I have used a lot of different email list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a big advocate of digital sovereignty and owning your very own system. Because of that (and the remarkable features), I have actually been making use of Beehiiv API Access.
So, it is certainly an odd move for me to choose to make use of BeeHiiv. After all, it is an organized application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I want to look at why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I want to resolve the issue of digital sovereignty while making use of the platform and I would certainly additionally like to deal with why I picked to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For Newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Big Shift In Method, I discussed how and why I chose to turn my motor home blog into mostly a newsletter. I chose that was the business version I wished to seek with that residential property.
However, to intentionally seek it as an e-newsletter, I desired a system that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the email list for Happily recreational vehicle, however FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter system. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, frankly, using it for newsletters is a little a waste. Extra on that particular in a little bit.
As I said in that concern of the e-newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices constructed right into it certain to my objective. Things such as:
- Capability to release (to the blog) and send the email at the same time without having it be 2 separate activities.
- Integrated in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would certainly have needed a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capacity to do cross-promotions with other newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are generally one-click membership links. Great for promotion in other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are methods to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your e-newsletter.
- Integrated ad network, if I select to monetize with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and primarily run a costs newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Generally, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features targeted at development. The platform was actually developed by the individuals who developed the modern technology for Morning Brew. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the point right here. BeeHiiv is developed from the ground up for the purpose of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various purpose.
And I ended off with this:.
I might undoubtedly be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv as well. At least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. As a matter of fact, I simply went for it. And actually, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s own home to ensure that I can expand it a lot more intentionally 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 very easy to transition. Yet, The Morning WP (formerly The Edge) was hidden in a sea of things 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 undoubtedly always be carefully linked with the Blog site Marketing Academy, yet doesn’t have to belong of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was constructed for this function. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Simply A Normal Email Listing
There’s a distinction between an e-newsletter system and simply an e-mail listing.
You can organize your email list anyplace you desire and there are a number of them around, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The key distinction is that, with an e-newsletter system, the act of publishing implies that it is mosting likely to your internet site and to your email customers concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are publishing to that site. However, you are likewise sending off to all clients at the same time. The website and it’s clients are done in one. This makes administration of the platform much simpler.
With most email systems, any e-newsletter you set up is done as an e-mail campaign. It is developed entirely individually from your internet site. So, as an example, you may release a post to WordPress yet then you would certainly need to individually construct and send out an email to your listing to send it to clients. These are then 2 separate collections of archives and 2 separate actions since article and your e-mails are not naturally connected.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress right into a true newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name because it basically “glues” your newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and enables them to be the very same point. Certainly, something like E-newsletter Glue would be a solid alternative if I intended to remain to self-host every little thing. Nevertheless, you ‘d shed the development devices that come with a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter inherently features a different set of requirements than a typical email checklist.
You don’t typically require much marketing automation. You do not generally need autoresponder series, event tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO demand, though, is one seamless publishing experience and growth tools to help you construct your subscriber base that are specific to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my customers that I was going to switch over the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had lots of people ask me why I was picking it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the truth that I selected to select BeeHiiv, that does not mean I assume Substack draws. As a matter of fact, because Substack has actually been about longer, it is elder and has more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple things that at first obtained my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly customized to e-newsletter authors. In fact, it is literally developed by the very same individuals that developed the innovation behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real life, doesn’t matter. However, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv toward e-newsletter growth called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “maker”. Development is what I want right here.
- That branding and differentiation likewise indicates that BeeHiiv has some rather large brand names and huge magazines utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended even more at solo developers. Once again, it just informs me the customer character difference in between both companies.
Sending our my e-newsletter by means of FluentCRM didn’t specifically suck. The only reason I would certainly consider shaking points up is if I believed I could GROW the checklist faster. And BeeHiiv talked specifically to that objective.
Due to the targeting, I really don’t view BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a various kind of consumer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more direct competitors.
Yet, let’s dive deeper than just the placing right here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
On the whole, BeeHiiv seems like it was built by individuals that understanding e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems more geared toward designers.
For instance, BeeHiiv provides customized fields on clients. Now, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. Actually, it is an aesthetic automation builder that functions a whole lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation performance is still early-phase. It is still quite restricted in triggers and the only activity is the ability to send out an email. Nevertheless, enhancements are coming. Soon sufficient, automations will certainly have new triggers as well as brand-new activities, such as customizing custom-made areas, sending out webhooks, and so on. I have actually already seen improvements to their automations simply since I started making use of the platform. For instance:
- Capacity to cause automations based upon which specific embed kind they can be found in on.
- Capacity to instantly do re-engagement (and deal with individuals based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Capacity to do standard conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never will. Substack just can’t do this since the target audience of Substack simply would not believe to approach this like an e-mail marketing expert.
When it concerns composing your newsletters, the composing interface of BeeHiiv is just much more geared toward newsletters. In fact, it really has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it works. I find it to be more intuitive, directly.
Substack’s creating interface is nice and clean, but it would certainly be more comparable to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This distinction is more than just type. For example, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Section” and then put anything you desire in it. Then, you can place Exposure choices on that particular area to reveal it just to paid customers, hide it from email, conceal from clients, reveal only to clients, and so on. Substack provides nothing such as this.
And when/if the time comes that I begin a premium subscription design, BeeHiiv does not take any earnings. In fact, you literally link up to your own Stripe account and it charges straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your income. Relying on how many subscribers you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit more cash than the month-to-month cost of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This might seem nerdy, but what it suggests is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv deal with the outdoors utilizing devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … absolutely nothing. No integrations in all.
On the whole, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was more built toward genuine e-mail marketing. It was built by individuals that “get it”. Also the opt-in kinds and the landing page develops appear better built for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I wish to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have stated, Substack positions itself towards “designers” greater than e-mail marketing professionals and e-newsletter owners. Therefore, you see some points geared more toward individuals who simply think in regards to web content development.
As an example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does support multiple magazines, they are treated quite separately. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to several publications at the same time. This isn’t something I require, but … trendy for people who might require it.
Substack also has even more social capability built-in. As an example, it has a chat feature to host chats with customers. It also has a “Notes” function which functions sort of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you’re reading. Interesting. Generally, Substack is set up to be a lot more like a social network which supports long-form material.
In general, Substack is additionally much more … minimalist. You either care for that or do not. Directly, I do not. Nevertheless, if the objective is simplicity of interface and, frankly, features … Substack works pretty well.
Yet, I’ll be clear below …
When it concerns actual marketing, I do not assume there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is better suited. I looked for even more factors that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, however truthfully … I have a hard time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are typically with to be the closest rivals, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are going after the very same target market and have comparable capabilities.
ConvertKit is also placed at developers (like Substack), yet it is a lot more highly accommodating people that do it for business. ConvertKit has good aesthetic automation building, it’s own business platform, and a lot more. ConvertKit is a really great system.
I’m not mosting likely to bore you with a complete feature-by-feature breakdown below. ConvertKit is well known currently. Yet, below’s just how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has much more versatility when it pertains to it’s automations. I will certainly also say that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit more user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports labeling. This is just a standard feature of e-mail checklists that enables segmentation in a much more versatile means than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support labeling at some time quickly, honestly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv API Access.
ConvertKit does now offer the capability to sell things by means of their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is essential to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would certainly always select an extra straight alternative anyway. For me, I prefer to use my own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been around much longer and because of that has way more integration options. Tons of web-based devices and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their own WordPress plugin that is rather powerful. For instance, their plugin currently even sustains member-gated web content as well as auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Fundamentally, this a lot more very closely places ConvertKit into direct competitors by having you have the ability to publish to your website and your email listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is seriously doing not have in these sort of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll arrive. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also hectic tackling the growth tools of BeeHiiv. As an example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not just incentivize people to share your newsletter with rewards, but you can also pay per lead within the internal ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your listing. These are really awesome features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you understand ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of one of the most well known viral promotion platforms for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall of what this indicates for the platform moving forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv API Access
BeeHiiv is a lot earlier in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies much less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this stage of the cycle. Nevertheless, it also means that they are quickly developing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually experienced almost regular launch of brand-new features into the system. And these aren’t undersized little features … yet big features that are rather vital. Their speed of advancement at this point has actually been impressive.
I additionally very much appreciate exactly how receptive they are. As a matter of fact, among their product news concerning some layout enhancements to the website design features actually contained a small trouble with the content width. I just replied to that email to tell them. I promptly obtained a reply straight from the CEO:.
That exact same day, the issue was taken care of.
Few days later, I provided another suggestion …
Indeed, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to set off automations based upon the embed type made use of was included in the system.
That sort of responsiveness and straight participation of the group is something I really appreciate.
Another major point of distinction below is the cost. Both platforms supply totally free plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan supplies a lot more capacity and more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally FAR more favorable. ConvertKit appears less expensive in the beginning look since their pricing web page reveals reduced numbers, however the customer limitations are FAR reduced and your price quickly raises as your listing grows.
With BeeHiiv, your initial level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid yearly), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 clients. That same size list is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their ideal plan and the one I personally use), you can grow your checklist as much as 100,000. A checklist of that dimension 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 get all that for just $84/month if you pay annually.
BeeHiiv is in an entirely different organization when it comes to pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually enhance prices? They could as time goes on. Yet, I’m thinking people like myself that are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see how things proceed.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
One of the important things you absolutely require to remember is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do seem to advance instead rapidly and make brand-new item announcements somewhat frequently, however there are some standard features I actually desire they had that I require to simply await.
One is that they require to have a setting on membership types where I might select an automation to run right at the type level. That would be AWESOME for numerous reasons. As of now, subscription types look OK, but there’s very little setups for them to aid in division.
It would certainly behave to have identifying at the subscriber degree. This would certainly be powerful.
I assume webhooks need to become part of automations to make integrated automations much easier and decrease dependence on outside devices like Zapier.
There are also some small administrative user interface modifications that would certainly come in handy. For instance:
- Capacity to bulk edit/remove clients.
- Capacity to mass edit posts (as an example, to tag a number of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of standard areas as common on customers (like the name).
- Some more personalization alternatives for the site (such as more versatile shade choices, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Points I wish they perform with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t best and certainly not virtually as established as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM product.
It probably never will certainly be, either. As I stated, the function is different so it would not a lot a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to become a full marketing automation system. I guess you never understand, though.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I like BeeHiiv quite a great deal. Sufficient where I made a decision to change my very own e-newsletters over to the system despite my personal preference for digital sovereignty and possessing my own system.
Basically, for the e-newsletter posting version specifically, I saw adequate worth in their system to warrant the modification.
Bear in mind, I do not utilize BeeHiiv as my unique e-mail list. I use BeeHiiv for what it is efficient, yet I purposefully have things set up to make sure that I additionally maintain my checklist “in house” inside of FluentCRM.
If you make use of BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the exact same. It is simply a great insurance policy, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your listing will be of high use (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will certainly be).
So, the concern is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are utilizing Substack right now, I ‘d definitely consider switching to BeeHiiv. It will merely be more business-friendly. It is targeting different capabilities and various requirements. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the switch must be quite straightforward.
If you get on ConvertKit now, I ‘d probably sit tight unless you have a large e-mail checklist and are therefore being wooled with their high regular monthly costs. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are repeating promptly. There’s additionally a pretty good opportunity you’re not also using some of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not even require them. Therefore, BeeHiiv could conveniently be a far better and more affordable fit.
Finally, if you plan to be extremely willful regarding growing an e-newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE system to take into consideration and keep and eye on for you.
If you utilize BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is developed to be, it is one of the most effective video games in town now. This is the system to see.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves checking out for yourself. And if you wind up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll find the totally free account to be rather feature rich.