I have utilized a lot of different email list systems throughout the years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a significant supporter of digital sovereignty and possessing your very own system. For that reason (and the amazing features), I have been utilizing Beehiiv RSS Feed.
So, it is without a doubt an unusual move for me to choose to utilize BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is an organized application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv evaluation, I want to discuss why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I intend to deal with the issue of digital sovereignty while using the platform and I ‘d likewise such as to resolve why I chose to utilize it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For Newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Big Change In Strategy, I discussed just how and why I made a decision to transform my recreational vehicle blog right into mostly a newsletter. I determined that was the business model I wished to go after keeping that building.
Yet, to purposefully pursue it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the email list for Happily RV, however FluentCRM is not a newsletter system. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, frankly, using it for newsletters is a little a waste. More on that in a bit.
As I claimed in that concern of the e-newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices built into it details to my purpose. Things such as:
- Capability to release (to the blog) and send the email all at once without having it be two different activities.
- Built in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capacity to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are primarily one-click registration web links. Great for promo in various other 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 e-newsletter.
- Built-in advertisement network, if I choose to monetize with ads in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and essentially run a premium newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter authors with features targeted at growth. The platform was actually built by the individuals who accumulated the modern technology for Early morning Mixture. They recognize 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 different purpose.
And I ended off with this:.
I may undoubtedly be relocating The Edge over to BeeHiiv too. At the very least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. Actually, I just went all out. And in fact, The side was re-branded over to The Morning WP, set off as it’s own home so that I can expand it extra intentionally too.
The goal is that each e-newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded independently. Gladly motor home was young, so easy to transition. However, The Morning WP (previously The Edge) 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 grow it on it’s own. It will undoubtedly always be carefully linked with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet doesn’t need to be a part of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv since it was developed for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Just A Typical Email Checklist
There’s a distinction in between a newsletter system and simply an email checklist.
You can organize your e-mail listing anywhere 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 primary distinction is that, with a newsletter platform, the act of posting suggests that it is mosting likely to your site and to your e-mail subscribers concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are releasing to that website. However, you are also sending to all customers at the same time. The website and it’s clients are all in one. This makes monitoring of the platform much simpler.
With many email systems, any type of e-newsletter you set up is done as an e-mail campaign. It is built completely independently from your web site. So, for instance, you may release a post to WordPress however then you would need to independently develop and send out an email to your list to send it to subscribers. These are after that 2 separate sets of archives and two different activities since blog posts and your e-mails are not inherently connected.
The closest point that transforms WordPress into a real e-newsletter system is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name since it virtually “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress posts and allows them to be the same point. Definitely, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid alternative if I intended to remain to self-host everything. Nevertheless, you would certainly shed the growth tools that feature a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing an e-newsletter inherently features a different collection of demands than a regular e-mail checklist.
You don’t typically need much marketing automation. You do not usually need autoresponder series, occasion tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO demand, though, is one seamless posting experience and development tools to assist you develop your client base that are specific to 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 fact that I picked to select BeeHiiv, that does not mean I think Substack draws. Actually, since Substack has actually been around longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is younger, there are a pair points that at first obtained my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly tailored to newsletter authors. In fact, it is literally constructed by the same people who constructed the modern technology behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real life, doesn’t matter. However, the apparent positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter growth called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “designer”. Growth is what I want here.
- That branding and distinction likewise indicates that BeeHiiv has some rather big brands and huge publications using it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo developers. Once again, it simply tells me the customer avatar difference in between both business.
Sending our my newsletter using FluentCRM didn’t specifically suck. The only reason I would contemplate trembling points up is if I assumed I can GROW the list faster. And BeeHiiv talked exactly to that objective.
As a result of the targeting, I really don’t view BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a different type of customer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more straight competitors.
But, let’s dive deeper than just the placing right here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv appears like it was developed by people that recognizing email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems a lot more tailored toward creators.
For instance, BeeHiiv offers customized fields on clients. Now, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv supplies Automations. Actually, it is a visual automation builder that functions a lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still rather minimal in triggers and the only activity is the capacity to send out an e-mail. Nevertheless, improvements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will have brand-new triggers along with new actions, such as changing personalized areas, sending out webhooks, and so on. I’ve currently seen improvements to their automations just since I began utilizing the platform. For example:
- Ability to trigger automations based on which particular embed type they can be found in on.
- Ability to automatically do re-engagement (and manage people based upon opens and non-opens).
- Ability to do standard conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can’t do this since the target audience of Substack simply would not think to approach this like an e-mail marketing expert.
When it pertains to writing your e-newsletters, the composing interface of BeeHiiv is simply more geared towards e-newsletters. As a matter of fact, it in fact has similarities to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it functions. I find it to be extra user-friendly, directly.
Substack’s composing interface behaves and tidy, yet it would be much more equal to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This distinction is greater than just form. For example, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Area” and after that placed anything you desire in it. Then, you can put Visibility options on that particular section to show it just to paid customers, conceal it from email, hide from customers, show only to subscribers, etc. Substack uses absolutely nothing similar to this.
And when/if the moment comes that I start a costs registration model, BeeHiiv does not take any kind of earnings. As a matter of fact, you actually attach approximately your very own Stripe account and it charges straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your profits. Depending on how many clients you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit even more money than the regular monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This could seem unpopular, but what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv deal with the outside utilizing tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … nothing. No integrations whatsoever.
Generally, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was extra built toward genuine e-mail marketing. It was constructed by people who “get it”. Also the opt-in kinds and the landing page designs seem better constructed for conversions. Development is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I wish to see BeeHiiv add, I such as the direction it is going greater than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually said, Substack positions itself toward “makers” more than e-mail marketing professionals and newsletter owners. For that reason, you see some things geared much more towards individuals that simply believe in terms of content production.
As an example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does sustain several publications, they are treated rather independently. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to several magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I require, however … great for individuals that may require it.
Substack likewise has more social capability built-in. For instance, it has a chat feature to host chats with clients. It additionally has a “Notes” feature which functions type of like a social media newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you read. Fascinating. Overall, Substack is set up to be more like a social media network which supports long-form content.
Generally, Substack is likewise a lot more … minimal. You either look after that or don’t. Directly, I do not. Nonetheless, if the objective is simplicity of interface and, frankly, features … Substack works pretty well.
However, I’ll be clear right here …
When it involves actual marketing, I don’t think there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is better fit. I tried to find more points that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, yet truthfully … I have a difficult time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are typically with to be the closest rivals, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are going after the same target market and have similar abilities.
ConvertKit is likewise placed at creators (like Substack), yet it is much more strongly dealing with individuals who do it for service. ConvertKit has nice aesthetic automation building, it’s very own business platform, and more. ConvertKit is a truly nice platform.
I’m not mosting likely to bore you with a full feature-by-feature malfunction here. ConvertKit is well known currently. However, here’s how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Things ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has more adaptability when it concerns it’s automations. I will certainly likewise say that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit extra instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports marking. This is just a standard function of e-mail listings that enables segmentation in a far more adaptable method than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to support marking at some point quickly, truthfully. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv RSS Feed.
ConvertKit does currently offer the capacity to offer things via their own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is very important to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would certainly always pick a more straight choice anyway. For me, I like to use my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been around much longer and because of that has way a lot more integration options. Tons of online tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their own WordPress plugin that is fairly powerful. For example, their plugin now also supports member-gated material along with auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Basically, this a lot more very closely puts ConvertKit right into straight competition by having you be able to publish to your site and your email listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is significantly doing not have in these sort of third-party integrations currently. It’ll arrive. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even busy tackling the growth 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 newsletter with perks, yet you can additionally pay per lead within the internal ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your list. These are actually amazing features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you recognize ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of one of the most well known viral promo systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall of what this suggests for the system moving forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv RSS Feed
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that indicates less features and less integrations, which is all-natural for this phase of the cycle. Nevertheless, it also indicates that they are swiftly establishing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually experienced practically once a week launch of brand-new features right into the platform. And these aren’t puny little features … however big features that are fairly essential. Their speed of growth now has gone over.
I likewise quite value just how responsive they are. As a matter of fact, among their product announcements regarding some style enhancements to the web design features really had a small issue with the material size. I simply replied to that e-mail to tell them. I rapidly got a reply directly from the chief executive officer:.
That very same day, the concern was repaired.
Couple of days later, I provided another pointer …
Certainly, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to activate automations based upon the embed kind utilized was added to the system.
That type of responsiveness and direct participation of the team is something I really appreciate.
Another major factor of differentiation below is the price. Both platforms use cost-free plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan uses a lot more capacity and more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
As soon as you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally even more positive. ConvertKit appears more affordable initially glance because their pricing page reveals reduced numbers, however the subscriber limits are much reduced and your price swiftly increases as your checklist expands.
With BeeHiiv, your very first level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid each year), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 clients. That exact same size list is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their ideal plan and the one I directly utilize), you can expand your listing up to 100,000. A list of that size would 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 yearly, as well. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for simply $84/month if you pay each year.
BeeHiiv remains in a completely various league when it comes to pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately raise prices? They could as time takes place. Yet, I’m presuming individuals like myself who are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how points proceed.
Things I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among the things you certainly require to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do seem to evolve instead quickly and make brand-new product news somewhat commonly, however there are some fundamental features I truly desire they had that I need to just wait on.
One is that they require to have a setting on subscription types where I can choose an automation to run right at the type degree. That would be incredible for numerous factors. Currently, membership kinds look OK, but there’s very little settings for them to help in segmentation.
It would be nice to have labeling at the client degree. This would be powerful.
I believe webhooks need to become part of automations to make integrated automations easier and reduce dependence on outside tools like Zapier.
There are also some small management interface modifications that would certainly be handy. As an example:
- Capacity to mass edit/remove customers.
- Capacity to bulk edit blog posts (for example, to tag a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of fundamental areas as standard on customers (like the name).
- Some even more modification alternatives for the site (such as even more flexible color choices, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Points I wish they finish with it in the future. BeeHiiv is respectable, yet it isn’t ideal and definitely not almost as established as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM item.
It possibly never ever will certainly be, either. As I claimed, the objective is various so it wouldn’t a lot a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to end up being a full marketing automation platform. I think you never understand, however.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Review
I like BeeHiiv quite a great deal. Sufficient where I determined to change my very own newsletters over to the system in spite of my personal preference for digital sovereignty and owning my own system.
Basically, for the e-newsletter posting version especially, I saw sufficient value in their system to require the change.
Keep in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my special email listing. I use BeeHiiv wherefore it is good at, but I intentionally have points establish so that I likewise maintain my checklist “in residence” within FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the same. It is simply an excellent insurance policy, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your listing will be of high use (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will certainly be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are utilizing Substack today, I ‘d definitely consider switching over to BeeHiiv. It will just be much more business-friendly. It is targeting various abilities and different requirements. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the button should be quite simple.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d most likely stay unless you have a large email checklist and are consequently being fleeced with their high monthly expense. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are repeating quickly. There’s likewise a pretty good chance you’re not also utilizing a few of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you don’t also require them. For that reason, BeeHiiv could conveniently be a much better and much more budget friendly fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be really intentional concerning expanding an e-newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE system to take into consideration and maintain and eye on for you.
If you utilize BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is made to be, it is just one of the best video games in the area now. This is the system to view.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves looking into for yourself. And if you end up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll find the complimentary account to be fairly feature rich.