I have actually utilized a great deal of various email list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a significant proponent of digital sovereignty and having your own system. Because of that (and the incredible features), I have been utilizing Beehiiv Website Creator.
So, it is undoubtedly an odd move for me to determine to make use of BeeHiiv. Besides, it is a held application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv evaluation, I wish to discuss why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I want to resolve the problem of digital sovereignty while using the platform and I would certainly also such as to attend to why I picked to use it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For E-newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Large Change In Approach, I talked about exactly how and why I chose to transform my RV blog into mostly an e-newsletter. I determined that was business design I intended to seek with that said residential or commercial property.
However, to intentionally seek it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the email list for Happily RV, yet FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, honestly, using it for e-newsletters is a little a waste. Extra on that in a little bit.
As I said because problem of the newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a system with tools built into it details to my function. Things such as:
- Capacity to publish (to the blog site) and send the email simultaneously without having it be two different activities.
- Constructed in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would certainly have needed a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capability to do cross-promotions with various other newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are generally one-click subscription web links. Great for promo in various other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, however, so there are ways to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your newsletter.
- Integrated ad network, if I choose to generate income from with ads in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and basically run a costs e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Generally, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter publishers with features aimed at development. The system was actually built by the individuals who built up the technology for Morning Mixture. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the factor below. BeeHiiv is developed from the ground up for the purpose of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a different objective.
And I ended off with this:.
I may certainly be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv as well. A minimum of, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. In fact, I simply went for it. And in fact, The side was re-branded over to The Morning WP, set off as it’s own building to ensure that I can expand it a lot more intentionally also.
The objective is that each e-newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown separately. Happily motor home was young, so very easy to change. However, The Early morning WP (previously The Edge) was buried in a sea of stuff here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s very own. It will certainly constantly be closely linked with the Blog site Marketing Academy, but doesn’t need to belong of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was built for this function. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Just A Regular Email Listing
There’s a distinction in between a newsletter platform and just an e-mail list.
You can organize your email listing anywhere 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 primary distinction is that, with a newsletter system, the act of posting indicates that it is going to your website and to your e-mail customers at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are publishing to that site. Yet, you are additionally dispatching to all customers at the same time. The site and it’s clients are all in one. This makes management of the platform much easier.
With a lot of e-mail platforms, any newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is constructed totally independently from your web site. So, as an example, you might publish a post to WordPress but after that you would certainly need to independently construct and send out an email to your listing to send it to clients. These are then two separate sets of archives and 2 separate activities because article and your emails are not naturally linked.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress right into a real e-newsletter platform is Newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name because it pretty much “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and enables them to be the very same thing. Definitely, something like Newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid option if I intended to continue to self-host every little thing. However, you would certainly lose the growth tools that feature a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing an e-newsletter inherently includes a different collection of demands than a regular e-mail list.
You do not generally require much marketing automation. You do not generally require autoresponder sequences, occasion monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO need, though, is one seamless publishing experience and development tools to help you construct your subscriber base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my subscribers that I was going to change the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the fact that I selected to go with BeeHiiv, that doesn’t suggest I assume Substack draws. In fact, due to the fact that Substack has actually been about longer, it is more mature and has more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is younger, there are a pair points that initially obtained my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically tailored to newsletter authors. As a matter of fact, it is essentially constructed by the same people who built the innovation behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, does not matter. However, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter growth called me out over the more generic positioning of being a “maker”. Development is what I’m interested in right here.
- That branding and distinction additionally indicates that BeeHiiv has some rather big brands and large magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo developers. Once again, it simply tells me the customer avatar difference in between the two firms.
Sending our my newsletter via FluentCRM didn’t exactly suck. The only factor I would ponder shaking points up is if I believed I might GROW the list much faster. And BeeHiiv spoke specifically to that goal.
Because of the targeting, I in fact don’t view BeeHiiv and Substack as straight competitors. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a various sort of consumer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra direct rivals.
Yet, allow’s dive deeper than just the placing here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv seems like it was constructed by individuals who understanding email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems extra geared toward makers.
For instance, BeeHiiv supplies custom fields on subscribers. Now, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. In fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that functions a whole lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation performance is still early-phase. It is still rather restricted in triggers and the only action is the capability to send an e-mail. Nevertheless, improvements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will certainly have brand-new triggers as well as new activities, such as modifying personalized areas, sending webhooks, and so on. I’ve currently seen improvements to their automations just since I began using the platform. For instance:
- Capability to cause automations based upon which particular embed form they was available in on.
- Ability to automatically do re-engagement (and handle people based on opens and non-opens).
- Capability to do basic conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack simply can not do this since the target audience of Substack simply wouldn’t believe to approach this like an e-mail marketing professional.
When it pertains to writing your newsletters, the writing interface of BeeHiiv is simply a lot more geared toward e-newsletters. As a matter of fact, it really has similarities to the WordPress block builder in how it works. I locate it to be more intuitive, personally.
Substack’s creating interface is nice and clean, however it would certainly be a lot more equal to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This distinction is greater than just form. For example, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Section” and then put anything you desire in it. Then, you can put Presence alternatives on that section to show it just to paid subscribers, conceal it from e-mail, conceal from clients, show only to customers, and so on. Substack offers nothing like this.
And when/if the moment comes that I start a premium subscription design, BeeHiiv does not take any type of income. In fact, you literally attach as much as your very own Stripe account and it bills directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your income. Depending upon the amount of clients you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit more cash than the monthly price of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This might appear nerdy, yet what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outside utilizing tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … nothing. No integrations whatsoever.
In general, I simply felt like BeeHiiv was more built towards genuine email marketing. It was developed by people that “get it”. Also the opt-in kinds and the landing page makes appear much better developed for conversions. Development is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I want to see BeeHiiv add, I such as the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have said, Substack settings itself toward “creators” more than e-mail marketing professionals and e-newsletter owners. Because of that, you see some points tailored extra toward individuals who simply believe in regards to material creation.
For example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does support numerous magazines, they are treated rather individually. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to several magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I need, but … trendy for people that might need it.
Substack likewise has even more social capability built-in. For instance, it has a chat function to host talks with customers. It also has a “Notes” feature which functions kind of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share things from other “Stacks” you’re reading. Interesting. Generally, Substack is set up to be a lot more like a social media network which sustains long-form web content.
In general, Substack is additionally much more … minimalist. You either look after that or don’t. Personally, I do not. Nevertheless, if the goal is simplicity of user interface and, truthfully, features … Substack works pretty well.
Yet, I’ll be clear right here …
When it involves real marketing, I do not believe there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is better suited. I looked for more points that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, but honestly … I have a tough time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are often with to be the closest rivals, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are pursuing the very same target market and have similar capacities.
ConvertKit is also positioned at developers (like Substack), but it is much more highly catering to people who do it for business. ConvertKit has good visual automation building, it’s own commerce platform, and a lot more. ConvertKit is a truly good platform.
I’m not going to bore you with a complete feature-by-feature failure right here. ConvertKit is well known currently. But, below’s just how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Points ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has much more adaptability when it concerns it’s automations. I will certainly likewise claim that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit much more user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports tagging. This is simply a basic function of e-mail lists that allows division in a far more flexible method than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain identifying at some point quickly, honestly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Website Creator.
ConvertKit does currently offer the ability to offer things through their own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is necessary to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would constantly pick a much more direct choice anyway. For me, I prefer to use my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been about much longer and therefore has way more integration options. Tons of web-based devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is fairly effective. For example, their plugin currently also supports member-gated content in addition to auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. In essence, this a lot more closely puts ConvertKit right into straight competitors by having you be able to release to your site and your email checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is severely doing not have in these type of third-party integrations right now. It’ll get there. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also hectic tackling the growth tools of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not only incentivize people to share your e-newsletter with perks, however you can likewise pay per lead within the interior advertisement network of BeeHiiv to grow your list. These are truly amazing features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you understand ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of the most well known viral promotion systems for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall of what this indicates for the system moving forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Website Creator
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means much less features and less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. However, it also means that they are rapidly developing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually witnessed almost regular launch of new features right into the platform. And these aren’t undersized little features … however huge features that are rather important. Their rate of growth at this moment has been impressive.
I likewise very much value how receptive they are. As a matter of fact, among their item news concerning some layout enhancements to the website design features in fact included a little problem with the material width. I just replied to that e-mail to tell them. I quickly got a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That very same day, the concern was dealt with.
Few days later, I provided an additional pointer …
Indeed, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to set off automations based on the embed type used was included in the system.
That kind of responsiveness and direct participation of the group is something I truly appreciate.
Another major point of distinction here is the rate. Both systems provide complimentary plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan offers 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 FAR more desirable. ConvertKit seems cheaper at first glimpse since their pricing web page shows reduced numbers, nonetheless the client limits are much lower and your rate quickly boosts as your list expands.
With BeeHiiv, your initial degree paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid each year), however you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That exact same size list is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I directly utilize), you can grow your listing approximately 100,000. A listing of that size would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, too, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay each year, too. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv remains in an entirely various organization when it pertains to pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually increase prices? They may as time goes on. However, I’m presuming individuals like myself who are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see just how points proceed.
Points I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of the important things you definitely need to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do appear to develop rather rapidly and make brand-new product statements rather typically, yet there are some fundamental features I actually wish they had that I require to just await.
One is that they need to have a setting on registration kinds where I can choose an automation to run right at the type degree. That would be incredible for numerous factors. Already, subscription kinds look OK, yet there’s really little setups for them to help in segmentation.
It would certainly be nice to have labeling at the client degree. This would be effective.
I think webhooks ought to become part of automations to make built-in automations less complicated and reduce dependence on outside devices like Zapier.
There are also some small management user interface modifications that would be handy. For example:
- Capacity to bulk edit/remove clients.
- Ability to bulk edit posts (for example, to label a number of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of basic fields as typical on customers (like the name).
- Some even more personalization alternatives for the internet site (such as even more flexible color selections, headline control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Things I wish they make with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, yet it isn’t excellent and certainly not virtually as established as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM product.
It possibly never ever will be, either. As I claimed, the function is various so it would not a lot a lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to become a complete marketing automation platform. I think you never recognize, however.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Review
I such as BeeHiiv quite a lot. Enough where I chose to switch my very own newsletters over to the platform in spite of my personal preference for digital sovereignty and possessing my very own platform.
Basically, for the newsletter posting version especially, I saw enough value in their platform to call for the modification.
Bear in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my exclusive e-mail checklist. I utilize BeeHiiv of what it is proficient at, however I intentionally have things establish so that I likewise keep my listing “in home” within FluentCRM.
If you make use of BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the same. It is simply a great insurance coverage, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your checklist will certainly be of high usage (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will certainly be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are making use of Substack now, I ‘d most definitely think about switching over to BeeHiiv. It will merely be much more business-friendly. It is targeting various capacities and various requirements. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the button ought to be rather simple.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d most likely sit tight unless you have a huge e-mail list and are for that reason being fleeced with their high month-to-month bill. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are repeating quickly. There’s additionally a pretty good chance you’re not even using some of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not also require them. For that reason, BeeHiiv might quickly be a far better and extra budget friendly fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be extremely willful regarding growing a newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE system to consider and keep and eye on for you.
If you utilize BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is created to be, it is just one of the best games around right now. This is the platform to view.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves taking a look at for yourself. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll discover the free account to be quite feature rich.