I have utilized a great deal of various email list systems over the years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a big supporter of digital sovereignty and having your very own platform. Because of that (and the amazing features), I have actually been using Beehiiv Newsletter Templates.
So, it is undoubtedly a strange move for me to choose to utilize BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is an organized application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I intend to go over why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I want to resolve the issue of digital sovereignty while utilizing the platform and I would certainly likewise such as to attend to why I chose to use it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For E-newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Pastime + A Large Shift In Approach, I talked about just how and why I made a decision to transform my recreational vehicle blog site right into largely an e-newsletter. I decided that was the business model I wanted to seek with that building.
However, to intentionally seek it as an e-newsletter, I desired a system that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the email listing for Happily recreational vehicle, however FluentCRM is not a newsletter system. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, frankly, using it for newsletters is a little a waste. More on that in a little bit.
As I stated in that issue of the newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a system with devices constructed into it details to my objective. Things such as:
- Capacity to release (to the blog) and send the e-mail concurrently without having it be two different activities.
- Integrated in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would certainly require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capacity to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are essentially one-click membership links. Great for promotion in various other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are means to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Integrated advertisement network, if I pick to generate income from with ads in the newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated ability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and primarily run a costs newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter authors with features focused on development. The platform was essentially constructed by the individuals that accumulated the innovation for Morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the point below. BeeHiiv is built from scratch for the purpose of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a different objective.
And I finished off with this:.
I may undoubtedly be moving The Side over to BeeHiiv too. At the very least, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. As a matter of fact, I simply went for it. And actually, The side was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s very own property so that I can expand it extra intentionally 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 easy to transition. However, The 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 own. It will obviously constantly be closely tied with the Blog site Marketing Academy, however does not need to be a part of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv because it was built for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Just A Typical Email List
There’s a distinction between an e-newsletter system and just an email list.
You can host your email list anyplace you desire and there are a number of them out there, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted alternatives like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The main difference is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of posting means that it is mosting likely to your website and to your email customers at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are publishing to that site. However, you are additionally sending off to all subscribers at the same time. The web site and it’s customers are done in one. This makes management of the platform much easier.
With a lot of e-mail platforms, any e-newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is constructed totally individually from your internet site. So, for example, you might release a post to WordPress however after that you would require to individually build and send out an e-mail to your listing to send it to customers. These are then two separate sets of archives and 2 separate activities because article and your emails are not naturally connected.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress right into a true newsletter system is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name because it pretty much “glues” your newsletter to your WordPress posts and enables them to be the very same thing. Certainly, something like Newsletter Glue would be a strong alternative if I wanted to remain to self-host every little thing. However, you would certainly shed the growth tools that feature a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting a newsletter inherently includes a different collection of demands than a regular e-mail checklist.
You don’t normally need much marketing automation. You don’t generally require autoresponder sequences, occasion tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO demand, though, is one smooth posting experience and growth tools to help you build your subscriber base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my customers that I was going to switch the e-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 selected to go with BeeHiiv, that does not imply I assume Substack draws. Actually, because Substack has been about longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Although BeeHiiv is younger, there are a pair things that originally got my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is especially tailored to e-newsletter authors. As a matter of fact, it is essentially developed by the exact same people who constructed the technology behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real life, does not matter. However, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter growth called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “designer”. Growth is what I have an interest in right here.
- That branding and differentiation also means that BeeHiiv has some relatively huge brands and large publications using it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo creators. Again, it just informs me the client avatar difference between both companies.
Sending our my newsletter using FluentCRM didn’t exactly suck. The only reason I would certainly ponder trembling things up is if I believed I can GROW the listing quicker. And BeeHiiv spoke exactly to that objective.
Because of the targeting, I really do not check out BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a different kind of customer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being a lot more straight competitors.
But, let’s dive much deeper than simply the placing below.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
On the whole, BeeHiiv seems like it was built by individuals who understanding e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears extra geared toward makers.
As an example, BeeHiiv supplies personalized areas on customers. Now, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. In fact, it is a visual automation builder that functions a lot like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation performance is still early-phase. It is still rather limited in triggers and the only activity is the capacity to send out an e-mail. However, improvements are coming. Soon sufficient, automations will have brand-new triggers along with brand-new actions, such as changing custom fields, sending out webhooks, and so on. I have actually currently seen improvements to their automations just given that I started utilizing the platform. As an example:
- Ability to cause automations based on which specific embed type they came in on.
- Capability to automatically do re-engagement (and handle 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 will. Substack just can not do this because the target market of Substack just wouldn’t think to approach this like an email marketer.
When it comes to creating your e-newsletters, the creating user interface of BeeHiiv is simply extra tailored towards e-newsletters. As a matter of fact, it in fact has similarities to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it functions. I locate it to be a lot more intuitive, personally.
Substack’s writing user interface is nice and tidy, however it would be much more equivalent to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is more than just form. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Section” and then put anything you want in it. Then, you can place Visibility alternatives on that particular section to show it only to paid subscribers, hide it from e-mail, hide from customers, reveal just to customers, etc. Substack provides absolutely nothing like this.
And when/if the moment comes that I start a premium registration design, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any type of profits. In fact, you literally link approximately your very own Stripe account and it charges directly to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your revenue. Relying on the number of clients you get, that 10% can be a fair bit more money than the monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This could appear unpopular, however what it indicates 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 essentially has … nothing. No integrations in all.
On the whole, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was more developed toward actual e-mail marketing. It was built by individuals that “get it”. Also the opt-in kinds and the landing page designs seem much better constructed for conversions. Development is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the direction it is going more than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually stated, Substack placements itself towards “developers” more than e-mail online marketers and e-newsletter proprietors. For that reason, you see some things geared extra towards people that just believe in regards to web content development.
For example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does support several magazines, they are treated quite independently. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to numerous publications at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, but … great for individuals who could need it.
Substack additionally has even more social functionality built-in. For example, it has a chat function to host talks with subscribers. It likewise has a “Notes” feature which works type of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you read. Fascinating. In general, Substack is set up to be much more like a social media which supports long-form web content.
Overall, Substack is likewise a lot more … minimalist. You either take care of that or do not. Personally, I don’t. Nevertheless, if the goal is simpleness of user interface and, truthfully, features … Substack works quite well.
However, I’ll be clear right here …
When it involves actual marketing, I don’t assume there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is better fit. I tried to find even 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 often through to be the closest competitors, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are going after the same target market and have comparable abilities.
ConvertKit is likewise positioned at creators (like Substack), yet it is much more highly accommodating people who do it for business. ConvertKit has good visual automation structure, it’s own business system, and more. ConvertKit is an actually good platform.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature failure here. ConvertKit is popular currently. Yet, below’s exactly how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has extra adaptability when it comes to it’s automations. I will certainly likewise claim that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains marking. This is simply a basic function of email checklists that makes it possible for division in a much more versatile means than BeeHiiv currently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain identifying at some time soon, honestly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Newsletter Templates.
ConvertKit does currently supply the capacity to sell points by means of their very own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is very important to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would certainly always select a much more direct alternative anyway. For me, I favor to utilize my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about a lot longer and for that reason has way much more integration alternatives. Tons of web-based tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is quite effective. For example, their plugin currently even sustains member-gated material in addition to auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your site. Essentially, this much more closely puts ConvertKit into direct competitors by having you be able to publish to your website and your email checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is drastically doing not have in these kinds of third-party integrations right now. It’ll arrive. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy dealing with the development devices of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your e-newsletter with benefits, yet you can likewise pay per lead within the inner advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your list. These are truly remarkable features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you understand ConvertKit acquired Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of one of the most well known viral promotion systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall surface for what this means for the platform going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Newsletter Templates
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this stage of the cycle. However, it additionally indicates that they are quickly creating.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually seen virtually weekly launch of new features into the platform. And these aren’t weak little features … however large features that are quite important. Their rate of development at this moment has actually gone over.
I also significantly value just how responsive they are. Actually, among their product statements regarding some style improvements to the web design features really contained a small problem with the web content width. I just responded to that e-mail to tell them. I swiftly obtained a reply directly from the CEO:.
That exact same day, the concern was repaired.
Couple of days later on, I gave them another idea …
Certainly, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to trigger automations based on the embed kind utilized was included in the system.
That type of responsiveness and direct involvement of the group is something I really appreciate.
An additional significant factor of differentiation below is the rate. Both platforms supply totally free plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan provides much more capacity and more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also even more beneficial. ConvertKit seems less costly in the beginning look because their pricing web page shows lower numbers, nevertheless the customer limits are much reduced and your cost swiftly enhances as your listing expands.
With BeeHiiv, your very first degree paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid annually), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 clients. That exact same size checklist 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 directly make use of), you can grow your list up to 100,000. A list of that dimension would certainly 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 annually, also. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for simply $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv remains in a completely various league when it concerns pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point enhance prices? They might as time goes on. Yet, I’m guessing individuals like myself who are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how things continue.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of the important things you most definitely require to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do appear to evolve instead promptly and make new product statements somewhat commonly, yet there are some fundamental features I really want they had that I need to just wait on.
One is that they require to have a setup on subscription types where I might select an automation to run right at the type degree. That would certainly be AWESOME for so many reasons. Already, subscription forms look OK, however there’s extremely little setups for them to help in segmentation.
It would certainly be nice to have marking at the customer degree. This would be effective.
I assume webhooks must become part of automations to make built-in automations less complicated and reduce dependence on outdoors tools like Zapier.
There are also some minor management interface changes that would be handy. For instance:
- Capability to bulk edit/remove clients.
- Capacity to bulk edit posts (for example, to identify a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of basic fields as standard on customers (like the name).
- Some more customization choices for the website (such as even more versatile shade choices, heading control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Things I hope they perform with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, but it isn’t best and certainly not almost as created as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM item.
It possibly never will certainly be, either. As I claimed, the objective is various so it would not much a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to come to be a full marketing automation system. I think you never ever recognize, however.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Review
I like BeeHiiv quite a great deal. Sufficient where I chose to switch my very own newsletters over to the system despite my individual preference for digital sovereignty and having my own platform.
Basically, for the e-newsletter posting version especially, I saw adequate worth in their system to require the adjustment.
Keep in mind, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my unique email listing. I use BeeHiiv of what it is proficient at, yet I deliberately have points establish so that I also keep my listing “in house” inside of FluentCRM.
If you make use of BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the very same. It is just a great insurance policy, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your checklist will certainly be of high use (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the question is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are making use of Substack right now, I ‘d definitely take into consideration switching to BeeHiiv. It will merely be more business-friendly. It is targeting different abilities and various needs. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the button ought to be quite uncomplicated.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d possibly sit tight unless you have a large email listing and are for that reason being fleeced with their high monthly bill. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are iterating promptly. There’s likewise a pretty good opportunity you’re not even making use of a few of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not even need them. For that reason, BeeHiiv can easily be a far better and a lot more economical fit.
Finally, if you plan to be extremely intentional regarding expanding an e-newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE platform to consider and maintain and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is created to be, it is just one of the most effective games in the area today. This is the platform to watch.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves having a look at for yourself. And if you wind up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll locate the cost-free account to be fairly feature rich.