Over two years earlier, I was reading one of my favorite email newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the e-mail and saw the beehiiv logo design for the very first time. I clicked it and instantaneously began tearing up Is Beehiiv Better Than Ghost.
I had not been certain why I felt so emotional.
Being a permanent maker is difficult. I’m usually getting pitched various devices and solutions that don’t appear to be worth my time.
I think I was psychological due to the fact that I invested the last six months trying different email and e-newsletter platforms to help develop my newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some excellent choices for composing newsletters. Yet I couldn’t find one that made me offer a certain “yes”.
The concern with lots of existing e-newsletter systems is that they don’t feel creator-centered. I want an e-newsletter system that lets me fully customize my newsletter designs, makes it incredibly simple to compose and send e-mails, and gives me devices that aid me evaluate metrics and obtain more clients.
I assume I have actually finally found the right tool.
However, I know beehiiv may not be for everyone. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s actually ideal for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one system for e-newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly e-newsletter platform that makes it easy to layout, create, send out, advertise, generate income from, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Produced by previous staff members at the famous newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to aid makers launch and monetize their very own e-newsletter– taking great deals of growth 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 important things I like (and hate) regarding it, all of it’s features, and why I determined to lastly go with it as my newsletter system of selection.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A couple of months ago, I accidentally stumbled across beehiiv. The funny story is that I’ve watched for a modern newsletter system for rather time now. I’ve hesitated hard when it involved finally launching my e-newsletter.
Initially, I attempted Mailchimp. Then, a few various other indie platforms. Then, Substack. And ultimately, I ended up using beehiiv.
I’m sure numerous e-newsletter creators admire preferred newsletters with numerous subscribers– I recognize I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I admired a great deal. They have terrific material, tons of customers, and a brilliant referral program that allows them to get even more customers.
So, I went on a search to find out just how these large newsletters established their logistics. What platform do they make use of? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they get more customers? How do they create a newsletter layout that remains on-brand?
When I uncovered beehiiv for the very first time, it appeared to address all of my inquiries. I thought to myself, “damn individuals that constructed this tool truly comprehend e-newsletter production and growth.” I questioned who these creators of beehiiv were.
So I went to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were several of the first marketing and development workers at Morning Brew– my mind exploded.
I understood this was mosting likely to be a different e-newsletter platform. One that’s concentrated on designer growth.
Since, any developer knows, you need development to be able to earn a living off of a newsletter. And discovering the right e-newsletter stack (that scales) commonly means utilizing multiple different devices to assist accomplish one objective– one platform for your e-newsletter, one platform to generate income from, and one platform to establish references. It can obtain pricey.
So when I learnt beehiiv did all of these things in one system, and it was complimentary to begin using, it was a no-brainer to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean web content designer that desires a system that allows them to send out personalized newsletters with or without needing to have an internet site.
The most successful e-newsletters have the right devices to construct and scale their newsletters. beehiiv focuses on offering you those devices.
If you’re an independent author, media firm, start-up, or web content designer, you need to seriously thinking about experimenting with beehiiv. It’s completely complimentary to start and you only pay when you reach over 2,500 subscribers on your listing.
If you actually end up having to spend for beehiiv it’s possibly a great indicator that people love reading your things.
beehiiv vs Substack
You may be asking, “isn’t there currently a system for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, of course there is. Substack is a wonderful platform made use of by hundreds of independent authors. With Substack you obtain your very own internet site and make use of the system as your all-in-one service for sending out emails (while developing an archive of previous concerns).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s commitment to development. beehiiv enables you do to all the important things Substack can do, with the advantage of much better analytics, more layout flexibilty, and a referral program to urge your existing customers to get the word out.
beehiiv likewise provides you a website comparable to Substack. But, if you have your own site currently, you can likewise make use of beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I use) to send your site subscribers straight to your beehiiv e-mail checklist. On the very same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a device like Performance to permit people to sign up for your newsletter directly from Twitter.
This provides you the flexibility to leverage different marketing networks to obtain your e-newsletter out right into the world, making beehiiv an excellent Substack choice.
Just how to start using beehiiv email marketing software application.
Enroll in a free plan
The very first step is to enroll in 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 customers, provide you accessibility to web site hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, breakthrough personalization, analytics, exterior embed types, and more. It’s a really charitable offering for those simply beginning (or for those looking for a new platform to move to).
Onboarding Is Beehiiv Better Than Ghost
After producing an account, you’ll undergo an onboarding procedure that will ask things like, “is this your first newsletter?”, “what other platforms have you utilized?”, “do you have any type of paying clients?”, and much more.
You’ll after that create a name and URL for your newsletter’s web site. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will live on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your e-newsletter is called “Baking Cakes,” your site link could be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
Throughout the onboarding process, you’ll additionally pick your brand name colors and design to ensure your newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your dashboard
Once you reach your primary dashboard, you’ll see every one of your analytics and settings.
You will certainly have outlined details on how many sign-ups you’re obtaining and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see options for “Begin composing,” “Blog posts,” “Audience,” “Expand,” “Monetize,” “Layout,” and” Analyze.” And at the very lower you’ll see the setups choice.
Control panel is your primary nerve center (screenshot over), Start creating is where you create and publish e-newsletters, Messages is where you can see all of your previous newsletter editions, Target market is where you can view who your clients are (and break them down into sectors), Expand is where you have access to a referral program (and growth tutorials) and boosts to run advertisements, Monetize is where you can access the beehiiv ad network and monetize your newsletter with advertisements, Style is where you design your e-newsletter landing page and blog post template, Analyze is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can take care of every one of your admin things.
Writing your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it easy to begin creating, with little to no rubbing. If you’re simply starting out, and have an idea you wish to discuss, I suggest just mosting likely to the “Compose” area in the navbar and clicking “Start composing”.
You can fine-tune your template and designing later– focus on the content first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor supplies a tidy and easy to use interface for writing.
Once you start writing, you can maximize headings, include web links, and design your content exactly how you like.
beehiiv offers you tons of alternatives for different sorts of content like videos, links, images, and much more.
The team at beehiiv is additionally regularly releasing product feature and updates so I make certain there will be a lot extra content features depending on when you’re reading this.
Optimizing your setups and templates
Once you have a newsletter that prepares to send out, it’s time to create your e-mail template and change some settings.
Below, you can upgrade the name of your newsletter, give it a description, include your logo design, activate or off a welcome email to first time clients, and much more.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your style.
You can modify background colors, borders, spacing, typefaces, image formats, and much more. I’m not mosting likely to go through ever before solitary thing you can optimize with your email template due to the fact that it’s a great deal. Simply try out the system free of cost and see it for yourself!
Necessary beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of incredible features that make it a wonderful posting system for any type of e-newsletter maker.
Right here are several of the necessary features you can locate with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter publishing platform. It makes it extremely easy to create and send out emails. I stated above several of the things you can do with your settings and email style so I’ll save you some extra reading.
Things to keep in mind with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has a really modern and minimalistic feeling. It’s most definitely one of the far better e-mail editors I’ve ever before written in.
Internet site hosting
When you create a beehiiv newsletter, all of your newsletters (if you desire) survive on a website. Think about it as a web site for your newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous problems of your e-newsletter, and a place where people can sign up for your e-newsletter.
If you recognize with Substack, it’s practically comparable to that.
All plans, including the cost-free one, give you a website. Nonetheless, the free plan places your web site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you intend to add a custom-made domain name to eliminate all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Obtaining clients is very important. After all, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can sign up for your newsletter straight from your beehiiv website or through embed types.
If you currently have a website, and want individuals to sign up for your e-newsletter from your existing website, you’ll need to make use of an embed type. This is what I utilize on this website (you can see the sign-up installed on the right-hand man column of this article if you scroll up).
With embed forms, you have three different choices– a full width, a dealt with width, and a slim installed. I personally make use of the slim installed.
You can find the code bit for these embeds in the “Subscribe Types” tab in your settings.
There’s additionally an option for acknowledgment tracking if you intend to onward UTM criteria for tracking functions– pretty cool.
Nevertheless, there are a few features I desire beehiiv had when it pertained to subscribe features. I’m sure the group is dealing with updates for these, however I mentioned a few problems 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 service for producing a referral program.
You can urge existing clients on your list to onward your emails to buddies and coworkers and if they get other individuals to register for your checklist, you can compensate them. These rewards can be in whatever kind you want. I have actually seem numerous e-newsletter companies offer rewards in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously turn your subscribers into a word of mouth development engine for your newsletter– offering you an additional opportunity for growing your email list.
Nonetheless, to obtain access to the referral program feature, you’ll need to upgrade to an extra premium plan. I’ll discuss all the plans later in this write-up.
Premium registrations
They say all you require to earn a living online is 1,000 real followers. Membership profits is definitely a beast of its very own. If you’re looking for a system to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can develop “premium” issues of your e-newsletter that are only sent to paying clients. This can be really lucrative relying on what your e-newsletter has to provide. For instance, Trends.co is a prominent premium newsletter that produces millions in earnings a year merely by having pay-only e-newsletter web content.
Data analytics
Among the things I like about beehiiv is exactly how tidy and straightforward the analytics are. You obtain real-time date on exactly how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and customer count Is Beehiiv Better Than Ghost.
You obtain accessibility to all the metrics you require to obtain a bird-eye sight on exactly how your e-newsletter is in fact doing. Logging right into your dashboard and seeing that subscriber matter rise is absolutely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv supplies four different pricing plans. You can check them out listed below.
The (complimentary) Launch plan gives you everything you need to get started and grow your newsletter (as much as 2,500 customers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) gives you whatever in the Launch plan with the addition the advertisement network, referral program, custom-made domain name, surveys, and accessibility to premium registrations. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) offers you whatever in the Grow plan with enhancement of concern support and eliminating the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are rather charitable in my viewpoint.
For instance, if you have 100,000 clients you will pay around $329 per month. As opposed to some rivals, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would charge $679 each month for the exact same amount– making beehiiv a terrific Kit option for numerous individuals.
I’m uncertain how the device business economics work with this, but beehiiv is absolutely cheaper (right now) than what it can be.
beehiiv advantages and disadvantages
Obviously, with every system, it has its pros and cons. Here are several of the benefits and drawbacks I have actually personally experienced while using beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Right here are some of the pros of using beehiiv as your newsletter platform of selection:
Easy to establish and start sending newsletters for free.
Tidy and contemporary subscriber analytics.
Great deals of adaptability with e-mail layouts.
Referral program feature.
Site hosting.
Create premium alternatives to monetize.
Polls.
To be honest, I haven’t seen another e-newsletter platform that has been able to package all of these features together so well.
But obviously, I do not wish to be prejudiced so I’m mosting likely to state some cons.
Cons of using beehiiv
Here are some of the disadvantages I’ve located while utilizing beehiiv:.
Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around including personalized fonts.
I use Webflow as my internet site structure platform of selection (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a very long time ago). I’m not going to go in way too much detail why I enjoy Webflow so much however you can read my Webflow review if you ‘d like to discover more.
Now, there actually is no other method I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow web site besides making use of an iframe embed. I personally don’t such as using iframe’s due to the fact that they have a tendency to slow down my site a bit. Whenever a page on my website (with a beehiiv embed) loads, the sign-up embed is the last point to pack on the page. It’s extremely visible when you get on a slow web connection. However I can get around that.
The main complaint I have is that I can’t use a routine Webflow kind (which I like using). There are means around this by utilizing a tool like Zapier however that would simply add added costs that I don’t need. To be straightforward, this is even more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv con yet I believed I would state it.
Besides that, I still think the pros far surpass the disadvantages right here. I’m also confident that Webflow will eventually produce a better method to integrate with beehiiv.
Final Thought
In general, beehiiv is a great service for any individual looking to dive into the globe of email marketing and newsletters.
The performance of this e-newsletter system much surpasses numerous that are presently on the marketplace. And with a charitable free plan, you really have absolutely nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are additionally relatively economical of what they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 clients on your checklist is unusual. If you were to have an e-newsletter with 100k clients, and all of these features beehiiv has, it can cost you well right into the thousands monthly.
Anyways, I don’t compose review posts typically. I just do when I actually utilize the tool myself and would certainly suggest it to a close friend.
I wish you found some clarity on whether or not beehiiv is a great system for you.