I have utilized a lot of various e-mail list systems throughout the years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a massive advocate of digital sovereignty and owning your own platform. Therefore (and the outstanding features), I have been using Beehiiv Vs Customer.io.
So, it is undoubtedly a weird move for me to make a decision to make use of BeeHiiv. Besides, it is an organized application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I want to go over why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I wish to resolve the concern of digital sovereignty while utilizing the system and I ‘d also like to resolve why I chose to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For Newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Huge Shift In Technique, I talked about how and why I decided to turn my motor home blog site right into mainly a newsletter. I made a decision that was the business design I wished to seek keeping that building.
However, to intentionally seek it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the e-mail list for Gladly recreational vehicle, but FluentCRM is not a newsletter platform. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, honestly, utilizing it for newsletters is a bit of a waste. Much more on that particular in a bit.
As I stated in that concern of the e-newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a system with tools built into it details to my function. Things such as:
- Capability to publish (to the blog site) and send the e-mail simultaneously without having it be 2 separate activities.
- Constructed in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would certainly require a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capacity to do cross-promotions with other newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are essentially one-click registration links. Great for promo in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, though, so there are means to do that.
- Capacity to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Integrated advertisement network, if I pick to generate income from with advertisements in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in ability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and essentially run a premium newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features focused on development. The system was actually built by the individuals that developed the modern technology for Early morning Mixture. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the factor below. BeeHiiv is constructed from the ground up for the function of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various purpose.
And I ended off with this:.
I might without a doubt be relocating The Side over to BeeHiiv as well. At least, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. In fact, I simply went all out. And actually, The side was re-branded over to The Morning WP, triggered as it’s very own building to make sure that I can grow it extra intentionally as well.
The goal is that each e-newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown separately. Happily recreational vehicle was young, so very easy to change. However, The Morning WP (formerly The Edge) was buried in a sea of stuff here at the Blog Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s own. It will obviously always be carefully linked with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet doesn’t need to belong of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was constructed for this function. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Normal Email Listing
There’s a difference in between an e-newsletter platform and just an email checklist.
You can organize your e-mail checklist anyplace you desire and there are a variety of them out there, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted alternatives like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The key distinction is that, with a newsletter platform, the act of posting indicates that it is going to your site and to your email subscribers at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a site. You are publishing to that website. However, you are likewise sending to all clients at the same time. The website and it’s customers are done in one. This makes administration of the platform much simpler.
With the majority of e-mail platforms, any newsletter you set up is done as an email campaign. It is built entirely separately from your site. So, for instance, you might release a post to WordPress but after that you would certainly need to individually construct and send an e-mail to your checklist to send it to clients. These are after that 2 separate collections of archives and two separate activities due to the fact that blog posts and your e-mails are not naturally connected.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress right into a real e-newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name because it pretty much “glues” your newsletter to your WordPress articles and permits them to be the exact same point. Certainly, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid alternative if I wished to continue to self-host every little thing. However, you would certainly lose the development devices that include a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing an e-newsletter naturally features a different set of needs than a typical email list.
You don’t usually need much marketing automation. You don’t usually 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 development tools to help you develop your customer base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my clients that I was mosting likely to switch over the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the truth that I chose to opt for BeeHiiv, that doesn’t indicate I believe Substack sucks. In fact, because Substack has been around much longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple things that initially got my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically tailored to newsletter authors. As a matter of fact, it is essentially built by the very same people who built the innovation behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, doesn’t matter. However, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter growth called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “creator”. Growth is what I want below.
- That branding and distinction likewise implies that BeeHiiv has some fairly large brand names and large magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo designers. Again, it simply informs me the customer avatar distinction between both business.
Sending our my e-newsletter through FluentCRM didn’t specifically draw. The only factor I would certainly consider drinking points up is if I assumed I might GROW the checklist faster. And BeeHiiv spoke specifically to that goal.
As a result of the targeting, I actually do not view BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a different type of customer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra straight rivals.
However, allow’s dive much deeper than just the positioning here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv feels like it was constructed by people that comprehending e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears more tailored towards designers.
For instance, BeeHiiv offers custom fields on subscribers. Now, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv provides Automations. As a matter of fact, it is a visual automation builder that works a lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation functionality is still early-phase. It is still fairly restricted in triggers and the only activity is the capability to send out an e-mail. Nonetheless, enhancements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will certainly have brand-new triggers along with brand-new actions, such as modifying custom areas, sending out webhooks, and so on. I have actually already seen improvements to their automations just considering that I began using the system. For example:
- Capability to trigger automations based upon which specific embed kind they was available in on.
- Capability to immediately do re-engagement (and take care of people based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Capability to do fundamental conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack simply can not do this since the target audience of Substack just would not believe to approach this like an e-mail marketer.
When it pertains to composing your newsletters, the composing user interface of BeeHiiv is simply extra tailored towards newsletters. Actually, it really has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it functions. I discover it to be a lot more intuitive, personally.
Substack’s creating interface behaves and tidy, however it would be a lot more equivalent to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This distinction is greater than just form. For example, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Section” and afterwards placed anything you desire in it. After that, you can put Exposure options on that particular area to show it just to paid clients, hide it from email, conceal from subscribers, reveal only to clients, etc. Substack supplies absolutely nothing such as this.
And when/if the moment comes that I start a costs subscription model, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any revenue. In fact, you essentially attach as much as your very own Stripe account and it charges directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your profits. Depending upon the number of customers you get, that 10% can be quite a bit more money than the monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This could appear unpopular, yet what it suggests is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outside utilizing tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … absolutely nothing. No integrations whatsoever.
On the whole, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was much more developed toward real email marketing. It was constructed by people who “get it”. Also the opt-in forms and the landing page develops seem far better developed for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I would love to see BeeHiiv add, I like the direction it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have claimed, Substack positions itself toward “makers” greater than email marketing professionals and newsletter owners. Therefore, you see some points tailored much more towards individuals who simply assume in regards to web content creation.
For instance, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does sustain numerous magazines, they are treated quite separately. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to several publications at the same time. This isn’t something I need, but … trendy for individuals that might need it.
Substack also has more social performance built-in. As an example, it has a conversation feature to host chats with subscribers. It also has a “Notes” function which works type of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share things from other “Stacks” you read. Fascinating. In general, Substack is set up to be more like a social media network which supports long-form material.
Generally, Substack is additionally a lot more … minimal. You either take care of that or do not. Directly, I don’t. Nevertheless, if the objective is simpleness of interface and, frankly, features … Substack functions pretty well.
However, I’ll be clear below …
When it concerns actual marketing, I don’t believe there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is better fit. I searched for even more points that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, however honestly … I have a tough time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are frequently via to be the closest rivals, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are going after the very same target audience and have comparable abilities.
ConvertKit is also positioned at makers (like Substack), but it is far more strongly satisfying people that do it for business. ConvertKit has nice visual automation building, it’s very own business platform, and a lot more. ConvertKit is an actually great platform.
I’m not going to bore you with a complete feature-by-feature break down here. ConvertKit is popular already. Yet, below’s how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Points ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has extra adaptability when it involves it’s automations. I will likewise say that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit extra intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports identifying. This is simply a basic feature of email checklists that makes it possible for segmentation in a far more versatile method than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain labeling at some point quickly, honestly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Vs Customer.io.
ConvertKit does currently give the capability to offer points via their very own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is necessary to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would certainly always choose an extra direct option anyway. For me, I prefer to use my very own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about a lot longer and for that reason has way much more integration options. Lots of web-based devices and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is quite effective. For instance, their plugin currently also supports member-gated web content in addition to auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Fundamentally, this much more very closely places ConvertKit into straight competitors by having you have the ability to release to your website and your email checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is drastically doing not have in these sort of third-party integrations currently. It’ll get there. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even busy tackling the growth tools of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not only incentivize people to share your e-newsletter with perks, yet you can additionally pay per lead within the inner ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your listing. These are truly incredible features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you understand 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 writing on the wall surface of what this suggests for the platform going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Vs Customer.io
BeeHiiv is a lot previously in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that suggests much less features and less integrations, which is all-natural for this phase of the cycle. Nonetheless, it additionally suggests that they are quickly creating.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually witnessed virtually regular release of brand-new features right into the system. And these aren’t undersized little features … however huge features that are rather crucial. Their speed of development at this point has actually been impressive.
I additionally quite value just how responsive they are. As a matter of fact, among their product statements concerning some layout improvements to the website design features in fact consisted of a small issue with the web content size. I just responded to that e-mail to tell them. I swiftly obtained a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That very same day, the issue was fixed.
Few days later on, I gave them another tip …
Indeed, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to activate automations based on the embed kind used was contributed to the system.
That kind of responsiveness and straight participation of the team is something I truly value.
An additional significant factor of differentiation right here is the price. Both platforms use complimentary plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan uses a lot more ability and even more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also even more favorable. ConvertKit appears less costly at first glance because their pricing web page reveals lower numbers, nonetheless the customer limitations are much reduced and your price quickly increases as your list grows.
With BeeHiiv, your initial degree paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid every year), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 clients. That exact same size listing is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their ideal plan and the one I directly make use of), you can grow your checklist up to 100,000. A list of that dimension 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 every year, also. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay each year.
BeeHiiv remains in a totally various organization when it concerns pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually raise costs? They might as time takes place. However, I’m guessing individuals like myself that are already in will be locked-in. We’ll see how things continue.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of the things you definitely need to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do seem to advance instead swiftly and make new item news somewhat typically, however there are some basic features I really wish they had that I need to just await.
One is that they need to have a setting on subscription types where I might choose an automation to run right at the form level. That would certainly be outstanding for numerous reasons. Currently, registration forms look OK, yet there’s really little setups for them to assist in segmentation.
It would certainly behave to have marking at the customer degree. This would certainly be powerful.
I assume webhooks should become part of automations to make built-in automations easier and lower dependence on outdoors tools like Zapier.
There are also some small administrative interface adjustments that would come in handy. For instance:
- Capacity to mass edit/remove subscribers.
- Capability to mass edit messages (for example, to label a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a few standard fields as conventional on clients (like the name).
- Some even more personalization alternatives for the site (such as more versatile color selections, headline control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Points I hope they make with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, but it isn’t ideal and definitely not nearly as created as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM item.
It probably never will be, either. As I said, the purpose is different so it wouldn’t much a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to end up being a complete marketing automation system. I presume you never know, though.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Review
I such as BeeHiiv rather a lot. Enough where I determined to change my very own e-newsletters over to the platform regardless of my individual preference for digital sovereignty and possessing my own system.
Basically, for the newsletter publishing design especially, I saw sufficient worth in their system to necessitate the change.
Remember, I do not use BeeHiiv as my special e-mail list. I use BeeHiiv of what it is efficient, but I intentionally have points establish to ensure that I likewise keep my list “in home” inside of FluentCRM.
If you make use of BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the same. It is just a good insurance policy, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your checklist will certainly be of high use (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the question is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are using Substack today, I ‘d certainly think about switching to BeeHiiv. It will just be a lot more business-friendly. It is targeting different abilities and different requirements. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the button needs to be quite uncomplicated.
If you get on ConvertKit now, I ‘d probably stay put unless you have a huge e-mail checklist and are as a result being fleeced with their high monthly costs. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are repeating quickly. There’s also a pretty good possibility you’re not even making use of several of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not even require them. For that reason, BeeHiiv can easily be a far better and more economical fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be very intentional regarding growing an e-newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE platform to think about and maintain and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is created to be, it is among the most effective video games in the area now. This is the system to view.
BeeHiiv uses a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth looking into on your own. And if you wind up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll find the cost-free account to be quite feature rich.