I have used a lot of different email list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a significant supporter of digital sovereignty and possessing your very own platform. For that reason (and the outstanding features), I have been using Beehiiv Zero To One.
So, it is indeed an odd move for me to choose to utilize BeeHiiv. Besides, it is an organized application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I intend to look at why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I intend to deal with the problem of digital sovereignty while utilizing the platform and I would certainly likewise such as to attend to why I selected to use it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For E-newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Hobby + A Huge Shift In Approach, I spoke about exactly how and why I chose to turn my recreational vehicle blog site right into mostly a newsletter. I chose that was the business version I wanted to seek with that residential property.
However, to deliberately seek it as a newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the e-mail listing for Happily motor home, yet FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter system. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, honestly, using it for e-newsletters is a bit of a waste. More on that particular in a bit.
As I claimed because issue of the newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a platform with tools constructed into it particular to my objective. Points such as:
- Ability to publish (to the blog) and send out the e-mail all at once without having it be two separate actions.
- Integrated in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would certainly have needed a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capability to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are essentially one-click membership links. Great for promo in various 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 newsletter.
- Built-in ad network, if I select to generate income from with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated ability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and essentially run a premium newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Basically, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter publishers with features targeted at growth. The platform was essentially developed by the individuals who developed the modern technology for Morning Brew. They know what they’re doing.
That is the factor right here. BeeHiiv is built from the ground up for the function of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a different objective.
And I ended off with this:.
I may certainly be relocating The Side over to BeeHiiv too. At least, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. Actually, I just went for it. And actually, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Morning WP, triggered as it’s own residential property to make sure that I can grow it extra intentionally too.
The objective is that each newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded individually. Happily recreational vehicle was young, so easy to change. However, The Morning WP (formerly The Side) was buried in a sea of things right here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s very own. It will certainly constantly be very closely tied with the Blog site Marketing Academy, however doesn’t need to be a part of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv since it was developed for this function. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Typical Email Listing
There’s a difference between an e-newsletter system and simply an e-mail checklist.
You can organize your e-mail list everywhere you desire and there are a number of them out there, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted alternatives like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The key distinction is that, with a newsletter platform, the act of publishing means that it is going to your web site and to your e-mail subscribers at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are releasing to that internet site. But, you are additionally dispatching to all clients at the same time. The internet site and it’s clients are all in one. This makes administration of the platform much less complex.
With many email platforms, any kind of e-newsletter you set up is done as an email campaign. It is developed entirely separately from your web site. So, as an example, you may release an article to WordPress however then you would certainly need to independently develop and send an email to your checklist to send it to clients. These are after that two different sets of archives and 2 different activities due to the fact that blog posts and your emails are not naturally connected.
The closest point that turns WordPress into a true e-newsletter platform is Newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name since it pretty much “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress posts and enables them to be the very same thing. Certainly, something like Newsletter Glue would be a solid alternative if I wanted to remain to self-host every little thing. Nonetheless, you would certainly shed the growth devices that come with a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing an e-newsletter naturally comes with a different set of needs than a common email checklist.
You do not normally need much marketing automation. You don’t usually 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 devices to aid you build your subscriber base that are specific to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my clients that I was mosting likely to switch the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had lots of people ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the truth that I selected to choose BeeHiiv, that does not imply I think Substack sucks. As a matter of fact, due to the fact that Substack has been about much longer, it is more mature and has more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple things that at first obtained my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly customized to newsletter publishers. Actually, it is actually built by the exact same people that constructed the modern technology behind Early morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real world, doesn’t matter. But, the obvious positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter growth called me out over the more generic positioning of being a “creator”. Growth is what I’m interested in right here.
- That branding and differentiation likewise means that BeeHiiv has some fairly huge brand names and huge magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo developers. Once more, it simply tells me the consumer character difference in between both firms.
Sending our my newsletter via FluentCRM really did not precisely suck. The only reason I would consider shaking points up is if I believed I can GROW the list faster. And BeeHiiv spoke precisely to that objective.
As a result of the targeting, I really do not see BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a different sort of consumer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being more direct rivals.
But, allow’s dive deeper than simply the placing below.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv looks like it was built by people that comprehending e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears much more tailored toward developers.
As an example, BeeHiiv provides custom fields on subscribers. Currently, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv provides Automations. Actually, it is a visual automation builder that works a whole lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still quite restricted in triggers and the only action is the capability to send out an e-mail. Nonetheless, enhancements are coming. Soon sufficient, automations will have new triggers in addition to new actions, such as modifying custom-made areas, sending out webhooks, and so on. I’ve already seen improvements to their automations just since I started utilizing the platform. As an example:
- Ability to cause automations based upon which specific embed type they came in on.
- Capability to immediately do re-engagement (and deal with people based upon opens and non-opens).
- Capability to do standard conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never will. Substack just can’t do this because the target market of Substack simply would not believe to approach this like an email marketing expert.
When it involves composing your e-newsletters, the writing user interface of BeeHiiv is just a lot more tailored towards e-newsletters. Actually, it actually has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in how it functions. I locate it to be extra user-friendly, directly.
Substack’s composing user interface is nice and tidy, but it would be much more equal to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is greater than simply type. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Section” and afterwards placed anything you desire in it. Then, you can place Exposure options on that area to show it only to paid clients, hide it from e-mail, conceal from subscribers, show just to subscribers, etc. Substack supplies nothing such as this.
And when/if the time comes that I begin a premium membership model, BeeHiiv does not take any earnings. Actually, you actually link as much as your very own Stripe account and it bills directly to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your income. Depending on how many customers you get, that 10% can be a fair bit even more money than the monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This could appear unpopular, however what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv work with the outdoors utilizing tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … nothing. No integrations whatsoever.
Generally, I just felt like BeeHiiv was extra developed towards real email marketing. It was built by individuals that “get it”. Even the opt-in forms and the landing page makes seem better constructed for conversions. Development is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv include, I like the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have claimed, Substack placements itself toward “makers” greater than e-mail marketing experts and newsletter owners. For that reason, you see some points tailored more toward people that just believe in regards to material creation.
For example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does sustain several publications, they are treated fairly individually. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to several publications at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, but … trendy for people who may require it.
Substack likewise has more social performance built-in. For example, it has a conversation feature to host talks with customers. It also has a “Notes” feature which functions kind of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you’re reading. Intriguing. On the whole, Substack is set up to be much more like a social network which supports long-form material.
On the whole, Substack is also extra … minimal. You either care for that or do not. Personally, I do not. However, if the goal is simplicity of user interface and, frankly, features … Substack functions quite well.
However, I’ll be clear below …
When it involves actual marketing, I do not assume there’s much question that BeeHiiv is better matched. I tried to find even more points that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, however truthfully … I have a tough time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are commonly with to be the closest rivals, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are going after the very same target market and have comparable capacities.
ConvertKit is also placed at developers (like Substack), yet it is far more highly satisfying individuals who do it for service. ConvertKit has nice aesthetic automation structure, it’s own commerce system, and more. ConvertKit is an actually nice platform.
I’m not going to bore you with a full feature-by-feature break down right here. ConvertKit is popular already. However, below’s just how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has more flexibility when it pertains to it’s automations. I will likewise state that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit extra instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains labeling. This is just a standard feature of email checklists that enables segmentation in a far more versatile method than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to support identifying at some point quickly, honestly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Zero To One.
ConvertKit does now supply the capacity to sell points using their own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that’s important to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would certainly constantly choose a much more straight alternative anyway. For me, I choose to utilize my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been around much longer and therefore has way a lot more integration choices. Tons of online tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is fairly powerful. For example, their plugin now also sustains member-gated web content along with auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Basically, this extra carefully puts ConvertKit into straight competition by having you be able to release to your site and your email list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is drastically lacking in these type of third-party integrations presently. It’ll arrive. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy taking on the growth tools of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your e-newsletter with benefits, however you can additionally pay per lead within the interior ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your list. These are really amazing features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you understand ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of one of the most well known viral promo systems for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall surface of what this suggests for the system going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Zero To One
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that indicates much less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this stage of the cycle. However, it likewise implies that they are rapidly developing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have witnessed practically regular release of brand-new features right into the system. And these aren’t puny little features … but huge features that are fairly essential. Their speed of development at this moment has gone over.
I likewise significantly appreciate how responsive they are. In fact, among their item announcements about some style enhancements to the web design features really consisted of a little trouble with the content size. I just responded to that email to tell them. I promptly obtained a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That very same day, the issue was dealt with.
Couple of days later on, I gave them an additional idea …
Sure enough, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to activate automations based on the embed kind made use of was included in the system.
That type of responsiveness and straight involvement of the group is something I actually appreciate.
One more significant point of distinction below is the price. Both platforms supply complimentary plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan provides a lot more capability and more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also FAR more positive. ConvertKit seems more affordable at first glimpse due to the fact that their pricing web page reveals lower numbers, however the customer restrictions are FAR lower and your cost quickly raises as your list grows.
With BeeHiiv, your initial degree paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid each year), however you can have up to 10,000 customers. That very same size list 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 personally make use of), you can grow your checklist up to 100,000. A listing of that size would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, also, that places 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 yearly.
BeeHiiv remains in a completely various league when it involves pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point boost prices? They might as time goes on. However, I’m thinking individuals like myself that are already in will be locked-in. We’ll see how things continue.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among the things you certainly require to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do appear to advance instead promptly and make brand-new item news rather commonly, but there are some basic features I truly want they had that I need to just await.
One is that they require to have a setup on subscription types where I could pick an automation to run right at the type level. That would be AWESOME for many factors. Already, registration kinds look OK, yet there’s very little setups for them to help in segmentation.
It would behave to have identifying at the client level. This would be powerful.
I think webhooks must become part of automations to make built-in automations less complicated and lower dependence on outdoors tools like Zapier.
There are also some small management user interface adjustments that would come in handy. For example:
- Capacity to mass edit/remove customers.
- Capability to bulk edit messages (as an example, to tag a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a few basic fields as basic on customers (like the name).
- Some even more customization choices for the internet site (such as more adaptable color selections, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Points I wish they make with it in the future. BeeHiiv is respectable, but it isn’t excellent and absolutely not almost as established as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM item.
It possibly never will certainly be, either. As I said, the objective is various so it would not a lot a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to come to be a complete marketing automation platform. I presume you never know, however.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I like BeeHiiv fairly a lot. Enough where I determined to switch my very own e-newsletters over to the system in spite of my personal preference for digital sovereignty and having my own platform.
Basically, for the newsletter publishing model especially, I saw adequate worth in their system to warrant the adjustment.
Bear in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my exclusive e-mail checklist. I use BeeHiiv of what it is good at, yet I intentionally have things set up to ensure that I also keep my listing “in residence” within FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the same. It is simply an excellent insurance policy, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your list will certainly be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my point of view, if you are making use of Substack today, I ‘d certainly consider switching to BeeHiiv. It will simply be much more business-friendly. It is targeting various capacities and different requirements. And also, BeeHiiv also has import devices for Substack, so the button should be pretty straightforward.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d possibly sit tight unless you have a huge e-mail listing and are for that reason being fleeced with their high monthly expense. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are repeating swiftly. There’s also a respectable opportunity you’re not even using a few of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you do not also require them. Because of that, BeeHiiv can conveniently be a far better and much more budget-friendly fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be really intentional about expanding a newsletter, I assume 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 designed to be, it is among the very best video games in the area right now. This is the system to enjoy.
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 to the paid plan, you’ll locate the free account to be rather feature rich.