I have made use of a lot of various email list systems throughout the years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a big advocate of digital sovereignty and possessing your very own system. For that reason (and the outstanding features), I have been utilizing Beehiiv Webflow.
So, it is without a doubt a strange move for me to make a decision to make use of BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is an organized application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I want to look at why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I want to deal with the problem of digital sovereignty while using the system and I ‘d additionally like to address why I selected to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For Newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my newsletter called My Pastime + A Big Change In Method, I talked about exactly how and why I made a decision to turn my motor home blog site right into primarily a newsletter. I decided that was business model I wished to seek with that property.
However, to intentionally seek it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a system that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the email checklist for Happily motor home, however FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, frankly, using it for newsletters is a bit of a waste. A lot more on that particular in a bit.
As I claimed because problem of the e-newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a system with devices constructed right into it particular to my function. Points such as:
- Capacity to release (to the blog) and send the e-mail concurrently without having it be two different actions.
- Built in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would certainly have needed a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in ability to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are generally one-click membership links. Great for promotion in other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are means to do that.
- Capacity to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your newsletter.
- Integrated advertisement network, if I choose to generate income from with ads in the newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and primarily run a costs newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Essentially, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter authors with features focused on growth. The system was essentially built by the individuals that developed the technology for Early morning Brew. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the point right here. BeeHiiv is developed from the ground up for the objective of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various objective.
And I finished off with this:.
I might certainly be relocating The Edge over to BeeHiiv also. A minimum of, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. In fact, I simply went all out. And actually, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s own residential or commercial property to make sure that I can expand it much more purposefully as well.
The objective is that each newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown independently. Gladly recreational vehicle was young, so simple to change. But, The Early morning WP (previously The Side) was hidden 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 certainly always be carefully connected with the Blog Marketing Academy, but does not need to be a part of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv since it was built for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Simply A Normal Email Checklist
There’s a difference in between a newsletter platform and simply an e-mail checklist.
You can hold your email checklist everywhere you want and there are a variety of them out there, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted choices like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The main distinction is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of publishing implies that it is mosting likely to your internet site and to your e-mail customers at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are releasing to that site. However, you are additionally sending to all clients at the same time. The site and it’s clients are done in one. This makes management of the system much simpler.
With a lot of e-mail systems, any e-newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is built entirely individually from your site. So, as an example, you may publish a write-up to WordPress but after that you would require to separately build and send an e-mail to your list to send it to clients. These are then 2 different collections of archives and 2 different activities because post and your emails are not naturally connected.
The closest point that turns WordPress right into a true e-newsletter platform is Newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name due to the fact that it pretty much “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress articles and permits them to be the very same thing. Absolutely, something like Newsletter Glue would be a solid choice if I intended to remain to self-host whatever. Nevertheless, you would certainly lose the development devices that feature a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting a newsletter inherently features a various collection of demands than a regular email list.
You don’t normally need much marketing automation. You do not usually need autoresponder series, occasion monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO demand, however, is one smooth publishing experience and development tools to help you develop your customer base that specify to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my clients that I was mosting likely to change the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was picking it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the reality that I selected to choose BeeHiiv, that doesn’t mean I assume Substack draws. In fact, due to the fact that Substack has been about much longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple things that initially obtained my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is especially tailored to newsletter publishers. In fact, it is actually developed by the exact same individuals that developed the technology behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real life, doesn’t matter. But, the evident positioning of BeeHiiv towards e-newsletter growth called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “designer”. Development is what I want below.
- That branding and distinction likewise indicates that BeeHiiv has some fairly huge brands and huge magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is intended even more at solo makers. Again, it simply informs me the client character distinction between both business.
Sending our my newsletter by means of FluentCRM really did not precisely suck. The only reason I would certainly consider trembling things up is if I thought I might GROW the list faster. And BeeHiiv talked precisely to that goal.
As a result of the targeting, I actually don’t view BeeHiiv and Substack as straight competitors. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a different sort of customer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more direct competitors.
Yet, allow’s dive deeper than just the positioning here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
On the whole, BeeHiiv feels like it was developed by people that comprehending email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems much more tailored towards designers.
For instance, BeeHiiv provides personalized fields on subscribers. Currently, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. Actually, it is an aesthetic automation builder that functions a lot like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still rather minimal in triggers and the only action is the capability to send an e-mail. However, enhancements are coming. Soon enough, automations will have new triggers along with new activities, such as customizing personalized areas, sending webhooks, and so on. I’ve currently seen enhancements to their automations simply considering that I began making use of the system. For instance:
- Capacity to set off automations based on which particular embed kind they can be found in on.
- Capacity to instantly do re-engagement (and handle individuals based on opens up and non-opens).
- Capability to do basic conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can not do this because the target audience of Substack just would not think to approach this like an email marketing expert.
When it involves creating your newsletters, the writing interface of BeeHiiv is just much more tailored towards e-newsletters. In fact, it in fact has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in how it works. I find it to be a lot more instinctive, personally.
Substack’s composing interface is nice and tidy, yet it would be much more equivalent to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is more than just form. For example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Section” and afterwards placed anything you want in it. After that, you can place Visibility choices on that particular section to show it only to paid clients, hide it from email, conceal from clients, show just to customers, and so on. Substack uses nothing like this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a premium membership model, BeeHiiv does not take any type of revenue. Actually, you essentially connect up to your very own Stripe account and it bills directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your earnings. Relying on the amount of clients you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit even more cash than the monthly price of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This might appear nerdy, however what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv deal with the outdoors using tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … absolutely nothing. No integrations in all.
On the whole, I just felt like BeeHiiv was extra developed towards real email marketing. It was built by individuals who “get it”. Also the opt-in kinds and the landing page makes appear far better developed for conversions. Growth is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv add, I like the direction it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually said, Substack settings itself towards “makers” greater than email marketing experts and e-newsletter proprietors. For that reason, you see some things tailored a lot more toward individuals that just believe in regards to content development.
For instance, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does support numerous publications, they are dealt with fairly individually. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to multiple magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, however … great for individuals who might need it.
Substack also has even more social capability built-in. For example, it has a conversation function to host chats with subscribers. It additionally has a “Notes” feature which functions type of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share things from various other “Stacks” you’re reading. Fascinating. Overall, Substack is established to be extra like a social media network which sustains long-form material.
On the whole, Substack is also extra … minimal. You either look after that or don’t. Directly, I do not. Nonetheless, if the objective is simpleness of interface and, truthfully, features … Substack works pretty well.
But, I’ll be clear below …
When it pertains to actual marketing, I don’t assume there’s much question that BeeHiiv is better suited. I searched for even more points that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, yet frankly … I have a difficult time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are commonly via to be the closest rivals, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are going after the exact same target market and have comparable capabilities.
ConvertKit is likewise placed at developers (like Substack), but it is much more strongly catering to individuals that do it for company. ConvertKit has good visual automation building, it’s own commerce system, and extra. ConvertKit is a truly nice platform.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature failure here. ConvertKit is well known currently. Yet, below’s exactly how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has a lot more versatility when it involves it’s automations. I will certainly additionally state that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit more instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains labeling. This is simply a standard function of email listings that allows division in an even more adaptable method than BeeHiiv currently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain labeling at some time quickly, honestly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Webflow.
ConvertKit does currently provide the capability to sell points using their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is necessary to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, nonetheless, I would certainly always pick a more direct choice anyway. For me, I favor to use my own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been about much longer and because of that has way extra integration alternatives. Tons of web-based devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their own WordPress plugin that is rather effective. For example, their plugin now even supports member-gated web content in addition to auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Basically, this more closely places ConvertKit right into direct competition by having you be able to release to your site and your e-mail checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is severely doing not have in these sort of third-party integrations presently. It’ll arrive. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy dealing with the development tools of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not only incentivize people to share your newsletter with benefits, but you can likewise pay per lead within the interior ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your listing. These are really awesome features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you know ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among one of the most popular viral promotion systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall surface of what this means for the system moving forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Webflow
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this stage of the cycle. Nonetheless, it also implies that they are rapidly developing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually observed practically regular release of brand-new features right into the system. And these aren’t puny little features … yet big features that are rather crucial. Their speed of development now has actually gone over.
I likewise very much value how responsive they are. In fact, among their item announcements concerning some style improvements to the website design features actually contained a little trouble with the web content size. I just responded to that e-mail to tell them. I quickly obtained a reply straight from the CEO:.
That same day, the concern was fixed.
Few days later on, I gave them an additional suggestion …
Indeed, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to cause automations based on the embed form used was included in the system.
That type of responsiveness and straight involvement of the team is something I truly value.
Another major point of differentiation here is the cost. Both systems use cost-free plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan uses more ability and more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise even more favorable. ConvertKit seems less expensive at first look because their pricing page shows lower numbers, however the client restrictions are FAR reduced and your cost swiftly enhances as your checklist expands.
With BeeHiiv, your very first level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid every year), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. 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 finest plan and the one I directly make use of), you can expand your listing up to 100,000. A listing of that size would certainly 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 yearly, as well. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv remains in a totally various league when it involves pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point enhance rates? They might as time takes place. Yet, I’m thinking individuals like myself who are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see just how things continue.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of the things you certainly require to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do appear to advance instead swiftly and make new item statements somewhat commonly, yet there are some fundamental features I truly wish they had that I need to just wait for.
One is that they require to have a setup on subscription forms where I could select an automation to run right at the type degree. That would be remarkable for numerous reasons. Currently, registration kinds look OK, however there’s very little settings for them to aid in division.
It would behave to have labeling at the customer level. This would certainly be effective.
I assume webhooks should belong to automations to make built-in automations much easier and lower reliance on outside tools like Zapier.
There are likewise some minor administrative user interface changes that would be handy. As an example:
- Capacity to mass edit/remove subscribers.
- Capability to mass edit messages (for example, to tag a number of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of basic fields as standard on clients (like the name).
- Some more modification options for the internet site (such as more adaptable shade selections, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Things I wish they do with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, yet it isn’t ideal and definitely not virtually as established as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM item.
It probably never ever will certainly be, either. As I claimed, the objective is different so it wouldn’t a lot a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to come to be a full marketing automation platform. I presume you never recognize, however.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I like BeeHiiv quite a whole lot. Enough where I determined to switch my own newsletters over to the system regardless of my personal preference for digital sovereignty and having my own system.
Basically, for the e-newsletter publishing model specifically, I saw enough value in their system to warrant the modification.
Keep in mind, I do not utilize BeeHiiv as my unique e-mail checklist. I utilize BeeHiiv for what it is proficient at, yet I intentionally have points set up to make sure that I likewise maintain my listing “in residence” inside of FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the same. It is just an excellent insurance plan, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your listing will certainly be of high use (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are using Substack today, I ‘d definitely think about switching over to BeeHiiv. It will simply be extra business-friendly. It is targeting various abilities and various demands. And also, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the switch ought to be rather simple.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d probably stay put unless you have a huge e-mail checklist and are as a result being fleeced with their high regular monthly expense. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are iterating rapidly. There’s likewise a pretty good chance you’re not also making use of a few of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not also need them. Because of that, BeeHiiv might quickly be a much better and extra budget-friendly fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be extremely deliberate about growing an e-newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE system to consider and keep and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is designed to be, it is one of the best games around now. This is the platform to view.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth taking a look at on your own. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll discover the cost-free account to be fairly feature rich.