I have utilized a lot of various e-mail list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a huge advocate of digital sovereignty and having your own system. Therefore (and the remarkable features), I have been utilizing Can I Use Beehiiv as a Blog.
So, it is undoubtedly a strange move for me to decide to make use of BeeHiiv. After all, it is a hosted 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 e-newsletters. I wish to deal with the issue of digital sovereignty while utilizing the platform and I would certainly also like to resolve why I picked to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For Newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my newsletter called My Pastime + A Huge Change In Method, I discussed how and why I decided to transform my recreational vehicle blog site right into mainly an e-newsletter. I decided that was the business version I intended to seek with that said residential or commercial property.
Yet, to purposefully seek it as a newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the e-mail listing for Happily RV, but FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, truthfully, using it for newsletters is a bit of a waste. Extra on that in a little bit.
As I stated because concern of the newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a system with tools constructed right into it specific to my purpose. Points such as:
- Capacity to publish (to the blog) and send the e-mail at the same time without having it be two separate activities.
- Integrated in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would require a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Integrated ability to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are generally one-click membership web links. Great for promotion in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, though, so there are methods to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your newsletter.
- Built-in ad network, if I select to monetize with advertisements in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capacity to run a paid newsletter upgrade and generally run a premium e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Essentially, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter publishers with features focused on growth. The system was essentially developed by the people who built up the innovation for Morning Mixture. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the factor here. BeeHiiv is built from the ground up for the purpose of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various purpose.
And I ended off with this:.
I may certainly be relocating The Side over to BeeHiiv too. At the very least, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. As a matter of fact, I just went all out. And actually, The side was re-branded over to The Morning WP, triggered as it’s very own building to ensure that I can grow it much more intentionally as well.
The goal is that each newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded individually. Happily motor home was young, so easy to change. Yet, The Morning WP (formerly The Side) was buried in a sea of stuff right here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s very own. It will obviously constantly be closely linked with the Blog Marketing Academy, but does not have to belong of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv because it was constructed for this function. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Regular Email Listing
There’s a difference in between an e-newsletter platform and just an email checklist.
You can hold your e-mail listing anyplace you want and there are a variety 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 an e-newsletter platform, the act of posting suggests that it is going to your website and to your email subscribers concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a site. You are publishing to that web site. But, you are additionally dispatching to all subscribers at the same time. The web site and it’s customers are all in one. This makes monitoring of the platform much less complex.
With most email systems, any newsletter you set up is done as an e-mail campaign. It is built completely separately from your site. So, for example, you could publish an article to WordPress however after that you would require to independently construct and send an email to your checklist to send it to clients. These are then 2 separate collections of archives and 2 separate actions since post and your emails are not inherently connected.
The closest point that turns WordPress into a real e-newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name since it practically “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress posts and enables them to be the very same thing. Certainly, something like Newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid choice if I wished to remain to self-host every little thing. Nevertheless, you ‘d lose the development tools that come with a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter naturally features a various collection of demands than a typical e-mail checklist.
You do not normally require much marketing automation. You don’t usually need autoresponder series, event monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO demand, though, is one smooth publishing experience and growth tools to aid you build your client base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my clients that I was going to switch the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many people ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the truth that I chose to go with BeeHiiv, that doesn’t imply I believe Substack draws. Actually, due to the fact that Substack has been around longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple points that initially got my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically customized to e-newsletter publishers. In fact, it is essentially constructed by the very same individuals that constructed the innovation behind Early morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real life, does not matter. But, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter development called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “creator”. Growth is what I want below.
- That branding and differentiation also indicates that BeeHiiv has some fairly huge brand names and big publications utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is aimed even more at solo designers. Again, it just tells me the consumer character distinction in between the two firms.
Sending our my e-newsletter by means of FluentCRM didn’t specifically draw. The only factor I would certainly ponder shaking points up is if I thought I could GROW the list faster. And BeeHiiv spoke exactly to that goal.
As a result of the targeting, I actually do not see BeeHiiv and Substack as direct competitors. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a various kind of consumer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being more direct rivals.
But, let’s dive much deeper than just the placing right here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv looks like it was constructed by individuals that comprehending email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears much more geared toward designers.
As an example, BeeHiiv uses custom fields on customers. Now, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. As a matter of fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that works a great deal like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation performance is still early-phase. It is still quite restricted in triggers and the only activity is the capability to send an e-mail. Nevertheless, improvements are coming. Soon enough, automations will certainly have new triggers along with new actions, such as modifying personalized fields, sending webhooks, and so on. I’ve already seen enhancements to their automations just given that I started utilizing the system. For instance:
- Ability to trigger automations based upon which details embed kind they came in on.
- Capability to automatically do re-engagement (and deal with individuals based upon opens and non-opens).
- Capacity to do fundamental conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never will. Substack just can not do this since the target market of Substack simply would not think to approach this like an e-mail marketing professional.
When it involves composing your newsletters, the creating interface of BeeHiiv is just a lot more geared toward newsletters. In fact, it actually has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in how it functions. I find it to be extra instinctive, personally.
Substack’s creating interface behaves and tidy, however it would certainly be more equivalent to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is greater than simply kind. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Section” and afterwards put anything you want in it. Then, you can put Presence choices on that particular area to reveal it just to paid clients, conceal it from email, conceal from clients, reveal just to customers, etc. Substack provides nothing like this.
And when/if the time comes that I start a premium subscription version, BeeHiiv does not take any earnings. As a matter of fact, you literally connect up to your very own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your revenue. Relying on the number of subscribers you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit more cash than the regular monthly cost of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This may seem nerdy, yet what it means is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv work with the outside utilizing devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … nothing. No integrations in any way.
Generally, I simply seemed like BeeHiiv was more built towards actual e-mail marketing. It was constructed by people who “get it”. Even the opt-in forms and the landing page makes seem far better constructed for conversions. Development is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I want to see BeeHiiv add, I such as the instructions it is going more than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually stated, Substack positions itself towards “designers” more than email marketing experts and newsletter proprietors. For that reason, you see some points tailored a lot more towards people who just believe in terms of content development.
For instance, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does support numerous magazines, they are treated quite separately. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to numerous magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I need, yet … cool for individuals that may need it.
Substack likewise has more social functionality built-in. For instance, it has a conversation feature to host talks with customers. It also has a “Notes” feature which works type of like a social media newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you read. Interesting. In general, Substack is set up to be more like a social media network which sustains long-form web content.
Overall, Substack is additionally more … minimal. You either take care of that or don’t. Directly, I do not. Nevertheless, if the objective is simpleness of interface and, honestly, features … Substack functions pretty well.
But, I’ll be clear here …
When it pertains to real marketing, I do not believe there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is better suited. I tried to find more factors that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, however honestly … I have a hard time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are commonly with to be the closest competitors, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are pursuing the same target market and have comparable abilities.
ConvertKit is additionally positioned at designers (like Substack), however it is much more strongly satisfying people that do it for organization. ConvertKit has great visual automation structure, it’s very own commerce system, and extra. ConvertKit is an actually wonderful platform.
I’m not going to bore you with a full feature-by-feature break down below. ConvertKit is popular already. Yet, right here’s just how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has a lot more flexibility when it concerns it’s automations. I will certainly also say that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit a lot more instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains tagging. This is just a basic function of email lists that makes it possible for segmentation in a much more flexible method than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to support labeling at some time soon, honestly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Can I Use Beehiiv as a Blog.
ConvertKit does currently give the capability to market points by means of their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is essential to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, nonetheless, I would always choose an extra straight alternative anyhow. For me, I choose to utilize my own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been around a lot longer and because of that has way much more integration options. Lots of web-based tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their own WordPress plugin that is fairly effective. As an example, their plugin currently also sustains member-gated web content in addition to auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your website. Essentially, this much more very closely puts ConvertKit into direct competitors by having you be able to release to your site and your email checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is seriously lacking in these type of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll arrive. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even busy dealing with the development tools of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your e-newsletter with benefits, yet you can also pay per lead within the interior advertisement network of BeeHiiv to grow your list. These are really awesome features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you understand ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of one of the most well known viral promo systems for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall surface for what this implies for the platform moving forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Can I Use Beehiiv as a Blog
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means much less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. However, it likewise suggests that they are swiftly establishing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have observed nearly regular launch of brand-new features right into the platform. And these aren’t undersized little features … however huge features that are quite essential. Their speed of development at this point has actually gone over.
I additionally significantly appreciate how receptive they are. As a matter of fact, one of their item statements concerning some style improvements to the website design features in fact consisted of a small issue with the content size. I just replied to that email to tell them. I quickly obtained a reply directly from the CEO:.
That same day, the problem was repaired.
Couple of days later, I provided an additional pointer …
Indeed, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to cause automations based upon the embed kind utilized was contributed to the system.
That kind of responsiveness and direct participation of the team is something I actually appreciate.
One more significant point of distinction right here is the cost. Both platforms supply cost-free plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan offers a lot more capacity and more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally much more desirable. ConvertKit seems cheaper in the beginning glance since their pricing web page shows lower numbers, nonetheless the subscriber limits are much lower and your rate quickly boosts as your checklist grows.
With BeeHiiv, your very first degree paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid every year), however you can have up to 10,000 customers. That exact same size listing is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their ideal plan and the one I directly utilize), you can grow your list approximately 100,000. A checklist of that size would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, too, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay yearly, too. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for just $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv is in an entirely various league when it comes to pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point increase prices? They might as time takes place. Yet, I’m thinking people like myself that are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see how points continue.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among things you absolutely need to remember is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do seem to evolve instead swiftly and make brand-new product statements rather often, however there are some fundamental features I actually desire they had that I need to simply await.
One is that they require to have a setup on subscription forms where I could select an automation to run right at the form degree. That would certainly be remarkable for many reasons. Currently, registration kinds look OK, yet there’s extremely little setups for them to help in segmentation.
It would be nice to have identifying at the client degree. This would certainly be effective.
I believe webhooks should be part of automations to make built-in automations simpler and minimize reliance on outside devices like Zapier.
There are additionally some small administrative interface modifications that would come in handy. For instance:
- Capacity to bulk edit/remove subscribers.
- Ability to bulk edit messages (for instance, to label a number of them at the same time).
- Having a few basic areas as standard on subscribers (like the name).
- Some even more customization choices for the web site (such as more versatile color options, headline control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Things I hope they finish with it in the future. BeeHiiv is respectable, yet it isn’t best and absolutely not almost as created as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM product.
It most likely never will certainly be, either. As I claimed, the objective is various so it wouldn’t a lot a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to come to be a full marketing automation platform. I presume you never ever recognize, however.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I such as BeeHiiv fairly a great deal. Enough where I chose to change my very own e-newsletters over to the platform regardless of my individual choice for digital sovereignty and owning my own platform.
Basically, for the newsletter posting version especially, I saw enough worth in their system to require the adjustment.
Keep in mind, I do not utilize BeeHiiv as my special email checklist. I utilize BeeHiiv of what it is good at, however I deliberately have points set up so that I also maintain my list “in home” inside of FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the exact same. It is simply a great insurance policy, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your checklist will be of high use (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will certainly be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are using Substack today, I ‘d definitely think about switching to BeeHiiv. It will just be extra business-friendly. It is targeting various capacities and various needs. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the switch needs to be quite uncomplicated.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d most likely sit tight unless you have a big e-mail list and are therefore being wooled with their high regular monthly costs. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are iterating swiftly. There’s additionally a pretty good opportunity you’re not even utilizing several of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you don’t even require them. Because of that, BeeHiiv might easily be a much better and more cost effective fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be extremely willful regarding growing an e-newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE system to take into consideration and keep and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is made to be, it is just one of the most effective video games around now. This is the platform to view.
BeeHiiv uses a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves checking out for yourself. And if you wind up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll find the complimentary account to be rather feature abundant.