I have used a lot of various email list systems over the years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a significant supporter of digital sovereignty and having your own platform. Therefore (and the outstanding features), I have been utilizing Beehiiv Top Newsletters.
So, it is undoubtedly an unusual move for me to choose to make use of BeeHiiv. Besides, it is a held application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv evaluation, I intend to look at why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I intend to address the problem of digital sovereignty while utilizing the system and I ‘d also like to resolve why I selected to use it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For Newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my newsletter called My Pastime + A Huge Change In Method, I spoke about just how and why I chose to transform my recreational vehicle blog right into mostly an e-newsletter. I decided that was the business model I wished to go after with that building.
However, to intentionally pursue it as an e-newsletter, I desired a system that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the email 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, honestly, using it for e-newsletters is a little a waste. A lot more on that in a little bit.
As I said because problem of the e-newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a platform with tools developed right into it particular to my objective. Things such as:
- Capability to publish (to the blog site) and send out the email concurrently without having it be 2 separate actions.
- Integrated in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would certainly require a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capacity to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are basically one-click membership links. Great for promo in other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are ways to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your newsletter.
- Integrated advertisement network, if I choose to generate income from with advertisements in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and primarily run a costs e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features targeted at growth. The system was literally constructed by the individuals who built up the modern technology for Morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the point below. BeeHiiv is constructed from the ground up for the purpose of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various function.
And I ended off with this:.
I may undoubtedly be relocating The Edge over to BeeHiiv as well. At the very least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. Actually, I simply went for it. And in fact, The side was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s very own property so that I can grow it a lot more deliberately as well.
The goal is that each newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown individually. Happily motor home was young, so simple to shift. However, The Early morning WP (formerly The Edge) was buried in a sea of stuff below at the Blog Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s very own. It will clearly constantly be very closely tied with the Blog Marketing Academy, however does not have to belong of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv because it was developed for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Just A Normal Email Listing
There’s a distinction in between a newsletter platform and simply an email checklist.
You can host your email listing everywhere you want and there are a number of them around, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The main distinction is that, with a newsletter platform, the act of posting means that it is going to your internet site and to your email subscribers simultaneously.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are releasing to that website. However, you are also sending 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 less complex.
With a lot of e-mail systems, any newsletter you set up is done as an email campaign. It is built completely individually from your site. So, as an example, you could publish a post to WordPress however after that you would certainly require to independently build and send out an email to your checklist to send it to subscribers. These are after that 2 different collections of archives and two separate activities since article and your emails are not inherently linked.
The closest thing that turns WordPress right into a true e-newsletter platform is Newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name because it basically “glues” your newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and enables them to be the same thing. Certainly, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid alternative if I wished to continue to self-host whatever. Nevertheless, you ‘d shed the growth devices that come with a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting a newsletter naturally features a various collection of demands than a common e-mail checklist.
You do not normally require much marketing automation. You do not generally need autoresponder sequences, event monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO need, however, is one seamless publishing experience and development devices to aid you build your customer base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my subscribers that I was going to switch the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the truth that I chose to select BeeHiiv, that doesn’t imply I believe Substack sucks. Actually, because Substack has been about much longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple things that originally obtained my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly customized to e-newsletter publishers. In fact, it is actually developed by the same folks who developed the modern technology behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real life, does not matter. However, the obvious positioning of BeeHiiv towards e-newsletter development called me out over the more common positioning of being a “creator”. Growth is what I have an interest in here.
- That branding and differentiation also implies that BeeHiiv has some fairly big brand names and large magazines utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended even more at solo designers. Once more, it simply informs me the client character distinction between both companies.
Sending our my newsletter using FluentCRM really did not exactly draw. The only factor I would certainly consider trembling points up is if I believed I could expand the listing faster. And BeeHiiv spoke specifically to that objective.
As a result of the targeting, I really don’t view BeeHiiv and Substack as straight competitors. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a various sort of customer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra direct rivals.
However, let’s dive much deeper than just the placing here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Generally, BeeHiiv feels like it was developed by individuals who understanding email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems extra tailored towards developers.
As an example, BeeHiiv offers custom-made fields on subscribers. Now, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. Actually, it is a visual 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 capability to send out an email. Nonetheless, improvements are coming. Soon enough, automations will certainly have new triggers in addition to brand-new actions, such as modifying personalized fields, sending webhooks, etc. I’ve currently seen enhancements to their automations just because I began utilizing the platform. For example:
- Capacity to cause automations based on which details embed kind they was available in on.
- Capacity to immediately do re-engagement (and handle people based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Capability to do fundamental conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never will. Substack just can not do this since the target market of Substack simply wouldn’t think to approach this like an e-mail marketing professional.
When it pertains to composing your e-newsletters, the creating user interface of BeeHiiv is simply a lot more geared towards e-newsletters. In fact, it actually has similarities to the WordPress block builder in how it works. I locate it to be a lot more user-friendly, directly.
Substack’s composing interface behaves and clean, yet it would be more comparable to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is more than simply form. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Section” and afterwards placed anything you want in it. Then, you can place Presence alternatives on that section to show it only to paid customers, hide it from email, hide from customers, reveal only to subscribers, etc. Substack uses absolutely nothing such as this.
And when/if the time comes that I begin a costs subscription model, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any type of income. In fact, you essentially link approximately your own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your income. Depending on the amount of customers you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit even more cash than the month-to-month expense of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This could seem unpopular, but what it suggests is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv work with the outside utilizing tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … nothing. No integrations in any way.
On the whole, I just felt like BeeHiiv was more developed towards actual e-mail marketing. It was constructed by individuals who “get it”. Also the opt-in kinds and the landing page makes seem better constructed for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I would love 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 claimed, Substack positions itself toward “designers” greater than email marketers and e-newsletter proprietors. Because of that, you see some things geared more towards individuals that simply think in terms of content development.
As an example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does support multiple magazines, they are treated quite individually. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to numerous magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I need, however … great for people that may need it.
Substack also has more social functionality built-in. For instance, it has a conversation feature to host talks with customers. It likewise has a “Notes” function which functions type of like a social media newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you’re reading. Fascinating. Overall, Substack is set up to be a lot more like a social media network which sustains long-form material.
Overall, Substack is additionally more … minimal. You either care for that or don’t. Personally, I do not. However, if the objective is simplicity of user interface and, frankly, features … Substack works pretty well.
However, I’ll be clear below …
When it pertains to actual marketing, I do not assume there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is much better matched. I searched for more points that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, yet frankly … I have a tough time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are usually with to be the closest rivals, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are pursuing the exact same target audience and have comparable capacities.
ConvertKit is also placed at designers (like Substack), but it is much more strongly satisfying people that do it for business. ConvertKit has great aesthetic automation structure, it’s own commerce system, and much more. ConvertKit is a really nice system.
I’m not going to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature break down right here. ConvertKit is well known already. However, below’s exactly how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Points ConvertKit Is Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has more flexibility when it comes to it’s automations. I will likewise state that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit a lot more user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports tagging. This is simply a standard function of e-mail lists that allows segmentation in a far more versatile method than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support labeling at some time quickly, truthfully. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Top Newsletters.
ConvertKit does currently provide the capacity to offer points using their very own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is very important to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would always select a more direct choice anyhow. For me, I choose to utilize my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually 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 even has their own WordPress plugin that is rather effective. As an example, their plugin now also supports member-gated content as well as auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your site. Essentially, this extra very closely places ConvertKit into direct competition by having you be able to release to your site and your e-mail checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is drastically doing not have in these sort of third-party integrations currently. It’ll arrive. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even active tackling the development devices of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not only incentivize individuals to share your e-newsletter with rewards, however you can additionally pay per lead within the inner advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your listing. These are truly incredible features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you recognize ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of one of the most well known viral promo platforms for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall surface of what this means for the system going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Top Newsletters
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means less features and less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. Nevertheless, it likewise means that they are quickly creating.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have seen almost weekly release of new features right into the platform. And these aren’t weak little features … yet big features that are rather vital. Their speed of development now has gone over.
I also very much value exactly how receptive they are. Actually, among their item statements about some layout enhancements to the web design features in fact contained a tiny trouble with the web content width. I merely replied to that e-mail to tell them. I swiftly obtained a reply straight from the CEO:.
That same day, the problem was repaired.
Couple of days later, I gave them an additional suggestion …
Sure enough, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to set off automations based upon the embed form made use of was contributed to the system.
That kind of responsiveness and direct involvement of the team is something I actually value.
One more major factor of differentiation below is the rate. Both platforms offer totally free plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan offers much more ability and even more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise much more favorable. ConvertKit appears cheaper initially glimpse because their pricing page reveals lower numbers, nonetheless the subscriber limits are much lower and your rate swiftly boosts as your listing expands.
With BeeHiiv, your initial level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid every year), however you can have up to 10,000 clients. That exact same dimension listing 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 list approximately 100,000. A listing of that size would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, too, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay annually, too. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay annually.
BeeHiiv remains in an entirely various organization when it involves pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately boost rates? They might as time takes place. Yet, I’m thinking individuals like myself that are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how things proceed.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
One of things you definitely require to remember is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do seem to progress rather rapidly and make new product statements somewhat commonly, yet there are some standard features I really wish they had that I need to just await.
One is that they need to have a setting on registration types where I might select an automation to run right at the kind level. That would certainly be amazing for a lot of reasons. As of now, membership types look OK, but there’s really little settings for them to help in segmentation.
It would certainly behave to have labeling at the subscriber level. This would certainly be powerful.
I think webhooks need to be part of automations to make integrated automations easier and reduce dependence on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are additionally some minor administrative interface adjustments that would certainly come in handy. For example:
- Ability to mass edit/remove customers.
- Capacity to bulk edit blog posts (as an example, to identify a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of fundamental areas as conventional on clients (like the name).
- Some even more modification alternatives for the site (such as more flexible color choices, heading control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Things I hope they do with it in the future. BeeHiiv is respectable, but it isn’t excellent and certainly not virtually as established as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM item.
It possibly never ever will be, either. As I claimed, the function is various so it wouldn’t much a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to end up being a complete marketing automation system. I think you never ever recognize, however.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I like BeeHiiv fairly a great deal. Enough where I decided to change my own e-newsletters over to the system regardless of my individual choice for digital sovereignty and possessing my own platform.
Simply put, for the newsletter posting model particularly, I saw sufficient worth in their system to require the change.
Bear in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my exclusive e-mail checklist. I make use of BeeHiiv wherefore it is good at, yet I purposefully have points set up so that I also keep my listing “in residence” inside of FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the exact same. It is simply a good insurance policy, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your listing will certainly be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will certainly be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my point of view, if you are using Substack right now, I ‘d most definitely consider switching to BeeHiiv. It will merely be more business-friendly. It is targeting various abilities and various demands. Plus, BeeHiiv also has import tools for Substack, so the button should be pretty uncomplicated.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d probably sit tight unless you have a big email list and are therefore being wooled with their high regular monthly expense. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are repeating swiftly. There’s likewise a pretty good opportunity you’re not also utilizing some of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not even require them. Because of that, BeeHiiv could conveniently be a far better and a lot more budget friendly fit.
Finally, if you plan to be very intentional about expanding a newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE platform to consider and keep and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is made to be, it is among the most effective games in town today. This is the platform to see.
BeeHiiv offers a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth checking out for yourself. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll discover the free account to be fairly feature abundant.