I have used a lot of various email list systems throughout the years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a big proponent of digital sovereignty and owning your very own system. Because of that (and the awesome features), I have actually been using What Is embeds.beehiiv.com.
So, it is without a doubt an unusual move for me to make a decision to use BeeHiiv. After all, 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 discuss why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I intend to deal with the concern of digital sovereignty while using the system and I ‘d additionally like to deal with why I chose to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For E-newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Big Shift In Method, I discussed exactly how and why I determined to transform my recreational vehicle blog site into mostly an e-newsletter. I determined that was the business model I wished to seek with that building.
Yet, to intentionally seek it as a newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the email list for Happily RV, however FluentCRM is not a newsletter system. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, frankly, using it for e-newsletters is a little bit of a waste. A lot more on that particular in a bit.
As I said in that concern of the e-newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a system with tools developed right into it details to my function. Things such as:
- Capacity to release (to the blog) and send the email concurrently without having it be two different actions.
- Built in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capacity to do cross-promotions with other newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are essentially one-click subscription web links. Great for promotion in various other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, though, so there are methods to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Built-in ad network, if I select to monetize with ads in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and basically run a costs e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Essentially, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter publishers with features targeted at growth. The platform was actually built by the individuals who developed the modern technology for Early morning Mixture. They know what they’re doing.
That is the factor here. BeeHiiv is developed from scratch for the purpose of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various purpose.
And I finished off with this:.
I might indeed be relocating The Side over to BeeHiiv too. A minimum of, 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 property to ensure that I can grow it extra deliberately also.
The objective is that each e-newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded separately. Happily recreational vehicle was young, so simple to transition. But, The Early morning WP (previously The Side) was hidden in a sea of stuff below at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s own. It will obviously always be carefully linked with the Blog site Marketing Academy, yet does not need to belong of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv since it was constructed for this function. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Just A Regular Email List
There’s a distinction between a newsletter system and simply an e-mail listing.
You can hold your email list anywhere 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 distinction?
The key distinction is that, with an e-newsletter system, the act of posting implies that it is going to your site and to your e-mail subscribers concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are releasing to that site. But, you are likewise sending off to all customers at the same time. The web site and it’s subscribers are done in one. This makes monitoring of the system much easier.
With a lot of email systems, any type of newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is built completely independently from your site. So, as an example, you might release an article to WordPress yet then you would require to separately construct and send out an e-mail to your listing to send it to subscribers. These are then two separate sets of archives and 2 separate activities since post and your emails are not naturally linked.
The closest point that transforms WordPress into a true newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name since it pretty much “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and allows them to be the exact same thing. Certainly, something like E-newsletter Glue would be a strong choice if I intended to remain to self-host every little thing. However, you would certainly shed the growth devices that feature a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing an e-newsletter naturally features a different collection of needs than a typical email list.
You don’t usually need much marketing automation. You do not normally need autoresponder series, event monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO need, though, is one smooth publishing experience and development devices to help you construct your customer base that specify to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my customers that I was going to switch the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the fact that I picked to select BeeHiiv, that does not suggest I think Substack sucks. In fact, since Substack has actually been about much longer, it is more mature and has more features.
Although BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a pair points that originally got my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly tailored to newsletter publishers. Actually, it is literally built by the same people that developed the modern technology behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, doesn’t matter. Yet, the evident positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter growth called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “developer”. Development is what I want here.
- That branding and differentiation likewise indicates that BeeHiiv has some relatively large brand names and huge magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is intended even more at solo designers. Once more, it just tells me the consumer character distinction in between both firms.
Sending our my e-newsletter using FluentCRM really did not exactly draw. The only reason I would ponder trembling points up is if I believed I could expand the list faster. And BeeHiiv talked specifically to that objective.
Due to the targeting, I really do not view BeeHiiv and Substack as straight competitors. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a different type of customer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra direct rivals.
But, allow’s dive deeper than simply the placing here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv appears like it was constructed by people that recognizing email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems extra geared toward makers.
For instance, BeeHiiv offers custom fields on subscribers. Currently, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. However, 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 capability is still early-phase. It is still quite limited in triggers and the only action is the ability to send an e-mail. Nonetheless, improvements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will have new triggers as well as brand-new activities, such as changing custom-made areas, sending out webhooks, and so on. I have actually already seen enhancements to their automations simply because I started utilizing the platform. For example:
- Capability to cause automations based upon which specific embed kind they came in on.
- Ability to automatically do re-engagement (and take care of individuals based on opens and non-opens).
- Capacity to do standard conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can not do this since the target market of Substack just would not believe to approach this like an email online marketer.
When it pertains to writing your newsletters, the creating user interface of BeeHiiv is simply more tailored toward newsletters. Actually, it actually has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in how it works. I locate it to be a lot more intuitive, directly.
Substack’s writing user interface is nice and clean, but it would certainly be more comparable to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is greater than just form. For example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Area” and after that placed anything you desire in it. Then, you can place Presence alternatives on that section to reveal it only to paid subscribers, hide it from email, conceal from customers, reveal only to subscribers, etc. Substack supplies absolutely nothing such as this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a costs registration design, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any type of revenue. Actually, you literally connect approximately your very own Stripe account and it charges directly to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your profits. Depending upon the number of clients you get, that 10% can be a fair bit more cash than the monthly cost of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This may appear nerdy, yet what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv deal with the outdoors using tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … nothing. No integrations at all.
On the whole, I simply seemed like BeeHiiv was more built toward actual email marketing. It was developed by people who “get it”. Also the opt-in kinds and the landing page designs appear far better built for conversions. Development is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the direction it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually claimed, Substack placements itself towards “developers” more than email marketing experts and newsletter owners. For that reason, you see some points geared more toward individuals that just assume in regards to web content production.
As an example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does support several magazines, they are dealt with rather independently. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to numerous publications at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, but … cool for individuals who might require it.
Substack additionally has even more social performance built-in. As an example, it has a conversation function to host talks with clients. It also has a “Notes” function which works kind of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share things from other “Stacks” you’re reading. Interesting. On the whole, Substack is set up to be extra like a social network which supports long-form material.
Generally, Substack is likewise more … minimalist. You either look after that or do not. Personally, I don’t. Nonetheless, if the goal is simpleness of interface and, truthfully, features … Substack works quite well.
Yet, I’ll be clear below …
When it involves real marketing, I don’t think there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is better fit. I looked for even more points that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, yet frankly … I have a hard time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are often via to be the closest rivals, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are going after the same target audience and have similar capacities.
ConvertKit is likewise placed at creators (like Substack), however it is far more highly satisfying people that do it for organization. ConvertKit has great visual automation building, it’s own commerce system, and extra. ConvertKit is an actually great system.
I’m not going to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature breakdown right here. ConvertKit is popular already. However, below’s exactly how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has extra flexibility when it pertains to it’s automations. I will likewise say that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit much more instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains labeling. This is simply a standard feature of email listings that allows segmentation in an even more versatile means than BeeHiiv currently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain identifying eventually soon, honestly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing What Is embeds.beehiiv.com.
ConvertKit does currently offer the capacity to offer points via their very own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is necessary to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would constantly choose a much more straight alternative anyway. For me, I favor to utilize my own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been about a lot longer and therefore has way a lot more integration alternatives. Lots of online devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is quite effective. For example, their plugin now even sustains member-gated content as well as auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your site. Basically, this more closely places ConvertKit right into direct competition by having you be able to release to your website and your e-mail list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is severely lacking in these type of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll arrive. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even busy dealing with the growth devices of BeeHiiv. As an example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your e-newsletter with advantages, however you can additionally pay per lead within the internal ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your list. These are truly remarkable features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you understand ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of the most well known viral promo platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall wherefore this indicates for the system moving forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … What Is embeds.beehiiv.com
BeeHiiv is a lot previously in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means less features and much less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. Nevertheless, it additionally indicates that they are rapidly establishing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have experienced virtually once a week release of new features into the platform. And these aren’t weak little features … but huge features that are quite important. Their speed of development at this moment has gone over.
I additionally very much appreciate exactly how responsive they are. As a matter of fact, among their product statements about some style improvements to the website design features in fact had a small issue with the material size. I just replied to that e-mail to tell them. I quickly got a reply directly from the chief executive officer:.
That very same day, the problem was fixed.
Few days later, I gave them an additional tip …
Indeed, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to activate automations based on the embed type used was contributed to the system.
That type of responsiveness and straight participation of the group is something I truly appreciate.
An additional major point of differentiation below is the price. Both platforms provide complimentary plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan provides much more capability and even more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally even more desirable. ConvertKit seems more affordable initially glimpse because their pricing page shows reduced numbers, however the subscriber limits are much reduced and your rate quickly boosts as your list expands.
With BeeHiiv, your initial level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid each year), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 customers. That very same dimension checklist is going 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 listing of that dimension would 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, also. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay annually.
BeeHiiv remains in an entirely different organization when it concerns pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point enhance prices? They may as time takes place. Yet, I’m guessing individuals like myself that are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see just how points proceed.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of the important things you certainly need to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do appear to progress rather promptly and make new item news somewhat frequently, yet there are some basic features I truly desire they had that I need to simply wait for.
One is that they need to have a setting on membership kinds where I could select an automation to run right at the form degree. That would be remarkable for numerous reasons. Currently, subscription kinds look OK, yet there’s extremely little setups for them to aid in division.
It would be nice to have tagging at the client degree. This would be powerful.
I assume webhooks ought to be part of automations to make integrated automations simpler and decrease reliance on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are also some minor administrative interface modifications that would certainly be handy. For instance:
- Capability to bulk edit/remove clients.
- Capability to mass edit blog posts (for instance, to tag a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a few fundamental areas as basic on clients (like the name).
- Some even more modification options for the site (such as even more flexible shade selections, headline control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Things I wish they do with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t perfect and definitely not almost as created as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM product.
It most likely never will be, either. As I claimed, the objective is different so it would not much a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to end up being a full marketing automation platform. I think you never recognize, though.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I like BeeHiiv quite a whole lot. Sufficient where I decided to switch my own newsletters over to the system regardless of my personal preference for digital sovereignty and owning my own system.
Simply put, for the newsletter posting version especially, I saw sufficient worth in their platform to necessitate the change.
Keep in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my unique email listing. I use BeeHiiv for what it is efficient, but I intentionally have points set up to ensure that I also maintain my checklist “in home” inside of FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the same. It is just a good insurance coverage, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your checklist will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are using Substack now, I ‘d definitely consider switching over to BeeHiiv. It will merely be a lot more business-friendly. It is targeting various capacities and various demands. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the button needs to be rather uncomplicated.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d most likely stay unless you have a huge e-mail checklist and are as a result being wooled with their high monthly bill. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are repeating quickly. There’s additionally a respectable possibility you’re not even utilizing several of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you do not also need them. Therefore, BeeHiiv could easily be a much better and more budget-friendly fit.
Finally, if you plan to be extremely willful regarding growing an e-newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE system to think about and maintain and eye on for you.
If you utilize BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is created to be, it is just one of the most effective games around now. This is the system to see.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth checking out for yourself. And if you wind up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll locate the complimentary account to be fairly feature rich.