I have actually used a lot of different email list systems throughout the years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a massive supporter of digital sovereignty and owning your very own platform. Therefore (and the remarkable features), I have been making use of Beehiiv Email Automation.
So, it is certainly an unusual move for me to make a decision to make use of BeeHiiv. Besides, it is an organized application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I wish to go over why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I want to attend to the problem of digital sovereignty while utilizing the system and I would certainly additionally like to address why I chose to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For E-newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Pastime + A Large Change In Approach, I spoke about how and why I made a decision to transform my motor home blog into mainly a newsletter. I made a decision that was business version I wished to pursue with that property.
Yet, to intentionally pursue it as a newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the email list for Happily recreational vehicle, but FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, truthfully, utilizing it for e-newsletters is a little a waste. Extra on that particular in a little bit.
As I said because issue of the e-newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a platform with tools built right into it particular to my objective. Things such as:
- Capacity to release (to the blog site) and send out the email concurrently without having it be two different actions.
- Constructed in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would certainly require a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capability to do cross-promotions with various other newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are generally one-click membership links. Great for promo in other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, however, so there are methods to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your newsletter.
- Built-in ad network, if I select to monetize with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in ability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and essentially run a premium newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Generally, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features targeted at development. The system was literally built by the people that developed the technology for Early morning Brew. They know what they’re doing.
That is the point below. BeeHiiv is constructed from scratch for the objective of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various objective.
And I finished off with this:.
I may without a doubt be moving The Side over to BeeHiiv also. A minimum of, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. Actually, I simply went all out. And as a matter of fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s own building so that I can expand it more purposefully too.
The objective is that each e-newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s own media entity and grown separately. Happily recreational vehicle was young, so simple to change. However, The Early morning WP (previously The Side) was hidden in a sea of stuff here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s own. It will clearly constantly be closely linked with the Blog Marketing Academy, however does not have to belong of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv since it was built for this function. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Normal Email List
There’s a difference between a newsletter platform and simply an email list.
You can hold your email listing just about anywhere you want 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 distinction is that, with a newsletter system, the act of posting indicates that it is going to your website and to your e-mail clients concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are publishing to that web site. Yet, you are likewise sending to all subscribers at the same time. The internet site and it’s clients are done in one. This makes administration of the system much simpler.
With a lot of e-mail platforms, any type of newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is constructed entirely separately from your internet site. So, for instance, you might release an article to WordPress but then you would need to individually build and send out an e-mail to your listing to send it to clients. These are after that 2 separate collections of archives and two different activities due to the fact that post and your emails are not inherently connected.
The closest thing that turns WordPress right into a true e-newsletter platform is Newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name because it virtually “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress messages and permits them to be the exact same point. Absolutely, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid option if I wished to continue to self-host whatever. However, you would certainly lose the development tools that include a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing an e-newsletter inherently includes a various collection of needs than a typical email list.
You do not typically need much marketing automation. You do not usually need autoresponder series, event monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO demand, though, is one smooth posting experience and development tools to assist you develop your subscriber base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my clients that I was going to change the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the fact that I selected to choose BeeHiiv, that does not suggest I think Substack sucks. In fact, due to the fact that Substack has actually been about longer, it is more mature and has more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple things that initially got my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly customized to newsletter publishers. As a matter of fact, it is essentially developed by the very same folks that developed the technology behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, does not matter. However, the evident positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter development called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “designer”. Development is what I’m interested in below.
- That branding and differentiation additionally implies that BeeHiiv has some relatively big brands and large publications using it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo creators. Again, it simply informs me the consumer avatar distinction between both companies.
Sending our my newsletter by means of FluentCRM really did not specifically suck. The only reason I would certainly consider drinking things up is if I thought I can GROW the listing quicker. And BeeHiiv talked specifically to that goal.
Due to the targeting, I in fact don’t see BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a various kind of customer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being a lot more straight rivals.
But, allow’s dive deeper than just the placing right here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Generally, BeeHiiv seems like it was developed by individuals that understanding e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems much more geared towards makers.
For example, BeeHiiv provides custom areas on clients. Now, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. In fact, it is a visual automation builder that functions a lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation performance is still early-phase. It is still fairly minimal in triggers and the only activity is the ability to send out an email. However, enhancements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will certainly have new triggers as well as new actions, such as customizing custom-made fields, sending webhooks, etc. I have actually already seen improvements to their automations simply given that I began utilizing the system. For instance:
- Capacity to activate automations based upon which particular embed kind they came in on.
- Capability to instantly do re-engagement (and take care of 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 simply can not do this due to the fact that the target audience of Substack just would not believe to approach this like an e-mail marketer.
When it involves creating your newsletters, the creating user interface of BeeHiiv is just much more tailored towards e-newsletters. In fact, it in fact has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it functions. I discover it to be a lot more intuitive, personally.
Substack’s creating user interface is nice and tidy, yet it would be much more comparable to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is greater than simply kind. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Section” and after that put anything you desire in it. After that, you can place Presence alternatives on that particular section to show it only to paid clients, hide it from e-mail, hide from customers, reveal only to customers, etc. Substack supplies nothing like this.
And when/if the time comes that I begin a costs membership design, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any profits. Actually, you essentially connect as much as your own Stripe account and it charges straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your income. Relying on the amount of clients you get, that 10% can be a fair bit even more money than the regular monthly cost of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This could appear unpopular, however what it means is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv work with the outside utilizing tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … absolutely nothing. No integrations whatsoever.
Generally, I simply felt like BeeHiiv was much more built towards genuine email marketing. It was built by people who “get it”. Even the opt-in kinds and the landing page creates appear much better built for conversions. Development is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I want to see BeeHiiv add, I such as the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually claimed, Substack positions itself toward “makers” greater than email marketing professionals and e-newsletter owners. For that reason, you see some points tailored much more toward individuals who just think in regards to web content development.
For instance, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does sustain numerous publications, they are dealt with fairly individually. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to multiple magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I need, yet … amazing for people who may need it.
Substack additionally has more social functionality built-in. For instance, it has a conversation function to host talks with subscribers. It likewise has a “Notes” feature which functions sort of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you read. Intriguing. On the whole, Substack is set up to be more like a social media network which sustains long-form content.
In general, Substack is likewise extra … minimal. You either take care of that or do not. Directly, I do not. However, if the objective is simpleness of user interface and, frankly, features … Substack functions pretty well.
But, I’ll be clear here …
When it concerns actual marketing, I don’t think there’s much question that BeeHiiv is better matched. I searched for even more factors that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, however honestly … I have a hard time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are frequently through to be the closest rivals, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are pursuing the exact same target audience and have comparable capacities.
ConvertKit is likewise placed at makers (like Substack), yet it is a lot more highly dealing with individuals that do it for business. ConvertKit has nice aesthetic automation structure, it’s own business platform, and extra. ConvertKit is a really good system.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature malfunction right here. ConvertKit is popular already. But, here’s exactly how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has much more flexibility when it concerns it’s automations. I will certainly likewise say that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit extra intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports tagging. This is just a basic feature of e-mail lists that enables division in an even more adaptable way than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to sustain identifying at some time soon, honestly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Email Automation.
ConvertKit does now give the capability to market things via their 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 constantly select a more direct option anyway. For me, I choose to use my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been about a lot longer and therefore has way much more integration alternatives. Lots of online devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their own WordPress plugin that is quite powerful. As an example, their plugin now also supports member-gated material as well as auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your site. Basically, this extra very closely puts ConvertKit right into straight competition by having you be able to release to your website and your e-mail listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is severely lacking in these sort of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll arrive. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even hectic taking on 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 advantages, yet you can additionally pay per lead within the interior ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your list. These are really amazing features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you know ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among one of the most well known viral promo platforms for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall surface for what this implies for the platform moving forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Email Automation
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that suggests much less features and much less integrations, which is all-natural for this phase of the cycle. Nonetheless, it likewise indicates that they are rapidly developing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have experienced practically once a week release of new features right into the system. And these aren’t weak little features … yet big features that are fairly essential. Their rate of development at this moment has gone over.
I also significantly appreciate how responsive they are. In fact, one of their product announcements regarding some design improvements to the web design features in fact had a small issue with the web content width. I just replied to that e-mail to tell them. I promptly got a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That exact same day, the issue was fixed.
Couple of days later on, I provided one more idea …
Sure enough, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to trigger automations based on the embed form utilized was added to the system.
That kind of responsiveness and straight participation of the group is something I really value.
One more significant factor of distinction right here is the price. Both systems use free plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan uses more ability and more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally much more favorable. ConvertKit seems more affordable at first glance since their pricing web page reveals reduced numbers, however the customer restrictions are much lower and your rate quickly boosts as your checklist grows.
With BeeHiiv, your initial level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid each year), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 customers. That same size list is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I personally use), you can expand your checklist up to 100,000. A listing of that size would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, also, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay each year, also. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for just $84/month if you pay each year.
BeeHiiv remains in a totally different organization when it pertains to pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point enhance prices? They may as time takes place. But, I’m presuming people like myself who are already in will be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how things continue.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of the important things you most definitely require to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do appear to evolve instead swiftly and make new item announcements rather commonly, but there are some standard features I really wish they had that I need to simply await.
One is that they require to have a setup on registration kinds where I might select an automation to run right at the type level. That would be amazing for numerous factors. Already, registration kinds look OK, but there’s very little settings for them to help in segmentation.
It would be nice to have identifying at the customer degree. This would be effective.
I think webhooks should belong to automations to make built-in automations easier and reduce dependence on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are also some small administrative interface adjustments that would come in handy. For example:
- Capacity to bulk edit/remove subscribers.
- Capacity to mass edit articles (for example, to label a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of fundamental areas as basic on customers (like the name).
- Some even more personalization alternatives for the web site (such as even more flexible shade choices, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Points I hope they perform with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t perfect and absolutely not virtually as established as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM product.
It probably never ever will certainly be, either. As I stated, the objective is different so it would not much a lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to end up being a complete marketing automation system. I presume you never ever understand, though.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Review
I like BeeHiiv rather a whole lot. Enough where I determined to switch my own e-newsletters over to the platform regardless of my personal choice for digital sovereignty and owning my very own platform.
Simply put, for the e-newsletter posting version particularly, I saw adequate value in their platform to necessitate the modification.
Keep in mind, I do not utilize BeeHiiv as my unique e-mail list. I utilize BeeHiiv for what it is proficient at, but I deliberately have things establish so that I likewise maintain my list “in home” within FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the very same. It is simply an excellent insurance policy, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your list will be of high use (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the concern is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my point of view, if you are using Substack right now, I ‘d certainly take into consideration switching to BeeHiiv. It will merely be a lot more business-friendly. It is targeting different capabilities and various requirements. And also, BeeHiiv also has import devices for Substack, so the switch ought to be pretty straightforward.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d probably stay put unless you have a big e-mail listing and are as a result being fleeced with their high regular monthly costs. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are iterating swiftly. There’s likewise a respectable chance you’re not even utilizing several of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not also need them. Because of that, BeeHiiv can conveniently be a much better and more budget-friendly fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be extremely deliberate about expanding a newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE system to consider and keep and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is developed to be, it is among the best video games in the area right now. This is the system to view.
BeeHiiv provides a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves having a look at for yourself. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll find the totally free account to be rather feature abundant.