I have utilized a great deal of various e-mail list systems over the years. In the last number of years, I’ve been a huge advocate of digital sovereignty and owning your own system. Because of that (and the incredible features), I have been making use of Graze Beehiiv.
So, it is indeed an unusual move for me to decide to make use of BeeHiiv. After all, it is a hosted application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv evaluation, I want to discuss why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my newsletters. I want to attend to the issue of digital sovereignty while using the platform and I ‘d likewise like to resolve why I selected to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For Newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Pastime + A Huge Change In Strategy, I spoke about exactly how and why I determined to transform my RV blog into mostly an e-newsletter. I decided that was business model I wished to pursue keeping that residential property.
Yet, to deliberately seek it as a newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the email checklist for Happily motor home, yet FluentCRM is not a newsletter platform. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, honestly, using it for newsletters is a little bit of a waste. Extra on that in a little bit.
As I said because concern of the e-newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a system with devices built right into it specific to my purpose. Things such as:
- Capacity to publish (to the blog) and send out the e-mail all at once without having it be 2 separate activities.
- Constructed in e-newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would have needed a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Integrated ability to do cross-promotions with other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are primarily one-click subscription links. Great for promotion in various other 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 advertisement network, if I choose to generate income from with advertisements in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capability to run a paid e-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 platform was literally constructed by the individuals who built up the technology for Early morning Mixture. They understand what they’re doing.
That is the point below. BeeHiiv is built from scratch for the objective of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a different objective.
And I finished off with this:.
I may without a doubt be moving The Edge over to BeeHiiv too. A minimum of, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. In fact, I simply went for it. And as a matter of fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s very own home so that I can grow it extra deliberately also.
The goal is that each newsletter has the capability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded independently. Happily motor home was young, so easy to transition. Yet, The Early morning WP (formerly The Edge) was buried in a sea of things here at the Blog Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s own. It will clearly constantly be closely tied with the Blog site Marketing Academy, however doesn’t need to be a part of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv because it was developed for this function. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Simply A Typical Email Listing
There’s a distinction in between a newsletter system and simply an e-mail list.
You can hold your e-mail checklist anyplace you desire 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 key difference is that, with an e-newsletter system, the act of posting suggests that it is going to your web site and to your email clients all at once.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a website. You are publishing to that web site. But, you are also sending off to all subscribers at the same time. The web site and it’s customers are done in one. This makes administration of the platform much simpler.
With the majority of email systems, any type of e-newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is developed totally individually from your web site. So, for example, you could publish an article to WordPress however then you would certainly require to individually develop and send out an e-mail to your list to send it to subscribers. These are after that 2 separate sets of archives and 2 separate actions because blog posts and your e-mails are not naturally connected.
The closest thing that turns WordPress right into a real newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name due to the fact that it pretty much “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress posts and allows them to be the same point. Absolutely, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a strong alternative if I wished to remain to self-host whatever. Nevertheless, you ‘d shed the growth tools that feature a platform like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter inherently includes a different collection of requirements than a regular email checklist.
You don’t normally require much marketing automation. You don’t generally need autoresponder series, event tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO requirement, though, is one smooth publishing experience and growth devices to assist you construct your client base that are specific to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I introduced to my clients that I was going to switch over the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many people ask me why I was picking it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the reality that I chose to go with BeeHiiv, that doesn’t mean I assume Substack sucks. 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 younger, there are a pair points that at first obtained my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically customized to e-newsletter authors. Actually, it is actually built by the very same individuals who built the modern technology behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real world, doesn’t matter. Yet, the evident positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter growth called me out over the more generic positioning of being a “developer”. Growth is what I’m interested in here.
- That branding and differentiation also suggests that BeeHiiv has some rather big brands and large magazines utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo developers. Once more, it just informs me the client avatar distinction between the two business.
Sending our my e-newsletter via FluentCRM really did not specifically draw. The only factor I would certainly consider shaking points up is if I believed I can expand the listing quicker. And BeeHiiv spoke specifically to that goal.
Due to the targeting, I in fact don’t check out BeeHiiv and Substack as direct competitors. I think BeeHiiv is targeting a different sort of consumer. Actually, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being much more straight rivals.
Yet, allow’s dive much deeper than just the positioning right here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
On the whole, BeeHiiv appears like it was constructed by people who comprehending e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack appears a lot more tailored towards developers.
For instance, BeeHiiv provides personalized fields on clients. Currently, it isn’t as established as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv supplies Automations. In fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that works a great deal like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still fairly minimal in triggers and the only action is the capability to send out an e-mail. Nonetheless, enhancements are coming. Quickly sufficient, automations will have new triggers along with new actions, such as modifying customized fields, sending webhooks, etc. I have actually already seen improvements to their automations just considering that I began utilizing the system. As an example:
- Capability to trigger automations based upon which particular embed kind they can be found in on.
- Ability to instantly do re-engagement (and take care of people based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Capability to do basic conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never will. Substack just can not do this since the target audience of Substack simply would not believe to approach this like an e-mail online marketer.
When it comes to creating your newsletters, the writing user interface of BeeHiiv is simply extra tailored towards e-newsletters. As a matter of fact, it really has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in just how it functions. I locate it to be a lot more user-friendly, personally.
Substack’s creating user interface is nice and clean, but it would be much more comparable to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is greater than simply type. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Area” and then placed anything you desire in it. Then, you can put Presence choices on that particular area to show it just to paid subscribers, hide it from email, hide from clients, show only to subscribers, etc. Substack supplies nothing like this.
And when/if the moment comes that I start a costs membership model, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any profits. Actually, you literally attach up to your own Stripe account and it bills straight to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your revenue. Relying on how many customers you get, that 10% can be quite a bit more cash than the monthly price of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This may seem unpopular, yet what it indicates is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can actually make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outdoors using tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … nothing. No integrations at all.
Generally, I simply seemed like BeeHiiv was a lot more developed towards actual email marketing. It was developed by people that “get it”. Also the opt-in forms and the landing page develops appear better constructed for conversions. Development is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Despite the fact that there are still features I want to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Things That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually said, Substack settings itself toward “developers” more than email marketing experts and e-newsletter owners. For that reason, you see some points tailored more towards people who just assume in regards to material development.
For example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does support numerous publications, they are dealt with quite individually. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to several magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, however … trendy for individuals who may require it.
Substack likewise has more social performance built-in. For example, it has a conversation feature to host chats with subscribers. It likewise has a “Notes” function which works type of like a social media sites newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you read. Fascinating. In general, Substack is set up to be much more like a social media network which supports long-form content.
Generally, Substack is additionally more … minimalist. You either take care of that or do not. Directly, I do not. Nevertheless, if the goal is simpleness of user interface and, truthfully, features … Substack functions pretty well.
But, I’ll be clear below …
When it concerns actual marketing, I don’t assume there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is much better suited. I looked for even more factors that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, however honestly … I have a hard time finding them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are typically with to be the closest rivals, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer rivals. Both are going after the same target audience and have similar capabilities.
ConvertKit is likewise placed at designers (like Substack), yet it is much more highly accommodating people who do it for business. ConvertKit has nice visual automation building, it’s own business platform, and extra. ConvertKit is a really nice platform.
I’m not mosting likely to bore you with a full feature-by-feature failure here. ConvertKit is popular currently. Yet, here’s just how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Things ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has more flexibility when it pertains to it’s automations. I will also say that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit more user-friendly than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains tagging. This is just a basic feature of email listings that allows division in a far more adaptable way than BeeHiiv currently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain marking eventually quickly, honestly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Graze Beehiiv.
ConvertKit does currently give the capability to sell points using their very own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that’s important to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would certainly constantly pick a more direct choice anyhow. For me, I favor to use my very own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about much longer and therefore has way a lot more integration options. Tons of web-based tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their very own WordPress plugin that is rather powerful. For example, their plugin currently also sustains member-gated material as well as auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your website. Essentially, this much more carefully puts ConvertKit into straight competition by having you be able to release to your website and your email list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is badly lacking in these kinds of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll arrive. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also active tackling the development devices of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not just incentivize people to share your e-newsletter with benefits, but you can additionally pay per lead within the inner advertisement network of BeeHiiv to grow your list. These are actually amazing features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you understand ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of the most well known viral promotion systems for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall surface of what this indicates for the platform going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Graze Beehiiv
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that means much less features and less integrations, which is all-natural for this phase of the cycle. Nevertheless, it likewise means that they are rapidly establishing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually witnessed nearly regular launch of new features into the platform. And these aren’t puny little features … however large features that are quite important. Their speed of advancement at this moment has actually been impressive.
I also quite appreciate exactly how receptive they are. In fact, one of their product news concerning some style enhancements to the web design features actually had a small problem with the web content size. I merely replied to that email to tell them. I swiftly obtained a reply directly from the chief executive officer:.
That very same day, the issue was fixed.
Couple of days later on, I gave them an additional recommendation …
Indeed, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to cause automations based upon the embed form made use of was added to the system.
That sort of responsiveness and direct participation of the team is something I actually value.
Another major point of differentiation below is the cost. Both systems use totally free plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan uses a lot more capacity and more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also even more positive. ConvertKit appears more affordable initially glance since their pricing web page shows lower numbers, nevertheless the subscriber restrictions are much reduced and your rate swiftly boosts as your listing expands.
With BeeHiiv, your first level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid each year), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 customers. That exact same size checklist is mosting likely to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I personally make use of), you can expand your checklist approximately 100,000. A checklist of that dimension would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, as well, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay every year, as well. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for simply $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv is in an entirely different league when it involves pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point raise costs? They could as time takes place. But, I’m presuming individuals like myself who are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see just how things continue.
Points I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Add
Among the things you most definitely need to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do seem to progress rather swiftly and make brand-new product news rather commonly, but there are some fundamental features I actually desire they had that I require to simply await.
One is that they need to have a setting on membership forms where I can select an automation to run right at the kind degree. That would be incredible for numerous reasons. Currently, membership kinds look OK, however there’s extremely little setups for them to help in segmentation.
It would certainly be nice to have identifying at the subscriber level. This would be effective.
I assume webhooks must be part of automations to make integrated automations simpler and minimize reliance on outside devices like Zapier.
There are additionally some small management interface adjustments that would be handy. For example:
- Capacity to bulk edit/remove clients.
- Capability to mass edit blog posts (for instance, to label a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of fundamental areas as common on subscribers (like the name).
- Some more modification choices for the site (such as more adaptable color selections, heading control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Things I hope they perform with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, however it isn’t excellent and certainly not nearly as created as something like FluentCRM or any other genuine CRM product.
It possibly never ever will certainly be, either. As I claimed, the purpose is various so it wouldn’t much a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to come to be a full marketing automation system. I think you never ever know, though.
Last Ideas On This BeeHiiv Review
I like BeeHiiv quite a great deal. Enough where I made a decision to change my very own newsletters over to the platform in spite of my individual choice for digital sovereignty and having my own platform.
Basically, for the e-newsletter posting model specifically, I saw sufficient worth in their platform to necessitate the adjustment.
Remember, I do not make use of BeeHiiv as my unique email checklist. I use BeeHiiv of what it is efficient, yet I purposefully have points set up so that I additionally keep my checklist “in residence” within FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the same. It is simply a great insurance coverage, for one. Yet, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your listing will be of high use (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will be).
So, the question is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my viewpoint, if you are using Substack today, I ‘d definitely take into consideration changing to BeeHiiv. It will simply be more business-friendly. It is targeting different abilities and various demands. And also, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the button ought to be quite simple.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d probably stay unless you have a huge email list and are as a result being fleeced with their high regular monthly costs. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are iterating promptly. There’s additionally a pretty good chance you’re not also utilizing some of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you don’t even require them. Because of that, BeeHiiv could quickly be a far better and a lot more budget-friendly fit.
Finally, if you plan to be really deliberate about expanding an e-newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE platform to take into consideration and maintain and eye on for you.
If you utilize BeeHiiv with eyes wide open regarding what it is created to be, it is just one of the most effective games in the area today. This is the platform to see.
BeeHiiv provides a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves having a look at for yourself. And if you end up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll locate the cost-free account to be rather feature abundant.