I have actually utilized a lot of various email list systems over the years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a huge proponent of digital sovereignty and having your very own system. Therefore (and the remarkable features), I have actually been utilizing Beehiiv Social Integrations.
So, it is certainly a strange move for me to choose to make use of BeeHiiv. Nevertheless, it is a held application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I intend to discuss why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I wish to address the issue of digital sovereignty while using the system and I ‘d also like to address why I picked to use it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For Newsletters
In Issue # 435 of my newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Huge Shift In Technique, I talked about just how and why I determined to transform my motor home blog site into mainly a newsletter. I determined that was the business model I wished to seek with that said residential property.
However, to intentionally seek it as a newsletter, I wanted a system that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the e-mail listing for Gladly recreational vehicle, but FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter system. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, frankly, utilizing it for e-newsletters is a little a waste. More on that particular in a little bit.
As I stated in that issue of the e-newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a system with tools built right into it particular to my purpose. Things such as:
- Capability to publish (to the blog site) and send out the e-mail all at once without having it be two separate activities.
- Built in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would have needed a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capacity to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are generally one-click membership web links. Great for promo 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 advertise your e-newsletter.
- Built-in advertisement network, if I pick to generate income from with advertisements in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated ability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and generally run a costs newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Essentially, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter authors with features aimed at development. The system was actually built by the people that accumulated the modern technology for Morning Mixture. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the point below. BeeHiiv is developed from the ground up for the purpose of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a different objective.
And I finished off with this:.
I might certainly be relocating The Edge over to BeeHiiv as well. At the very least, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. Actually, I just went all out. And in fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, triggered as it’s own residential property to make sure that I can expand it more intentionally as well.
The goal is that each newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown separately. Gladly motor home was young, so very easy to shift. But, The Early morning WP (formerly The Edge) was hidden in a sea of things 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 constantly be closely tied with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet doesn’t have to be a part of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv because it was developed for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Simply A Typical Email List
There’s a distinction between an e-newsletter system and simply an email list.
You can host your email checklist anywhere you want and there are a variety of them out there, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The key difference is that, with an e-newsletter platform, the act of posting suggests that it is mosting likely to your web site and to your email subscribers all at once.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are publishing to that web site. But, you are additionally sending to all clients at the same time. The website and it’s customers are done in one. This makes monitoring of the platform much simpler.
With most e-mail systems, any newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is developed entirely independently from your site. So, for example, you might release a post to WordPress yet then you would certainly require to separately develop and send out an e-mail to your list to send it to subscribers. These are then two separate collections of archives and 2 different actions since post and your emails are not naturally connected.
The closest point that turns WordPress into a true newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name since it practically “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and enables them to be the exact same point. Definitely, something like Newsletter Glue would certainly be a strong alternative if I intended to remain to self-host every little thing. Nonetheless, you ‘d lose the development tools that feature a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing an e-newsletter naturally features a various collection of needs than a normal email listing.
You do not usually require much marketing automation. You do not normally need autoresponder series, event monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO requirement, however, is one smooth publishing experience and development devices to assist you develop your customer base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my subscribers that I was going to switch over the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had lots of people ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the reality that I chose to choose BeeHiiv, that does not indicate I believe Substack sucks. As a matter of fact, because Substack has been around much longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a pair things that originally got my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly customized to newsletter publishers. As a matter of fact, it is actually built by the very same folks who developed the technology behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, does not matter. Yet, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv towards e-newsletter growth called me out over the more common positioning of being a “designer”. Growth is what I have an interest in here.
- That branding and differentiation likewise indicates that BeeHiiv has some fairly huge brand names and huge magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo creators. Once more, it just tells me the consumer avatar difference between both firms.
Sending our my e-newsletter by means of FluentCRM didn’t exactly draw. The only factor I would certainly contemplate shaking things up is if I believed I could GROW the list quicker. And BeeHiiv talked precisely to that goal.
Due to the targeting, I really don’t watch BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a different type of customer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra straight rivals.
Yet, allow’s dive much deeper than just the placing right here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Generally, BeeHiiv appears like it was constructed by individuals that understanding email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems a lot more geared towards designers.
For example, BeeHiiv offers personalized fields on clients. Currently, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. In fact, it is a visual automation builder that works a great deal like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation performance is still early-phase. It is still rather minimal in triggers and the only action is the capacity to send out an email. Nonetheless, improvements are coming. Soon sufficient, automations will certainly have brand-new triggers in addition to brand-new actions, such as modifying custom fields, sending webhooks, etc. I have actually already seen enhancements to their automations simply since I began utilizing the system. For instance:
- Ability to set off automations based upon which particular embed form they came in on.
- Ability to immediately do re-engagement (and manage people based on opens and non-opens).
- Ability to do basic conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never will. Substack just can’t do this since the target market of Substack just would not believe to approach this like an email marketing professional.
When it comes to writing your e-newsletters, the writing user interface of BeeHiiv is just more geared towards newsletters. In fact, it actually has similarities to the WordPress block builder in how it works. I locate it to be much more instinctive, directly.
Substack’s writing interface behaves and clean, but it would certainly be much more equal to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is greater than simply kind. For example, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Section” and after that put anything you desire in it. After that, you can put Exposure choices on that area to reveal it just to paid subscribers, conceal it from email, hide from subscribers, show just to clients, etc. Substack uses absolutely nothing like this.
And when/if the time comes that I begin a premium registration design, BeeHiiv does not take any kind of income. As a matter of fact, you essentially attach approximately your very own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your revenue. Depending on the number of clients you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit even more cash than the regular monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This may appear unpopular, yet what it suggests is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outside using tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … absolutely nothing. No integrations in any way.
In general, I simply felt like BeeHiiv was more constructed toward genuine e-mail marketing. It was developed by people who “get it”. Also the opt-in forms and the landing page develops seem much better built for conversions. Development is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I want to see BeeHiiv add, I like the direction it is going more than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have stated, Substack placements itself toward “developers” greater than e-mail online marketers and newsletter owners. Because of that, you see some points tailored much more towards individuals that just think in regards to content production.
As an example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does support several magazines, they are dealt with rather individually. Whereas Substack does have the ability to cross-post to numerous magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I need, yet … awesome for individuals that could need it.
Substack additionally has more social capability built-in. For example, it has a conversation feature to host talks with subscribers. It likewise has a “Notes” function which functions type of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you read. Interesting. Overall, Substack is set up to be more like a social media which sustains long-form material.
Overall, Substack is additionally extra … minimal. You either look after that or do not. Personally, I do not. Nonetheless, if the objective is simpleness of user interface and, honestly, features … Substack works pretty well.
But, I’ll be clear below …
When it involves real marketing, I do not believe there’s much question that BeeHiiv is better matched. I tried to find more factors that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, yet honestly … I have a tough time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are often through to be the closest rivals, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are pursuing the very same target audience and have similar capabilities.
ConvertKit is also placed at makers (like Substack), however it is far more strongly satisfying individuals who do it for organization. ConvertKit has great visual automation structure, it’s own commerce platform, and extra. ConvertKit is a truly good system.
I’m not mosting likely to bore you with a complete feature-by-feature malfunction here. ConvertKit is well known already. But, below’s how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Points ConvertKit Is Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has more adaptability when it pertains to it’s automations. I will likewise claim that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit extra intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports tagging. This is just a fundamental function of email listings that allows division in a much more flexible way than BeeHiiv currently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain marking eventually soon, honestly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Social Integrations.
ConvertKit does now offer the ability to market things using their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is very important to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would always pick a more direct option anyhow. For me, I favor to use my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been about much longer and for that reason has way much more integration options. Lots of online tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is fairly powerful. For instance, their plugin now even supports member-gated web content as well as auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Essentially, this more closely places ConvertKit into direct competition by having you be able to publish to your website and your e-mail listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is severely doing not have in these kinds of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll get there. Yet, 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 Suggestion Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with rewards, but you can additionally pay per lead within the internal advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your checklist. These are really remarkable features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you understand ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of one of the most popular viral promotion systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall surface for what this suggests for the system going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Social Integrations
BeeHiiv is a lot previously in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that indicates much less features and less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. Nonetheless, it additionally indicates that they are quickly creating.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually experienced virtually regular launch of brand-new features right into the platform. And these aren’t undersized little features … but large features that are fairly vital. Their speed of development now has gone over.
I likewise very much value just how responsive they are. Actually, one of their product news concerning some style improvements to the web design features really consisted of a small issue with the content size. I just responded to that email to tell them. I quickly obtained a reply directly from the chief executive officer:.
That same day, the concern was fixed.
Couple of days later on, I gave them one more suggestion …
Indeed, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to activate automations based on the embed form utilized was contributed to the system.
That kind of responsiveness and straight participation of the group is something I actually appreciate.
Another major point of differentiation right here is the price. Both systems supply cost-free plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan uses extra capability and even more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise FAR more positive. ConvertKit appears cheaper initially look because their pricing web page reveals reduced numbers, nonetheless the subscriber limits are much reduced and your price promptly boosts as your checklist grows.
With BeeHiiv, your initial level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid every year), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 clients. That same size listing is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I directly utilize), you can expand your checklist as much as 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 every year, as well. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay each year.
BeeHiiv remains in a totally various league when it pertains to pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately increase rates? They might as time goes on. However, I’m presuming individuals like myself that are already in will be locked-in. We’ll see just how things continue.
Points I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among the important things you certainly require to remember is that BeeHiiv is relatively young. They do appear to develop rather promptly and make brand-new product announcements rather frequently, however there are some standard features I really want they had that I require to just wait for.
One is that they need to have a setting on membership kinds where I could choose an automation to run right at the form degree. That would certainly be AWESOME for a lot of factors. Currently, membership types look OK, however there’s really little setups for them to assist in division.
It would behave to have labeling at the customer level. This would be powerful.
I believe webhooks need to be part of automations to make integrated automations simpler and lower reliance on outside tools like Zapier.
There are also some small administrative user interface adjustments that would certainly be handy. As an example:
- Capability to mass edit/remove customers.
- Ability to bulk edit articles (as an example, to identify a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a few standard fields as typical on clients (like the name).
- Some even more personalization choices for the internet site (such as more adaptable color choices, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Things I hope they perform with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t excellent and absolutely not virtually as established as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM product.
It probably never ever will certainly be, either. As I said, the purpose is different so it wouldn’t much a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to come to be a full marketing automation system. I think you never ever know, though.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Review
I such as BeeHiiv rather a great deal. Sufficient where I made a decision to switch my very own e-newsletters over to the platform regardless of my personal choice for digital sovereignty and owning my own system.
Basically, for the e-newsletter posting model specifically, I saw adequate value in their system to require the adjustment.
Remember, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my exclusive e-mail listing. I make use of BeeHiiv wherefore it is good at, yet I deliberately have things establish to ensure that I likewise maintain my checklist “in residence” within FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the same. It is just an excellent insurance coverage, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your list will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are utilizing Substack right now, I ‘d definitely consider switching to BeeHiiv. It will just be a lot more business-friendly. It is targeting different capacities and various needs. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the button ought to be quite straightforward.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d probably stay put unless you have a huge e-mail listing and are consequently being wooled with their high monthly costs. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are repeating quickly. There’s likewise a pretty good chance you’re not also utilizing several of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you do not also require them. For that reason, BeeHiiv might conveniently be a better and much more inexpensive fit.
Finally, if you plan to be really intentional about expanding an e-newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE system to consider and keep and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is designed to be, it is one of the most effective video games in the area right now. This is the platform to watch.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves taking a look at on your own. And if you end up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll locate the complimentary account to be quite feature rich.