I have actually utilized a lot of different e-mail list systems over the years. In the last couple 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 using Phil Plait Beehiiv.
So, it is undoubtedly a strange move for me to determine to utilize BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is a held application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I want to look at why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I wish to deal with the issue of digital sovereignty while making use of the system and I would certainly also such as to attend to why I selected to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For Newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Hobby + A Huge Shift In Strategy, I spoke about just how and why I made a decision to transform my recreational vehicle blog right into mostly a newsletter. I made a decision that was the business design I intended to seek with that said residential or commercial property.
Yet, to intentionally pursue it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the e-mail checklist for Gladly RV, but FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter system. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, honestly, using it for e-newsletters is a bit of a waste. More on that in a bit.
As I said in that issue of the newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a platform with tools built into it certain to my objective. Points such as:
- Ability to publish (to the blog site) and send the email simultaneously without having it be two separate activities.
- Built in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would certainly have needed a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capacity to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are basically one-click subscription links. Great for promo in various 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 advertisement network, if I pick to monetize with advertisements in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and basically run a costs e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Generally, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features targeted at growth. The system was essentially constructed by the individuals that built up the modern technology for Morning Mixture. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the factor here. BeeHiiv is constructed from the ground up for the purpose of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various function.
And I finished off with this:.
I might certainly be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv also. At the very least, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. As a matter of fact, 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 expand it extra intentionally too.
The objective is that each newsletter has the capability to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded independently. Happily motor home was young, so easy to change. However, The Early morning WP (formerly The Side) was buried in a sea of stuff here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s own. It will undoubtedly constantly be closely linked with the Blog site Marketing Academy, but doesn’t need to belong of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv since it was constructed for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Normal Email List
There’s a difference in between a newsletter system and simply an email list.
You can hold your email checklist everywhere 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 difference?
The main distinction is that, with an e-newsletter system, the act of publishing suggests that it is mosting likely to your site and to your email customers at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are publishing to that internet site. However, you are additionally sending off to all clients at the same time. The web site and it’s customers are done in one. This makes administration of the platform much less complex.
With many email platforms, any e-newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is developed totally individually from your website. So, as an example, you might publish an article to WordPress but after that you would certainly need to individually develop and send out an email to your listing to send it to subscribers. These are then 2 different collections of archives and 2 different actions due to the fact that article and your e-mails are not naturally connected.
The closest point that turns WordPress right into a true e-newsletter platform is Newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name due to the fact that it virtually “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress messages and allows them to be the exact same thing. Certainly, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a strong alternative if I wanted to continue to self-host everything. Nonetheless, you would certainly shed the development tools that include a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter naturally features a different set of needs than a regular e-mail checklist.
You do not normally need much marketing automation. You don’t normally need autoresponder series, event tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO need, however, is one seamless publishing experience and growth devices to help you develop your customer base that specify to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my customers that I was going to switch 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 selected to opt for BeeHiiv, that does not suggest I assume Substack draws. As a matter of fact, due to the fact that Substack has been about longer, it is elder and has more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is younger, there are a pair things that originally got my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is especially customized to e-newsletter authors. As a matter of fact, it is literally built by the very same people that constructed the technology behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real world, doesn’t matter. However, the evident positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter development called me out over the more generic positioning of being a “developer”. Development is what I’m interested in here.
- That branding and differentiation additionally indicates that BeeHiiv has some relatively big brand names and huge publications using it. Whereas SubStack is intended even more at solo makers. Once again, it simply informs me the client avatar difference in between the two companies.
Sending our my newsletter by means of FluentCRM really did not exactly suck. The only factor I would contemplate drinking things up is if I assumed I can GROW the listing much faster. And BeeHiiv talked exactly to that goal.
As a result of the targeting, I actually do not see BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a various type of consumer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being a lot more direct rivals.
Yet, let’s dive deeper than just the placing right here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
On the whole, BeeHiiv seems like it was built by people who recognizing email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems a lot more tailored toward makers.
For instance, BeeHiiv uses personalized areas on subscribers. Currently, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. As a matter of fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that works a lot 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 capacity to send out an e-mail. However, improvements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will certainly have new triggers in addition to brand-new actions, such as customizing personalized areas, sending out webhooks, and so on. I’ve currently seen enhancements to their automations simply because I started utilizing the system. For instance:
- Capability to set off automations based upon which particular embed kind they can be found in on.
- Capacity to instantly do re-engagement (and handle individuals based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Ability to do standard conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can’t do this due to the fact that the target market of Substack just would not think to approach this like an email marketing professional.
When it concerns creating your newsletters, the composing user interface of BeeHiiv is just extra tailored towards newsletters. Actually, it in fact has similarities to the WordPress block builder in just how it works. I locate it to be a lot more user-friendly, directly.
Substack’s writing user interface behaves and tidy, yet it would be a lot more equivalent to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is greater than just kind. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Area” and afterwards put anything you want in it. After that, you can put Presence alternatives on that particular area to show it only to paid clients, hide it from e-mail, hide from subscribers, reveal only to clients, etc. Substack provides absolutely nothing like this.
And when/if the moment comes that I start a premium subscription version, BeeHiiv does not take any kind of revenue. As a matter of fact, you literally connect approximately your very own Stripe account and it charges directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your income. Depending upon how many subscribers you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit more cash than the monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This might seem unpopular, yet what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv work with the outdoors utilizing tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … absolutely nothing. No integrations in all.
Overall, I simply felt like BeeHiiv was a lot more developed toward actual e-mail marketing. It was developed by people that “get it”. Also the opt-in kinds and the landing page designs appear much better developed for conversions. Growth is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I wish to see BeeHiiv include, I like the direction it is going greater than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually said, Substack settings itself towards “designers” greater than email marketers and e-newsletter owners. For that reason, you see some points tailored much more toward individuals who just assume in regards to content development.
For instance, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does sustain multiple publications, they are treated fairly individually. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to multiple publications at the same time. This isn’t something I need, however … trendy for individuals that may need it.
Substack additionally has even more social capability built-in. For instance, it has a chat feature to host chats with customers. It also has a “Notes” function which works type of like a social media newsfeed where you can share things from various other “Stacks” you’re reading. Interesting. On the whole, Substack is established to be extra like a social network which supports long-form material.
In general, Substack is also a lot more … minimal. You either care for that or don’t. Directly, I don’t. Nonetheless, if the goal is simplicity of interface and, frankly, features … Substack works pretty well.
However, I’ll be clear here …
When it pertains to real marketing, I don’t believe there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is much better suited. I searched for more factors that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, yet truthfully … I have a hard time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are typically with to be the closest competitors, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are pursuing the same target market and have comparable abilities.
ConvertKit is also positioned at developers (like Substack), but it is a lot more highly satisfying individuals that do it for service. ConvertKit has wonderful aesthetic automation structure, it’s very own commerce platform, and a lot more. ConvertKit is a truly great system.
I’m not going to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature breakdown here. ConvertKit is popular already. However, right here’s exactly how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Points ConvertKit Is Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has extra adaptability when it concerns it’s automations. I will certainly also state that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit a lot more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports tagging. This is just a fundamental function of e-mail checklists that makes it possible for division in a much more adaptable method than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support marking at some time soon, honestly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Phil Plait Beehiiv.
ConvertKit does now provide the capacity to sell points via their own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that’s important to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nonetheless, I would always pick a much more direct choice anyway. For me, I choose to use my very own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been about a lot longer and because of that has way much more integration alternatives. Tons of web-based tools and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their own WordPress plugin that is fairly powerful. For example, their plugin currently also supports member-gated content along with auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Essentially, this extra very closely puts ConvertKit right into direct competition by having you have the ability to publish to your website and your e-mail list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is significantly lacking in these type of third-party integrations currently. It’ll get there. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also hectic dealing with the growth tools of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with advantages, yet you can additionally pay per lead within the inner ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your listing. These are truly awesome features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you understand ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among one of the most popular viral promo systems for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall surface for what this suggests for the platform going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Better At … Phil Plait Beehiiv
BeeHiiv is a lot earlier in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that indicates less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this stage of the cycle. Nevertheless, it likewise suggests that they are swiftly developing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually observed virtually regular launch of brand-new features right into the system. And these aren’t undersized little features … but huge features that are rather crucial. Their rate of advancement at this moment has actually been impressive.
I also significantly value how responsive they are. In fact, among their product statements concerning some layout improvements to the web design features really contained a little issue with the web content size. I simply replied to that email to tell them. I quickly got a reply directly from the chief executive officer:.
That same day, the concern was dealt with.
Couple of days later on, I gave them another suggestion …
Sure enough, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to activate automations based upon the embed form used was added to the system.
That sort of responsiveness and straight participation of the team is something I truly value.
Another significant point of differentiation right here is the rate. Both platforms supply free plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan offers much more capacity and more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally even more favorable. ConvertKit seems less expensive in the beginning glance because their pricing page reveals reduced numbers, nevertheless the client restrictions are much lower and your cost rapidly increases as your list grows.
With BeeHiiv, your initial level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid each year), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 clients. That exact same size list 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 use), you can grow your list as much as 100,000. A list of that dimension would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, as well, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay every year, also. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for just $84/month if you pay yearly.
BeeHiiv is in a completely different league when it concerns pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately boost prices? They could as time goes on. However, I’m presuming people like myself that are already in will be locked-in. We’ll see just how things proceed.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among the important things you most definitely require to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do appear to develop rather swiftly and make brand-new item news rather often, but there are some fundamental features I really desire they had that I need to just wait for.
One is that they require to have a setup on subscription types where I can pick an automation to run right at the form level. That would be remarkable for so many factors. Already, subscription types look OK, however there’s really little settings for them to aid in segmentation.
It would certainly behave to have tagging at the customer level. This would be powerful.
I assume webhooks ought to become part of automations to make built-in automations easier and minimize reliance on outside devices like Zapier.
There are likewise some minor administrative user interface adjustments that would certainly be handy. For example:
- Capacity to bulk edit/remove subscribers.
- Capacity to mass edit blog posts (as an example, to identify a number of them at the same time).
- Having a few fundamental fields as typical on clients (like the name).
- Some even more customization options for the site (such as even more adaptable color choices, heading control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Things I hope they finish with it in the future. BeeHiiv is respectable, yet it isn’t ideal and certainly not virtually as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM product.
It possibly never ever will be, either. As I claimed, the purpose is different so it would not much a lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to end up being a full marketing automation system. I guess you never ever know, however.
Last Ideas On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I such as BeeHiiv quite a lot. Sufficient where I decided to switch my very own e-newsletters over to the system regardless of my personal preference for digital sovereignty and owning my own system.
Put simply, for the e-newsletter posting design particularly, I saw adequate worth in their system to call for the adjustment.
Keep in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my exclusive email list. I make use of BeeHiiv for what it is efficient, yet I deliberately have points establish to make sure that I additionally keep my checklist “in house” within FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the very same. It is simply a good insurance plan, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your checklist will certainly be of high use (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will certainly be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are making use of Substack now, I ‘d absolutely think about switching over to BeeHiiv. It will just be much more business-friendly. It is targeting various capacities and different requirements. And also, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the switch ought to be quite uncomplicated.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d most likely stay put unless you have a big e-mail list and are consequently being fleeced with their high month-to-month bill. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are repeating promptly. There’s additionally a respectable chance you’re not also making use of a few of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you don’t also require them. For that reason, BeeHiiv can quickly be a far better and more budget-friendly fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be very intentional concerning growing a newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE system to consider and keep and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is made to be, it is just one of the most effective games around right now. This is the system to watch.
BeeHiiv provides a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves having a look at for yourself. And if you wind up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll find the cost-free account to be fairly feature abundant.