I have utilized a lot of various email list systems for many years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a huge supporter of digital sovereignty and owning your very own system. For that reason (and the incredible features), I have been using Netter News Beehiiv.
So, it is undoubtedly a strange move for me to determine 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 testimonial, I intend to discuss why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I intend to attend to the issue of digital sovereignty while using the system and I ‘d likewise like to attend to why I picked to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For E-newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my newsletter called My Pastime + A Large Shift In Strategy, I discussed how and why I made a decision to turn my RV blog site right into mostly an e-newsletter. I made a decision that was the business model I wished to go after with that said home.
But, to purposefully pursue it as a newsletter, I wanted a system that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the email checklist for Gladly motor home, but FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, honestly, using it for e-newsletters is a bit of a waste. A lot more on that particular in a little bit.
As I said in that problem of the newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a platform with tools developed into it specific to my objective. Points such as:
- Capacity to publish (to the blog site) and send out the e-mail at the same time without having it be 2 different 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 various other newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are generally one-click subscription web links. Great for promotion in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are means to do that.
- Capacity to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your newsletter.
- Built-in ad network, if I choose to monetize with advertisements in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and primarily run a premium newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Basically, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter publishers with features targeted at development. The system was essentially constructed by the individuals that accumulated the technology for Morning Mixture. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the point below. BeeHiiv is built from scratch for the function of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various objective.
And I ended off with this:.
I might undoubtedly be moving The Side over to BeeHiiv also. At least, 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 as a matter of fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, triggered as it’s very own residential property to make sure that I can grow it much more intentionally as well.
The goal is that each e-newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded independently. Gladly RV was young, so simple to shift. However, The Morning WP (previously The Side) was buried in a sea of things here at the Blog Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s own. It will certainly always be closely linked with the Blog site Marketing Academy, however does not have to belong of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv because it was developed for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Simply A Regular Email Checklist
There’s a difference in between a newsletter system and just an e-mail listing.
You can hold your e-mail checklist just about anywhere you desire and there are a number of them available, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted choices like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The key distinction is that, with a newsletter platform, the act of posting suggests that it is mosting likely to your internet site and to your e-mail clients all at once.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are publishing to that site. But, you are likewise sending to all subscribers at the same time. The website and it’s customers are done in one. This makes administration of the platform much less complex.
With a lot of email platforms, any newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is built totally independently from your internet site. So, as an example, you might release an article to WordPress however then you would certainly need to independently develop and send out an e-mail to your listing to send it to clients. These are then two different sets of archives and 2 separate activities since article and your emails are not inherently linked.
The closest thing that turns WordPress into a true e-newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name since it practically “glues” your e-newsletter to your WordPress articles and enables them to be the exact same point. Definitely, something like Newsletter Glue would be a solid choice if I wished to continue to self-host whatever. Nevertheless, you would certainly shed the growth devices that feature a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing an e-newsletter inherently includes a different collection of demands than a regular e-mail checklist.
You do not usually need much marketing automation. You don’t generally require autoresponder sequences, occasion monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO requirement, though, is one seamless publishing experience and growth tools to aid you develop your client base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my clients that I was going to change the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was picking it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the truth that I picked to go with BeeHiiv, that doesn’t imply I think Substack draws. As a matter of fact, due to the fact that Substack has actually been about much longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is younger, there are a pair points that at first got my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly customized to newsletter authors. As a matter of fact, it is literally built by the exact same individuals that developed the modern technology behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real world, does not matter. Yet, the apparent positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter development called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “designer”. Growth is what I’m interested in below.
- That branding and differentiation likewise suggests that BeeHiiv has some rather big brand names and big publications utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is aimed even more at solo creators. Once more, it just tells me the client avatar difference between the two firms.
Sending our my newsletter through FluentCRM didn’t precisely draw. The only factor I would certainly contemplate trembling things up is if I thought I can expand the checklist much faster. And BeeHiiv spoke exactly to that objective.
As a result of the targeting, I in fact do not check out BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a different type of customer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being a lot more direct rivals.
However, let’s dive deeper than simply the positioning below.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv looks like it was developed by people that comprehending email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems a lot more tailored towards designers.
As an example, BeeHiiv offers custom-made areas on clients. Currently, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv provides Automations. Actually, it is a visual automation builder that functions a lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation performance is still early-phase. It is still quite restricted in triggers and the only activity is the ability to send an email. Nevertheless, improvements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will have brand-new triggers as well as brand-new actions, such as changing custom areas, sending webhooks, and so on. I have actually already seen enhancements to their automations just considering that I began making use of the platform. As an example:
- Capability to cause automations based on which particular embed type they was available in on.
- Ability to automatically do re-engagement (and handle people based on opens up and non-opens).
- Capacity to do basic conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can not do this because the target audience of Substack just wouldn’t think to approach this like an email marketing expert.
When it involves writing your e-newsletters, the writing interface of BeeHiiv is simply extra geared towards newsletters. Actually, it really has similarities to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it works. I discover it to be a lot more user-friendly, personally.
Substack’s composing user interface is nice and clean, but it would certainly be extra equal to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This difference is greater than simply form. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Section” and after that put anything you desire in it. Then, you can place Presence alternatives on that particular section to show it just to paid customers, conceal it from e-mail, hide from customers, show just to subscribers, etc. Substack offers absolutely nothing like this.
And when/if the time comes that I start a costs registration model, BeeHiiv does not take any earnings. Actually, you actually link as much as your own Stripe account and it bills directly to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your revenue. Relying on how many customers you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit even more money than the month-to-month expense of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This may seem unpopular, yet what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outdoors using tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … absolutely nothing. No integrations whatsoever.
In general, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was extra developed towards real email marketing. It was constructed by individuals who “get it”. Even the opt-in kinds and the landing page designs seem far better developed for conversions. Growth is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I wish to see BeeHiiv include, I like the direction it is going more than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have claimed, Substack positions itself toward “makers” more than e-mail marketing experts and newsletter proprietors. Because of that, you see some things tailored more toward people that simply believe in regards to web content production.
As an example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does sustain multiple publications, they are treated rather individually. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to multiple publications at the same time. This isn’t something I need, but … great for individuals who could need it.
Substack additionally has more social performance built-in. For example, it has a conversation feature to host talks with customers. It likewise has a “Notes” feature which works type of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share things from other “Stacks” you read. Interesting. In general, Substack is set up to be much more like a social media network which sustains long-form content.
Generally, Substack is also much more … minimalist. You either care for that or don’t. Personally, I don’t. Nevertheless, if the objective is simpleness of interface and, frankly, features … Substack works quite well.
However, I’ll be clear here …
When it comes to actual marketing, I don’t believe there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is better suited. I tried to find even more points that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, however frankly … I have a tough time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are commonly via to be the closest competitors, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are going after the same target market and have comparable capabilities.
ConvertKit is also placed at designers (like Substack), yet it is much more highly accommodating people that do it for company. ConvertKit has great aesthetic automation building, it’s own business platform, and much more. ConvertKit is a really wonderful system.
I’m not mosting likely to bore you with a full feature-by-feature break down right here. ConvertKit is popular already. However, here’s exactly how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Points ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has extra flexibility when it concerns it’s automations. I will certainly also claim that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit a lot more instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports labeling. This is just a fundamental feature of e-mail listings that allows segmentation in a far more versatile method than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to support labeling at some time soon, honestly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Netter News Beehiiv.
ConvertKit does now give the ability to market things through their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is necessary to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would always choose a much more straight alternative anyway. For me, I like to utilize my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about much longer and therefore has way more integration options. Tons of online devices and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is rather effective. For example, their plugin currently even supports member-gated content in addition to auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your website. Fundamentally, this a lot more carefully places ConvertKit right into direct competitors by having you have the ability to publish to your site and your e-mail list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is severely doing not have in these kinds of third-party integrations right now. It’ll arrive. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy tackling the development tools of BeeHiiv. As an example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your e-newsletter with perks, however you can likewise pay per lead within the internal advertisement network of BeeHiiv to grow your listing. These are truly outstanding features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you know ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of one of the most popular viral promo platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall wherefore this implies for the platform going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Better At … Netter News Beehiiv
BeeHiiv is a lot earlier in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that indicates much less features and less integrations, which is all-natural for this phase of the cycle. Nevertheless, it also indicates that they are rapidly creating.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have observed practically regular launch of new features into the platform. And these aren’t puny little features … yet large features that are quite important. Their speed of growth at this point has been impressive.
I likewise very much value how receptive they are. As a matter of fact, among their item announcements about some style improvements to the website design features in fact consisted of a tiny trouble with the web content size. I just responded to that email to tell them. I rapidly got a reply directly from the chief executive officer:.
That exact same day, the concern was dealt with.
Couple of days later, I provided one more pointer …
Certainly, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to activate automations based upon the embed form used was added to the system.
That type of responsiveness and direct involvement of the team is something I actually value.
One more major point of differentiation here is the price. Both platforms use complimentary plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan supplies much more capability and even more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
As soon as you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise even more favorable. ConvertKit appears more affordable at first glance because their pricing page shows lower numbers, however the customer limits are FAR lower and your price swiftly raises as your list expands.
With BeeHiiv, your very first degree paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid annually), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 customers. That very same size list is mosting likely 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 checklist up to 100,000. A list of that size would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, too, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay each year, too. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for just $84/month if you pay yearly.
BeeHiiv remains in a completely different organization when it comes to pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately raise costs? They could as time takes place. Yet, I’m thinking individuals like myself that are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how things continue.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among things you certainly need to remember is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do seem to advance instead rapidly and make new product news somewhat commonly, but there are some fundamental features I really wish they had that I require to simply wait for.
One is that they need to have a setup on subscription types where I can pick an automation to run right at the kind level. That would certainly be incredible for numerous factors. Currently, registration kinds look OK, yet there’s extremely little setups for them to help in division.
It would certainly behave to have marking at the customer level. This would certainly be powerful.
I believe webhooks ought to become part of automations to make built-in automations simpler and decrease reliance on outside tools like Zapier.
There are additionally some minor management user interface adjustments that would be handy. As an example:
- Capability to bulk edit/remove clients.
- Ability to bulk edit messages (for example, to identify a number of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of basic fields as typical on clients (like the name).
- Some more personalization options for the site (such as more adaptable shade selections, headline control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Points I hope they perform with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, but it isn’t ideal and absolutely not almost as created as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM product.
It most likely never ever will be, either. As I claimed, the objective is different so it wouldn’t a lot a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to end up being a full marketing automation system. I guess you never understand, though.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I like BeeHiiv fairly a great deal. Sufficient where I chose to change my own e-newsletters over to the system in spite of my individual choice for digital sovereignty and possessing my very own platform.
Basically, for the e-newsletter posting model particularly, I saw sufficient worth in their system to require the modification.
Remember, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my special email list. I utilize BeeHiiv of what it is efficient, yet I deliberately have things set up so that I also keep my list “in house” within FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the same. It is simply an excellent insurance plan, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your checklist will be of high use (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are utilizing Substack now, I ‘d absolutely consider switching to BeeHiiv. It will simply be more business-friendly. It is targeting different capabilities and various requirements. And also, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the button should be pretty simple.
If you get on ConvertKit now, I ‘d probably stay unless you have a huge e-mail checklist and are for that reason being fleeced with their high monthly bill. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are repeating quickly. There’s likewise a pretty good possibility you’re not also utilizing some of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you do not even need them. Because of that, BeeHiiv can conveniently be a far better and a lot more budget-friendly fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be extremely intentional concerning growing a newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE system to consider and keep and eye on for you.
If you utilize BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is made to be, it is one of the very best games around right now. This is the system to see.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves taking a look at for yourself. And if you wind up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll find the free account to be fairly feature rich.