I have used a great deal of different email list systems throughout the years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a substantial advocate of digital sovereignty and owning your very own system. For that reason (and the remarkable features), I have been utilizing How To Migrate From ConvertKit To Beehiiv.
So, it is without a doubt an unusual move for me to choose to use BeeHiiv. After all, it is a held application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I wish to look at why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I intend to deal with the problem of digital sovereignty while using the platform and I ‘d additionally such as to address why I picked to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For Newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my newsletter called My Hobby + A Large Change In Method, I spoke about just how and why I determined to transform my motor home blog site right into primarily a newsletter. I determined that was the business design I intended to seek with that building.
But, to purposefully pursue it as an e-newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the email list for Gladly motor home, yet FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter system. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, frankly, utilizing it for newsletters is a bit of a waste. A lot more on that particular in a little bit.
As I said in that issue of the e-newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a platform with tools developed right into it details to my objective. Points such as:
- Ability to publish (to the blog site) and send the email at the same time without having it be 2 different actions.
- Constructed in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would certainly have needed a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capability to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are primarily one-click membership links. Great for promo in other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are ways to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your newsletter.
- Built-in advertisement network, if I choose to generate income from with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capacity to run a paid newsletter upgrade and basically run a costs e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter authors with features focused on growth. The system was literally developed by the individuals that accumulated the technology for Morning Mixture. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the point here. BeeHiiv is developed from the ground up for the function of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different function.
And I ended off with this:.
I may certainly be relocating The Edge over to BeeHiiv as well. A minimum of, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. As a matter of fact, I just went for it. And as a matter of fact, The side was re-branded over to The Morning WP, set off as it’s very own property so that I can expand it a lot more purposefully too.
The goal is that each e-newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s own media entity and grown individually. Gladly RV was young, so easy to change. Yet, The Morning WP (formerly The Side) was hidden in a sea of things here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s very own. It will clearly always be very closely connected with the Blog site Marketing Academy, however doesn’t need to belong of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv because it was constructed for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Just A Regular Email Listing
There’s a distinction between a newsletter platform and just an e-mail list.
You can host your email listing just about anywhere 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 distinction?
The main difference is that, with an e-newsletter system, the act of posting means that it is going to your web site and to your e-mail clients concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are publishing to that site. Yet, you are likewise dispatching to all clients at the same time. The web site and it’s customers are all in one. This makes management of the platform much easier.
With most email platforms, any kind of newsletter you set up is done as an e-mail campaign. It is constructed entirely individually from your web site. So, as an example, you could release an article to WordPress yet then you would need to individually build and send an e-mail to your listing to send it to subscribers. These are after that 2 separate sets of archives and two separate activities because blog posts and your e-mails are not naturally linked.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress into a real e-newsletter system is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name because it virtually “glues” your newsletter to your WordPress messages and enables them to be the same point. Definitely, something like Newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid alternative if I wanted to continue to self-host whatever. Nevertheless, you would certainly lose the growth tools that come with a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter inherently comes with a various collection of needs than a common email listing.
You do not generally need much marketing automation. You don’t typically need autoresponder series, occasion tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO requirement, however, is one smooth posting experience and development devices to help you construct your customer base that are specific to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my clients that I was mosting likely to change the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many people ask me why I was picking it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the truth that I selected to opt for BeeHiiv, that does not indicate I believe Substack sucks. As a matter of fact, due to the fact that Substack has actually been around much longer, it is more mature and has more features.
Although BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple points that initially got my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically tailored to e-newsletter publishers. As a matter of fact, it is actually built by the same people who built the technology behind Early morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, does not matter. But, the obvious positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter development called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “designer”. Development is what I want below.
- That branding and differentiation additionally indicates that BeeHiiv has some fairly huge brands and large magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo designers. Once more, it simply tells me the consumer avatar difference between the two firms.
Sending our my newsletter using FluentCRM really did not specifically suck. The only reason I would certainly ponder trembling things up is if I assumed I might GROW the list much faster. And BeeHiiv spoke exactly to that objective.
As a result of the targeting, I in fact do not watch BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a different kind of customer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more straight rivals.
Yet, let’s dive much deeper than just the placing here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv feels like it was developed by people who comprehending e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems a lot more tailored towards creators.
For instance, BeeHiiv uses customized areas on subscribers. Now, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. As a matter of fact, it is an aesthetic 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 rather restricted in triggers and the only activity is the capability to send an email. Nevertheless, enhancements are coming. Soon enough, automations will certainly have brand-new triggers along with new activities, such as changing personalized fields, sending out webhooks, and so on. I have actually currently seen enhancements to their automations simply since I began using the platform. For instance:
- Capability to activate automations based upon which specific embed kind they came in on.
- Ability to immediately do re-engagement (and handle individuals based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Ability to do fundamental conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack simply can not do this due to the fact that the target audience of Substack simply would not think to approach this like an email online marketer.
When it concerns writing your e-newsletters, the writing interface of BeeHiiv is just much more geared towards e-newsletters. As a matter of fact, it actually has similarities to the WordPress block builder in just how it functions. I locate it to be extra intuitive, directly.
Substack’s creating interface is nice and clean, however it would be more equal to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This distinction is greater than simply kind. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Section” and after that placed anything you desire in it. After that, you can put Presence alternatives on that particular section to show it only to paid subscribers, hide it from e-mail, hide from customers, reveal only to subscribers, and so on. Substack uses nothing such as this.
And when/if the moment comes that I start a premium registration version, BeeHiiv does not take any type of revenue. In fact, you essentially connect as much as your very own Stripe account and it bills directly to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your revenue. Relying on the amount of customers you obtain, that 10% can be quite a bit more cash than the regular monthly cost of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This might seem nerdy, however what it suggests is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv deal with the outdoors using tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … nothing. No integrations in any way.
Generally, I just felt like BeeHiiv was a lot more built towards genuine e-mail marketing. It was developed by people who “get it”. Also the opt-in types and the landing page creates appear much better developed for conversions. Growth is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I want to see BeeHiiv add, I such as the direction it is going more than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually claimed, Substack placements itself towards “creators” greater than e-mail marketing experts and e-newsletter owners. Therefore, you see some points tailored a lot more towards people who just believe in regards to material development.
As an example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does support multiple magazines, they are dealt with rather independently. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to numerous magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I need, yet … great for people that may require it.
Substack additionally has more social capability built-in. As an example, it has a conversation feature to host chats with clients. It additionally has a “Notes” feature which functions sort of like a social media newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you’re reading. Interesting. Overall, Substack is established to be a lot more like a social network which supports long-form content.
Overall, Substack is also much more … minimalist. You either look after that or do not. Personally, I don’t. However, if the goal is simplicity of user interface and, honestly, features … Substack works pretty well.
However, I’ll be clear below …
When it concerns actual marketing, I do not think there’s much question that BeeHiiv is much better suited. I searched for more points that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, but frankly … I have a hard time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are often via to be the closest rivals, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are going after the very same target audience and have similar abilities.
ConvertKit is likewise positioned at developers (like Substack), however it is much more highly catering to people that do it for company. ConvertKit has wonderful visual automation structure, it’s own business platform, and a lot more. ConvertKit is a truly nice platform.
I’m not going to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature break down right here. ConvertKit is well known currently. However, here’s just how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Things ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has more flexibility when it comes to it’s automations. I will certainly also claim that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit more user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains marking. This is just a fundamental feature of e-mail checklists that makes it possible for segmentation in an even more flexible way than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to support tagging at some point quickly, honestly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing out on How To Migrate From ConvertKit To Beehiiv.
ConvertKit does currently offer the capacity to offer points via their own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is very important to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would certainly always pick a much more direct choice anyhow. For me, I choose to use my own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about much longer and for that reason has way extra integration alternatives. Tons of online tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their own WordPress plugin that is rather powerful. As an example, their plugin now also supports member-gated material along with auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your site. Basically, this much more closely puts ConvertKit right into straight competition by having you have the ability to publish to your website and your email list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is significantly lacking in these type 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 tools of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not only incentivize individuals to share your e-newsletter with benefits, yet you can likewise pay per lead within the inner advertisement network of BeeHiiv to grow your checklist. These are actually awesome features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you know ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of the most well known viral promo platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall surface of what this suggests for the platform going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Better At … How To Migrate From ConvertKit To Beehiiv
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies less features and less integrations, which is natural for this stage of the cycle. Nonetheless, it additionally suggests that they are quickly creating.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have witnessed nearly regular release of new features into the platform. And these aren’t weak little features … yet huge features that are fairly crucial. Their rate of development now has actually been impressive.
I additionally quite appreciate just how receptive they are. In fact, among their item news regarding some design enhancements to the web design features really included a little issue with the web content size. I simply responded to that e-mail to tell them. I promptly got a reply straight from the CEO:.
That very same day, the problem was taken care of.
Couple of days later on, I gave them another idea …
Certainly, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to trigger automations based on the embed kind utilized was added to the system.
That kind of responsiveness and direct involvement of the team is something I truly appreciate.
Another significant factor of distinction right here is the cost. Both platforms provide totally free plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan supplies extra capacity and even more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise FAR more beneficial. ConvertKit appears less costly in the beginning glance due to the fact that their pricing page reveals lower numbers, nevertheless the subscriber limitations are much reduced and your cost swiftly boosts as your listing expands.
With BeeHiiv, your first level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid each year), however you can have up to 10,000 clients. That exact same dimension list is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I personally make use of), you can expand your checklist approximately 100,000. A checklist of that dimension would 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 every year, as well. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv remains in a totally various organization when it comes to pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually increase rates? They might as time goes on. But, I’m thinking individuals like myself who are already in will be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how points proceed.
Things I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Add
Among things you definitely require to remember is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do appear to progress instead promptly and make brand-new product news rather often, however there are some standard features I truly desire they had that I need to just wait on.
One is that they need to have a setting on subscription kinds where I might select an automation to run right at the form level. That would be incredible for numerous factors. As of now, subscription kinds look OK, yet there’s extremely little setups for them to aid in segmentation.
It would be nice to have identifying at the client degree. This would be effective.
I believe webhooks need to belong to automations to make integrated automations easier and reduce dependence on outdoors tools like Zapier.
There are likewise some minor management user interface adjustments that would certainly come in handy. As an example:
- Capacity to mass edit/remove clients.
- Ability to bulk edit articles (as an example, to mark a number of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of standard fields as basic on subscribers (like the name).
- Some more customization alternatives for the site (such as even more flexible shade options, heading control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Things I wish they perform with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, yet it isn’t ideal and absolutely not nearly as created as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM item.
It probably never ever will be, either. As I stated, the function is different so it would not a lot a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to become a full marketing automation system. I think you never understand, however.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I like BeeHiiv fairly a great deal. Enough where I determined to change my very own newsletters over to the platform regardless of my individual choice for digital sovereignty and owning my very own platform.
Basically, for the newsletter publishing model specifically, I saw sufficient worth in their platform to necessitate the modification.
Bear in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my unique e-mail checklist. I make use of BeeHiiv wherefore it is proficient at, but I intentionally have things set up to ensure that I additionally keep my list “in residence” inside of FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the very same. It is simply an excellent insurance policy, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your list will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will certainly be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my point of view, if you are using Substack today, I ‘d certainly consider changing to BeeHiiv. It will merely be extra business-friendly. It is targeting different capacities and various demands. Plus, BeeHiiv also has import devices for Substack, so the button should be rather straightforward.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d possibly stay unless you have a large e-mail list and are as a result being wooled with their high regular monthly bill. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are repeating swiftly. There’s also a respectable opportunity you’re not also using several of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you don’t even need them. For that reason, BeeHiiv might conveniently be a far better and more budget-friendly fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be extremely intentional regarding growing an e-newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE platform to think about and keep and eye on for you.
If you utilize BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is made to be, it is one of the best games in town now. This is the platform to enjoy.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves having a look at for yourself. And if you wind up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll discover the free account to be rather feature rich.