I have made use of a great deal of various email list systems throughout the years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a substantial supporter of digital sovereignty and possessing your very own platform. For that reason (and the outstanding features), I have been utilizing Marketing Island Beehiiv.
So, it is undoubtedly an unusual move for me to decide to make use of BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, 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 review why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I want to deal with the problem of digital sovereignty while using the system and I would certainly likewise such as to attend to why I selected to use it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For E-newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my newsletter called My Pastime + A Huge Change In Technique, I talked about how and why I made a decision to turn my recreational vehicle blog site right into mainly a newsletter. I decided that was business version I intended to pursue keeping that property.
However, to purposefully pursue it as a newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the email list for Happily RV, but FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, frankly, utilizing it for e-newsletters is a little a waste. A lot more on that in a little bit.
As I said because concern of the newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices developed right into it certain to my function. Things such as:
- Capacity to release (to the blog) and send out the e-mail all at once without having it be 2 separate actions.
- Built in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would certainly have needed a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capacity to do cross-promotions with other newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are primarily one-click subscription web links. Great for promotion in various other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are ways to do that.
- Capacity to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your newsletter.
- Built-in advertisement network, if I pick to generate income from with advertisements in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in ability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and generally run a premium e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Essentially, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter publishers with features targeted at development. The system was literally constructed by the people who developed the technology for Morning Mixture. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the factor right here. BeeHiiv is constructed from scratch for the function of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a various purpose.
And I ended off with this:.
I might undoubtedly be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv also. A minimum of, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. In 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 building to make sure that I can expand it much more deliberately as well.
The objective is that each newsletter has the capability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded separately. Gladly motor home was young, so simple to shift. But, The Morning WP (previously The Edge) was buried in a sea of stuff here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s own. It will clearly always be very closely linked with the Blog site Marketing Academy, however does not need to belong of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv because it was constructed for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Just A Typical Email Checklist
There’s a distinction between a newsletter system and simply an email list.
You can host your e-mail checklist everywhere 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 main distinction is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of publishing suggests that it is mosting likely to your web site and to your email customers all at once.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a site. You are releasing to that web site. Yet, you are likewise sending to all subscribers at the same time. The website and it’s subscribers are done in one. This makes management of the platform much easier.
With the majority of e-mail platforms, any type of newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is constructed entirely individually from your internet site. So, as an example, you may release a short article to WordPress but after that you would certainly require to independently build and send out an email to your checklist to send it to clients. These are after that 2 different sets of archives and two different actions because blog posts and your e-mails are not naturally linked.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress into a true e-newsletter platform is Newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name because it basically “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress messages and enables them to be the same point. Certainly, something like E-newsletter Glue would be a solid choice if I wished to continue to self-host every little thing. However, you ‘d shed the development tools that feature a platform like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter inherently includes a various set of needs than a typical e-mail list.
You do not normally require much marketing automation. You do not generally require autoresponder series, event tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO requirement, however, is one seamless posting experience and development tools to help you build your subscriber base that are specific to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my customers that I was going to switch over the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many people ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the fact that I chose to opt for BeeHiiv, that does not indicate I believe Substack sucks. In fact, because Substack has actually been around much longer, it is elder and has more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple points that originally got my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly tailored to newsletter publishers. In fact, it is essentially constructed by the exact same folks that developed the modern technology behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real world, doesn’t matter. But, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter growth called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “creator”. Development is what I’m interested in below.
- That branding and differentiation likewise means that BeeHiiv has some fairly large brands and big magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo designers. Once more, it just tells me the consumer avatar distinction in between the two business.
Sending our my e-newsletter by means of FluentCRM really did not precisely suck. The only reason I would certainly contemplate trembling things up is if I assumed I could expand the checklist faster. And BeeHiiv spoke exactly to that goal.
Due to the targeting, I really don’t check out BeeHiiv and Substack as straight competitors. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a different kind of consumer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra direct competitors.
Yet, let’s dive deeper than just the placing here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv appears like it was built by individuals that comprehending e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears a lot more tailored toward designers.
For instance, BeeHiiv provides custom-made fields on subscribers. Now, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv provides Automations. In fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that functions a great deal like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation performance is still early-phase. It is still fairly limited in triggers and the only action is the ability to send an e-mail. However, enhancements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will certainly have brand-new triggers in addition to brand-new activities, such as customizing custom fields, sending webhooks, etc. I’ve already seen enhancements to their automations simply given that I started utilizing the system. As an example:
- Ability to cause automations based on which certain embed form they came in on.
- Ability to instantly do re-engagement (and handle people based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Capability to do standard conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can not do this because the target market of Substack just would not believe to approach this like an email online marketer.
When it comes to writing your e-newsletters, the creating interface of BeeHiiv is simply a lot more geared toward newsletters. As a matter of fact, it really has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it works. I locate it to be much more user-friendly, directly.
Substack’s composing interface is nice and clean, however it would be much more comparable to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This distinction is more than just form. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Area” and after that placed anything you desire in it. After that, you can put Exposure options on that section to show it just to paid subscribers, hide it from e-mail, hide from clients, show just to subscribers, etc. Substack offers nothing similar to this.
And when/if the moment comes that I start a premium membership design, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any kind of income. As a matter of fact, you literally attach as much as your own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your earnings. Relying on the amount of customers you obtain, that 10% can be quite a bit even more money than the regular monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This might seem unpopular, however what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outdoors using tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … nothing. No integrations at all.
In general, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was extra constructed towards genuine email marketing. It was constructed by individuals who “get it”. Even the opt-in kinds and the landing page designs appear much better constructed for conversions. Development is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I would love to see BeeHiiv add, I like the instructions it is going more than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually stated, Substack settings itself toward “designers” more than e-mail marketers and newsletter proprietors. Because of that, you see some points tailored much more toward people that simply think in regards to material development.
For example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does sustain numerous magazines, they are dealt with rather independently. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to multiple magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I need, but … trendy for people who may require it.
Substack also has even more social performance built-in. For instance, it has a conversation feature to host talks with subscribers. It likewise has a “Notes” feature which functions kind of like a social media newsfeed where you can share things from other “Stacks” you read. Fascinating. On the whole, Substack is set up to be a lot more like a social media which sustains long-form content.
In general, Substack is also more … minimalist. You either care for that or don’t. Directly, I do not. Nonetheless, if the objective is simplicity of interface and, honestly, features … Substack works rather well.
However, I’ll be clear right here …
When it involves actual marketing, I do not believe there’s much question that BeeHiiv is much better matched. I looked for more factors that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, yet honestly … I have a difficult time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are frequently through to be the closest competitors, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are going after the exact same target market and have comparable abilities.
ConvertKit is likewise placed at creators (like Substack), yet it is a lot more strongly satisfying individuals that do it for business. ConvertKit has great aesthetic automation building, it’s very own business system, and a lot more. ConvertKit is a truly great system.
I’m not going to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature breakdown right here. ConvertKit is well known currently. However, here’s just how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has more adaptability when it pertains to it’s automations. I will certainly likewise state that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit much more instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports tagging. This is just a fundamental feature of email checklists that allows segmentation in a much more versatile means than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support identifying at some point quickly, frankly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing Marketing Island Beehiiv.
ConvertKit does now provide the capacity to offer things through their very own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is necessary to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would always pick a much more straight choice anyway. For me, I choose to utilize my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about a lot longer and for that reason has way more integration options. Tons of online tools and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is quite powerful. For example, their plugin now also sustains member-gated material along with auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your site. In essence, this extra carefully puts ConvertKit into straight competition by having you have the ability to publish to your website and your e-mail checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is badly doing not have in these kinds of third-party integrations currently. It’ll get there. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also hectic taking on the development devices of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with perks, yet you can additionally pay per lead within the internal ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your listing. These are actually remarkable features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you know ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of the most well known viral promotion systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall surface wherefore this indicates for the system moving forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Marketing Island Beehiiv
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies less features and less integrations, which is all-natural for this phase of the cycle. Nonetheless, it additionally suggests that they are rapidly developing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually witnessed practically once a week release of brand-new features right into the system. And these aren’t undersized little features … however big features that are quite important. Their rate of growth at this point has been impressive.
I likewise significantly value just how receptive they are. Actually, among their product statements concerning some layout enhancements to the web design features really consisted of a little trouble with the material size. I merely replied to that email to tell them. I rapidly obtained a reply straight from the CEO:.
That exact same day, the concern was dealt with.
Couple of days later, I provided one more pointer …
Indeed, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to activate automations based upon the embed kind made use of was added to the system.
That kind of responsiveness and direct participation of the team is something I truly value.
An additional significant point of differentiation here is the rate. Both systems offer complimentary plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan uses extra capacity and more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also much more favorable. ConvertKit seems more affordable at first look because their pricing web page reveals lower numbers, nonetheless the subscriber restrictions are FAR reduced and your rate rapidly raises as your checklist grows.
With BeeHiiv, your initial degree paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid every year), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 clients. That very same size list is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I personally utilize), you can grow your list as much as 100,000. A checklist of that dimension would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, also, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay every year, too. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for simply $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv is in a completely various organization when it concerns pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually enhance rates? They might as time takes place. Yet, I’m thinking people like myself that are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how points continue.
Points I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among the important things you certainly require to remember is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do appear to advance rather swiftly and make new product statements rather usually, but there are some standard features I actually desire they had that I need to simply wait on.
One is that they require to have a setup on subscription forms where I can pick an automation to run right at the kind degree. That would certainly be remarkable for many factors. Already, registration forms look OK, but there’s really little settings for them to help in segmentation.
It would behave to have labeling at the subscriber degree. This would be effective.
I assume webhooks must be part of automations to make built-in automations less complicated and reduce reliance on outside tools like Zapier.
There are also some small management interface adjustments that would be handy. As an example:
- Ability to bulk edit/remove subscribers.
- Capacity to bulk edit posts (for instance, to identify a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of fundamental fields as basic on clients (like the name).
- Some more modification choices for the site (such as more versatile shade options, headline control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Things I wish they finish with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, however it isn’t best and certainly not virtually as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM product.
It possibly never will be, either. As I said, the objective is different so it wouldn’t much a lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to end up being a full marketing automation platform. I guess you never ever recognize, though.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I such as BeeHiiv quite a whole lot. Sufficient where I made a decision to switch my own e-newsletters over to the platform regardless of my individual choice for digital sovereignty and having my own platform.
Put simply, for the e-newsletter publishing model particularly, I saw enough value in their system to necessitate the modification.
Remember, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my unique email checklist. I use BeeHiiv of what it is proficient at, yet I intentionally have points set up to ensure that I also maintain my checklist “in home” within FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the exact same. It is simply an excellent insurance policy, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your list will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are using Substack today, I ‘d most definitely think about switching over to BeeHiiv. It will simply be much more business-friendly. It is targeting different capacities and various demands. And also, BeeHiiv also has import devices for Substack, so the button needs to be quite simple.
If you are on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d probably stay unless you have a large e-mail list and are therefore being fleeced with their high month-to-month bill. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are iterating quickly. There’s likewise a respectable chance you’re not even using a few of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not even need them. For that reason, BeeHiiv might easily be a better and much more inexpensive fit.
Finally, if you plan to be really willful concerning expanding an e-newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE system to consider and maintain and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is designed to be, it is among the best video games in town right now. This is the system to view.
BeeHiiv uses a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth checking out on your own. And if you wind up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll locate the free account to be fairly feature rich.