I have actually utilized a great deal of different e-mail list systems for many years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a big supporter of digital sovereignty and possessing your own system. For that reason (and the outstanding features), I have actually been utilizing Beehiiv Webinars.
So, it is without a doubt an unusual move for me to make a decision to use BeeHiiv. After all, it is a held application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I wish to review why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I want to resolve the issue of digital sovereignty while using the platform and I would certainly additionally such as to deal with why I selected to utilize it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For Newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my newsletter called My Hobby + A Large Shift In Technique, I spoke about how and why I made a decision to transform my RV blog into largely an e-newsletter. I decided that was the business design I wanted to pursue with that said residential or commercial property.
Yet, to deliberately seek it as a newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was making use of FluentCRM for the email listing for Gladly motor home, however FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter system. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, frankly, using it for newsletters is a little a waste. More on that in a little bit.
As I claimed in that issue of the e-newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a system with devices built into it certain to my function. Things such as:
- Capability to release (to the blog) and send the e-mail simultaneously without having it be two different activities.
- Built in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would have needed a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capability to do cross-promotions with various other newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are basically one-click subscription links. Great for promo in various other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are ways to do that.
- Capacity to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your newsletter.
- Built-in advertisement network, if I pick to monetize with advertisements in the newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated ability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and essentially run a premium newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Generally, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter authors with features aimed at growth. The platform was actually constructed by the individuals that built up the technology for Morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the point here. BeeHiiv is built from the ground up for the function of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a different function.
And I finished off with this:.
I might certainly be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv as well. A minimum of, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. Actually, I just went for it. And actually, The side was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s own property to ensure that I can grow it a lot more deliberately as well.
The goal is that each newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded independently. Gladly RV was young, so simple to transition. However, The Morning WP (formerly The Side) was hidden in a sea of stuff here at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s own. It will clearly constantly be carefully tied with the Blog Marketing Academy, however does not need to belong of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was built for this function. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Regular Email List
There’s a distinction between a newsletter platform and simply an email listing.
You can organize your email list anyplace you want and there are a number of them available, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted choices like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The primary difference is that, with a newsletter system, the act of posting suggests that it is going to your web site and to your e-mail customers at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are publishing to that web site. However, you are additionally sending off to all subscribers at the same time. The internet site and it’s customers are all in one. This makes monitoring of the system much easier.
With the majority of e-mail platforms, any e-newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is constructed completely independently from your site. So, for example, you may release a write-up to WordPress but then you would certainly need to separately construct and send an email to your listing to send it to clients. These are after that 2 separate sets of archives and two separate activities due to the fact that article and your e-mails are not naturally linked.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress right into a true newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name because it pretty much “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and enables them to be the exact same point. Absolutely, something like Newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid option if I wished to remain to self-host everything. Nonetheless, you would certainly lose the development tools that feature a platform like BeeHiiv.
Posting a newsletter naturally includes a various set of requirements than a regular e-mail checklist.
You don’t typically require much marketing automation. You do not typically need autoresponder sequences, event monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO demand, though, is one smooth posting experience and development tools to aid you construct your client base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I revealed to my clients that I was mosting likely to change the 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 imply I think Substack sucks. As a matter of fact, because Substack has actually been about longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is younger, there are a pair points that originally obtained my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly customized to e-newsletter publishers. In fact, it is actually developed by the very same individuals that built the modern technology behind Morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real life, doesn’t matter. But, the evident positioning of BeeHiiv toward e-newsletter development called me out over the more common positioning of being a “designer”. Development is what I’m interested in below.
- That branding and distinction additionally implies that BeeHiiv has some fairly big brands and big publications utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended even more at solo designers. Once again, it just informs me the consumer character difference in between the two business.
Sending our my newsletter via FluentCRM didn’t precisely suck. The only factor I would certainly consider drinking points up is if I believed I could GROW the listing faster. And BeeHiiv talked exactly to that goal.
As a result of the targeting, I really do not check out BeeHiiv and Substack as straight competitors. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a various sort of consumer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra direct rivals.
But, allow’s dive much deeper than just the positioning right here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Generally, BeeHiiv seems like it was built by people that understanding e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems much more geared toward developers.
For instance, BeeHiiv uses customized fields on customers. Currently, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv provides Automations. Actually, it is a visual automation builder that functions a great deal like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation functionality is still early-phase. It is still rather restricted in triggers and the only activity is the ability to send out an e-mail. Nonetheless, improvements are coming. Soon enough, automations will have brand-new triggers in addition to brand-new activities, such as changing custom areas, sending webhooks, and so on. I have actually already seen improvements to their automations simply given that I began making use of the platform. As an example:
- Capability to set off automations based upon which particular embed type they was available in on.
- Capacity to instantly do re-engagement (and manage individuals based on opens and non-opens).
- Ability to do standard conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can not do this since the target audience of Substack just wouldn’t think to approach this like an email marketing expert.
When it pertains to writing your e-newsletters, the composing user interface of BeeHiiv is simply extra geared toward e-newsletters. In fact, it really has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in just how it functions. I locate it to be much more intuitive, personally.
Substack’s writing user interface is nice and clean, but it would certainly be much more equivalent to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is more than simply form. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Area” and afterwards put anything you want in it. Then, you can place Visibility options on that section to reveal it only to paid customers, conceal it from email, hide from clients, reveal only to clients, etc. Substack uses nothing such as this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a premium membership model, BeeHiiv does not take any type of profits. As a matter of fact, you actually attach approximately your own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your profits. Depending on the number of clients you get, that 10% can be quite a bit more money than the regular monthly price of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This may appear nerdy, however what it suggests is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outdoors using devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … nothing. No integrations at all.
In general, I simply seemed like BeeHiiv was a lot more developed toward genuine e-mail marketing. It was built by individuals who “get it”. Also the opt-in forms and the landing page creates appear better developed for conversions. Growth is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv add, I like the direction it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually stated, Substack positions itself toward “creators” greater than e-mail online marketers and e-newsletter owners. For that reason, you see some things geared more towards individuals who simply believe in regards to material creation.
For instance, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does sustain multiple publications, they are dealt with fairly individually. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to numerous magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, yet … trendy for people who may need it.
Substack likewise has more social capability built-in. For instance, it has a chat function to host talks with customers. It also has a “Notes” feature which works kind of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share things from other “Stacks” you read. Interesting. Overall, Substack is set up to be much more like a social media network which supports long-form material.
Overall, Substack is additionally much more … minimal. You either care for that or don’t. Directly, I do not. However, if the goal is simplicity of user interface and, truthfully, features … Substack functions rather well.
However, I’ll be clear right here …
When it concerns actual marketing, I don’t assume there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is better suited. I looked for even more factors that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, yet frankly … I have a hard time locating them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are often via to be the closest competitors, I in fact see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are going after the exact same target market and have comparable capabilities.
ConvertKit is likewise positioned at designers (like Substack), but it is a lot more highly satisfying people that do it for service. ConvertKit has good aesthetic automation building, it’s own commerce system, and more. ConvertKit is a really great platform.
I’m not going to bore you with a full feature-by-feature breakdown here. ConvertKit is popular currently. But, right here’s how I feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Points ConvertKit Is Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has extra flexibility when it pertains to it’s automations. I will certainly also say that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit a lot more user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports tagging. This is simply a standard feature of e-mail listings that enables division in an even more adaptable method than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support identifying at some point quickly, frankly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Webinars.
ConvertKit does now offer the capacity to sell points by means of their very own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is necessary to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would always select a much more straight alternative anyway. For me, I prefer to utilize my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been about much longer and because of that has way much more integration alternatives. Lots of online tools and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is fairly effective. As an example, their plugin currently also sustains member-gated content as well as auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your site. Essentially, this much more very closely places ConvertKit into direct competition by having you have the ability to release to your site and your e-mail listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is badly lacking in these type of third-party integrations currently. It’ll get there. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even active tackling the growth tools of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with advantages, yet you can also pay per lead within the inner ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your listing. These are actually incredible features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you know ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among one of the most well known viral promo systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall surface of what this suggests for the platform going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Webinars
BeeHiiv is a lot earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means less features and much less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. However, it also means that they are swiftly establishing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have experienced almost once a week launch of brand-new features into the system. And these aren’t weak little features … but big features that are quite important. Their rate of development at this point has been impressive.
I likewise significantly appreciate just how responsive they are. Actually, one of their item news regarding some layout improvements to the web design features actually included a small trouble with the web content width. I simply replied to that email to tell them. I swiftly got a reply directly from the chief executive officer:.
That same day, the concern was dealt with.
Few days later on, I provided another pointer …
Sure enough, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to set off automations based upon the embed form utilized was included in the system.
That type of responsiveness and direct participation of the team is something I actually value.
One more significant point of differentiation here is the price. Both systems offer totally free plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan uses a lot more capability and even more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise even more positive. ConvertKit seems more affordable initially glimpse because their pricing web page reveals lower numbers, nevertheless the client limitations are much lower and your rate promptly boosts as your list grows.
With BeeHiiv, your first level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid yearly), however you can have up to 10,000 subscribers. That exact same dimension checklist is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their best plan and the one I directly make use of), you can grow your listing up to 100,000. A list of that dimension would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, too, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay annually, as well. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv is in a totally different league when it concerns pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point boost prices? They may as time takes place. But, I’m presuming individuals like myself who are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see how points proceed.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of the things you definitely require to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do appear to evolve rather rapidly and make new product announcements rather often, but there are some fundamental features I actually wish they had that I need to just await.
One is that they need to have a setup on subscription forms where I might pick an automation to run right at the type degree. That would certainly be outstanding for numerous factors. Currently, subscription types look OK, however there’s very little setups for them to aid in division.
It would certainly behave to have identifying at the client level. This would be powerful.
I believe webhooks ought to become part of automations to make built-in automations simpler and reduce dependence on outside tools like Zapier.
There are also some small management user interface changes that would certainly come in handy. As an example:
- Capability to bulk edit/remove clients.
- Ability to mass edit messages (as an example, to identify a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a few basic areas as typical on subscribers (like the name).
- Some even more modification alternatives for the internet site (such as more versatile shade options, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Points I wish they perform with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, yet it isn’t perfect and absolutely not almost as established as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM item.
It possibly never will certainly be, either. As I stated, the function is different so it wouldn’t much a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to end up being a full marketing automation platform. I think you never recognize, however.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I like BeeHiiv quite a great deal. Enough where I made a decision to change my own newsletters over to the platform in spite of my individual preference for digital sovereignty and owning my own platform.
Basically, for the e-newsletter publishing version specifically, I saw adequate worth in their platform to call for the adjustment.
Remember, I do not use BeeHiiv as my special e-mail list. I make use of BeeHiiv wherefore it is efficient, but I deliberately have things set up to ensure that I additionally maintain my list “in house” inside of FluentCRM.
If you make use of BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the same. It is just a good insurance plan, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your listing will be of high usage (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 now, I ‘d certainly think about switching to BeeHiiv. It will simply be a lot more business-friendly. It is targeting various capacities and various requirements. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the switch needs to be pretty straightforward.
If you are on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d possibly stay put unless you have a huge e-mail list and are therefore being fleeced with their high month-to-month expense. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are repeating promptly. There’s additionally a pretty good chance you’re not also using some of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you don’t even require them. Because of that, BeeHiiv might quickly be a much better and a lot more cost effective fit.
Finally, if you plan to be extremely intentional regarding growing an e-newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE platform 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 designed to be, it is among the best games around today. This is the system to see.
BeeHiiv offers a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves looking into on your own. And if you end up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll find the totally free account to be quite feature rich.