Over 2 years back, I read one of my favorite e-mail newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the e-mail and saw the beehiiv logo for the very first time. I clicked it and instantly started tearing up How Much Does Beehiiv Cost.
I had not been certain why I really felt so psychological.
Being a permanent developer is difficult. I’m usually getting pitched various tools and services that don’t appear to be worth my time.
I think I was psychological because I spent the last 6 months trying out different e-mail and newsletter systems to aid build my e-newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some great choices for composing e-newsletters. However I couldn’t find one that made me provide a precise “yes”.
The problem with numerous existing newsletter systems is that they don’t really feel creator-centered. I desire a newsletter platform that lets me totally tailor my newsletter styles, makes it incredibly easy to write and send emails, and gives me tools that help me assess metrics and get even more subscribers.
I think I have actually ultimately discovered the appropriate tool.
But, I understand beehiiv may not be for everyone. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s actually right for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one system for e-newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly e-newsletter system that makes it simple to style, create, send out, advertise, monetize, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Developed by former workers at the well-known e-newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to aid makers launch and monetize their very own newsletter– taking great deals of development concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M customers.
In this write-up, I’m mosting likely to clarify my individual experience with beehiiv, the things I enjoy (and hate) about it, all of it’s features, and why I determined to ultimately opt for it as my e-newsletter system of option.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A couple of months earlier, I mistakenly stumbled across beehiiv. The amusing tale is that I’ve watched for a modern-day newsletter system for quite time now. I have actually put things off hard when it came to finally launching my newsletter.
First, I tried Mailchimp. After that, a few other indie systems. Then, Substack. And ultimately, I ended up utilizing beehiiv.
I make certain several newsletter creators admire preferred e-newsletters with countless subscribers– I know I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I admired a whole lot. They have excellent material, tons of subscribers, and a smart referral program that permits them to get even extra subscribers.
So, I took place a hunt to determine just how these huge e-newsletters set up their logistics. What system do they use? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they obtain even more customers? How do they develop an e-newsletter design that remains on-brand?
When I found beehiiv for the first time, it appeared to answer all of my concerns. I believed to myself, “damn the people that developed this device truly understand e-newsletter development and growth.” I questioned who these creators of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were some of the first marketing and growth workers at Morning Brew– my mind blew up.
I understood this was mosting likely to be a various newsletter system. One that’s concentrated on maker growth.
Due to the fact that, any creator understands, you require growth to be able to make a living off of an e-newsletter. And locating the ideal e-newsletter stack (that scales) often implies making use of numerous various devices to help accomplish one objective– one platform for your newsletter, one platform to generate income from, and one system to establish references. It can get pricey.
So when I found out beehiiv did all of these things in one system, and it was cost-free to begin using, it was a piece of cake to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean material developer that wants a system that allows them to send personalized e-newsletters with or without requiring to have a site.
The most effective newsletters have the right devices to build and scale their newsletters. beehiiv targets at offering you those tools.
If you’re an independent writer, media company, startup, or web content creator, you should seriously taking into consideration trying beehiiv. It’s totally complimentary to start and you just pay when you get to over 2,500 clients on your checklist.
If you in fact wind up having to pay for beehiiv it’s probably a good sign that individuals like reviewing your things.
beehiiv vs Substack
You could be asking, “isn’t there currently a system for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, yes there is. Substack is an excellent system made use of by thousands of independent authors. With Substack you get your own site and use the system as your all-in-one option for sending e-mails (while developing an archive of previous concerns).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s devotion to growth. beehiiv enables you do to all things Substack can do, with the benefit of much better analytics, more layout flexibilty, and a referral program to urge your existing subscribers to get the word out.
beehiiv likewise provides you an internet site similar to Substack. However, if you have your very own internet site currently, you can additionally make use of beehiiv’s sign-up installs (that’s what I make use of) to send your website customers straight to your beehiiv e-mail list. On the exact same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a device like Performance to permit individuals to register for your newsletter straight from Twitter.
This gives you the flexibility to utilize various marketing channels to obtain your newsletter out into the globe, making beehiiv a terrific Substack choice.
Exactly how to start utilizing beehiiv email marketing software.
Sign up for a free plan
The initial step is to enroll in a free plan. You can do this by clicking on the “Beginning trial” button on beehiiv’s site.
The free plan will allow you to have up to 2,500 clients, offer you access to internet site hosting, a newsletter CMS, advancement modification, analytics, exterior embed types, and a lot more. It’s a really generous offering for those simply starting (or for those searching for a brand-new platform to move to).
Onboarding How Much Does Beehiiv Cost
After creating an account, you’ll undergo an onboarding process that will ask things like, “is this your first e-newsletter?”, “what various other systems have you utilized?”, “do you have any type of paying subscribers?”, and a lot more.
You’ll then produce a name and URL for your newsletter’s website. On the free plan, your newsletter will certainly survive on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your internet site link could be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding process, you’ll likewise choose your brand colors and design to see to it your e-newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your dashboard
As soon as you reach your primary dashboard, you’ll see all of your analytics and settings.
You will certainly have described information on the amount of sign-ups you’re obtaining and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see options for “Begin writing,” “Messages,” “Audience,” “Expand,” “Generate income from,” “Style,” and” Evaluate.” And at the very bottom you’ll see the settings option.
Control panel is your major nerve center (screenshot above), Beginning creating is where you create and release e-newsletters, Blog posts is where you can see every one of your previous newsletter versions, Target market is where you can watch who your customers are (and break them down right into sectors), Expand is where you have accessibility to a referral program (and development tutorials) and boosts to run ads, Monetize is where you can access the beehiiv ad network and monetize your e-newsletter with ads, Layout is where you make your e-newsletter landing page and message template, Examine is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can manage all of your admin stuff.
Creating your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it very easy to start writing, with little to no rubbing. If you’re just beginning, and have an idea you intend to discuss, I advise just going to the “Create” section in the navbar and clicking “Start writing”.
You can fine-tune your template and designing later on– concentrate on the material initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor provides a tidy and user-friendly user interface for writing.
Once you begin creating, you can maximize headings, include web links, and style your web content exactly how you such as.
beehiiv offers you lots of choices for various types of content like videos, links, pictures, and much more.
The team at beehiiv is also constantly launching product feature and updates so I make certain there will be a great deal extra content features depending upon when you read this.
Enhancing your settings and templates
Once you have an e-newsletter that’s ready to send, it’s time to make your e-mail template and adjust some settings.
Here, you can update the name of your e-newsletter, offer it a description, add your logo, turn on or off a welcome email to first time clients, and a lot more.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your design.
You can modify history colors, borders, spacing, fonts, picture styles, and much more. I’m not mosting likely to go through ever before solitary point you can optimize with your email template since it’s a lot. Simply experiment with the platform free of charge and see it for yourself!
Important beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of fantastic features that make it a wonderful publishing platform for any kind of newsletter maker.
Here are some of the important features you can discover with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter publishing system. It makes it very easy to write and send emails. I mentioned above some of things you can do with your setups and e-mail style so I’ll save you some additional analysis.
Things to keep in mind with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has an actually modern and minimalistic feel. It’s definitely one of the much better e-mail editors I have actually ever before written in.
Site hosting
When you produce a beehiiv e-newsletter, all of your e-newsletters (if you want) reside on an internet site. Think of it as a website for your e-newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous problems of your newsletter, and an area where individuals can sign up for your newsletter.
If you’re familiar with Substack, it’s pretty much comparable to that.
All plans, consisting of the totally free one, provide you a web site. Nonetheless, the free plan areas your web site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you intend to add a custom domain to eliminate all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to upgrade to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting customers is essential. After all, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can register for your e-newsletter directly from your beehiiv site or with embed forms.
If you already have a website, and want people to register for your newsletter from your existing website, you’ll have to utilize an embed type. This is what I use on this internet site (you can see the sign-up installed on the right-hand man column of this article if you scroll up).
With embed types, you have 3 various options– a complete size, a repaired width, and a slim installed. I directly make use of the slim embed.
You can find the code snippet for these embeds in the “Subscribe Kinds” tab in your settings.
There’s likewise an option for attribution tracking if you want to forward UTM specifications for tracking objectives– rather neat.
Nonetheless, there are a couple of features I want beehiiv had when it pertained to subscribe features. I’m sure the team is working on updates for these, yet I mentioned a few concerns I had in the advantages and disadvantages section below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things concerning beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter platform, is a remedy for developing a referral program.
You can motivate existing customers on your checklist to onward your emails to good friends and associates and if they obtain other people to register for your checklist, you can compensate them. These incentives can be in whatever form you want. I have actually appear several e-newsletter business provide rewards in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously turn your subscribers right into a word of mouth development engine for your e-newsletter– giving you an additional method for expanding your email list.
Nevertheless, to obtain accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll have to update to an extra superior plan. I’ll look at all the plans later in this short article.
Premium memberships
They claim all you need to make a living online is 1,000 real fans. Subscription earnings is certainly a monster of its own. If you’re searching for a platform to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can create “costs” concerns of your newsletter that are only sent out to paying subscribers. This can be extremely lucrative depending upon what your e-newsletter needs to provide. For instance, Trends.co is a popular costs e-newsletter that generates millions in profits a year merely by having pay-only newsletter web content.
Information analytics
One of things I like regarding beehiiv is just how tidy and straightforward the analytics are. You get real-time date on exactly how your newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and customer count How Much Does Beehiiv Cost.
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 customer matter rise is certainly a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv supplies four different pricing plans. You can check them out listed below.
The (cost-free) Launch plan gives you whatever you need to get started and grow your e-newsletter (approximately 2,500 clients).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) offers you every little thing in the Launch plan with the addition the advertisement network, referral program, personalized domain name, surveys, and access to premium subscriptions. This is the plan I get on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) offers you every little thing in the Grow plan with enhancement of top priority assistance and eliminating the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are rather generous in my viewpoint.
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 certainly charge $679 each month for the very same amount– making beehiiv a great Kit alternative for numerous individuals.
I’m uncertain just how the unit economics work with this, but beehiiv is absolutely more affordable (at the moment) than what it can be.
beehiiv advantages and disadvantages
Certainly, with every platform, it has its pros and cons. Right here are several of the benefits and drawbacks I have actually directly experienced while making use of beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Below are a few of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter platform of selection:
Easy to establish and start sending e-newsletters totally free.
Clean and contemporary customer analytics.
Lots of versatility with email layouts.
Referral program feature.
Website hosting.
Produce costs alternatives to generate income from.
Surveys.
To be truthful, I have not seen an additional newsletter platform that has been able to package all of these features with each other so well.
However obviously, I do not wish to be biased so I’m going to point out some disadvantages.
Cons of using beehiiv
Below are several of the cons I’ve located while making use of beehiiv:.
Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around adding customized font styles.
I use Webflow as my web site building platform of option (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a long period of time ago). I’m not mosting likely to enter excessive detail why I enjoy Webflow a lot yet you can read my Webflow testimonial if you would love to discover more.
Now, there really is no other method I can incorporate beehiiv with my Webflow web site other than utilizing an iframe embed. I personally don’t such as using iframe’s due to the fact that they tend to reduce my internet site a little bit. Each time a page on my site (with a beehiiv embed) loads, the sign-up installed is the last point to load on the page. It’s very noticeable when you’re on a slow internet connection. Yet I can navigate that.
The major complaint I have is that I can not utilize a routine Webflow kind (which I like utilizing). There are methods around this by utilizing a device like Zapier yet that would certainly just add additional expenses that I don’t require. To be straightforward, this is more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv disadvantage however I assumed I would certainly discuss it.
Besides that, I still think the pros much outweigh the cons below. I’m also hopeful that Webflow will at some point create a much better way to incorporate with beehiiv.
Verdict
Overall, beehiiv is a wonderful service for any person wanting to dive into the globe of email marketing and newsletters.
The capability of this newsletter system much exceeds numerous that are presently on the marketplace. And with a charitable free plan, you actually have absolutely nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are additionally rather inexpensive of what they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 customers on your checklist is unusual. If you were to have a newsletter with 100k customers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it can cost you well into the thousands monthly.
Anyways, I don’t create testimonial blog posts commonly. I just do when I in fact use the tool myself and would certainly suggest it to a pal.
I wish you located some quality on whether or not beehiiv is a good system for you.