I have actually made use of a great deal of different e-mail list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a substantial advocate of digital sovereignty and possessing your very own system. Because of that (and the amazing features), I have actually been making use of Beehiiv API Key.
So, it is undoubtedly a strange move for me to make a decision to utilize BeeHiiv. After all, it is an organized application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I wish to go over why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I intend to resolve the concern of digital sovereignty while utilizing the platform and I would certainly also like to resolve why I selected to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For Newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Big Change In Technique, I talked about how and why I chose to transform my motor home blog into largely an e-newsletter. I chose that was business model I wanted to pursue keeping that home.
However, to deliberately pursue it as a newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the email checklist for Gladly recreational vehicle, yet FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, honestly, utilizing it for e-newsletters is a little a waste. Much more on that in a bit.
As I said because concern of the e-newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices built into it certain to my purpose. Things such as:
- Capacity to publish (to the blog) and send the e-mail concurrently without having it be 2 separate activities.
- Constructed in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capacity to do cross-promotions with other newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are basically one-click subscription links. Great for promotion in various other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are ways to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Built-in ad network, if I choose to generate income from with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capacity to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and basically run a premium newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter authors with features targeted at development. The system was actually built by the individuals that developed the innovation for Morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the point here. BeeHiiv is built from scratch for the objective of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a various objective.
And I finished off with this:.
I might undoubtedly be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv too. At least, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. As a matter of fact, I just went for it. And as a matter of fact, The side was re-branded over to The Morning WP, set off as it’s very own building so that I can grow it a lot more deliberately as well.
The goal is that each newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded individually. Gladly recreational vehicle was young, so easy to transition. Yet, The Early morning WP (previously The Edge) was hidden 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 obviously always be closely tied with the Blog Marketing Academy, however does not need to belong of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv because it was developed for this function. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Typical Email Listing
There’s a difference in between an e-newsletter system and just an email listing.
You can host your e-mail listing just about anywhere you want and there are a number of them available, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted choices like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The primary difference is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of posting implies that it is mosting likely to your web site and to your e-mail clients at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are releasing to that website. However, you are also sending to all customers at the same time. The site and it’s clients are all in one. This makes management of the platform much easier.
With many e-mail platforms, any newsletter you set up is done as an email campaign. It is built totally separately from your website. So, as an example, you might publish a short article to WordPress but then you would require to separately construct and send out an e-mail to your listing to send it to subscribers. These are after that 2 different collections of archives and 2 different actions since post and your emails are not naturally connected.
The closest point that turns WordPress into a true newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name since it pretty much “glues” your newsletter to your WordPress articles and allows them to be the same point. Certainly, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid alternative if I wished to remain to self-host every little thing. However, you would certainly lose the development tools that come with a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing an e-newsletter inherently features a different collection of needs than a normal email listing.
You do not normally require 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 requirement, however, is one smooth publishing experience and growth devices to help you construct your client base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my subscribers that I was going to change the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was picking it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the reality that I chose to choose BeeHiiv, that doesn’t suggest I think Substack sucks. In fact, due to the fact that Substack has actually been about longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple things that at first got my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly tailored to e-newsletter publishers. Actually, it is literally developed by the very same individuals that built the technology behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real life, doesn’t matter. Yet, the apparent positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter development called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “designer”. Growth is what I want here.
- That branding and distinction additionally implies that BeeHiiv has some rather large brands and large magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is intended even more at solo makers. Once more, it just tells me the consumer character distinction between both companies.
Sending our my newsletter through FluentCRM didn’t exactly draw. The only reason I would ponder shaking points up is if I thought I might GROW the listing faster. And BeeHiiv spoke exactly to that objective.
As a result of the targeting, I actually don’t view BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a various type of consumer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more straight competitors.
But, let’s dive deeper than just the placing here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv feels like it was built by people who recognizing email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems much more geared toward creators.
For example, BeeHiiv provides personalized fields on subscribers. Now, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. In fact, it is a visual automation builder that works a whole lot like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation performance is still early-phase. It is still fairly limited in triggers and the only activity is the ability 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 modifying customized fields, sending webhooks, and so on. I have actually already seen improvements to their automations just considering that I began utilizing the system. For example:
- Capacity to trigger automations based on which certain embed form they came in on.
- Capability to instantly do re-engagement (and handle individuals based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Ability to do fundamental conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never will. Substack just can’t do this since the target market of Substack simply would not believe to approach this like an email marketing professional.
When it involves writing your e-newsletters, the creating user interface of BeeHiiv is just much more tailored towards newsletters. Actually, it really has similarities to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it functions. I locate it to be extra user-friendly, personally.
Substack’s composing user interface is nice and tidy, yet it would certainly be a lot more equal to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This difference is more than simply type. For example, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Section” and after that put anything you want in it. After that, you can place Visibility options on that section to show it only to paid clients, hide it from email, hide from customers, show just to customers, etc. Substack offers absolutely nothing like this.
And when/if the time comes that I begin a costs membership model, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any type of revenue. As a matter of fact, you literally attach up to your own Stripe account and it bills directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your earnings. Relying on the amount of subscribers you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit more money than the month-to-month price of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This may seem unpopular, yet what it means is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outside using tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … nothing. No integrations in all.
Overall, I simply seemed like BeeHiiv was extra constructed towards actual email marketing. It was built by individuals who “get it”. Also the opt-in types and the landing page makes appear far better developed for conversions. Growth is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I want to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the instructions it is going more than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have stated, Substack settings itself toward “developers” greater than email marketing professionals and e-newsletter owners. Because of that, you see some things geared much more towards people who just think in terms of content development.
For instance, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does support numerous publications, they are treated quite individually. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to multiple magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, however … amazing for individuals that could require it.
Substack additionally has more social functionality built-in. As an example, it has a conversation feature to host talks with subscribers. It likewise has a “Notes” function which functions kind of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share things from various other “Stacks” you’re reading. Fascinating. Overall, Substack is set up to be a lot more like a social network which supports long-form material.
Overall, Substack is additionally extra … minimal. You either look after that or do not. Directly, I do not. Nonetheless, if the goal is simplicity of user interface and, honestly, features … Substack works pretty well.
Yet, I’ll be clear right here …
When it involves actual marketing, I don’t believe there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is better suited. I searched for even more points that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, but truthfully … I have a difficult time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are commonly via to be the closest competitors, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are pursuing the exact same target audience and have comparable capacities.
ConvertKit is additionally positioned at developers (like Substack), yet it is much more strongly satisfying people that do it for organization. ConvertKit has nice aesthetic automation building, it’s very own business platform, and much more. ConvertKit is a truly nice platform.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature malfunction below. ConvertKit is popular already. Yet, below’s just how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has much more flexibility when it comes to it’s automations. I will certainly additionally say that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit much more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports labeling. This is just a basic feature of email checklists that makes it possible for segmentation in a much more adaptable method than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain marking at some time quickly, frankly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv API Key.
ConvertKit does now give the capacity to market points by means of their very own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is very important to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would always select a more direct alternative anyway. For me, I prefer to use my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about much longer and therefore has way much more integration alternatives. Lots of online devices and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their own WordPress plugin that is fairly effective. For instance, their plugin currently also supports member-gated content as well as auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Essentially, this extra closely places ConvertKit into straight competitors by having you be able to publish to your site and your email checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is significantly lacking in these type of third-party integrations right now. It’ll get there. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy dealing with the growth devices of BeeHiiv. As an example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not just incentivize people to share your e-newsletter with perks, but you can likewise pay per lead within the inner ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your list. These are really awesome features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you know ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of the most popular viral promo platforms for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall surface for what this implies for the platform moving forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv API Key
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies much less features and less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. However, it additionally suggests that they are swiftly developing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have observed almost weekly release of brand-new features right into the platform. And these aren’t puny little features … but big features that are rather essential. Their rate of advancement at this point has been impressive.
I also very much appreciate exactly how receptive they are. As a matter of fact, among their item announcements regarding some design improvements to the website design features in fact had a tiny problem with the content size. I merely responded to that e-mail to tell them. I quickly got a reply directly from the CEO:.
That exact same day, the concern was repaired.
Couple of days later on, I provided one more pointer …
Certainly, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to trigger automations based on the embed form used was added to the system.
That kind of responsiveness and straight participation of the team is something I truly appreciate.
An additional major factor of distinction right here is the rate. Both platforms use totally free plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan uses more capability and more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
As soon as you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise even more favorable. ConvertKit seems less expensive at first glance due to the fact that their pricing page reveals lower numbers, however the client limits are much reduced and your cost rapidly boosts as your listing expands.
With BeeHiiv, your very first level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid yearly), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That exact same size checklist 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 directly use), you can grow your list as much as 100,000. A checklist of that dimension would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, as well, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay yearly, also. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for simply $84/month if you pay each year.
BeeHiiv remains in an entirely different league when it involves pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point raise rates? They could as time goes on. However, I’m guessing people like myself who are already in will be locked-in. We’ll see how points continue.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
Among things you certainly require to remember is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do appear to develop instead promptly and make brand-new item statements somewhat frequently, yet there are some standard features I really want they had that I require to simply await.
One is that they need to have a setup on membership kinds where I can pick an automation to run right at the kind level. That would be AWESOME for a lot of reasons. Currently, subscription types look OK, but there’s really little settings for them to help in segmentation.
It would be nice to have labeling at the subscriber degree. This would be powerful.
I believe webhooks should be part of automations to make integrated automations easier and reduce reliance on outside devices like Zapier.
There are additionally some minor management interface adjustments that would certainly be handy. For instance:
- Capability to mass edit/remove customers.
- Capacity to mass edit messages (for example, to mark a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of standard areas as common on clients (like the name).
- Some even more customization options for the internet site (such as even more flexible color choices, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Points I wish they finish with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, yet it isn’t perfect and definitely not nearly as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM item.
It probably never will be, either. As I stated, the objective is various so it wouldn’t much a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to come to be a complete marketing automation platform. I think you never understand, however.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I such as BeeHiiv fairly a whole lot. Sufficient where I determined to change my own newsletters over to the system regardless of my individual choice for digital sovereignty and having my own platform.
Simply put, for the e-newsletter publishing version especially, I saw adequate value in their platform to warrant the modification.
Bear in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my special email listing. I use BeeHiiv of what it is proficient at, yet I intentionally have things establish so that I likewise maintain my listing “in home” inside of FluentCRM.
If you make use of BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the same. It is simply a good insurance policy, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your list will certainly be of high use (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the question is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are making use of Substack now, I ‘d most definitely consider switching to BeeHiiv. It will merely be extra business-friendly. It is targeting various abilities and different requirements. And also, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the button should be pretty simple.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d possibly sit tight unless you have a large email list and are consequently being fleeced with their high regular monthly expense. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are repeating swiftly. There’s likewise a pretty good chance you’re not also utilizing several of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you don’t also need them. For that reason, BeeHiiv could easily be a better and much more budget friendly fit.
Finally, if you plan to be extremely intentional regarding expanding a newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE system to consider and maintain and eye on for you.
If you utilize BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is designed to be, it is one of the most effective video games in town right now. This is the platform 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 with the paid plan, you’ll locate the totally free account to be quite feature rich.