I have actually utilized a great deal of various e-mail list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a huge advocate of digital sovereignty and owning your own platform. Therefore (and the incredible features), I have actually been utilizing Beehiiv VICE.
So, it is certainly an unusual move for me to make a decision to make use of BeeHiiv. After all, it is a hosted application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I intend to review why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I wish to attend to the problem of digital sovereignty while using the platform and I ‘d likewise such as to attend to why I picked to utilize it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For E-newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my newsletter called My Hobby + A Large Shift In Technique, I talked about how and why I determined to turn my RV blog into largely an e-newsletter. I determined that was business version I wanted to seek keeping that home.
Yet, to deliberately seek it as an e-newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the email checklist for Gladly RV, yet FluentCRM is not a newsletter platform. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, honestly, using it for e-newsletters is a little a waste. A lot more on that particular in a bit.
As I claimed because concern of the newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a system with devices constructed right into it specific to my purpose. Points such as:
- Capacity to release (to the blog) and send out the e-mail concurrently without having it be two different actions.
- Integrated in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would require a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capacity to do cross-promotions with other newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are basically one-click membership web links. Great for promotion in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, however, so there are methods to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Integrated advertisement network, if I pick to generate income from with advertisements in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and generally run a costs e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Essentially, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter authors with features focused on growth. The platform was essentially built by the individuals that built up the modern technology for Early morning Mixture. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the point here. BeeHiiv is developed from the ground up for the purpose of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different purpose.
And I finished off with this:.
I may without a doubt be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv too. At least, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. As a matter of fact, I simply went all out. And as a matter of fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Morning WP, triggered as it’s very own building so that I can expand it extra deliberately also.
The objective is that each newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded individually. Happily recreational vehicle was young, so easy to transition. But, The Early morning WP (formerly The Edge) was buried in a sea of things here at the Blog Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s very own. It will undoubtedly always be carefully linked with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet does not have to belong of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv because it was constructed for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Typical Email Listing
There’s a difference between a newsletter platform and just an email checklist.
You can hold your e-mail listing anyplace you want and there are a variety of them around, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The main difference is that, with a newsletter system, the act of publishing implies that it is going to your internet site and to your email subscribers at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are publishing to that web site. But, you are additionally dispatching to all subscribers at the same time. The website and it’s subscribers are all in one. This makes administration of the system much simpler.
With the majority of e-mail platforms, any kind of newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is built completely independently from your website. So, for example, you might release a short article to WordPress yet then you would certainly need to separately construct and send out an email to your listing to send it to customers. These are after that 2 different sets of archives and two different actions because blog posts and your e-mails are not naturally connected.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress right into a true e-newsletter platform is Newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name due to the fact that it basically “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress messages and permits them to be the same thing. Definitely, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid option if I wanted to remain to self-host every little thing. However, you would certainly lose the growth devices that come with a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter naturally includes a various collection of requirements than a normal email listing.
You do not generally require much marketing automation. You don’t typically need autoresponder series, occasion tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO requirement, though, is one seamless posting experience and growth devices to help you construct your client base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my customers 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, even besides the reality that I chose to opt for BeeHiiv, that doesn’t indicate I assume Substack sucks. In fact, since Substack has actually been around much longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is younger, there are a pair things that at first got my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is especially customized to e-newsletter authors. In fact, it is actually developed by the exact same people who developed the innovation behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real world, does not matter. But, the apparent positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter growth called me out over the more common positioning of being a “designer”. Development is what I have an interest in here.
- That branding and differentiation additionally means that BeeHiiv has some fairly huge brands and big publications utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo developers. Once more, it just tells me the client character difference in between both firms.
Sending our my e-newsletter via FluentCRM didn’t specifically suck. The only factor I would certainly contemplate shaking points up is if I thought I can GROW the checklist quicker. And BeeHiiv spoke precisely to that goal.
Due to the targeting, I really do not view BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a different kind of consumer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more straight competitors.
Yet, allow’s dive much deeper than just the positioning below.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Generally, BeeHiiv appears like it was constructed by people who comprehending e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems much more tailored toward makers.
As an example, BeeHiiv uses custom areas on subscribers. Now, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. In fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that works a lot like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still quite restricted in triggers and the only action is the capability to send out an email. Nonetheless, enhancements are coming. Soon enough, automations will certainly have new triggers as well as new actions, such as customizing customized fields, sending webhooks, etc. I’ve already seen improvements to their automations just since I started making use of the platform. For example:
- Ability to set off automations based upon which certain embed kind they was available in on.
- Ability to instantly do re-engagement (and handle people based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Capability to do standard conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never will. Substack just can’t do this due to the fact that the target audience of Substack just would not think to approach this like an e-mail marketer.
When it involves writing your newsletters, the writing interface of BeeHiiv is just much more geared toward newsletters. In fact, it actually has similarities to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it functions. I locate it to be more user-friendly, personally.
Substack’s composing interface behaves and tidy, yet it would certainly be a lot more equivalent to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This difference is greater than just form. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Area” and afterwards placed anything you want in it. After that, you can put Exposure choices on that section to show it only to paid subscribers, hide it from e-mail, conceal from customers, show only to customers, and so on. Substack supplies nothing like this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a premium subscription version, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any kind of profits. In fact, you essentially attach as much as your own Stripe account and it charges straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your income. Relying on how many subscribers you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit even more cash than the month-to-month price of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This may appear nerdy, yet what it means is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outside using devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … nothing. No integrations in any way.
On the whole, I simply seemed like BeeHiiv was a lot more built toward genuine email marketing. It was built by people who “get it”. Even the opt-in kinds and the landing page creates appear much better developed for conversions. Development is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I want to see BeeHiiv add, I such as the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have stated, Substack positions itself toward “designers” more than e-mail online marketers and e-newsletter owners. For that reason, you see some points tailored extra toward people that simply believe in terms of content production.
For example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does sustain multiple publications, they are treated quite individually. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to numerous publications at the same time. This isn’t something I need, yet … cool for people that could require it.
Substack likewise has more social capability built-in. For instance, it has a conversation function to host chats with subscribers. It also has a “Notes” function which works sort of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you read. Interesting. Generally, Substack is established to be much more like a social media which sustains long-form material.
Overall, Substack is additionally a lot more … minimal. You either care for that or do not. Personally, I do not. Nevertheless, if the objective is simpleness of user interface and, truthfully, features … Substack works pretty well.
But, I’ll be clear below …
When it pertains to real marketing, I do not believe there’s much question that BeeHiiv is better fit. 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 commonly through to be the closest competitors, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are pursuing the exact same target market and have comparable capabilities.
ConvertKit is likewise positioned at developers (like Substack), however it is a lot more highly satisfying individuals who do it for business. ConvertKit has nice aesthetic automation building, it’s own commerce platform, and much more. ConvertKit is a really wonderful platform.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature failure right here. ConvertKit is popular currently. Yet, right here’s exactly how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has a lot more versatility when it comes to it’s automations. I will also claim that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit a lot more user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains identifying. This is just a standard function of email checklists that allows segmentation in a far more versatile way than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to support marking at some point soon, honestly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv VICE.
ConvertKit does currently supply the ability to sell things through their very own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is essential to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would always select a more straight alternative anyhow. For me, I favor to use my very own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been around a lot longer and because of that has way a lot more integration alternatives. Tons of online devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is rather effective. For instance, their plugin currently also sustains member-gated content in addition to auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Essentially, this a lot more carefully puts ConvertKit right into straight competition by having you be able to release to your website and your email list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is significantly doing not have in these sort of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll get there. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also hectic tackling the growth devices of BeeHiiv. As an example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not only incentivize people to share your e-newsletter with advantages, but you can likewise pay per lead within the internal ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your checklist. These are really remarkable features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you know ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of the most popular viral promotion systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall for what this suggests for the system going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv VICE
BeeHiiv is a lot earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that suggests less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. However, it additionally means that they are swiftly establishing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually experienced virtually weekly launch of brand-new features into the system. And these aren’t puny little features … yet big features that are rather crucial. Their rate of growth at this moment has actually been impressive.
I additionally very much value exactly how responsive they are. In fact, among their product statements about some layout enhancements to the website design features actually consisted of a small trouble with the material size. I simply responded to that e-mail to tell them. I swiftly obtained a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That very same day, the problem was fixed.
Couple of days later on, I provided one more suggestion …
Sure enough, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to cause automations based on the embed kind made use of was contributed to the system.
That sort of responsiveness and direct involvement of the group is something I actually value.
Another significant factor of distinction below is the rate. Both platforms use totally free plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan supplies extra capability 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 desirable. ConvertKit seems more affordable in the beginning look due to the fact that their pricing web page shows lower numbers, nevertheless the client restrictions are FAR lower and your price promptly increases as your checklist expands.
With BeeHiiv, your very first level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid yearly), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 customers. That very same dimension list is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their ideal plan and the one I personally use), you can grow your checklist up to 100,000. A listing of that dimension would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, too, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay annually, too. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay each year.
BeeHiiv is in a totally different league when it pertains to pricing (in a great way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually raise rates? They could as time takes place. However, I’m presuming individuals like myself who are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see how things continue.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among things you definitely require to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do seem to progress rather swiftly and make brand-new item statements rather frequently, but there are some fundamental features I actually desire they had that I need to simply wait for.
One is that they require to have a setup on registration forms where I could select an automation to run right at the type degree. That would be remarkable for a lot of reasons. Already, registration forms look OK, however there’s very little setups for them to aid in division.
It would be nice to have labeling at the subscriber degree. This would certainly be powerful.
I believe webhooks need to be part of automations to make built-in automations less complicated and minimize reliance on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are additionally some minor administrative user interface changes that would certainly be handy. For example:
- Ability to bulk edit/remove clients.
- Ability to mass edit messages (for instance, to tag a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of standard areas as common on customers (like the name).
- Some even more customization alternatives for the website (such as more adaptable shade selections, headline control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Things I wish they perform with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t ideal and certainly not nearly as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM product.
It possibly never will certainly be, either. As I said, the function is different so it wouldn’t much a lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to become a complete marketing automation system. I presume you never understand, however.
Last Ideas On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I like BeeHiiv fairly a great deal. Sufficient where I chose to switch my very own e-newsletters over to the platform despite my personal choice for digital sovereignty and having my very own system.
Basically, for the e-newsletter posting design particularly, I saw enough worth in their platform to necessitate the adjustment.
Remember, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my special email list. I utilize BeeHiiv wherefore it is proficient at, however I purposefully have things establish to make sure that I additionally keep my listing “in residence” inside of FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the very same. It is just a great insurance coverage, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your listing will certainly be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the question is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my point of view, if you are making use of Substack now, I ‘d definitely take into consideration changing to BeeHiiv. It will simply be extra business-friendly. It is targeting different capacities and various requirements. And also, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the switch needs to be rather uncomplicated.
If you are on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d most likely sit tight unless you have a big e-mail checklist and are for that reason being wooled with their high month-to-month bill. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are iterating promptly. There’s additionally a pretty good possibility you’re not also making use of some of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you do not also require them. Because of that, BeeHiiv can conveniently be a better and a lot more inexpensive fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be extremely deliberate about growing a newsletter, I assume 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 concerning what it is made to be, it is just one of the best video games in town today. This is the system to see.
BeeHiiv uses a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves checking out for yourself. And if you wind up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll discover the complimentary account to be fairly feature abundant.