one-click membership web links. Great for promo in various other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are ways to do that.
- Capacity to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Built-in advertisement network, if I choose to monetize with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capacity 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 newsletter publishers with features aimed at development. The system was actually built by the people that developed the innovation for Early morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the factor here. BeeHiiv is developed from scratch for the purpose of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various objective.
And I ended off with this:.
I might indeed be relocating The Edge over to BeeHiiv as well. At least, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. As a matter of fact, I just went all out. And in fact, The side was re-branded over to The Morning WP, triggered as it’s very own property to ensure that I can grow it a lot more deliberately as well.
The goal is that each e-newsletter has the capability to be branded as it’s own media entity and grown individually. Happily recreational vehicle was young, so easy to change. However, The Morning WP (previously The Side) 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 certainly always be closely linked with the Blog Marketing Academy, however doesn’t need to be a part of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv because it was constructed for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Normal Email Listing
There’s a difference in between a newsletter system and simply an email checklist.
You can hold your e-mail list just about anywhere you want and there are a variety of them out there, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted alternatives like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The key difference is that, with an e-newsletter system, the act of posting suggests that it is going to your internet site and to your email clients all at once.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a web site. You are publishing to that website. However, you are likewise sending off to all clients at the same time. The website and it’s subscribers are all in one. This makes monitoring of the system much easier.
With many e-mail platforms, any type of e-newsletter you set up is done as an email campaign. It is constructed entirely independently from your web site. So, for example, you may publish a short article to WordPress but after that you would certainly require to independently construct and send out an e-mail to your list to send it to subscribers. These are after that 2 separate collections of archives and two separate actions since article and your emails are not inherently linked.
The closest point that turns WordPress right into a real e-newsletter system is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name since it practically “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress messages and permits them to be the very same point. Definitely, something like E-newsletter Glue would be a solid choice if I wanted to continue to self-host whatever. Nevertheless, you ‘d lose the growth devices that feature a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter inherently comes with a different collection of demands than a regular email list.
You don’t generally require much marketing automation. You don’t typically need autoresponder series, occasion tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO requirement, however, is one smooth publishing experience and development devices to help you build your subscriber base that specify to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my customers that I was going to switch the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was picking it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the fact that I picked to go with BeeHiiv, that does not mean I think Substack draws. In fact, due to the fact that Substack has actually been about much longer, it is more mature and has more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple points that at first got my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically customized to e-newsletter authors. In fact, it is essentially constructed by the same people that constructed the innovation behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, doesn’t matter. Yet, the evident positioning of BeeHiiv towards e-newsletter development called me out over the more generic positioning of being a “developer”. Growth is what I’m interested in below.
- That branding and differentiation also means that BeeHiiv has some rather big brands and big magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo developers. Again, it just informs me the customer avatar distinction in between both companies.
Sending our my e-newsletter via FluentCRM really did not exactly draw. The only factor I would certainly consider drinking things up is if I believed I might expand the list faster. And BeeHiiv talked specifically to that objective.
Because of the targeting, I in fact do not check out BeeHiiv and Substack as straight competitors. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a different type of customer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more direct competitors.
Yet, let’s dive deeper than just the positioning below.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv appears like it was built by people who understanding e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears a lot more tailored toward creators.
For example, BeeHiiv uses custom areas on clients. Now, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv supplies Automations. In fact, it is a visual 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 limited in triggers and the only activity is the capability to send an email. Nonetheless, improvements are coming. Soon enough, automations will have new triggers along with new activities, such as modifying custom areas, sending webhooks, and so on. I have actually currently seen improvements to their automations just given that I began utilizing the platform. For example:
- Ability to trigger automations based upon which details embed type they came in on.
- Ability to immediately do re-engagement (and take care of individuals based on opens and non-opens).
- Capability to do standard conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can not do this because the target market of Substack simply wouldn’t believe to approach this like an email marketing expert.
When it concerns composing your newsletters, the creating interface of BeeHiiv is just a lot more tailored toward e-newsletters. In fact, it actually has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in just how it functions. I find it to be much more user-friendly, personally.
Substack’s writing interface behaves and tidy, however it would certainly be more comparable to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is more than simply kind. For example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Section” and then put anything you want in it. Then, you can put Exposure choices on that particular area to reveal it just to paid customers, conceal it from e-mail, conceal from clients, reveal just to subscribers, etc. Substack uses nothing like this.
And when/if the time comes that I begin a premium registration version, BeeHiiv does not take any income. As a matter of fact, you literally link up to your own Stripe account and it charges directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your revenue. Relying on the amount of customers you get, that 10% can be quite a bit even more money than the monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This may appear unpopular, yet what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outdoors making use of devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … nothing. No integrations at all.
Overall, I simply seemed like BeeHiiv was a lot more built toward actual email marketing. It was built by individuals that “get it”. Even the opt-in kinds and the landing page creates appear better constructed for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I want to see BeeHiiv add, I like the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually stated, Substack positions itself towards “creators” more than e-mail marketing experts and e-newsletter owners. Therefore, you see some things geared much more toward people that just think in regards to web content production.
As an example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does support numerous publications, they are treated fairly separately. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to numerous publications at the same time. This isn’t something I need, however … trendy for people who may need it.
Substack also has even more social functionality built-in. For example, it has a chat function to host chats with customers. It also has a “Notes” feature which functions kind of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share things from various other “Stacks” you read. Fascinating. On the whole, Substack is set up to be extra like a social network which sustains long-form material.
In general, Substack is also more … minimalist. You either take care of that or don’t. Directly, I don’t. Nevertheless, if the objective is simpleness of interface and, truthfully, features … Substack works rather well.
Yet, I’ll be clear below …
When it involves actual marketing, I do not think there’s much question that BeeHiiv is much better fit. I tried to find more factors that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, yet frankly … I have a tough time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are frequently via to be the closest competitors, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are pursuing the very same target market and have comparable capabilities.
ConvertKit is additionally positioned at designers (like Substack), however it is much more strongly satisfying individuals who do it for company. ConvertKit has good aesthetic automation building, it’s very own commerce system, and more. ConvertKit is a really nice platform.
I’m not going to bore you with a complete feature-by-feature malfunction here. ConvertKit is popular already. Yet, here’s exactly how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Points ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has more flexibility when it pertains to it’s automations. I will additionally claim that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit extra intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports labeling. This is just a standard feature of e-mail lists that allows segmentation in a much more flexible way than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support tagging at some point quickly, honestly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Posts.
ConvertKit does currently offer the capability to sell points through their own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is essential to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nonetheless, I would certainly always choose a more direct choice anyway. For me, I choose to utilize my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been around a lot longer and because of that has way more integration alternatives. Lots of web-based tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their own WordPress plugin that is rather powerful. For instance, their plugin currently even sustains member-gated content in addition to auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your site. Basically, this much more closely puts ConvertKit right into direct competitors by having you be able to release to your website and your e-mail checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is drastically lacking in these sort of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll get there. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy dealing with the development devices of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not just incentivize people to share your newsletter with benefits, yet you can also pay per lead within the internal advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your list. These are truly awesome features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you understand ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of the most well known viral promotion platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall for what this indicates for the system going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Posts
BeeHiiv is a lot earlier in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies less features and less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. However, it additionally indicates that they are swiftly establishing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually experienced virtually once a week launch of new features into the system. And these aren’t weak little features … but large features that are rather important. Their rate of advancement at this moment has actually gone over.
I likewise very much appreciate exactly how responsive they are. In fact, one of their item news about some layout enhancements to the website design features in fact contained a tiny trouble with the material width. I merely replied to that e-mail to tell them. I swiftly got a reply straight from the CEO:.
That same day, the issue was taken care of.
Few days later, I provided another suggestion …
Certainly, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to activate automations based on the embed form made use of was included in the system.
That kind of responsiveness and direct involvement of the team is something I actually appreciate.
One more major factor of distinction right here is the price. Both platforms offer free plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan offers more capability and even more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise FAR more favorable. ConvertKit appears cheaper at first glimpse due to the fact that their pricing page shows lower numbers, however the customer restrictions are much lower and your rate promptly increases as your checklist expands.
With BeeHiiv, your very first degree paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid every year), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 customers. That same dimension list is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their best plan and the one I personally use), you can expand your checklist as much as 100,000. A list of that dimension 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 simply $84/month if you pay yearly.
BeeHiiv is in an entirely various league when it pertains to pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually raise prices? They might as time takes place. But, I’m guessing people like myself that are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see just how points continue.
Points I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among the things you definitely need to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do seem to evolve rather quickly and make brand-new item news somewhat typically, but there are some standard features I actually desire they had that I require to simply wait for.
One is that they need to have a setting on registration forms where I can pick an automation to run right at the form degree. That would certainly be AWESOME for a lot of reasons. As of now, membership types look OK, yet there’s extremely little setups for them to aid in division.
It would certainly behave to have tagging at the subscriber degree. This would be powerful.
I think webhooks ought to be part of automations to make integrated automations less complicated and lower reliance on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are additionally some minor management user interface adjustments that would be handy. For instance:
- Ability to mass edit/remove clients.
- Ability to bulk edit blog posts (for instance, to label a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of standard fields as standard on customers (like the name).
- Some more customization choices for the web site (such as even more versatile shade choices, headline control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Things I wish they perform with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, yet it isn’t ideal and certainly not virtually as created as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM item.
It probably never ever will certainly be, either. As I said, the function is various so it would not much a lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to come to be a full marketing automation platform. I presume you never ever recognize, however.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I such as BeeHiiv fairly a whole lot. Enough where I decided to change my own newsletters over to the platform in spite of my personal preference for digital sovereignty and owning my own system.
Put simply, for the e-newsletter publishing version specifically, I saw adequate worth in their platform to necessitate the change.
Keep in mind, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my exclusive e-mail list. I make use of BeeHiiv of what it is proficient at, however I purposefully have things establish to make sure that I additionally maintain my list “in house” inside of FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the exact same. It is simply a great insurance coverage, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your checklist will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a complete 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 using Substack now, I ‘d most definitely consider switching to BeeHiiv. It will just be a lot more business-friendly. It is targeting various capabilities and different needs. And also, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the switch ought to be rather uncomplicated.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d possibly stay unless you have a large email listing and are for that reason being wooled with their high month-to-month costs. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are iterating swiftly. There’s also a pretty good possibility you’re not also making use of some of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not even need them. Because of that, BeeHiiv could easily be a far better and a lot more economical fit.
Finally, if you plan to be extremely willful concerning growing an e-newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE platform to consider and keep and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is made to be, it is among the best video games around right now. This is the system to enjoy.
BeeHiiv provides a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves checking out on your own. And if you wind up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll locate the cost-free account to be quite feature abundant.