Developing an e-newsletter should not seem like a second job. You’ve currently obtained sufficient on your plate managing web content, customers, perhaps even a permanent job. I read among my preferred email e-newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo design for the first time. I clicked it and quickly began wrecking. Does Beehiiv Have a Free Plan…
I had not been sure why I felt so emotional.
Being a full-time designer is tough. I’m frequently obtaining pitched different tools and services that do not seem to be worth my time.
I presume I was emotional due to the fact that I invested the last 6 months experimenting with different e-mail and e-newsletter systems to aid construct my e-newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some wonderful choices for creating newsletters. However I couldn’t locate one that made me provide a precise “yes”.
The concern with numerous existing newsletter platforms is that they do not really feel creator-centered. I want a newsletter platform that lets me completely customize my newsletter layouts, makes it extremely easy to create and send e-mails, and offers me tools that aid me assess metrics and obtain more clients.
I assume I have actually lastly located the best tool.
But, I understand beehiiv may not be for everybody. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s in fact best for you.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A few months back, I mistakenly came across beehiiv. The funny story is that I have actually been on the lookout for a modern newsletter platform for fairly time currently. I’ve hesitated hard when it involved finally launching my e-newsletter.
Initially, I attempted Mailchimp. Then, a few other indie systems. After that, Substack. And finally, I ended up using beehiiv.
I make certain numerous e-newsletter designers appreciate prominent newsletters with countless clients– I understand I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I looked up to a great deal. They have great material, lots of customers, and a clever referral program that enables them to get back at extra clients.
So, I went on a quest to determine exactly how these big e-newsletters set up their logistics. What platform do they make use of? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they obtain even more customers? How do they produce an e-newsletter style that remains on-brand?
When I found beehiiv for the first time, it seemed to respond to all of my concerns. I believed to myself, “damn the people that built this device actually recognize newsletter production and development.” I examined who these creators of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were some of the first marketing and development staff members at Morning Brew– my brain exploded.
I knew this was mosting likely to be a different e-newsletter platform. One that’s concentrated on maker development.
Since, any kind of creator understands, you need development to be able to make a living off of a newsletter. And discovering the ideal newsletter stack (that scales) usually suggests using multiple various tools to help attain one goal– one system for your newsletter, one platform to generate income from, and one platform to set up referrals. It can get pricey.
So when I discovered beehiiv did all of these points in one platform, and it was totally free to start utilizing, it was a no-brainer to give it a try.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one system for newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly newsletter system that makes it simple to style, create, send, advertise, monetize, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Developed by previous staff members at the well-known e-newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to help developers launch and monetize their very own e-newsletter– taking lots of development concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M subscribers.
In this post, I’m going to clarify my individual experience with beehiiv, things I like (and hate) regarding it, all of it’s features, and why I decided to finally select it as my e-newsletter platform of selection.
beehiiv vs Substack
You could be asking, “isn’t there already a system for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, indeed there is. Substack is a wonderful platform made use of by thousands of independent writers. With Substack you get your very own website and make use of the platform as your all-in-one service for sending emails (while producing an archive of previous problems).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s devotion to development. beehiiv permits you do to all things Substack can do, with the advantage of much better analytics, more design flexibilty, and a referral program to urge your existing subscribers to obtain the word out.
beehiiv also provides you a site similar to Substack. Yet, if you have your very own web site already, you can additionally utilize beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I use) to send your web site subscribers directly to your beehiiv email list. On the exact same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a device like Revue to allow individuals to register for your e-newsletter directly from Twitter.
This provides you the flexibility to leverage various marketing channels to get your e-newsletter out right into the globe, making beehiiv an excellent Substack alternative.
Just how to begin using beehiiv email marketing software application.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean material developer that desires a platform that enables them to send custom e-newsletters with or without requiring to have an internet site.
The most effective newsletters have the right tools to construct and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv aims at providing you those devices.
If you’re an independent writer, media company, start-up, or content maker, you must seriously thinking about checking out beehiiv. It’s completely free to start and you just pay when you get to over 2,500 subscribers on your checklist.
If you really end up having to spend for beehiiv it’s probably an excellent indication that individuals love reviewing your stuff.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv offers 4 different pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (complimentary) Launch plan offers you everything you require to start and grow your newsletter (up to 2,500 subscribers).
The Scale plan ($ 34.40/month) provides you everything in the Launch plan with the enhancement the advertisement network, referral program, customized domain, polls, and accessibility to costs subscriptions. This is the plan I get on.
The Max plan ($ 76.80/month) offers you everything in the Grow plan with enhancement of concern support and removing the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are fairly 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 charge $679 monthly for the very same amount– making beehiiv an excellent Kit alternative for numerous individuals.
I’m unsure exactly how the unit business economics work on this, however beehiiv is certainly less expensive (presently) than what it can be.
Enroll in a free plan
The very first step is to enroll in a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Begin trial” switch on beehiiv’s website.
The free plan will certainly enable you to have up to 2,500 customers, give you access to website hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, advance personalization, analytics, external embed types, and much more. It’s an extremely generous offering for those just starting out (or for those seeking a brand-new system to migrate to).
Onboarding
After developing an account, you’ll experience an onboarding process that will ask things like, “is this your initial newsletter?”, “what other platforms have you utilized?”, “do you have any paying subscribers?”, and extra.
You’ll after that produce a name and link for your newsletter’s website. On the free plan, your newsletter will certainly survive a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Baking Cakes,” your internet site URL could be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding process, you’ll additionally choose your brand design and colors to make certain your e-newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your control panel
As soon as you reach your major control panel, you’ll see every one of your analytics and setups.
You will certainly have outlined details on how many sign-ups you’re obtaining and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see options for “Beginning writing”, “Messages”, “Audience”, “Expand”, “Monetize”, “Design” and” Evaluate”. And at the really lower you’ll see the settings option.
Control panel is your main nerve center (screenshot above), Start writing is where you develop and release e-newsletters, Messages is where you can see all of your previous e-newsletter versions, Target market is where you can view who your subscribers are (and break them down into segments), 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, Layout is where you design your e-newsletter landing page and blog post template, Evaluate is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can manage all of your admin things.
Writing your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it simple to begin creating, with little to no friction. If you’re simply beginning, and have a concept you wish to write about, I suggest simply mosting likely to the “Write” section in the navbar and clicking “Start creating”.
You can modify your template and styling later– concentrate on the content initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor provides a clean and easy to use user interface for writing.
Once you begin writing, you can optimize headings, include web links, and style your material just how you like.
beehiiv provides you tons of alternatives for various kinds of material like video clips, web links, photos, and a lot more.
The team at beehiiv is likewise frequently launching item feature and updates so I make sure there will certainly be a whole lot a lot more material features depending upon when you read this.
Maximizing your settings and templates
When you have a newsletter that’s ready to send out, it’s time to create your email template and change some setups.
Below, you can upgrade the name of your newsletter, provide it a summary, add your logo, activate or off a welcome email to first time subscribers, and a lot more.
Next, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your design.
You can modify background shades, boundaries, spacing, fonts, picture styles, and more. I’m not mosting likely to undergo ever solitary point you can maximize with your email template because it’s a whole lot. Just try the system totally free and see it for yourself!
Important beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of incredible features that make it a fantastic posting platform for any e-newsletter designer.
Right here are a few of the vital features you can discover with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter posting system. It makes it extremely simple to create and send out emails. I pointed out over some of the important things you can do with your settings and e-mail layout so I’ll save you some additional analysis.
The important things to keep in mind with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has a truly modern and minimalistic feel. It’s most definitely one of the far better e-mail editors I have actually ever written in.
Web site hosting
When you create a beehiiv newsletter, all of your newsletters (if you want) live on a website. Think of it as a site for your e-newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous concerns of your newsletter, and a location where people can sign up for your newsletter.
If you know with Substack, it’s virtually comparable to that.
All plans, consisting of the complimentary one, provide you a web site. Nonetheless, the free plan areas your web site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you want to add a custom-made domain name to get rid of all the beehiiv branding you’ll need to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting clients is essential. Besides, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can register for your e-newsletter straight from your beehiiv website or through embed forms.
If you currently have an internet site, and want individuals to sign up for your newsletter from your existing site, you’ll need to utilize an embed form. 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 various options– a complete width, a taken care of size, and a slim installed. I directly use the slim installed.
You can locate the code fragment for these embeds in the “Subscribe Forms” tab in your settings.
There’s also an option for acknowledgment tracking if you wish to ahead UTM specifications for tracking objectives– rather neat.
Nonetheless, there are a few features I wish beehiiv had when it concerned subscribe features. I’m sure the group is working with updates for these, however I pointed out a couple of worries I had in the pros and cons section listed below.
Referral program
One of the amazing things about beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other newsletter platform, is a solution for producing a referral program.
You can encourage existing customers on your list to forward your e-mails to friends and coworkers and if they get other people to register for your listing, you can award them. These rewards can be in whatever kind you desire. I’ve appear many e-newsletter firms offer incentives in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously turn your customers right into a word of mouth growth engine for your e-newsletter– providing you an additional method for expanding your email list.
Nevertheless, to obtain access to the referral program feature, you’ll have to update to a more superior plan. I’ll discuss all the plans later in this write-up.
Costs subscriptions
They say all you require to make a living online is 1,000 real followers. Membership profits is absolutely a monster of its own. If you’re trying to find a system to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can create “premium” concerns of your e-newsletter that are just sent to paying customers. This can be extremely profitable relying on what your newsletter has to supply. As an example, Trends.co is a prominent premium e-newsletter that generates millions in revenue a year just by having pay-only newsletter content.
Information analytics
One of the things I like about beehiiv is just how tidy and basic the analytics are. You get real-time day on how your newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and subscriber count.
You obtain access to all the metrics you need to get a bird-eye view on how your newsletter is actually doing. Logging into your control panel and seeing that client matter increase is most definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pros and cons
Certainly, with every system, it has its benefits and drawbacks. Below are a few of the pros and cons I’ve directly experienced while making use of beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Right here are a few of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter platform of choice:
- Easy to establish and start sending out e-newsletters free of cost
- Clean and modern client analytics
- Great deals of versatility with e-mail styles.
- Referral program feature
- Site hosting
- Create costs options to generate income from
- Surveys
To be truthful, I have not seen another newsletter platform that has actually been able to package all of these features together so well.
But certainly, I do not wish to be prejudiced so I’m mosting likely to mention some disadvantages.
Cons of using beehiiv
Below are several of the cons I have actually discovered while utilizing beehiiv:.
- Limitations around integrating Webflow and Does Beehiiv Have a Free Plan
- Limitations around adding custom fonts
I use Webflow as my site building system of choice (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a long time ago). I’m not going to enter too much information why I enjoy Webflow a lot but you can read my Webflow review if you would love to learn more.
Now, there actually is no other method I can incorporate beehiiv with my Webflow site apart from using an iframe embed. I directly do not like utilizing iframe’s due to the fact that they have a tendency to reduce my internet site a little bit. Each time a web page on my website (with a beehiiv embed) loads, the sign-up installed is the last thing to pack on the web page. It’s very recognizable when you’re on a slow internet connection. But I can navigate that.
The major gripe I have is that I can’t utilize a routine Webflow form (which I enjoy using). There are ways around this by using a tool like Zapier yet that would certainly simply include added expenses that I do not need. To be straightforward, this is more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv con but I assumed I would certainly mention it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros far surpass the cons here. I’m additionally confident that Webflow will eventually develop a far better method to integrate with beehiiv.
Verdict: Does Beehiiv Have a Free Plan
Generally, beehiiv is a great remedy for anybody aiming to study the globe of e-mail marketing and newsletters.
The capability of this newsletter platform much outweighs lots of that are currently on the marketplace. And with a charitable free plan, you truly have absolutely nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are likewise relatively low-cost of what they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 subscribers on your list is unheard of. 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 create testimonial posts often. I only do when I really make use of the tool myself and would certainly suggest it to a close friend.
I wish you located some quality on whether or not beehiiv is a great system for you.