I have actually utilized a great deal of different e-mail list systems over the years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a big advocate of digital sovereignty and owning your own platform. Therefore (and the awesome features), I have actually been utilizing Beehiiv Lifetime Deal.
So, it is indeed an unusual move for me to make a decision to use BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, 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 look at why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I intend to address the concern of digital sovereignty while using the system and I would certainly also like to deal with why I chose to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For E-newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my newsletter called My Pastime + A Huge Change In Method, I talked about how and why I chose to transform my motor home blog into mainly an e-newsletter. I decided that was business design I intended to pursue with that said building.
Yet, to deliberately 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, yet FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter system. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, truthfully, utilizing it for e-newsletters is a little bit of a waste. More on that in a bit.
As I stated in that issue of the e-newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a platform with tools developed right into it certain to my objective. Points such as:
- Ability to release (to the blog site) and send the e-mail all at once without having it be two different activities.
- Constructed in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would certainly require a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Integrated ability to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are essentially one-click registration web links. Great for promotion in various other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, however, so there are means to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your e-newsletter.
- Built-in advertisement network, if I pick to generate income from with advertisements in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated 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 e-newsletter authors with features targeted at growth. The system was literally developed by the people who developed the technology for Early morning Brew. They know what they’re doing.
That is the factor below. BeeHiiv is constructed from the ground up for the function of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various objective.
And I finished off with this:.
I may undoubtedly be relocating The Side over to BeeHiiv too. At the very least, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. In fact, I just went all out. And actually, The side was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, triggered as it’s very own residential property so that I can expand it more purposefully as well.
The goal is that each newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown individually. Gladly motor home was young, so very easy to shift. Yet, The Early morning WP (formerly The Side) was buried 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 carefully tied with the Blog site Marketing Academy, but does not have to belong of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv since it was built for this function. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Typical Email Listing
There’s a distinction in between an e-newsletter system and just an email list.
You can hold your email checklist anyplace you want and there are a variety of them around, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted choices like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The primary distinction is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of publishing indicates that it is mosting likely to your web site and to your email subscribers concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a site. You are releasing to that internet site. Yet, you are likewise sending to all clients at the same time. The web site and it’s subscribers are all in one. This makes administration of the system much easier.
With the majority of email platforms, any kind of newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is built totally separately from your web site. So, as an example, you might release a post to WordPress but then you would require to individually construct and send an e-mail to your list to send it to clients. These are after that 2 separate collections of archives and two different actions because blog posts and your emails are not inherently connected.
The closest point that transforms WordPress into a real e-newsletter platform is Newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name due to the fact that it practically “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress messages and permits them to be the same thing. Certainly, something like Newsletter Glue would certainly be a strong option if I wished to remain to self-host everything. Nonetheless, you ‘d shed the development tools that come with a platform like BeeHiiv.
Posting a newsletter inherently comes with a different collection of requirements than a typical email checklist.
You don’t normally require much marketing automation. You don’t generally need autoresponder series, event 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 aid you construct your customer base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my clients that I was going to switch over the 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 picked to opt for BeeHiiv, that does not imply I believe Substack draws. In fact, since Substack has been around much longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a pair points that at first got my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is especially customized to newsletter authors. As a matter of fact, it is literally built by the same people that developed the innovation behind Early 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”. Development is what I’m interested in here.
- That branding and distinction also implies that BeeHiiv has some fairly big brands and huge magazines utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended even more at solo makers. Once again, it simply informs me the customer avatar difference in between both companies.
Sending our my e-newsletter via FluentCRM didn’t exactly suck. The only factor I would consider shaking things up is if I assumed I might expand the list quicker. And BeeHiiv spoke exactly to that goal.
As a result of the targeting, I actually do not check out BeeHiiv and Substack as straight competitors. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a various sort of consumer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being more direct competitors.
However, allow’s dive much deeper than just the positioning right here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv looks like it was constructed by people that understanding e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems more tailored toward creators.
For instance, BeeHiiv supplies personalized areas on clients. Now, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. In fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that works a whole lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still quite minimal in triggers and the only activity is the capability to send out an e-mail. However, enhancements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will certainly have new triggers along with brand-new activities, such as customizing custom-made fields, sending webhooks, and so on. I have actually currently seen improvements to their automations just since I started using the platform. For example:
- Capability to activate automations based upon which details embed form they came in on.
- Ability to automatically do re-engagement (and deal with individuals based upon opens and non-opens).
- Capability to do standard conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack simply can’t do this since the target market of Substack simply wouldn’t believe to approach this like an email marketer.
When it involves writing your e-newsletters, the composing user interface of BeeHiiv is simply more tailored toward e-newsletters. In fact, it actually has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in how it works. I find it to be extra intuitive, personally.
Substack’s composing interface behaves and tidy, however it would certainly be extra equivalent to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This difference is greater than just type. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Area” and afterwards put anything you desire in it. After that, you can put Presence choices on that area to show it only to paid customers, hide it from email, conceal from subscribers, show only to customers, etc. Substack uses nothing like this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a costs subscription design, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any kind of income. In fact, you literally attach up to your very own Stripe account and it bills directly to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your profits. Relying on the amount of subscribers you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit more cash than the monthly price of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This could seem unpopular, yet what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv deal with the outdoors making use of tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … nothing. No integrations at all.
In general, I simply felt like BeeHiiv was much more developed towards real e-mail marketing. It was constructed by individuals that “get it”. Even the opt-in kinds and the landing page develops seem better developed for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I wish to see BeeHiiv include, I like the direction it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually stated, Substack settings itself toward “developers” greater than e-mail marketers and newsletter proprietors. Therefore, you see some points geared much more toward individuals who simply assume in regards to material development.
For instance, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does support multiple magazines, they are treated rather separately. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to multiple publications at the same time. This isn’t something I require, yet … awesome for people who might require it.
Substack also has more social performance built-in. For example, it has a conversation feature to host talks with customers. It additionally has a “Notes” feature which functions type of like a social media newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you’re reading. Interesting. Overall, Substack is set up to be a lot more like a social media network which sustains long-form web content.
In general, Substack is additionally extra … minimalist. You either look after that or do not. Directly, I don’t. However, if the objective is simpleness of user interface and, frankly, features … Substack works rather well.
Yet, I’ll be clear here …
When it involves actual marketing, I do not believe there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is much better matched. I searched for even more points that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, however truthfully … I have a tough time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are frequently via to be the closest rivals, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are going after the exact same target audience and have comparable abilities.
ConvertKit is additionally placed at developers (like Substack), however it is a lot more strongly catering to individuals that do it for organization. ConvertKit has nice visual automation building, it’s own commerce system, and much more. ConvertKit is a truly wonderful platform.
I’m not going to bore you with a complete feature-by-feature break down here. ConvertKit is popular already. Yet, here’s exactly how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has extra adaptability when it involves it’s automations. I will certainly likewise state that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit much more user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports labeling. This is just a basic function of email checklists that allows segmentation in a far more adaptable way than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to sustain identifying eventually quickly, frankly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Lifetime Deal.
ConvertKit does currently offer the ability to sell things by means of their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that’s important to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would constantly select a much more direct choice anyhow. For me, I choose to use my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about much longer and therefore has way more integration options. Tons of web-based devices and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is fairly effective. As an example, their plugin now also sustains member-gated web content along with auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your site. Basically, this extra closely puts ConvertKit right into direct competitors by having you be able to publish to your website and your e-mail list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is badly lacking in these type of third-party integrations right now. It’ll get there. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even busy tackling the growth tools of BeeHiiv. As an example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not just incentivize people to share your e-newsletter with benefits, but you can additionally pay per lead within the interior advertisement network of BeeHiiv to grow your checklist. These are really amazing features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you know ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among the most popular viral promotion platforms for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall of what this means for the platform moving forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Lifetime Deal
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this stage of the cycle. Nevertheless, it likewise implies that they are quickly creating.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have experienced practically regular launch of brand-new features into the system. And these aren’t undersized little features … however large features that are quite vital. Their speed of advancement at this moment has actually gone over.
I also very much value exactly how receptive they are. Actually, among their item news concerning some layout enhancements to the web design features actually consisted of a little problem with the content width. I simply responded to that e-mail to tell them. I rapidly obtained a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That very same day, the problem was fixed.
Few days later, I gave them one more pointer …
Indeed, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to cause automations based on the embed form used was added to the system.
That sort of responsiveness and straight participation of the team is something I actually value.
An additional significant point of differentiation below is the cost. Both systems use complimentary plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan uses a lot more ability and more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally much more positive. ConvertKit seems less expensive initially look because their pricing page reveals reduced numbers, however the subscriber limitations are much lower and your cost quickly increases as your checklist grows.
With BeeHiiv, your very first level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid each year), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 clients. That exact same size checklist is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their best plan and the one I personally make use of), you can grow your listing up to 100,000. A listing of that size would certainly 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 every year, also. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay annually.
BeeHiiv remains in a totally different league when it concerns pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point enhance prices? They may as time goes on. But, I’m thinking people like myself who are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see just how things continue.
Things I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of the things you most definitely require to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do seem to develop instead swiftly and make brand-new item news somewhat commonly, however there are some standard features I truly wish they had that I need to simply wait for.
One is that they require to have a setting on registration types where I could choose an automation to run right at the form degree. That would be AWESOME for so many factors. Already, membership kinds look OK, but there’s very little setups for them to aid in division.
It would behave to have identifying at the customer level. This would certainly be effective.
I assume webhooks should belong to automations to make integrated automations easier and minimize reliance on outside devices like Zapier.
There are likewise some minor administrative user interface adjustments that would be handy. For example:
- Ability to mass edit/remove subscribers.
- Ability to bulk edit blog posts (for instance, to label a number of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of standard fields as typical on customers (like the name).
- Some even more customization choices for the website (such as even more flexible shade choices, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Points I wish they do with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, yet it isn’t best and absolutely not almost as created as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM product.
It most likely never ever will be, either. As I claimed, the purpose is various so it wouldn’t a lot a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to become a complete marketing automation system. I think you never ever recognize, however.
Final Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I such as BeeHiiv fairly a great deal. Sufficient where I decided to switch my own newsletters over to the system regardless of my personal choice for digital sovereignty and having my very own platform.
Simply put, for the e-newsletter publishing model specifically, I saw adequate worth in their platform to call for the adjustment.
Keep in mind, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my special e-mail list. I make use of BeeHiiv of what it is efficient, however I purposefully have things establish to make sure that I likewise keep my checklist “in home” inside of FluentCRM.
If you make use of BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the same. It is simply a good insurance plan, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your listing will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will certainly be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are using Substack now, I ‘d absolutely think about switching to BeeHiiv. It will just be more business-friendly. It is targeting various capacities and various demands. Plus, BeeHiiv also has import tools for Substack, so the switch must be rather straightforward.
If you are on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d possibly stay unless you have a huge e-mail list and are consequently being fleeced with their high month-to-month expense. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are iterating quickly. There’s also a respectable possibility you’re not even using a few of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not even need them. Therefore, BeeHiiv can quickly be a much better and a lot more affordable fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be very intentional about growing an e-newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE platform to take into consideration and maintain and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is made to be, it is among the most effective games around right now. This is the platform to enjoy.
BeeHiiv offers a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves looking into on your own. And if you wind up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll discover the totally free account to be rather feature abundant.