I have used a great deal of various e-mail list systems throughout the years. In the last number of years, I have actually been a huge proponent of digital sovereignty and having your own platform. Therefore (and the outstanding features), I have been making use of The Rabbit Hole Beehiiv.
So, it is without a doubt an odd move for me to choose to utilize BeeHiiv. After all, it is an organized application and I am paying month-to-month for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv review, I want to discuss why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I intend to attend to the concern of digital sovereignty while using the platform and I would certainly additionally like to attend to why I chose to use it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For E-newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my newsletter called My Pastime + A Large Change In Approach, I spoke about just how and why I chose to transform my recreational vehicle blog site into mostly an e-newsletter. I made a decision that was the business model I intended to seek with that residential property.
However, to intentionally seek it as an e-newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was utilizing FluentCRM for the e-mail listing for Gladly motor home, yet FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter system. It is developed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, frankly, utilizing it for newsletters is a bit of a waste. A lot more on that in a little bit.
As I stated because issue of the e-newsletter …
Simply put, BeeHiiv is a platform with tools constructed into it particular to my objective. Things such as:
- Capacity to publish (to the blog) and send out the e-mail concurrently 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 capacity to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv platform.
- ” Magic Links”, which are essentially one-click subscription links. Great for promotion in various other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, though, so there are methods to do that.
- Capacity to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your e-newsletter.
- Built-in ad network, if I pick to generate income from with ads in the newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in capability to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and generally run a premium e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Essentially, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter publishers with features aimed at growth. The platform was literally built by the people who built up the modern technology for Early morning Brew. They know what they’re doing.
That is the point here. BeeHiiv is built from scratch for the purpose of running a newsletter. FluentCRM has a different function.
And I ended off with this:.
I may indeed be relocating The Side over to BeeHiiv also. At least, I’m strongly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. In fact, I just went all out. And actually, The side was re-branded over to The Morning WP, triggered as it’s very own home to ensure that I can expand it much more purposefully too.
The goal is that each e-newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s own media entity and expanded independently. Gladly recreational vehicle was young, so easy to transition. However, The Morning WP (formerly 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 constantly be carefully tied with the Blog site Marketing Academy, however does not need to belong of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was constructed for this objective. FluentCRM was not.
E-newsletters Versus Just A Regular Email Checklist
There’s a distinction in between a newsletter system and simply an e-mail list.
You can organize your e-mail list anyplace you want and there are a variety of them around, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted choices like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The key distinction is that, with an e-newsletter system, the act of posting suggests that it is mosting likely to your web site and to your email subscribers simultaneously.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a site. You are releasing to that internet site. However, you are likewise sending off to all clients at the same time. The website and it’s clients are all in one. This makes administration of the system much simpler.
With many email platforms, any kind of e-newsletter you established is done as an email campaign. It is developed totally independently from your site. So, for example, you might publish a short article to WordPress yet then you would require to independently build and send an email to your listing to send it to clients. These are then two separate sets of archives and two different activities since blog posts and your e-mails are not inherently linked.
The closest thing that transforms WordPress into a true e-newsletter platform is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name since it practically “adhesives” your e-newsletter to your WordPress blog posts and enables them to be the very same point. Absolutely, something like E-newsletter Glue would certainly be a solid choice if I intended to continue to self-host everything. Nevertheless, you would certainly lose the development devices that feature a system like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter naturally features a different set of requirements than a regular email listing.
You do not normally require much marketing automation. You don’t generally require autoresponder series, event tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO demand, though, is one smooth posting experience and growth devices to assist you construct your customer base that are specific to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my clients that I was going to switch the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had lots of people ask me why I was picking it over Substack.
To be clear, also besides the fact that I chose to choose BeeHiiv, that does not suggest I believe Substack sucks. Actually, since Substack has been about much longer, it is elder and has more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple points that at first got my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is especially tailored to newsletter publishers. Actually, it is essentially built by the same individuals that constructed the technology behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets authors. In the real world, does not matter. But, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv towards newsletter growth called me out over the more generic positioning of being a “developer”. Growth is what I want here.
- That branding and distinction likewise indicates that BeeHiiv has some relatively huge brand names and big magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo designers. Once more, it simply informs me the client character distinction between both companies.
Sending our my e-newsletter by means of FluentCRM really did not precisely draw. The only reason I would certainly consider shaking points up is if I thought I can GROW the listing much faster. And BeeHiiv spoke specifically to that objective.
As a result of the targeting, I actually don’t watch BeeHiiv and Substack as straight competitors. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a different kind of customer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being extra straight competitors.
However, let’s dive deeper than simply the positioning here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
Overall, BeeHiiv feels like it was built by people that recognizing e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems more tailored towards makers.
As an example, BeeHiiv offers custom areas on customers. Now, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. However, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv offers Automations. Actually, it is an aesthetic automation builder that works a whole lot like what we have inside of FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation functionality is still early-phase. It is still rather minimal in triggers and the only action is the ability to send out an e-mail. Nevertheless, improvements are coming. Soon enough, automations will have new triggers in addition to brand-new activities, such as customizing custom fields, sending out webhooks, etc. I have actually already seen enhancements to their automations simply given that I began using the platform. For example:
- Ability to activate automations based upon which details embed form they can be found in on.
- Ability to instantly do re-engagement (and handle people based on opens up and non-opens).
- Capability to do basic conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack simply can not do this because the target market of Substack just wouldn’t think to approach this like an email marketer.
When it pertains to composing your e-newsletters, the creating user interface of BeeHiiv is simply extra geared toward e-newsletters. Actually, it in fact has similarities to the WordPress block builder in how it works. I locate it to be more intuitive, directly.
Substack’s creating interface behaves and tidy, however it would certainly be much more comparable to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This difference is more than simply form. As an example, with BeeHiiv you can put a “Area” and afterwards placed anything you want in it. After that, you can place Presence choices on that particular section to show it only to paid clients, conceal it from email, conceal from customers, show just to clients, etc. Substack uses absolutely nothing similar to this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a costs subscription model, BeeHiiv does not take any type of income. In fact, you actually connect up to your very own Stripe account and it bills directly to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your earnings. Depending upon how many clients you obtain, that 10% can be quite a bit more cash than the month-to-month cost of BeeHiiv.
Last but not least, BeeHiiv has an API. This may appear nerdy, yet what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv work with the outdoors using devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … nothing. No integrations in any way.
Overall, I just felt like BeeHiiv was extra built towards actual e-mail marketing. It was developed by people that “get it”. Also the opt-in kinds and the landing page creates appear far better developed for conversions. Growth is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Even though there are still features I wish to see BeeHiiv add, I such as the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have said, Substack positions itself towards “developers” greater than email marketing experts and newsletter proprietors. For that reason, you see some points geared a lot more towards individuals that just assume in regards to content production.
For instance, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Also, while BeeHiiv does sustain numerous publications, they are dealt with quite independently. 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 people that might require it.
Substack additionally has more social capability built-in. For instance, it has a conversation feature to host chats with customers. It likewise has a “Notes” function which functions type of like a social media newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you read. Interesting. In general, Substack is set up to be extra like a social network which sustains long-form material.
On the whole, Substack is also much more … minimalist. You either take care of that or don’t. Directly, I don’t. However, if the objective is simpleness of user interface and, frankly, features … Substack functions rather well.
However, I’ll be clear here …
When it concerns real marketing, I don’t believe there’s much question that BeeHiiv is better suited. I tried to find more points that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, however truthfully … I have a tough time locating 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 opponents. Both are pursuing the exact same target audience and have similar capacities.
ConvertKit is additionally placed at designers (like Substack), yet it is a lot more highly catering to individuals that do it for company. ConvertKit has great aesthetic automation building, it’s very own business platform, and a lot more. ConvertKit is an actually nice platform.
I’m not going to bore you with a full feature-by-feature malfunction here. ConvertKit is popular already. Yet, right here’s how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Points ConvertKit Is Better At …
As of now, ConvertKit has much more adaptability when it concerns it’s automations. I will additionally state that I locate ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a bit extra instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains labeling. This is just a basic function of email lists that enables segmentation in a far more versatile way than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to sustain marking at some time soon, frankly. It seems like an oversight that it is missing out on The Rabbit Hole Beehiiv.
ConvertKit does now offer the capability to market things by means of their very own platform. BeeHiiv does not. If that’s important to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nonetheless, I would certainly constantly select an extra direct option anyhow. For me, I prefer to use my own platform powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about much longer and therefore has way a lot 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. For instance, their plugin currently also sustains member-gated content in addition to auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your site. Fundamentally, this much more very closely places ConvertKit into direct competitors by having you be able to release to your website and your e-mail list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is badly doing not have in these sort of third-party integrations presently. It’ll arrive. But, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even hectic taking on the development devices of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Referral Engine where you can not only incentivize people to share your newsletter with advantages, but you can likewise pay per lead within the inner ad network of BeeHiiv to expand your listing. These are actually incredible features of BeeHiiv. However …
Did you know ConvertKit got Sparkloop? Sparkloop is one of the most popular viral promo systems for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall surface of what this means for the platform going forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … The Rabbit Hole Beehiiv
BeeHiiv is much previously in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that indicates less features and less integrations, which is all-natural for this phase of the cycle. However, it additionally implies that they are quickly establishing.
In the short time that I have been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have witnessed practically once a week launch of new features right into the system. And these aren’t weak little features … but big features that are quite important. Their rate of growth at this moment has actually gone over.
I likewise quite value just how responsive they are. As a matter of fact, one of their product news about some style enhancements to the web design features really contained a tiny trouble with the content size. I simply replied to that email to tell them. I swiftly got a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That very same day, the issue was taken care of.
Couple of days later on, I gave them another idea …
Certainly, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to set off automations based on the embed kind used was contributed to the system.
That type of responsiveness and straight participation of the team is something I truly value.
Another major factor of distinction right here is the cost. Both systems supply free plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan uses a lot more capacity and even more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is likewise much more desirable. ConvertKit seems less costly in the beginning glance since their pricing web page shows lower numbers, nonetheless the subscriber limitations are FAR reduced and your rate rapidly raises as your listing expands.
With BeeHiiv, your initial level paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid each year), however you can have up to 10,000 customers. That very same dimension checklist is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their ideal plan and the one I personally use), you can grow your listing up to 100,000. A listing of that size would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, as well, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay each year, as well. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for just $84/month if you pay yearly.
BeeHiiv remains in a completely various organization when it concerns pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually boost rates? They may as time goes on. But, I’m guessing individuals like myself who are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see just how points continue.
Things I Would Like BeeHiiv To Add
One of the things you certainly require to bear in mind is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do seem to evolve rather rapidly and make brand-new product announcements rather frequently, yet there are some fundamental features I truly wish they had that I require to simply wait on.
One is that they need to have a setting on subscription types where I can pick an automation to run right at the type degree. That would be AWESOME for numerous reasons. Already, membership types look OK, but there’s extremely little setups for them to assist in segmentation.
It would certainly be nice to have tagging at the customer degree. This would be powerful.
I think webhooks should become part of automations to make integrated automations simpler and lower reliance on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are also some small administrative user interface adjustments that would certainly be handy. For instance:
- Ability to mass edit/remove subscribers.
- Capacity to bulk edit articles (as an example, to mark a number of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of fundamental areas as basic on customers (like the name).
- Some even more customization options for the web site (such as more versatile shade selections, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some imperfections. Things I hope they finish with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is respectable, however it isn’t ideal and certainly not nearly as established as something like FluentCRM or any other actual CRM product.
It possibly never ever will be, either. As I said, the function is different so it wouldn’t a lot a great deal of feeling for BeeHiiv to end up being a complete marketing automation platform. I guess you never understand, though.
Last Ideas On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I such as BeeHiiv rather a whole lot. Sufficient where I determined to change my own e-newsletters over to the system in spite of my personal choice for digital sovereignty and having my own system.
Put simply, for the newsletter posting design especially, I saw sufficient value in their platform to require the change.
Remember, I do not use BeeHiiv as my unique email checklist. I use BeeHiiv wherefore it is proficient at, however I intentionally have points set up to make sure that I likewise maintain my listing “in home” inside of FluentCRM.
If you use BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the same. It is simply a great insurance policy, for one. But, 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 certainly be).
So, the concern is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my point of view, if you are making use of Substack today, I ‘d absolutely think about switching to BeeHiiv. It will merely be extra business-friendly. It is targeting different capacities and various needs. And also, BeeHiiv also has import tools for Substack, so the switch needs to be pretty uncomplicated.
If you are on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d possibly stay put unless you have a large email list and are therefore being fleeced with their high monthly expense. You will not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, however they are iterating quickly. There’s also a respectable opportunity you’re not even making use of some of those fancier functions of ConvertKit and you don’t even need them. Therefore, BeeHiiv might quickly be a much better and a lot more inexpensive fit.
Last but not least, if you plan to be extremely intentional about growing a newsletter, I think BeeHiiv is THE system to think about and maintain and eye on for you.
If you use BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is created to be, it is one of the best games around now. This is the system to view.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth checking out on your own. And if you wind up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll find the complimentary account to be rather feature rich.