I have utilized a great deal of different email list systems throughout the years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a big supporter of digital sovereignty and having your very own platform. For that reason (and the incredible features), I have actually been making use of Oilman Jim Beehiiv.
So, it is undoubtedly a strange move for me to decide to make use of BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is a held application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I intend to discuss why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I intend to resolve the problem of digital sovereignty while utilizing the platform and I would certainly likewise like to address why I chose to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For Newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my newsletter called My Hobby + A Large Shift In Technique, I discussed exactly how and why I decided to transform my RV blog right into primarily a newsletter. I determined that was business design I intended to go after with that said residential or commercial property.
But, to deliberately pursue it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the email checklist for Gladly recreational vehicle, however FluentCRM is not a newsletter system. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, truthfully, using it for newsletters is a bit of a waste. A lot more on that particular in a little bit.
As I stated because problem of the e-newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a system with devices constructed into it details to my purpose. Things such as:
- Capacity to release (to the blog site) and send the email all at once 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 tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capability to do cross-promotions with various other newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are generally one-click registration links. Great for promotion in various other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, however, so there are means to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Built-in ad network, if I select to monetize with ads in the newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated ability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and generally run a premium newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Basically, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features aimed at development. The system was actually developed by the individuals that built up the technology for Early morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the factor below. BeeHiiv is constructed from the ground up for the function of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different objective.
And I ended off with this:.
I might certainly be relocating The Side over to BeeHiiv as well. At least, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. In fact, I simply went all out. And in fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Morning WP, triggered as it’s own property so that I can grow it more deliberately as well.
The objective is that each e-newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s own media entity and grown separately. Happily motor home was young, so very easy to shift. However, The Morning WP (formerly The Side) was buried in a sea of stuff here at the Blog Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s own. It will clearly constantly be closely linked with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet does not need to be a part of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was built for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Normal Email List
There’s a difference between an e-newsletter system and simply an email listing.
You can organize your e-mail checklist just about anywhere you want 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 distinction?
The key distinction is that, with an e-newsletter system, the act of publishing indicates that it is mosting likely to your site and to your email subscribers concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are publishing to that web site. However, you are also sending to all clients at the same time. The site and it’s clients are all in one. This makes monitoring of the platform much easier.
With most e-mail platforms, any type of newsletter you set up is done as an e-mail campaign. It is developed completely independently from your website. So, as an example, you might publish a post to WordPress yet then you would require to individually construct and send out an e-mail to your list to send it to customers. These are after that two separate sets of archives and 2 different actions due to the fact that article and your e-mails are not inherently connected.
The closest point that transforms WordPress into a true newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name since it pretty much “glues” your newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and permits them to be the very same point. Absolutely, something like Newsletter Glue would be a solid choice if I wanted to remain to self-host everything. Nonetheless, you ‘d shed the development tools that come with a platform like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter naturally comes with a different set of requirements than a common email list.
You don’t usually require much marketing automation. You do not typically need autoresponder series, occasion monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO need, though, is one smooth publishing experience and development tools to aid you construct your customer base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my customers that I was going to switch over the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many people ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the truth that I chose to go with BeeHiiv, that does not suggest I think Substack sucks. In fact, due to the fact that Substack has actually been around much longer, it is more mature and has more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a pair things that at first obtained my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically tailored to e-newsletter authors. In fact, it is actually constructed by the very same individuals who constructed the modern technology behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real life, does not matter. However, the obvious positioning of BeeHiiv towards e-newsletter growth called me out over the more common positioning of being a “maker”. Growth is what I want here.
- That branding and distinction likewise suggests that BeeHiiv has some relatively large brands and large magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo developers. Again, it just informs me the consumer character distinction between both firms.
Sending our my e-newsletter via FluentCRM didn’t precisely suck. The only factor I would consider drinking things up is if I believed I could expand the checklist faster. And BeeHiiv spoke exactly to that goal.
As a result of the targeting, I really do not watch BeeHiiv and Substack as straight competitors. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a different type of consumer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more direct competitors.
However, allow’s dive much deeper than just the placing below.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
On the whole, BeeHiiv looks like it was constructed by people that comprehending email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears a lot more geared towards makers.
For example, BeeHiiv offers custom areas on customers. Now, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. In fact, it is a visual automation builder that functions a whole lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation performance is still early-phase. It is still rather limited in triggers and the only action is the capacity to send out an email. Nevertheless, enhancements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will have new triggers as well as new activities, such as changing customized fields, sending out webhooks, etc. I’ve currently seen improvements to their automations just given that I began making use of the system. As an example:
- Ability to trigger automations based upon which particular embed type they came in on.
- Capability to instantly do re-engagement (and take care of people based upon opens and non-opens).
- Ability to do standard conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can not do this since the target market of Substack simply would not think to approach this like an e-mail marketing professional.
When it pertains to writing your newsletters, the creating user interface of BeeHiiv is just extra tailored towards newsletters. Actually, it really has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in just how it works. I locate it to be more instinctive, directly.
Substack’s creating user interface behaves and tidy, but it would certainly be a lot more equal to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This difference is greater than just kind. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Area” and after that placed anything you desire in it. After that, you can place Presence choices on that particular area to show it only to paid customers, hide it from email, hide from clients, reveal just to subscribers, etc. Substack uses nothing like this.
And when/if the time comes that I begin a costs registration design, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any kind of earnings. Actually, you essentially attach approximately your own Stripe account and it bills directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your revenue. Depending on the amount of customers you get, that 10% can be quite a bit more cash than the regular monthly price of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This could appear unpopular, yet what it suggests is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outside using devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … absolutely nothing. No integrations in all.
In general, I just felt like BeeHiiv was a lot more developed toward genuine email marketing. It was developed by people that “get it”. Also the opt-in forms and the landing page designs appear far better developed for conversions. Development is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I wish to see BeeHiiv add, I like the direction it is going more than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have said, Substack positions itself toward “makers” more than email marketing experts and newsletter proprietors. For that reason, you see some points tailored a lot more toward individuals who simply assume in regards to content development.
For example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does sustain multiple publications, they are treated quite independently. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to multiple magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, yet … great for people that may require it.
Substack additionally has more social capability built-in. As an example, it has a chat feature to host chats with subscribers. It additionally has a “Notes” function which functions type of like a social media newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you’re reading. Interesting. Generally, Substack is set up to be a lot more like a social network which sustains long-form material.
Generally, Substack is likewise a lot more … minimal. You either look after that or do not. Directly, I do not. Nevertheless, if the goal is simplicity of interface and, frankly, features … Substack functions quite well.
But, I’ll be clear right here …
When it concerns actual marketing, I don’t believe there’s much question that BeeHiiv is much better suited. I tried to find more factors that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, however truthfully … I have a hard time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are typically through to be the closest rivals, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are pursuing the same target audience and have similar abilities.
ConvertKit is also positioned at designers (like Substack), however it is much more highly dealing with individuals who do it for service. ConvertKit has nice aesthetic automation structure, it’s very own business platform, and a lot more. ConvertKit is a really good platform.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature breakdown right here. ConvertKit is well known already. Yet, here’s just how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Points ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has much more flexibility when it pertains to it’s automations. I will also state that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit extra user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains labeling. This is just a fundamental function of email checklists that allows division in a far more versatile method than BeeHiiv currently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain tagging eventually quickly, honestly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing Oilman Jim Beehiiv.
ConvertKit does now give the ability to sell things through their own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is essential to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would certainly constantly choose a much more direct choice anyhow. For me, I favor to use my very own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been around a lot longer and therefore has way more integration alternatives. Tons of online tools and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is fairly effective. For example, their plugin now also sustains member-gated material as well as auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Basically, this much more very closely places ConvertKit into direct competition by having you have the ability to publish to your website and your e-mail checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is significantly doing not have in these sort of third-party integrations currently. It’ll arrive. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy taking on the development tools 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 rewards, however you can also pay per lead within the internal ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your listing. These are actually outstanding features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you know ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of one of the most popular viral promo platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall surface of what this suggests for the system moving forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Oilman Jim Beehiiv
BeeHiiv is a lot previously in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that suggests less features and less integrations, which is natural for this stage of the cycle. However, it likewise implies that they are quickly developing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually seen practically regular launch of new features right into the platform. And these aren’t puny little features … yet huge features that are fairly vital. Their speed of development at this moment has been impressive.
I also very much appreciate just how responsive they are. Actually, one of their product announcements regarding some design improvements to the web design features in fact had a little trouble with the material size. I just replied to that e-mail to tell them. I swiftly obtained a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That exact same day, the concern was dealt with.
Couple of days later, I gave them one more idea …
Certainly, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to trigger automations based on the embed type made use of was included in the system.
That type of responsiveness and straight participation of the group is something I actually appreciate.
Another major factor of differentiation here is the rate. Both platforms offer free plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan provides much more capability and even more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also even more desirable. ConvertKit appears less expensive at first glimpse since their pricing page reveals reduced numbers, nonetheless the customer limits are FAR reduced and your rate rapidly raises as your list expands.
With BeeHiiv, your first level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid every year), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 customers. That very same size checklist is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their best plan and the one I directly make use of), you can grow your listing approximately 100,000. A checklist of that size would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, as well, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay yearly, too. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay yearly.
BeeHiiv is in an entirely different organization when it pertains to pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately increase prices? They may as time goes on. But, I’m thinking individuals like myself that are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how points proceed.
Points I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Add
One of things you absolutely require to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do seem to advance instead rapidly and make brand-new item announcements somewhat frequently, but there are some basic features I actually desire they had that I require to simply wait for.
One is that they need to have a setup on registration kinds where I can choose an automation to run right at the form level. That would be AWESOME for many factors. Currently, subscription kinds look OK, however there’s really little setups for them to aid in segmentation.
It would certainly be nice to have tagging at the client level. This would be powerful.
I assume webhooks should become part of automations to make built-in automations much easier and minimize reliance on outdoors tools like Zapier.
There are also some small administrative user interface adjustments that would certainly be handy. For example:
- Capability to bulk edit/remove clients.
- Capacity to mass edit articles (for instance, to identify a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of fundamental fields as typical on customers (like the name).
- Some more modification alternatives for the internet site (such as even more versatile color selections, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Things I hope they make with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t ideal and absolutely not nearly as established as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM item.
It most likely never will certainly be, either. As I said, the function is various so it would not much a lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to become a complete marketing automation platform. I guess you never ever know, however.
Last Ideas On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I such as BeeHiiv quite a great deal. Sufficient where I determined to change my own newsletters over to the system in spite of my personal preference for digital sovereignty and owning my very own platform.
Basically, for the newsletter posting version particularly, I saw adequate value in their platform to warrant the modification.
Keep in mind, I do not utilize BeeHiiv as my exclusive email list. I use BeeHiiv wherefore it is efficient, yet I deliberately have points set up to make sure that I also maintain my checklist “in residence” within FluentCRM.
If you make use of BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the exact same. It is simply a great insurance policy, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your checklist will be of high usage (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 opinion, if you are utilizing Substack today, I ‘d absolutely take into consideration switching over to BeeHiiv. It will just be much more business-friendly. It is targeting various abilities and various demands. And also, BeeHiiv also has import tools for Substack, so the switch needs to be pretty uncomplicated.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d most likely stay put unless you have a large e-mail listing and are therefore being wooled with their high regular monthly costs. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are repeating promptly. There’s also a respectable possibility you’re not even using several of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you do not even need them. Therefore, BeeHiiv could easily be a far better and much more inexpensive fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be extremely willful regarding growing an e-newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE system to think about and keep and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is made to be, it is among the most effective games in town right now. This is the platform to view.
BeeHiiv offers a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth looking into on your own. And if you wind up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll discover the totally free account to be fairly feature rich.