I have utilized a great deal of various email list systems for many years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a significant supporter of digital sovereignty and possessing your very own platform. Therefore (and the incredible features), I have been using Digital Surfer Beehiiv.
So, it is indeed an odd move for me to choose to make use of BeeHiiv. After all, it is a held application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv evaluation, I intend to review why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I wish to attend to the concern of digital sovereignty while making use of the platform and I would certainly also such as to resolve why I picked to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For Newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Hobby + A Huge Shift In Approach, I spoke about just how and why I chose to turn my RV blog right into mainly a newsletter. I determined that was business model I wanted to pursue with that said property.
However, to purposefully seek it as a newsletter, I wanted a system that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the email listing for Gladly motor home, yet FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, frankly, utilizing it for newsletters is a little a waste. More on that particular in a little bit.
As I stated because problem of the newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a system with tools developed right into it specific to my purpose. Things such as:
- Capability to publish (to the blog site) and send out the e-mail all at once without having it be two different actions.
- Built in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would certainly require a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Integrated ability to do cross-promotions with various other newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are essentially one-click membership web links. Great for promo in various other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, however, 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 pick to generate income from with advertisements in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and essentially run a premium newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Generally, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter authors with features targeted at growth. The platform was essentially constructed by the people who accumulated the technology for Early morning Mixture. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the point below. BeeHiiv is built from scratch for the objective of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a different function.
And I finished off with this:.
I might certainly be relocating The Edge over to BeeHiiv as well. At the very least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. In fact, I just went all out. And in fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, triggered as it’s very own building to make sure that I can grow it more deliberately as well.
The goal is that each newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded independently. Gladly recreational vehicle was young, so simple to change. However, The Morning WP (formerly The Side) was buried in a sea of things below at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s own. It will obviously always be carefully linked with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet does not have to belong of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was developed for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Typical Email List
There’s a distinction between a newsletter system and just an e-mail listing.
You can hold your e-mail list anyplace you want and there are a number of them available, 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 platform, the act of publishing suggests that it is mosting likely to your web site and to your email subscribers simultaneously.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are releasing to that website. However, you are also dispatching to all clients at the same time. The web site and it’s customers are all in one. This makes administration of the system much easier.
With the majority of e-mail platforms, any type of e-newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is constructed entirely individually from your website. So, for example, you might publish a write-up to WordPress however then you would require to individually develop and send out an e-mail to your listing to send it to customers. These are then 2 different collections of archives and two separate actions since blog posts and your e-mails are not inherently linked.
The closest point that turns WordPress into a real e-newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name since it pretty much “glues” your e-newsletter to your WordPress posts and allows them to be the same thing. Certainly, something like E-newsletter Glue would be a solid option if I wished to continue to self-host whatever. Nevertheless, you would certainly lose the development devices that come with a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting a newsletter inherently comes with a different set of needs than a normal e-mail checklist.
You do not usually need much marketing automation. You do not typically need autoresponder sequences, event monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO need, though, is one smooth publishing experience and growth tools to aid you construct your customer base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my subscribers that I was going to switch over the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was picking it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the reality that I picked to opt for BeeHiiv, that does not suggest I believe Substack sucks. Actually, due to the fact that Substack has been around much longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is younger, there are a pair points that initially obtained my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is especially customized to e-newsletter publishers. As a matter of fact, it is essentially built by the exact same individuals who constructed the innovation behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real world, doesn’t matter. But, the apparent positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter growth called me out over the more common positioning of being a “designer”. Development is what I want right here.
- That branding and differentiation likewise indicates that BeeHiiv has some rather huge brands and large publications using it. Whereas SubStack is intended even more at solo designers. Once again, it simply informs me the consumer avatar difference between both firms.
Sending our my newsletter through FluentCRM really did not exactly draw. The only reason I would consider drinking points up is if I assumed I can expand the checklist much faster. And BeeHiiv talked precisely to that goal.
Due to the targeting, I actually do not see BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a different sort of customer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra straight competitors.
However, let’s dive deeper than just the placing right here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
On the whole, BeeHiiv appears like it was built by people who recognizing email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems extra geared towards designers.
For example, BeeHiiv provides custom areas on subscribers. Now, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. Actually, it is a visual automation builder that works a great deal like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation functionality is still early-phase. It is still rather restricted in triggers and the only activity is the capability to send out an e-mail. Nonetheless, improvements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will have new triggers along with new activities, such as modifying custom fields, sending out webhooks, etc. I’ve currently seen improvements to their automations just given that I began utilizing the platform. As an example:
- Capacity to cause automations based upon which details embed kind they was available in on.
- Capability to automatically do re-engagement (and take care of individuals based upon opens and non-opens).
- Capacity to do fundamental conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can not do this due to the fact that the target audience of Substack just would not believe to approach this like an email marketing professional.
When it concerns composing your e-newsletters, the writing interface of BeeHiiv is just extra geared towards newsletters. In fact, it actually has similarities to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it works. I find it to be extra instinctive, personally.
Substack’s creating interface is nice and tidy, yet it would be more equivalent to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is more than simply form. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Area” and afterwards placed anything you desire in it. Then, you can put Presence options on that particular section to show it only to paid subscribers, hide it from e-mail, conceal from clients, reveal just to subscribers, and so on. Substack uses absolutely nothing similar to this.
And when/if the time comes that I start a premium subscription model, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any earnings. Actually, you literally attach up to your very own Stripe account and it charges directly to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your income. Depending upon the number of subscribers you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit more money than the monthly cost of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This could seem nerdy, but what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv work with the outdoors using tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … nothing. No integrations whatsoever.
Generally, I simply felt like BeeHiiv was a lot more constructed towards genuine email marketing. It was constructed by people that “get it”. Even the opt-in kinds and the landing page designs seem better built for conversions. Growth is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv add, I such as the direction it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually said, Substack placements itself towards “creators” more than e-mail marketing professionals and e-newsletter proprietors. Therefore, you see some points geared more towards individuals that simply believe in terms of web content development.
For instance, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does sustain several publications, they are dealt with rather separately. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to multiple publications at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, but … great for individuals that could need it.
Substack additionally has more social functionality built-in. As an example, it has a conversation function to host talks with customers. It additionally has a “Notes” feature which works type of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share things from various other “Stacks” you’re reading. Interesting. Overall, Substack is set up to be a lot more like a social network which supports long-form content.
In general, Substack is likewise a lot more … minimal. You either look after that or don’t. Personally, I do not. Nonetheless, if the objective is simplicity of interface and, honestly, features … Substack functions rather well.
But, I’ll be clear below …
When it pertains to real marketing, I do not think there’s much question that BeeHiiv is much better matched. I looked for even more points that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, however truthfully … I have a hard time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are commonly via to be the closest rivals, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are pursuing the very same target audience and have comparable capacities.
ConvertKit is likewise positioned at developers (like Substack), yet it is much more highly satisfying individuals that do it for company. ConvertKit has nice visual automation building, it’s very own business platform, and more. ConvertKit is a really great system.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature malfunction here. ConvertKit is popular currently. However, right here’s how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Points ConvertKit Is Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has extra flexibility when it involves it’s automations. I will also state that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit extra instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports identifying. This is just a fundamental function of e-mail listings that makes it possible for division in a far more flexible means than BeeHiiv currently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support labeling at some time soon, honestly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing Digital Surfer Beehiiv.
ConvertKit does now offer the capacity to sell points using their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is very important to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would certainly constantly choose an extra straight option anyway. For me, I prefer to utilize my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been around much longer and for that reason has way much more integration options. Tons of web-based tools and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is fairly effective. For instance, their plugin currently also supports member-gated material as well as auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your website. Fundamentally, this more very closely puts ConvertKit into straight competitors by having you be able to release to your site and your e-mail checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is badly doing not have in these type of third-party integrations currently. It’ll arrive. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even hectic taking on the growth devices of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with perks, but you can also pay per lead within the internal ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your checklist. These are truly awesome features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you understand ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of one of the most well known viral promo platforms for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall surface wherefore this means for the system moving forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Digital Surfer Beehiiv
BeeHiiv is a lot earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that indicates much less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. However, it also implies that they are quickly developing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have seen nearly weekly launch of brand-new features right into the platform. And these aren’t puny little features … however huge features that are fairly important. Their speed of advancement now has actually been impressive.
I also quite appreciate just how responsive they are. As a matter of fact, one of their product statements concerning some layout improvements to the web design features actually contained a little problem with the content size. I just replied to that email to tell them. I swiftly obtained a reply straight from the CEO:.
That exact same day, the issue was fixed.
Couple of days later on, I gave them an additional tip …
Indeed, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to cause automations based upon the embed type used was included in the system.
That sort of responsiveness and straight participation of the team is something I really appreciate.
Another major factor of distinction below is the rate. Both systems offer complimentary plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan offers extra ability and more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise FAR more desirable. ConvertKit seems more affordable initially look because their pricing web page shows reduced numbers, however the subscriber limits are much lower and your rate swiftly enhances as your listing expands.
With BeeHiiv, your very first level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid every year), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 customers. That very same size checklist is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their best plan and the one I personally use), you can grow your list as much as 100,000. A listing of that size would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, as well, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay each year, also. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for just $84/month if you pay yearly.
BeeHiiv is in a totally various organization when it pertains to pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately raise rates? They might as time takes place. Yet, I’m presuming people like myself that are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see how points proceed.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
Among the important things you absolutely require to remember is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do appear to advance instead swiftly and make brand-new product announcements somewhat often, but there are some standard features I actually want they had that I need to simply wait for.
One is that they need to have a setup on subscription types where I could choose an automation to run right at the kind level. That would certainly be amazing for many factors. As of now, registration types look OK, however there’s very little settings for them to help in division.
It would certainly be nice to have labeling at the client level. This would be effective.
I think webhooks need to be part of automations to make built-in automations easier and reduce dependence on outside tools like Zapier.
There are additionally some small management interface adjustments that would be handy. For instance:
- Capability to mass edit/remove clients.
- Capability to mass edit blog posts (as an example, to identify a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of basic areas as standard on clients (like the name).
- Some even more modification alternatives for the web site (such as even more flexible shade options, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Things I hope they do with it in the future. BeeHiiv is respectable, however it isn’t excellent and absolutely not virtually as created as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM item.
It probably never ever will be, either. As I stated, the purpose is different so it would not much a great deal of feeling for BeeHiiv to become a complete marketing automation system. I think you never ever know, however.
Last Ideas On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I such as BeeHiiv rather a great deal. Sufficient where I chose to switch my very own e-newsletters over to the system despite my individual preference for digital sovereignty and possessing my own system.
Put simply, for the e-newsletter posting design specifically, I saw adequate value in their platform to necessitate the change.
Bear in mind, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my special email checklist. I make use of BeeHiiv wherefore it is good at, however I intentionally have things establish to make sure that I additionally maintain my list “in house” within FluentCRM.
If you make use of BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the exact same. It is just a good insurance coverage, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your list will certainly be of high usage (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will certainly be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are utilizing Substack right now, I ‘d certainly take into consideration switching over to BeeHiiv. It will simply be extra business-friendly. It is targeting various abilities and different needs. Plus, BeeHiiv also has import tools for Substack, so the button should be pretty simple.
If you get on ConvertKit now, I ‘d probably stay unless you have a big e-mail list and are consequently being wooled with their high regular monthly expense. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are iterating swiftly. There’s also a respectable opportunity you’re not even utilizing several of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you don’t also need them. Because of that, BeeHiiv could conveniently be a much better and much more inexpensive fit.
Finally, if you plan to be very willful regarding growing an e-newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE platform to consider and keep and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is designed to be, it is just one of the very best games in town right now. This is the platform to see.
BeeHiiv uses a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth having a look at on your own. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll find the totally free account to be fairly feature abundant.