I have actually made use of a lot of different email list systems over the years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a big supporter of digital sovereignty and owning your very own platform. For that reason (and the awesome features), I have been using Beehiiv Pay What You Want.
So, it is without a doubt a weird move for me to make a decision to use BeeHiiv. Besides, it is a held application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv evaluation, I wish to review why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I wish to deal with the concern of digital sovereignty while using the platform and I ‘d also such as to address why I selected to use it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For Newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my newsletter called My Pastime + A Large Shift In Method, I discussed exactly how and why I made a decision to turn my motor home blog site right into primarily a newsletter. I made a decision that was the business model I wished to go after with that residential property.
But, to intentionally seek it as a newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the e-mail listing for Gladly RV, but FluentCRM is not a 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. Extra on that particular in a bit.
As I stated in that concern of the newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a system with devices built right into it certain to my function. Points such as:
- Capacity to release (to the blog site) and send out the email all at once without having it be 2 different activities.
- Integrated in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would have needed a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capability to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are primarily one-click subscription links. Great for promotion in various other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, 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 select to generate income from with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in ability 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 publishers with features focused on development. The system was literally built by the people who accumulated the modern technology for Early morning Brew. They know what they’re doing.
That is the factor below. BeeHiiv is built from the ground up for the function of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a different function.
And I finished off with this:.
I might indeed be relocating The Edge over to BeeHiiv too. A minimum of, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. Actually, I just went for it. And in fact, The side was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, triggered as it’s very own property to ensure that I can grow it much more deliberately also.
The goal is that each newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s own media entity and grown independently. Happily motor home was young, so very easy to change. But, The Morning WP (formerly The Edge) was hidden in a sea of things right here at the Blog Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s own. It will certainly always be closely linked with the Blog site Marketing Academy, however doesn’t have to belong of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was built for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Just A Regular Email List
There’s a difference between an e-newsletter system and simply an email checklist.
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 choices like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The key difference is that, with a newsletter system, the act of posting implies that it is mosting likely to your site and to your e-mail customers concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a web site. You are releasing to that web site. Yet, you are additionally dispatching to all customers at the same time. The website and it’s subscribers are done in one. This makes administration of the system much less complex.
With many e-mail systems, any type of e-newsletter you set up is done as an e-mail campaign. It is built totally individually from your web site. So, for example, you could publish a write-up to WordPress however then you would certainly require to independently build and send out an e-mail to your list to send it to customers. These are after that two separate collections of archives and two different activities because article and your emails are not inherently linked.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress into a true newsletter system is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name since it pretty much “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress articles and enables them to be the exact same point. Certainly, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid alternative if I wanted to continue to self-host every little thing. However, you ‘d shed the development tools that feature a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter inherently includes a different set of demands than a typical e-mail listing.
You do not normally need much marketing automation. You don’t typically need autoresponder series, event tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO demand, though, is one smooth posting experience and growth devices to assist you develop your customer base that specify to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my customers that I was mosting likely to switch the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had lots of people ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the fact that I picked to select BeeHiiv, that doesn’t imply I think Substack draws. In fact, because Substack has actually been around longer, it is elder and has more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a pair things that at first got my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically customized to e-newsletter authors. In fact, it is literally developed by the same individuals that built the modern technology behind Early morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, doesn’t matter. But, the obvious positioning of BeeHiiv toward e-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 rather large brand names and big publications utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo makers. Again, it just tells me the client character distinction between both companies.
Sending our my e-newsletter using FluentCRM really did not specifically draw. The only factor I would ponder drinking things up is if I thought I could expand the listing faster. And BeeHiiv spoke precisely to that goal.
As a result of the targeting, I really don’t view BeeHiiv and Substack as direct competitors. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a different sort of consumer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra straight competitors.
Yet, let’s dive much deeper than simply the positioning here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv feels like it was developed by people who understanding e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems a lot more tailored towards developers.
For instance, BeeHiiv supplies customized areas on clients. Now, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. Actually, it is a visual automation builder that works a whole lot like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still quite limited in triggers and the only activity is the ability to send out an email. However, enhancements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will have brand-new triggers in addition to brand-new actions, such as modifying custom areas, sending webhooks, etc. I’ve currently seen improvements to their automations just given that I started making use of the platform. As an example:
- Capacity to trigger automations based on which certain embed type they was available in on.
- Capability to automatically do re-engagement (and manage individuals based on opens and non-opens).
- Capability to do basic conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack simply can’t do this because the target market of Substack simply would not believe to approach this like an e-mail marketing expert.
When it comes to writing your newsletters, the composing user interface of BeeHiiv is just extra geared toward e-newsletters. As a matter of fact, it in fact has similarities to the WordPress block builder in just how it functions. I discover it to be a lot more intuitive, personally.
Substack’s writing user interface behaves and tidy, yet it would certainly be more equal to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is more than simply kind. For example, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Section” and after that put anything you desire in it. After that, you can put Visibility alternatives on that area to show it just to paid clients, hide it from e-mail, conceal from clients, reveal just to subscribers, etc. Substack uses absolutely nothing like this.
And when/if the time comes that I begin a costs subscription version, BeeHiiv does not take any kind of earnings. In fact, you essentially connect up to your own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your income. Relying on how many clients you get, that 10% can be a fair bit more money than the month-to-month expense of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This may seem nerdy, but what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv deal 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 simply seemed like BeeHiiv was much more built towards real email marketing. It was developed by people who “get it”. Even the opt-in kinds and the landing page develops appear far better built for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I wish to see BeeHiiv add, I like the direction it is going more than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have said, Substack placements itself towards “designers” greater than email online marketers and e-newsletter owners. Therefore, you see some points geared much more toward individuals who just think in regards to content development.
For instance, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does support several publications, they are dealt with quite independently. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to several publications at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, but … amazing for people that could require it.
Substack also has more social functionality built-in. For instance, it has a chat function to host chats with clients. It likewise has a “Notes” function which functions sort of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share things from various other “Stacks” you read. Fascinating. In general, Substack is established to be more like a social network which supports long-form material.
In general, Substack is also more … minimalist. You either take care of that or do not. Personally, I do not. Nonetheless, if the objective is simplicity of interface and, honestly, features … Substack works rather well.
But, I’ll be clear right here …
When it involves real marketing, I do not think there’s much question that BeeHiiv is much better matched. I searched for more points that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, yet frankly … I have a tough time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are commonly through to be the closest rivals, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are pursuing the same target market and have comparable capacities.
ConvertKit is also positioned at designers (like Substack), yet it is much more strongly catering to people that do it for business. ConvertKit has great aesthetic automation building, it’s very own commerce system, and more. ConvertKit is an actually good system.
I’m not mosting likely to bore you with a full feature-by-feature failure below. ConvertKit is popular currently. Yet, below’s how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has a lot more versatility when it concerns it’s automations. I will additionally claim that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit much more user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports identifying. This is just a standard feature of e-mail checklists that makes it possible for division in a far more versatile method than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to support tagging at some point soon, truthfully. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Pay What You Want.
ConvertKit does currently provide the capacity to offer points using their very own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that’s important to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would always select a more straight alternative anyway. For me, I choose to utilize my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been about a lot longer and for that reason has way a lot more integration choices. Lots of web-based devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their own WordPress plugin that is fairly effective. For example, their plugin now also sustains member-gated web content along with auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Basically, this much more closely places ConvertKit into direct competitors by having you be able to release to your site and your email checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is drastically doing not have in these sort of third-party integrations presently. It’ll get there. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even active dealing with the growth devices of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not only incentivize people to share your e-newsletter with advantages, yet you can likewise pay per lead within the internal advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your listing. These are actually outstanding features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you recognize ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of one of the most well known viral promo systems for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall wherefore this means for the platform going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Pay What You Want
BeeHiiv is a lot previously in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies much less features and less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. However, it additionally indicates that they are swiftly developing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have seen virtually once a week launch of brand-new features into the platform. And these aren’t undersized little features … but huge features that are quite important. Their speed of development at this moment has actually gone over.
I likewise quite value how responsive they are. As a matter of fact, one of their product statements regarding some layout enhancements to the website design features in fact included a tiny issue with the web content width. I simply responded to that e-mail to tell them. I quickly got a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That exact same day, the problem was taken care of.
Few days later, I provided another suggestion …
Certainly, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to trigger automations based on the embed form utilized was included in the system.
That type of responsiveness and direct involvement of the team is something I actually appreciate.
Another significant point of differentiation below is the price. Both systems offer free plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan uses more ability and even more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally even more favorable. ConvertKit seems less costly in the beginning look due to the fact that their pricing web page reveals reduced numbers, however the subscriber limits are much lower and your rate swiftly raises as your list expands.
With BeeHiiv, your first level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid every year), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That very same size checklist is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I directly use), you can grow your checklist approximately 100,000. A listing of that dimension would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, as well, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay each year, also. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv is in a totally various organization when it involves pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately boost costs? They could as time takes place. But, I’m thinking individuals like myself who are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see just how points continue.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
One of the important things you absolutely need to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do appear to progress instead promptly and make brand-new product statements rather frequently, yet there are some fundamental features I truly desire they had that I need to just wait for.
One is that they need to have a setup on subscription forms where I can select an automation to run right at the form level. That would certainly be incredible for so many reasons. Currently, membership kinds look OK, but there’s really little setups for them to aid in division.
It would be nice to have marking at the client level. This would certainly be effective.
I believe webhooks should be part of automations to make built-in automations much easier and decrease dependence on outside devices like Zapier.
There are likewise some small management user interface modifications that would come in handy. As an example:
- Ability to mass edit/remove subscribers.
- Capability to mass edit blog posts (for example, to identify a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of basic fields as conventional on clients (like the name).
- Some more customization choices for the internet site (such as more adaptable shade selections, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Things I hope they make with it in the future. BeeHiiv is respectable, yet it isn’t best and certainly not nearly as established as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM product.
It most likely never ever will be, either. As I said, the function is various so it would not much a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to come to be a full marketing automation system. I guess you never ever understand, though.
Final Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I like BeeHiiv rather a whole lot. Enough where I chose to switch my own e-newsletters over to the platform despite my individual choice for digital sovereignty and having my own platform.
Put simply, for the newsletter publishing model especially, I saw enough value in their platform to call for the adjustment.
Keep in mind, I do not utilize BeeHiiv as my exclusive e-mail listing. I use BeeHiiv wherefore it is good at, but I purposefully have things set up so that I likewise keep my checklist “in residence” within FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the same. It is simply a great insurance coverage, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your listing will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will certainly be).
So, the question is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are using Substack now, I ‘d certainly consider changing to BeeHiiv. It will simply be more business-friendly. It is targeting various capacities and various requirements. And also, BeeHiiv also has import tools for Substack, so the button ought to be pretty simple.
If you get on ConvertKit now, I ‘d most likely stay unless you have a huge email listing and are therefore being fleeced with their high month-to-month costs. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are iterating rapidly. There’s likewise a pretty good opportunity you’re not also utilizing several of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you do not also require them. For that reason, BeeHiiv could easily be a better and much more inexpensive fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be very intentional concerning growing an e-newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE system to take into consideration and keep and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is developed to be, it is one of the very best video games in the area right now. This is the platform to view.
BeeHiiv offers a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth taking a look at on your own. And if you wind up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll find the totally free account to be fairly feature abundant.