I have used a great deal of different e-mail list systems for many years. In the last number of years, I have actually been a significant proponent of digital sovereignty and having your very own platform. For that reason (and the amazing features), I have actually been utilizing Beehiiv Unsubscribe Survey.
So, it is without a doubt a strange move for me to make a decision to utilize BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is a hosted application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I wish to go over why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I want to address the problem of digital sovereignty while using the platform and I ‘d likewise such as to address why I picked to utilize it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For Newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Hobby + A Huge Change In Strategy, I discussed how and why I chose to turn my recreational vehicle blog site into largely a newsletter. I determined that was the business version I wanted to pursue with that said residential or commercial property.
Yet, to purposefully pursue it as a newsletter, I desired a system that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the e-mail listing for Gladly RV, yet FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter system. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, truthfully, using it for e-newsletters is a little a waste. Much more on that particular in a little bit.
As I claimed in that issue of the newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a system with tools built right into it specific to my purpose. Points such as:
- Capacity to release (to the blog) and send the e-mail all at once without having it be 2 separate activities.
- Integrated in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would certainly require a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capability to do cross-promotions with other newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are primarily one-click subscription web 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 advertise your e-newsletter.
- Integrated advertisement network, if I select to generate income from with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capacity to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and primarily run a premium e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Essentially, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter authors with features aimed at growth. The platform was actually developed by the individuals who built up the innovation for Morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the point below. BeeHiiv is constructed from scratch for the purpose of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various objective.
And I finished off with this:.
I may indeed be relocating The Edge over to BeeHiiv as well. At least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. In fact, I simply went for it. And actually, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s own building to ensure that I can grow it extra deliberately also.
The goal is that each newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s own media entity and grown separately. Happily recreational vehicle was young, so simple to shift. Yet, The Early morning WP (formerly The Side) was hidden in a sea of things 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 undoubtedly always be carefully tied with the Blog site Marketing Academy, but doesn’t have to belong of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was built for this function. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Regular Email List
There’s a difference in between a newsletter system and just an email list.
You can organize your e-mail checklist anyplace you desire 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 publishing means that it is mosting likely to your site and to your e-mail customers concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a web site. You are releasing to that web site. Yet, you are also dispatching to all customers at the same time. The website and it’s subscribers are done in one. This makes administration of the system much less complex.
With the majority of email systems, any kind of newsletter you set up is done as an e-mail campaign. It is built totally individually from your internet site. So, as an example, you might release a write-up to WordPress however after that you would require to separately build and send out an e-mail to your listing to send it to customers. These are after that two separate sets of archives and two separate actions due to the fact that blog posts and your e-mails are not naturally linked.
The closest point that transforms WordPress right into a true e-newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name since it basically “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and allows them to be the very same thing. Certainly, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a strong choice if I wanted to remain to self-host whatever. Nonetheless, you would certainly lose the development devices that come with a platform like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter inherently includes a various collection of demands than a common email checklist.
You do not usually need much marketing automation. You don’t typically need autoresponder sequences, occasion monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO need, though, is one smooth posting experience and growth devices to assist you construct your customer base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my subscribers that I was mosting likely to switch over the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had lots of people ask me why I was picking it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the fact that I picked to opt for BeeHiiv, that does not suggest I think Substack sucks. In fact, because Substack has actually been around longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Although BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple points that originally obtained my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is especially customized to e-newsletter authors. As a matter of fact, it is literally developed by the same people who constructed the technology behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, does not matter. Yet, the obvious positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter development called me out over the more generic positioning of being a “maker”. Growth is what I’m interested in below.
- That branding and differentiation additionally suggests that BeeHiiv has some rather big brands and big magazines utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo designers. Once more, it just tells me the consumer avatar difference in between the two firms.
Sending our my e-newsletter by means of FluentCRM really did not specifically suck. The only reason I would certainly ponder trembling things up is if I thought I might expand the checklist quicker. And BeeHiiv spoke specifically to that objective.
Due to the targeting, I really don’t check out BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a different type of consumer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more direct rivals.
However, allow’s dive deeper than simply the positioning here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv seems like it was constructed by people that understanding email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears a lot more tailored toward developers.
As an example, BeeHiiv supplies customized areas on clients. Currently, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv provides Automations. As a matter of fact, it is a visual automation builder that functions a lot like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation performance is still early-phase. It is still quite restricted in triggers and the only activity is the capacity to send an e-mail. Nevertheless, enhancements are coming. Soon sufficient, automations will have new triggers in addition to new activities, such as changing custom areas, sending webhooks, etc. I’ve already seen enhancements to their automations simply since I began making use of the platform. For example:
- Capacity to cause automations based upon which details embed kind they can be found in on.
- Capacity to automatically do re-engagement (and manage people based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Capacity to do standard conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can’t do this due to the fact that the target market of Substack simply would not think to approach this like an e-mail marketing expert.
When it comes to creating your e-newsletters, the writing user interface of BeeHiiv is simply much more tailored towards e-newsletters. Actually, it in fact has similarities to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it works. I locate it to be a lot more instinctive, directly.
Substack’s creating user interface is nice and tidy, but it would certainly be much more equivalent to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is more than simply type. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Section” and afterwards put anything you desire in it. Then, you can place Visibility choices on that area to reveal it only to paid customers, hide it from e-mail, hide from subscribers, reveal just to clients, etc. Substack offers absolutely nothing such as this.
And when/if the time comes that I start a costs membership version, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any earnings. As a matter of fact, you essentially link as much as your very own Stripe account and it charges directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your income. Relying on how many clients you obtain, that 10% can be quite a bit more cash than the regular monthly cost of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This may appear nerdy, yet what it means is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv work with the outdoors making use of tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … absolutely nothing. No integrations at all.
Overall, I just felt like BeeHiiv was much more developed toward real email marketing. It was constructed by people that “get it”. Even the opt-in kinds and the landing page creates seem better developed for conversions. Development is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the instructions it is going more than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually said, Substack placements itself toward “developers” greater than email marketers and e-newsletter proprietors. For that reason, you see some things tailored a lot more toward people that just assume in regards to material production.
For instance, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does support several magazines, they are dealt with quite independently. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to multiple publications at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, however … awesome for individuals who may require it.
Substack likewise has even more social capability built-in. As an example, it has a chat function to host chats with customers. It additionally has a “Notes” feature which functions type of like a social media newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you read. Intriguing. In general, Substack is set up to be extra like a social media network which supports long-form web content.
In general, Substack is additionally more … minimalist. You either care for that or do not. Personally, I don’t. Nevertheless, if the objective is simplicity of interface and, honestly, features … Substack works rather well.
Yet, I’ll be clear right here …
When it comes to actual marketing, I don’t think there’s much question that BeeHiiv is better fit. I tried to find more factors that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, but honestly … I have a hard time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are often via to be the closest rivals, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are going after the very same target market and have comparable capabilities.
ConvertKit is additionally placed at makers (like Substack), yet it is much more strongly dealing with individuals that do it for company. ConvertKit has good aesthetic automation building, it’s own business platform, and a lot more. ConvertKit is a truly wonderful system.
I’m not going to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature failure here. ConvertKit is popular already. However, right here’s just how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Points ConvertKit Is Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has more versatility when it concerns it’s automations. I will likewise state that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit a lot more user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports identifying. This is just a standard function of e-mail checklists that allows segmentation in a much more versatile way than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to sustain labeling eventually quickly, truthfully. It feels like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Unsubscribe Survey.
ConvertKit does currently offer the capability to market things via their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is essential to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nonetheless, I would certainly constantly pick an extra straight choice anyway. For me, I prefer to utilize my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been about a lot longer and because of that has way a lot more integration alternatives. Tons of web-based tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is quite effective. For example, their plugin currently also sustains member-gated content as well as auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Fundamentally, this extra closely puts ConvertKit right into straight competition by having you be able to publish to your website and your email checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is drastically lacking in these sort of third-party integrations right now. It’ll arrive. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy taking on the development devices of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your e-newsletter with advantages, yet you can also pay per lead within the interior advertisement network of BeeHiiv to grow your checklist. These are actually outstanding features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you understand ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of one of the most well known viral promo systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall surface wherefore this indicates for the platform going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Unsubscribe Survey
BeeHiiv is a lot earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that suggests less features and less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. Nevertheless, it also suggests that they are rapidly creating.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually witnessed virtually weekly release of new features into the system. And these aren’t weak little features … yet huge features that are rather vital. Their rate of advancement now has actually gone over.
I additionally quite appreciate exactly how receptive they are. As a matter of fact, one of their item statements about some design enhancements to the web design features really consisted of a small issue with the web content size. I merely responded to that e-mail to tell them. I rapidly got a reply directly from the chief executive officer:.
That exact same day, the issue was taken care of.
Few days later on, I provided an additional recommendation …
Sure enough, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to activate automations based upon the embed kind made use of was added to the system.
That kind of responsiveness and straight participation of the group is something I truly appreciate.
Another major factor of distinction right here is the price. Both platforms provide complimentary plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan uses a lot more capacity and more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally FAR more beneficial. ConvertKit seems less costly at first glimpse since their pricing page shows reduced numbers, however the customer restrictions are FAR reduced and your cost quickly raises as your list expands.
With BeeHiiv, your very first level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid each year), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 clients. That same size listing 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 directly make use of), you can expand your listing up to 100,000. A list of that size would 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 simply $84/month if you pay annually.
BeeHiiv is in a totally different organization when it involves pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately enhance rates? They may as time takes place. But, I’m guessing people like myself that are already in will be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how things continue.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
Among the things you absolutely need to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do seem to progress instead rapidly and make brand-new item statements rather commonly, yet there are some fundamental features I really want they had that I require to just await.
One is that they require to have a setting on membership forms where I might select an automation to run right at the kind level. That would be remarkable for many factors. As of now, subscription forms look OK, yet there’s really little setups for them to assist in segmentation.
It would be nice to have marking at the client degree. This would certainly be effective.
I believe webhooks should become part of automations to make integrated automations less complicated and reduce reliance on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are likewise some minor administrative user interface changes that would certainly come in handy. For example:
- Capacity to bulk edit/remove clients.
- Capability to mass edit articles (as an example, to tag a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a few basic fields as standard on customers (like the name).
- Some even more personalization options for the site (such as even more versatile shade choices, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Things I hope they finish with it in the future. BeeHiiv is respectable, yet it isn’t excellent and certainly not virtually as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM product.
It possibly never will be, either. As I claimed, the purpose is various so it wouldn’t a lot a lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to end up being a full marketing automation system. I think you never recognize, though.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Review
I such as BeeHiiv fairly a great deal. Sufficient where I chose to switch my very own newsletters over to the system in spite of my personal preference for digital sovereignty and owning my very own platform.
Basically, for the e-newsletter posting version specifically, I saw adequate worth in their system to call for the modification.
Bear in mind, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my exclusive email checklist. I use BeeHiiv of what it is efficient, but I intentionally have things establish so that I additionally maintain my checklist “in house” inside of FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the same. It is just a good insurance plan, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your checklist will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will be).
So, the question is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my point of view, if you are making use of Substack now, I ‘d most definitely take into consideration switching over to BeeHiiv. It will merely be extra business-friendly. It is targeting various capabilities and various demands. Plus, BeeHiiv also has import devices for Substack, so the button should be rather straightforward.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d possibly stay put unless you have a large e-mail checklist and are for that reason being fleeced with their high month-to-month costs. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are repeating swiftly. There’s also a respectable possibility you’re not even using several of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you don’t also need them. For that reason, BeeHiiv can easily be a much better and a lot more economical fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be extremely willful regarding 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 regarding what it is designed to be, it is just one of the very best games around today. This is the platform to view.
BeeHiiv uses a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves checking out for yourself. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll locate the complimentary account to be fairly feature rich.