I have made use of a great deal of different e-mail list systems throughout the years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a massive proponent of digital sovereignty and owning your own platform. Therefore (and the outstanding features), I have been using Beehiiv 3D Analytics.
So, it is without a doubt a strange move for me to choose to use BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is a hosted application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I want to discuss why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I intend to attend to the problem of digital sovereignty while utilizing the platform and I would certainly likewise like to address why I picked to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For E-newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my newsletter called My Hobby + A Large Change In Technique, I talked about exactly how and why I chose to transform my RV blog site right into mainly a newsletter. I determined that was the business model I intended to go after keeping that building.
However, to intentionally pursue it as an e-newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the email listing for Happily motor home, however FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, honestly, utilizing it for newsletters is a little bit of a waste. More on that in a little bit.
As I claimed because issue of the e-newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a system with devices developed right into it details to my function. Points such as:
- Ability to publish (to the blog) and send the email concurrently without having it be two separate actions.
- Integrated in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would have needed a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Integrated ability to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are generally one-click membership web links. Great for promotion in various other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, though, so there are ways to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your newsletter.
- Integrated ad network, if I pick to monetize with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capacity to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and generally run a premium newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter authors with features aimed at development. The platform was actually built by the individuals who developed the innovation for Early morning Brew. They know what they’re doing.
That is the factor right here. BeeHiiv is built from scratch for the purpose of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a various purpose.
And I finished off with this:.
I might certainly be moving The Side over to BeeHiiv as well. At least, I’m highly 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 Early morning WP, triggered as it’s own building to ensure that I can grow it more deliberately as well.
The objective is that each newsletter has the capability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown independently. Happily RV was young, so simple to shift. But, The Morning WP (formerly 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 grow it on it’s own. It will certainly always be very closely tied with the Blog Marketing Academy, however does not have to be a part of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv since it was built for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Just A Typical Email List
There’s a distinction in between a newsletter platform and simply an email listing.
You can hold your email listing anywhere you desire and there are a number of them out there, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The primary difference is that, with a newsletter system, the act of publishing indicates that it is mosting likely to your website and to your e-mail clients all at once.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are publishing to that website. But, you are additionally sending off to all customers at the same time. The web site and it’s clients are all in one. This makes monitoring of the system much simpler.
With a lot of e-mail systems, any e-newsletter you set up is done as an email campaign. It is constructed completely separately from your site. So, for instance, you could publish a short article to WordPress yet after that you would certainly require to individually develop and send an email to your checklist to send it to clients. These are then two separate sets of archives and two separate actions since blog posts and your emails are not naturally connected.
The closest point that turns WordPress right into a real e-newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name because it basically “glues” your e-newsletter to your WordPress articles and permits them to be the same thing. Certainly, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid option if I wished to continue to self-host whatever. Nevertheless, you ‘d lose the development devices that feature a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting a newsletter inherently features a various collection of demands than a common email list.
You don’t generally need much marketing automation. You don’t normally require 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 tools to assist you develop your customer base that are specific to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my clients that I was mosting likely to change the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the reality that I chose to opt for BeeHiiv, that doesn’t suggest I assume Substack draws. Actually, due to the fact that Substack has been about much longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a pair points that at first obtained my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is especially customized to e-newsletter publishers. Actually, it is actually developed by the same folks who constructed the modern technology behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, does not matter. However, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter development called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “designer”. Development is what I want here.
- That branding and differentiation also suggests that BeeHiiv has some relatively big brand names and large magazines utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo creators. Again, it simply tells me the customer character distinction in between both firms.
Sending our my e-newsletter via FluentCRM really did not precisely draw. The only factor I would certainly contemplate drinking things up is if I assumed I can GROW the list quicker. And BeeHiiv spoke precisely to that goal.
As a result of the targeting, I actually don’t check out BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a different kind of customer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being more straight rivals.
Yet, allow’s dive deeper than just the positioning right here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
On the whole, BeeHiiv appears like it was constructed by individuals that recognizing e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems a lot more geared towards makers.
For instance, BeeHiiv uses customized areas on customers. Now, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv provides Automations. As a matter of fact, it is an aesthetic 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 fairly restricted in triggers and the only activity is the capacity to send out an e-mail. Nonetheless, enhancements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will certainly have brand-new triggers along with new actions, such as modifying personalized areas, sending out webhooks, and so on. I’ve currently seen improvements to their automations just given that I started using the system. For example:
- Capacity to cause automations based upon which details embed type they can be found in on.
- Ability to automatically do re-engagement (and take care of people based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Ability to do basic conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack simply can’t do this because the target market of Substack just wouldn’t think to approach this like an e-mail online marketer.
When it involves writing your e-newsletters, the creating interface of BeeHiiv is just a lot more geared towards newsletters. Actually, it actually has similarities to the WordPress block builder in how it works. I locate it to be more user-friendly, directly.
Substack’s writing interface is nice and tidy, but it would certainly be extra equal to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This distinction is more than simply type. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Section” and afterwards placed anything you desire in it. After that, you can place Presence options on that area to show it just to paid clients, hide it from email, conceal from subscribers, reveal just to customers, and so on. Substack uses nothing similar to this.
And when/if the time comes that I start a costs subscription version, BeeHiiv does not take any kind of profits. In fact, you literally connect approximately your very own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your earnings. Depending upon the amount of subscribers you get, that 10% can be a fair bit even more cash than the regular monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This could seem unpopular, yet what it means is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv work with the outdoors using tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … absolutely nothing. No integrations in all.
In general, I simply seemed like BeeHiiv was extra developed towards real e-mail marketing. It was built by individuals that “get it”. Also the opt-in forms and the landing page designs seem better constructed for conversions. Development is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the direction it is going more than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have said, Substack positions itself towards “developers” more than email online marketers and newsletter proprietors. Therefore, you see some points tailored a lot more towards individuals that just assume in terms of content development.
For example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does sustain several publications, they are dealt with quite independently. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to numerous magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, however … great for individuals that could require it.
Substack also has even more social performance built-in. For instance, it has a conversation feature to host talks with subscribers. It also has a “Notes” function which works sort of like a social media newsfeed where you can share things from various other “Stacks” you’re reading. Intriguing. Generally, Substack is set up to be much more like a social network which sustains long-form content.
Overall, Substack is also much more … minimalist. You either take care of that or do not. Directly, I do not. Nevertheless, if the objective is simpleness of user interface and, frankly, features … Substack works pretty well.
But, I’ll be clear right here …
When it comes to actual marketing, I do not believe there’s much question that BeeHiiv is better fit. I looked for even more factors that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, however truthfully … I have a difficult time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are usually with to be the closest rivals, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are pursuing the same target market and have comparable capabilities.
ConvertKit is also positioned at developers (like Substack), but it is far more strongly dealing with individuals that do it for service. ConvertKit has nice visual automation structure, it’s very own business system, and extra. ConvertKit is an actually great platform.
I’m not going to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature breakdown below. ConvertKit is well known already. However, below’s just how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has a lot more versatility when it concerns it’s automations. I will certainly additionally say that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit a lot more instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains tagging. This is simply a fundamental function of email listings that makes it possible for division in an even more adaptable method than BeeHiiv currently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain identifying eventually soon, frankly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv 3D Analytics.
ConvertKit does now provide the ability to market points by means of their very own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is necessary to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nonetheless, I would always select a much more direct option anyway. For me, I choose to use my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about a lot longer and for that reason has way a lot more integration options. Lots of online devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their own WordPress plugin that is fairly effective. For example, their plugin now also supports member-gated web content in addition to auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your site. Essentially, this a lot more closely places ConvertKit right into straight competitors by having you have the ability to publish to your site and your e-mail checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is significantly doing not have in these kinds of third-party integrations presently. It’ll arrive. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even busy dealing with the development devices of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your e-newsletter with rewards, yet you can additionally pay per lead within the inner advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your listing. These are truly incredible features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you understand ConvertKit acquired Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of the most popular viral promotion platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall surface wherefore this indicates for the system moving forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv 3D Analytics
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies less features and much less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. Nonetheless, it likewise implies that they are swiftly creating.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually observed nearly weekly launch of new features right into the system. And these aren’t puny little features … however huge features that are fairly essential. Their rate of development at this point has gone over.
I likewise very much appreciate exactly how receptive they are. In fact, among their product statements concerning some style enhancements to the web design features really included a little issue with the content width. I merely replied to that email to tell them. I quickly obtained a reply straight from the CEO:.
That same day, the issue was dealt with.
Couple of days later, I gave them an additional pointer …
Certainly, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to activate automations based upon the embed kind utilized was added to the system.
That sort of responsiveness and straight involvement of the group is something I actually value.
An additional significant point of distinction below is the cost. Both systems use cost-free plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan uses extra capacity and even more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also much more positive. ConvertKit seems cheaper at first look because their pricing page shows lower numbers, however the customer limitations are much reduced and your cost rapidly increases as your checklist grows.
With BeeHiiv, your initial level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid yearly), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 customers. That exact same dimension checklist is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their best plan and the one I directly use), you can grow your list up to 100,000. A checklist 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 every year, too. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for just $84/month if you pay annually.
BeeHiiv remains in a completely different league when it comes to pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point boost costs? They may as time takes place. But, I’m guessing individuals like myself that are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see how things continue.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
One of the important things you most definitely require to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do seem to evolve instead rapidly and make brand-new product news rather commonly, however there are some basic features I truly desire they had that I need to simply await.
One is that they need to have a setup on subscription kinds where I could choose an automation to run right at the form degree. That would be outstanding for a lot of reasons. As of now, subscription forms look OK, yet there’s very little setups for them to assist in segmentation.
It would certainly be nice to have tagging at the subscriber level. This would certainly be effective.
I assume webhooks should be part of automations to make built-in automations simpler and minimize reliance on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are likewise some minor management interface adjustments that would certainly be handy. For instance:
- Capacity to bulk edit/remove customers.
- Capability to bulk edit articles (as an example, to mark a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of basic areas as basic on clients (like the name).
- Some even more personalization choices for the site (such as even more flexible color options, headline control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Points I wish they finish with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, yet it isn’t perfect and definitely not virtually as created as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM item.
It possibly never will be, either. As I stated, the objective is different so it wouldn’t a lot a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to become a complete marketing automation platform. I guess you never ever know, though.
Last Ideas On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I like BeeHiiv quite a great deal. Enough where I determined to switch my own e-newsletters over to the platform regardless of my personal choice for digital sovereignty and having my own platform.
Basically, for the newsletter posting model particularly, I saw sufficient value in their system to call for the modification.
Remember, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my exclusive e-mail list. I make use of BeeHiiv wherefore it is efficient, but I purposefully have things set up so that I additionally keep my listing “in house” within FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the same. It is simply an excellent insurance plan, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your list will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will certainly be).
So, the question is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are utilizing Substack now, I ‘d definitely take into consideration switching over to BeeHiiv. It will simply be much more business-friendly. It is targeting different capacities and various demands. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the button needs to be pretty uncomplicated.
If you are on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d probably stay put unless you have a large e-mail checklist and are for that reason being wooled with their high monthly bill. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are repeating swiftly. There’s additionally a pretty good possibility you’re not also making use of some of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you do not also need them. Therefore, BeeHiiv can conveniently be a much better and extra economical fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be extremely intentional about growing an e-newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE system to consider and maintain and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is made to be, it is just one of the best video games around today. This is the system to view.
BeeHiiv provides 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 rather feature rich.