I have made use of a lot of different email list systems over the years. In the last couple of years, I have actually been a significant supporter of digital sovereignty and possessing your very own platform. For that reason (and the amazing features), I have actually been utilizing Does Morning Brew Use Beehiiv.
So, it is undoubtedly an odd move for me to determine to use BeeHiiv. After all, it is an organized application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I want to review why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I want to deal with the problem of digital sovereignty while making use of the platform and I would certainly likewise like to deal with why I picked to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For Newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my newsletter called My Hobby + A Huge Change In Strategy, I talked about how and why I made a decision to transform my recreational vehicle blog right into mainly a newsletter. I decided that was the business model I wished to go after with that said building.
Yet, to deliberately pursue it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the email checklist for Happily RV, yet FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, honestly, using it for newsletters is a little a waste. More on that in a bit.
As I said because issue of the e-newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a platform with devices developed into it particular to my objective. Things such as:
- Ability to publish (to the blog site) and send the e-mail concurrently without having it be 2 different actions.
- Constructed in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would certainly require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Built-in ability to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are basically one-click subscription web links. Great for promotion in various other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, though, so there are means to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to promote your e-newsletter.
- Integrated advertisement network, if I select to generate income from with ads in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capacity to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and generally run a costs newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Generally, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter publishers with features focused on development. The platform was essentially developed by the individuals who accumulated the modern technology for Early morning Brew. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the point here. BeeHiiv is developed from the ground up for the function of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a various purpose.
And I finished off with this:.
I may undoubtedly be moving The Side over to BeeHiiv too. At the very least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. Actually, I just went for it. And in fact, The side was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, triggered as it’s very own property so that I can expand it a lot more intentionally also.
The objective is that each newsletter has the capability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown separately. Happily motor home was young, so very easy to transition. However, The Morning WP (previously The Edge) was hidden in a sea of things below at the Blog Site Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s very own. It will certainly always be carefully connected with the Blog site Marketing Academy, but doesn’t need to belong of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv since it was constructed for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Normal Email Listing
There’s a difference in between a newsletter system and simply an email checklist.
You can hold your email checklist just about anywhere you want and there are a number of them available, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted alternatives like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The key distinction is that, with a newsletter system, the act of posting means that it is going to your web site and to your email customers at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are publishing to that website. However, you are also dispatching to all customers at the same time. The site and it’s subscribers are done in one. This makes monitoring of the platform much simpler.
With a lot of e-mail platforms, any type of newsletter you set up is done as an email campaign. It is developed entirely independently from your internet site. So, for instance, you may release an article to WordPress however after that you would certainly need to independently construct and send out an e-mail to your list to send it to clients. These are then two separate collections of archives and 2 separate actions because article and your emails are not inherently connected.
The closest thing that turns WordPress right into a true newsletter system is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name since it virtually “glues” your e-newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and permits them to be the exact same point. Definitely, something like E-newsletter Glue would be a strong option if I wanted to remain to self-host whatever. Nevertheless, you ‘d shed the development devices that include a platform like BeeHiiv.
Posting a newsletter inherently comes with a various collection of needs than a typical email checklist.
You don’t usually require much marketing automation. You do not generally need autoresponder sequences, occasion tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO demand, however, is one smooth publishing experience and growth devices to assist you develop your customer base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my clients that I was mosting likely to switch the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had lots of people ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the truth that I chose to select BeeHiiv, that doesn’t suggest I assume Substack draws. In fact, since Substack has actually been about much longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Although BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a pair things that initially obtained my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is especially customized to newsletter publishers. In fact, it is literally built by the same individuals that built the technology behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real life, doesn’t matter. Yet, the apparent positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter development called me out over the more common positioning of being a “creator”. Development is what I’m interested in below.
- That branding and distinction also suggests that BeeHiiv has some fairly large brands and big magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is aimed even more at solo creators. Again, it just tells me the consumer avatar difference between the two firms.
Sending our my newsletter through FluentCRM really did not precisely suck. The only factor I would contemplate drinking things up is if I thought I can GROW the checklist much faster. And BeeHiiv spoke exactly to that objective.
As a result of the targeting, I actually do not check out BeeHiiv and Substack as straight competitors. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a different kind of consumer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra direct competitors.
However, let’s dive deeper than simply the placing below.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv feels like it was constructed by individuals that comprehending e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems extra tailored toward makers.
For example, BeeHiiv offers custom areas on customers. Currently, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. Actually, it is a visual automation builder that functions a great deal like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation functionality is still early-phase. It is still rather minimal in triggers and the only activity is the capacity to send an e-mail. However, improvements are coming. Soon sufficient, automations will certainly have brand-new triggers in addition to new activities, such as changing customized fields, sending out webhooks, etc. I have actually already seen enhancements to their automations just because I began utilizing the platform. For instance:
- Capacity to set off automations based upon which details embed form they came in on.
- Capacity to immediately do re-engagement (and handle people based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Capability to do basic conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack simply can’t do this since the target market of Substack simply would not believe to approach this like an email marketer.
When it pertains to writing your e-newsletters, the composing interface of BeeHiiv is simply much more tailored toward newsletters. In fact, it really has similarities to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it functions. I discover it to be a lot more intuitive, personally.
Substack’s creating user interface is nice and clean, yet it would be much more equivalent to the timeless editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is greater than just form. For example, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Area” and afterwards placed anything you want in it. After that, you can place Presence options on that particular section to reveal it only to paid customers, hide it from e-mail, conceal from subscribers, show just to clients, and so on. Substack supplies nothing similar to this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a costs registration design, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any profits. As a matter of fact, you literally connect up to your very own Stripe account and it charges straight to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your income. Relying on the number of customers you get, that 10% can be a fair bit more cash than the month-to-month cost of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This could appear nerdy, but what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outdoors making use of tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … nothing. No integrations at all.
On the whole, I just seemed like BeeHiiv was more built toward real email marketing. It was developed by individuals that “get it”. Also the opt-in kinds and the landing page develops seem better constructed for conversions. Development is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I would love to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have claimed, Substack placements itself towards “makers” greater than e-mail marketers and newsletter proprietors. For that reason, you see some things geared extra towards individuals who just assume in terms of material development.
For instance, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does support several magazines, they are dealt with fairly independently. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to multiple publications at the same time. This isn’t something I require, but … trendy for individuals who could need it.
Substack also has even more social functionality built-in. For instance, it has a chat function to host chats with subscribers. It additionally has a “Notes” function which functions sort of like a social media newsfeed where you can share things from various other “Stacks” you read. Fascinating. In general, Substack is established to be more like a social media network which sustains long-form material.
In general, Substack is additionally much more … minimalist. You either take care of that or do not. Personally, I don’t. Nevertheless, if the goal is simpleness of interface and, honestly, features … Substack works quite well.
However, I’ll be clear here …
When it pertains to actual marketing, I do not think there’s much question that BeeHiiv is better matched. I looked for even more factors that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, but frankly … I have a hard time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are usually via to be the closest rivals, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer opponents. Both are going after the exact same target audience and have comparable capacities.
ConvertKit is also positioned at makers (like Substack), but it is a lot more strongly satisfying individuals who do it for company. ConvertKit has nice visual automation structure, it’s very own business system, and extra. ConvertKit is an actually good platform.
I’m not going to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature breakdown below. ConvertKit is well known already. However, right here’s just how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has a lot more versatility when it involves it’s automations. I will certainly additionally say that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit much more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains tagging. This is just a fundamental function of e-mail checklists that allows division in a far more versatile way than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to sustain tagging at some point soon, frankly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Does Morning Brew Use Beehiiv.
ConvertKit does now provide the capacity to market points using their own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that is essential to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would always pick a much more straight option anyway. For me, I prefer to use my own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about a lot longer and for that reason has way much more integration options. Lots of web-based devices and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their own WordPress plugin that is fairly powerful. As an example, their plugin currently even supports member-gated material as well as auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your site. Fundamentally, this more very closely places ConvertKit right into straight competitors by having you be able to release to your website and your email checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is seriously lacking in these kinds of third-party integrations currently. It’ll get there. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also hectic tackling the development devices of BeeHiiv. As an example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with perks, but you can likewise pay per lead within the inner advertisement network of BeeHiiv to grow your checklist. These are truly incredible features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you recognize ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is among the most well known viral promotion systems for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall surface wherefore this indicates for the platform moving forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Does Morning Brew Use Beehiiv
BeeHiiv is a lot previously in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies much less features and less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. Nonetheless, it additionally means that they are swiftly developing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually observed practically weekly launch of brand-new features right into the system. And these aren’t puny little features … yet huge features that are fairly crucial. Their rate of advancement at this point has gone over.
I also significantly value just how receptive they are. As a matter of fact, among their product news about some style enhancements to the website design features in fact had a small issue with the content size. I simply replied to that e-mail to tell them. I promptly got a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That same day, the problem was repaired.
Couple of days later, I gave them one more idea …
Certainly, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to activate automations based upon the embed type made use of was included in the system.
That type of responsiveness and direct participation of the group is something I truly appreciate.
One more major point of differentiation right here is the cost. Both systems use totally free plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan uses much more ability and even more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally much more favorable. ConvertKit seems more affordable at first glimpse since their pricing web page shows lower numbers, nevertheless the customer limitations are much lower and your rate rapidly raises as your list grows.
With BeeHiiv, your very first level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid every year), however you can have up to 10,000 customers. That exact same dimension checklist is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their ideal plan and the one I personally make use of), you can expand your list up to 100,000. A checklist of that size would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, as well, 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 an entirely various league when it pertains to pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv ultimately raise rates? They might as time takes place. Yet, I’m guessing people like myself that are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see exactly how points continue.
Points I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of the important things you most definitely require to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do appear to develop instead rapidly and make new product statements rather frequently, but there are some standard features I actually desire they had that I need to simply wait for.
One is that they need to have a setting on registration types where I might select an automation to run right at the type level. That would certainly be AWESOME for a lot of reasons. Currently, registration kinds look OK, yet there’s really little settings for them to assist in division.
It would be nice to have tagging at the subscriber level. This would be effective.
I think webhooks should belong to automations to make built-in automations much easier and lower dependence on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are also some minor administrative interface changes that would certainly be handy. For example:
- Ability to bulk edit/remove customers.
- Capacity to bulk edit blog posts (for instance, to mark a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a few fundamental fields as conventional on clients (like the name).
- Some even more customization alternatives for the site (such as more adaptable color selections, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Things I wish they perform with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t perfect and definitely not almost as created as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM item.
It possibly never will certainly be, either. As I stated, the purpose is various so it would not a lot a great deal of feeling for BeeHiiv to become a full marketing automation platform. I think you never ever know, however.
Final Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Review
I such as BeeHiiv fairly a whole lot. Enough where I determined to switch my very own e-newsletters over to the system regardless of my personal preference for digital sovereignty and possessing my own system.
Put simply, for the newsletter publishing version specifically, I saw adequate value in their system to necessitate the change.
Bear in mind, I do not utilize BeeHiiv as my exclusive e-mail listing. I utilize BeeHiiv of what it is good at, yet I deliberately have things set up to make sure that I also keep my checklist “in residence” inside of FluentCRM.
If you make use of BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the very same. It is just an excellent insurance coverage, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation system 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 utilizing Substack right now, I ‘d absolutely consider switching over to BeeHiiv. It will merely be more business-friendly. It is targeting different capacities and different requirements. And also, BeeHiiv even has import devices for Substack, so the switch must be quite uncomplicated.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d possibly stay put unless you have a big email listing and are consequently being fleeced with their high monthly expense. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are iterating promptly. There’s additionally a pretty good chance you’re not even making use of several of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you do not even need them. For that reason, BeeHiiv might conveniently be a better and a lot more cost effective fit.
Finally, if you plan to be extremely willful regarding expanding a newsletter, I assume BeeHiiv is THE system to think about and maintain and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is developed to be, it is among the very best games around right now. This is the system to view.
BeeHiiv offers a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves looking into for yourself. And if you wind up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll discover the totally free account to be rather feature rich.