I have utilized a great deal of various email list systems over the years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a big proponent of digital sovereignty and possessing your own platform. Therefore (and the remarkable features), I have been using Beehiiv Premium Only Subscription.
So, it is without a doubt an unusual move for me to make a decision to use BeeHiiv. After all, it is a hosted application and I am paying regular monthly 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 want to attend to the concern of digital sovereignty while utilizing the system and I would certainly likewise such as to deal with why I selected to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For E-newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my newsletter called My Hobby + A Large Shift In Method, I talked about exactly how and why I made a decision to transform my RV blog site right into largely an e-newsletter. I made a decision that was business design I intended to pursue keeping that home.
However, to deliberately seek it as a newsletter, I desired a system that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the email list for Happily motor home, but FluentCRM is not a newsletter platform. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, frankly, utilizing it for newsletters is a little bit of a waste. A lot more on that particular in a little bit.
As I claimed in that problem of the e-newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a system with devices built into it certain to my function. Things such as:
- Capacity to publish (to the blog) and send the e-mail all at once without having it be 2 separate activities.
- Integrated in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would have needed a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Built-in ability to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are generally one-click membership web links. Great for promotion in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are methods to do that.
- Capacity to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your e-newsletter.
- Built-in ad network, if I select to generate income from with ads in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and basically run a costs newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Basically, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features targeted at development. The system was essentially constructed by the people who accumulated the innovation for Early morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the point right here. BeeHiiv is developed from the ground up for the objective of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a various objective.
And I finished off with this:.
I might certainly be moving The Side over to BeeHiiv as well. At least, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. In fact, I just went for it. And as a matter of fact, The side was re-branded over to The Morning WP, set off as it’s very own residential or commercial property to ensure that I can expand it a lot more intentionally too.
The objective is that each e-newsletter has the capability to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded individually. Happily motor home was young, so simple to transition. But, The Morning WP (formerly The Side) was buried in a sea of stuff below 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 undoubtedly always be closely tied with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet does not need to be a part of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv because it was constructed for this function. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Simply A Normal Email List
There’s a difference in between an e-newsletter platform and simply an e-mail listing.
You can organize your e-mail checklist just about anywhere you want and there are a number of them available, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The primary difference is that, with an e-newsletter system, the act of posting implies that it is going to your site and to your e-mail customers simultaneously.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are publishing to that web site. Yet, you are additionally sending to all subscribers at the same time. The internet site and it’s clients are done in one. This makes administration of the system much simpler.
With most e-mail systems, any type of newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is built totally separately from your website. So, for instance, you might release a short article to WordPress yet then you would certainly need to independently build and send out an email to your list to send it to customers. These are then two separate sets of archives and two separate actions due to the fact that blog posts and your e-mails are not inherently connected.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress right into a true e-newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name since it virtually “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and allows them to be the exact same thing. Absolutely, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a strong alternative if I wished to continue to self-host everything. Nonetheless, you ‘d shed the development tools that feature a platform like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter inherently features a different collection of requirements than a regular email checklist.
You don’t usually need much marketing automation. You do not usually need autoresponder sequences, occasion tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO demand, however, is one smooth publishing experience and growth devices to aid you build your customer base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my subscribers that I was mosting likely to switch the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the fact that I picked to select BeeHiiv, that does not suggest I think Substack sucks. Actually, due to the fact that Substack has been around longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple things that originally obtained my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically customized to e-newsletter publishers. As a matter of fact, it is actually developed by the same folks who built the innovation behind Early morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real life, does not matter. However, the evident positioning of BeeHiiv towards e-newsletter development called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “developer”. Growth is what I’m interested in right here.
- That branding and distinction additionally suggests that BeeHiiv has some relatively huge brand names and large magazines utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo makers. Once more, it simply tells me the customer character distinction in between the two companies.
Sending our my newsletter by means of FluentCRM really did not exactly suck. The only factor I would certainly contemplate shaking things up is if I thought I could GROW the checklist quicker. And BeeHiiv spoke precisely to that objective.
As a result of the targeting, I in fact don’t watch BeeHiiv and Substack as direct competitors. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a different kind of consumer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more straight competitors.
Yet, allow’s dive deeper than simply the positioning below.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv seems like it was built by individuals that understanding e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears more geared toward designers.
For instance, BeeHiiv supplies personalized areas on clients. Currently, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. In fact, 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 quite minimal in triggers and the only action is the capability to send an e-mail. However, enhancements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will certainly have new triggers along with brand-new actions, such as customizing custom-made areas, sending webhooks, and so on. I have actually already seen improvements to their automations just given that I began using the system. For example:
- Capability to trigger automations based on which particular embed form they can be found in on.
- Capability to automatically do re-engagement (and manage individuals based on opens and non-opens).
- Capability to do fundamental conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack simply can’t do this since the target audience of Substack just wouldn’t think to approach this like an e-mail marketing professional.
When it pertains to writing your newsletters, the writing user interface of BeeHiiv is simply a lot more tailored toward e-newsletters. As a matter of fact, it actually has similarities to the WordPress block builder in just how it functions. I find it to be extra instinctive, directly.
Substack’s composing interface behaves and clean, however it would be a lot more equivalent to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This difference is greater than simply form. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Area” and after that put anything you desire in it. Then, you can put Presence choices on that area to show it only to paid clients, conceal it from e-mail, hide from customers, reveal only to customers, and so on. Substack uses nothing like this.
And when/if the time comes that I start a premium membership model, BeeHiiv does not take any kind of revenue. In fact, you literally attach up to your very own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your revenue. Relying on the number of customers you get, that 10% can be quite a bit even more money than the monthly price of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This might seem unpopular, but what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outdoors utilizing devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … absolutely nothing. No integrations whatsoever.
Overall, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was extra constructed towards real email marketing. It was developed by people that “get it”. Even the opt-in types and the landing page makes seem better developed 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 direction it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have claimed, Substack settings itself towards “makers” greater than email marketing professionals and e-newsletter proprietors. Therefore, you see some points geared extra toward individuals who simply assume in regards to content development.
For instance, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does sustain multiple magazines, they are dealt with rather individually. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to several magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, but … great for individuals that could need it.
Substack additionally has even more social capability built-in. For instance, it has a conversation function to host chats with customers. It likewise has a “Notes” feature which functions kind of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you’re reading. Fascinating. Overall, Substack is set up to be extra like a social media which sustains long-form material.
Overall, Substack is also more … minimalist. You either look after that or don’t. Directly, I do not. Nonetheless, if the goal is simpleness of interface and, truthfully, 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 looked for more factors that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, but truthfully … I have a hard time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are typically with to be the closest competitors, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are pursuing the same target market and have similar capacities.
ConvertKit is additionally placed at makers (like Substack), yet it is much more strongly dealing with individuals that do it for service. ConvertKit has good visual automation structure, it’s very own business platform, and much more. ConvertKit is a truly great system.
I’m not going to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature malfunction here. ConvertKit is popular already. However, below’s just how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has extra adaptability when it pertains 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 tagging. This is just a basic function of e-mail lists that makes it possible for segmentation in an even more versatile way than BeeHiiv currently does. I expect BeeHiiv to support identifying eventually quickly, truthfully. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Premium Only Subscription.
ConvertKit does now supply the capacity to sell points using their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is very important to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would always choose an extra direct alternative anyway. For me, I choose to use my own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been around much longer and for that reason has way extra integration options. Tons of online devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is quite powerful. For instance, their plugin now even supports member-gated material along with auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your website. Essentially, this much more very closely places ConvertKit into direct competition by having you have the ability to publish to your site and your e-mail listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is significantly lacking in these kinds of third-party integrations presently. It’ll get there. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even busy taking on the development tools of BeeHiiv. As an example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not just incentivize people to share your newsletter with advantages, yet you can additionally pay per lead within the inner ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your list. These are really incredible features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you recognize ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of one of the most well known viral promo platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall surface for what this implies for the platform going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Premium Only Subscription
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that indicates much less features and less integrations, which is natural for this stage of the cycle. Nevertheless, it likewise implies that they are quickly developing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually experienced virtually once a week release of brand-new features right into the system. And these aren’t weak little features … yet huge features that are fairly crucial. Their rate of development at this moment has been impressive.
I also significantly appreciate exactly how responsive they are. As a matter of fact, one of their product announcements about some layout enhancements to the web design features in fact had a small trouble with the web content size. I simply replied to that email to tell them. I rapidly got a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That same day, the concern was taken care of.
Couple of days later on, I gave them one more pointer …
Certainly, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to set off automations based on the embed form made use of was contributed to the system.
That type of responsiveness and straight involvement of the group is something I truly value.
An additional significant factor of distinction here is the cost. Both platforms offer complimentary plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan provides a lot more ability 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 favorable. ConvertKit seems more affordable at first glimpse since their pricing web page shows reduced numbers, nonetheless the subscriber limitations are FAR lower and your price quickly boosts as your checklist grows.
With BeeHiiv, your very first level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid annually), however you can have up to 10,000 customers. That very same dimension checklist is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their best plan and the one I personally use), you can grow your listing approximately 100,000. A list of that dimension would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, also, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay each year, also. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay annually.
BeeHiiv remains in a totally various league when it pertains to pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point increase rates? They could as time goes on. However, I’m presuming people like myself that are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how things proceed.
Things I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Add
Among the important things you certainly need to remember is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do seem to develop instead swiftly and make brand-new item statements somewhat frequently, but there are some basic features I truly desire they had that I need to simply wait for.
One is that they require to have a setting on registration kinds where I can select an automation to run right at the kind degree. That would be amazing for a lot of factors. As of now, membership kinds look OK, however there’s very little setups for them to help in segmentation.
It would certainly be nice to have labeling at the customer degree. This would certainly be powerful.
I assume webhooks should belong to automations to make built-in automations less complicated and reduce reliance on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are likewise some minor administrative user interface modifications that would certainly come in handy. For example:
- Ability to bulk edit/remove customers.
- Capability to bulk edit articles (for example, to identify a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a few fundamental areas as conventional on clients (like the name).
- Some even more modification options for the website (such as more versatile shade choices, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Things I hope they finish with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, yet it isn’t ideal and definitely not almost as created as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM item.
It most likely never will be, either. As I claimed, the objective is various so it would not much a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to end up being a complete marketing automation platform. I think you never ever recognize, though.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I such as BeeHiiv rather a whole lot. Enough where I made a decision to change my own newsletters over to the platform despite my individual choice for digital sovereignty and possessing my very own system.
Simply put, for the newsletter publishing design especially, I saw sufficient value in their system to warrant the change.
Keep in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my unique email checklist. I utilize BeeHiiv wherefore it is efficient, however I deliberately have things establish so that I additionally maintain my list “in home” inside of FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the exact same. It is just a great insurance policy, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your checklist will be of high use (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will certainly be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are using Substack today, I ‘d certainly consider changing to BeeHiiv. It will simply be more business-friendly. It is targeting different capabilities and different requirements. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the button needs to be rather uncomplicated.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d possibly stay put unless you have a big e-mail listing and are therefore being fleeced with their high monthly bill. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are iterating quickly. There’s also a respectable possibility you’re not even utilizing a few of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not also require them. Because of that, BeeHiiv might conveniently be a better and a lot more cost effective fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be extremely willful concerning expanding an e-newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE system to take into consideration and maintain and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is developed to be, it is one of the very best games in town now. This is the system to view.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves having a look at on your own. And if you wind up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll discover the cost-free account to be quite feature abundant.