I have made use of a great deal of different e-mail list systems throughout the years. In the last number of years, I have actually been a substantial supporter of digital sovereignty and owning your own system. For that reason (and the incredible features), I have actually been using Beehiiv Google Ads.
So, it is without a doubt an unusual move for me to determine to make use of BeeHiiv. After all, it is a hosted application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I wish to review why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I want to deal with the concern of digital sovereignty while making use of the system and I ‘d likewise like to address why I chose to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For Newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Hobby + A Big Change In Technique, I discussed just how and why I decided to transform my recreational vehicle blog right into mainly a newsletter. I chose that was business model I intended to seek with that home.
But, to deliberately seek it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the e-mail list for Happily RV, however FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter system. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, truthfully, utilizing it for e-newsletters is a little a waste. Much more on that in a little bit.
As I claimed in that issue of the e-newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices built right into it particular to my function. Things such as:
- Capacity to publish (to the blog) and send the email simultaneously without having it be two different actions.
- Built in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would certainly have needed a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Integrated ability to do cross-promotions with other newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are primarily one-click subscription web links. Great for promotion in other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are ways to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Integrated ad network, if I pick to generate income from with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in ability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and basically run a costs newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter authors with features aimed at development. The platform was essentially constructed by the individuals that developed the modern technology for Early morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the factor here. BeeHiiv is built from scratch for the objective of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a various purpose.
And I ended off with this:.
I may indeed be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv as well. At the very least, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. Actually, I simply went all out. And as a matter of fact, The side was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, triggered as it’s own property to make sure that I can grow it much more purposefully also.
The objective is that each newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s own media entity and grown independently. Happily motor home was young, so very easy to transition. But, The Morning WP (previously The Edge) was hidden in a sea of things below at the Blog Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s very own. It will clearly always be carefully linked with the Blog site Marketing Academy, but doesn’t need to belong of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv because it was developed for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Normal Email Checklist
There’s a difference in between an e-newsletter system and just an e-mail listing.
You can organize your e-mail checklist everywhere you desire 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 difference?
The main difference is that, with a newsletter platform, the act of publishing indicates that it is going to your website and to your email customers all at once.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are publishing to that website. However, you are likewise sending to all clients at the same time. The website and it’s customers are done in one. This makes management of the system much easier.
With many e-mail systems, any e-newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is built totally individually from your website. So, as an example, you may publish a short article to WordPress yet after that you would require to independently develop and send out an email to your list to send it to clients. These are after that two different collections of archives and two different actions since post and your emails are not inherently connected.
The closest thing that turns WordPress into a true newsletter platform is Newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name because it virtually “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and enables them to be the very same point. Certainly, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a strong option if I wished to remain to self-host everything. Nonetheless, you would certainly lose the growth devices that include a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter inherently comes with a various collection of needs than a regular e-mail listing.
You don’t typically require much marketing automation. You do not typically need autoresponder series, occasion monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO need, though, is one smooth posting experience and development tools to aid you build your customer base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my customers that I was mosting likely to change the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the reality that I picked to go with BeeHiiv, that doesn’t mean I believe Substack sucks. As a matter of fact, because Substack has been about longer, it is more mature and has more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple points that originally obtained my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly tailored to e-newsletter publishers. In fact, it is actually constructed by the exact same folks who built the modern technology behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real world, does not matter. Yet, the obvious positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter growth called me out over the more generic positioning of being a “developer”. Growth is what I have an interest in below.
- That branding and differentiation likewise means that BeeHiiv has some fairly big brands and large publications using it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo makers. Once more, it simply tells me the client character difference in between the two business.
Sending our my e-newsletter using FluentCRM didn’t exactly draw. The only reason I would certainly contemplate drinking points up is if I believed I could GROW the checklist faster. And BeeHiiv talked specifically to that objective.
As a result of the targeting, I really do not watch BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a different type of customer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more straight competitors.
Yet, let’s dive deeper than simply the positioning here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv seems like it was built by individuals that comprehending email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears more tailored toward makers.
For example, BeeHiiv supplies customized fields on subscribers. Currently, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv provides Automations. Actually, it is a visual automation builder that functions a great deal like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation functionality is still early-phase. It is still fairly minimal in triggers and the only activity is the capability to send an e-mail. Nevertheless, enhancements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will have new triggers along with new activities, such as modifying custom fields, sending webhooks, and so on. I’ve currently seen enhancements to their automations simply considering that I began making use of the platform. As an example:
- Capability to cause automations based on which details embed type they can be found in on.
- Ability to immediately do re-engagement (and take care of individuals based upon opens and non-opens).
- Ability to do fundamental conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can’t do this since the target audience of Substack simply wouldn’t think to approach this like an email online marketer.
When it comes to writing your newsletters, the creating user interface of BeeHiiv is just extra tailored towards e-newsletters. As a matter of fact, it actually has similarities to the WordPress block builder in just how it functions. I find it to be much more user-friendly, personally.
Substack’s creating user interface behaves and clean, but it would certainly be much more comparable to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is more than simply form. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Area” and then put anything you want in it. Then, you can place Visibility options on that particular area to reveal it only to paid subscribers, conceal it from e-mail, conceal from subscribers, reveal just to clients, etc. Substack offers absolutely nothing like this.
And when/if the moment comes that I start a premium membership version, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any profits. Actually, you literally attach up to your very own Stripe account and it charges directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your revenue. Depending on how many clients you get, that 10% can be quite a bit even more money than the monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This might appear nerdy, but what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv work with the outdoors utilizing tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … nothing. No integrations in any way.
On the whole, I simply felt like BeeHiiv was more developed toward real e-mail marketing. It was constructed by people that “get it”. Also the opt-in types and the landing page creates seem much better built for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I would love to see BeeHiiv add, I such as the direction it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually claimed, Substack settings itself toward “developers” more than email online marketers and newsletter proprietors. Therefore, you see some points geared extra towards people who just believe in terms of web content creation.
As an example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does sustain multiple publications, they are treated quite separately. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to numerous publications at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, yet … cool for individuals that might require it.
Substack also has more social performance built-in. As an example, it has a conversation feature to host talks with subscribers. It also has a “Notes” feature which functions type of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share things from other “Stacks” you’re reading. Interesting. On the whole, Substack is established to be a lot more like a social media network which sustains long-form web content.
Overall, Substack is likewise more … minimal. You either care for that or don’t. Directly, I don’t. However, if the objective is simplicity of user interface and, frankly, features … Substack functions quite well.
However, I’ll be clear right here …
When it pertains to actual marketing, I do not assume there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is better fit. I tried to find even more points that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, yet frankly … I have a tough time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are frequently with to be the closest competitors, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are going after the exact same target audience and have comparable capacities.
ConvertKit is also positioned at developers (like Substack), yet it is a lot more strongly dealing with people that do it for business. ConvertKit has good aesthetic automation structure, it’s very own commerce system, and extra. ConvertKit is an actually wonderful system.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature break down below. ConvertKit is well known currently. Yet, below’s how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has much more flexibility when it comes to it’s automations. I will certainly additionally say that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit much more instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports labeling. This is simply a fundamental feature of email listings that enables division in a much more adaptable method than BeeHiiv currently does. I expect BeeHiiv to support tagging at some time quickly, truthfully. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Google Ads.
ConvertKit does currently provide the capability to market points via their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is very important to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, nonetheless, I would certainly always pick an extra straight choice anyhow. For me, I choose to use my own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been around a lot longer and for that reason has way extra integration options. Lots of online tools and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is fairly powerful. For example, their plugin currently also sustains member-gated web content in addition to auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Fundamentally, this more closely puts ConvertKit right into direct competition by having you be able to release to your site and your email listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is badly doing not have in these type of third-party integrations currently. It’ll get there. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also hectic taking on the growth devices of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not only incentivize people to share your e-newsletter with benefits, yet you can additionally pay per lead within the inner advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your checklist. These are actually incredible features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you understand ConvertKit acquired Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among the most popular viral promo platforms for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall surface wherefore this suggests for the system moving forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Google Ads
BeeHiiv is a lot previously in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that suggests much less features and less integrations, which is all-natural for this phase of the cycle. Nonetheless, it also implies that they are swiftly developing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually seen practically regular launch of brand-new features into the system. And these aren’t puny little features … however large features that are quite crucial. Their rate of growth at this point has gone over.
I additionally quite appreciate how receptive they are. In fact, one of their item statements regarding some design improvements to the web design features in fact included a small trouble with the web content width. I just replied to that e-mail to tell them. I quickly got a reply directly from the CEO:.
That very same day, the issue was fixed.
Few days later on, I provided another tip …
Certainly, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to activate automations based upon the embed kind made use of was included in the system.
That kind of responsiveness and direct participation of the group is something I truly appreciate.
Another significant point of differentiation right here is the price. Both platforms provide cost-free plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan provides much more capacity and even more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
As soon as you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally even more favorable. ConvertKit seems more affordable initially glimpse due to the fact that their pricing page shows reduced numbers, however the client restrictions are FAR lower and your price quickly increases as your listing expands.
With BeeHiiv, your very first degree paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid annually), however you can have up to 10,000 clients. That very same size listing is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their best plan and the one I personally utilize), you can grow your listing up to 100,000. A list of that dimension would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, too, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay each year, also. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay each year.
BeeHiiv remains in a completely different organization when it involves pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually raise rates? They could as time takes place. But, I’m guessing people like myself that are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how points proceed.
Points I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Add
One of the important things you most definitely need to remember is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do seem to progress rather swiftly and make brand-new item news somewhat frequently, however there are some basic features I truly want they had that I require to just wait on.
One is that they require to have a setup on subscription kinds where I might pick an automation to run right at the form degree. That would certainly be remarkable for numerous reasons. Already, subscription kinds look OK, yet there’s very little setups for them to help in division.
It would behave to have identifying at the subscriber degree. This would be powerful.
I believe webhooks should be part of automations to make built-in automations much easier and lower reliance on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are additionally some minor administrative interface changes that would come in handy. As an example:
- Capacity to bulk edit/remove customers.
- Capacity to mass edit messages (as an example, to label a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of basic fields as typical on customers (like the name).
- Some more customization alternatives for the web site (such as more adaptable shade selections, heading control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Things I wish they do with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, yet it isn’t ideal and definitely not virtually as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM product.
It possibly never ever will certainly be, either. As I said, 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 presume you never ever recognize, though.
Last Ideas On This BeeHiiv Review
I like BeeHiiv quite a lot. Sufficient where I chose to switch my very own newsletters over to the system in spite of my personal choice for digital sovereignty and possessing my very own system.
Put simply, for the e-newsletter posting design specifically, I saw adequate value in their platform to warrant the adjustment.
Bear in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my special e-mail list. I make use of BeeHiiv of what it is good at, but I intentionally have points set up so that I likewise maintain my checklist “in residence” within FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the exact same. It is just an excellent insurance policy, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your checklist will be of high use (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will certainly be).
So, the concern is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are utilizing Substack today, I ‘d absolutely take into consideration changing to BeeHiiv. It will simply be extra business-friendly. It is targeting various abilities and various requirements. And also, BeeHiiv also has import tools for Substack, so the switch should be pretty simple.
If you are on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d most likely sit tight unless you have a huge e-mail checklist and are as a result being wooled with their high month-to-month expense. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are iterating swiftly. There’s also a respectable chance you’re not even using a few of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you don’t even need them. For that reason, BeeHiiv might easily be a much better and much more budget friendly fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be very willful about growing an e-newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE system to consider and keep and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is developed to be, it is one of the very best games in the area now. This is the system to see.
BeeHiiv offers a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves taking 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 fairly feature rich.