I have actually utilized a lot of different e-mail list systems for many years. In the last number of years, I have actually been a significant supporter of digital sovereignty and owning your own system. For that reason (and the remarkable features), I have been making use of Kristi Digital Beehiiv.
So, it is indeed an odd move for me to determine to use BeeHiiv. After all, it is a held application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I wish to go over why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I want to attend to the issue of digital sovereignty while utilizing the system and I would certainly also such as to address why I picked to use it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Constructed For Newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my newsletter called My Hobby + A Huge Change In Approach, I spoke about just how and why I chose to transform my motor home blog site into mainly a newsletter. I made a decision that was business design I wanted to go after with that building.
But, to intentionally pursue it as a newsletter, I desired a system that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the e-mail checklist for Gladly recreational vehicle, but FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter platform. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, frankly, using it for e-newsletters is a little a waste. Much more on that in a bit.
As I said in that problem of the newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a system with tools built right into it details to my objective. Things such as:
- Capability to publish (to the blog site) and send out the e-mail at the same time without having it be two different activities.
- Integrated in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would have needed a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Built-in ability to do cross-promotions with other newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are essentially one-click registration links. Great for promo in other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, however, so there are methods 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.
- Built-in capability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and generally run a costs newsletter. And BeeHiiv doesn’t take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter authors with features focused on development. The system was literally built by the people that developed the innovation for Morning Mixture. They recognize what they’re doing.
That is the point below. BeeHiiv is developed from scratch for the purpose of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a various function.
And I ended off with this:.
I might undoubtedly be relocating The Edge over to BeeHiiv also. At least, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. As a matter of fact, I just went all out. And actually, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, triggered as it’s very own property so that I can grow it more purposefully as well.
The goal is that each newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s very own media entity and grown separately. Gladly motor home was young, so easy to shift. But, The Early morning WP (formerly The Edge) was buried in a sea of things here at the Blog Marketing Academy. By dividing it off, I can do what I can to expand it on it’s own. It will certainly constantly be closely connected with the Blog Marketing Academy, but doesn’t have to be a part of it.
I switched over to BeeHiiv because it was constructed for this function. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Simply A Normal Email Listing
There’s a difference in between a newsletter system and simply an email checklist.
You can organize your email listing everywhere you want and there are a variety of them out there, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted alternatives like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The main difference is that, with a newsletter system, the act of publishing means that it is going to your site and to your email subscribers at the same time.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a site. You are publishing to that website. Yet, you are likewise sending to all clients at the same time. The web site and it’s subscribers are done in one. This makes management of the platform much easier.
With most email platforms, any newsletter you set up is done as an email campaign. It is built entirely individually from your website. So, for example, you might publish a post to WordPress but then you would need to individually build and send out an e-mail to your list to send it to customers. These are after that two separate sets of archives and 2 different actions due to the fact that blog posts and your emails are not naturally linked.
The closest point that transforms WordPress into a true e-newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name because it basically “glues” your e-newsletter to your WordPress messages and permits them to be the same thing. Certainly, something like Newsletter Glue would be a strong alternative if I wanted to remain to self-host everything. However, you ‘d lose the growth devices that include a platform like BeeHiiv.
Posting a newsletter inherently includes a various collection of demands than a common e-mail checklist.
You do not normally 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 need, however, is one seamless posting experience and growth tools to assist you develop your customer base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my subscribers that I was going to change 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 chose to select BeeHiiv, that doesn’t imply I believe Substack draws. As a matter of fact, because Substack has been around much longer, it is elder and has even more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a couple points that at first obtained my focus:.
- BeeHiiv is specifically tailored to e-newsletter authors. Actually, it is literally built by the very same individuals who built the innovation behind Morning Brew. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real world, does not matter. However, the evident positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter growth called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “creator”. Growth is what I want here.
- That branding and distinction also means that BeeHiiv has some rather large brand names and big magazines utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is intended even more at solo creators. Once again, it simply tells me the client character distinction between the two firms.
Sending our my newsletter via FluentCRM really did not precisely suck. The only factor I would certainly ponder shaking points up is if I assumed I could GROW the checklist quicker. And BeeHiiv spoke precisely to that objective.
Due to the targeting, I really do not watch BeeHiiv and Substack as direct competitors. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a different sort of customer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being more straight competitors.
However, allow’s dive deeper than just the positioning here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Generally, BeeHiiv looks like it was built by people that comprehending email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems extra geared toward developers.
For example, BeeHiiv supplies personalized areas on customers. Now, it isn’t as created as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack doesn’t.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. Actually, it is an aesthetic automation builder that functions a great deal like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation performance is still early-phase. It is still fairly restricted in triggers and the only activity is the capability to send an e-mail. Nonetheless, improvements are coming. Quickly enough, automations will have brand-new triggers in addition to new actions, such as modifying custom-made fields, sending webhooks, etc. I’ve currently seen improvements to their automations simply considering that I started using the system. For example:
- Capability to trigger automations based on which particular embed form they was available in on.
- Ability to instantly do re-engagement (and take care of people based upon opens up and non-opens).
- Capacity to do standard conditional logic branches.
Substack does not have automations like this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can not do this because the target audience of Substack just wouldn’t think to approach this like an email marketing professional.
When it involves composing your newsletters, the writing user interface of BeeHiiv is just much more geared toward e-newsletters. Actually, it actually has resemblances to the WordPress block builder in how it works. I find it to be more intuitive, personally.
Substack’s composing user interface behaves and clean, yet it would be more comparable to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This difference is greater than just form. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can place a “Area” and after that put anything you desire in it. After that, you can place Presence choices on that particular area to show it only to paid clients, conceal it from email, conceal from clients, reveal only to clients, and so on. Substack uses nothing like this.
And when/if the time comes that I start a costs membership model, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any kind of earnings. In fact, you actually connect up to your own Stripe account and it charges directly to it. With Substack, they will take 10% of your revenue. Relying on how many clients you obtain, that 10% can be quite a bit more cash than the month-to-month price of BeeHiiv.
Finally, BeeHiiv has an API. This could appear unpopular, however what it suggests is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv deal with the outdoors utilizing devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … nothing. No integrations in all.
Generally, I just felt like BeeHiiv was more constructed toward real email marketing. It was built by people who “get it”. Even the opt-in types and the landing page designs appear better developed for conversions. Growth is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I want to see BeeHiiv include, I such as the direction it is going more than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually stated, Substack settings itself towards “creators” more than email marketing professionals and e-newsletter proprietors. Because of that, you see some points geared a lot more toward people who simply believe in regards to content production.
As an example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does support numerous magazines, they are dealt with rather individually. Whereas Substack does have the capacity to cross-post to numerous publications at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, however … great for individuals who could require it.
Substack likewise has even more social capability built-in. For instance, it has a chat function to host chats with clients. It likewise has a “Notes” feature which works type of like a social media newsfeed where you can share points from other “Stacks” you read. Interesting. Overall, Substack is set up to be a lot more like a social media which sustains long-form material.
Generally, Substack is likewise a lot more … minimal. You either take care of that or do not. Directly, I do not. However, if the objective is simplicity of interface and, honestly, features … Substack works pretty well.
However, I’ll be clear here …
When it pertains to real marketing, I do not think there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is much better suited. I tried to find even more points that make Substack much better than BeeHiiv, but frankly … 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 opponents. Both are going after the very same target market and have comparable capacities.
ConvertKit is additionally placed at creators (like Substack), however it is much more strongly satisfying people that do it for company. ConvertKit has wonderful aesthetic automation structure, it’s own business platform, and more. ConvertKit is a truly good system.
I’m not going to bore you with a full feature-by-feature breakdown below. ConvertKit is popular currently. But, right here’s exactly how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit compare …
Points ConvertKit Is Much Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has a lot more flexibility when it comes to it’s automations. I will certainly likewise state that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit more instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit supports marking. This is just a fundamental feature of email lists that allows division in a far more versatile method than BeeHiiv currently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support labeling eventually soon, honestly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on Kristi Digital Beehiiv.
ConvertKit does now give the capability to sell points via their own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that’s important to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, however, I would certainly always pick a much more straight choice anyway. For me, I favor to use my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has actually been about a lot longer and for that reason has way a lot more integration alternatives. Lots of web-based tools and WordPress plugins integrate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their own WordPress plugin that is quite powerful. For example, their plugin currently even supports member-gated web content along with auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your site. In essence, this extra carefully puts ConvertKit right into straight competition by having you have the ability to publish to your website and your email list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is drastically doing not have in these type of third-party integrations presently. It’ll arrive. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even busy taking on the development devices of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not only incentivize individuals to share your newsletter with perks, yet you can likewise pay per lead within the internal advertisement network of BeeHiiv to grow your checklist. These are really outstanding features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you recognize ConvertKit acquired Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of one of the most popular viral promotion systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall wherefore this implies for the system going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Kristi Digital Beehiiv
BeeHiiv is a lot earlier in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies much less features and much less integrations, which is all-natural for this stage of the cycle. Nonetheless, it likewise implies that they are rapidly developing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually experienced virtually regular launch of brand-new features right into the system. And these aren’t undersized little features … however large features that are quite essential. Their speed of advancement at this moment has been impressive.
I likewise quite appreciate how receptive they are. Actually, one of their item announcements concerning some design improvements to the web design features in fact included a tiny trouble with the content width. I simply responded to that e-mail to tell them. I swiftly got a reply directly from the chief executive officer:.
That very same day, the issue was dealt with.
Couple of days later, I gave them an additional pointer …
Indeed, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the capability to cause automations based upon the embed form used was included in the system.
That sort of responsiveness and straight participation of the team is something I truly appreciate.
Another major point of differentiation right here is the cost. Both systems provide cost-free plans, however the BeeHiiv free plan provides a lot more capacity and even more clients (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you go to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is also FAR more desirable. ConvertKit seems less expensive in the beginning look since their pricing web page reveals lower numbers, nonetheless the subscriber limitations are FAR reduced and your cost rapidly raises as your checklist grows.
With BeeHiiv, your initial degree paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid every year), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 clients. That very same dimension listing is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you upgrade to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their ideal plan and the one I personally use), you can expand your checklist up to 100,000. A checklist of that dimension would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you want their referral network, too, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay each year, also. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay yearly.
BeeHiiv is in a totally various league when it comes to pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually enhance costs? They may as time goes on. Yet, I’m thinking people like myself who are already in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see just how things proceed.
Points I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
One of the important things you absolutely need to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do seem to evolve instead rapidly and make brand-new product statements somewhat typically, however there are some basic features I truly wish they had that I need to just wait for.
One is that they require to have a setting on subscription forms where I might choose an automation to run right at the form level. That would be incredible for numerous factors. Already, subscription forms look OK, yet there’s very little settings for them to help in segmentation.
It would certainly be nice to have tagging at the client level. This would certainly be powerful.
I believe webhooks ought to become part of automations to make built-in automations less complicated and decrease reliance on outside tools like Zapier.
There are likewise some small management user interface changes that would certainly be handy. For instance:
- Capability to mass edit/remove clients.
- Capacity to bulk edit posts (as an example, to label a number of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of basic fields as common on subscribers (like the name).
- Some even more customization choices for the site (such as even more flexible shade options, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Things I hope they make with it in the future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, however it isn’t perfect and certainly not almost as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM product.
It possibly never ever will be, either. As I stated, the purpose is various so it wouldn’t a lot a great deal of sense for BeeHiiv to become a full marketing automation system. I presume you never understand, however.
Final Ideas On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I like BeeHiiv quite a whole lot. Sufficient where I decided to switch my very own newsletters over to the platform in spite of my individual preference for digital sovereignty and having my very own system.
Basically, for the newsletter posting version especially, I saw enough value in their system to warrant the modification.
Keep in mind, I do not utilize BeeHiiv as my exclusive e-mail list. I utilize BeeHiiv of what it is good at, yet I purposefully have things establish to make sure that I likewise keep my checklist “in house” inside of FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the exact same. It is just an excellent insurance coverage, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your list will certainly be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation platform and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will be).
So, the concern is … should YOU use BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are making use of Substack now, I ‘d certainly consider changing to BeeHiiv. It will simply be much more business-friendly. It is targeting different capabilities and various demands. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the button ought to be quite uncomplicated.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d possibly sit tight unless you have a huge email listing and are as a result being wooled with their high regular monthly expense. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, but they are repeating quickly. There’s additionally a respectable opportunity you’re not even using some of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not also need them. For that reason, BeeHiiv can conveniently be a far better and a lot more economical fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be extremely willful regarding growing a 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 regarding what it is designed to be, it is one of the most effective games around today. This is the system to view.
BeeHiiv provides a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves looking into on your own. And if you wind up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll discover the free account to be quite feature rich.