I have actually utilized a lot of various e-mail list systems over the years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a significant proponent of digital sovereignty and having your very own platform. Because of that (and the amazing features), I have been making use of The ’92 Beehiiv.
So, it is indeed a strange move for me to make a decision to utilize BeeHiiv. Besides, it is a hosted application and I am paying regular 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 newsletters. I intend to address the issue of digital sovereignty while utilizing the platform and I would certainly likewise such as to resolve why I chose to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For Newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Hobby + A Big Change In Method, I spoke about exactly how and why I made a decision to transform my RV blog site into mainly a newsletter. I chose that was the business version I intended to seek with that home.
But, to intentionally 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 RV, however FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter system. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, frankly, using it for e-newsletters is a little a waste. A lot more on that in a little bit.
As I claimed in that issue of the e-newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices constructed right into it specific to my objective. Things such as:
- Ability to publish (to the blog) and send out the e-mail all at once without having it be two different actions.
- Constructed in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would have needed a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capacity to do cross-promotions with other newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are essentially one-click membership web links. Great for promotion in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, however, so there are methods to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your e-newsletter.
- Integrated ad network, if I pick to monetize with ads in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in ability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and primarily run a costs e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Basically, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter publishers with features aimed at growth. The platform was actually built by the individuals who developed the innovation for Early morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the point below. BeeHiiv is developed from scratch for the function of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different objective.
And I finished off with this:.
I might undoubtedly be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv too. A minimum of, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. In fact, I just went all out. And actually, The side was re-branded over to The Morning WP, set off as it’s very own building so that I can grow it a lot more intentionally as well.
The objective is that each newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown individually. Happily recreational vehicle was young, so very easy to transition. Yet, The Early morning WP (previously The Edge) was buried in a sea of things here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s very own. It will clearly always be very closely linked with the Blog Marketing Academy, but doesn’t have to be a part of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv since it was developed for this function. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Normal Email Listing
There’s a distinction between an e-newsletter system and simply an e-mail list.
You can host your e-mail checklist anywhere you desire and there are a variety of them out there, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted choices like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The primary distinction is that, with an e-newsletter system, the act of publishing suggests that it is going to your web site and to your e-mail subscribers at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are publishing to that site. Yet, you are likewise sending to all clients at the same time. The internet site and it’s customers are all in one. This makes management of the platform much less complex.
With many e-mail platforms, any e-newsletter you set up is done as an email campaign. It is developed completely individually from your website. So, for example, you could publish an article to WordPress yet then you would require to independently build and send out an email to your checklist to send it to subscribers. These are after that two different sets of archives and two different activities due to the fact that article and your e-mails are not naturally linked.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress into a true e-newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name since it pretty much “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and permits them to be the same point. Certainly, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid option if I wished to continue to self-host whatever. Nonetheless, you would certainly lose the growth devices that feature a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter inherently features a various collection of needs than a normal email listing.
You don’t usually require much marketing automation. You do not normally need autoresponder series, occasion tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO demand, though, is one seamless posting experience and growth devices to help you develop your client base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my subscribers that I was going to switch the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many people ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the fact that I picked to opt for BeeHiiv, that does not indicate I believe Substack draws. In fact, since Substack has been around much longer, it is more mature and has more features.
Although BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple things that at first got my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is especially customized to e-newsletter authors. As a matter of fact, it is literally built by the same people who built the innovation behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, does not matter. But, the obvious positioning of BeeHiiv toward e-newsletter growth called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “designer”. Growth is what I want right here.
- That branding and distinction likewise means that BeeHiiv has some rather huge brands and huge magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is intended even more at solo designers. Once more, it simply informs me the customer avatar distinction in between the two business.
Sending our my newsletter using FluentCRM really did not specifically suck. The only factor I would certainly contemplate drinking points up is if I assumed I might GROW the checklist faster. And BeeHiiv spoke exactly to that goal.
As a result of the targeting, I really don’t check out BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a different sort of customer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being a lot more direct competitors.
Yet, allow’s dive deeper than simply the positioning below.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Generally, BeeHiiv feels like it was constructed by individuals who understanding email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears much more tailored towards creators.
For example, BeeHiiv offers custom areas on clients. Currently, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv provides Automations. Actually, it is a visual automation builder that works a lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation functionality is still early-phase. It is still rather minimal in triggers and the only activity is the capability to send out an e-mail. However, enhancements are coming. Soon enough, automations will have brand-new triggers along with brand-new actions, such as modifying custom-made fields, sending out webhooks, etc. I’ve currently seen enhancements to their automations simply since I began using the platform. As an example:
- Ability to set off automations based on which particular embed kind they was available in on.
- Capability to immediately do re-engagement (and deal with people based on opens up and non-opens).
- Ability to do standard conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations such as 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 believe to approach this like an e-mail marketing professional.
When it involves writing your e-newsletters, the writing user interface of BeeHiiv is just more geared toward e-newsletters. Actually, it actually has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in how it functions. I find it to be more user-friendly, personally.
Substack’s writing user interface is nice and tidy, however it would certainly be a lot more equal to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is more than just type. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Section” and after that placed anything you want in it. After that, you can place Exposure choices on that particular area to show it just to paid clients, conceal it from email, conceal from subscribers, show just to subscribers, and so on. Substack uses absolutely nothing like this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a premium registration model, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any type of profits. Actually, you literally attach approximately your own Stripe account and it bills directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your earnings. Depending on how many clients you get, that 10% can be quite a bit even more money than the monthly cost of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This may seem nerdy, yet what it means is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv work with the outdoors making use of tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … nothing. No integrations in all.
On the whole, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was much more built towards actual e-mail marketing. It was built by people who “get it”. Also the opt-in types and the landing page makes appear far better built for conversions. Development is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I wish to see BeeHiiv include, I like the instructions it is going more than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have said, Substack placements itself toward “makers” more than email marketing professionals and e-newsletter proprietors. For that reason, you see some things tailored more toward individuals that simply think in terms of content production.
As an example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does support numerous magazines, they are treated quite individually. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to numerous publications at the same time. This isn’t something I require, but … cool for people who may need it.
Substack likewise has more social functionality built-in. As an example, it has a conversation function to host talks with subscribers. It additionally has a “Notes” function which works kind of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you read. Fascinating. On the whole, Substack is set up to be extra like a social network which sustains long-form content.
In general, Substack is likewise extra … minimal. You either look after that or don’t. Directly, I do not. Nevertheless, if the goal is simpleness of user interface and, truthfully, features … Substack works pretty well.
However, I’ll be clear here …
When it involves actual marketing, I do not think there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is better matched. I tried to find even more factors that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, however truthfully … I have a hard time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are frequently through to be the closest competitors, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are pursuing the exact same target audience and have comparable capabilities.
ConvertKit is also positioned at designers (like Substack), but it is far more strongly accommodating people who do it for company. ConvertKit has good visual automation structure, it’s own business system, and much more. ConvertKit is an actually nice platform.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature failure here. ConvertKit is well known currently. But, here’s how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Things ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has more versatility when it comes to it’s automations. I will likewise say that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit more instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains tagging. This is simply a standard function of email checklists that makes it possible for division in an even more flexible method than BeeHiiv currently does. I expect BeeHiiv to support tagging at some point quickly, frankly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing out on The ’92 Beehiiv.
ConvertKit does currently provide the ability to market points through their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is very important to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nonetheless, I would certainly constantly pick a more direct alternative anyway. For me, I prefer to utilize my very own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been around much longer and because of that has way extra integration choices. Tons of online devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their own WordPress plugin that is quite powerful. As an example, their plugin now also sustains member-gated web content in addition to auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your site. Fundamentally, this much more very closely places ConvertKit into direct competition by having you be able to release to your website and your e-mail checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is significantly doing not have in these type of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll arrive. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy dealing with the development devices of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your e-newsletter with perks, yet you can likewise pay per lead within the internal advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your listing. These are really awesome features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you recognize ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of the most popular viral promo platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall for what this implies for the system going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … The ’92 Beehiiv
BeeHiiv is a lot previously in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies much less features and less integrations, which is natural for this stage of the cycle. Nonetheless, it additionally suggests that they are swiftly creating.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually observed practically regular launch of new features into the system. And these aren’t puny little features … however huge features that are quite important. Their rate of development at this moment has actually been impressive.
I likewise very much value just how responsive they are. Actually, among their item announcements concerning some design enhancements to the website design features really contained a little trouble with the content width. I merely responded to that e-mail to tell them. I rapidly got a reply straight from the CEO:.
That exact same day, the problem was taken care of.
Few days later on, I gave them an additional tip …
Certainly, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to cause automations based on the embed kind utilized was contributed to the system.
That type of responsiveness and straight involvement of the team is something I really value.
One more major factor of differentiation below is the cost. Both platforms use complimentary plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan provides much more ability and more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
As soon as you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also even more desirable. ConvertKit appears less costly initially look due to the fact that their pricing page shows lower numbers, however the customer limitations are much lower and your cost promptly raises as your listing expands.
With BeeHiiv, your initial level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid each year), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That same dimension checklist is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their best plan and the one I directly utilize), you can grow your list approximately 100,000. A checklist of that dimension would 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 annually, also. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv remains in an entirely various league when it concerns pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately enhance rates? They could as time takes place. Yet, I’m presuming individuals like myself who are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see just how points continue.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
Among the important things you definitely need to remember is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do appear to progress rather quickly and make new item news rather frequently, yet there are some fundamental features I really desire they had that I need to just wait for.
One is that they need to have a setting on subscription types where I could select an automation to run right at the kind level. That would be AWESOME for a lot of factors. Currently, registration kinds look OK, however there’s extremely little setups for them to aid in segmentation.
It would certainly behave to have marking at the client level. This would be powerful.
I assume webhooks need to belong to automations to make integrated automations much easier and reduce reliance on outside tools like Zapier.
There are also some minor administrative user interface adjustments that would come in handy. As an example:
- Capability to bulk edit/remove clients.
- Capacity to bulk edit articles (for instance, to label a number of them at the same time).
- Having a few standard fields as typical on customers (like the name).
- Some more personalization choices for the web site (such as more flexible shade choices, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Points I hope they do with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t ideal and certainly not almost as created as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM item.
It possibly never will certainly be, either. As I stated, the function is different so it would not a lot a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to become a complete marketing automation platform. I presume you never understand, however.
Final Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I like BeeHiiv quite a great deal. Sufficient where I determined to change my very own e-newsletters over to the system regardless of my personal choice for digital sovereignty and possessing my own platform.
Put simply, for the newsletter posting model especially, I saw sufficient value in their platform to warrant the adjustment.
Bear in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my special e-mail listing. I utilize BeeHiiv of what it is efficient, yet I purposefully have things establish to ensure that I likewise maintain my checklist “in house” inside of FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the exact same. It is just an excellent insurance coverage, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your list will certainly be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will certainly be).
So, the concern is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are utilizing Substack right now, I ‘d absolutely think about switching to BeeHiiv. It will simply be a lot more business-friendly. It is targeting various capabilities and different demands. And also, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the switch must be rather simple.
If you get on ConvertKit now, I ‘d most likely stay unless you have a large email checklist and are therefore 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 additionally a pretty good opportunity you’re not also making use of several of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you do not also require them. For that reason, BeeHiiv might quickly be a much better and extra budget friendly fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be extremely deliberate regarding growing an e-newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE system to consider and maintain and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is made to be, it is one of the very best video games around 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 with the paid plan, you’ll discover the cost-free account to be quite feature abundant.