Beehiiv Review: A Newsletter Platform from Industry Experts

Beehiiv is designed to help creators manage their newsletters without needing any other tool/solution. It is the number one alternative for Substack and number two for Convertkit.

Beehiiv review

Though Beehiiv is comparatively new in the newsletter solutions market but has been getting so much attention, it is known for the remarkable results it brings because of its quality features such as Magic Links, Monetization, and Referral program.  

Beehiiv was created and launched by industry experts — the same team that built and scaled the Morning Brew. 

Morning Brew is famous for its top-class newsletter in the email newsletter niche. It has 4 million subscribers and has generated about $50 million in sales. 

The founder of Beehiiv, Tyler Denk, was a part of the Morning Brew growth team. This is why the minimum expectation of creators from Beehiiv is the availability of all important features. 

The features of Beehiiv include

  • Custom newsletters
  • Website customization with SEO-optimized web hosting
  • Campaign and subscriber analytics with Google Analytics integration
  • Attribution tracking
  • Magic links
  • Recurring subscription revenue
  • Audience segmentation, and 
  • Unlimited sending 

Beehiiv Pricing

Beehiiv has a simple and fair pricing structure. Though the pricing structure is not dependent on the number of subscribers, each plan comes with a limit. 

Launch – Free Forever

The free forever plan is suitable for up to 2500 subscribers. It is recommended for any content creator who is just getting started.

The features in the free plan include

  • Web hosting 
  • Custom newsletters
  • Content management system 
  • Audience segmentation
  • Unlimited sending and much more

*All of your content created on the free plan will have Beehiiv branding in it.

Grow – $49 per Month

The Grow plan is designed for people who are rapidly growing their email lists. It is suitable for newsletters with up to 10,000 subscribers

The Grow plan includes all features in the Launch, plus

  • Custom domains
  • Own website
  • Premium subscription
  • Unlimited audience polls
  • Audience segmentation
  • A/B tests
  • Subscribers forms, and much more

Scale – $99 per Month

The Scale plan is designed for top email newsletters. This plan comes with access to all features of Beehiiv. 

The Scale plan comes with everything in Grow, plus

  • Integrated referral program
  • Automated journeys
  • 3D analytics
  • Dedicated email blasts
  • Multiple publications 
  • Priority support, and much more. 

Try Beehiiv for Free.

Key Features of Beehiiv

Writing Suite

Beehiiv has gathered all content creation-related features under the writing suite option. 

Posts

Posts are where you create content for website and email alike. Here you can write a blog post to publish on your website, and with some advanced settings, you can instantly set it off for your email subscribers. 

A sneak peek of Beehiiv's post editor
A sneak peek of Beehiiv’s Posts editor

The interface of the post editor is clean. You can set the title and the subtitle with a displayed date for the email. 

The configuration menu is pinned to the bottom of the setting menu. You can select the following options; preview, send a test, save the template, and schedule. 

At the top, you can find options for SEO, website settings, email settings, post settings, and delivery. 

posts settings in Beehiiv

When you hit a new line in the post editor, you will have quick access to all features of the editor. You can navigate these features with arrow keys and shortcuts. 

Editing options in beehiiv

You can use all of the options available in the editor. You can embed links, TikTok videos, Instagram content, Twitter posts/threads, and YouTube content within a few clicks. 

A quick inline editing suite is also available. You can highlight text and access the inline editor. It comes with the following options.

Beehiiv inline editor
Beehiiv inline editor

You can add rich media such as buttons, images, emojis, code snippets, etc. 

Email Blasts

Your newsletter must be catering to a unique set of audience segments within a niche. Email Basts is a feature designed to help you engage with a particular segment using personalized content. 

After all, your subscribers won’t be interested in the same topics — and they must have a unique area of interest. 

Beehiiv lets you aggregate your audience based on different parameters. These parameters can be 

  • Engagement: it is further classified as open rates, click-through rates, recent activity, etc.
  • Attributes: this includes email type, attribution source, signup date, etc.
  • Posts: it includes statuses like received, opened, clicked, etc.

And many other parameters with further categories. 

The possible use of this feature includes (but is not limited to), 

  • Sending a personalized re-engagement campaign to subscribers before churning them
  • Nurturing existing readers to a relevant offer 
  • Engaging with new subscribers who signed up for a webinar or event

Content Tags

A great way to organize your content is by using content tags. You can create unique tags to help you and your audience navigate through different content topics in detail. 

For example, you have a blog about email marketing, discussing sub-topics like ‘growing your list,’ ‘email marketing,’ and ‘tools.’ 

content tags in beehiiv

Each sub-topics can be a category, and you can aggregate your posts. 

In the future, Beehiiv will launch a feature where your audience can visit your site and search for posts using content tags. This ensures clean navigation and classification of content on your website. 

Paywall Break

Email newsletters with a subscription fee have a small segment of content you can read for free. However, after a limit, subscribers will need to upgrade to keep reading. 

Paying subscribers with an active subscription will be able to read all content below the paywall. 

Beehiiv has a paywall block you can add to your newsletter. This is another way of earning money from your newsletter. 

Automation

In email marketing, automation is a great way to save time. Automation lets you set multi-step email journeys based on different triggers on autopilot. 

beehiiv automation features

A trigger can be any action that your subscribers might take. It could be signing up for your newsletter or upgrading your premium offer. 

Based on these triggers, you can automate the email sequence that will meet the specific needs of a subscriber. 

With Beehiiv automation builder, you can simply 

  • Select a Trigger
  • Add a step
    • Choose a time delay 
    • Create your email
  • Rinse & repeat

With this, you can automate welcome series, upgrade series, content series, etc. 

Referral Program & Recommendations

Reaching new audiences to sign up for your email is the conventional way to build an email list. 

Now, newsletters looking to scale their audience leverage the referral program and recommendations. 

beehiiv referral program

With the referral program feature, your existing subscribers can refer to your newsletters in their circle and earn points. This way, your efforts to reach a new audience can be significantly reduced. 

The reward program feature has all the essential features. Plus, it comes with multi-layered fraud detection to ensure the referred emails are legit. 

The recommendation feature lets you recommend relevant content and newsletters to your audience. With this, you can easily recommend trending newsletters to your audience. 

From the main recommendation dashboard, you can see the publications you are recommending and the publications recommending you.

newsletter recommendations

Magic Links

A unique link that automatically subscribes your visitor to the newsletter with just a single click. 

You can add this unique link to your content. Whenever someone clicks on the hyperlink, they will be subscribed to your list without providing their email address. 

Beehiiv’s Magic link feature is compatible with various email marketing platforms, including 

  • Active Campaign
  • AWeber
  • ConvertKit
  • Constant Contact
  • MailerLite
  • Mailchimp and many others

Monetize Your Newsletter – Early Access

Beehiiv offers a monetization feature for its creators. It is inspired by Morning Brew’s advertising capabilities, reportedly generating $46 million in revenue in 2021. 

With Beehiiv’s ad network, you can feature premium logos and ads from the world’s top companies through a seamless process. 

You need to apply to have early access to the Beehiiv ad network. To get access, you need to have

  • At least 1,000 subscribers
  • Must be an active sender

Once your application is accepted, you will receive ad placement from premium sponsors vetted by the Beehiiv team. From the available options, you can accept whichever you’d like. 

Each ad placement clearly outlines the revenue structure you can review before accepting it. You can receive payments a few weeks after running the ads in your newsletter. 

Manage Subscribers

In Beehiiv, you can import the list of subscribers or add them manually without a complicated process. Here are the details of other features. 

Quick Overview 

From the Audience menu, click the Subscribers option to see the list of emails subscribed to your newsletter. 

Here you will find the quick detail window for each email, such as subscribed on the date, acquisition source, and status. 

The acquisition source helps you keep a track of the source your subscribers are coming from. With that in mind, you can better predict the marketing strategy to nurture and convert them. 

manage subscribers in beehiiv

Segments

You can break down your audience into different segments based on what your audience is interested in. Segments are usually created for audiences of unique interest. 

You can create different segments for different subscribers. Some subscribers can be in more than two segments based on their shared parameters. 

You can also apply conditions for attribute, action, and measure to create unique segments. 

create segments in beehiiv

Survey Forms & Polls

Beehiiv has survey forms and polls that you can add to your email newsletter. Polls and survey forms are good for collecting feedback and insights from readers. 

With easy insight collection, you’d better understand your audience’s preferences. Adding polls and surveys directly to your content unlocks a new way to engage with your audience. 

Once you have gathered data, you can seamlessly export and share the quantitative and qualitative data in just a few clicks. 

Custom Fields

Beehiiv has a custom fields option to store your audience’s metadata, create customized posts, and much more. 

Depending on the data type, you can create individual fields you’d like your subscribers to inherit. A few examples of custom fields are 

  • First name
  • Last name
  • Favorite color
  • Subscriber rating

You can include a custom field while important an email list. You can choose from an existing field or create new ones on the go. 

Customized Subscribe Forms

Beehiiv lets you create customized subscription forms. You can access the form editor when you hit the ‘create new form’ button. 

Here you can add all details, including the name, header, description, button text, and input placeholder.  

branding color palette

You can customize the typography of the header, body fonts, and buttons. You can also decide what happens when a visitor subscribes via your form.

post form submission settings

Analyze Newsletter Performance

Beehiiv has a 3D subscriber analytics toolkit. It gives you detailed data on subscribers’ activity and behavior. You can optimize your marketing campaigns for better growth and retention with those details. 

All these details are presented in an intuitive dashboard where you can access each metric easily. 

analytics in beehiiv

The analytics report will have details of your top-performing posts, most clicked links, and many other metrics. With that, it becomes possible to track the performance of your ongoing ad campaign. 

Importing contacts

You can import first 100 contacts without restrictions. If you want to inport more You need to do Stripe verification – it will instantly raise your import limit to 10,000.

Alternatively you can contact support to verify your identity. With this method you have to wait 48 – 72 hours for your verification to complete and before raise your import limit.

Beehiiv Alternatives

Behiiv vs ConvertKit

ConvertKit is another modern newsletter platform managed by industry experts. The tool has almost all the features like automation, email templates, broadcast, and email sequences. 

All these amazing features are enough for a creator to start and grow a brand with email marketing. 

However, ConvertKit is taking the lead with Creator’s Profile if I compare the features. But on the same line, Beehiiv is keeping an extra point with newsletter monetization and a custom website. 

In pricing, my vote is for Beehiiv, as Beehiiv’s free plan caters to 2500 subscribers. It has all the essential features that a creator-friendly newsletter platform should have. 

On the other hand, ConvertKit’s free forever plan caters to only 1000 subscribers. Though it is fairly enough, Beehiiv is taking the lead. 

The paid plans of ConvertKit start from $29 and are suitable for 1000 subscribers. Beehiiv paid plan starts from $49 and caters to 10,000 subscribers. Read the full ConvertKit review here. 

Full comparisson of Convertkit vs Beehiiv

Beehiiv vs Substack

Substack is an email newsletter platform specially designed for content creators and a home for quality content creators. It lets creators set up a blog and newsletter without needing any technical knowledge. 

Getting started on Substack is free. You can cater to a huge audience without paying a fee. However, when you turn on the subscription, the platform will keep the 10% cut of revenues for operating costs. So if you plan to monetize your newsletter with subscription – Beehiiv is a better option.

Your content and subscribers built on Substack are yours. If at any point you want to switch to a different email service provider, you can easily import and export contacts in an instant. 

Plus, both tools let you have a website to help you grow your audience, but the custom domain is only available in premium subscriptions.

So, if you want to have things easy and want to focus on content creation, Substack will be a good option for you. If you want to have complete control over everything, Beehiiv will be a good option for you. 

Beehiiv Review Summary 

Beehiiv is an advanced tool for email marketers. You can engage with a huge email list, save content for eternity on your website, and improve your content’s ranking with SEO.

Though there are many Beehiiv alternatives, if you want a cost-effective top-class tool created by experts in email marketing, try Beehiiv.