I have actually made use of a great deal of different e-mail list systems throughout the years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a big supporter of digital sovereignty and owning your very own platform. Because of that (and the amazing features), I have actually been utilizing Beehiiv Revenue Calculator.
So, it is without a doubt a strange move for me to make a decision to utilize BeeHiiv. After all, it is an organized application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I wish to look at why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I want to resolve the issue of digital sovereignty while making use of the platform and I would certainly likewise like to resolve why I selected to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For E-newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Big Shift In Strategy, I talked about just how and why I chose to turn my RV blog site right into largely an e-newsletter. I determined that was the business design I intended to go after with that home.
However, to purposefully seek it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a system that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the e-mail checklist for Happily motor home, yet FluentCRM is not a newsletter system. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, frankly, using it for e-newsletters is a bit of a waste. Extra on that in a little bit.
As I said in that issue of the newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a system with tools constructed into it details to my purpose. Points such as:
- Ability to release (to the blog site) and send the e-mail all at once without having it be 2 separate activities.
- Built in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not 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 system.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are generally one-click registration links. Great for promotion in other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, though, so there are methods to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your newsletter.
- Built-in advertisement network, if I select to generate income from with ads in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capacity to run a paid newsletter upgrade and primarily run a costs e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features aimed at development. The system was literally developed by the people that built up the innovation for Morning Brew. They know what they’re doing.
That is the factor below. BeeHiiv is built from scratch for the objective of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a various objective.
And I ended off with this:.
I might undoubtedly be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv as well. At least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. As a matter of fact, I simply went all out. And as a matter of fact, The side was re-branded over to The Morning WP, set off as it’s own building to ensure that I can grow it extra deliberately as well.
The objective is that each e-newsletter has the capability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown independently. Happily RV was young, so simple to transition. Yet, The Morning WP (formerly The Side) was buried in a sea of things here at the Blog Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s own. It will clearly constantly be very closely connected with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet doesn’t have to be a part of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was constructed for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Simply A Normal Email List
There’s a distinction between an e-newsletter platform and simply an email listing.
You can organize your email listing just about anywhere you want and there are a number of them available, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted choices like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The primary difference is that, with a newsletter platform, the act of posting means that it is going to your website and to your email subscribers all at once.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are publishing to that internet site. But, you are additionally sending to all customers at the same time. The website and it’s customers are done in one. This makes administration of the system much less complex.
With most email platforms, any e-newsletter you set up is done as an e-mail campaign. It is developed completely individually from your site. So, for example, you might release a post to WordPress yet after that you would require to independently build and send out an e-mail to your checklist to send it to customers. These are after that two different sets of archives and 2 separate actions because blog posts and your emails are not naturally linked.
The closest thing that turns WordPress into a real e-newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name due to the fact that it virtually “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress messages and enables them to be the same thing. Definitely, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a strong alternative if I wanted to remain to self-host everything. Nevertheless, you ‘d lose the growth tools that include a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter inherently features a various set of demands than a common email listing.
You do not normally require much marketing automation. You do not 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 growth tools to aid you construct your client base that are specific to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my customers that I was going to switch the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many people ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the reality that I picked to select BeeHiiv, that does not suggest I believe Substack sucks. In fact, due to the fact that Substack has been around much longer, it is elder and has more features.
Although BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple points that initially obtained my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly tailored to newsletter authors. In fact, it is actually built by the very same folks who constructed the innovation behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real life, does not matter. Yet, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv towards e-newsletter growth called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “creator”. Growth is what I want here.
- That branding and differentiation likewise indicates that BeeHiiv has some relatively huge brand names and large magazines utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended even more at solo creators. Again, it simply tells me the consumer character distinction between the two business.
Sending our my newsletter by means of FluentCRM didn’t precisely draw. The only reason I would ponder drinking things up is if I thought I might GROW the checklist quicker. And BeeHiiv talked exactly to that goal.
Due to the targeting, I actually don’t see BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a different kind of consumer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra straight rivals.
However, allow’s dive much deeper than simply the placing right here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv feels like it was constructed by people who recognizing e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems much more tailored towards creators.
For example, BeeHiiv offers personalized fields on clients. Now, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv supplies Automations. In fact, it is a visual automation builder that works a whole lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation functionality is still early-phase. It is still rather restricted in triggers and the only activity is the ability to send an email. Nevertheless, improvements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will have new triggers as well as brand-new actions, such as modifying custom areas, sending webhooks, etc. I have actually currently seen improvements to their automations simply considering that I began making use of the system. For instance:
- Capability to set off automations based on which certain embed kind they came in on.
- Capability to immediately do re-engagement (and manage individuals based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Ability to do fundamental conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack simply can’t do this due to the fact that the target audience of Substack just would not think to approach this like an email marketing professional.
When it concerns creating your newsletters, the composing user interface of BeeHiiv is simply more tailored towards newsletters. As a matter of fact, it actually has similarities to the WordPress block builder in just how it works. I locate it to be more user-friendly, personally.
Substack’s composing interface is nice and tidy, yet it would be extra equal to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is greater than simply type. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Section” and after that put anything you want in it. Then, you can place Presence options on that area to reveal it only to paid clients, hide it from email, hide from subscribers, reveal only to customers, and so on. Substack uses absolutely nothing similar to this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a premium registration design, BeeHiiv does not take any type of profits. Actually, you essentially link approximately your own Stripe account and it bills directly to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your revenue. Relying on the amount of subscribers you obtain, that 10% can be quite a bit more money than the regular monthly price of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This could appear nerdy, but what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outside making use of tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … absolutely nothing. No integrations in any way.
Overall, I simply seemed like BeeHiiv was extra developed toward actual email marketing. It was developed by individuals who “get it”. Also the opt-in kinds and the landing page creates seem far better developed for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv add, I such as the direction it is going greater than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have stated, Substack settings itself toward “designers” greater than e-mail marketing experts and newsletter proprietors. Because of that, you see some points geared a lot more towards people who just think in terms of web content creation.
For example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does support several publications, they are treated rather individually. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to multiple publications at the same time. This isn’t something I need, yet … cool for people who could need it.
Substack also has even more social capability built-in. As an example, it has a chat function to host chats with clients. It likewise has a “Notes” feature which functions kind of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share things from other “Stacks” you read. Interesting. On the whole, Substack is established to be more like a social media network which supports long-form material.
On the whole, Substack is also much more … minimalist. You either care for that or do not. Personally, I don’t. Nevertheless, if the objective is simpleness of user interface and, honestly, features … Substack functions rather well.
However, I’ll be clear right here …
When it comes to real marketing, I do not think there’s much question that BeeHiiv is better suited. I searched for even more factors that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, however truthfully … I have a hard time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are typically via to be the closest rivals, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are pursuing the exact same target market and have similar abilities.
ConvertKit is likewise placed at developers (like Substack), however it is a lot more highly dealing with individuals that do it for organization. ConvertKit has nice aesthetic automation building, it’s own commerce system, and extra. ConvertKit is a truly good system.
I’m not mosting likely to bore you with a complete feature-by-feature failure below. ConvertKit is popular already. Yet, right here’s just how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has much 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 supports identifying. This is simply a basic feature of email lists that makes it possible for segmentation in a far more versatile way than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to support marking eventually soon, frankly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Revenue Calculator.
ConvertKit does now offer the capacity to sell things through their very own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is necessary to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, nonetheless, I would always choose an extra direct choice anyhow. For me, I favor to utilize my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been around much longer and for that reason has way extra integration options. Tons of online tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their own WordPress plugin that is quite powerful. For instance, their plugin now also sustains member-gated content along with auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your website. Essentially, this extra carefully puts ConvertKit right into straight competitors by having you have the ability to release to your site and your e-mail listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is seriously lacking in these sort of third-party integrations currently. It’ll get there. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy tackling the growth tools of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your e-newsletter with advantages, yet you can likewise pay per lead within the inner advertisement network of BeeHiiv to grow your checklist. These are really incredible features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you recognize ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of one of the most popular viral promotion systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall surface for what this indicates for the platform moving forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Revenue Calculator
BeeHiiv is a lot earlier in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means less features and much less integrations, which is all-natural for this phase of the cycle. Nevertheless, it additionally means that they are rapidly establishing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually seen practically weekly release of brand-new features into the system. And these aren’t puny little features … yet large features that are rather important. Their rate of advancement at this point has been impressive.
I likewise quite value just how responsive they are. In fact, among their product news concerning some layout enhancements to the website design features actually consisted of a small issue with the web content width. I merely replied to that e-mail to tell them. I quickly obtained a reply directly from the chief executive officer:.
That same day, the issue was repaired.
Couple of days later, I provided another suggestion …
Indeed, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to cause automations based upon the embed type made use of was included in the system.
That kind of responsiveness and straight participation of the group is something I actually value.
One more significant factor of distinction below is the cost. Both systems supply totally free plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan provides extra ability and more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also FAR more desirable. ConvertKit appears more affordable initially glance because their pricing page reveals lower numbers, however the subscriber limitations are much reduced and your cost swiftly increases as your checklist expands.
With BeeHiiv, your initial degree paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid each year), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 customers. That same dimension checklist is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I personally utilize), you can expand your listing as much as 100,000. A listing of that dimension would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, too, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay every year, as well. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay each year.
BeeHiiv is in an entirely various organization when it pertains to pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually enhance rates? They could as time takes place. But, I’m thinking people like myself who are already in will be locked-in. We’ll see just how things continue.
Things I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of the important things you definitely need to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do seem to advance instead quickly and make new item announcements rather frequently, yet there are some basic features I really desire they had that I require to simply await.
One is that they need to have a setup on subscription types where I might select an automation to run right at the form level. That would certainly be remarkable for many reasons. As of now, registration forms look OK, but there’s really little settings for them to assist in division.
It would certainly be nice to have identifying at the subscriber degree. This would certainly be effective.
I assume webhooks must become part of automations to make built-in automations simpler and minimize reliance on outdoors tools like Zapier.
There are also some minor management interface adjustments that would certainly come in handy. For instance:
- Ability to mass edit/remove subscribers.
- Capability to bulk edit posts (for example, to identify a number of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of basic fields as common on customers (like the name).
- Some more modification choices for the site (such as even more versatile shade choices, heading control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Things I wish they perform with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t best and certainly not virtually as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM item.
It probably never ever will be, either. As I stated, the purpose is various so it would not a lot a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to come to be a full marketing automation system. I think you never recognize, however.
Final Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Review
I such as BeeHiiv fairly a whole lot. Enough where I determined to change my own e-newsletters over to the system despite my personal preference for digital sovereignty and possessing my own platform.
Basically, for the e-newsletter posting version especially, I saw adequate worth in their system to require the adjustment.
Keep in mind, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my special e-mail listing. I use BeeHiiv wherefore it is efficient, but I purposefully have things set up so that I likewise keep my list “in residence” inside of FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the exact same. It is simply a great insurance policy, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your listing will certainly be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the concern is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are utilizing Substack right now, I ‘d definitely think about switching over to BeeHiiv. It will just be much more business-friendly. It is targeting different capabilities and various needs. Plus, BeeHiiv also has import devices for Substack, so the switch must be quite simple.
If you get on ConvertKit now, I ‘d probably stay unless you have a big email checklist and are as a result being fleeced with their high month-to-month costs. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are repeating quickly. There’s additionally a respectable opportunity you’re not also using some of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you do not also require them. Therefore, BeeHiiv could quickly be a better and a lot more cost effective fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be extremely deliberate about growing a newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE platform to consider and maintain and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is created to be, it is one of the most effective games in town right now. This is the platform to see.
BeeHiiv provides a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves looking into for yourself. And if you wind up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll find the complimentary account to be quite feature abundant.