I have actually used a great deal of different e-mail list systems for many years. In the last number 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 been utilizing Beehiiv Growth.
So, it is undoubtedly an unusual move for me to determine to make use of 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 intend to look at why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I want to deal with the issue of digital sovereignty while making use of the platform and I ‘d also like to deal with why I selected to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For E-newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Large Change In Method, I spoke about just how and why I determined to turn my recreational vehicle blog site into mainly an e-newsletter. I decided that was the business model I wished to go after with that residential or commercial property.
Yet, to intentionally pursue it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the e-mail listing for Happily recreational vehicle, however FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, honestly, utilizing it for newsletters is a little bit of a waste. Much more on that in a bit.
As I stated because problem of the newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a platform with tools developed into it details to my purpose. Points such as:
- Ability to publish (to the blog site) and send the email concurrently without having it be 2 different actions.
- Integrated in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would have needed a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capability to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are primarily one-click subscription web links. Great for promotion in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are ways to do that.
- Capacity to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Integrated advertisement network, if I choose to monetize with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in ability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and basically run a costs newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Basically, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features targeted at development. The system was essentially constructed by the people that built up the innovation for Morning Mixture. They know what they’re doing.
That is the factor here. BeeHiiv is developed from scratch for the purpose of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various objective.
And I ended off with this:.
I may undoubtedly be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv too. At least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. Actually, I just went all out. And actually, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Morning WP, triggered as it’s very own building to ensure that I can grow it much more deliberately also.
The goal is that each e-newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded individually. Gladly RV was young, so simple to change. Yet, The Early morning WP (formerly The Side) was hidden in a sea of stuff right here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s very own. It will certainly always be carefully tied with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet doesn’t need to belong of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was constructed for this function. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Typical Email List
There’s a distinction in between a newsletter system and simply an email checklist.
You can host your e-mail list everywhere you want and there are a number of them out there, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted choices like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The key difference is that, with a newsletter platform, the act of posting means that it is mosting likely to your site and to your email customers all at once.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are publishing to that web site. Yet, you are also dispatching to all subscribers at the same time. The web site and it’s subscribers are all in one. This makes administration of the platform much less complex.
With many e-mail platforms, any type of e-newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is constructed entirely individually from your website. So, as an example, you could publish an article to WordPress but then you would certainly need to individually construct and send an email to your list to send it to clients. These are after that two separate sets of archives and two different activities since blog posts and your e-mails are not naturally linked.
The closest point that turns WordPress right into a true e-newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name because it pretty much “glues” your e-newsletter to your WordPress messages and allows them to be the very same point. Absolutely, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid option if I wished to remain to self-host every little thing. However, you would certainly lose the development devices that come with a platform like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter naturally features a various collection of needs than a normal e-mail checklist.
You don’t typically require much marketing automation. You do not generally need autoresponder sequences, event tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO demand, however, is one smooth publishing experience and development devices to help you construct your customer base that are specific to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my subscribers that I was going to change the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had lots of people ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the reality that I chose to choose BeeHiiv, that doesn’t mean I believe Substack sucks. In fact, since Substack has been around much longer, it is elder and has more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is younger, there are a pair points that at first obtained my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly customized to newsletter publishers. In fact, it is actually constructed by the very same people that developed the technology behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, doesn’t matter. But, the evident positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter development called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “creator”. Growth is what I want below.
- That branding and differentiation also suggests that BeeHiiv has some rather huge brand names and large publications using it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo creators. Again, it just tells me the customer avatar difference in between both business.
Sending our my e-newsletter by means of FluentCRM didn’t precisely suck. The only factor I would certainly ponder shaking points up is if I assumed I could GROW the list faster. And BeeHiiv talked exactly to that objective.
Due to the targeting, I in fact don’t see BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a various sort of customer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being a lot more straight competitors.
However, allow’s dive much deeper than just the placing below.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Generally, BeeHiiv appears like it was built by people who comprehending e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears much more geared towards designers.
For instance, BeeHiiv supplies customized areas on customers. Now, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv supplies 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 functionality is still early-phase. It is still fairly limited in triggers and the only activity is the capacity to send out an e-mail. Nonetheless, enhancements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will have brand-new triggers as well as new actions, such as customizing personalized fields, sending out webhooks, etc. I’ve already seen improvements to their automations simply since I began making use of the system. For example:
- Capability to cause automations based on which particular embed type they came in on.
- Ability to automatically do re-engagement (and deal with people based on opens up and non-opens).
- Capability to do basic conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never will. Substack just can’t do this due to the fact that the target market of Substack just would not think to approach this like an e-mail marketer.
When it involves writing your e-newsletters, the writing user interface of BeeHiiv is simply much more geared toward newsletters. Actually, it really has similarities to the WordPress block builder in just how it works. I locate it to be more instinctive, directly.
Substack’s creating user interface behaves and clean, however it would be more equal to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This difference is more than just type. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Section” and then put anything you want in it. Then, you can place Visibility options on that particular section to reveal it just to paid clients, conceal it from email, hide from customers, show just to subscribers, etc. Substack provides nothing like this.
And when/if the time comes that I begin a costs registration model, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any kind of income. As a matter of fact, you essentially attach approximately your very own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your revenue. Relying on the number of subscribers you get, that 10% can be a fair bit more money than the regular monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This may appear nerdy, but what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv deal with the outdoors utilizing devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … nothing. No integrations at all.
Overall, I just felt like BeeHiiv was extra developed towards genuine e-mail marketing. It was developed by people that “get it”. Even the opt-in kinds and the landing page creates seem better built for conversions. Development is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv include, I like the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have stated, Substack positions itself toward “creators” more than e-mail online marketers and e-newsletter owners. Therefore, you see some points geared more toward individuals who simply assume in terms of content development.
For example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does sustain several publications, they are dealt with rather separately. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to numerous magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I need, however … amazing for individuals that might need it.
Substack additionally has even more social capability built-in. For instance, it has a chat feature to host chats with subscribers. It also has a “Notes” function which functions kind of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you read. Intriguing. Generally, Substack is set up to be more like a social network which supports long-form web content.
Generally, Substack is likewise more … minimalist. You either take care of that or do not. Personally, I don’t. Nonetheless, if the objective is simpleness of user interface and, honestly, features … Substack functions rather well.
But, I’ll be clear here …
When it concerns actual marketing, I don’t think there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is better matched. I searched for even more points that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, yet frankly … I have a difficult time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are commonly through to be the closest competitors, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are going after the very same target audience and have similar capacities.
ConvertKit is additionally placed at designers (like Substack), yet it is far more highly accommodating people who do it for company. ConvertKit has good aesthetic automation building, it’s very own commerce platform, and extra. ConvertKit is an actually wonderful platform.
I’m not going to bore you with a full feature-by-feature malfunction here. ConvertKit is popular already. However, below’s just how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has more adaptability when it comes to it’s automations. I will certainly additionally state that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit extra instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports labeling. This is just a fundamental feature of email checklists that enables division in a much more adaptable means than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to sustain marking at some time soon, truthfully. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Growth.
ConvertKit does now offer the ability to sell things via their very own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is essential to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would constantly choose a much more straight option anyway. For me, I choose to use my own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been around a lot longer and therefore has way a lot more integration choices. Lots of web-based tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their own WordPress plugin that is quite powerful. As an example, their plugin currently also supports member-gated content in addition to auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your site. Fundamentally, this more closely places ConvertKit into straight competition 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 sort of third-party integrations currently. It’ll arrive. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even hectic tackling the development devices of BeeHiiv. As an example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not only incentivize people to share your newsletter with advantages, but you can additionally pay per lead within the inner advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your checklist. These are really outstanding features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you understand ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among one of the most well known viral promotion systems for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall surface for what this means for the platform going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Growth
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means less features and much less integrations, which is all-natural for this phase of the cycle. Nonetheless, it also suggests that they are quickly creating.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually experienced virtually regular launch of new features right into the system. And these aren’t undersized little features … however big features that are rather important. Their speed of development at this moment has gone over.
I likewise significantly value exactly how responsive they are. Actually, among their item announcements concerning some style enhancements to the website design features actually consisted of a little problem with the web content size. I just responded to that e-mail to tell them. I rapidly obtained a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That exact same day, the concern was dealt with.
Couple of days later on, I gave them another idea …
Sure enough, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to cause automations based upon the embed type utilized was added to the system.
That kind of responsiveness and straight participation of the team is something I truly appreciate.
One more major factor of differentiation here is the rate. Both systems supply cost-free plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan offers a lot more ability and even 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 appears cheaper in the beginning glimpse since their pricing page shows reduced numbers, however the subscriber limitations are FAR lower and your rate rapidly increases as your checklist expands.
With BeeHiiv, your initial level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid yearly), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That very same size checklist is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I personally utilize), you can grow your listing as much as 100,000. A list of that dimension would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, also, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay every year, too. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay each year.
BeeHiiv remains in an entirely different league when it pertains to pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually increase rates? They could as time goes on. But, I’m presuming individuals like myself that are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how points proceed.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
One of the things you certainly require to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do seem to develop instead swiftly and make new product announcements rather typically, yet there are some standard features I really desire they had that I require to simply wait on.
One is that they require to have a setting on subscription kinds where I might select an automation to run right at the kind level. That would be remarkable for numerous factors. As of now, membership forms look OK, however there’s very little setups for them to aid in division.
It would behave to have identifying at the subscriber level. This would certainly be effective.
I believe webhooks must be part of automations to make built-in automations much easier and lower dependence on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are also some small administrative user interface adjustments that would come in handy. For example:
- Capacity to mass edit/remove subscribers.
- Capacity to mass edit messages (for example, to mark a number of them at the same time).
- Having a few basic areas as typical on subscribers (like the name).
- Some even more personalization options for the internet site (such as more versatile color selections, headline control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Points I wish they finish 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 item.
It possibly never ever will be, either. As I claimed, the function is different so it would not much a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to end up being a complete marketing automation platform. I guess you never ever recognize, though.
Final Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Review
I such as BeeHiiv quite a great deal. Sufficient where I determined to change my own newsletters over to the platform in spite of my individual preference for digital sovereignty and having my very own platform.
Basically, for the e-newsletter publishing version particularly, I saw adequate worth in their system to call for the change.
Remember, I do not use BeeHiiv as my special email listing. I make use of BeeHiiv wherefore it is proficient at, but I deliberately have things establish so that I additionally keep my listing “in house” within FluentCRM.
If you make use of BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the very same. It is just a great insurance policy, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your checklist will certainly be of high usage (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are making use of Substack now, I ‘d certainly consider switching over to BeeHiiv. It will simply be much more business-friendly. It is targeting different capabilities and different requirements. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the switch ought to be quite simple.
If you get on ConvertKit now, I ‘d probably sit tight unless you have a huge email checklist and are for that reason being fleeced with their high month-to-month bill. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are repeating rapidly. There’s additionally a pretty good possibility you’re not even making use of several of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not even require them. For that reason, BeeHiiv could conveniently be a much better and much more budget-friendly fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be extremely willful about growing an e-newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE system to think about 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 just one of the very best games in the area now. This is the platform to enjoy.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves taking a look at for yourself. And if you end up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll find the cost-free account to be fairly feature rich.