Beehiiv review: the best newsletter tool!

Beehiiv is a modern newsletter platform that combines blogging and newsletter capabilities. It's ideal for creators who want to grow and monetize their audience without the technical hassle.

Here's a quick rundown of the pros and cons of beehiiv.

Beehiiv Pros:

• Great monetization tools (Ad Network, paid memberships);
• Solid SEO capabilities;
• Powerful email automation and segmentation;
• 0% fees on paid memberships;
• Multiple newsletters in one account.

Beehiiv Cons:

• Limited website design customization;
• Some advanced SEO features are missing;
• The best features are locked behind paid plans.

Compared to alternatives like Substack or Kit, beehiiv often comes out on top for serious creators, especially those with larger audiences.

Beehiiv has a free tier available for up to 2,500 subscribers, and after that, prices start at $39/month for the Scale plan.

I consider beehiiv the best newsletter tool on the market, particularly for those looking to turn their newsletter into a business. Overall, I'm impressed with beehiiv's balance of powerful tools and simplicity.

Table of contents

• Beehiiv pricing
• Beehiiv SEO
• Beehiiv monetization options
• Customization on beehiiv
• Beehiiv works as a blog + newsletter
• Beehiiv integrations
• Email automation and segmentation on beehiiv
• Beehiiv email analytics
• Multiple newsletters on beehiiv
• Beehiiv alternatives
• Beehiiv reviews around the web
• Final thoughts

Beehiiv pricing

Beehiiv's free plan is generous, allowing up to 2,500 subscribers, while most other tools only allow 1,000.

This entry-level tier includes up to 3 newsletters in one account, a custom domain for your website, and API access.

I love that beehiiv finally added custom domains to the free plan! I've been following them since 2022, and this was my biggest complaint about the free plan.

However, the free plan has significant limitations. You can't use email automations, charge memberships, or make money with ads (via Boosts), which are some of the things that make beehiiv special. So you must upgrade to one of the paid plans to access beehiiv's full potential.

The Scale plan starts at $39/month for 1,000 subscribers, and this tier unlocks key features, like:

• Ad Network access;
• Boosts (this is essential for monetization and what makes beehiiv special);
• Paid newsletters;
• Website templates;
• Email automations;
• Referral program;
• Beehiiv AI;
• Team members.

For creators needing even more, the Max plan starts at $99/month for 1,000 subscribers. It removes beehiiv branding, allows up to 10 newsletters per account, and priority support.

These advanced features cater to professional users with more complex needs.

When compared to alternatives, beehiiv is competitively priced. For 1,000 subscribers:

• Beehiiv: $39/month
• Kit: $29/month
• Ghost CMS: $9/month
• MailerLite: $13.5/month

For 5,000 subscribers:

• Beehiiv: $79/month
• Kit: $79/month
• Ghost CMS: $65/month
• MailerLite: $35/month

For higher subscriber counts, beehiiv becomes cheaper than most competitors, but I think you get the idea. The initial plan costs a bit more on beehiiv, but it has much more features, especially for monetizing a newsletter.

It's worth noting that there are no unexpected fees or extra charges on beehiiv beyond the plan costs.

Beehiiv offers an annual discount for those willing to commit long-term, as well as a 30-day free trial for paid plans.

This gives you a chance to test the premium features before making a financial commitment.

Beehiiv SEO

Beehiiv's SEO capabilities are great by default, making it a solid choice for creators who want to focus on content rather than a technical SEO setup.

The platform has made significant strides in improving its SEO performance since 2022. Here's a rundown of beehiiv's essential SEO features:

• Custom domain support;
• Meta description editing;
• Image alt text support.
• URL customization;
• Schema markup;
• Robots.txt file;
• Sitemap.

These features cover most SEO basics without requiring plugins or complex configuration.

Beehiiv's website speed test results are also impressive, which is crucial for both user experience and search engine rankings.

While beehiiv's SEO setup is great for most users, some advanced options are still missing, like:

• No redirect feature for deleted or moved pages;
• Can't customize canonical tags;
• Lack of manual control for noindex on individual posts.

Despite these limitations, beehiiv's SEO performance is solid for 99% of users. The platform's default optimization means you don't have to worry much about SEO tweaks.

Beehiiv monetization options

Beehiiv is the best platform for creators to monetize their newsletters. The most effective ways to make money on beehiiv are through paid memberships and advertisement.

For paid newsletters, beehiiv offers allow creators to write exclusive content for their biggest fans and monetize directly.

Beehiiv supports tiered subscriptions, allowing writers to cater to different reader needs and create a VIP experience with member-only perks. This flexible system enables a freemium model and your biggest fans to contribute with more money.

Beehiiv's native advertising options include:

• Their own Ad Network, connecting writers with sponsors;
• Boosts, where creators can earn by recommending other newsletters

A major advantage is that beehiiv charges 0% fees on paid newsletters. This is a significant benefit compared to platforms like Substack, which take a 10% cut of membership revenue.

If you don't want to use the Ad Network, you can also earn money with affiliate marketing, or manually embedding ads on the newsletter.

To help creators optimize their monetization, beehiiv has analytics and reporting tools directly in the dashboard, including:

• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs);
• User engagement metrics;
• Churn rate analysis;
• Data visualization.

Customization on beehiiv

Beehiiv's customization offers different experiences for newsletters and websites.

Newsletter customization on beehiiv is excellent. While they don't provide pre-designed templates, the platform offers a user-friendly email design interface.

You have full control over how the newsletter would look, like fonts, color, size, and spacing, without needing technical skills. This design flexibility allows for a unique visual identity that lets your newsletter shine.

Website customization on beehiiv has improved but still has a long way to be great. The "Advanced Web Builder" introduced in July 2023 expanded customization options for creators by a lot.

You can now adjust things like button colors, fonts, and toggle between light and dark modes. However, layout options are still somewhat limited to my taste (and other more advanced users).

One important note is that more advanced customization options and full design flexibility are typically reserved for users on a paid plan.

Unlike some competitors, beehiiv doesn't offer a third-party theme marketplace or custom theme uploads. For example:

• Kit and MailerLite provide newsletter templates that serve as customizable starting points.
• Ghost CMS allows for third-party themes and custom theme development.

Beehiiv works as a blog + newsletter

Beehiiv combines newsletter and blogging capabilities. They take a modern approach to newsletters by integrating blogging features, giving you a powerful platform to reach your audience.

And the best part is you don't need to install anything. This makes beehiiv perfect for non-technical users who want to avoid the complexities of traditional blogging platforms like WordPress.

Beehiiv offers flexible publishing options, like:

• Publish on the web and send by email;
• Only publish on the web;
• Only send by email.

This flexibility lets you tailor your content strategy to what works best for your audience.

For an even more modern publishing approach, beehiiv lets creators turn their website into an app. You read that right!!

On mobile devices, readers can add your site to their home screen, creating an app-like experience. This progressive web app (PWA) functionality can increase engagement and make your content more accessible.

By combining blogging and newsletters, beehiiv gives you the tools to expand your reach and connect with your audience in multiple ways. Whether you're focusing on email, web content, or both, beehiiv adapts to your needs.

Beehiiv integrations

Beehiiv has great integration capabilities through its API and webhooks, enabling creators to connect beehiiv with a wide range of external tools and services.

These integration options cover several key categories:

• CRM and marketing automation: Sync subscriber data between different apps.
• Analytics: Get deeper insights into content performance and audience behavior;
• E-commerce: Connect storefronts like Shopify
• Content management: Push content to other platforms.

One of the most popular integrations is with Zapier, which acts as an integration platform to connect Beehiiv with hundreds of other apps and services. This allows for powerful automation and data synchronization across your tech stack.

Some key benefits of using integrations with Beehiiv include:

• Automating repetitive tasks like social media posting or send email updates;
• Syncing data between platforms to keep everything up-to-date;
• Optimizing workflows by connecting different tools seamlessly;
• Customizing your setup to fit your specific needs as a creator.

I consider integrations essential for creators. And I love that Beehiiv prioritized building out these integration capabilities early on!

It shows they understand the importance of connectivity and customization for modern creators, while some competitors that have been around for longer don't have integrations (cough Substack cough).

Email automation and segmentation on beehiiv

Beehiiv also has you covered when it comes to email automation and segmentation.

Email automation lets you set up drip campaigns and trigger-based emails to nurture your audience. You can create:

• Welcome series to greet new subscribers and make a strong first impression;
• Re-engagement campaigns to reconnect with inactive readers;
• Behavioral triggers based on subscriber actions;
• Conversion funnels to guide readers through your content.

Beehiiv's email workflow options allow you to tailor your communication strategy to your audience's needs.

When it comes to email segmentation, beehiiv shines by letting you divide your audience based on various attributes:

• Behavioral segmentation (actions taken, content consumed);
• Engagement-based segmentation (open rates, click-through rates);
• Interests and preferences.

You can use tags to organize subscribers and create highly targeted segments for personalized content delivery.

The benefits of using automation and segmentation on beehiiv include:

• Improved engagement rates through timely, relevant content;
• Higher conversions by targeting the right audience with the right message;
• More personalized content delivery, by sending different content to different subscribers.

Beehiiv email analytics

I've seen people complain a lot about newsletter tools without good analytics. Fortunately, beehiiv has you covered with analytics directly on the dashboard.

As soon as you log in, you get an overview of key metrics with user-friendly visualizations. The dashboard shows relevant information for the last 30 days and percentage changes from the previous period, giving you real-time data on your newsletter's performance.

Some of the main analytics you can track include:

• Open rates: This helps measure engagement, deliverability, and subject line effectiveness.
• Click rate: Check the call-to-action effectiveness through link performance to gauge subscriber engagement.
• Subscriber growth metrics: Monitor acquisition rate, churn rate, and retention to understand your audience growth.

Beehiiv offers some unique analytics features like cohort analysis and revenue tracking for paid newsletters. However, it's worth noting that most detailed reports and analytics are only available for paid beehiiv customers.

Having all this data directly in beehiiv provides significant benefits, like:

• Centralized insights: No need to juggle multiple tools;
• Quick decision-making: Easily spot trends and adjust your strategy;
• Improved content planning: Use data to inform your editorial calendar;
• Better subscriber segmentation: Tailor content based on engagement metrics.

Multiple newsletters on beehiiv

Beehiiv allows creating and managing multiple newsletters from a single account, a feature that sets it apart from many competitors. This capability allows for content diversification and audience targeting.

The benefits of running multiple newsletters are significant:

• Segment content for different audience interests, improving engagement;
• Experiment with various newsletter formats or topics;
• Run separate newsletters for different brands or projects.

Some potential use cases are diverse. A tech publication could have separate newsletters for gadget reviews, coding tutorials, and industry news. A lifestyle brand might create newsletters in different languages to reach a global audience.

When it comes to effectively managing multiple newsletters, there are a few key tips to keep in mind:

• Use clear naming conventions for easy organization;
• Leverage subscriber management tools for efficient list management;
• Track engagement metrics separately for each newsletter.

By embracing multiple newsletters, you can fine-tune your content strategy and improve audience segmentation and overall engagement.

Beehiiv alternatives

Now, I would like to highlight some of the best beehiiv alternatives.

Beehiiv vs Substack

Beehiiv vs Substack is one of the most frequent comparisons when creators are searching for what tool they should use.

Both are awesome in their own way! However, they're not exactly twins.

The coolest thing about Substack is the free forever plan, which is a big plus if you're on a tight budget.

But on the downside, Substack takes 10% off membership revenue, doesn't have email automation, and doesn't have strong SEO.

Beehiiv is my recommendation for creators who want the most advanced tool to monetize their newsletter, have strong SEO, and customization.

On the other hand, Substack is my recommendation for creators who want to publish different types of content in the same place and develop a kind of community using only 1 tool.

Beehiiv vs Ghost

Ghost vs beehiiv is not an apples-to-apples comparison.

Ghost and beehiiv are 2 great tools for creators. And what I like the most is that both are suited for hobby and professional use.

The main difference between Ghost and beehiiv is that Ghost is better for blogs and SEO, while beehiiv is better for newsletters focused on growing as fast as possible.

I recommend Ghost CMS for creators who give more importance to their blog and publish articles, as their SEO is fantastic, and you can buy a theme or create one yourself.

Beehiiv is the better option for creators looking for the best newsletter tool, as it has good tools for publishing and monetizing via ads and memberships.

Overall, beehiiv and Ghost are 2 of the best tools creators can pick from that combine blogging and newsletter capabilities.

Beehiiv vs Kit

Beehiiv vs Kit is another popular comparison for newsletters.

Both got free plans and ways to make money through memberships and ads.

Kit main advantages are the better writing experience, more customization options, and the ability to sell digital products.

While beehiiv comes ahead because of the better SEO by combining a newsletter with a blog and cheaper prices.

Beehiiv is the better option if you have a big subscriber base (more than 10,000 subs) and want to have a blog and newsletter in the same place.

Kit, though, is perfect if you've already got a blog with Ghost or WordPress, or if you don't want a blog.

Beehiiv vs MailerLite

When putting beehiiv vs MailerLite head-to-head, we see that MailerLite offers something different to beehiiv.

Both tools are user-friendly, with great customization and integration options, catering well to advanced user needs.

MailerLite is more affordable when compared to beehiiv if you have less than 15k subscribers, making it a top pick for budget-conscious creators.

MailerLite is better suited for creators with an existing blog looking just for a powerful newsletter tool with good prices.

The key difference is that beehiiv has better monetization options and is more complete for having a blog and newsletter in the same place.

Beehiiv reviews around the web

Beehiiv reviews on the internet are mostly positive, but as the platform is still rather young the amount of testimonials is not the biggest.

On Trustpilot, beehiiv has a score of over 4 out of 5, where over 70% of the reviews are over 5 stars.

_beehiiv_trust_pilot

On other review platforms like Product Hunt or G2, beehiiv also has over 4/5 ratings

If you look at Reddit, the sentiment is also mostly positive, with praise towards beehiiv as a newsletter tool.

Final thoughts

I've followed beehiiv for a long time and I'm impressed by its capabilities. So, that is no surprise that I consider them the best choice for creators looking to build and monetize their newsletters.

Beehiiv strikes an excellent balance between ease of use and powerful features. The ability to combine a blog and newsletter in one place, with great SEO capabilities, is a huge plus. Their monetization options, including paid memberships and the Ad Network, are some of the best I've seen.

For those wondering about customization, beehiiv has newsletter customization but still has room for improvement on the website side.

The analytics and growth tools, like email automation and segmentation, are awesome and user-friendly.

Compared to alternatives like Substack, Kit, or MailerLite, beehiiv often comes out on top for creators serious about growing and monetizing their audience. It's especially compelling for those with larger subscriber bases, as the pricing becomes very competitive for creators with a big subscriber base.

That said, beehiiv isn't perfect. The free plan, while generous with subscriber limits, lacks many of the platform's standout features. Some advanced SEO options are still missing, and website customization could use more flexibility.

In my view, beehiiv is best suited for:

• Creators looking to monetize their newsletter seriously;
• Writers who want strong SEO without the technical hassle.
• Anyone seeking an all-in-one platform for blog and newsletter.

The platform's strengths in growth tools, monetization options, and overall user experience make it a great choice. The lack of transaction fees on paid memberships is a huge advantage over competitors like Substack.

While the starting price of $39/month might seem steep to some, I believe the features and potential for monetization more than justify the cost.

All things considered, I recommend beehiiv for anyone serious about building a newsletter. It's a powerful, user-friendly platform that gives you all the tools you need to succeed.

If you're ready to take your newsletter to the next level, give beehiiv a try with a 30-day trial.

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