I have actually used a great deal of various e-mail list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a huge proponent of digital sovereignty and having your very own platform. Therefore (and the awesome features), I have been using Beehiiv Revenue.
So, it is undoubtedly a strange 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 review, I wish to look at why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I intend to attend to the issue of digital sovereignty while utilizing the system and I would certainly also such as to resolve why I chose to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For E-newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Pastime + A Huge Shift In Strategy, I spoke about exactly how and why I chose to turn my recreational vehicle blog right into mainly an e-newsletter. I chose that was the business version I wanted to go after with that said residential property.
However, to deliberately seek it as a newsletter, I desired a system that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the e-mail listing for Happily motor home, however FluentCRM is not a newsletter system. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, honestly, using it for newsletters is a bit of a waste. Much more on that in a little bit.
As I stated because problem of the newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices developed into it details to my function. Things such as:
- Ability to release (to the blog site) and send out the e-mail at the same time without having it be two separate activities.
- Constructed in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would certainly have needed a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capability to do cross-promotions with various other newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are generally one-click registration web links. Great for promotion in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are means to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your newsletter.
- Integrated advertisement network, if I pick to generate income from with advertisements in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capacity to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and generally run a premium e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Basically, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter authors with features aimed at development. The platform was literally developed by the people who built up the innovation for Early morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the point below. BeeHiiv is constructed from scratch for the objective of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a various function.
And I ended off with this:.
I may indeed be relocating The Side over to BeeHiiv as well. At the very least, I’m highly 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 Morning WP, triggered as it’s very own residential or commercial property so that I can grow it a lot more intentionally also.
The goal is that each newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown individually. Gladly RV was young, so easy to shift. But, The Early morning WP (formerly The Edge) was hidden in a sea of stuff right here at the Blog Site 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 tied with the Blog site Marketing Academy, however doesn’t need to be a part of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv because it was built for this function. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Simply A Typical Email Listing
There’s a difference between a newsletter system and just an email checklist.
You can hold your email listing everywhere you want and there are a variety of them around, 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 indicates that it is mosting likely to your site and to your e-mail clients concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are publishing to that website. However, you are additionally sending to all subscribers at the same time. The internet site and it’s clients are done in one. This makes management of the platform much simpler.
With the majority of email systems, any type of newsletter you set up is done as an e-mail campaign. It is built totally independently from your website. So, as an example, you might publish a short article to WordPress yet then you would certainly require to independently develop and send out an email to your listing to send it to clients. These are then 2 separate sets of archives and two different activities because post and your emails are not naturally linked.
The closest thing that turns WordPress right into a true e-newsletter system is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name since it practically “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress articles and permits them to be the very same thing. Definitely, something like Newsletter Glue would be a solid option if I intended to continue to self-host every little thing. Nevertheless, you ‘d shed the development devices that come with a platform like BeeHiiv.
Posting a newsletter naturally includes a various set of needs than a common email checklist.
You do not typically need much marketing automation. You don’t generally require autoresponder sequences, occasion tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO need, though, is one smooth publishing experience and development tools to aid you develop your subscriber base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my customers that I was going to switch over the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many people ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the truth that I chose to go with BeeHiiv, that doesn’t suggest I believe Substack sucks. In fact, because Substack has actually been around longer, it is elder and has more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple things that initially got my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly tailored to e-newsletter publishers. Actually, it is actually constructed by the exact same people who constructed the innovation behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real world, doesn’t matter. But, the obvious positioning of BeeHiiv toward e-newsletter growth called me out over the more generic positioning of being a “creator”. Growth is what I’m interested in here.
- That branding and distinction likewise suggests that BeeHiiv has some rather big brands and large magazines utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo makers. Once again, it just tells me the consumer character distinction in between the two companies.
Sending our my e-newsletter through FluentCRM didn’t exactly suck. The only reason I would certainly consider shaking points up is if I thought I can GROW the listing quicker. And BeeHiiv spoke exactly to that goal.
As a result of the targeting, I really do not watch BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a different kind of consumer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra direct competitors.
But, allow’s dive deeper than simply the positioning here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
On the whole, BeeHiiv feels like it was constructed by individuals who recognizing e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears extra geared towards developers.
As an example, BeeHiiv offers custom-made areas on customers. Currently, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. In fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that functions a great deal 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 action is the ability to send an email. Nevertheless, improvements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will certainly have new triggers in addition to brand-new actions, such as customizing custom fields, sending out webhooks, and so on. I have actually currently seen enhancements to their automations just since I started using the platform. As an example:
- Capability to cause automations based on which specific embed type they can be found in on.
- Ability to instantly do re-engagement (and handle individuals based on opens and non-opens).
- Capacity to do basic conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never will. Substack just can not do this due to the fact that the target audience of Substack just would not believe to approach this like an e-mail marketing professional.
When it comes to creating your newsletters, the writing interface of BeeHiiv is just extra tailored toward newsletters. As a matter of fact, it actually has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in how it functions. I locate it to be more intuitive, directly.
Substack’s creating interface behaves and clean, but it would be more equal to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This difference is more than simply kind. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Area” and afterwards put anything you want in it. Then, you can put Exposure alternatives on that particular area to reveal it just to paid subscribers, conceal it from e-mail, conceal from clients, reveal just to customers, etc. Substack offers nothing such as this.
And when/if the time comes that I begin a premium subscription design, BeeHiiv does not take any income. In fact, you essentially attach up to your very own Stripe account and it bills directly to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your earnings. Depending upon how many customers you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit more cash than the month-to-month cost of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This may appear unpopular, but what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv deal with the outside making use of devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … nothing. No integrations in any way.
Generally, I simply felt like BeeHiiv was more constructed toward genuine email marketing. It was constructed by individuals that “get it”. Even the opt-in kinds and the landing page develops seem better constructed for conversions. Growth is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I wish to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the instructions it is going more than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have said, Substack settings itself towards “developers” greater than e-mail online marketers and e-newsletter owners. Therefore, you see some things geared more towards individuals that just believe in terms of content production.
As an example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does sustain numerous publications, they are dealt with quite separately. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to several magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I need, but … cool for individuals that may need it.
Substack additionally has more social capability built-in. For instance, it has a conversation feature to host talks with customers. It additionally has a “Notes” function which works sort of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you read. Intriguing. On the whole, Substack is established to be more like a social network which supports long-form content.
In general, Substack is likewise extra … minimalist. You either look after that or do not. Personally, I don’t. Nevertheless, if the objective is simplicity of user interface and, honestly, features … Substack functions rather well.
But, I’ll be clear here …
When it concerns real marketing, I do not assume there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is better fit. I looked for more points that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, but frankly … I have a difficult time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are frequently through to be the closest rivals, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are going after the very same target audience and have comparable abilities.
ConvertKit is also positioned at designers (like Substack), however it is much more highly satisfying individuals who do it for organization. ConvertKit has nice aesthetic automation building, it’s very own commerce system, and much more. ConvertKit is an actually great platform.
I’m not mosting likely to bore you with a full feature-by-feature malfunction right here. ConvertKit is popular already. Yet, here’s how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Points ConvertKit Is Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has extra versatility when it pertains to it’s automations. I will certainly likewise say that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit extra user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports labeling. This is just a fundamental function of email checklists that allows division in an even more flexible way than BeeHiiv currently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to sustain marking eventually soon, truthfully. It seems like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Revenue.
ConvertKit does currently supply the capacity to offer things through their very own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is very important to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would certainly constantly choose a more straight alternative anyhow. For me, I prefer to utilize my own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been about a lot longer and therefore has way much more integration choices. Tons of online devices and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is fairly effective. For example, their plugin now even supports member-gated web content in addition to auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Fundamentally, this a lot more closely places ConvertKit right into direct competition by having you be able to publish to your site and your e-mail listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is badly lacking in these sort of third-party integrations right now. It’ll arrive. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even busy taking on the growth devices of BeeHiiv. As an example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not just incentivize people to share your e-newsletter with advantages, but you can likewise pay per lead within the interior ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your checklist. These are truly remarkable features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you recognize ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of the most popular viral promo platforms for e-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 Better At … Beehiiv Revenue
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that suggests less features and much less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. However, it additionally suggests that they are rapidly creating.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually seen almost regular launch of brand-new features right into the system. And these aren’t undersized little features … however huge features that are fairly crucial. Their speed of development at this moment has been impressive.
I additionally significantly value exactly how receptive they are. In fact, one of their product news about some layout improvements to the website design features actually consisted of a little issue with the material size. I simply responded to that e-mail 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 idea …
Indeed, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to cause automations based upon the embed kind made use of was contributed to the system.
That kind of responsiveness and straight participation of the team is something I really value.
An additional significant point of distinction right here is the cost. Both systems use complimentary plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan supplies a lot more ability and more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally even more beneficial. ConvertKit appears more affordable initially look because their pricing page shows lower numbers, however the client limitations are much reduced and your cost rapidly increases as your list grows.
With BeeHiiv, your very first degree paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid annually), however you can have up to 10,000 customers. That exact same size checklist is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their best plan and the one I directly utilize), you can grow your checklist as much as 100,000. A list of that size would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, too, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay annually, as well. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay yearly.
BeeHiiv remains in a completely different league when it comes to pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately raise rates? They might as time takes place. However, I’m guessing people like myself who are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see how things continue.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
One of the important things you certainly require to remember is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do seem to advance instead promptly and make new product announcements rather frequently, yet there are some standard features I really want they had that I require to simply wait on.
One is that they need to have a setup on membership types where I might pick an automation to run right at the type degree. That would certainly be incredible for so many reasons. As of now, registration types look OK, yet there’s very little setups for them to help in division.
It would certainly be nice to have labeling at the customer degree. This would be effective.
I assume webhooks ought to become part of automations to make integrated automations less complicated and reduce dependence on outdoors tools like Zapier.
There are also some small administrative user interface changes that would certainly come in handy. As an example:
- Capacity to bulk edit/remove clients.
- Capacity to mass edit articles (as an example, to mark a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of fundamental areas as basic on customers (like the name).
- Some even more personalization alternatives for the internet site (such as more versatile color selections, headline control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Things I hope they perform with it in the future. BeeHiiv is respectable, but it isn’t ideal and definitely not virtually as established as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM product.
It most likely never ever will be, either. As I claimed, the function is various so it would not much a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to become a complete marketing automation system. I presume you never recognize, however.
Last Ideas On This BeeHiiv Review
I like BeeHiiv fairly a whole lot. Enough where I made a decision to switch my very own e-newsletters over to the platform in spite of my individual preference for digital sovereignty and owning my own system.
Simply put, for the newsletter publishing design specifically, I saw enough value in their system to call for the adjustment.
Bear in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my exclusive e-mail listing. I make use of BeeHiiv wherefore it is good at, yet I intentionally have points set up to make sure that I also maintain my list “in home” within FluentCRM.
If you make use of BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the exact same. It is just a good insurance plan, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your list will certainly be of high usage (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will certainly be).
So, the question is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my point of view, if you are making use of Substack today, I ‘d most definitely think about changing to BeeHiiv. It will just be much more business-friendly. It is targeting different abilities and various demands. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the switch ought to be quite uncomplicated.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d possibly stay unless you have a huge email checklist and are for that reason being wooled with their high monthly bill. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are repeating rapidly. There’s likewise a respectable chance you’re not also making use of a few of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you don’t also need them. Because of that, BeeHiiv might quickly be a much better and extra cost effective fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be extremely deliberate regarding growing an e-newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE platform to consider and keep 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 the area now. This is the platform to enjoy.
BeeHiiv uses a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves checking out for yourself. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll locate the totally free account to be quite feature abundant.