I have actually utilized a great deal of various email list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a big proponent of digital sovereignty and possessing your own system. For that reason (and the amazing features), I have been making use of Newsletter Operator Course.
So, it is indeed an unusual move for me to decide to use BeeHiiv. Besides, it is a held application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv evaluation, I wish to look at why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I intend to attend to the issue of digital sovereignty while utilizing the system and I would certainly additionally like to resolve why I selected to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For Newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Hobby + A Large Shift In Approach, I spoke about just how and why I decided to turn my motor home blog into largely an e-newsletter. I decided that was business version I wanted to go after with that home.
However, to purposefully pursue it as a newsletter, I wanted a system that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the e-mail checklist for Happily motor home, yet FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, frankly, utilizing it for newsletters is a bit of a waste. Much more on that in a bit.
As I said in that concern of the newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices constructed right into it particular to my function. Points such as:
- Capability to publish (to the blog site) and send out the email concurrently without having it be 2 separate activities.
- Constructed in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would certainly require a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Integrated ability to do cross-promotions with other newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are generally one-click subscription links. Great for promotion in other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, however, so there are means to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your newsletter.
- Built-in ad network, if I pick to generate income from with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and essentially run a costs newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Essentially, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter authors with features targeted at development. The system was literally built by the individuals who developed the modern technology for Early morning Mixture. They know what they’re doing.
That is the point below. BeeHiiv is built from scratch for the objective of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a various function.
And I finished off with this:.
I may certainly be relocating The Side over to BeeHiiv too. At the very least, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. Actually, I simply went all out. And in fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Morning WP, triggered as it’s very own building to make sure that I can grow it much more purposefully also.
The objective is that each newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded separately. Gladly RV was young, so very easy to transition. But, The Early morning WP (formerly The Edge) was buried in a sea of things right here at the Blog Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s own. It will obviously constantly be carefully tied with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet doesn’t need to belong of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv since it was developed for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Regular Email Checklist
There’s a difference between a newsletter system and just an e-mail list.
You can host your email list anyplace you desire and there are a variety of them available, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted choices like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The key difference is that, with an e-newsletter system, the act of posting means that it is mosting likely to your internet site and to your e-mail subscribers all at once.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are releasing to that internet site. Yet, you are likewise sending to all clients at the same time. The internet site and it’s customers are done in one. This makes monitoring of the system much easier.
With a lot of e-mail systems, any type of e-newsletter you set up is done as an e-mail campaign. It is built completely separately from your site. So, as an example, you might release an article to WordPress however then you would require to separately construct and send an email to your checklist to send it to customers. These are then two different collections of archives and two different actions because post and your emails are not naturally linked.
The closest point that turns WordPress right into a true newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name due to the fact that it basically “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and allows them to be the very same thing. Absolutely, something like Newsletter Glue would be a strong option if I wanted to remain to self-host everything. Nevertheless, you would certainly lose the growth tools that include a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting a newsletter inherently comes with a various set of needs than a common e-mail listing.
You don’t typically need much marketing automation. You don’t generally need autoresponder series, event monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO demand, however, is one smooth posting experience and growth devices to aid you build your client base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my customers that I was mosting likely to change the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the fact that I selected to opt for BeeHiiv, that doesn’t imply I assume Substack draws. As a matter of fact, due to the fact that Substack has been about much longer, it is elder and has more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple things that originally obtained my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly customized to e-newsletter publishers. As a matter of fact, it is literally developed by the same folks that constructed the technology behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real life, does not matter. Yet, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv toward e-newsletter growth called me out over the more common positioning of being a “designer”. Growth is what I have an interest in here.
- That branding and differentiation likewise means that BeeHiiv has some rather huge brand names and huge publications using it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo makers. Once more, it just informs me the customer avatar distinction in between both firms.
Sending our my e-newsletter through FluentCRM really did not specifically suck. The only reason I would consider drinking things up is if I thought I might GROW the list much faster. And BeeHiiv spoke specifically to that goal.
As a result of the targeting, I actually don’t see BeeHiiv and Substack as straight competitors. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a various sort of consumer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being more straight competitors.
But, allow’s dive much deeper than simply the placing here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv feels like it was built by people that recognizing e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears extra geared towards creators.
For example, BeeHiiv provides custom areas on customers. Currently, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv supplies Automations. Actually, it is a visual automation builder that works a great deal like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation functionality is still early-phase. It is still fairly restricted in triggers and the only action is the ability to send an e-mail. Nevertheless, enhancements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will have new triggers in addition to brand-new activities, such as changing custom-made areas, sending out webhooks, etc. I have actually currently seen improvements to their automations just given that I began utilizing the platform. For instance:
- Capacity to set off automations based upon which specific embed kind they can be found in on.
- Capability to immediately do re-engagement (and take care of individuals based upon opens and non-opens).
- Capability to do basic conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never will. Substack just can not do this because the target market of Substack simply wouldn’t believe to approach this like an e-mail marketing expert.
When it involves writing your newsletters, the creating user interface of BeeHiiv is simply a lot more tailored towards e-newsletters. Actually, it actually has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it functions. I find it to be more intuitive, directly.
Substack’s composing interface behaves and tidy, yet it would certainly be more equivalent to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This difference is more than simply kind. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Area” and then placed anything you desire in it. After that, you can place Exposure choices on that particular section to reveal it only to paid clients, hide it from email, hide from clients, reveal just to customers, etc. Substack offers nothing such as this.
And when/if the time comes that I start a premium membership model, BeeHiiv does not take any type of earnings. In fact, you literally connect up to your own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your profits. Depending upon the amount of subscribers you get, that 10% can be a fair bit even more cash than the month-to-month expense of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This may seem nerdy, but what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv deal with the outdoors utilizing tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … nothing. No integrations in any way.
In general, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was much more developed towards real e-mail marketing. It was developed by people that “get it”. Also the opt-in types and the landing page develops seem far better developed for conversions. Development is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I want to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the direction it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually said, Substack placements itself toward “makers” more than email online marketers and e-newsletter proprietors. For that reason, you see some things tailored extra towards individuals who simply think in regards to web content production.
For instance, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does sustain numerous publications, they are treated quite separately. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to numerous magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, however … cool for individuals who could require it.
Substack likewise has more social performance built-in. As an example, it has a chat function to host talks with subscribers. It also has a “Notes” feature which works type of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share things from various other “Stacks” you’re reading. Interesting. Generally, Substack is set up to be much more like a social media network which sustains long-form content.
In general, Substack is likewise a lot more … minimal. You either care for that or do not. Directly, I don’t. However, if the objective is simplicity of interface and, truthfully, features … Substack functions quite well.
Yet, I’ll be clear below …
When it concerns real marketing, I do not believe there’s much question that BeeHiiv is better matched. I looked for even more points that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, yet frankly … I have a difficult time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are typically through to be the closest competitors, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are going after the exact same target audience and have similar capacities.
ConvertKit is also positioned at designers (like Substack), but it is a lot more highly catering to people who do it for company. ConvertKit has good aesthetic automation building, it’s very own business system, and more. ConvertKit is a really good platform.
I’m not going to bore you with a full feature-by-feature malfunction here. ConvertKit is well known already. However, right here’s how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has more versatility when it involves it’s automations. I will also say that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit extra user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports marking. This is simply a basic feature of e-mail listings that makes it possible for segmentation in an even more flexible method than BeeHiiv currently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support tagging at some time quickly, frankly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Newsletter Operator Course.
ConvertKit does now give the ability to offer points through their very own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is very important to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, nonetheless, I would certainly always choose a much more straight option anyhow. For me, I choose to use my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about much longer and for that reason has way a lot more integration choices. Tons of online tools and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is fairly effective. As an example, their plugin currently also supports member-gated web content as well as auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your site. Basically, this more closely puts ConvertKit into direct competition by having you have the ability to publish to your site and your email checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is drastically lacking in these sort of third-party integrations presently. It’ll get there. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also hectic taking on the growth tools of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not only incentivize people to share your e-newsletter with rewards, yet you can additionally pay per lead within the interior advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your listing. These are actually awesome features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you recognize ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among one of the most well known viral promotion systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall surface for what this suggests for the platform moving forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Better At … Newsletter Operator Course
BeeHiiv is a lot earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that indicates much less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this stage of the cycle. Nevertheless, it likewise suggests that they are rapidly creating.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have experienced virtually once a week launch of new features into the system. And these aren’t weak little features … but big features that are quite essential. Their rate of advancement now has actually been impressive.
I likewise significantly appreciate how responsive they are. Actually, one of their item announcements about some design improvements to the web design features in fact had a small trouble with the material width. I merely responded to that e-mail to tell them. I quickly got a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That very same day, the issue was repaired.
Couple of days later, I gave them an additional recommendation …
Sure enough, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to trigger automations based on the embed type utilized was added to the system.
That type of responsiveness and straight participation of the group is something I actually value.
One more major point of distinction right here is the cost. Both systems provide totally free plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan supplies much more capacity and more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise even more positive. ConvertKit appears less costly in the beginning glance due to the fact that their pricing web page reveals lower numbers, nonetheless the client limits are FAR lower and your rate swiftly enhances as your checklist grows.
With BeeHiiv, your first degree paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid each year), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That exact same dimension listing is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I personally utilize), you can expand your checklist as much as 100,000. A list of that size would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, also, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay each year, too. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay annually.
BeeHiiv remains in a completely various organization when it involves pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately enhance rates? They could as time takes place. But, I’m presuming people like myself that are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see just how things continue.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
One of the important things you absolutely require to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do appear to evolve instead swiftly and make new item announcements somewhat often, but there are some basic features I actually wish they had that I need to simply wait for.
One is that they need to have a setup on membership types where I can pick an automation to run right at the kind degree. That would be AWESOME for numerous factors. Currently, subscription types look OK, but there’s really little setups for them to help in segmentation.
It would be nice to have marking at the client degree. This would be powerful.
I think webhooks ought to be part of automations to make built-in automations simpler and decrease reliance on outdoors tools like Zapier.
There are likewise some small administrative interface adjustments that would be handy. For example:
- Capacity to mass edit/remove customers.
- Capability to bulk edit articles (for instance, to identify a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a few standard fields as typical on customers (like the name).
- Some more modification options for the internet site (such as more versatile color selections, heading control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Things I wish they finish with it in the future. BeeHiiv is respectable, however it isn’t perfect and certainly not virtually as created as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM product.
It possibly never will certainly be, either. As I said, the purpose is different so it would not a lot a great deal of feeling for BeeHiiv to end up being a full marketing automation system. I think you never know, though.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I like BeeHiiv rather a lot. Sufficient where I decided to switch my own e-newsletters over to the platform regardless of my individual preference for digital sovereignty and owning my very own system.
Simply put, for the newsletter publishing version specifically, I saw adequate worth in their system to require the adjustment.
Remember, I do not use BeeHiiv as my special e-mail list. I make use of BeeHiiv for what it is efficient, however I deliberately have things set up to ensure that I also maintain my listing “in house” inside of FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the exact same. It is simply a good insurance plan, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your listing will certainly be of high usage (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the concern is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are utilizing Substack today, I ‘d absolutely take into consideration switching to BeeHiiv. It will merely be much more business-friendly. It is targeting various capabilities and different requirements. Plus, BeeHiiv also has import tools for Substack, so the switch ought to be quite simple.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d most likely sit tight unless you have a large e-mail list and are as a result being fleeced with their high month-to-month expense. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are repeating promptly. There’s also a pretty good chance you’re not also using some of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you don’t even require them. For that reason, BeeHiiv could quickly be a much better and extra cost effective fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be very willful concerning growing an e-newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE platform to consider and maintain and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is developed to be, it is among the most effective video games around right now. This is the platform to enjoy.
BeeHiiv offers a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves taking a look at for yourself. And if you end up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll locate the free account to be fairly feature abundant.