I have used a lot of various email list systems throughout the years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a substantial supporter of digital sovereignty and having your own system. Therefore (and the amazing features), I have been making use of Rankster Beehiiv.
So, it is certainly a weird move for me to decide to make use of BeeHiiv. After all, it is a held application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I want to discuss why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I intend to resolve the problem of digital sovereignty while using the system and I ‘d likewise such as to attend to why I selected to use it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For Newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my newsletter called My Pastime + A Big Change In Technique, I discussed just how and why I decided to turn my recreational vehicle blog right into largely a newsletter. I made a decision that was the business version I intended to seek keeping that residential property.
Yet, to purposefully pursue it as a newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the email listing for Happily RV, yet FluentCRM is not a newsletter platform. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, truthfully, using it for newsletters is a bit of a waste. Extra on that particular in a little bit.
As I claimed because concern of the e-newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a platform with tools constructed into it details to my objective. Things such as:
- Ability to release (to the blog site) and send the e-mail simultaneously without having it be 2 different activities.
- Integrated in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would certainly require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capacity to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are essentially one-click membership links. Great for promo in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are means to do that.
- Capacity to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your newsletter.
- Integrated ad network, if I pick to generate income from with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and generally run a premium newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Generally, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter authors with features focused on growth. The platform was literally constructed by the people who built up the innovation for Early morning Mixture. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the factor here. BeeHiiv is developed from scratch for the function of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different objective.
And I ended off with this:.
I might undoubtedly be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv also. A minimum of, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. Actually, I just went for it. And in fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Morning WP, triggered as it’s very own property to make sure that I can expand it a lot 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 individually. Happily RV was young, so easy to shift. But, The Morning WP (previously The Side) was hidden in a sea of things here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s own. It will clearly always be carefully tied with the Blog site Marketing Academy, yet does not have to be a part of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv since it was developed for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Normal Email List
There’s a difference in between an e-newsletter system and just an email listing.
You can organize your e-mail checklist everywhere you want and there are a number of them out there, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted choices like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The key distinction is that, with a newsletter platform, the act of posting means that it is mosting likely to your web site and to your email subscribers all at once.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are releasing to that site. Yet, you are also dispatching to all clients at the same time. The internet site and it’s clients are all in one. This makes monitoring of the system much less complex.
With the majority of e-mail systems, any type of newsletter you set up is done as an email campaign. It is constructed entirely independently from your internet site. So, for example, you might publish a write-up to WordPress however then you would certainly require to individually construct and send out an e-mail to your checklist to send it to subscribers. These are then two different collections of archives and two separate actions since blog posts and your emails are not naturally connected.
The closest thing that turns WordPress right into a true newsletter platform is Newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name since it virtually “glues” your e-newsletter to your WordPress messages and permits them to be the same thing. Definitely, something like Newsletter Glue would certainly be a strong option if I wanted to remain to self-host everything. Nonetheless, you ‘d shed the growth tools that come with a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter inherently features a different set of needs than a regular email listing.
You don’t usually require much marketing automation. You do not normally need autoresponder series, occasion monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO demand, though, is one seamless publishing experience and development devices to assist you construct your customer base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my customers that I was mosting likely to switch over the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had lots of people ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the fact that I chose to go with BeeHiiv, that does not imply I assume Substack sucks. In fact, because Substack has actually been around longer, it is more mature and has more features.
Although BeeHiiv is younger, there are a pair points that originally obtained my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly customized to e-newsletter authors. Actually, it is essentially developed by the same people that built the technology behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real world, does not matter. But, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter growth called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “creator”. Development is what I’m interested in below.
- That branding and differentiation additionally means that BeeHiiv has some rather huge brands and big magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo designers. Again, it just tells me the customer character difference in between both companies.
Sending our my e-newsletter via FluentCRM didn’t exactly draw. The only reason I would consider shaking things up is if I assumed I might GROW the listing quicker. And BeeHiiv talked precisely to that goal.
Due to the targeting, I really do not watch BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a various kind of consumer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra straight competitors.
But, let’s dive much deeper than simply the positioning here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
On the whole, BeeHiiv appears like it was developed by individuals who comprehending email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears much more geared towards designers.
For instance, BeeHiiv supplies customized areas on subscribers. Currently, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv provides Automations. In fact, it is a visual automation builder that functions a lot like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation functionality is still early-phase. It is still fairly minimal in triggers and the only action is the ability to send an e-mail. Nevertheless, enhancements are coming. Soon sufficient, automations will certainly have brand-new triggers as well as new actions, such as changing personalized areas, sending out webhooks, and so on. I’ve currently seen enhancements to their automations simply considering that I started using the system. As an example:
- Capability to trigger automations based upon which certain embed type they can be found in on.
- Capability to instantly do re-engagement (and take care of individuals based upon opens and non-opens).
- Capacity to do fundamental conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack simply can not do this since the target market of Substack just would not think to approach this like an email marketing professional.
When it concerns composing your e-newsletters, the creating user interface of BeeHiiv is just extra tailored toward e-newsletters. In fact, it in fact has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in just how it works. I find it to be a lot more instinctive, personally.
Substack’s creating user interface is nice and clean, yet it would certainly be more equivalent to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This difference is greater than simply type. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Section” and then placed anything you want in it. Then, you can put Visibility choices on that particular section to reveal it only to paid subscribers, conceal it from e-mail, hide from subscribers, show just to customers, etc. Substack supplies nothing like this.
And when/if the moment comes that I start a costs registration model, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any type of revenue. Actually, you essentially attach as much as your own Stripe account and it charges directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your income. Depending on the amount of subscribers you get, that 10% can be quite a bit more money than the month-to-month price of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This could seem nerdy, however what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv deal with the outdoors utilizing devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … nothing. No integrations in all.
Overall, I just felt like BeeHiiv was much more developed toward genuine email marketing. It was developed by people who “get it”. Also the opt-in forms and the landing page creates seem much better developed for conversions. Development is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I would love to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the instructions it is going more than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have said, Substack placements itself toward “creators” more than e-mail online marketers and newsletter proprietors. Therefore, you see some things geared more towards people that just believe in terms of web content production.
For example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does sustain numerous magazines, they are dealt with rather individually. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to numerous publications at the same time. This isn’t something I need, yet … trendy for people who could need it.
Substack additionally has even more social performance built-in. For instance, it has a conversation feature to host chats with subscribers. It additionally has a “Notes” feature which works type of like a social media newsfeed where you can share things from other “Stacks” you read. Interesting. In general, Substack is set up to be more like a social media network which supports long-form material.
Overall, Substack is likewise extra … minimal. You either care for that or don’t. Personally, I don’t. Nonetheless, if the goal is simpleness of user interface and, truthfully, features … Substack functions rather well.
Yet, I’ll be clear right here …
When it pertains to real marketing, I don’t assume there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is much better fit. I searched for even more points that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, yet truthfully … I have a tough time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are commonly via to be the closest competitors, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are going after the very same target audience and have comparable capacities.
ConvertKit is additionally placed at makers (like Substack), however it is a lot more strongly catering to people that do it for service. ConvertKit has great aesthetic automation structure, it’s very own commerce system, and more. ConvertKit is a really great system.
I’m not going to bore you with a complete feature-by-feature break down below. ConvertKit is popular currently. However, right here’s how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Points ConvertKit Is Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has extra adaptability when it pertains to it’s automations. I will likewise state that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit a lot more user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains tagging. This is just a basic function of email lists that enables division in a far more flexible way than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to sustain identifying eventually quickly, truthfully. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Rankster Beehiiv.
ConvertKit does now provide the capacity to offer points using their very own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is essential to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would constantly pick a much more direct alternative anyhow. For me, I choose to utilize my own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been around much longer and for that reason has way much more integration options. Tons of online tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is quite effective. For instance, their plugin currently also supports member-gated content as well as auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your site. Fundamentally, this a lot more closely puts ConvertKit into direct competition by having you have the ability to release to your site and your email checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is significantly lacking in these kinds of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll get there. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also hectic taking on the development tools of BeeHiiv. As an example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not just incentivize people to share your e-newsletter with rewards, yet you can likewise pay per lead within the internal advertisement network of BeeHiiv to grow your checklist. These are really awesome features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you understand ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of one of the most well known viral promo systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall wherefore this indicates for the platform moving forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Rankster Beehiiv
BeeHiiv is a lot previously in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. Nevertheless, it likewise implies that they are swiftly creating.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have experienced almost regular launch of brand-new features right into the platform. And these aren’t undersized little features … yet large features that are quite important. Their speed of development now has actually gone over.
I likewise quite appreciate how responsive they are. Actually, among their product announcements concerning some design enhancements to the web design features in fact contained a small trouble with the web content width. I merely replied to that e-mail to tell them. I quickly got a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That exact same day, the concern was taken care of.
Couple of days later on, I provided another idea …
Certainly, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to cause automations based on the embed form used was added to the system.
That kind of responsiveness and straight involvement of the group is something I really value.
An additional significant factor of differentiation here is the rate. Both platforms offer free plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan provides a lot more capacity and even more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise even more positive. ConvertKit appears more affordable at first glance due to the fact that their pricing web page shows reduced numbers, nonetheless the subscriber restrictions are much reduced and your price quickly raises as your checklist expands.
With BeeHiiv, your very first level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid each year), however you can have up to 10,000 clients. That exact same dimension listing is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I personally utilize), you can grow your listing as much as 100,000. A list of that size would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, also, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay yearly, as well. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for just $84/month if you pay each year.
BeeHiiv is in an entirely different organization when it pertains to pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately boost prices? They could as time takes place. But, I’m presuming individuals like myself that are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see just how things proceed.
Points I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Add
Among things you absolutely require to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do seem to advance rather rapidly and make new product statements rather commonly, yet there are some basic features I really want they had that I require to simply wait on.
One is that they require to have a setting on subscription types where I could choose an automation to run right at the form level. That would certainly be amazing for a lot of reasons. As of now, membership forms look OK, however there’s very little setups for them to assist in division.
It would be nice to have marking at the subscriber level. This would be effective.
I assume webhooks need to belong to automations to make integrated automations much easier and minimize dependence on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are also some small administrative user interface adjustments that would be handy. For example:
- Capacity to bulk edit/remove subscribers.
- Capability to mass edit blog posts (for example, to mark a number of them at the same time).
- Having a few standard fields as conventional on customers (like the name).
- Some even more personalization options for the internet site (such as even more flexible color choices, heading control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Points I wish they make with it in the future. BeeHiiv is respectable, however it isn’t ideal and definitely not virtually as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM item.
It possibly never will be, either. As I said, the objective is various so it wouldn’t much a lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to end up being a complete marketing automation system. I guess you never ever know, though.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Review
I like BeeHiiv fairly a great deal. Enough where I determined to switch my very own newsletters over to the system despite my individual preference for digital sovereignty and owning my own system.
Simply put, for the e-newsletter posting version especially, I saw enough value in their system to require the change.
Remember, I do not use BeeHiiv as my exclusive email checklist. I make use of BeeHiiv wherefore it is proficient at, however I deliberately have things establish so that I likewise maintain my checklist “in home” inside of FluentCRM.
If you make use of BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the very same. It is just a great insurance coverage, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your checklist will certainly be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are utilizing Substack now, I ‘d definitely think about changing to BeeHiiv. It will simply be a lot more business-friendly. It is targeting different abilities and various demands. Plus, BeeHiiv also has import tools for Substack, so the switch ought to be rather simple.
If you get on ConvertKit now, I ‘d probably stay put unless you have a large e-mail listing and are for that reason being fleeced with their high regular monthly expense. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are repeating rapidly. There’s also a pretty good possibility you’re not even making use of several of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you don’t even require them. For that reason, BeeHiiv could quickly be a better and a lot more budget friendly fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be very willful about expanding an e-newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE platform to think about and keep and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is developed to be, it is one of the best video games in town today. This is the platform to enjoy.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth taking a look at for yourself. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll discover the totally free account to be quite feature abundant.