I have actually used a lot of various email list systems over the years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a huge advocate of digital sovereignty and owning your own platform. Because of that (and the outstanding features), I have been using Beehiiv Zoominfo.
So, it is indeed a weird move for me to make a decision to utilize BeeHiiv. After all, it is an organized application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv evaluation, I intend to go over why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I intend to deal with the concern of digital sovereignty while making use of the platform and I ‘d additionally such as to address why I selected to utilize it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For E-newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Big Shift In Approach, I discussed exactly how and why I decided to transform my motor home blog right into mainly a newsletter. I determined that was business model I wanted to go after keeping that property.
However, to intentionally seek it as an e-newsletter, I desired a system that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the email checklist for Happily motor home, yet FluentCRM is not a newsletter system. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, honestly, utilizing it for e-newsletters is a little a waste. Extra on that particular in a little bit.
As I said in that concern of the e-newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a system with devices built right into it particular to my purpose. Things such as:
- Ability to publish (to the blog site) and send the e-mail simultaneously without having it be two separate activities.
- Constructed in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capacity to do cross-promotions with other newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are generally one-click registration links. Great for promo in various other e-newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, though, so there are ways to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your newsletter.
- Integrated ad network, if I choose to generate income from with advertisements in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and generally run a premium newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Essentially, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features focused on development. The platform was essentially developed by the people that developed 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 objective of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a different objective.
And I finished off with this:.
I might indeed be relocating The Edge over to BeeHiiv as well. A minimum of, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. Actually, I simply went for it. And as a matter of fact, The side was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, triggered as it’s own home to ensure that I can grow it a lot more intentionally as well.
The objective is that each newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown individually. Happily RV was young, so simple to shift. But, The Early morning WP (previously The Side) was hidden in a sea of stuff below 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 certainly constantly be carefully tied with the Blog Marketing Academy, yet does not have to be a part of it.
I changed to BeeHiiv since it was developed for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Normal Email List
There’s a distinction between an e-newsletter system and just an email checklist.
You can organize your e-mail checklist everywhere you desire and there are a number of them around, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted choices like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The main distinction is that, with a newsletter system, the act of publishing indicates that it is mosting likely to your internet site and to your email customers all at once.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are publishing to that web site. But, you are also sending to all clients at the same time. The internet site and it’s clients are done in one. This makes management of the platform much easier.
With most email platforms, any type of newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is developed completely individually from your site. So, for instance, you might publish a short article to WordPress however after that you would need to independently develop and send an e-mail to your listing to send it to customers. These are then 2 different collections of archives and two separate actions due to the fact that post and your emails are not inherently linked.
The closest thing that turns WordPress right into a true e-newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name due to the fact that it virtually “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress messages and enables them to be the exact same thing. Certainly, something like E-newsletter Glue would be a strong choice if I intended to continue to self-host every little thing. Nonetheless, you would certainly lose the growth tools that include a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting a newsletter inherently includes a various collection of demands than a regular e-mail list.
You don’t normally need much marketing automation. You do not generally require autoresponder sequences, occasion tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO demand, though, is one smooth posting experience and development tools to help you build your client base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my subscribers that I was mosting likely to switch over the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had lots of people ask me why I was picking it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the reality that I picked to select BeeHiiv, that doesn’t mean I think Substack sucks. Actually, since Substack has been around longer, it is more mature and has more features.
Although BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple things that at first obtained my interest:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly tailored to e-newsletter authors. Actually, it is essentially built by the same people that constructed the innovation behind Early morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, doesn’t matter. But, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter growth called me out over the more common positioning of being a “developer”. Development is what I want here.
- That branding and differentiation additionally implies that BeeHiiv has some fairly large brands and large publications using it. Whereas SubStack is aimed more at solo creators. Once more, it just tells me the client character difference in between the two companies.
Sending our my newsletter using FluentCRM really did not precisely draw. The only reason I would certainly ponder trembling things up is if I assumed I might GROW the list much faster. And BeeHiiv talked precisely to that objective.
Because of the targeting, I in fact don’t see BeeHiiv and Substack as direct competitors. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a various kind of consumer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra direct rivals.
Yet, allow’s dive deeper than simply the positioning right here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv appears like it was developed by people that comprehending e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems a lot more tailored toward makers.
For example, BeeHiiv supplies personalized areas on customers. Currently, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. Actually, it is an aesthetic automation builder that functions a lot like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation functionality is still early-phase. It is still rather restricted in triggers and the only action is the capability to send out an e-mail. Nonetheless, enhancements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will have brand-new triggers in addition to new actions, such as modifying customized areas, sending webhooks, and so on. I have actually already seen enhancements to their automations just because I started utilizing the platform. For example:
- Capacity to trigger automations based upon which specific embed form they came in on.
- Ability to automatically do re-engagement (and manage people based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Ability to do standard conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never will. Substack just can not do this because the target market of Substack simply wouldn’t think to approach this like an e-mail marketing professional.
When it pertains to writing your newsletters, the writing user interface of BeeHiiv is just a lot more geared towards e-newsletters. As a matter of fact, it actually has similarities to the WordPress block builder in how it functions. I find it to be a lot more intuitive, personally.
Substack’s composing user interface behaves and clean, yet it would certainly be extra equivalent to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This distinction is more than just kind. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Section” and then placed anything you desire in it. After that, you can place Exposure options on that section to show it only to paid subscribers, conceal it from e-mail, hide from subscribers, show only to customers, etc. Substack offers absolutely nothing similar to this.
And when/if the time comes that I start a premium subscription design, BeeHiiv does not take any type of income. In fact, you actually link as much as your own Stripe account and it charges directly to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your earnings. Depending upon the amount of customers you get, that 10% can be a fair bit more cash than the monthly expense of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This might appear unpopular, yet what it means is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv work with the outside utilizing tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack essentially has … absolutely nothing. No integrations in any way.
Generally, I simply seemed like BeeHiiv was a lot more constructed toward genuine email marketing. It was built by individuals who “get it”. Even the opt-in forms and the landing page develops seem far better built for conversions. Growth is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I wish to see BeeHiiv add, I like the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have stated, Substack settings itself toward “creators” more than email online marketers and e-newsletter proprietors. For that reason, you see some things tailored a lot more towards people who simply believe in regards to material development.
For example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does support numerous publications, they are dealt with fairly separately. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to several publications at the same time. This isn’t something I require, yet … great for individuals who may require it.
Substack also has even more social functionality built-in. For example, it has a chat function to host chats with customers. It likewise has a “Notes” feature which works type of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share things from other “Stacks” you’re reading. Fascinating. In general, Substack is established to be more like a social media which sustains long-form material.
On the whole, Substack is additionally extra … minimal. You either look after that or do not. Directly, I don’t. Nonetheless, if the goal is simpleness of interface and, honestly, features … Substack works rather well.
But, I’ll be clear here …
When it involves actual marketing, I don’t believe there’s much question that BeeHiiv is much better suited. I looked for more points that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, but truthfully … I have a tough time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are usually via to be the closest competitors, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are going after the same target audience and have similar capabilities.
ConvertKit is also placed at designers (like Substack), however it is a lot more highly accommodating individuals that do it for company. ConvertKit has wonderful visual automation structure, it’s very own business system, and much more. ConvertKit is a truly great platform.
I’m not mosting likely to bore you with a full feature-by-feature failure right here. ConvertKit is popular currently. But, right here’s how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Things ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has a lot more versatility when it concerns it’s automations. I will likewise say that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit extra intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains marking. This is simply a fundamental feature of e-mail checklists that enables segmentation in an even more flexible means than BeeHiiv presently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain tagging at some point soon, truthfully. It feels like an oversight that it is missing out on Beehiiv Zoominfo.
ConvertKit does now provide the capacity to sell points through their very own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is very important to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would certainly constantly select an extra straight choice anyway. For me, I prefer to use my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been around much longer and therefore has way a lot more integration options. Lots of web-based tools and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is fairly effective. For instance, their plugin currently also sustains member-gated web content as well as auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your website. In essence, this much more very closely puts ConvertKit into straight competitors by having you have the ability to release to your website and your e-mail listing at the same time.
BeeHiiv is badly lacking in these kinds of third-party integrations currently. It’ll arrive. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also busy tackling the development devices of BeeHiiv. As an example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not just incentivize people to share your e-newsletter with perks, but you can additionally pay per lead within the inner ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your listing. These are actually remarkable features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you understand ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among the most popular viral promo systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the writing on the wall of what this means for the platform moving forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Zoominfo
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies less features and much less integrations, which is all-natural for this phase of the cycle. Nevertheless, it likewise implies that they are swiftly establishing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually experienced virtually regular launch of new features right into the platform. And these aren’t weak little features … however huge features that are quite essential. Their rate of growth now has actually gone over.
I likewise very much value how receptive they are. In fact, among their product announcements regarding some design improvements to the web design features in fact consisted of a tiny issue with the material size. I simply replied to that email to tell them. I swiftly got a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That exact same day, the issue was dealt with.
Couple of days later on, I gave them an additional recommendation …
Certainly, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to activate automations based on the embed type used was included in the system.
That sort of responsiveness and straight participation of the group is something I really appreciate.
An additional significant point of differentiation right here is the price. Both systems use cost-free plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan offers much more capacity and even more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
As soon as you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally even more beneficial. ConvertKit seems more affordable at first look since their pricing web page reveals lower numbers, however the subscriber restrictions are FAR reduced and your rate swiftly boosts as your listing grows.
With BeeHiiv, your initial degree paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid yearly), nonetheless you can have up to 10,000 customers. That very same size list is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their best plan and the one I directly utilize), you can grow your list up to 100,000. A checklist 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 each year, as well. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for simply $84/month if you pay yearly.
BeeHiiv is in a totally different league when it concerns pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point raise costs? They could as time goes on. However, I’m guessing people like myself who are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see just how points proceed.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
Among things you absolutely require to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do seem to evolve instead swiftly and make new item news rather usually, yet there are some standard features I actually want they had that I require to just wait on.
One is that they need to have a setup on subscription forms where I could choose an automation to run right at the type level. That would certainly be amazing for so many factors. Currently, subscription kinds look OK, but there’s very little setups for them to help in segmentation.
It would certainly behave to have labeling at the subscriber level. This would certainly be powerful.
I believe webhooks need to become part of automations to make integrated automations simpler and decrease reliance on outdoors tools like Zapier.
There are likewise some small administrative user interface changes that would be handy. As an example:
- Ability to bulk edit/remove subscribers.
- Capability to mass edit messages (as an example, to mark a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of fundamental areas as basic on subscribers (like the name).
- Some even more personalization alternatives for the internet site (such as more flexible shade choices, headline control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Points I wish they do with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, however it isn’t perfect and certainly not almost as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM item.
It possibly never ever will certainly be, either. As I said, the purpose is various so it wouldn’t much a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to become a complete marketing automation platform. I presume you never recognize, though.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Evaluation
I such as BeeHiiv fairly a lot. Enough where I decided to change my own e-newsletters over to the platform in spite of my personal preference for digital sovereignty and owning my very own platform.
Simply put, for the e-newsletter publishing design specifically, I saw sufficient worth in their platform to necessitate the modification.
Bear in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my special email checklist. I use BeeHiiv of what it is good at, but I intentionally have things establish to ensure that I additionally maintain my list “in house” inside of FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the exact same. It is just a good insurance coverage, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your checklist will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a complete marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will certainly be).
So, the inquiry is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are making use of Substack today, I ‘d certainly think about switching over to BeeHiiv. It will simply be more business-friendly. It is targeting various abilities and different requirements. And also, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the switch ought to be pretty uncomplicated.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d probably stay unless you have a huge e-mail listing and are for that reason being wooled with their high monthly bill. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are iterating promptly. There’s also a respectable possibility you’re not also utilizing some of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you don’t also require them. Therefore, BeeHiiv might quickly be a far better and a lot more economical fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be extremely deliberate about growing an e-newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE system to take into consideration and keep and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is developed to be, it is just one of the very best games in the area today. This is the system to view.
BeeHiiv uses a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth checking out for yourself. And if you wind up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll find the totally free account to be quite feature rich.