I have actually used a lot of various e-mail list systems over the years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a significant advocate of digital sovereignty and having your own platform. For that reason (and the awesome features), I have been making use of Fynch Beehiiv.
So, it is certainly an odd move for me to decide to make use of BeeHiiv. After all, it is an organized application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv evaluation, I want to discuss why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I intend to deal with the concern of digital sovereignty while using the platform and I would certainly additionally like to deal with why I chose to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For E-newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Hobby + A Huge Change In Strategy, I spoke about just how and why I determined to transform my recreational vehicle blog site right into primarily a newsletter. I made a decision that was business version I intended to pursue with that said property.
But, to intentionally pursue it as a newsletter, I wanted a system that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the email listing for Gladly RV, yet FluentCRM is not a newsletter platform. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, truthfully, utilizing it for newsletters is a little a waste. Much more on that particular in a bit.
As I said in that issue of the e-newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices developed into it particular to my purpose. Points such as:
- Capability to publish (to the blog) and send out the email at the same time without having it be two different actions.
- Integrated in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would certainly require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capacity to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are essentially one-click registration web links. Great for promo in other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are ways to do that.
- Capacity to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your e-newsletter.
- Built-in advertisement network, if I choose to monetize with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and primarily run a premium e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Basically, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter publishers with features targeted at development. The platform was actually constructed by the people that developed the innovation for Morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the factor below. BeeHiiv is built from the ground up for the objective of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a various function.
And I ended off with this:.
I may certainly be relocating The Side over to BeeHiiv as well. A minimum of, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. In fact, I just went all out. And in fact, The side was re-branded over to The Morning WP, set off as it’s own property so that I can expand it a lot more purposefully as well.
The objective is that each e-newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown individually. Happily RV was young, so easy to shift. However, The Early morning WP (formerly The Side) was buried in a sea of things here 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 clearly constantly be carefully linked with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet does not have to belong of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv because it was developed for this function. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Just A Regular Email Checklist
There’s a distinction in between an e-newsletter system and simply an e-mail listing.
You can hold your e-mail list anyplace you want and there are a variety of them out there, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The key difference is that, with an e-newsletter system, the act of posting means that it is going to your site and to your email customers all at once.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a site. You are releasing to that website. But, you are likewise dispatching to all subscribers at the same time. The internet site and it’s subscribers are done in one. This makes administration of the platform much less complex.
With a lot of e-mail platforms, any type of e-newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is built completely separately from your internet site. So, for instance, you could release a write-up to WordPress but after that you would require to independently build and send an e-mail to your checklist to send it to customers. These are after that two different collections of archives and two separate activities since article and your e-mails are not inherently linked.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress into a true newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name due to the fact that it virtually “glues” your newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and permits them to be the same thing. Absolutely, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a strong choice if I intended to remain to self-host every little thing. However, you ‘d lose the development devices that come with a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter naturally features a various collection of needs than a common email list.
You do not usually need much marketing automation. You do not normally need autoresponder series, event monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO demand, though, is one smooth publishing experience and growth devices to aid you construct your client base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my customers that I was going to change 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 picked to select BeeHiiv, that doesn’t suggest I believe Substack draws. Actually, since Substack has actually been about much longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple things that originally got my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is especially customized to e-newsletter publishers. As a matter of fact, it is literally developed by the exact same individuals that constructed the modern technology behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real life, does not matter. Yet, 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’m interested in here.
- That branding and distinction likewise implies that BeeHiiv has some relatively big brands and big publications utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo developers. Once again, it simply tells me the customer avatar difference in between both companies.
Sending our my e-newsletter by means of FluentCRM really did not precisely suck. The only factor I would certainly contemplate trembling points up is if I thought I might GROW the checklist much faster. And BeeHiiv spoke precisely to that goal.
Because of the targeting, I really don’t check out 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 much more straight competitors.
But, let’s dive much deeper than just the placing below.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Generally, BeeHiiv appears like it was built by people that recognizing email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems extra geared toward makers.
For example, BeeHiiv supplies custom-made fields on clients. Now, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. Actually, it is a visual automation builder that functions a lot like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still rather limited in triggers and the only activity is the capability to send out an e-mail. However, improvements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will have brand-new triggers along with new activities, such as customizing personalized areas, sending out webhooks, etc. I’ve already seen improvements to their automations just given that I began making use of the system. As an example:
- Capability to trigger automations based on which particular embed type they can be found in on.
- Capability to immediately do re-engagement (and handle individuals based on opens up and non-opens).
- Capability to do fundamental conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can not do this since the target audience of Substack just wouldn’t think to approach this like an e-mail marketing professional.
When it pertains to writing your newsletters, the composing interface of BeeHiiv is just much more geared toward newsletters. Actually, it in fact has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it functions. I locate it to be extra user-friendly, directly.
Substack’s composing user interface is nice and clean, however it would be a lot more equal to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is more than just type. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Area” and then put anything you desire in it. After that, you can put Exposure alternatives on that particular section to show it only to paid clients, hide it from e-mail, conceal from subscribers, reveal just to clients, and so on. Substack uses absolutely nothing like this.
And when/if the moment comes that I start a costs membership model, BeeHiiv does not take any kind of earnings. As a matter of fact, you actually connect up to your own Stripe account and it charges straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your earnings. Depending upon the number of customers you get, that 10% can be quite a bit more money than the regular monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This could seem unpopular, but what it means is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outdoors making use of devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … nothing. No integrations in any way.
Overall, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was a lot more constructed toward actual e-mail marketing. It was developed by individuals who “get it”. Even the opt-in forms and the landing page develops seem better developed for conversions. Growth is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I wish to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the direction it is going more than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually said, Substack placements itself toward “developers” greater than e-mail marketing professionals and e-newsletter proprietors. Therefore, you see some things tailored much more towards people that simply think in regards to web content production.
For example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does support numerous magazines, they are treated fairly separately. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to numerous magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I require, yet … amazing for individuals who could require it.
Substack likewise has more social functionality built-in. As an example, it has a chat function to host chats with subscribers. It additionally has a “Notes” feature which works kind of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share things from other “Stacks” you’re reading. Fascinating. Overall, Substack is established to be more like a social media which sustains long-form content.
In general, Substack is also extra … minimal. You either look after that or don’t. Personally, I do not. Nonetheless, if the goal is simpleness of user interface and, truthfully, features … Substack functions pretty well.
However, I’ll be clear here …
When it involves actual marketing, I don’t think there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is better suited. I looked for more factors that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, yet honestly … I have a difficult time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are often with to be the closest rivals, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are pursuing the exact same target audience and have comparable abilities.
ConvertKit is additionally positioned at designers (like Substack), but it is a lot more highly catering to individuals that do it for organization. ConvertKit has wonderful aesthetic automation building, it’s own commerce system, and much more. ConvertKit is a really wonderful platform.
I’m not going to bore you with a full feature-by-feature breakdown right here. ConvertKit is popular currently. But, below’s exactly how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has much more versatility when it involves it’s automations. I will likewise claim that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains labeling. This is simply a basic feature of e-mail listings that makes it possible for segmentation in a much more versatile method than BeeHiiv currently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain labeling at some point soon, truthfully. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Fynch Beehiiv.
ConvertKit does now provide the ability 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, nevertheless, I would certainly always choose a much more straight choice anyway. For me, I favor to utilize my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been around much longer and therefore has way much more integration choices. Lots of online devices and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their own WordPress plugin that is rather powerful. For instance, their plugin now even supports member-gated content in addition to auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your site. In essence, this extra very closely puts ConvertKit right into direct competition by having you have the ability to publish to your website and your email checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is seriously lacking in these kinds of third-party integrations right now. It’ll arrive. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy dealing with the development devices of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not only incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with perks, however you can also pay per lead within the internal advertisement network of BeeHiiv to grow your list. These are truly amazing features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you recognize ConvertKit acquired Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of the most well known viral promotion platforms for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall surface for what this means for the platform going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Fynch Beehiiv
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means much less features and less integrations, which is all-natural for this phase of the cycle. However, it also implies that they are swiftly developing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually seen practically regular release of brand-new features right into the system. And these aren’t puny little features … but huge features that are quite important. Their rate of advancement at this moment has gone over.
I also quite value how receptive they are. Actually, one of their product news concerning some layout enhancements to the web design features in fact consisted of a little issue with the content width. I simply replied to that email to tell them. I swiftly obtained a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That very same day, the issue was dealt with.
Couple of days later, I provided an additional tip …
Certainly, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to activate automations based on the embed type made use of was included in the system.
That sort of responsiveness and direct participation of the group is something I actually value.
Another significant factor of differentiation here is the cost. Both systems provide cost-free plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan provides much more ability and even more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise much more desirable. ConvertKit seems more affordable initially glimpse because their pricing page reveals lower numbers, nevertheless the customer limitations are FAR lower and your cost promptly raises as your listing grows.
With BeeHiiv, your first level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid each year), however you can have up to 10,000 clients. That exact same dimension list is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I personally use), you can grow your listing approximately 100,000. A list of that size would certainly 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 annually, also. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for just $84/month if you pay yearly.
BeeHiiv remains in a totally different league when it involves pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually enhance prices? They might as time goes on. But, I’m guessing individuals like myself that are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see how things continue.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
One of the important things you absolutely need to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do seem to develop instead quickly and make brand-new item statements rather typically, but there are some standard features I truly desire they had that I need to simply wait on.
One is that they require to have a setting on membership types where I could select an automation to run right at the kind degree. That would certainly be amazing for many factors. Currently, membership kinds look OK, yet there’s really little settings for them to help in segmentation.
It would certainly be nice to have labeling at the customer level. This would be effective.
I believe webhooks must belong to automations to make integrated automations simpler and reduce reliance on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are additionally some small management interface adjustments that would come in handy. As an example:
- Ability to mass edit/remove customers.
- Capacity to mass edit blog posts (for example, to tag a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a few standard fields as common on customers (like the name).
- Some even more personalization options for the internet site (such as more flexible color selections, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Points I wish they make with it in the future. BeeHiiv is respectable, however it isn’t best and definitely not nearly as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM item.
It possibly never ever will be, either. As I claimed, the function is different 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 understand, though.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Review
I such as BeeHiiv fairly a whole lot. Enough where I decided to change my very own newsletters over to the system in spite of my individual choice for digital sovereignty and possessing my very own system.
Simply put, for the newsletter posting design specifically, I saw adequate worth in their platform to warrant the change.
Bear in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my special e-mail list. I make use of BeeHiiv for what it is proficient at, however I purposefully have points establish to make sure that I likewise maintain my list “in home” inside of FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the same. It is simply a great insurance plan, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your list will certainly be of high use (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are making use of Substack today, I ‘d most definitely consider changing to BeeHiiv. It will simply be much more business-friendly. It is targeting different abilities and various demands. And also, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the switch should be rather simple.
If you get on ConvertKit now, I ‘d possibly stay put unless you have a large email list and are therefore being fleeced with their high regular monthly costs. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are repeating promptly. There’s additionally a respectable chance you’re not even using several of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not even require them. Therefore, BeeHiiv could easily be a better and much more affordable fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be really deliberate concerning expanding a newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE platform to take into consideration and maintain and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is designed to be, it is among the most effective games in town today. This is the system to see.
BeeHiiv provides a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth looking into on your own. And if you wind up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll locate the complimentary account to be rather feature rich.