I have actually utilized a great deal of different e-mail list systems for many years. In the last number of years, I have actually been a big supporter of digital sovereignty and possessing your own system. For that reason (and the remarkable features), I have been using UConn WBB Weekly Beehiiv.
So, it is undoubtedly a weird move for me to decide to make use of BeeHiiv. Besides, it is an organized application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I want to discuss why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I want to deal with the concern of digital sovereignty while utilizing the platform and I ‘d likewise like to address why I selected to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For E-newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Hobby + A Huge Shift In Method, I talked about how and why I made a decision to transform my recreational vehicle blog site into primarily an e-newsletter. I decided that was business model I intended to pursue with that home.
However, to purposefully seek it as a newsletter, I wanted a system that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the e-mail list for Gladly motor home, yet FluentCRM is not a newsletter system. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, truthfully, using it for e-newsletters is a bit of a waste. A lot more on that in a bit.
As I stated because problem of the e-newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a system with devices built into it details to my objective. Things such as:
- Capacity to release (to the blog) and send out the email simultaneously without having it be two separate activities.
- Integrated in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would have needed a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capability to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are basically one-click membership links. Great for promotion 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 e-newsletter.
- Built-in ad network, if I pick to generate income from with advertisements in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated ability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and basically run a costs newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features focused on development. The system was actually built by the people who built up the innovation for Early morning Brew. They know what they’re doing.
That is the factor below. BeeHiiv is developed from scratch for the function of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a various function.
And I ended off with this:.
I may without a doubt be moving The Side over to BeeHiiv too. 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 Early morning WP, set off as it’s own residential or commercial property to ensure that I can grow it much more purposefully also.
The objective is that each e-newsletter has the capability to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded separately. Happily recreational vehicle was young, so simple to change. Yet, The Morning WP (previously The Side) was hidden in a sea of things right 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 obviously always be very closely connected with the Blog site Marketing Academy, yet doesn’t need to belong of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was built for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Just A Typical Email List
There’s a distinction between a newsletter system and just an e-mail checklist.
You can hold your e-mail list just about anywhere you desire and there are a variety of them out there, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The key difference is that, with a newsletter system, the act of posting implies 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 web site. You are releasing to that web site. However, you are likewise sending off to all subscribers at the same time. The website and it’s subscribers are all in one. This makes monitoring of the system much simpler.
With many email platforms, any e-newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is developed entirely individually from your internet site. So, as an example, you might publish a post to WordPress but after that you would certainly require to individually build and send an e-mail to your listing to send it to subscribers. These are after that two separate collections of archives and two separate actions since post and your emails are not naturally linked.
The closest point that turns WordPress into a true newsletter system is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name because it basically “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress posts and permits them to be the exact same thing. Certainly, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid alternative if I intended to remain to self-host whatever. However, you would certainly lose the development tools that come with a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing an e-newsletter naturally features a various collection of requirements than a normal e-mail checklist.
You don’t generally need much marketing automation. You do not normally require autoresponder series, occasion monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO requirement, however, is one seamless publishing experience and development tools to assist you develop your customer base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my subscribers that I was mosting likely to change the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the reality that I selected to choose BeeHiiv, that does not imply I believe Substack sucks. In fact, due to the fact that Substack has been about much longer, it is more mature and has more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple points that originally obtained my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically customized to e-newsletter authors. As a matter of fact, it is literally developed by the exact same people who built the innovation behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real life, does not matter. Yet, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter growth called me out over the more generic positioning of being a “creator”. Development is what I want below.
- That branding and differentiation additionally means that BeeHiiv has some relatively large brand names and big magazines utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo designers. Again, it simply informs me the customer character difference in between both companies.
Sending our my newsletter via FluentCRM didn’t exactly draw. The only reason I would certainly ponder trembling points up is if I believed I might expand the listing much faster. And BeeHiiv talked precisely to that objective.
Because of the targeting, I really do not check out BeeHiiv and Substack as direct competitors. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a various type of consumer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being a lot more direct competitors.
However, allow’s dive much deeper than simply the placing right here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv looks like it was constructed by individuals who comprehending email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems a lot more geared toward designers.
As an example, BeeHiiv uses personalized fields on clients. Currently, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. In fact, 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 quite restricted in triggers and the only activity is the capacity to send an email. Nonetheless, improvements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will have new triggers along with brand-new activities, such as modifying custom-made areas, sending webhooks, and so on. I’ve currently seen improvements to their automations just since I started using the system. For instance:
- Capability to activate automations based upon which certain embed form they can be found in on.
- Capability to immediately do re-engagement (and deal with people based on opens and non-opens).
- Ability to do basic conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can not do this due to the fact that the target audience of Substack simply would not believe to approach this like an e-mail marketing professional.
When it pertains to writing your e-newsletters, the creating interface of BeeHiiv is simply a lot more geared toward e-newsletters. Actually, it actually has similarities to the WordPress block builder in how it works. I locate it to be extra user-friendly, personally.
Substack’s writing user interface is nice and clean, however it would be more equal to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is more than just type. For example, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Section” and afterwards put anything you desire in it. Then, you can put Visibility options on that section to reveal it only to paid customers, conceal it from e-mail, hide from clients, reveal only to subscribers, etc. Substack supplies nothing similar to this.
And when/if the time comes that I start a costs subscription model, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any type of profits. As a matter of fact, you literally link up to your own Stripe account and it charges directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your revenue. Depending on the number of customers you get, that 10% can be a fair bit even more money than the regular monthly price of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This may seem unpopular, but what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv work with the outdoors using devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … nothing. No integrations in all.
On the whole, I just felt like BeeHiiv was more developed toward genuine e-mail marketing. It was built by individuals who “get it”. Even the opt-in forms and the landing page develops appear much better developed for conversions. Growth is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I want to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the direction it is going more than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually stated, Substack settings itself toward “creators” more than email marketing professionals and newsletter owners. Therefore, you see some things tailored extra towards individuals that simply assume in terms of content development.
As an example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does sustain several publications, they are treated quite individually. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to numerous publications at the same time. This isn’t something I require, yet … trendy for individuals who could require it.
Substack additionally has even more social performance built-in. As an example, it has a conversation feature to host chats with clients. It additionally has a “Notes” feature which works kind of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share things from various other “Stacks” you read. Intriguing. In general, Substack is set up to be extra like a social media which sustains long-form material.
In general, Substack is additionally much more … minimal. You either look after that or don’t. Directly, I do not. Nevertheless, if the objective is simplicity of user interface and, honestly, features … Substack works quite well.
Yet, I’ll be clear here …
When it concerns actual marketing, I do not believe there’s much question that BeeHiiv is much better matched. I tried to find more factors that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, yet honestly … I have a tough time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are usually via to be the closest competitors, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are pursuing the same target audience and have comparable capacities.
ConvertKit is also placed at designers (like Substack), yet it is far more strongly dealing with people that do it for company. ConvertKit has good visual automation structure, it’s very own commerce platform, and more. ConvertKit is a truly great platform.
I’m not going to bore you with a full feature-by-feature failure right here. ConvertKit is well known already. However, right here’s exactly how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has more versatility when it concerns it’s automations. I will additionally claim that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit a lot more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports labeling. This is just a basic function of e-mail checklists that enables segmentation in a much more adaptable way than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support identifying eventually soon, truthfully. It feels like an oversight that it is missing out on UConn WBB Weekly Beehiiv.
ConvertKit does now give the capability to market points using 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 constantly choose a much more direct alternative anyhow. For me, I favor to use my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been around much longer and for that reason has way extra integration alternatives. Lots of online devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their own WordPress plugin that is rather powerful. For instance, their plugin currently even supports member-gated material in addition to auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your site. Fundamentally, this extra closely puts ConvertKit into direct competitors by having you be able to release to your website and your email checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is significantly doing not have in these sort of third-party integrations currently. It’ll get there. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also hectic taking on the development devices of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not only incentivize people to share your newsletter with benefits, but you can additionally pay per lead within the internal advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your list. These are actually incredible features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you know ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among the most popular viral promo systems for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall wherefore this suggests for the system moving forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … UConn WBB Weekly Beehiiv
BeeHiiv is a lot previously in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that indicates less features and less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. Nonetheless, it likewise means that they are rapidly developing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually seen virtually once a week release of brand-new features right into the platform. And these aren’t undersized little features … but big features that are rather essential. Their rate of development at this moment has actually been impressive.
I likewise significantly value just how receptive they are. As a matter of fact, among their item statements concerning some layout improvements to the web design features in fact had a tiny trouble with the web content size. I just replied to that e-mail to tell them. I quickly got a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That very same day, the problem was dealt with.
Couple of days later, I gave them one more pointer …
Sure enough, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to trigger automations based upon the embed form used was added to the system.
That sort of responsiveness and direct involvement of the group is something I truly value.
One more major point of distinction right here is the rate. Both systems use complimentary plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan uses extra capability and more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
As soon as you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally even more favorable. ConvertKit seems cheaper initially look because their pricing page reveals reduced numbers, however the subscriber restrictions are FAR lower and your rate rapidly increases as your listing grows.
With BeeHiiv, your very first degree paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid every year), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That very same dimension checklist 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 directly make use of), you can expand your checklist as much as 100,000. A checklist of that size would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, too, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay every year, too. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv is in an entirely different league when it pertains to pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually boost costs? They might as time goes on. However, I’m guessing people like myself that are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how points proceed.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of the things you certainly require to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do seem to progress rather quickly and make brand-new item statements rather usually, however there are some standard features I truly wish they had that I require to just wait for.
One is that they need to have a setup on membership types where I might choose an automation to run right at the kind degree. That would be amazing for a lot of reasons. Already, subscription kinds look OK, yet there’s really little settings for them to assist in division.
It would be nice to have marking at the client level. This would certainly be effective.
I believe webhooks should become part of automations to make built-in automations easier and decrease dependence on outdoors tools like Zapier.
There are additionally some small management user interface modifications that would be handy. For example:
- Capacity to bulk edit/remove subscribers.
- Capacity to bulk edit messages (as an example, to identify a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of fundamental fields as common on clients (like the name).
- Some even more modification options for the web site (such as even more versatile shade options, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Things I hope they finish with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, yet it isn’t best and absolutely not virtually as created as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM product.
It possibly never ever will be, either. As I said, the function is different so it would not a lot a great deal of feeling for BeeHiiv to end up being a full marketing automation platform. I think you never know, however.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Review
I such as BeeHiiv fairly a great deal. Enough where I made a decision to switch my very own newsletters over to the system in spite of my personal preference for digital sovereignty and owning my very own platform.
Simply put, for the newsletter publishing model particularly, I saw enough worth in their system to necessitate the modification.
Remember, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my unique e-mail listing. I utilize BeeHiiv wherefore it is proficient at, yet I purposefully have points establish so that I also keep my checklist “in home” inside of FluentCRM.
If you make use of BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the exact same. It is just a good insurance plan, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your list 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 make use of BeeHiiv?
In my point of view, if you are making use of Substack right now, I ‘d certainly consider switching over 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 ought to be rather uncomplicated.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d possibly stay put unless you have a large e-mail checklist and are consequently being wooled with their high monthly costs. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are repeating swiftly. There’s also a respectable possibility you’re not also using several of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not even require them. For that reason, BeeHiiv could quickly be a far better and extra affordable fit.
Finally, if you plan to be extremely intentional about expanding a newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE system to think about and maintain and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is made to be, it is just one of the best video games in the area today. This is the system to see.
BeeHiiv provides a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth checking out on your own. And if you wind up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll locate the totally free account to be quite feature abundant.