I have utilized a lot of various email list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a massive supporter of digital sovereignty and possessing your own platform. Therefore (and the remarkable features), I have actually been utilizing Beehiiv Newsletter Newspaper Layout.
So, it is undoubtedly an odd move for me to decide to utilize BeeHiiv. Besides, it is a hosted application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I intend to discuss why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I intend to deal with the issue of digital sovereignty while using the platform and I ‘d likewise like to deal with why I chose to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For Newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Huge Change In Method, I spoke about exactly how and why I made a decision to turn my motor home blog site right into mostly a newsletter. I determined that was business design I intended to seek keeping that residential or commercial property.
Yet, to deliberately pursue it as a newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the email list for Happily recreational vehicle, yet FluentCRM is not a newsletter platform. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, truthfully, utilizing it for newsletters is a little a waste. More on that particular in a little bit.
As I claimed because problem of the e-newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices built into it specific to my purpose. Points such as:
- Capability to publish (to the blog) and send out the email concurrently without having it be 2 different activities.
- Built in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would require a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Integrated ability to do cross-promotions with various other newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are primarily one-click subscription links. Great for promo in various 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.
- Integrated ad network, if I choose to generate income from with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capacity to run a paid newsletter upgrade and basically run a premium e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Basically, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter authors with features aimed at growth. The platform was essentially built by the people who developed the modern technology for Early morning Brew. They know what they’re doing.
That is the point here. BeeHiiv is constructed from the ground up for the objective of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various purpose.
And I finished off with this:.
I may certainly 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 actually, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Morning WP, triggered as it’s very own building to make sure that I can expand it a lot more intentionally too.
The goal is that each newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown independently. Happily motor home was young, so simple to shift. Yet, The Morning WP (formerly The Edge) was buried in a sea of stuff here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s own. It will obviously constantly be very closely tied with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet does not have to be a part of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv because it was constructed for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Regular Email Listing
There’s a distinction in between a newsletter platform and just an email listing.
You can organize 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 options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The key distinction is that, with a newsletter system, the act of posting implies that it is mosting likely to your web site and to your email subscribers all at once.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are releasing to that web site. However, you are additionally sending off to all subscribers at the same time. The site and it’s subscribers are done in one. This makes monitoring of the platform much simpler.
With the majority of e-mail platforms, any e-newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is developed completely individually from your internet site. So, for example, you might publish a post to WordPress yet after that you would require to individually build and send out an e-mail to your listing to send it to subscribers. These are then two different collections of archives and 2 separate actions since post and your e-mails are not naturally linked.
The closest thing that turns WordPress right into a real newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name since it basically “glues” your e-newsletter to your WordPress articles and allows them to be the exact same point. Absolutely, something like Newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid alternative if I wished to continue to self-host whatever. Nevertheless, you would certainly lose the development devices that come with a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting a newsletter naturally includes a various collection of requirements than a typical e-mail listing.
You don’t generally require much marketing automation. You don’t generally need autoresponder series, occasion monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO requirement, however, is one smooth posting experience and growth tools to aid you develop your customer base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my subscribers that I was mosting likely 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 reality that I chose to go with BeeHiiv, that doesn’t mean I believe Substack draws. In fact, because Substack has actually been about longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple points that initially got my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is especially customized to newsletter authors. Actually, it is literally built by the same people who developed the technology behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real world, does not matter. However, the obvious positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter development called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “designer”. Growth is what I’m interested in here.
- That branding and distinction also means that BeeHiiv has some fairly big brand names and huge magazines utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo designers. Once more, it just informs me the client avatar difference in between the two firms.
Sending our my newsletter using FluentCRM really did not exactly draw. The only reason I would consider trembling points up is if I assumed I can expand the checklist faster. And BeeHiiv talked precisely to that objective.
As a result of the targeting, I in fact don’t view BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a different type of customer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being more straight rivals.
Yet, let’s dive deeper than simply the placing here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv appears like it was constructed by individuals that recognizing e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems extra tailored towards developers.
As an example, BeeHiiv uses customized fields on clients. Now, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. Actually, it is a visual automation builder that functions a whole lot like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation performance is still early-phase. It is still fairly limited in triggers and the only activity is the capability to send out an email. Nevertheless, improvements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will have brand-new triggers as well as new actions, such as customizing custom areas, sending webhooks, etc. I have actually already seen improvements to their automations simply considering that I started using the platform. For instance:
- Capacity to set off automations based on which details embed type they can be found in on.
- Capability to instantly do re-engagement (and take care of individuals based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Capacity to do basic conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can’t do this because the target market of Substack simply wouldn’t believe to approach this like an e-mail marketing expert.
When it pertains to creating your newsletters, the creating interface of BeeHiiv is just extra geared toward e-newsletters. In fact, it actually has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in just how it works. I locate it to be a lot more user-friendly, personally.
Substack’s writing user interface is nice and clean, yet it would be much more equivalent to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This distinction is greater than just type. For example, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Area” and then placed anything you desire in it. After that, you can put Presence options on that section to reveal it just to paid clients, hide it from email, conceal from subscribers, show just to clients, etc. Substack uses nothing like this.
And when/if the time comes that I begin a premium membership version, BeeHiiv does not take any kind of income. As a matter of fact, you essentially connect up to your own Stripe account and it bills directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your earnings. Relying on how many subscribers you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit even more cash than the monthly cost of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This could seem unpopular, however what it suggests is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outdoors using tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … absolutely nothing. No integrations at all.
Overall, I simply seemed like BeeHiiv was a lot more built toward actual email marketing. It was constructed by individuals who “get it”. Even the opt-in types and the landing page creates seem 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 like the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually claimed, Substack placements itself toward “developers” more than e-mail marketing experts and newsletter owners. For that reason, you see some things tailored extra toward individuals that just believe in regards to web content creation.
For example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does support numerous publications, they are dealt with quite separately. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to several publications at the same time. This isn’t something I need, however … cool for individuals that may need it.
Substack likewise has more social capability built-in. For instance, it has a conversation feature to host chats with subscribers. It likewise has a “Notes” function which functions kind of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share things from various other “Stacks” you read. Fascinating. Overall, Substack is set up to be a lot more like a social media which supports long-form material.
On the whole, Substack is likewise extra … minimalist. You either care for that or don’t. Personally, I do not. However, if the goal is simpleness of interface and, honestly, features … Substack functions rather well.
But, I’ll be clear right here …
When it pertains to real marketing, I don’t believe there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is better suited. I tried to find more factors that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, however frankly … I have a hard time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are commonly via to be the closest rivals, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are going after the very same target market and have similar abilities.
ConvertKit is also placed at developers (like Substack), however it is much more strongly satisfying people that do it for organization. ConvertKit has wonderful visual automation building, it’s own commerce platform, and a lot more. ConvertKit is a really good platform.
I’m not going to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature malfunction here. ConvertKit is popular already. However, right here’s just how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has a lot more versatility when it pertains to it’s automations. I will certainly also claim that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit extra intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains labeling. This is just a standard feature of email checklists that allows segmentation in an even more flexible method than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to support tagging at some time soon, frankly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Newsletter Newspaper Layout.
ConvertKit does currently supply the ability to sell things through their own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is necessary to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would certainly constantly pick an extra direct option anyhow. For me, I prefer to utilize my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been about much longer and for that reason has way much more integration options. Lots of web-based devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is rather powerful. For instance, their plugin now also supports member-gated web content in addition to auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your website. In essence, this a lot more very closely puts ConvertKit right into straight competitors by having you be able to publish to your site and your email checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is significantly doing not have in these sort of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll arrive. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even busy tackling the development devices of BeeHiiv. As an example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your e-newsletter with benefits, however you can also pay per lead within the interior advertisement network of BeeHiiv to grow your checklist. These are truly outstanding features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you know ConvertKit acquired Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of one of the most popular viral promo systems for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall surface of what this means for the system going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Newsletter Newspaper Layout
BeeHiiv is a lot earlier in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means less features and less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. Nonetheless, it likewise means that they are swiftly creating.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually seen nearly weekly launch of brand-new features into the platform. And these aren’t weak little features … however big features that are fairly vital. Their rate of development at this moment has actually been impressive.
I also very much appreciate exactly how receptive they are. Actually, one of their item news regarding some layout improvements to the web design features in fact consisted of a tiny trouble with the material width. I merely replied to that e-mail to tell them. I promptly got a reply straight from the CEO:.
That very same day, the concern was fixed.
Few days later, I gave them an additional pointer …
Indeed, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to set off automations based upon the embed form used was added to the system.
That sort of responsiveness and straight participation of the team is something I truly appreciate.
One more major point of differentiation below is the cost. Both platforms offer free plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan provides more capacity and more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally FAR more desirable. ConvertKit appears more affordable initially glimpse because their pricing page reveals reduced numbers, nevertheless the client limits are much reduced and your cost quickly increases as your list grows.
With BeeHiiv, your initial level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid every year), however you can have up to 10,000 customers. That exact same dimension listing is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I directly use), you can expand your list as much as 100,000. A list of that dimension would 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 get all that for simply $84/month if you pay each year.
BeeHiiv remains in a totally various organization when it pertains to pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually raise prices? They could as time goes on. But, I’m presuming individuals like myself that are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how things continue.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
Among the important things you definitely need to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do appear to advance instead swiftly and make new product statements rather frequently, but there are some basic features I actually desire they had that I require to just wait on.
One is that they need to have a setup on registration types where I can select an automation to run right at the kind level. That would certainly be AWESOME for numerous factors. Already, membership kinds look OK, yet there’s really little setups for them to help in segmentation.
It would behave to have labeling at the subscriber degree. This would be effective.
I think webhooks must belong to automations to make integrated automations less complicated and minimize reliance on outdoors tools like Zapier.
There are additionally some minor administrative user interface changes that would be handy. For example:
- Capacity to mass edit/remove clients.
- Capacity to mass edit articles (as an example, to label a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a few standard fields as common on customers (like the name).
- Some even more personalization options for the web site (such as even more adaptable color choices, heading control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Points I wish they make with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t perfect and certainly not virtually as established as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM product.
It possibly never will certainly be, either. As I said, the objective is different so it would not a lot a great deal of feeling for BeeHiiv to become a complete marketing automation system. I guess you never ever recognize, though.
Last Ideas On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I such as BeeHiiv rather a whole lot. Enough where I made a decision to switch my very own newsletters over to the platform in spite of my personal choice for digital sovereignty and possessing my very own system.
Put simply, for the e-newsletter posting model specifically, I saw sufficient worth in their platform to require the change.
Keep in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my unique email listing. I make use of BeeHiiv for what it is efficient, however I purposefully have things set up to ensure that I likewise maintain my list “in residence” within FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the very same. It is simply a great insurance coverage, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your list will be of high use (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are utilizing Substack right now, I ‘d most definitely think about switching to BeeHiiv. It will just be a lot more business-friendly. It is targeting different abilities and different requirements. And also, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the switch needs to be pretty straightforward.
If you get on ConvertKit now, I ‘d possibly stay unless you have a huge email listing and are as a result being fleeced with their high regular monthly bill. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are repeating rapidly. There’s additionally a pretty good opportunity you’re not even using some of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not even require them. For that reason, BeeHiiv can conveniently be a better and much more budget friendly fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be very intentional regarding expanding a newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE platform to consider and maintain and eye on for you.
If you utilize BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is created to be, it is one of the very best video games in town today. This is the platform to watch.
BeeHiiv offers a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth checking out for yourself. And if you wind up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll discover the complimentary account to be fairly feature rich.