I have actually used a lot of different email list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a huge proponent of digital sovereignty and owning your own platform. Because of that (and the amazing features), I have actually been making use of Beehiiv Virtual Events.
So, it is without a doubt an odd move for me to determine to make use of BeeHiiv. Besides, it is a held application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv evaluation, I want to look at why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I wish to address the issue of digital sovereignty while utilizing the system and I ‘d likewise such as to resolve why I picked to utilize it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For Newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my newsletter called My Hobby + A Huge Shift In Technique, I talked about just how and why I determined to turn my RV blog right into mainly an e-newsletter. I chose that was the business design I wanted to seek keeping that building.
Yet, to deliberately pursue it as a newsletter, I wanted a system that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the e-mail checklist for Gladly motor home, but FluentCRM is not a newsletter platform. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, frankly, using it for newsletters is a little a waste. Extra on that in a little bit.
As I said in that issue of the newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a system with tools built into it details to my purpose. Points such as:
- Capability to release (to the blog) and send the email simultaneously without having it be 2 separate actions.
- Built in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would certainly have needed a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Built-in ability to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are basically one-click membership web links. Great for promo in other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are means to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your newsletter.
- Built-in advertisement network, if I pick to monetize with advertisements in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in ability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and primarily run a premium newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Basically, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features targeted at development. The system was actually developed by the people who built up the modern technology for Morning Brew. They know what they’re doing.
That is the point here. BeeHiiv is developed from the ground up for the objective of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a various purpose.
And I ended off with this:.
I might indeed be relocating The Side over to BeeHiiv too. At the very least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. Actually, I simply went all out. And as a matter of fact, The side was re-branded over to The Morning WP, triggered as it’s very own property to make sure that I can expand it extra deliberately as well.
The objective is that each e-newsletter has the capability to be branded as it’s own media entity and grown separately. Happily motor home was young, so simple to transition. Yet, The Early morning WP (previously The Side) was hidden in a sea of stuff right here at the Blog Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s very own. It will clearly always be very closely tied with the Blog site Marketing Academy, but does not need to belong of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was constructed for this function. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Simply A Normal Email List
There’s a distinction between a newsletter system and just an e-mail list.
You can hold your e-mail checklist anyplace you want and there are a variety of them available, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The main difference is that, with an e-newsletter system, the act of publishing suggests that it is mosting likely to your website and to your email subscribers concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a site. You are releasing to that website. But, you are also sending off to all customers at the same time. The web site and it’s customers are done in one. This makes management of the platform much easier.
With a lot of email platforms, any newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is constructed entirely separately from your site. So, for instance, you might release a short article to WordPress however then you would require to individually develop and send out an email to your list to send it to customers. These are then 2 different collections of archives and two separate actions due to the fact that article and your e-mails are not naturally connected.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress into a true e-newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name since it basically “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress messages and enables them to be the very same thing. Absolutely, something like E-newsletter Glue would be a strong option if I intended to continue to self-host every little thing. However, you ‘d lose the development tools that feature a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter naturally comes with a various set of demands than a common e-mail listing.
You don’t generally need much marketing automation. You don’t normally require autoresponder sequences, occasion monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO need, though, is one seamless publishing experience and growth tools to assist you construct your customer base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my customers that I was going to switch over the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was picking it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the reality that I selected to choose BeeHiiv, that does not mean I assume Substack draws. As a matter of fact, due to the fact that Substack has actually been around longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a pair points that at first obtained my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly customized to e-newsletter publishers. As a matter of fact, it is actually developed by the exact same individuals that constructed the innovation behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, doesn’t matter. However, the apparent positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter growth called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “designer”. Development is what I’m interested in below.
- That branding and differentiation likewise means that BeeHiiv has some rather huge brands and big publications utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended even more at solo creators. Once again, it simply informs me the client character difference between both business.
Sending our my newsletter through FluentCRM really did not exactly draw. The only reason I would certainly ponder drinking things up is if I thought I might GROW the list quicker. And BeeHiiv spoke exactly to that goal.
Due to the targeting, I actually don’t see BeeHiiv and Substack as straight competitors. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a different kind of customer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being a lot more straight competitors.
However, let’s dive much deeper than simply the positioning here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
On the whole, BeeHiiv feels like it was built by individuals that understanding e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears a lot more geared towards designers.
For instance, BeeHiiv supplies customized areas on subscribers. Currently, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv supplies Automations. In fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that functions a great deal like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation performance is still early-phase. It is still fairly limited in triggers and the only activity is the capability to send an email. Nevertheless, improvements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will certainly have brand-new triggers as well as brand-new activities, such as changing custom areas, sending out webhooks, and so on. I have actually currently seen improvements to their automations just given that I began utilizing the system. For example:
- Capability to trigger automations based on which details embed type they came in on.
- Ability to immediately do re-engagement (and take care of people based on opens and non-opens).
- Capacity to do fundamental conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never will. Substack simply can not do this because the target audience of Substack just would not believe to approach this like an email online marketer.
When it pertains to writing your e-newsletters, the creating user interface of BeeHiiv is simply more geared towards newsletters. Actually, it in fact has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in how it functions. I locate it to be much more intuitive, directly.
Substack’s writing user interface behaves and tidy, however it would be extra comparable to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is more than just kind. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Section” and after that put anything you desire in it. Then, you can place Visibility options on that particular section to reveal it only to paid customers, conceal it from e-mail, conceal from subscribers, show only to clients, and so on. Substack uses absolutely nothing such as this.
And when/if the moment comes that I start a premium subscription model, BeeHiiv does not take any kind of income. Actually, you literally link as much as your very own Stripe account and it charges straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your earnings. Depending upon the number of subscribers you obtain, that 10% can be quite a bit even more cash than the month-to-month expense of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This may seem unpopular, however what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv deal with the outdoors using devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … absolutely nothing. No integrations in all.
Generally, I simply seemed like BeeHiiv was more developed towards genuine e-mail marketing. It was constructed by people who “get it”. Also the opt-in forms and the landing page creates seem better built for conversions. Growth is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Although 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 positions itself toward “makers” greater than e-mail marketing experts and e-newsletter proprietors. Therefore, you see some points geared extra towards people that just believe in terms of material development.
As an example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does sustain numerous publications, they are treated fairly independently. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to several publications at the same time. This isn’t something I need, however … trendy for individuals who may need it.
Substack also has more social performance built-in. As an example, it has a conversation function to host talks with subscribers. It likewise has a “Notes” feature which functions kind of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you read. Fascinating. In general, Substack is set up to be extra like a social media network which supports long-form material.
On the whole, Substack is additionally extra … minimalist. You either take care of that or don’t. Directly, I don’t. Nevertheless, if the objective is simpleness of user interface and, frankly, features … Substack functions quite well.
However, I’ll be clear here …
When it comes to actual marketing, I don’t believe there’s much question that BeeHiiv is better fit. I tried to find even more points that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, however frankly … I have a hard time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are often through to be the closest rivals, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are going after the same target market and have comparable abilities.
ConvertKit is also placed at makers (like Substack), but it is a lot more highly catering to individuals that do it for business. ConvertKit has wonderful visual automation structure, it’s own commerce system, and more. ConvertKit is a truly good platform.
I’m not going to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature break down here. ConvertKit is well known already. Yet, here’s how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has a lot more flexibility when it comes to it’s automations. I will certainly likewise claim that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit extra user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains identifying. This is just a standard function of email lists that makes it possible for segmentation in a much more flexible means than BeeHiiv currently does. I expect BeeHiiv to support identifying at some point soon, frankly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Virtual Events.
ConvertKit does now provide the ability to sell points by means of their very 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 always pick an extra straight option anyhow. For me, I like to use my very own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been around much longer and for that reason has way much more integration alternatives. Lots of online devices and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is rather powerful. For example, their plugin now also sustains member-gated content as well as auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Fundamentally, this much more carefully places ConvertKit into direct competitors by having you have the ability to release to your website and your e-mail list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is significantly lacking in these kinds of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll get there. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even active tackling the development devices of BeeHiiv. As an example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not only incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with rewards, however you can additionally pay per lead within the interior ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your checklist. These are actually outstanding features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you know ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among the most popular viral promo platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall surface of what this means for the system moving forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Virtual Events
BeeHiiv is a lot previously in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means much less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this stage of the cycle. Nonetheless, it likewise means that they are swiftly developing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have observed almost regular launch of brand-new features into the system. And these aren’t puny little features … but huge features that are rather crucial. Their rate of advancement at this moment has actually gone over.
I also significantly value just how receptive they are. In fact, one of their item announcements concerning some design improvements to the website design features really contained a little issue with the content size. I merely responded to that email to tell them. I quickly got a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That exact same day, the concern was taken care of.
Couple of days later, I provided one more tip …
Sure enough, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to activate automations based upon the embed form used was added to the system.
That type of responsiveness and direct involvement of the group is something I truly value.
Another significant point of differentiation below is the cost. Both platforms supply complimentary plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan provides much more capability and even more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
As soon as you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise FAR more desirable. ConvertKit appears less costly at first glance since their pricing web page shows lower numbers, however the customer limits are much lower and your rate swiftly increases as your list grows.
With BeeHiiv, your very first degree paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid yearly), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That same size listing 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 directly utilize), you can grow your checklist up to 100,000. A list of that size would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, as well, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay every year, too. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv remains in a completely various league when it comes to pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually increase prices? They may as time takes place. However, I’m thinking individuals like myself that are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how points continue.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of things you most definitely require to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do seem to evolve instead swiftly and make brand-new product announcements rather frequently, yet there are some standard features I really want they had that I need to simply await.
One is that they need to have a setup on subscription kinds where I might pick an automation to run right at the form degree. That would be amazing for a lot of reasons. Already, subscription forms look OK, but there’s very little settings for them to help in segmentation.
It would certainly behave to have tagging at the client degree. This would be powerful.
I think webhooks need to be part of automations to make built-in automations easier and lower reliance on outside devices like Zapier.
There are also some small administrative user interface adjustments that would certainly come in handy. For example:
- Capacity to bulk edit/remove subscribers.
- Ability to mass edit posts (for example, to tag a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of basic fields as typical on subscribers (like the name).
- Some more modification choices for the internet site (such as more flexible shade choices, heading control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Points I hope they finish with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, however it isn’t excellent and definitely not nearly as established as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM item.
It most likely never will be, either. As I said, the purpose is different so it would not a lot a lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to come to be a complete marketing automation system. I think you never ever recognize, though.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I such as BeeHiiv quite a lot. Sufficient where I decided to switch my own e-newsletters over to the platform regardless of my personal choice for digital sovereignty and owning my very own system.
Basically, for the e-newsletter publishing version particularly, I saw enough value in their platform to warrant the modification.
Bear in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my exclusive email listing. I use BeeHiiv for what it is good at, but I deliberately have things establish to ensure that I also maintain my listing “in home” within FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the exact same. It is simply a great insurance coverage, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your checklist will be of high use (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will certainly be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are utilizing Substack today, I ‘d absolutely consider switching over to BeeHiiv. It will simply be much more business-friendly. It is targeting various capacities and various requirements. And also, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the button needs to be rather simple.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d most likely sit tight unless you have a big email listing and are consequently being wooled with their high monthly bill. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are repeating quickly. There’s likewise a respectable opportunity you’re not also utilizing a few of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you don’t even need them. Therefore, BeeHiiv can quickly be a much better and much more inexpensive fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be really deliberate regarding growing an e-newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE system to think about and keep and eye on for you.
If you utilize BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is created to be, it is among the very best video games around now. This is the system to see.
BeeHiiv uses a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth checking out on your own. And if you end up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll locate the totally free account to be fairly feature abundant.