I have made use of a great deal of various e-mail list systems for many years. In the last number of years, I have actually been a massive advocate of digital sovereignty and owning your own platform. Because of that (and the outstanding features), I have been making use of The Men’s Hope Beehiiv.
So, it is indeed an unusual move for me to make a decision to use BeeHiiv. Besides, it is an organized application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I wish to look at why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I want to attend to the issue of digital sovereignty while utilizing the platform and I ‘d also like to resolve why I picked to use it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For E-newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my newsletter called My Pastime + A Huge Change In Strategy, I discussed exactly how and why I made a decision to transform my motor home blog site right into primarily a newsletter. I chose that was business model I wanted to go after with that said residential property.
Yet, to deliberately pursue it as an e-newsletter, I desired a system that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the email checklist for Gladly recreational vehicle, however FluentCRM is not a newsletter platform. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, honestly, utilizing it for newsletters is a bit of a waste. A lot more on that in a bit.
As I said in that problem of the e-newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a system with devices developed right into it details to my objective. Things such as:
- Capability to release (to the blog) and send the e-mail simultaneously without having it be 2 separate actions.
- Integrated in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not 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 system.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are generally one-click membership links. Great for promo in various other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are means to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your newsletter.
- Integrated advertisement network, if I pick to monetize with advertisements in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated ability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and basically run a premium newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Generally, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter authors with features targeted at development. The platform was essentially constructed by the people that accumulated the technology for Early morning Mixture. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the factor below. BeeHiiv is developed from the ground up for the function of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different function.
And I finished off with this:.
I may certainly be moving The Side over to BeeHiiv also. At least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. Actually, I just went for it. And actually, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Morning WP, set off as it’s own building so that I can grow it a lot more deliberately too.
The objective is that each e-newsletter has the capability to be branded as it’s own media entity and grown independently. Gladly recreational vehicle was young, so easy to transition. But, The Early morning WP (previously The Side) was buried in a sea of things below 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 always be closely connected with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet doesn’t need to be a part of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv since it was constructed for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Simply A Normal Email Listing
There’s a difference between a newsletter platform and simply an email listing.
You can host your email checklist everywhere you desire and there are a variety of them available, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted alternatives like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The key difference is that, with a newsletter platform, the act of posting suggests that it is going to your internet site and to your email subscribers at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are publishing to that web site. But, you are additionally dispatching to all customers at the same time. The website and it’s customers are done in one. This makes monitoring of the platform much simpler.
With many email systems, any kind of e-newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is constructed entirely individually from your website. So, as an example, you might release an article to WordPress but then you would need to individually construct and send out an e-mail to your checklist to send it to clients. These are after that 2 different sets of archives and two separate actions due to the fact that blog posts and your e-mails are not inherently linked.
The closest point that transforms WordPress right into a real newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name because it basically “glues” your newsletter to your WordPress posts and enables them to be the very same point. Certainly, something like Newsletter Glue would be a strong option if I wished to remain to self-host every little thing. Nonetheless, you ‘d shed the growth tools that feature a platform like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter inherently features a different collection of requirements than a typical email checklist.
You do not generally need much marketing automation. You do not typically need autoresponder sequences, event monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO need, however, is one seamless publishing experience and development devices to help you build your customer base that specify to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my customers that I was mosting likely to switch over the 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 picked to choose BeeHiiv, that does not indicate I believe Substack draws. Actually, due to the fact that Substack has actually been around much longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple things that at first got my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly customized to e-newsletter publishers. As a matter of fact, it is essentially built by the exact same individuals that built the modern technology behind Early morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real life, does not matter. But, the apparent positioning of BeeHiiv towards e-newsletter growth called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “designer”. Growth is what I’m interested in right here.
- That branding and differentiation additionally suggests that BeeHiiv has some relatively huge brands and large publications using it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo designers. Once again, it simply tells me the consumer character distinction between both firms.
Sending our my newsletter by means of FluentCRM didn’t specifically draw. The only reason I would consider drinking points up is if I thought I could GROW the checklist quicker. And BeeHiiv talked exactly to that objective.
Because of the targeting, I in fact do not view BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a various sort of customer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more direct rivals.
Yet, let’s dive deeper than just the placing below.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv looks like it was built by people that recognizing e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears more tailored towards developers.
For instance, BeeHiiv provides custom-made areas on clients. Currently, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. Actually, it is a visual automation builder that works a lot like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation performance is still early-phase. It is still rather restricted in triggers and the only action is the capacity to send out an email. Nonetheless, enhancements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will certainly have new triggers in addition to brand-new actions, such as changing personalized fields, sending out webhooks, etc. I’ve currently seen enhancements to their automations simply since I started utilizing the system. As an example:
- Ability to trigger automations based upon which certain embed form they came in on.
- Capacity to automatically do re-engagement (and take care of people based on opens up and non-opens).
- Capability to do fundamental conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack simply can’t do this since the target audience of Substack simply wouldn’t believe to approach this like an email marketing expert.
When it pertains to creating your e-newsletters, the composing user interface of BeeHiiv is simply much more geared toward newsletters. Actually, it in fact has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in just how it works. I discover it to be more instinctive, directly.
Substack’s composing user interface behaves and tidy, yet it would be extra equal to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is more than just form. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Area” and afterwards placed anything you want in it. After that, you can put Presence choices on that area to reveal it just to paid customers, conceal it from e-mail, hide from customers, show only to customers, etc. Substack provides nothing such as this.
And when/if the moment comes that I start a premium membership version, BeeHiiv does not take any type of income. In fact, you actually link as much as your own Stripe account and it charges directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your profits. Depending upon the number of clients you get, that 10% can be quite a bit more cash than the monthly price of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This might seem unpopular, but what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv deal with the outdoors using devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … absolutely nothing. No integrations at all.
On the whole, I simply seemed like BeeHiiv was more developed towards actual e-mail marketing. It was built by individuals who “get it”. Even the opt-in forms and the landing page designs seem much better developed for conversions. Development is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually stated, Substack settings itself toward “designers” more than e-mail online marketers and e-newsletter proprietors. Because of that, you see some points geared more towards people that simply assume in regards to material development.
For instance, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does sustain numerous publications, they are dealt with quite independently. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to multiple publications at the same time. This isn’t something I need, yet … cool for individuals that could require it.
Substack likewise has more social performance built-in. As an example, it has a chat function to host talks with customers. It also has a “Notes” function which functions sort of like a social media newsfeed where you can share things from other “Stacks” you’re reading. Interesting. In general, Substack is established to be much more like a social media which supports long-form content.
In general, Substack is also a lot more … minimalist. You either care for that or don’t. Personally, I do not. Nonetheless, if the goal is simpleness of interface and, frankly, features … Substack works rather well.
However, I’ll be clear below …
When it involves real marketing, I do not assume there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is much better matched. I searched for even more factors that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, yet honestly … I have a difficult time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are often through to be the closest competitors, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are going after the very same target audience and have similar capabilities.
ConvertKit is additionally positioned at developers (like Substack), but it is much more highly satisfying people that do it for business. ConvertKit has good aesthetic automation building, it’s very own business system, and much more. ConvertKit is a really nice platform.
I’m not going to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature break down below. ConvertKit is popular already. Yet, below’s just how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Things ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has extra adaptability when it concerns it’s automations. I will additionally say that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit much more user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains identifying. This is just a fundamental feature of e-mail checklists that allows division in a far more adaptable way than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain marking at some point quickly, honestly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing out on The Men’s Hope Beehiiv.
ConvertKit does currently provide the ability to offer things using their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is necessary to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would certainly always pick a much more direct option anyway. For me, I prefer to use my own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been around much longer and therefore has way much more integration options. Lots of web-based tools and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is fairly powerful. For example, their plugin currently even sustains member-gated web content in addition to auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. In essence, this a lot more very closely puts ConvertKit into straight competition by having you be able to release to your website and your e-mail checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is significantly lacking in these sort of third-party integrations currently. It’ll arrive. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy dealing with the growth devices of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not only incentivize individuals to share your e-newsletter with benefits, however you can also pay per lead within the inner ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your checklist. These are actually incredible features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you know ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of one of the most well known viral promo systems for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall surface for what this means for the platform going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … The Men’s Hope Beehiiv
BeeHiiv is a lot previously in it’s product 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 additionally suggests that they are rapidly creating.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually witnessed almost regular release of brand-new features into the platform. And these aren’t puny little features … but huge features that are quite vital. Their rate of advancement at this moment has actually gone over.
I also very much value exactly how responsive they are. Actually, among their product statements concerning some design enhancements to the web design features really contained a little issue with the web content width. I just replied to that email to tell them. I rapidly got a reply directly from the chief executive officer:.
That same day, the problem was fixed.
Couple of days later, I gave them another pointer …
Indeed, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to trigger automations based upon the embed form utilized was contributed to the system.
That sort of responsiveness and direct involvement of the group is something I actually appreciate.
One more significant factor of distinction here is the price. Both platforms provide cost-free plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan supplies more ability and even more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise FAR more positive. ConvertKit appears more affordable at first glimpse because their pricing page reveals reduced numbers, nonetheless the client restrictions are FAR lower and your rate quickly boosts as your list expands.
With BeeHiiv, your initial degree paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid every year), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That exact same size list 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 personally make use of), you can expand your checklist as much as 100,000. A listing of that dimension would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, as well, that places 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 a completely different league when it pertains to pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately enhance costs? They could as time takes place. But, I’m presuming people like myself who are already in will be locked-in. We’ll see just how points proceed.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among the important things you most definitely require to remember is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do seem to evolve rather swiftly and make new product announcements somewhat often, yet there are some standard features I actually desire they had that I require to just wait on.
One is that they need to have a setup on registration kinds where I could pick an automation to run right at the form level. That would be incredible for so many factors. As of now, membership kinds look OK, yet there’s very little settings for them to assist in segmentation.
It would behave to have tagging at the client degree. This would certainly be powerful.
I assume webhooks need to become part of automations to make integrated automations much easier and minimize dependence on outside devices like Zapier.
There are likewise some small administrative user interface adjustments that would certainly be handy. For instance:
- Ability to bulk edit/remove subscribers.
- Capacity to bulk edit blog posts (for example, to tag a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a few fundamental fields as common on clients (like the name).
- Some even more personalization choices for the web site (such as even more flexible color options, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Things I wish they do with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, however it isn’t perfect and definitely not virtually as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM product.
It possibly never will be, either. As I said, the objective is various so it would not much a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to end up being a full marketing automation system. I presume you never ever understand, though.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I like BeeHiiv rather a lot. Sufficient where I determined to change my very own e-newsletters over to the platform regardless of my personal preference for digital sovereignty and owning my very own platform.
Put simply, for the newsletter publishing version specifically, I saw enough value in their system to require the adjustment.
Remember, I do not use BeeHiiv as my exclusive email list. I make use of BeeHiiv for what it is good at, but I intentionally have points set up to make sure that I additionally maintain my listing “in house” within FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the very same. It is simply a good insurance policy, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your list will certainly be of high use (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will certainly be).
So, the question is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my point of view, if you are using Substack right now, I ‘d most definitely think about switching to BeeHiiv. It will just be extra business-friendly. It is targeting various abilities and various demands. Plus, BeeHiiv also has import tools for Substack, so the switch needs to be rather straightforward.
If you are on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d most likely stay put unless you have a big e-mail listing and are consequently being wooled with their high monthly expense. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are repeating rapidly. There’s likewise a pretty good chance you’re not even making use of several of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you don’t also need them. For that reason, BeeHiiv could conveniently be a better and extra affordable fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be really willful concerning growing an e-newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE system to consider and keep and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is created to be, it is among the very best video games in the area right now. This is the system to view.
BeeHiiv uses a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth taking a look at for yourself. And if you wind up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll find the free account to be fairly feature abundant.