I have utilized a great deal of different e-mail list systems over the years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a huge supporter of digital sovereignty and possessing your very own platform. For that reason (and the remarkable features), I have been using Beehiiv Raises.
So, it is indeed an odd move for me to decide to use BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is an organized application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I wish to review why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I intend to attend to the concern of digital sovereignty while utilizing the platform and I would certainly likewise like to attend to why I chose to use it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For Newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Huge Shift In Approach, I discussed just how and why I made a decision to transform my motor home blog into mostly an e-newsletter. I determined that was business design I wanted to go after keeping that residential or commercial property.
However, to deliberately seek it as a newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the e-mail checklist for Gladly recreational vehicle, but FluentCRM is not a newsletter system. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, honestly, utilizing it for newsletters is a bit of a waste. Much more on that particular in a little bit.
As I claimed in that issue of the e-newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a system with tools constructed right into it details to my purpose. Things such as:
- Capacity to release (to the blog site) and send the email all at once without having it be 2 separate activities.
- Integrated in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Built-in ability to do cross-promotions with various other newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are generally one-click registration links. Great for promotion in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are means to do that.
- Capacity to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your newsletter.
- Integrated advertisement network, if I select to monetize with advertisements in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capacity to run a paid newsletter upgrade and essentially run a costs e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter publishers with features targeted at development. The platform was essentially developed by the individuals who accumulated the technology for Morning Mixture. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the factor right here. BeeHiiv is developed from the ground up for the objective of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various function.
And I ended off with this:.
I may indeed be moving The Side over to BeeHiiv also. At the very least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. Actually, I just went for it. And in fact, The side was re-branded over to The Morning WP, set off as it’s very own home to ensure that I can grow it more intentionally also.
The goal is that each newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded separately. Happily motor home was young, so easy to transition. But, The Morning WP (formerly The Side) was hidden in a sea of things here at the Blog Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s own. It will undoubtedly always be closely linked with the Blog Marketing Academy, but does not have to be a part of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was built for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Just A Normal Email List
There’s a distinction in between an e-newsletter platform and simply an email list.
You can organize your email listing anywhere you desire and there are a variety of them around, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted alternatives like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The main difference is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of posting suggests that it is going to your web site and to your e-mail subscribers simultaneously.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a site. You are publishing to that internet site. Yet, you are additionally sending off to all clients at the same time. The internet site and it’s customers are done in one. This makes monitoring of the system much easier.
With most email systems, any newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is developed entirely separately from your site. So, for instance, you may publish a write-up to WordPress yet after that you would certainly need to independently construct and send out an email to your list to send it to customers. These are after that 2 different sets of archives and 2 separate activities due to the fact that blog posts and your e-mails are not inherently linked.
The closest thing that turns WordPress into a true e-newsletter system is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name since it basically “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and permits them to be the very same thing. Certainly, something like E-newsletter Glue would be a strong option if I wished to continue to self-host whatever. Nevertheless, you would certainly lose the growth tools that come with a platform like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter naturally includes a various collection of requirements than a regular email list.
You don’t generally need much marketing automation. You do not normally require autoresponder sequences, event tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO need, however, is one smooth publishing experience and growth tools to aid you construct your customer base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my customers that I was going to change the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had lots of people ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the reality that I selected to choose BeeHiiv, that doesn’t suggest I believe Substack sucks. As a matter of fact, since Substack has actually been around much longer, it is elder and has more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple things that initially got my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is especially customized to newsletter publishers. Actually, it is essentially constructed by the exact same individuals that constructed the technology behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, does not matter. However, the evident positioning of BeeHiiv toward e-newsletter growth called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “designer”. Development is what I want below.
- That branding and distinction likewise means that BeeHiiv has some fairly huge brand names and big magazines utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended even more at solo developers. Once again, it simply informs me the consumer avatar difference in between both companies.
Sending our my newsletter by means of FluentCRM didn’t exactly draw. The only reason I would ponder trembling things up is if I believed I could GROW the list much faster. And BeeHiiv talked specifically to that objective.
Due to the targeting, I in fact do not check out BeeHiiv and Substack as direct competitors. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a various type of consumer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being more straight rivals.
But, allow’s dive much deeper than simply the placing here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
On the whole, BeeHiiv seems like it was constructed by people that comprehending e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems much more geared towards designers.
For instance, BeeHiiv uses custom fields on clients. Now, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. Actually, it is a visual automation builder that works a lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still quite limited in triggers and the only activity is the capability to send an email. Nonetheless, improvements are coming. Soon sufficient, automations will certainly have brand-new triggers along with brand-new activities, such as customizing personalized fields, sending out webhooks, etc. I’ve already seen enhancements to their automations simply given that I started utilizing the system. For instance:
- Capability to trigger automations based upon which details embed kind they was available in on.
- Ability to immediately do re-engagement (and deal with individuals based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Capacity to do fundamental conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack simply can not do this because the target audience of Substack simply wouldn’t believe to approach this like an email marketing expert.
When it involves creating your e-newsletters, the composing user interface of BeeHiiv is just extra tailored toward newsletters. Actually, it really has similarities to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it functions. I locate it to be much more user-friendly, personally.
Substack’s writing interface behaves and clean, but it would certainly be much more comparable to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This difference is greater than just type. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Section” and afterwards placed anything you desire in it. After that, you can place Visibility alternatives on that section to show it just to paid clients, hide it from e-mail, hide from customers, reveal just to clients, and so on. Substack provides absolutely nothing such as this.
And when/if the moment comes that I start a costs subscription design, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any profits. As a matter of fact, you literally link up to your very own Stripe account and it charges straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your revenue. Depending upon the amount of customers you get, that 10% can be a fair bit more cash than the monthly cost of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This could appear unpopular, but what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv deal with the outdoors utilizing tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … nothing. No integrations at all.
Overall, I just felt like BeeHiiv was extra developed towards genuine e-mail marketing. It was constructed by individuals who “get it”. Even the opt-in kinds and the landing page creates seem much better built for conversions. Growth is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I wish to see BeeHiiv add, I such as the direction it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually stated, Substack placements itself toward “creators” greater than email online marketers and e-newsletter proprietors. Therefore, you see some things geared more toward people that simply think in terms of content production.
As an example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does sustain several magazines, they are treated quite independently. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to several magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I require, but … trendy for people that may require it.
Substack also has more social functionality built-in. For instance, it has a chat feature to host chats with subscribers. It additionally has a “Notes” function which functions kind of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you read. Interesting. On the whole, Substack is set up to be a lot more like a social network which sustains long-form web content.
Overall, Substack is likewise more … minimal. You either look after that or do not. Directly, I do not. Nonetheless, if the goal is simplicity of interface and, truthfully, features … Substack works rather well.
But, I’ll be clear here …
When it involves actual marketing, I don’t assume there’s much question that BeeHiiv is better fit. I looked for even more factors that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, however truthfully … I have a hard time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are usually via to be the closest rivals, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are pursuing the very same target market and have similar capabilities.
ConvertKit is also placed at makers (like Substack), however it is a lot more strongly dealing with people that do it for organization. ConvertKit has good visual automation building, it’s own business platform, and more. ConvertKit is a really wonderful platform.
I’m not mosting likely to bore you with a complete feature-by-feature break down here. ConvertKit is well known already. However, right here’s just how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Points ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has extra flexibility when it pertains to it’s automations. I will certainly additionally claim that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit much more instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports identifying. This is just a standard function of email listings that makes it possible for division in a much more adaptable means than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to support identifying eventually soon, honestly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Raises.
ConvertKit does now give the capability to market things using their own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that’s important to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would certainly constantly choose a more direct alternative anyhow. For me, I favor to utilize my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about a lot longer and because of that has way much more integration options. Tons of online devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is rather powerful. As an example, their plugin currently even supports member-gated web content along with auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your site. Fundamentally, this much more very closely puts ConvertKit into direct competitors by having you have the ability to release to your website and your e-mail list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is badly lacking in these kinds of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll arrive. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even hectic taking on the growth devices of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not only incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with perks, but you can likewise pay per lead within the internal advertisement network of BeeHiiv to grow your checklist. These are really awesome features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you understand ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of the most well known viral promo platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall surface wherefore this means for the platform going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Raises
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that suggests much less features and much less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. However, it additionally indicates that they are quickly establishing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have experienced nearly regular release of new features right into the platform. And these aren’t puny little features … but large features that are rather crucial. Their speed of advancement now has gone over.
I additionally quite appreciate just how responsive they are. In fact, one of their product statements concerning some design improvements to the website design features actually had a small issue with the web content size. I just responded to that e-mail to tell them. I swiftly got a reply straight from the CEO:.
That same day, the issue was repaired.
Couple of days later, I gave them an additional recommendation …
Sure enough, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to activate automations based on the embed kind made use of was added to the system.
That sort of responsiveness and straight involvement of the team is something I truly appreciate.
One more significant point of distinction here is the cost. Both systems provide free plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan supplies much more ability and more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also FAR more desirable. ConvertKit appears less expensive at first look since their pricing web page shows lower numbers, however the client restrictions are FAR reduced and your price rapidly boosts as your listing expands.
With BeeHiiv, your first level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid annually), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That very same dimension listing 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 use), you can grow your listing approximately 100,000. A checklist of that size would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, also, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay every year, too. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for just $84/month if you pay each year.
BeeHiiv remains in an entirely various league when it concerns pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately boost rates? They might as time takes place. Yet, I’m guessing people like myself who are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how points continue.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
One of the important things you certainly require to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do seem to evolve rather promptly and make brand-new product announcements somewhat usually, but there are some standard features I actually want they had that I need to just wait for.
One is that they need to have a setup on membership kinds where I can choose an automation to run right at the kind level. That would be remarkable for many factors. Already, membership types look OK, yet there’s extremely little settings for them to help in segmentation.
It would certainly be nice to have identifying at the client level. This would certainly be effective.
I believe webhooks ought to be part of automations to make built-in automations much easier and minimize dependence on outside devices like Zapier.
There are also some minor administrative user interface modifications that would come in handy. As an example:
- Ability to mass edit/remove subscribers.
- Ability to mass edit articles (for instance, to mark a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a few fundamental areas as typical on subscribers (like the name).
- Some even more personalization choices for the web site (such as even more adaptable shade choices, headline control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Points I hope they do with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t perfect and absolutely not almost as established as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM item.
It probably never ever will be, either. As I claimed, the objective is different so it would not a lot a great deal of feeling for BeeHiiv to end up being a complete marketing automation platform. I think you never ever understand, though.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Review
I like BeeHiiv rather a lot. Sufficient where I made a decision to switch my own newsletters over to the system regardless of my personal preference for digital sovereignty and possessing my very own system.
Basically, for the newsletter publishing version specifically, I saw sufficient worth in their system to warrant the modification.
Bear in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my exclusive e-mail listing. I use BeeHiiv wherefore it is proficient at, but I intentionally have points establish to ensure that I likewise maintain my list “in home” within FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the exact same. It is just a good insurance plan, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your list will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will certainly be).
So, the concern is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are using Substack now, I ‘d most definitely think about switching to BeeHiiv. It will just be more business-friendly. It is targeting various capacities and different requirements. And also, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the button must be pretty uncomplicated.
If you get on ConvertKit now, I ‘d probably sit tight unless you have a huge email list and are consequently being wooled with their high monthly costs. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are iterating quickly. There’s likewise a respectable chance you’re not even using a few of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you don’t also require them. Because of that, BeeHiiv could easily be a far better and more budget friendly fit.
Finally, if you plan to be extremely deliberate concerning expanding a newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE system to consider and maintain and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is created to be, it is among the very best games in the area today. This is the platform to watch.
BeeHiiv uses a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves taking a look at for yourself. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll locate the totally free account to be rather feature abundant.