I have actually utilized a great deal of different e-mail list systems throughout the years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a huge advocate of digital sovereignty and having your very own platform. Therefore (and the outstanding features), I have actually been using Beehiiv Vs Keap.
So, it is certainly an odd move for me to choose to use BeeHiiv. After all, it is a held application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv evaluation, I wish to review why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I wish to address the concern of digital sovereignty while making use of the system and I would certainly also such as to deal with why I selected to use it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For Newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Hobby + A Large Change In Method, I talked about just how and why I chose to transform my recreational vehicle blog site right into mostly an e-newsletter. I determined that was business version I intended to pursue with that home.
But, to intentionally seek it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a system that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the email list for Gladly motor home, yet FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, frankly, using it for newsletters is a little bit of a waste. Much more on that in a bit.
As I said because concern of the e-newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a platform with tools built right into it certain to my purpose. Things such as:
- Capacity to publish (to the blog site) and send out the e-mail at the same time without having it be 2 separate 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 Hyperlinks”, which are basically one-click subscription links. Great for promotion in other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are methods to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your newsletter.
- Integrated ad network, if I choose to generate income from with ads in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capacity to run a paid newsletter upgrade and basically run a costs newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Basically, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter authors with features focused on development. The system was actually built by the people that developed the technology for Early morning Brew. They know what they’re doing.
That is the point right here. BeeHiiv is built from scratch for the purpose of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a different purpose.
And I finished off with this:.
I might undoubtedly be relocating The Side over to BeeHiiv too. At least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. As a matter of fact, I just went all out. And as a matter of fact, The side was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s very own home to make sure that I can grow it a lot more intentionally as well.
The goal is that each e-newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown independently. Happily motor home was young, so simple to change. Yet, The Early morning WP (previously The Side) was hidden in a sea of stuff below at the Blog Marketing Academy. By separating 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 site Marketing Academy, yet doesn’t need to be a part of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv since it was built for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Simply A Normal Email Listing
There’s a difference in between a newsletter system and just an email list.
You can hold your email list 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 difference?
The main distinction is that, with a newsletter platform, the act of posting indicates that it is going to your site and to your e-mail customers concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are publishing to that site. However, you are additionally sending off to all subscribers at the same time. The web site and it’s customers are all in one. This makes administration of the platform much easier.
With most e-mail systems, any type of e-newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is developed totally separately from your site. So, for example, you may release a post to WordPress but then you would certainly require to independently develop and send out an e-mail to your list to send it to clients. These are then two different sets of archives and 2 different actions since article and your e-mails are not inherently linked.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress right into a true e-newsletter platform is Newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name since it practically “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress posts and allows them to be the exact same thing. Definitely, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a strong choice if I intended to continue to self-host everything. Nevertheless, you would certainly lose the development tools that feature a system like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter inherently includes a various collection of demands than a regular email listing.
You don’t usually need much marketing automation. You do not normally require autoresponder series, event tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO requirement, though, is one smooth posting experience and growth tools to assist you develop your customer base that are specific to newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my clients that I was mosting likely to switch the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many individuals ask me why I was choosing it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the truth that I selected to opt for BeeHiiv, that does not mean I assume Substack sucks. Actually, due to the fact that Substack has been around much longer, it is elder and has more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a pair points that initially obtained my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically customized to e-newsletter authors. Actually, it is actually constructed by the exact same people who constructed the modern technology behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, doesn’t matter. But, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv toward e-newsletter growth called me out over the even more common positioning of being a “creator”. Development is what I want here.
- That branding and differentiation also implies that BeeHiiv has some relatively huge brand names and huge magazines utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended even more at solo developers. Again, it simply informs me the customer avatar difference in between the two firms.
Sending our my e-newsletter by means of FluentCRM really did not precisely draw. The only factor I would certainly consider drinking things up is if I thought I might GROW the list much faster. And BeeHiiv spoke exactly to that goal.
As a result of the targeting, I in fact don’t watch BeeHiiv and Substack as direct rivals. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a various type of consumer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more straight competitors.
But, let’s dive much deeper than simply the placing here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv seems like it was constructed by individuals who comprehending e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems more geared towards creators.
For example, BeeHiiv uses custom-made areas on subscribers. Currently, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv supplies Automations. As a matter of fact, it is a visual automation builder that works a lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still fairly restricted in triggers and the only activity is the capability to send out an e-mail. Nevertheless, enhancements are coming. Soon sufficient, automations will certainly have brand-new triggers in addition to brand-new activities, such as modifying customized fields, sending out webhooks, etc. I have actually already seen enhancements to their automations simply considering that I began using the system. As an example:
- Ability to set off automations based upon which details embed kind they was available in on.
- Capability to instantly do re-engagement (and deal with individuals based on opens and non-opens).
- Capability to do standard conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack simply can not do this since the target audience of Substack just wouldn’t think to approach this like an email marketer.
When it pertains to composing your newsletters, the writing interface of BeeHiiv is just extra geared toward newsletters. As a matter of fact, it really has similarities to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it works. I locate it to be extra user-friendly, directly.
Substack’s creating user interface behaves and clean, however it would certainly be extra equal to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is greater than simply type. For example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Area” and then put anything you want in it. Then, you can put Visibility options on that particular area to show it just to paid clients, hide it from e-mail, conceal from customers, reveal just to customers, and so on. Substack offers nothing like this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a costs registration model, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any type of revenue. In fact, you actually connect as much as your own Stripe account and it bills directly to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your profits. Depending upon the amount of customers you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit even more cash than the regular monthly cost of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This may seem nerdy, however what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outside making use of devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … nothing. No integrations whatsoever.
Overall, I simply seemed like BeeHiiv was more constructed towards real e-mail marketing. It was built by individuals that “get it”. Even the opt-in forms and the landing page designs seem far better developed for conversions. Development is the name of the game 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 claimed, Substack placements itself towards “designers” more than e-mail online marketers and e-newsletter proprietors. For that reason, you see some things tailored extra towards individuals who just assume in terms of content development.
As an example, Substack supports podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does support numerous magazines, they are treated quite separately. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to multiple publications at the same time. This isn’t something I require, yet … trendy for individuals who may require it.
Substack additionally has even more social capability built-in. For example, it has a conversation function to host chats with customers. It also has a “Notes” feature which works sort of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share things from other “Stacks” you’re reading. Fascinating. On the whole, Substack is established to be a lot more like a social network which supports long-form content.
Overall, Substack is also a lot more … minimal. You either care for that or don’t. Directly, I do not. Nonetheless, if the objective is simplicity of user interface and, frankly, features … Substack works rather well.
However, I’ll be clear below …
When it involves real marketing, I don’t assume there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is much better fit. I tried to find even more points that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, but truthfully … I have a tough time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are commonly with to be the closest rivals, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are pursuing the same target audience and have similar capacities.
ConvertKit is additionally placed at designers (like Substack), yet it is far more strongly accommodating people who do it for business. ConvertKit has good aesthetic automation building, it’s very own business system, and more. ConvertKit is a really great platform.
I’m not mosting likely to bore you with a full feature-by-feature malfunction here. ConvertKit is well known currently. Yet, right here’s exactly how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Points ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has a lot more adaptability when it involves it’s automations. I will also state that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit a lot more user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports marking. This is just a standard feature of email checklists that enables division in a much more versatile means than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support tagging at some point quickly, frankly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Vs Keap.
ConvertKit does currently offer the ability to market things by means of their own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is essential to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would always choose a much more direct alternative anyhow. For me, I favor to use my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about a lot longer and therefore has way more integration options. Tons of web-based devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their own WordPress plugin that is rather effective. For example, their plugin currently also sustains member-gated material along with auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your site. Basically, this extra carefully places ConvertKit into straight competition by having you have the ability to publish to your website and your e-mail list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is drastically doing not have in these type of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll arrive. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also hectic tackling the growth devices of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with perks, but you can additionally pay per lead within the inner ad network of BeeHiiv to grow 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 platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall surface of what this means for the platform going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Vs Keap
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies much less features and less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. Nonetheless, it also implies that they are swiftly developing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually experienced nearly regular release of brand-new features right into the system. And these aren’t puny little features … but huge features that are rather important. Their rate of advancement at this point has been impressive.
I also quite value exactly how responsive they are. Actually, one of their product statements concerning some layout enhancements to the web design features in fact included a small trouble with the web content size. I simply responded to that email to tell them. I quickly obtained a reply directly from the CEO:.
That very same day, the issue was taken care of.
Couple of days later on, I gave them another suggestion …
Indeed, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to trigger automations based upon the embed type utilized was included in the system.
That kind of responsiveness and straight participation of the group is something I really value.
An additional significant point of differentiation below is the rate. Both platforms supply complimentary plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan supplies extra capacity and even more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
As soon as you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also much more favorable. ConvertKit seems more affordable at first glance because their pricing web page shows lower numbers, nevertheless the customer limits are FAR reduced and your rate swiftly enhances as your list expands.
With BeeHiiv, your initial degree paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid every year), 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 “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their ideal plan and the one I directly make use of), you can expand your checklist up to 100,000. A listing of that size would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, also, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay every year, too. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for simply $84/month if you pay yearly.
BeeHiiv remains in a totally different organization when it comes to pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually raise costs? They may as time takes place. Yet, I’m presuming people like myself that are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see just how things proceed.
Points I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Add
One of the important things you absolutely require to remember is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do appear to advance instead quickly and make new product statements somewhat often, but there are some fundamental features I really desire they had that I require to just wait on.
One is that they require to have a setup on registration forms where I can choose an automation to run right at the kind degree. That would be amazing for numerous reasons. Already, membership forms look OK, however there’s extremely little settings for them to assist in segmentation.
It would certainly behave to have tagging at the subscriber level. This would certainly be effective.
I believe webhooks should belong to automations to make integrated automations simpler and decrease dependence on outside devices like Zapier.
There are also some small management user interface adjustments that would be handy. As an example:
- Capability to mass edit/remove subscribers.
- Capability to bulk edit posts (for instance, to identify a number of them at the same time).
- Having a few standard areas as conventional on subscribers (like the name).
- Some more modification alternatives for the website (such as more versatile shade options, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Things I hope they perform with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, however it isn’t excellent and absolutely not almost as established as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM item.
It possibly never ever will certainly be, either. As I said, the purpose is different so it would not a lot a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to become a complete marketing automation system. I presume you never ever recognize, though.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I like BeeHiiv fairly a whole lot. Enough where I determined to change my own newsletters over to the system in spite of my personal choice for digital sovereignty and owning my very own platform.
Simply put, for the e-newsletter publishing model specifically, I saw enough worth in their platform to warrant the modification.
Remember, I do not use BeeHiiv as my unique email list. I make use of BeeHiiv for what it is efficient, but I purposefully have things set up so that I also maintain my listing “in residence” within FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the same. It is just an excellent insurance plan, 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 system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are using Substack today, I ‘d absolutely think about switching to BeeHiiv. It will simply be extra business-friendly. It is targeting various capacities and various needs. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the button should be quite uncomplicated.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d most likely sit tight unless you have a large email listing and are as a result being wooled with their high regular monthly expense. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are repeating quickly. There’s additionally a pretty good opportunity you’re not even utilizing several of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you don’t also need them. For that reason, BeeHiiv can easily be a much better and a lot more inexpensive fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be very intentional concerning expanding an e-newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE platform to consider and keep and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open concerning what it is created to be, it is just one of the best games around right now. This is the system to see.
BeeHiiv offers 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 find the cost-free account to be rather feature rich.