I have actually used a great deal of different e-mail list systems for many years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a big proponent of digital sovereignty and possessing your own system. For that reason (and the remarkable features), I have actually been making use of Beehiiv Meta Pixel.
So, it is certainly a strange move for me to make a decision to make use of BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is an organized application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I want to review why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I want to resolve the issue of digital sovereignty while making use of the platform and I ‘d additionally like to address why I picked to use it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For E-newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Pastime + A Big Change In Approach, I talked about just how and why I made a decision to turn my recreational vehicle blog right into largely an e-newsletter. I determined that was business model I wanted to seek with that building.
However, to purposefully pursue it as an e-newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the email checklist for Gladly recreational vehicle, however FluentCRM is not a newsletter system. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, frankly, using it for e-newsletters is a little a waste. More on that in a little bit.
As I stated because problem of the newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices built into it specific to my function. Points such as:
- Capacity to release (to the blog) and send the e-mail at the same time without having it be 2 separate activities.
- Constructed in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capability to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are basically one-click registration links. Great for promo in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, 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 pick to monetize with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and basically run a costs e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features targeted at development. The system was actually developed by the individuals that accumulated the technology for Morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the factor right here. BeeHiiv is built from scratch for the function of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various objective.
And I finished off with this:.
I might undoubtedly be relocating The Side over to BeeHiiv also. A minimum of, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. Actually, I just went for it. And as a matter of fact, The side was re-branded over to The Morning WP, triggered as it’s own residential property to ensure that I can expand it a lot more intentionally also.
The goal is that each newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded individually. Happily motor home was young, so easy to shift. However, The Morning WP (formerly The Side) was hidden in a sea of stuff right here at the Blog Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s own. It will certainly constantly be very closely connected with the Blog site Marketing Academy, however doesn’t have to belong of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv since it was developed for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Simply A Typical Email Checklist
There’s a distinction between a newsletter system and just an email checklist.
You can organize your email list just about anywhere 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 key difference is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of publishing means that it is mosting likely to your site and to your email clients all at once.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are releasing to that site. But, you are likewise dispatching to all customers at the same time. The website and it’s customers are done in one. This makes monitoring of the platform much simpler.
With many e-mail platforms, any type of e-newsletter you set up is done as an email campaign. It is constructed completely independently from your web site. So, for example, you might release an article to WordPress however after that you would certainly require to individually develop and send out an email to your checklist to send it to clients. These are then two different sets of archives and two separate actions because article and your e-mails are not naturally linked.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress right into a true newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name because it pretty much “glues” your newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and allows them to be the same thing. Absolutely, something like Newsletter Glue would be a strong alternative if I intended to remain to self-host every little thing. Nevertheless, you ‘d lose the growth tools that come with a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing an e-newsletter naturally includes a various set of requirements than a normal email list.
You don’t generally need much marketing automation. You do not usually need autoresponder series, event tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO requirement, however, is one seamless posting experience and development tools to aid you develop your client base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my customers that I was going to switch the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the truth that I picked to choose BeeHiiv, that doesn’t mean I think Substack draws. Actually, due to the fact that Substack has actually been around longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Although BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a pair points that at first got my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is especially tailored to newsletter authors. In fact, it is essentially developed by the exact same people who built the technology behind Early morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, doesn’t matter. However, the apparent positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter growth called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “designer”. Development is what I want here.
- That branding and differentiation likewise suggests that BeeHiiv has some relatively huge brands and huge publications utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is aimed even more at solo developers. Once more, it just informs me the customer character distinction between the two firms.
Sending our my newsletter using FluentCRM didn’t precisely suck. The only reason I would contemplate trembling things up is if I assumed I can GROW the listing much faster. And BeeHiiv talked specifically to that goal.
Due to the targeting, I actually don’t see BeeHiiv and Substack as direct competitors. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a different kind of customer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being more direct rivals.
But, let’s dive deeper than simply the positioning here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv appears like it was built by people who comprehending e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems much more geared towards makers.
As an example, BeeHiiv provides custom-made areas on clients. Currently, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv supplies 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 functionality is still early-phase. It is still quite restricted in triggers and the only action is the capacity to send out an e-mail. Nevertheless, enhancements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will have new triggers along with brand-new actions, such as customizing custom fields, sending webhooks, and so on. I have actually currently seen improvements to their automations simply considering that I started making use of the system. As an example:
- Ability to activate automations based upon which certain embed kind they can be found in on.
- Capability to immediately do re-engagement (and take care of individuals based on opens up and non-opens).
- Ability to do standard conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can’t do this due to the fact that the target market of Substack simply would not believe to approach this like an email marketing professional.
When it comes to writing your e-newsletters, the writing user interface of BeeHiiv is just much more geared toward e-newsletters. Actually, it actually has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in how it works. I locate it to be extra user-friendly, personally.
Substack’s writing interface behaves and clean, however it would be extra equivalent to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This distinction is greater than just kind. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Section” and after that put anything you desire in it. Then, you can place Visibility alternatives on that area to reveal it just to paid subscribers, conceal it from e-mail, hide from clients, show just to clients, etc. Substack supplies nothing such as this.
And when/if the moment comes that I start a costs registration version, BeeHiiv does not take any type of revenue. Actually, you actually connect approximately your very own Stripe account and it charges directly to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your earnings. Depending upon how many subscribers you obtain, that 10% can be quite a bit more cash than the monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This might appear unpopular, however what it suggests is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv work with the outdoors making use of devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … absolutely nothing. No integrations whatsoever.
In general, I just felt like BeeHiiv was much more constructed toward genuine email marketing. It was constructed by people that “get it”. Also the opt-in kinds and the landing page designs seem better developed for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I want to see BeeHiiv add, I like the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have stated, Substack placements itself toward “developers” greater than email marketing professionals and e-newsletter owners. Therefore, you see some points geared more towards people that just think in regards to content creation.
For example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does support numerous publications, they are treated fairly individually. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to several magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I require, yet … amazing for individuals that might require it.
Substack also has even more social capability built-in. For example, it has a chat function to host talks with subscribers. It additionally has a “Notes” feature which works kind of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share things from other “Stacks” you read. Fascinating. In general, Substack is established to be a lot more like a social media which supports long-form material.
On the whole, Substack is additionally much more … minimal. You either take care of that or don’t. Personally, I do not. However, if the objective is simplicity of user interface and, honestly, features … Substack functions quite well.
But, I’ll be clear below …
When it concerns real marketing, I do not believe there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is much better suited. I tried to find even more points that make Substack much 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 opponents. Both are pursuing the exact same target market and have similar capacities.
ConvertKit is likewise positioned at developers (like Substack), yet it is a lot more strongly catering to people who do it for business. ConvertKit has wonderful visual automation structure, it’s own business system, and extra. ConvertKit is a really great system.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature malfunction below. ConvertKit is popular currently. But, right here’s just how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Points ConvertKit Is Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has much more adaptability when it concerns it’s automations. I will likewise say that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit more instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports tagging. This is just a fundamental function of email checklists that makes it possible for division in a much more versatile method than BeeHiiv currently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain labeling at some point soon, truthfully. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Meta Pixel.
ConvertKit does now offer the capacity to sell things via their very own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is very important to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nonetheless, I would constantly select an extra direct alternative anyhow. For me, I like to utilize my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been around a lot longer and for that reason has way a lot more integration alternatives. Lots of web-based tools and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their own WordPress plugin that is fairly powerful. For instance, their plugin currently even sustains member-gated content in addition to auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. In essence, this more carefully puts ConvertKit right into straight competitors by having you have the ability to release to your site and your email listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is seriously doing not have in these type of third-party integrations currently. It’ll get there. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even hectic dealing with the growth devices of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not only incentivize people to share your e-newsletter with rewards, yet you can additionally pay per lead within the internal advertisement network of BeeHiiv to grow your list. These are really remarkable features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you recognize ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of one of the most popular viral promo platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall for what this indicates for the system going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Meta Pixel
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means less features and less integrations, which is natural for this stage of the cycle. Nevertheless, it likewise implies that they are quickly establishing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have experienced virtually once a week launch of brand-new features into the system. And these aren’t undersized little features … however big features that are fairly vital. Their speed of growth at this moment has gone over.
I additionally significantly value how receptive they are. As a matter of fact, among their item announcements about some layout improvements to the website design features really included a tiny problem with the web content size. I simply replied to that email to tell them. I quickly obtained a reply directly from the CEO:.
That exact same day, the problem was repaired.
Few days later, I provided an additional suggestion …
Sure enough, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to cause automations based upon the embed form used was contributed to the system.
That type of responsiveness and direct participation of the group is something I truly value.
Another significant factor of distinction right here is the rate. Both platforms supply totally free plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan offers extra capability and more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
As soon as you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally much more desirable. ConvertKit appears less costly in the beginning glance due to the fact that their pricing page reveals reduced numbers, nevertheless the client limits are much lower and your rate promptly raises as your checklist expands.
With BeeHiiv, your first level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid annually), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That exact same dimension checklist is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their ideal plan and the one I personally make use of), you can expand your list as much as 100,000. A listing 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 yearly, too. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay yearly.
BeeHiiv is in a completely different organization when it concerns pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately raise prices? They might as time takes place. However, I’m guessing people like myself who are already in will be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how things proceed.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among the things you certainly need to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do appear to evolve rather quickly and make new product news rather frequently, however there are some standard features I truly desire they had that I require to simply wait for.
One is that they require to have a setup on membership kinds where I can select an automation to run right at the form level. That would be remarkable for a lot of factors. Currently, registration types look OK, but there’s really little setups for them to aid in segmentation.
It would certainly behave to have tagging at the customer level. This would be powerful.
I assume webhooks ought to belong to automations to make integrated automations less complicated and decrease dependence on outside devices like Zapier.
There are additionally some small management user interface modifications that would come in handy. For instance:
- Ability to bulk edit/remove clients.
- Capacity to bulk edit blog posts (as an example, to label a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of fundamental fields as common on clients (like the name).
- Some more personalization choices for the site (such as more versatile color selections, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Things I wish they make with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, but it isn’t perfect and certainly not almost as created as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM item.
It possibly never will be, either. As I said, the objective is different so it wouldn’t a lot a great deal of feeling for BeeHiiv to end up being a complete marketing automation system. I guess you never understand, however.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Review
I such as BeeHiiv quite a great deal. Sufficient where I made a decision to change my own e-newsletters over to the system regardless of my personal choice for digital sovereignty and having my very own system.
Basically, for the newsletter publishing version particularly, I saw enough worth in their platform to warrant the adjustment.
Remember, I do not utilize BeeHiiv as my unique e-mail checklist. I use BeeHiiv for what it is good at, however I deliberately have points set up to make sure that I likewise keep my listing “in residence” within FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the very same. It is just a good insurance coverage, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your checklist will certainly be of high use (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the concern is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are making use of Substack today, I ‘d definitely take into consideration switching over to BeeHiiv. It will simply be extra business-friendly. It is targeting various abilities and various demands. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the button needs to be pretty straightforward.
If you are on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d probably sit tight unless you have a big email listing and are for that reason being wooled with their high monthly expense. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are repeating swiftly. There’s likewise a pretty good opportunity you’re not also using some of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you don’t also require them. For that reason, BeeHiiv could quickly be a much better and more cost effective fit.
Finally, if you plan to be really deliberate regarding growing an e-newsletter, I think 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 just one of the most effective video games around today. This is the system to watch.
BeeHiiv uses a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves taking a look at on your own. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll find the free account to be quite feature rich.