I have made use of a great deal of different e-mail list systems throughout the years. In the last number of years, I have actually been a massive supporter of digital sovereignty and having your very own system. For that reason (and the awesome features), I have actually been using Beehiiv Shaan Puri.
So, it is without a doubt an unusual move for me to make a decision to use 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 evaluation, I intend to review why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I want to deal with the problem of digital sovereignty while utilizing the system and I ‘d additionally such as to deal with why I picked 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 Huge Shift In Approach, I discussed exactly how and why I made a decision to turn my motor home blog into mainly an e-newsletter. I made a decision that was business design I wanted to go after with that said residential property.
But, to deliberately pursue 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 Happily recreational vehicle, however FluentCRM is not a newsletter platform. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, honestly, using it for e-newsletters is a little a waste. Much more on that in a little bit.
As I said because concern of the e-newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices built right into it certain to my function. Things such as:
- Ability to publish (to the blog site) and send the email all at once without having it be 2 different actions.
- Integrated in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would require 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 primarily one-click subscription web links. Great for promotion in various other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are ways to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Integrated advertisement network, if I select to generate income from with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in ability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and essentially run a premium newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter authors with features focused on development. The system was literally constructed by the individuals who built up the modern technology for Morning Brew. They know what they’re doing.
That is the point below. BeeHiiv is developed from scratch for the objective of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a various function.
And I ended off with this:.
I may undoubtedly be moving The Side over to BeeHiiv also. At least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. In fact, I simply went all out. And in fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s very own residential or commercial property so that I can grow it more intentionally too.
The objective is that each e-newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded separately. Happily RV was young, so simple to transition. However, The Early morning WP (formerly The Side) was buried in a sea of stuff here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s very own. It will certainly always be carefully connected with the Blog Marketing Academy, however does not have 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 Normal Email Listing
There’s a distinction in between a newsletter platform and just an e-mail list.
You can host your e-mail listing anyplace 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 distinction is that, with an e-newsletter system, the act of publishing suggests that it is mosting likely to your site and to your email customers concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a site. You are releasing to that site. Yet, you are also sending off to all subscribers at the same time. The internet site and it’s subscribers are all in one. This makes management of the platform much easier.
With most email platforms, any e-newsletter you set up is done as an e-mail campaign. It is developed completely independently from your web site. So, as an example, you may release an article to WordPress but then you would certainly require to separately construct and send out an email to your listing to send it to subscribers. These are after that two different sets of archives and two different activities because article and your emails are not naturally linked.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress into a true newsletter platform is Newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name since it virtually “glues” your e-newsletter to your WordPress articles and permits them to be the same thing. Certainly, something like E-newsletter Glue would be a strong choice if I intended to remain to self-host whatever. Nevertheless, you ‘d shed the development devices that come with a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter inherently features a various set of demands than a typical e-mail listing.
You don’t normally need much marketing automation. You do not generally require autoresponder sequences, occasion monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO requirement, though, is one seamless publishing experience and growth tools to aid you build your subscriber base that specify to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my subscribers that I was mosting likely to switch over 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 fact that I chose to opt for BeeHiiv, that does not mean I believe Substack sucks. As a matter of fact, because Substack has been about much longer, it is more mature and has more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple things that at first obtained my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically customized to e-newsletter authors. As a matter of fact, it is actually constructed by the very same folks that constructed the technology behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, doesn’t matter. But, the obvious positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter growth called me out over the more common positioning of being a “maker”. Growth is what I want below.
- That branding and differentiation additionally implies that BeeHiiv has some rather large brand names and big magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is aimed even more at solo creators. Once again, it simply tells me the client character distinction in between both business.
Sending our my newsletter through FluentCRM really did not exactly suck. The only factor I would certainly consider shaking things up is if I thought I can expand the listing faster. And BeeHiiv spoke exactly to that goal.
As a result of the targeting, I in fact don’t watch BeeHiiv and Substack as straight competitors. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a different kind of consumer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more straight rivals.
However, allow’s dive much deeper than simply the positioning right here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Generally, BeeHiiv seems like it was developed by individuals that understanding e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears a lot more tailored toward designers.
As an example, BeeHiiv offers custom fields on customers. Currently, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. Actually, it is an aesthetic automation builder that works a whole lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still fairly restricted in triggers and the only action is the capability to send out an e-mail. Nonetheless, improvements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will certainly have new triggers in addition to brand-new activities, such as changing custom fields, sending webhooks, and so on. I’ve already seen enhancements to their automations just considering that I began using the platform. As an example:
- Capacity to trigger automations based upon which certain embed type they was available in on.
- Capacity to immediately do re-engagement (and deal with people based on opens and non-opens).
- Ability to do basic conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack simply can’t do this since the target market of Substack simply would not believe to approach this like an e-mail marketer.
When it involves writing your e-newsletters, the creating interface of BeeHiiv is just much more tailored toward e-newsletters. In fact, it actually has similarities to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it works. I find it to be extra instinctive, directly.
Substack’s composing user interface is nice and tidy, however it would be much more equal to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This distinction is greater than simply type. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Area” and then placed anything you want in it. After that, you can place Visibility options on that particular section to show it only to paid clients, conceal it from e-mail, hide from clients, reveal just to subscribers, and so on. Substack provides absolutely nothing similar to this.
And when/if the time comes that I start a costs registration version, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any type of income. As a matter of fact, you literally link up to your very own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your revenue. Depending upon the amount of customers you obtain, that 10% can be quite a bit even more money than the regular monthly price of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This may seem unpopular, but what it suggests is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outdoors using devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … absolutely nothing. No integrations in any way.
In general, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was more built towards real email marketing. It was constructed by individuals that “get it”. Even the opt-in types and the landing page makes appear much better constructed for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv include, I like the instructions it is going more than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually stated, Substack positions itself towards “designers” more than e-mail marketing professionals and e-newsletter owners. Because of that, you see some things geared much more toward people that just believe in regards to material development.
As an example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does support multiple publications, they are treated quite individually. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to several publications at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, but … awesome for individuals that might require it.
Substack likewise has even more social functionality built-in. For instance, it has a chat feature to host talks with clients. It additionally has a “Notes” feature which works type of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share things from various other “Stacks” you read. Intriguing. Overall, Substack is set up to be extra like a social media network which sustains long-form web content.
Overall, Substack is additionally a lot more … minimal. You either take care of that or don’t. Directly, I don’t. Nonetheless, if the objective is simplicity of user interface and, truthfully, features … Substack works pretty well.
But, I’ll be clear here …
When it pertains to real marketing, I don’t think there’s much question that BeeHiiv is better fit. I looked for even more factors that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, however truthfully … I have a hard time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are commonly through to be the closest competitors, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are going after the same target market and have similar capacities.
ConvertKit is likewise placed at creators (like Substack), however it is much more strongly accommodating people who do it for company. ConvertKit has great visual automation building, it’s very own business system, and extra. ConvertKit is a truly nice platform.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature malfunction right here. ConvertKit is well known already. However, here’s just how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Points ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has a lot more adaptability when it concerns it’s automations. I will additionally claim that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit much more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports labeling. This is simply a basic feature of email checklists that enables segmentation in an even more adaptable method than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain identifying eventually soon, frankly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Shaan Puri.
ConvertKit does now offer the ability to sell things through their very own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is necessary to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would certainly constantly pick an extra direct option anyhow. For me, I like to utilize my own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been around a lot longer and because of that has way much more integration alternatives. Lots of web-based tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is fairly effective. For instance, their plugin now also supports member-gated material along with auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Fundamentally, this much more carefully puts ConvertKit into direct competition by having you be able to publish to your site and your e-mail list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is drastically lacking in these kinds of third-party integrations presently. It’ll get there. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also active taking on the growth devices of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not just incentivize people to share your e-newsletter with benefits, yet you can likewise pay per lead within the interior advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your list. These are truly amazing features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you know ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among one of the most well known viral promotion systems for e-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 Much Better At … Beehiiv Shaan Puri
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies much less features and less integrations, which is natural for this stage of the cycle. Nonetheless, it likewise suggests that they are swiftly developing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have experienced virtually weekly release of new features into the system. And these aren’t puny little features … yet large features that are fairly essential. Their rate of advancement now has been impressive.
I additionally very much value just how receptive they are. As a matter of fact, among their product announcements regarding some style enhancements to the web design features in fact contained a tiny problem with the content size. I simply replied to that e-mail to tell them. I quickly obtained a reply straight from the CEO:.
That same day, the concern was taken care of.
Couple of days later, I gave them one more suggestion …
Sure enough, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to trigger automations based upon the embed form used was added to the system.
That kind of responsiveness and straight participation of the team is something I actually value.
One more significant factor of distinction right here is the price. Both systems provide complimentary plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan offers a lot more ability and more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
As soon as you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also FAR more positive. ConvertKit appears cheaper initially glance since their pricing web page shows lower numbers, however the client limits are much reduced and your rate swiftly increases as your listing expands.
With BeeHiiv, your first degree paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid annually), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 customers. That exact same size checklist is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their best plan and the one I directly make use of), you can grow your list approximately 100,000. A listing of that size would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, also, that puts 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 annually.
BeeHiiv remains in an entirely different organization when it comes to pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately boost rates? They could as time goes on. However, I’m presuming people like myself who are already in will be locked-in. We’ll see just how points proceed.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of the important things you absolutely require to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do seem to advance rather rapidly and make brand-new product news rather commonly, but there are some fundamental features I actually want they had that I require to just wait for.
One is that they need to have a setup on membership types where I could select an automation to run right at the kind degree. That would certainly be remarkable for a lot of reasons. Currently, subscription types look OK, however there’s very little setups for them to aid in division.
It would certainly be nice to have identifying at the subscriber level. This would certainly be effective.
I believe webhooks ought to be part of automations to make integrated automations easier and lower reliance on outdoors tools like Zapier.
There are additionally some minor management user interface modifications that would certainly be handy. For instance:
- Ability to bulk edit/remove customers.
- Capability to mass edit articles (as an example, to mark a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a few fundamental fields as common on customers (like the name).
- Some more modification options for the web site (such as even more versatile shade selections, heading control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Things I wish they do with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, however it isn’t best and absolutely not almost as established as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM item.
It probably never will certainly be, either. As I stated, the objective is different so it wouldn’t a lot a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to come to be a complete marketing automation system. I think you never understand, though.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I such as BeeHiiv fairly a great deal. Sufficient where I chose to switch my own e-newsletters over to the platform despite my personal choice for digital sovereignty and owning my very own platform.
Basically, for the e-newsletter publishing design specifically, I saw sufficient worth in their system to warrant the adjustment.
Keep in mind, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my special email list. I make use of BeeHiiv wherefore it is good at, yet I purposefully have things set up to ensure that I likewise keep my checklist “in residence” within FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the same. It is just a good insurance policy, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your checklist will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my point of view, if you are making use of Substack right now, I ‘d most definitely take into consideration switching over to BeeHiiv. It will just be more business-friendly. It is targeting different capacities and various requirements. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the switch ought to be rather uncomplicated.
If you get on ConvertKit now, I ‘d most likely stay put unless you have a large email checklist and are for that reason being wooled with their high month-to-month expense. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are iterating quickly. There’s likewise a respectable opportunity you’re not even using a few of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you do not also require them. Therefore, BeeHiiv can conveniently be a better and extra inexpensive fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be very deliberate concerning expanding a newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE platform to take into consideration and keep and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is designed to be, it is one of the most effective games around right now. This is the system to view.
BeeHiiv offers a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves having a look at on your own. And if you wind up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll find the complimentary account to be fairly feature rich.