I have actually used a great deal of different e-mail list systems over the years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a huge advocate of digital sovereignty and having your own platform. For that reason (and the awesome features), I have actually been making use of Can You Make Money on Beehiiv.
So, it is indeed a strange move for me to determine to use BeeHiiv. Besides, it is a held application and I am paying regular 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 wish to attend to the problem of digital sovereignty while making use of the platform and I ‘d additionally like to deal with why I picked to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For E-newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Pastime + A Huge Shift In Technique, I discussed how and why I chose to turn my motor home blog site right into mostly an e-newsletter. I made a decision that was business design I intended to seek with that said property.
Yet, to purposefully seek it as an e-newsletter, I desired a system that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the e-mail checklist for Gladly recreational vehicle, yet FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter system. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, truthfully, using it for newsletters is a bit of a waste. More on that in a bit.
As I claimed in that problem of the newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a platform with tools built into it details to my function. Things such as:
- Capability to publish (to the blog site) and send out the e-mail at the same time without having it be 2 separate activities.
- Built in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would require a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capability to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are basically one-click membership web links. Great for promotion in other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are ways to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your newsletter.
- Built-in advertisement network, if I select to generate income from with advertisements in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capacity to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and primarily run a costs newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features focused on development. The platform was literally constructed by the individuals that accumulated the innovation for Early morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the factor right here. BeeHiiv is built from scratch for the function of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a different function.
And I ended off with this:.
I may undoubtedly be relocating The Side over to BeeHiiv as well. At the very least, I’m highly 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 building so that I can grow it much more intentionally as well.
The objective is that each newsletter has the capability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown separately. Gladly recreational vehicle was young, so easy to transition. But, The Early morning WP (previously The Edge) was buried in a sea of things here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s own. It will clearly constantly be very closely linked with the Blog site Marketing Academy, however does not need to be a part of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv because it was constructed for this function. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Normal Email List
There’s a distinction in between a newsletter platform and just an e-mail list.
You can organize your email listing everywhere 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 difference?
The primary difference is that, with a newsletter platform, the act of posting implies that it is mosting likely to your site and to your e-mail customers concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a site. You are publishing to that web site. But, you are additionally sending off to all customers at the same time. The internet site and it’s customers are done in one. This makes monitoring of the platform much simpler.
With the majority of email platforms, any newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is constructed totally separately from your web site. So, as an example, you could publish a post to WordPress yet after that you would require to separately build and send out an e-mail to your listing to send it to clients. These are then 2 different collections of archives and 2 separate actions since blog posts and your emails are not inherently linked.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress into a real newsletter platform is Newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name due to the fact that it practically “glues” your e-newsletter to your WordPress messages and permits them to be the very same thing. Absolutely, something like E-newsletter Glue would be a strong choice if I intended to remain to self-host whatever. Nevertheless, you ‘d shed the development devices that feature a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter naturally includes a different set of demands than a typical email checklist.
You don’t usually need 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 demand, however, is one seamless posting experience and growth tools to aid you develop your subscriber base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my customers that I was mosting likely to switch over 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 chose to opt for BeeHiiv, that does not indicate I think Substack sucks. In fact, since Substack has been about longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple things that initially obtained my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly tailored to newsletter authors. As a matter of fact, it is actually developed by the very same people that developed the technology behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real life, does not matter. But, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv towards e-newsletter growth called me out over the more generic positioning of being a “creator”. Growth is what I have an interest in here.
- That branding and distinction also means that BeeHiiv has some rather huge brand names and big magazines utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo creators. Again, it just informs me the consumer avatar difference in between the two companies.
Sending our my e-newsletter using FluentCRM really did not specifically suck. The only reason I would certainly contemplate shaking points up is if I thought I might expand the list quicker. And BeeHiiv talked exactly to that objective.
Because of the targeting, I really do not see BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a different kind of customer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more direct competitors.
But, allow’s dive much deeper than just the positioning below.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
On the whole, BeeHiiv appears like it was built by individuals that recognizing email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears more geared towards creators.
For instance, BeeHiiv supplies custom-made areas on customers. Now, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv provides Automations. Actually, it is a visual automation builder that functions a whole lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation functionality is still early-phase. It is still quite minimal in triggers and the only activity is the capability to send out an email. However, improvements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will have brand-new triggers as well as new activities, such as modifying custom-made areas, sending webhooks, and so on. I have actually currently seen improvements to their automations simply because I started using the system. For instance:
- Capability to activate automations based upon which details embed kind they came in on.
- Ability to instantly do re-engagement (and handle individuals based on opens up and non-opens).
- Capability to do fundamental conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can not do this since the target audience of Substack simply would not believe to approach this like an email marketer.
When it pertains to creating your e-newsletters, the writing user interface of BeeHiiv is simply much more geared towards e-newsletters. As a matter of fact, it really has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in just how it works. I discover it to be much more intuitive, personally.
Substack’s composing user interface is nice and tidy, yet it would certainly be a lot more comparable to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This difference is more than simply kind. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Section” and afterwards placed anything you want in it. Then, you can place Visibility alternatives on that section to reveal it just to paid subscribers, conceal it from email, conceal from customers, reveal just to subscribers, and so on. Substack uses absolutely nothing similar to this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a premium registration version, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any revenue. In 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. Depending on the number of customers you obtain, that 10% can be quite a bit more cash than the regular monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This may appear nerdy, yet what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv deal with the outdoors making use of devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … absolutely nothing. No integrations at all.
In general, I simply felt like BeeHiiv was much more developed towards genuine email marketing. It was built by people who “get it”. Also the opt-in forms and the landing page designs seem much better built for conversions. Growth is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv include, I like the direction it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have claimed, Substack positions itself towards “creators” greater than e-mail online marketers and newsletter proprietors. Because of that, you see some things geared extra towards people who simply assume in terms of material development.
As an example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does support several publications, they are treated rather separately. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to several magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, but … amazing for individuals that might need it.
Substack likewise has more social capability built-in. For instance, it has a chat feature to host talks with subscribers. It also has a “Notes” feature which works sort of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you read. Intriguing. On the whole, Substack is set up to be more like a social media network which supports long-form web content.
Overall, Substack is likewise much more … minimal. You either look after that or do not. Directly, I do not. However, if the objective is simpleness of user interface and, frankly, features … Substack functions pretty well.
Yet, I’ll be clear here …
When it concerns real marketing, I don’t believe there’s much question that BeeHiiv is better fit. I looked for even more points that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, yet honestly … I have a hard time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are typically via to be the closest rivals, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are pursuing the same target audience and have comparable capacities.
ConvertKit is also placed at creators (like Substack), but it is a lot more strongly satisfying individuals that do it for organization. ConvertKit has good visual automation structure, it’s own business system, and a lot more. ConvertKit is an actually great system.
I’m not going to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature breakdown right here. ConvertKit is well known currently. But, below’s just how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has extra versatility when it comes to it’s automations. I will certainly additionally say that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit more instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports labeling. This is simply a fundamental feature of e-mail listings that allows segmentation in a much more adaptable means than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to support identifying at some time quickly, truthfully. It seems like an oversight that it is missing Can You Make Money on Beehiiv.
ConvertKit does currently supply the ability to offer things through their very own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is very important to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would always select a much more straight option anyway. For me, I like to use my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about much longer and for that reason has way much more integration alternatives. Tons of web-based tools and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is rather powerful. As an example, their plugin now also sustains member-gated material as well as auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your site. Fundamentally, this much more very closely places ConvertKit into straight competitors by having you be able to publish to your site and your e-mail list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is seriously lacking in these type of third-party integrations currently. It’ll get there. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even hectic tackling the development tools of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not only incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with advantages, however you can also pay per lead within the inner ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your list. These are really awesome features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you recognize ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among one of the most popular viral promo systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall for what this suggests for the platform going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Can You Make Money on Beehiiv
BeeHiiv is a lot earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means less features and less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. Nevertheless, it additionally means that they are rapidly developing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually experienced practically weekly launch of brand-new features right into the system. And these aren’t puny little features … yet huge features that are rather crucial. Their speed of growth at this moment has actually been impressive.
I also quite appreciate how responsive they are. In fact, one of their product statements concerning some design improvements to the web design features in fact had a small issue with the content size. I merely replied to that email to tell them. I quickly got a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That same day, the concern was repaired.
Couple of days later on, I gave them another pointer …
Certainly, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to set off automations based on the embed type made use of was contributed to the system.
That type of responsiveness and direct involvement of the group is something I truly value.
Another significant point of distinction here is the rate. Both systems supply totally free plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan supplies a lot more capability and even more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
As soon as you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also FAR more favorable. ConvertKit seems cheaper at first glance since their pricing web page shows lower numbers, nevertheless the subscriber limits are FAR lower and your cost promptly enhances as your checklist grows.
With BeeHiiv, your very first level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid each year), however you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That very same size listing is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their ideal plan and the one I directly use), you can grow your listing as much as 100,000. A listing of that dimension 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 yearly, too. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv is in a completely various league when it comes to pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately increase costs? They could as time takes place. However, I’m guessing people like myself who are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see how things proceed.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
One of the things you absolutely need to remember is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do seem to develop instead swiftly and make new item announcements rather frequently, yet there are some standard features I really wish they had that I require to simply wait on.
One is that they require to have a setting on registration types where I could pick an automation to run right at the kind degree. That would certainly be AWESOME for many factors. Currently, membership kinds look OK, yet there’s extremely little setups for them to help in segmentation.
It would behave to have labeling at the subscriber degree. This would be effective.
I believe webhooks must be part of automations to make integrated automations easier and reduce dependence on outside tools like Zapier.
There are additionally some minor management user interface changes that would be handy. For example:
- Capacity to mass edit/remove clients.
- Capacity to bulk edit messages (as an example, to mark a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a few fundamental fields as common on clients (like the name).
- Some even more modification alternatives for the website (such as more versatile color choices, heading control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Points I wish they perform with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t ideal and absolutely not virtually as created as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM item.
It most likely never will certainly be, either. As I said, the purpose is different so it wouldn’t a lot a lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to become a complete marketing automation system. I presume you never ever know, however.
Last Ideas On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I like BeeHiiv fairly a lot. Sufficient where I determined to change my very own newsletters over to the system in spite of my personal preference for digital sovereignty and possessing my own platform.
Basically, for the newsletter posting design specifically, I saw adequate value in their platform to warrant the modification.
Remember, I do not use BeeHiiv as my special e-mail listing. I make use of BeeHiiv of what it is proficient at, yet I purposefully have points establish so that I likewise maintain my checklist “in residence” within FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the exact same. It is simply an excellent insurance policy, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your checklist will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a complete 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 utilizing Substack right now, I ‘d definitely consider switching to BeeHiiv. It will merely be extra business-friendly. It is targeting different capabilities and different needs. Plus, BeeHiiv also has import tools for Substack, so the switch ought to be pretty straightforward.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d possibly stay put unless you have a large email list and are for that reason being fleeced with their high monthly expense. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are repeating rapidly. There’s additionally a pretty good chance you’re not also making use of some of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you don’t even require them. Because of that, BeeHiiv can quickly be a much better and more budget-friendly fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be extremely willful about growing an e-newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE system to take into consideration and maintain and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is created to be, it is among the best video games in town right now. This is the system to enjoy.
BeeHiiv uses a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth checking out for yourself. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll find the complimentary account to be fairly feature rich.