Over two years earlier, I read among my favorite e-mail newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the e-mail and saw the beehiiv logo design for the first time. I clicked on it and immediately started tearing up Difference Between Beehiiv and Substack.
I had not been sure why I felt so emotional.
Being a full-time developer is difficult. I’m frequently obtaining pitched various devices and solutions that do not appear to be worth my time.
I guess I was psychological due to the fact that I spent the last 6 months trying various e-mail and e-newsletter platforms to help construct my e-newsletter. And to be fair, there are some wonderful choices for writing e-newsletters. Yet I couldn’t locate one that made me provide a certain “yes”.
The issue with numerous existing e-newsletter systems is that they do not feel creator-centered. I want an e-newsletter platform that lets me totally tailor my newsletter layouts, makes it incredibly simple to compose and send emails, and offers me devices that aid me evaluate metrics and get even more subscribers.
I assume I have actually ultimately discovered the best device.
But, I recognize beehiiv might not be for every person. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s really ideal for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one platform for e-newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly e-newsletter system that makes it easy to layout, create, send, promote, generate income from, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Created by former staff members at the popular newsletter firm Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to assist designers launch and monetize their very own e-newsletter– taking great deals of growth principles from taking Morning Brew to over 4M clients.
In this post, I’m mosting likely to clarify my individual experience with beehiiv, things I love (and hate) about it, all of it’s features, and why I decided to ultimately select it as my e-newsletter platform of choice.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A few months back, I inadvertently stumbled across beehiiv. The funny tale is that I’ve watched for a modern newsletter system for quite time now. I have actually postponed hard when it came to finally releasing my e-newsletter.
Initially, I attempted Mailchimp. Then, a few other indie platforms. Then, Substack. And ultimately, I wound up utilizing beehiiv.
I make certain numerous newsletter developers look up to prominent newsletters with numerous customers– I recognize I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I admired a great deal. They have great content, tons of clients, and a brilliant referral program that enables them to get back at a lot more clients.
So, I went on a hunt to find out just how these huge newsletters established their logistics. What system do they utilize? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they obtain even more subscribers? How do they develop a newsletter style that stays on-brand?
When I uncovered beehiiv for the very first time, it seemed to answer all of my inquiries. I thought to myself, “damn the people that built this device actually comprehend newsletter development and development.” I examined who these designers of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were some of the first marketing and development workers at Morning Brew– my brain exploded.
I knew this was mosting likely to be a various newsletter platform. One that’s concentrated on developer growth.
Because, any kind of maker understands, you need growth to be able to earn a living off of a newsletter. And locating the best e-newsletter stack (that ranges) often suggests using numerous various devices to aid attain one goal– one platform for your newsletter, one platform to generate income from, and one system to establish referrals. It can obtain expensive.
So when I figured out beehiiv did all of these points in one system, and it was free to begin utilizing, it was a piece of cake to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean material developer that desires a platform that enables them to send out custom newsletters with or without needing to have a website.
The most successful newsletters have the right tools to develop and scale their newsletters. beehiiv targets at providing you those devices.
If you’re an independent author, media company, start-up, or web content developer, you must seriously taking into consideration trying out beehiiv. It’s totally complimentary to begin and you only pay when you get to over 2,500 customers on your listing.
If you really wind up having to pay for beehiiv it’s possibly a great indication that people enjoy reviewing your stuff.
beehiiv vs Substack
You could be asking, “isn’t there already a system for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, of course there is. Substack is a great system made use of by hundreds of independent writers. With Substack you obtain your very own web site and use the system as your all-in-one remedy for sending out e-mails (while producing an archive of previous problems).
What collections beehiiv apart is it’s commitment to development. beehiiv enables you do to all the important things Substack can do, with the benefit of better analytics, even more style flexibilty, and a referral program to urge your existing customers to get the word out.
beehiiv also offers you an internet site comparable to Substack. Yet, if you have your own site already, you can additionally use beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I use) to send your site subscribers right to your beehiiv email list. On the very same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a tool like Revue to permit people to sign up for your e-newsletter directly from Twitter.
This gives you the adaptability to leverage various marketing networks to get your newsletter out into the globe, making beehiiv a fantastic Substack alternative.
Just how to start using beehiiv email marketing software program.
Register for a free plan
The initial step is to sign up for a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Start trial” button on beehiiv’s web site.
The free plan will certainly permit you to have up to 2,500 subscribers, provide you access to web site hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, development personalization, analytics, external embed types, and more. It’s a very charitable offering for those just starting (or for those searching for a brand-new system to migrate to).
Onboarding Difference Between Beehiiv and Substack
After producing an account, you’ll go through an onboarding procedure that will ask points like, “is this your very first newsletter?”, “what various other systems have you used?”, “do you have any type of paying subscribers?”, and extra.
You’ll after that create a name and link for your newsletter’s website. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will certainly survive on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your e-newsletter is called “Baking Cakes,” your web site URL might be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding process, you’ll likewise select your brand name design and colors to make certain your newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your control panel
As soon as you reach your primary dashboard, you’ll see every one of your analytics and setups.
You will have detailed info on the number of sign-ups you’re obtaining and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see options for “Begin writing,” “Blog posts,” “Target market,” “Grow,” “Monetize,” “Style,” and” Analyze.” And at the really lower you’ll see the setups option.
Dashboard is your main nerve center (screenshot over), Beginning creating is where you create and release e-newsletters, Articles is where you can see every one of your previous e-newsletter versions, Audience is where you can view who your subscribers are (and break them down into segments), Grow is where you have accessibility to a referral program (and development tutorials) and boosts to run advertisements, Monetize is where you can access the beehiiv ad network and monetize your newsletter with ads, Layout is where you make your e-newsletter landing page and blog post template, Analyze is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can manage every one of your admin stuff.
Writing your newsletter
beehiiv makes it easy to start composing, with little to no friction. If you’re simply beginning, and have an idea you intend to discuss, I recommend simply mosting likely to the “Create” section in the navbar and clicking “Start creating”.
You can tweak your template and styling later– concentrate on the material first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor offers a clean and user-friendly user interface for creating.
When you begin composing, you can enhance headings, add web links, and design your web content just how you like.
beehiiv gives you lots of options for various sorts of material like video clips, links, pictures, and a lot more.
The group at beehiiv is additionally constantly launching product feature and updates so I make sure there will certainly be a great deal more content features relying on when you read this.
Maximizing your settings and templates
When you have a newsletter that prepares to send, it’s time to create your email template and readjust some setups.
Below, you can upgrade the name of your e-newsletter, provide it a summary, add your logo, switch on or off a welcome email to first time customers, and a lot more.
Next, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your design.
You can edit history colors, boundaries, spacing, fonts, picture layouts, and more. I’m not going to experience ever solitary point you can maximize with your e-mail template because it’s a lot. Just try out the platform completely free and see it for yourself!
Important beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of amazing features that make it a terrific posting system for any type of e-newsletter maker.
Here are a few of the crucial features you can locate with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter posting platform. It makes it incredibly very easy to create and send emails. I discussed over a few of the important things you can do with your setups and e-mail layout so I’ll save you some added analysis.
The important things to keep in mind with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has a truly modern and minimalistic feeling. It’s definitely one of the much better email editors I have actually ever written in.
Web site hosting
When you develop a beehiiv newsletter, every one of your e-newsletters (if you want) live on an internet site. Consider it as a website for your newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous concerns of your e-newsletter, and an area where individuals can subscribe to your newsletter.
If you know with Substack, it’s basically comparable to that.
All plans, consisting of the cost-free one, offer you a web site. Nonetheless, the free plan areas your web site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you wish to include a customized domain to eliminate all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to upgrade to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting clients is essential. After all, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can register for your e-newsletter right from your beehiiv internet site or with embed types.
If you currently have an internet site, and want individuals to sign up for your newsletter from your existing website, you’ll need to use an embed kind. This is what I use on this site (you can see the sign-up installed on the right hand column of this blog post if you scroll up).
With embed types, you have 3 various options– a full width, a repaired size, and a slim installed. I directly make use of the slim installed.
You can discover the code fragment for these embeds in the “Subscribe Kinds” tab in your settings.
There’s also an option for attribution tracking if you want to ahead UTM criteria for tracking functions– pretty cool.
Nonetheless, there are a few features I desire beehiiv had when it concerned subscribe features. I make certain the group is servicing updates for these, but I discussed a couple of issues I had in the advantages and disadvantages area below.
Referral program
One of the amazing things concerning beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter platform, is a solution for creating a referral program.
You can encourage existing clients on your listing to ahead your e-mails to buddies and coworkers and if they obtain other individuals to sign up for your listing, you can compensate them. These rewards can be in whatever type you want. I have actually appear several newsletter companies provide rewards in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously transform your clients into a word of mouth development engine for your newsletter– providing you an additional method for expanding your e-mail listing.
However, to get access to the referral program feature, you’ll have to upgrade to a much more exceptional plan. I’ll go over all the plans later on in this post.
Premium subscriptions
They state all you require to make a living online is 1,000 real followers. Membership revenue is most definitely a beast of its own. If you’re seeking a platform to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can produce “premium” concerns of your e-newsletter that are only sent out to paying subscribers. This can be really lucrative depending on what your newsletter has to offer. As an example, Trends.co is a popular costs newsletter that creates millions in income a year merely by having pay-only e-newsletter content.
Data analytics
One of the important things I like concerning beehiiv is how clean and simple the analytics are. You obtain real-time day on just how your newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and client matter Difference Between Beehiiv and Substack.
You get accessibility to all the metrics you require to obtain a bird-eye view on just how your newsletter is in fact doing. Logging right into your control panel and seeing that subscriber matter increase is certainly a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv provides four different pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (totally free) Launch plan offers you every little thing you need to start and grow your e-newsletter (approximately 2,500 customers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) gives you everything in the Launch plan with the enhancement the advertisement network, referral program, custom domain, polls, and accessibility to costs memberships. This is the plan I get on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) provides you whatever in the Grow plan with addition of concern assistance and removing the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are rather charitable in my opinion.
For instance, if you have 100,000 customers you will certainly pay around $329 per month. Instead of some competitors, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would bill $679 each month for the exact same quantity– making beehiiv an excellent Kit option for many customers.
I’m unsure just how the system economics work with this, yet beehiiv is most definitely more affordable (currently) than what it can be.
beehiiv advantages and disadvantages
Certainly, with every platform, it has its benefits and drawbacks. Here are several of the pros and cons I have actually directly experienced while utilizing beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Below are several of the pros of using beehiiv as your newsletter platform of option:
Easy to establish and begin sending newsletters totally free.
Clean and modern-day subscriber analytics.
Lots of versatility with e-mail designs.
Referral program feature.
Site hosting.
Develop costs choices to monetize.
Polls.
To be sincere, I haven’t seen another e-newsletter platform that has actually been able to package every one of these features with each other so well.
But of course, I don’t intend to be biased so I’m mosting likely to state some disadvantages.
Cons of using beehiiv
Below are some of the cons I have actually found while making use of beehiiv:.
Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around adding personalized font styles.
I use Webflow as my internet site structure system of choice (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a long period of time ago). I’m not mosting likely to go in excessive detail why I love Webflow so much yet you can review my Webflow testimonial if you ‘d like to learn more.
Today, there really is no other means I can incorporate beehiiv with my Webflow site other than utilizing an iframe embed. I personally do not such as using iframe’s due to the fact that they have a tendency to reduce my internet site a bit. Whenever a page on my website (with a beehiiv embed) tons, the sign-up embed is the last thing to load on the page. It’s extremely recognizable when you get on a sluggish web link. However I can navigate that.
The primary gripe I have is that I can not make use of a regular Webflow form (which I love using). There are methods around this by utilizing a device like Zapier yet that would certainly just add additional costs that I do not need. To be straightforward, this is even more of a Webflow disadvantage over a beehiiv disadvantage however I assumed I would mention it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros far exceed the disadvantages below. I’m likewise enthusiastic that Webflow will at some point produce a better way to integrate with beehiiv.
Final Thought
On the whole, beehiiv is a terrific solution for any person wanting to study the world of e-mail marketing and newsletters.
The performance of this newsletter system far exceeds several that are currently on the marketplace. And with a charitable free plan, you actually have nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are likewise relatively affordable of what they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 subscribers on your checklist is unprecedented. If you were to have an e-newsletter with 100k clients, and all of these features beehiiv has, it might cost you well right into the thousands monthly.
Anyways, I don’t create review messages usually. I only do when I in fact use the tool myself and would recommend it to a buddy.
I hope you located some quality on whether beehiiv is a great system for you.