I have actually used a great deal of various e-mail list systems throughout the years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a significant supporter of digital sovereignty and possessing your very own system. Because of that (and the awesome features), I have actually been utilizing How Many Customers Does Beehiiv Have.
So, it is undoubtedly a weird move for me to determine to make use of BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is a hosted application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I wish to look at why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I intend to address the problem of digital sovereignty while making use of the system and I ‘d likewise such as to resolve why I picked to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For Newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Hobby + A Big Change In Approach, I spoke about how and why I made a decision to turn my recreational vehicle blog site into mostly a newsletter. I made a decision that was the business version I wished to pursue with that building.
Yet, to deliberately pursue it as an e-newsletter, I desired a system that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the e-mail checklist for Gladly motor home, but FluentCRM is not a newsletter system. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, honestly, using it for e-newsletters is a bit of a waste. Extra on that particular in a little bit.
As I stated in that issue of the newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a system with devices built right into it particular to my function. Points such as:
- Capacity to publish (to the blog) and send out the e-mail all at once without having it be 2 separate actions.
- Integrated in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would certainly have needed a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capacity to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are basically one-click registration web links. Great for promo in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, though, so there are ways to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your newsletter.
- Integrated ad network, if I select to monetize with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and essentially run a premium e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Generally, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features targeted at development. The system was essentially built by the people who developed the technology for Morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the point right here. BeeHiiv is built from scratch for the purpose of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various purpose.
And I ended off with this:.
I may indeed be moving The Side over to BeeHiiv too. A minimum of, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. As a matter of fact, I just went for it. And in fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, triggered as it’s very own residential property so that I can expand it much more deliberately also.
The objective is that each e-newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded individually. Happily recreational vehicle was young, so simple to change. Yet, The Early morning WP (formerly The Edge) 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 expand it on it’s very own. It will certainly always be carefully linked with the Blog site Marketing Academy, however does not have to belong of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was built for this function. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Regular Email Listing
There’s a difference in between a newsletter platform and just an email checklist.
You can hold your email list everywhere you want and there are a variety of them available, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The main distinction is that, with a newsletter platform, the act of publishing indicates that it is mosting likely to your internet site and to your email subscribers all at once.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are publishing to that website. But, you are also sending off to all subscribers at the same time. The site and it’s subscribers are done in one. This makes administration of the system much easier.
With the majority of e-mail systems, any kind of newsletter you set up is done as an email campaign. It is built totally separately from your website. So, for example, you could release a post to WordPress however after that you would require to individually construct and send an e-mail to your list to send it to subscribers. These are after that two different collections of archives and 2 different activities since post and your e-mails are not naturally linked.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress into a true e-newsletter system is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name due to the fact that it virtually “glues” your e-newsletter to your WordPress articles and allows them to be the exact same point. Absolutely, something like Newsletter Glue would certainly be a strong alternative if I intended to remain to self-host every little thing. However, you would certainly shed the growth tools that come with a platform like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter inherently comes with a different collection of needs than a normal email checklist.
You do not typically require much marketing automation. You do not generally need autoresponder sequences, event tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO requirement, though, is one seamless publishing experience and development devices to assist you construct your customer base that are specific to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my subscribers that I was going to switch the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the truth that I picked to choose BeeHiiv, that does not indicate I believe Substack draws. As a matter of fact, because Substack has actually been around longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a pair things that originally obtained my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is especially tailored to e-newsletter publishers. As a matter of fact, it is essentially constructed by the very same individuals that constructed the technology behind Early morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real world, doesn’t matter. Yet, the obvious positioning of BeeHiiv toward e-newsletter development called me out over the more common positioning of being a “designer”. Growth is what I’m interested in here.
- That branding and distinction additionally suggests that BeeHiiv has some rather huge brand names and big publications utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended even more at solo designers. Once more, it just tells me the customer character distinction in between both firms.
Sending our my e-newsletter via FluentCRM didn’t exactly draw. The only factor I would ponder drinking points up is if I believed I could expand the list faster. And BeeHiiv talked exactly to that objective.
As a result of the targeting, I in fact do not watch BeeHiiv and Substack as straight competitors. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a various sort of customer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra direct rivals.
However, let’s dive deeper than simply the placing right here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv appears like it was developed by individuals that comprehending email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems extra geared towards developers.
For example, BeeHiiv uses custom fields on clients. Currently, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. Actually, it is a visual automation builder that works a lot like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation performance is still early-phase. It is still rather minimal in triggers and the only action is the capacity to send out an e-mail. However, enhancements are coming. Soon sufficient, automations will have new triggers along with brand-new actions, such as changing custom fields, sending out webhooks, and so on. I have actually already seen improvements to their automations simply because I started using the system. As an example:
- Capability to set off automations based on which details embed form they came in on.
- Ability to instantly do re-engagement (and take care of individuals based upon opens and non-opens).
- Ability to do fundamental conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never will. Substack just can’t do this since the target market of Substack just would not believe to approach this like an email marketing professional.
When it concerns writing your newsletters, the creating interface of BeeHiiv is simply extra tailored towards e-newsletters. As a matter of fact, it in fact has similarities to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it functions. I locate it to be extra intuitive, personally.
Substack’s composing interface is nice and clean, but it would certainly be much more comparable to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This distinction is greater than just form. For example, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Section” and afterwards placed anything you desire in it. After that, you can place Exposure choices on that particular section to reveal it just to paid customers, hide it from e-mail, hide from clients, reveal only to customers, etc. Substack supplies nothing like this.
And when/if the time comes that I start a premium registration version, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any revenue. Actually, you actually link up to your very own Stripe account and it charges straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your profits. Depending on how many 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 might appear unpopular, yet what it means is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outdoors utilizing devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … absolutely nothing. No integrations in any way.
In general, I just felt like BeeHiiv was a lot more built towards genuine email marketing. It was developed by people who “get it”. Even the opt-in types and the landing page develops seem better developed for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I wish to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the direction it is going greater than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually claimed, Substack settings itself toward “developers” more than email marketing experts and newsletter proprietors. Therefore, you see some things tailored a lot more toward individuals who just think in terms of content creation.
For instance, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does support several magazines, they are treated quite separately. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to several publications at the same time. This isn’t something I require, but … trendy for individuals who might need it.
Substack also has even more social functionality built-in. For instance, it has a chat function to host chats with customers. It additionally has a “Notes” feature which functions type of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share things from other “Stacks” you read. Interesting. Overall, Substack is established to be much more like a social network which sustains long-form material.
On the whole, Substack is additionally a lot more … minimal. You either take care of that or do not. Directly, I do not. Nonetheless, if the objective is simpleness of interface and, frankly, features … Substack functions pretty well.
But, I’ll be clear below …
When it involves real marketing, I don’t believe there’s much question that BeeHiiv is better suited. I looked for more points that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, however honestly … I have a difficult time locating 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 competitors. Both are pursuing the same target audience and have similar capacities.
ConvertKit is also placed at makers (like Substack), however it is a lot more strongly accommodating individuals who do it for organization. ConvertKit has great aesthetic automation structure, it’s own commerce platform, and much more. ConvertKit is a really good platform.
I’m not going to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature malfunction right here. ConvertKit is popular currently. But, here’s just how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has extra versatility when it pertains to it’s automations. I will also state that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit much more instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains marking. This is simply a standard feature of email listings that enables division in an even more flexible method than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to sustain identifying at some point soon, frankly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing out on How Many Customers Does Beehiiv Have.
ConvertKit does now supply the capability to sell points by means of 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 constantly select a more direct choice anyway. For me, I prefer to use my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been around much longer and therefore has way more integration alternatives. Lots of web-based devices and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is rather effective. For example, their plugin now even sustains member-gated web content along with auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your site. Fundamentally, this a lot more carefully puts ConvertKit into direct competitors by having you be able to publish to your website and your e-mail checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is severely doing not have in these kinds of third-party integrations right now. It’ll get there. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even active tackling the growth devices of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not only incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with advantages, however you can additionally pay per lead within the interior ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your list. These are really amazing features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you recognize ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among one of the most popular viral promotion platforms for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall surface of what this implies for the platform moving forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Better At … How Many Customers Does Beehiiv Have
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that indicates much less features and much less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. However, it also implies that they are quickly creating.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have seen nearly once a week launch of brand-new features right into the platform. And these aren’t undersized little features … but large features that are fairly essential. Their speed of growth now has been impressive.
I also quite value just how receptive they are. In fact, one of their product announcements about some layout enhancements to the web design features actually contained a small trouble with the content size. I just replied to that email to tell them. I quickly obtained a reply directly from the CEO:.
That exact same day, the problem was fixed.
Few days later on, I gave them an additional tip …
Indeed, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to set off automations based upon the embed type used was included in the system.
That kind of responsiveness and direct participation of the group is something I truly value.
One more major point of distinction here is the rate. Both systems supply cost-free plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan offers a lot more capability and more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise FAR more desirable. ConvertKit seems cheaper in the beginning glance because their pricing web page shows lower numbers, nevertheless the subscriber limits are FAR reduced and your price quickly raises as your list grows.
With BeeHiiv, your first level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid each year), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 customers. That same size checklist is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their best plan and the one I personally make use of), you can grow your listing approximately 100,000. A list of that dimension would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, too, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay yearly, too. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for simply $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv remains in an entirely various league when it concerns pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually raise rates? They may as time goes on. However, I’m guessing individuals like myself who are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see just how things continue.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among things you certainly require to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do seem to advance instead swiftly and make brand-new product statements rather usually, however there are some standard features I really wish they had that I require to just wait on.
One is that they require to have a setting on registration forms where I might choose an automation to run right at the kind degree. That would certainly be remarkable for a lot of factors. Currently, subscription types look OK, however there’s extremely little settings for them to help in division.
It would behave to have tagging at the client degree. This would certainly be effective.
I think webhooks must be part of automations to make integrated automations less complicated and minimize dependence on outside tools like Zapier.
There are also some small administrative interface modifications that would certainly be handy. For instance:
- Capability to bulk edit/remove clients.
- Capacity to bulk edit articles (as an example, to tag a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of standard areas as typical on clients (like the name).
- Some more customization alternatives for the internet site (such as even more versatile color choices, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Points I wish they do with it in the future. BeeHiiv is respectable, however it isn’t ideal and certainly not almost as created as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM item.
It most likely never will be, either. As I stated, the objective is various so it would not a lot a great deal of feeling for BeeHiiv to become a complete marketing automation platform. I presume you never understand, though.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I such as BeeHiiv fairly a great deal. Enough where I made a decision to change my very own e-newsletters over to the platform despite my personal choice for digital sovereignty and owning my own system.
Basically, for the newsletter publishing design especially, I saw enough value in their system to call for the modification.
Bear in mind, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my exclusive email list. I utilize BeeHiiv for what it is good at, however I deliberately have points establish to make sure that I likewise keep my listing “in residence” inside of FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the exact same. It is simply an excellent insurance plan, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation system 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 absolutely think about switching to BeeHiiv. It will just be a lot more business-friendly. It is targeting different abilities and various demands. And also, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the switch must be quite uncomplicated.
If you are on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d possibly sit tight unless you have a large email listing and are for that reason being fleeced with their high regular monthly expense. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are iterating rapidly. There’s likewise a respectable chance you’re not also making use of several of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you do not even require them. Because of that, BeeHiiv can conveniently be a better and a lot more inexpensive fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be really willful concerning expanding an e-newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE system to consider and maintain 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 best video games around right now. This is the system to watch.
BeeHiiv provides a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth looking into for yourself. And if you end up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll discover the cost-free account to be quite feature rich.