I have actually utilized a lot of different email list systems over the years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a massive proponent of digital sovereignty and having your own platform. Because of that (and the outstanding features), I have actually been using Beehiiv Reach More Customers.
So, it is certainly an unusual move for me to choose to make use of BeeHiiv. After all, it is a hosted application and I am paying month-to-month 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 intend to attend to the problem of digital sovereignty while using the platform and I ‘d also such as to deal with why I selected to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For E-newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Hobby + A Huge Shift In Technique, I discussed how and why I chose to turn my motor home blog into mostly an e-newsletter. I decided that was business design I wished to go after with that building.
Yet, to intentionally seek it as a newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the e-mail list for Gladly recreational vehicle, but FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, truthfully, utilizing it for newsletters is a bit of a waste. Extra on that in a bit.
As I claimed because problem of the e-newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a platform with tools constructed into it details to my purpose. Things such as:
- Capability to release (to the blog site) and send the email all at once without having it be 2 separate activities.
- Built in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would certainly require a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capability to do cross-promotions with other newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are generally one-click membership web links. Great for promotion in various other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are means to do that.
- Capacity to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Integrated ad network, if I choose to monetize with advertisements in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and primarily run a premium newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter authors with features focused on growth. The system was actually constructed by the individuals that accumulated the technology for Early morning Brew. They know what they’re doing.
That is the point here. BeeHiiv is constructed from scratch for the objective of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different objective.
And I ended off with this:.
I might undoubtedly be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv as well. A minimum of, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. In fact, I simply went for it. And actually, The side was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s own property so that I can expand it more intentionally as well.
The goal is that each newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded independently. Happily recreational vehicle was young, so very easy to transition. But, The Morning WP (previously The Side) was buried in a sea of stuff below at the Blog Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s very own. It will undoubtedly always be closely connected with the Blog site Marketing Academy, yet doesn’t have to belong of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv because it was built for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Regular Email List
There’s a difference in between a newsletter platform and simply an email listing.
You can host your email list anyplace you desire and there are a number of them around, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted choices like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The main distinction is that, with an e-newsletter system, the act of publishing means that it is mosting likely to your site and to your e-mail customers all at once.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a web site. You are publishing to that website. Yet, you are likewise dispatching to all clients at the same time. The web site and it’s customers are done in one. This makes management of the platform much less complex.
With most e-mail systems, any type of e-newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is built entirely independently from your web site. So, for instance, you might release a write-up to WordPress however then you would need to individually construct and send out an email to your listing to send it to clients. These are then two separate collections of archives and 2 different activities since article and your e-mails are not naturally linked.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress right into a real e-newsletter system is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name because it virtually “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress posts and permits them to be the very same point. Certainly, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a strong choice if I wished to continue to self-host whatever. However, you ‘d lose the growth tools that feature a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing an e-newsletter naturally includes a different collection of needs than a typical e-mail listing.
You do not usually need much marketing automation. You do not generally need autoresponder series, occasion tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO requirement, however, is one smooth publishing experience and development tools to help you build your customer base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my clients that I was mosting likely to switch the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had lots of people ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the truth that I chose to choose BeeHiiv, that doesn’t mean I think Substack draws. In fact, since Substack has actually been about longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple points that at first obtained my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly customized to newsletter authors. As a matter of fact, it is actually constructed by the same people who developed the innovation behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real world, does not matter. But, the evident positioning of BeeHiiv towards e-newsletter development called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “maker”. Growth is what I’m interested in right here.
- That branding and distinction also means that BeeHiiv has some fairly big brands and huge magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo creators. Again, it just tells me the client character difference between the two business.
Sending our my newsletter by means of FluentCRM didn’t exactly draw. The only reason I would certainly ponder drinking points up is if I assumed I could GROW the checklist much faster. And BeeHiiv talked precisely to that objective.
Because of the targeting, I actually don’t check out BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a different sort of consumer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being more straight rivals.
Yet, let’s dive much deeper than just the positioning right here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv looks like it was constructed by individuals who understanding e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears extra tailored towards creators.
For instance, BeeHiiv provides custom-made fields on clients. Now, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. As a matter of fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that works a lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation performance is still early-phase. It is still rather limited in triggers and the only action is the ability to send out an e-mail. However, enhancements are coming. Soon sufficient, automations will have new triggers along with new actions, such as changing custom areas, sending out webhooks, and so on. I’ve already seen enhancements to their automations simply because I began making use of the system. As an example:
- Capability to set off automations based on which particular embed kind they was available in on.
- Ability to automatically do re-engagement (and deal with people based upon opens and non-opens).
- Ability to do basic conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can’t do this because the target market of Substack just wouldn’t believe to approach this like an e-mail marketing expert.
When it pertains to writing your newsletters, the composing user interface of BeeHiiv is just much more tailored towards e-newsletters. In fact, it in fact has similarities to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it works. I discover it to be a lot more instinctive, directly.
Substack’s composing user interface is nice and tidy, but it would be extra equivalent to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This distinction is greater than simply kind. For example, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Section” and then placed anything you desire in it. Then, you can place Exposure alternatives on that particular section to reveal it only to paid customers, hide it from email, conceal from clients, reveal only to clients, etc. Substack offers nothing similar to this.
And when/if the time comes that I begin a premium registration model, BeeHiiv does not take any type of income. In fact, you literally connect approximately your own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your profits. Depending upon how many clients you obtain, that 10% can be quite a bit even more cash than the regular monthly price of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This could appear unpopular, however what it means is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv work with the outdoors utilizing tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … nothing. No integrations in all.
Generally, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was much more developed towards actual e-mail marketing. It was developed by individuals who “get it”. Also the opt-in forms and the landing page designs seem better constructed for conversions. Development is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I want to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have said, Substack placements itself towards “developers” more than email marketing experts and newsletter proprietors. Because of that, you see some things tailored more toward individuals who just think in regards to web content development.
For instance, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does support multiple magazines, they are treated quite separately. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to multiple magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I require, however … cool for people who may need it.
Substack likewise has even more social performance built-in. For example, it has a chat function to host chats with subscribers. It additionally has a “Notes” function which works sort of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you read. Fascinating. On the whole, Substack is set up to be more like a social media which sustains long-form content.
In general, Substack is also much more … minimalist. You either care for that or don’t. Directly, I do not. However, if the goal is simpleness of user interface and, frankly, features … Substack works rather well.
However, I’ll be clear below …
When it involves actual marketing, I do not assume there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is much better fit. I looked for even more factors that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, yet frankly … I have a tough time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are commonly through to be the closest rivals, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are going after the very same target market and have similar capabilities.
ConvertKit is likewise placed at makers (like Substack), yet it is a lot more strongly dealing with people who do it for organization. ConvertKit has nice visual automation structure, it’s very own business platform, and much more. ConvertKit is an actually wonderful system.
I’m not going to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature failure below. ConvertKit is popular currently. However, here’s just how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has much more adaptability when it pertains to it’s automations. I will additionally state that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit much more user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports marking. This is just a standard feature of email listings that allows segmentation in an even more versatile means than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain marking at some point quickly, honestly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Reach More Customers.
ConvertKit does now provide the capacity to market points through their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is necessary to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would certainly always pick a much more straight option anyhow. For me, I prefer to use my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been about much longer and because of that has way a lot more integration options. Lots of web-based tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is rather effective. As an example, their plugin currently also sustains member-gated content as well as auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your website. Fundamentally, this much more carefully places ConvertKit into direct competition by having you have the ability to release to your site and your e-mail checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is severely lacking in these type of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll arrive. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even busy tackling the development devices of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not only incentivize people to share your e-newsletter with advantages, yet you can additionally pay per lead within the internal advertisement network of BeeHiiv to grow your checklist. These are truly remarkable features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you understand ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of the most popular viral promotion platforms for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall surface for what this implies for the system moving forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Reach More Customers
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that indicates much less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this stage of the cycle. Nonetheless, it also means that they are quickly establishing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have witnessed virtually weekly launch of new features right into the platform. And these aren’t weak little features … but huge features that are rather vital. Their speed of growth at this point has actually been impressive.
I also quite value how responsive they are. Actually, among their item announcements regarding some style improvements to the website design features in fact included a small issue with the content size. I just responded to that email to tell them. I rapidly obtained a reply straight from the CEO:.
That exact same day, the concern was dealt with.
Few days later, I gave them an additional tip …
Sure enough, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to activate automations based upon the embed form made use of was included in the system.
That sort of responsiveness and direct involvement of the team is something I truly value.
An additional significant factor of differentiation right here is the cost. Both platforms use complimentary plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan uses more capacity and more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also even more positive. ConvertKit seems less expensive in the beginning look since their pricing page reveals lower numbers, however the customer limits are much lower and your price quickly enhances as your checklist expands.
With BeeHiiv, your initial degree paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid each year), nevertheless 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 “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their best plan and the one I personally use), you can grow your listing as much as 100,000. A checklist of that size would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, as well, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay annually, also. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for just $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv remains in a totally different organization when it concerns pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point raise prices? They might as time goes on. Yet, I’m thinking individuals like myself who are already in will be locked-in. We’ll see how things continue.
Points I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of things you definitely require to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do seem to progress rather swiftly and make new product announcements somewhat commonly, yet there are some standard features I really desire they had that I require to just await.
One is that they require to have a setting on membership types where I might select an automation to run right at the form level. That would certainly be amazing for a lot of reasons. Currently, registration kinds look OK, but there’s really little setups for them to aid in division.
It would behave to have tagging at the customer level. This would certainly be effective.
I believe webhooks ought to become part of automations to make built-in automations much easier and lower reliance on outside tools like Zapier.
There are also some small management user interface adjustments that would certainly be handy. For example:
- Ability to mass edit/remove clients.
- Capability to bulk edit blog posts (for example, to tag a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of standard areas as basic on clients (like the name).
- Some more modification alternatives for the site (such as even more adaptable color options, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Things I wish they finish with it in the future. BeeHiiv is respectable, however it isn’t ideal and certainly not virtually as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM product.
It probably never ever will be, either. As I stated, the objective is different so it would not much a lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to end up being a complete marketing automation platform. I presume you never ever understand, though.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I such as BeeHiiv fairly a lot. Enough where I determined to change my own e-newsletters over to the platform in spite of my personal choice for digital sovereignty and possessing my own platform.
Basically, for the e-newsletter publishing model especially, I saw enough value in their platform to call for the modification.
Bear in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my special email listing. I make use of BeeHiiv of what it is efficient, however I deliberately have points set up to make sure that I also maintain my listing “in residence” inside of FluentCRM.
If you make use of BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the very same. It is simply an excellent insurance plan, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your list will be of high use (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 opinion, if you are making use of Substack right now, I ‘d certainly think about switching to BeeHiiv. It will simply be much more business-friendly. It is targeting different capabilities and various needs. Plus, BeeHiiv also has import tools for Substack, so the button must be pretty straightforward.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d possibly sit tight unless you have a big e-mail checklist and are as a result being fleeced with their high month-to-month expense. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are repeating swiftly. There’s additionally a pretty good possibility you’re not even making use of some of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not also need them. Because of that, BeeHiiv might conveniently be a far better and a lot more budget friendly fit.
Finally, if you plan to be very deliberate concerning expanding an e-newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE system to think about and keep and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is created to be, it is just one of the most effective video games in town now. This is the system to watch.
BeeHiiv offers a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth checking out on your own. And if you end up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll discover the cost-free account to be quite feature abundant.