I have used a great deal of different email list systems for many years. In the last number of years, I have actually been a substantial advocate of digital sovereignty and possessing your own platform. Because of that (and the outstanding features), I have been utilizing Beehiiv Sign Up.
So, it is certainly a weird move for me to determine to use BeeHiiv. Besides, it is a hosted application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv evaluation, I wish to go over why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I intend to address the concern of digital sovereignty while utilizing the platform and I would certainly also like to deal with why I selected to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For Newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my newsletter called My Pastime + A Huge Shift In Technique, I spoke about just how and why I made a decision to turn my RV blog site right into primarily an e-newsletter. I chose that was the business version I wanted to go after with that said building.
However, to intentionally seek it as a newsletter, I desired a system that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the email listing for Happily RV, yet FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, frankly, utilizing it for e-newsletters is a little a waste. Much more on that in a bit.
As I said because concern of the e-newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices developed into it particular to my purpose. Things such as:
- Capacity to release (to the blog) and send out the email concurrently without having it be 2 different actions.
- Integrated in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would certainly require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capability to do cross-promotions with other newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are primarily one-click subscription links. Great for promo in various other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, however, so there are ways to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Built-in ad network, if I pick to monetize with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and primarily run a costs e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Basically, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features targeted at development. The platform was actually built by the individuals who developed the modern technology for Morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the point below. BeeHiiv is constructed 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 the very least, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I really did not 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, triggered as it’s very own residential property to make sure that I can grow it a lot more intentionally as well.
The objective is that each newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s own media entity and grown independently. Happily motor home was young, so easy to shift. However, The Early morning WP (formerly The Edge) was buried in a sea of things right 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 constantly be carefully linked with the Blog site Marketing Academy, yet does not have to be a part of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was built for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Simply A Regular Email List
There’s a difference between a newsletter platform and simply an e-mail list.
You can host your e-mail listing anyplace you want and there are a variety of them available, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted choices like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The key difference is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of publishing suggests that it is mosting likely to your web site and to your email subscribers all at once.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a web site. You are publishing to that web site. Yet, you are also sending to all customers at the same time. The web site and it’s customers are done in one. This makes administration of the platform much simpler.
With many e-mail platforms, any type of newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is constructed entirely individually from your site. So, for instance, you might publish a post to WordPress yet 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 different sets of archives and two separate activities due to the fact that post and your e-mails are not naturally connected.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress right into a real newsletter platform is Newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name because it basically “glues” your e-newsletter to your WordPress posts and permits them to be the same point. Absolutely, something like Newsletter Glue would be a strong alternative if I wished to remain to self-host everything. Nevertheless, you ‘d lose the development devices that come with a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter naturally features a various set of demands than a normal e-mail checklist.
You do not generally require much marketing automation. You do not usually require autoresponder sequences, occasion monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO demand, however, is one smooth posting experience and growth devices to assist 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 many people ask me why I was picking it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the truth that I chose to opt for BeeHiiv, that does not mean I believe Substack draws. As a matter of fact, because Substack has 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 got my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is especially tailored to newsletter publishers. As a matter of fact, it is essentially built by the exact same people that constructed the modern technology behind Early 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 development called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “designer”. Growth is what I’m interested in right here.
- That branding and differentiation also means that BeeHiiv has some fairly huge brands and large publications using it. Whereas SubStack is intended even more at solo designers. Again, it just tells me the consumer character difference in between both firms.
Sending our my newsletter through FluentCRM really did not precisely suck. The only factor I would ponder shaking things up is if I thought I might expand the listing quicker. And BeeHiiv spoke precisely to that objective.
As a result of the targeting, I really do not check out BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a different type of customer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being more direct rivals.
However, allow’s dive deeper than simply the placing right here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Generally, BeeHiiv looks like it was constructed by people who comprehending e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears a lot more geared toward designers.
For example, BeeHiiv provides custom areas on customers. Now, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. In fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that works a whole lot like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation performance is still early-phase. It is still fairly minimal in triggers and the only action is the capacity to send out an email. Nonetheless, enhancements are coming. Soon enough, automations will certainly have brand-new triggers along with new activities, such as changing customized fields, sending out webhooks, etc. I’ve currently seen improvements to their automations just considering that I started making use of the platform. For instance:
- Capacity to activate automations based on which details embed kind they can be found in on.
- Capability to automatically do re-engagement (and manage individuals based on opens and non-opens).
- Ability to do standard conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never will. Substack just can not do this due to the fact that the target audience of Substack just wouldn’t think to approach this like an email marketing professional.
When it concerns writing your e-newsletters, the creating user interface of BeeHiiv is just more tailored toward e-newsletters. As a matter of fact, it in fact has similarities to the WordPress block builder in just how it works. I discover it to be a lot more instinctive, personally.
Substack’s creating user interface behaves and tidy, however it would be much more equal to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is more than just type. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Section” and afterwards placed anything you want in it. After that, you can place Visibility options on that particular area to reveal it only to paid subscribers, conceal it from email, hide from clients, reveal just to clients, etc. Substack provides nothing like this.
And when/if the time comes that I begin a costs registration version, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any earnings. 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 profits. Depending on the number of clients you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit more cash than the regular monthly price of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This may appear nerdy, but what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv deal with the outdoors utilizing devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … absolutely nothing. No integrations in all.
Generally, I just felt like BeeHiiv was much more developed towards actual email marketing. It was built by people who “get it”. Also the opt-in types and the landing page develops seem far better constructed for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I want to see BeeHiiv include, I like the instructions it is going more than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have stated, Substack placements itself toward “designers” greater than email online marketers and e-newsletter proprietors. Because of that, you see some things geared much more towards people who simply believe in regards to material creation.
For example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does sustain several magazines, they are dealt with quite individually. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to several magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I need, yet … awesome for people that could require it.
Substack likewise has more social performance built-in. For instance, it has a conversation function to host talks with subscribers. It likewise has a “Notes” feature which functions type of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you’re reading. Fascinating. In general, Substack is set up to be much more like a social media network which sustains long-form web content.
Generally, Substack is also extra … minimal. You either take care of that or don’t. Directly, I do not. Nevertheless, if the objective is simpleness of interface and, honestly, features … Substack functions pretty well.
But, I’ll be clear here …
When it concerns actual marketing, I don’t believe there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is better fit. I looked for even more factors that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, however honestly … I have a hard time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are commonly through to be the closest competitors, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are going after the very same target market and have similar abilities.
ConvertKit is additionally placed at developers (like Substack), however it is far more highly accommodating people who do it for company. ConvertKit has wonderful visual automation structure, it’s own commerce platform, and a lot more. ConvertKit is a really nice system.
I’m not going to bore you with a full feature-by-feature malfunction here. ConvertKit is well known already. Yet, right here’s just how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has more versatility when it pertains to it’s automations. I will certainly also claim that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit a lot more user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports marking. This is just a basic feature of email checklists that allows division in a far more adaptable way than BeeHiiv currently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support marking at some time quickly, truthfully. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Sign Up.
ConvertKit does now give the capacity to market things through their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that’s important to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would certainly always pick an extra straight option anyway. For me, I choose to utilize my own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about much longer and because of that has way more integration choices. Lots of web-based tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their own WordPress plugin that is quite effective. For example, their plugin now also supports member-gated content in addition to auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your website. Basically, this extra carefully places ConvertKit into direct competitors by having you be able to publish to your website and your email listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is severely doing not have in these type of third-party integrations presently. It’ll get there. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy tackling the growth tools of BeeHiiv. As an example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not only incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with advantages, but you can likewise pay per lead within the interior ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your list. These are truly amazing features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you know ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of the most popular viral promo platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall for what this indicates for the system going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Sign Up
BeeHiiv is a lot previously in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that suggests less features and less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. Nevertheless, it additionally suggests that they are swiftly developing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have witnessed virtually once a week launch of brand-new features into the system. And these aren’t puny little features … however large features that are rather vital. Their rate of development at this point has actually gone over.
I also significantly appreciate exactly how receptive they are. As a matter of fact, among their product announcements about some layout enhancements to the website design features really consisted of a small problem with the web content width. I just responded to that e-mail to tell them. I promptly got a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That same day, the problem was fixed.
Few days later on, I gave them another recommendation …
Indeed, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to activate automations based on the embed type utilized was included in the system.
That kind of responsiveness and direct involvement of the group is something I really value.
An additional major point of differentiation below is the cost. Both systems supply free plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan offers much more ability and even more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise FAR more desirable. ConvertKit appears less expensive in the beginning glimpse due to the fact that their pricing web page shows lower numbers, however the customer restrictions are FAR reduced and your cost swiftly increases as your listing grows.
With BeeHiiv, your initial degree paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid every year), however you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That exact same size listing 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 directly use), you can grow your list approximately 100,000. A list 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 every year, as well. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for simply $84/month if you pay yearly.
BeeHiiv is in a totally different league when it comes to pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually increase costs? They could as time takes place. But, I’m presuming individuals like myself who are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how points continue.
Things I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of the things you definitely require to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do seem to evolve rather rapidly and make new product announcements somewhat commonly, but there are some basic features I really desire they had that I require to just wait for.
One is that they require to have a setup on subscription forms where I might pick an automation to run right at the type level. That would certainly be amazing for so many reasons. Currently, registration kinds look OK, but there’s very little setups for them to aid in segmentation.
It would certainly behave to have tagging at the customer level. This would be powerful.
I think webhooks should be part of automations to make integrated automations much easier and minimize reliance on outdoors tools like Zapier.
There are additionally some small administrative user interface modifications that would certainly come in handy. As an example:
- Capacity to mass edit/remove customers.
- Ability to bulk edit posts (for example, to identify a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a few fundamental areas as common on clients (like the name).
- Some even more modification options for the site (such as even more flexible shade options, headline control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Points I hope they perform with it in the future. BeeHiiv is respectable, however it isn’t perfect and definitely not virtually as created as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM product.
It probably never will be, either. As I said, the objective is various so it would not much a great deal of feeling for BeeHiiv to become a complete marketing automation platform. I presume you never understand, however.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I such as BeeHiiv quite a lot. Enough where I determined to change my very own newsletters over to the system in spite of my personal preference for digital sovereignty and having my very own platform.
Simply put, for the newsletter posting version especially, I saw sufficient worth in their platform to warrant the adjustment.
Remember, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my unique e-mail list. I use BeeHiiv of what it is good at, but I intentionally have things establish to ensure that I also keep my listing “in house” inside of FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the very same. It is just a great insurance coverage, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your list will be of high use (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will certainly be).
So, the question is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are utilizing Substack right now, I ‘d definitely think about changing to BeeHiiv. It will simply 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 pretty simple.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d probably stay put unless you have a large e-mail checklist and are as a result being wooled with their high monthly expense. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are repeating swiftly. There’s additionally a pretty good opportunity you’re not also using some of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not even require them. Therefore, BeeHiiv can conveniently be a much better and more budget friendly fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be extremely intentional about growing an e-newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE platform to think about and keep and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is designed to be, it is among the very best games in town today. This is the system to view.
BeeHiiv provides a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth taking a look at for yourself. And if you end up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll locate the free account to be quite feature rich.