I have actually used a great deal of various email list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a massive supporter of digital sovereignty and having your own platform. Because of that (and the awesome features), I have been making use of Can I Have Multiple Newsletters on Beehiiv.
So, it is indeed a weird move for me to decide to make use of BeeHiiv. After all, it is a held application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I intend to discuss why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I want to resolve the problem of digital sovereignty while using the system and I would certainly likewise like to address why I picked to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For E-newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my newsletter called My Hobby + A Big Shift In Approach, I spoke about just how and why I decided to turn my motor home blog into mostly an e-newsletter. I chose that was business version I wanted to go after with that said residential property.
But, to intentionally pursue it as a newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the email list for Gladly RV, yet FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, frankly, using it for e-newsletters is a little bit of a waste. Much more on that particular in a bit.
As I stated in that issue of the e-newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a platform with tools built right into it specific to my objective. Points such as:
- Ability to publish (to the blog) and send the e-mail all at once without having it be 2 different actions.
- Built in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t 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 platform.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are essentially one-click subscription web links. Great for promo in various other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are methods to do that.
- Capacity to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Built-in advertisement network, if I choose to monetize with ads in the newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated ability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and primarily run a premium newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Basically, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features aimed at growth. The platform was literally developed by the people who accumulated the innovation for Early morning Mixture. They understand 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 purpose.
And I finished off with this:.
I may certainly be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv as well. A minimum of, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. As a matter of fact, I just went for it. And as a matter of fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s very own property to make sure that I can grow it much more intentionally also.
The goal is that each newsletter has the capability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded separately. Gladly recreational vehicle was young, so very easy to change. But, The Morning WP (formerly The Side) was buried in a sea of things here at the Blog Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s own. It will undoubtedly constantly be closely connected with the Blog site Marketing Academy, yet doesn’t need to be a part of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was built for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Just A Normal Email List
There’s a difference in between an e-newsletter platform and simply an email list.
You can hold your e-mail list anywhere you desire and there are a number of them available, 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 system, the act of publishing indicates that it is going to your site and to your email subscribers simultaneously.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a web site. You are publishing to that website. But, you are additionally sending to all clients at the same time. The web site and it’s clients are all in one. This makes management of the platform much easier.
With the majority of e-mail platforms, any kind of e-newsletter you set up is done as an e-mail campaign. It is built completely separately from your website. So, as an example, you may publish a write-up to WordPress yet then you would need to separately build and send an e-mail to your list to send it to customers. These are after that 2 separate sets of archives and two separate activities since article and your emails are not inherently linked.
The closest point that transforms WordPress into a real newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name because it virtually “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress articles and permits them to be the same point. Certainly, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid choice if I intended to continue to self-host whatever. Nevertheless, you ‘d shed the development devices that feature a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter inherently features a various collection of demands than a regular email listing.
You don’t usually require much marketing automation. You do not usually need autoresponder sequences, occasion tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO need, however, is one smooth posting experience and growth devices to assist you develop your customer base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my clients that I was mosting likely to change the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had lots of people ask me why I was picking it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the truth that I chose to go with BeeHiiv, that does not indicate I assume Substack sucks. As a matter of fact, due to the fact that Substack has been around much longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Although BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple points that at first obtained my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically customized to e-newsletter authors. In fact, it is literally developed by the very same individuals who constructed the modern technology behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real life, doesn’t matter. Yet, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv toward e-newsletter growth called me out over the more common positioning of being a “maker”. Growth is what I have an interest in here.
- That branding and differentiation likewise implies that BeeHiiv has some rather huge brands and big publications utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo designers. Once more, it simply tells me the client avatar difference between the two firms.
Sending our my newsletter via FluentCRM really did not exactly suck. The only reason I would certainly ponder drinking points up is if I thought I could GROW the checklist faster. And BeeHiiv talked precisely to that goal.
Due to the targeting, I in fact don’t watch BeeHiiv and Substack as straight competitors. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a various kind of customer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being a lot more straight competitors.
Yet, allow’s dive much deeper than just the positioning below.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv feels like it was constructed by people who recognizing email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems extra tailored toward designers.
For instance, BeeHiiv offers personalized areas on subscribers. Now, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. Actually, it is an aesthetic automation builder that works a 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 activity is the capability to send out an email. However, enhancements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will have new triggers along with new activities, such as customizing custom areas, sending out webhooks, etc. I have actually currently seen improvements to their automations just since I began making use of the platform. For example:
- Capacity to trigger automations based on which certain embed form they was available in on.
- Ability to automatically do re-engagement (and deal with individuals based on opens and non-opens).
- Capacity to do basic conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can’t do this because the target audience of Substack simply wouldn’t think to approach this like an email online marketer.
When it involves composing your newsletters, the composing user interface of BeeHiiv is simply a lot more geared towards e-newsletters. Actually, it really has similarities to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it works. I discover it to be a lot more instinctive, directly.
Substack’s writing user interface is nice and clean, however it would certainly be a lot more equivalent to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This difference is more than just kind. For example, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Section” and afterwards placed anything you desire in it. Then, you can put Presence alternatives on that particular area to show it just to paid subscribers, conceal it from e-mail, conceal from clients, show only to clients, etc. Substack offers nothing like this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a premium registration design, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any kind of profits. As a matter of fact, you essentially connect up to your own Stripe account and it bills directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your earnings. Depending on the amount of subscribers you get, that 10% can be a fair bit even more money than the regular monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This may seem unpopular, yet what it means is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv work with the outdoors making use of tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … nothing. No integrations whatsoever.
On the whole, I just felt like BeeHiiv was a lot more built toward real email marketing. It was built by individuals who “get it”. Even the opt-in forms and the landing page creates seem much better built for conversions. Development is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I would like 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 actually said, Substack placements itself toward “designers” more than email marketing experts and newsletter proprietors. Therefore, you see some points geared more towards people that just think in regards to material development.
For instance, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does support multiple magazines, they are dealt with quite individually. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to several magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I require, however … awesome for individuals that might need it.
Substack likewise has even more social capability built-in. For instance, it has a chat function to host chats with clients. It additionally has a “Notes” function which functions type of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share things from various other “Stacks” you read. Fascinating. On the whole, Substack is set up to be extra like a social media network which sustains long-form web content.
In general, Substack is additionally extra … minimal. You either take care of that or don’t. Personally, I don’t. Nonetheless, if the goal is simpleness of interface and, frankly, features … Substack functions rather well.
But, I’ll be clear here …
When it comes to real marketing, I don’t think there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is much better fit. I searched for more factors that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, but truthfully … I have a difficult time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are often with to be the closest competitors, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are going after the very same target audience and have similar abilities.
ConvertKit is likewise placed at developers (like Substack), however it is a lot more strongly dealing with people who do it for organization. ConvertKit has nice aesthetic automation building, it’s own commerce system, and more. ConvertKit is a really good platform.
I’m not mosting likely to bore you with a full feature-by-feature failure here. ConvertKit is well known currently. Yet, here’s just how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has extra versatility when it involves it’s automations. I will certainly also say that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit a lot more instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports tagging. This is just a basic function of e-mail checklists that makes it possible for division in a far more versatile means than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support marking eventually quickly, truthfully. It seems like an oversight that it is missing Can I Have Multiple Newsletters on Beehiiv.
ConvertKit does currently provide the ability to offer points by means of their own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is necessary to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, nonetheless, I would always choose a more straight alternative anyhow. For me, I choose to use my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been around much longer and for that reason has way extra integration choices. Lots of web-based devices and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is rather powerful. For example, their plugin currently also sustains 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 competition by having you be able to release to your site and your e-mail list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is drastically lacking in these type of third-party integrations right now. It’ll arrive. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even busy taking on the growth tools of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not only incentivize people to share your newsletter with advantages, however you can additionally pay per lead within the inner advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your listing. These are really incredible features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you understand ConvertKit acquired Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among one of the most well known viral promo platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall of what this indicates for the system going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Can I Have Multiple Newsletters on Beehiiv
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. Nevertheless, it also suggests that they are rapidly creating.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually experienced virtually weekly release of brand-new features right into the platform. And these aren’t weak little features … but large features that are fairly vital. Their rate of development now has actually been impressive.
I additionally significantly value how receptive they are. In fact, among their item announcements about some design improvements to the website design features in fact had a tiny problem with the content size. I just replied to that email to tell them. I swiftly obtained a reply directly from the CEO:.
That exact same day, the concern was dealt with.
Couple of days later, I provided an additional tip …
Indeed, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to activate automations based upon the embed kind used was contributed to the system.
That kind of responsiveness and direct involvement of the team is something I really value.
One more major factor of distinction here is the rate. Both platforms supply cost-free plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan uses much more capacity and even more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise FAR more favorable. ConvertKit appears less costly in the beginning look because their pricing web page reveals reduced numbers, however the client limitations are much reduced and your price quickly boosts as your listing expands.
With BeeHiiv, your initial degree paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid annually), however you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That exact same dimension list is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I directly utilize), you can grow your checklist as much as 100,000. A checklist of that size would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, as well, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay each year, too. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for simply $84/month if you pay each year.
BeeHiiv remains in an entirely various league when it pertains to pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately boost prices? They may as time goes on. Yet, I’m presuming individuals like myself who are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see just how points continue.
Points I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Add
One of things you absolutely need to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do appear to advance instead quickly and make brand-new item statements somewhat commonly, yet there are some fundamental features I actually desire they had that I require to simply wait for.
One is that they need to have a setup on registration types where I can pick an automation to run right at the kind degree. That would certainly be outstanding for so many reasons. Currently, registration kinds look OK, but there’s really little setups for them to assist in segmentation.
It would certainly be nice to have identifying at the subscriber level. This would certainly be powerful.
I assume webhooks need to belong to automations to make built-in automations much easier and minimize dependence on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are also some small administrative interface changes that would be handy. For instance:
- Ability to mass edit/remove customers.
- Capability to bulk edit articles (for example, to label a number of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of basic fields as conventional on customers (like the name).
- Some more customization choices for the site (such as more versatile shade selections, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Points I wish they make with it in the future. BeeHiiv is respectable, however it isn’t excellent and certainly not almost as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM product.
It most likely never will be, either. As I said, the purpose is different so it would not much a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to become a full marketing automation system. I think you never ever recognize, however.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I like BeeHiiv fairly a great deal. Sufficient where I determined to switch my own newsletters over to the platform regardless of my personal preference for digital sovereignty and possessing my own platform.
Put simply, for the e-newsletter publishing version specifically, I saw adequate worth in their platform to necessitate the adjustment.
Remember, I do not use BeeHiiv as my unique email list. I make use of BeeHiiv of what it is efficient, but I purposefully have points establish to make sure that I likewise maintain my listing “in home” inside of FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the very same. It is just a great insurance policy, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your listing will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the concern is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my point of view, if you are using Substack today, I ‘d most definitely consider changing to BeeHiiv. It will simply be a lot more business-friendly. It is targeting various abilities and various requirements. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the button needs to be quite straightforward.
If you get on ConvertKit now, I ‘d possibly sit tight unless you have a big email checklist and are as a result being wooled with their high regular monthly expense. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are repeating promptly. There’s likewise a respectable possibility you’re not even making use of some of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you don’t even require them. Because of that, BeeHiiv can quickly be a better and more affordable fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be really willful about expanding a newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE system to take into consideration and keep and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is designed to be, it is one of the best games around today. This is the system to view.
BeeHiiv uses a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth having a look at for yourself. And if you wind up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll find the cost-free account to be rather feature rich.