I have actually utilized a lot of various e-mail list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a substantial advocate of digital sovereignty and having your own system. For that reason (and the remarkable features), I have actually been making use of Matt Mcgarry Newsletter Conference.
So, it is without a doubt an unusual move for me to make a decision to utilize BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is an organized application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I wish to review why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I wish to address the problem of digital sovereignty while utilizing the platform and I would certainly also like to deal with why I selected to utilize it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For E-newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my newsletter called My Pastime + A Huge Change In Technique, I talked about just how and why I determined to transform my motor home blog site right into largely an e-newsletter. I determined that was the business version I wanted to seek with that said home.
However, to intentionally seek it as a newsletter, I wanted a system that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the email list for Gladly motor home, however FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter system. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, truthfully, utilizing it for e-newsletters is a bit of a waste. Much more on that particular in a little bit.
As I claimed because problem of the e-newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a system with tools constructed into it specific to my purpose. Things such as:
- Capacity to publish (to the blog) and send out the email simultaneously without having it be two separate activities.
- Constructed in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would have needed a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in ability to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are essentially one-click membership web links. Great for promotion in other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, though, so there are methods to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your e-newsletter.
- Integrated ad network, if I choose to monetize with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in ability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and primarily run a costs e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Generally, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter authors with features focused on development. The system was literally built by the individuals who developed the modern technology for Morning Brew. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the factor below. BeeHiiv is built from the ground up for the function of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a different function.
And I ended off with this:.
I might without a doubt be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv too. At least, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. Actually, I simply went for it. And in fact, The side was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, triggered as it’s own property to ensure that I can grow it much more purposefully as well.
The objective is that each newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded individually. Gladly motor home was young, so simple to change. Yet, The Morning WP (previously The Side) was hidden in a sea of stuff here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s own. It will undoubtedly always be very closely connected with the Blog site Marketing Academy, but doesn’t need to belong of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv because it was built for this function. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Regular Email Listing
There’s a distinction in between a newsletter system and simply an email checklist.
You can hold your e-mail listing anywhere you desire and there are a variety of them out there, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted choices like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The main difference is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of posting suggests that it is going to your website and to your email customers at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are releasing to that website. However, you are also sending off to all subscribers at the same time. The internet site and it’s clients are done in one. This makes monitoring of the platform much less complex.
With most e-mail platforms, any e-newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is built totally separately from your internet site. So, for instance, you could release a post to WordPress yet then you would certainly require to individually develop and send an email to your list to send it to customers. These are then 2 separate collections of archives and 2 separate actions because article and your emails are not naturally linked.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress into a true newsletter system is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name due to the fact that it basically “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress articles and enables them to be the very same thing. Absolutely, something like Newsletter Glue would be a strong alternative if I intended to continue to self-host every little thing. Nevertheless, you would certainly lose the growth devices that include a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter inherently comes with a different collection of requirements than a common e-mail checklist.
You do not typically need much marketing automation. You don’t usually require autoresponder sequences, event monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO requirement, though, is one smooth publishing experience and development tools to aid you construct your subscriber base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my customers that I was going to change the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had lots of people ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the reality that I chose to go with BeeHiiv, that does not indicate I think Substack draws. In fact, due to the fact that Substack has actually been around much longer, it is more mature and has more features.
Although BeeHiiv is younger, there are a pair points that initially got my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically customized to newsletter authors. Actually, it is actually developed by the same folks who constructed the innovation behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, does not matter. Yet, the evident positioning of BeeHiiv towards e-newsletter growth called me out over the more generic positioning of being a “designer”. Growth is what I have an interest in below.
- That branding and differentiation likewise indicates that BeeHiiv has some fairly big brands and huge publications utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo developers. Again, it simply tells me the customer avatar difference between the two business.
Sending our my newsletter via FluentCRM didn’t specifically draw. The only factor I would consider shaking things up is if I thought I could GROW the checklist faster. And BeeHiiv talked specifically to that objective.
Because of the targeting, I in fact do not watch BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a various sort of consumer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being a lot more direct rivals.
But, let’s dive much deeper than simply the placing below.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
On the whole, BeeHiiv appears like it was developed by people that comprehending email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears much more tailored toward developers.
As an example, BeeHiiv uses custom areas on subscribers. Now, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. In fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that works a great deal like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still quite restricted in triggers and the only activity is the capability to send an email. Nonetheless, improvements are coming. Soon enough, automations will certainly have new triggers as well as brand-new actions, such as customizing custom areas, sending out webhooks, and so on. I have actually currently seen enhancements to their automations simply considering that I started using the platform. As an example:
- Ability to cause automations based upon which details embed form they was available in on.
- Ability to automatically do re-engagement (and deal with individuals based on opens up and non-opens).
- Capacity to do basic conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can’t do this due to the fact that the target audience of Substack just would not believe to approach this like an email marketing professional.
When it comes to creating your newsletters, the composing user interface of BeeHiiv is simply a lot more tailored toward newsletters. As a matter of fact, it really has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it functions. I discover it to be much more instinctive, personally.
Substack’s composing user interface behaves and tidy, yet it would certainly be extra equivalent to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This distinction is greater than simply kind. For example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Area” and then put anything you desire in it. After that, you can put Presence options on that area to show it only to paid customers, hide it from e-mail, conceal from customers, reveal only to customers, etc. Substack supplies nothing similar to this.
And when/if the moment comes that I start a premium subscription version, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any profits. Actually, you literally connect as much as your very own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your revenue. Depending upon the amount of clients you obtain, that 10% can be quite a bit even more cash than the regular monthly cost of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This may appear unpopular, however what it indicates 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 literally has … absolutely nothing. No integrations at all.
Generally, I simply felt like BeeHiiv was more developed towards real email marketing. It was developed by individuals who “get it”. Also the opt-in types and the landing page designs appear far better constructed for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I wish to see BeeHiiv add, I such as the direction it is going more than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have claimed, Substack placements itself towards “makers” more than email marketing experts and e-newsletter owners. For that reason, you see some points tailored much more toward individuals that simply believe in regards to web content production.
For instance, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does support numerous publications, they are treated quite independently. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to several publications at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, yet … amazing for people who might require it.
Substack also has more social performance built-in. As an example, it has a conversation function to host chats with clients. It likewise has a “Notes” function which functions type of like a social media newsfeed where you can share things from various other “Stacks” you read. Intriguing. Generally, Substack is set up to be extra like a social media which supports long-form material.
On the whole, Substack is likewise much more … minimal. You either take care of that or do not. Personally, I don’t. However, if the goal is simplicity of user interface and, frankly, features … Substack functions rather well.
But, I’ll be clear here …
When it involves real marketing, I don’t assume there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is much better matched. I searched for even more factors that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, but honestly … I have a hard time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are commonly through to be the closest rivals, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are going after the exact same target audience and have similar abilities.
ConvertKit is also placed at makers (like Substack), yet it is much more strongly accommodating people that do it for business. ConvertKit has nice aesthetic automation building, it’s own business platform, and a lot more. ConvertKit is a truly good system.
I’m not mosting likely to bore you with a full feature-by-feature breakdown below. ConvertKit is popular already. Yet, here’s exactly how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has a lot more versatility when it involves it’s automations. I will likewise state that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit a lot more instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports labeling. This is simply a basic function of e-mail listings that makes it possible for segmentation in a far more adaptable way than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain tagging at some point soon, truthfully. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Matt Mcgarry Newsletter Conference.
ConvertKit does now supply the capacity to market points via their own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that’s important to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, nonetheless, I would always choose an extra direct alternative anyway. For me, I like to utilize my own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about a lot longer and therefore has way more integration options. Tons of online tools and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their own WordPress plugin that is quite effective. As an example, their plugin currently even sustains member-gated material along with auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your site. Fundamentally, this a lot more very closely puts ConvertKit right into straight competitors by having you have the ability to publish to your website and your email listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is badly doing not have in these type of third-party integrations currently. It’ll get there. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even busy tackling the development tools of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with benefits, yet you can likewise pay per lead within the interior advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your list. These are actually awesome features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you recognize ConvertKit acquired Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of one of the most well known viral promotion platforms for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall for what this means for the system moving forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Better At … Matt Mcgarry Newsletter Conference
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that indicates less features and less integrations, which is natural for this stage of the cycle. However, it likewise means that they are rapidly developing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually experienced practically weekly launch of new features right into the system. And these aren’t puny little features … but huge features that are fairly crucial. Their rate of development now has been impressive.
I also significantly value exactly how receptive they are. Actually, one of their item statements concerning some style enhancements to the web design features actually contained a small problem with the content size. I just responded to that email to tell them. I swiftly obtained a reply straight from the CEO:.
That exact same day, the concern was repaired.
Few days later, I gave them an additional pointer …
Sure enough, 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 kind of responsiveness and straight participation of the team is something I really value.
One more significant factor of distinction below is the cost. Both systems supply cost-free plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan offers extra capacity and more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally FAR more favorable. ConvertKit appears less expensive at first glimpse due to the fact that their pricing page shows lower numbers, however the customer restrictions are much reduced and your rate swiftly boosts as your list grows.
With BeeHiiv, your first level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid every year), however you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That exact same size listing is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their ideal plan and the one I personally use), you can expand your listing as much as 100,000. A listing of that size 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 yearly.
BeeHiiv is in an entirely various league when it concerns pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually increase rates? They could as time takes place. However, I’m guessing people like myself who are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how points continue.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
Among the things you definitely require to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do appear to advance instead promptly and make brand-new product announcements somewhat frequently, yet there are some standard features I really want they had that I require to just await.
One is that they need to have a setup on registration forms where I might choose an automation to run right at the form degree. That would certainly be outstanding for a lot of reasons. Currently, subscription forms look OK, however there’s extremely little setups for them to help in segmentation.
It would be nice to have tagging at the subscriber degree. This would certainly be powerful.
I believe webhooks ought to become part of automations to make integrated automations easier and minimize reliance on outdoors tools like Zapier.
There are also some small administrative user interface changes that would certainly come in handy. For instance:
- Ability to bulk edit/remove customers.
- Capability to bulk edit messages (as an example, to tag a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of standard fields as basic on subscribers (like the name).
- Some more modification options for the site (such as even more versatile shade selections, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Points I wish they make with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t perfect and absolutely not nearly as established as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM product.
It probably never will certainly be, either. As I claimed, the objective is various so it would not a lot a great deal of feeling for BeeHiiv to end up being a complete marketing automation system. I presume you never understand, however.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I such as BeeHiiv quite a lot. Enough where I decided to switch my very own e-newsletters over to the system despite my individual choice for digital sovereignty and possessing my own platform.
Basically, for the e-newsletter posting design specifically, I saw adequate worth in their system to require the modification.
Bear in mind, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my special email listing. I use BeeHiiv for what it is proficient at, yet I intentionally have things establish to ensure that I also keep my listing “in house” inside of FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the same. It is just an excellent insurance policy, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your checklist will certainly be of high use (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the question is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are utilizing Substack today, I ‘d certainly take into consideration 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 switch ought to be quite straightforward.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d probably stay unless you have a big e-mail listing and are consequently being fleeced with their high regular monthly expense. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are iterating rapidly. There’s additionally a pretty good possibility you’re not even making use of some of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you don’t even require them. For that reason, BeeHiiv might quickly be a much better and more budget friendly fit.
Finally, if you plan to be very deliberate concerning expanding 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 created to be, it is just one of the best games in town right now. This is the platform to see.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth taking a look at for yourself. And if you wind up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll locate the cost-free account to be rather feature rich.