I have utilized a lot of various email list systems throughout the years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a substantial advocate of digital sovereignty and owning your very own platform. For that reason (and the remarkable features), I have been making use of Katherine Rundell Beehiiv.
So, it is undoubtedly an unusual move for me to decide to utilize BeeHiiv. After all, it is a held application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I want to review why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I want to deal with the concern of digital sovereignty while utilizing the system and I ‘d also like to deal with why I chose to use it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For Newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Large Change In Method, I spoke about how and why I decided to transform my RV blog right into largely an e-newsletter. I decided that was the business model I wanted to go after with that said residential property.
But, to deliberately seek it as a newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the email list for Gladly motor home, but FluentCRM is not a newsletter platform. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, frankly, utilizing it for newsletters is a little bit of a waste. Much more on that in a bit.
As I claimed in that concern of the e-newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a platform with tools constructed right into it particular to my purpose. Points such as:
- Capability to publish (to the blog site) and send out the e-mail concurrently without having it be 2 separate activities.
- Built in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would certainly have needed a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capacity to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are essentially one-click registration links. Great for promo in other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, however, so there are ways to do that.
- Capacity to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Built-in advertisement network, if I choose to monetize with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capacity to run a paid newsletter upgrade and primarily run a costs newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Generally, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter publishers with features aimed at growth. The platform was literally built by the people who accumulated the modern technology for Early morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the point right here. BeeHiiv is built from scratch for the function of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different function.
And I ended off with this:.
I may undoubtedly be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv also. At least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. As a matter of fact, I just went all out. And in fact, The side was re-branded over to The Morning WP, triggered as it’s own home to ensure that I can grow it extra intentionally as well.
The objective is that each newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown individually. Happily RV was young, so easy to transition. However, The Morning WP (formerly The Edge) was buried in a sea of stuff below at the Blog Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s very own. It will obviously always be carefully connected with the Blog site Marketing Academy, yet doesn’t need to belong of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv because it was built for this function. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Just A Normal Email Listing
There’s a distinction between an e-newsletter platform and just an email checklist.
You can organize your e-mail 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 distinction?
The main distinction is that, with a newsletter system, the act of publishing suggests that it is mosting likely to your internet site and to your email customers simultaneously.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a web site. You are releasing to that website. However, you are additionally sending to all subscribers at the same time. The web site and it’s subscribers are done in one. This makes administration of the system much simpler.
With most e-mail platforms, any type of e-newsletter you set up is done as an email campaign. It is built completely separately from your web site. So, for instance, you might release a short article to WordPress however then you would certainly require to independently build and send an email to your list to send it to clients. These are then two separate collections of archives and two separate actions because post and your emails are not inherently linked.
The closest point that turns WordPress into a real e-newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name since it virtually “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress posts and permits them to be the exact same point. Absolutely, something like Newsletter Glue would be a strong choice if I wished to continue to self-host everything. However, you ‘d shed the growth tools that feature a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing an e-newsletter inherently features a various collection of requirements than a common email listing.
You don’t generally require much marketing automation. You do not generally need autoresponder sequences, event tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO need, though, is one smooth posting experience and growth devices to aid you construct your customer base that are specific to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my customers that I was mosting likely to switch over the e-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 picked to select BeeHiiv, that does not imply I think Substack sucks. As a matter of fact, because Substack has been around longer, it is more mature and has more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is younger, there are a pair points that initially got my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically tailored to e-newsletter publishers. In fact, it is actually developed by the same folks who built the technology behind Early morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real life, does not matter. But, the obvious positioning of BeeHiiv towards 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 differentiation likewise indicates that BeeHiiv has some relatively big brand names and large publications utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo creators. Once more, it simply informs me the client character distinction between both firms.
Sending our my newsletter using FluentCRM didn’t specifically draw. The only factor I would contemplate trembling things up is if I believed I can expand the checklist faster. And BeeHiiv talked exactly to that goal.
Because of the targeting, I in fact do not watch BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a various kind of consumer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being a lot more direct competitors.
But, allow’s dive much deeper than just the positioning below.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Generally, BeeHiiv feels like it was developed by people who recognizing e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears more tailored towards developers.
As an example, BeeHiiv provides personalized areas on clients. Now, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. In fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that functions a lot like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation performance is still early-phase. It is still fairly minimal in triggers and the only activity is the capacity to send out an email. Nonetheless, enhancements are coming. Soon sufficient, automations will have new triggers as well as new activities, such as modifying custom-made areas, sending webhooks, etc. I’ve currently seen improvements to their automations just considering that I started utilizing the platform. For example:
- Ability to activate automations based upon which details embed form they was available in on.
- Capacity to immediately do re-engagement (and deal with people based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Ability to do standard conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack simply can not do this due to the fact that the target market of Substack simply would not believe to approach this like an email marketer.
When it involves composing your newsletters, the composing interface of BeeHiiv is simply more tailored towards newsletters. As a matter of fact, it in fact has similarities to the WordPress block builder in just how it functions. I find it to be much more instinctive, directly.
Substack’s composing interface behaves and clean, but it would certainly be more comparable to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is more than just form. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Section” and then placed anything you desire in it. After that, you can place Presence choices on that area to reveal it just to paid subscribers, hide it from e-mail, conceal from subscribers, reveal only to subscribers, and so on. Substack offers absolutely nothing like this.
And when/if the time comes that I start a premium membership model, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any kind of income. In fact, you literally link up to your own Stripe account and it charges straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your revenue. Depending on how many clients you get, that 10% can be quite a bit more cash than the regular monthly price 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 work with the outdoors making use of devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … nothing. No integrations in any way.
On the whole, I just felt like BeeHiiv was more built towards actual e-mail marketing. It was constructed by individuals that “get it”. Also the opt-in types and the landing page makes seem far better developed for conversions. Development is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I wish to see BeeHiiv add, I like the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have said, Substack placements itself towards “makers” more than e-mail marketers and newsletter owners. For that reason, you see some things geared more toward individuals that simply assume in regards to material development.
For instance, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does support several magazines, they are treated rather independently. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to numerous magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I require, however … cool for individuals who might require it.
Substack additionally has even more social performance built-in. For instance, it has a chat function to host talks with clients. It also has a “Notes” function which functions type of like a social media newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you read. Intriguing. On the whole, Substack is established to be more like a social network which sustains long-form web content.
In general, Substack is also much more … minimalist. You either take care of that or don’t. Directly, I do not. However, if the objective is simpleness of interface and, truthfully, features … Substack works pretty well.
Yet, I’ll be clear here …
When it involves real marketing, I don’t think there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is much better fit. I tried to find more factors that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, but frankly … I have a difficult time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are frequently via to be the closest rivals, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are going after the same target audience and have similar capabilities.
ConvertKit is additionally placed at developers (like Substack), but it is a lot more strongly catering to people that do it for service. ConvertKit has good aesthetic automation structure, it’s own business platform, and a lot more. ConvertKit is a truly great platform.
I’m not mosting likely to bore you with a full feature-by-feature failure right here. ConvertKit is popular currently. However, right here’s how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Points ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has a lot more versatility when it comes to it’s automations. I will certainly likewise claim that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit much more user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains marking. This is just a fundamental feature of email checklists that enables segmentation in an even more versatile means than BeeHiiv currently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support identifying at some point quickly, frankly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Katherine Rundell Beehiiv.
ConvertKit does currently provide the capability to offer things by means of their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is essential to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would constantly choose a much more straight alternative anyhow. For me, I favor to use my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been about a lot 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 quite effective. As an example, their plugin currently even sustains member-gated web content in addition to auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your site. Fundamentally, this much more carefully places ConvertKit into straight competitors 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 sort of third-party integrations currently. It’ll arrive. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even busy dealing with the development devices of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with benefits, however you can additionally pay per lead within the interior advertisement network of BeeHiiv to grow your listing. These are actually incredible features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you know ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among 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 of what this indicates for the platform moving forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Katherine Rundell Beehiiv
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies much less features and less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. However, it likewise indicates that they are swiftly developing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually experienced virtually once a week release of new features right into the platform. And these aren’t undersized little features … but large features that are fairly important. Their speed of development at this point has actually been impressive.
I likewise very much value exactly how receptive they are. In fact, one of their item news concerning some style improvements to the web design features actually contained a little issue with the material size. I just responded to that e-mail to tell them. I swiftly got a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That very same day, the issue was repaired.
Few days later, I gave them one more suggestion …
Indeed, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to activate automations based upon the embed type utilized was added to the system.
That kind of responsiveness and direct participation of the group is something I truly value.
An additional significant factor of distinction here is the rate. Both systems supply free plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan provides a lot more capability and even more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise even more positive. ConvertKit seems cheaper at first glance due to the fact that their pricing web page reveals lower numbers, nonetheless the customer limitations are much reduced and your rate rapidly raises as your list grows.
With BeeHiiv, your very first level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid each year), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 customers. That same dimension list is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their best plan and the one I personally make use of), you can expand your checklist as much as 100,000. A checklist of that size would certainly 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 every year, as well. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay annually.
BeeHiiv remains in a totally different organization when it comes to pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually increase prices? They might as time goes on. Yet, I’m presuming people like myself who are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how points continue.
Things I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Add
Among things you definitely need to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do appear to develop rather rapidly and make new product announcements somewhat commonly, but there are some standard features I really desire they had that I need to just wait for.
One is that they require to have a setup on registration forms where I could choose an automation to run right at the kind level. That would be AWESOME for so many factors. Currently, registration types look OK, however there’s extremely little settings for them to help in division.
It would be nice to have tagging at the customer degree. This would be effective.
I think webhooks must become part of automations to make built-in automations easier and reduce dependence on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are additionally some minor administrative user interface changes that would certainly come in handy. As an example:
- Ability to bulk edit/remove customers.
- Capability to mass edit articles (for example, to label a number of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of standard areas as typical on subscribers (like the name).
- Some even more modification options for the internet site (such as even more versatile shade options, headline control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Things I hope they finish with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, yet it isn’t ideal and absolutely not almost as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM item.
It probably never ever will certainly be, either. As I claimed, the function is different so it would not much a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to become a complete marketing automation platform. I think you never know, though.
Last Ideas On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I such as BeeHiiv rather a lot. Sufficient where I determined to switch my own e-newsletters over to the system regardless of my personal choice for digital sovereignty and possessing my very own platform.
Put simply, for the newsletter posting model specifically, I saw enough worth in their system to warrant the modification.
Remember, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my unique e-mail list. I use BeeHiiv wherefore it is efficient, yet I deliberately have points establish so that I additionally keep my list “in home” within FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the very same. It is simply an excellent insurance coverage, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your listing will certainly be of high use (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will certainly be).
So, the question is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are utilizing Substack today, I ‘d absolutely consider switching over to BeeHiiv. It will simply be extra business-friendly. It is targeting different capacities and various requirements. And also, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the switch should be quite straightforward.
If you get on ConvertKit now, I ‘d possibly stay unless you have a big email list and are as a result being fleeced with their high monthly expense. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are repeating promptly. There’s also 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 might quickly be a much better and a lot more budget-friendly fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be really willful concerning growing a newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE platform to consider and maintain and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is developed to be, it is just one of the very best games in the area today. This is the platform to watch.
BeeHiiv provides a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth taking a look at for yourself. And if you wind up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll discover the totally free account to be fairly feature abundant.