Beehiiv Review – Pros & Cons

Investing in a good newsletter platform is essential for online businesses to effectively connect with their audience, build trust, and drive sales.

Consistently delivering valuable and relevant information to subscribers helps build trust and credibility in the brand. This can lead to increased loyalty and reliance on the company as a source of knowledge and products.

A good newsletter platform allows for segmentation and customization, ensuring that content is relevant to the reader’s interests and preferences. This results in higher engagement rates and stronger relationships with customers.

Beehiiv is one such tool. It is a comprehensive newsletter platform designed to help content creators and entrepreneurs build, distribute, and monetize their newsletters.

It is built by former employees of Morning Brew, a well-known newsletter company, and aims to provide a creator-friendly platform that offers advanced customization, analytics, and monetization tool.

In this article, we will evaluate various aspects of Beehiiv which will help you decide whether or not you can use the platform for your email marketing needs.

Without much ado, let’s begin.

Who is Beehiiv For?

Beehiiv is the perfect platform for lean content creators who are looking to launch and monetize their own newsletters.

Whether you’re an independent writer, a media company, a startup, or any content creator, Beehiiv provides the tools and features you need to succeed.

With over 4 million subscribers noted for Morning Brew, a newsletter that inspired the creation of Beehiiv, it’s clear that this platform knows what it takes to build a successful newsletter.

What are the Top Features of Beehiiv?

As a newsletter creator, Beehiiv provides you with essential features to build, grow, and profit from your audience.

With Beehiiv, you have access to advanced customization options, powerful analytics, and website hosting, all included in the free plan.

• Firstly, Beehiiv offers a newsletter builder that simplifies the process of creating and sending emails. The intuitive editor allows you to easily add videos, links, images, and other multimedia elements to engage with your subscribers.
• Furthermore, Beehiiv provides website hosting for your newsletter. You can publish your content, attract subscribers, and create a dedicated online presence for your newsletter. This feature eliminates the need for external website hosting services, making it convenient and cost-effective.
• In addition to the basic features, Beehiiv offers several tools to help you grow and engage your audience. The platform includes customizable subscribe forms that can be embedded on your website or shared on social media platforms to attract new subscribers.
• Beehiiv also offers unique features like Magic Links, which allow for one-click newsletter subscriptions, making it easier for your audience to join and stay updated. The landing page builder lets you create stunning landing pages for your newsletters, complete with featured posts to showcase your best content.
• For those looking to monetize their newsletters, Beehiiv provides an internal ad network, allowing you to generate revenue through ads and affiliate programs. With the ability to track acquisition sources and comprehensive data analytics, you can effectively measure the performance and success of your newsletters.
• Whether you are an independent writer, a media company, a startup, or any content creator, Beehiiv is tailored to meet your specific needs. The platform aims to support creators in launching and monetizing their newsletters, incorporating growth principles from Morning Brew’s success.
• When compared to other platforms like Substack, Beehiiv stands out with better analytics, more design flexibility, and a referral program. It offers features that empower lean content creators to build a loyal subscriber base and drive engagement.

As you can see, Beehiiv provides essential features such as a newsletter builder, website hosting, and subscribe forms to help you create, grow, and monetize your newsletter.

With its user-friendly interface and comprehensive set of tools, Beehiiv is an ideal platform for newsletter creators looking to take their newsletters to new heights.

Beehiiv Pricing

Beehiiv offers a range of pricing plans designed to cater to different needs and growth stages of its users.

The platform provides a customized plan for content creators and companies with over 100,000 subscribers, while smaller users can opt for the Launch, Scale, or Max plans.

Launch Plan

• Free: The Launch plan is free and includes features such as:
  • Custom website
  • Custom newsletters
  • Campaign analytics
  • Unlimited email sends
  • Up to 3 publications
  • Recommendation network
  • Optimized deliverability
  • Subscriber tagging

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Scale

• $39 per month: The Scale plan includes all Launch features plus:
  • Ad network
  • Boost network
  • Premium subscriptions
  • New website templates
  • Email automations
  • Referral program
  • 3D analytics
  • Beehiiv AI
  • Survey forms and polls

Max

• $99 per month: The Max plan includes all Scale features plus:
  • Remove Beehiiv branding
  • NewsletterXP Course
  • Up to 10 publications
  • Priority support

Enterprise

• Custom pricing: The Enterprise plan is tailored for large-scale users with custom subscriber limits and includes all Max features plus:
  • Concierge onboarding
  • Designated account manager
  • Dedicated IP addresses
  • Infinite subscribers

Key Changes & Updates

• New pricing model: Beehiiv introduced a tier-based pricing model in April 2024, allowing users to pay different amounts based on their subscriber count. This change aimed to make the platform more affordable for smaller users while maintaining competitive pricing for larger users.
• Legacy plan transition: Users previously on the Grow plan were transitioned to the new Scale plan to take advantage of the most powerful features.

Boosts & Monetization

• Boosts: Beehiiv offers an opportunity for users to monetize their newsletters by promoting other newsletters and earning a portion of the revenue generated. The average cost of one active subscriber is $1.63.
• Ad network: The Beehiiv ad network allows newsletter creators to connect with premium brands and earn revenue by featuring ads in their newsletters.

Beehiiv’s pricing structure is designed to be flexible and scalable, catering to the diverse needs of its users.

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Beehiiv SEO

Beehiiv offers robust search engine optimization (SEO) capabilities, enabling you to enhance the visibility of your newsletters in search engine results.

With Beehiiv, you can optimize your newsletters by utilizing various SEO tools and features.

One of the key SEO features offered by Beehiiv is the ability to use a custom domain. By using your own domain name, you can establish a professional online presence and build brand credibility.

This also allows you to create consistent branding across your newsletters and website.

In addition, Beehiiv enables you to enable HTTPS for your newsletters, ensuring secure and encrypted communication between your subscribers and your newsletters.

HTTPS is an essential factor in today’s SEO landscape as search engines prioritize secure websites and newsletters.

To further enhance your SEO efforts, Beehiiv allows you to customize URL slugs, making them more readable and SEO-friendly.

This helps search engines understand the content of your newsletters and improves the chances of your newsletters ranking higher in search results.

Meta descriptions are another important aspect of SEO, and Beehiiv provides you the flexibility to optimize them.

You can create compelling and informative meta descriptions that accurately reflect the content of your newsletters, attracting more readers from search engine results pages.

Beehiiv also provides a sitemap feature, which helps search engines discover and index your newsletters more effectively.

By generating a sitemap, you enable search engines to crawl and understand the structure of your newsletters, improving the visibility of your content in search results.

Furthermore, Beehiiv supports canonical tags, allowing you to specify the preferred version of your newsletters if you have multiple pages with similar content.

This helps search engines understand which version of your newsletters to prioritize in search rankings, avoiding duplicate content issues.

Last but not least, Beehiiv includes a robots.txt file feature, which allows you to control how search engines crawl and index your newsletters.

With the robots.txt file, you can specify which parts of your newsletters search engines should or shouldn’t access, optimizing the visibility of your preferred content.

While Beehiiv offers a range of SEO features, it’s important to note that some aspects, such as redirects, are still being developed and improved.

However, in terms of overall SEO capabilities, Beehiiv provides you with the necessary tools to optimize your newsletters for search engine visibility.

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Beehiiv Pros & Cons

Beehiiv is designed to help content creators and entrepreneurs build, distribute, and monetize their newsletters.

Here are the pros and cons of Beehiiv:

Pros

• Intuitive Interface: Beehiiv offers an easy-to-use interface that makes navigating the platform a breeze.
• All-in-One Solution: It provides a single platform for website hosting, email marketing, and newsletter creation, making it a convenient choice for creators.
• Four Profitable Monetization Options: Beehiiv offers various ways to monetize newsletters, including subscriptions, affiliate marketing, ads, and Boosts.
• Engaging Features: The platform includes features like newsletter referral programs, acquisition tracking, and recommendations to help creators grow their audience.
• Powerful Automation Engine: Beehiiv’s automation engine helps save time and effort on repetitive tasks.
• Free Plan: Beehiiv offers a free plan that includes basic features for up to 2,500 unique subscribers, making it accessible to new users.
• Clean and Modern Subscriber Analytics: The platform provides detailed analytics to help creators track their newsletter performance and subscriber growth.
• Website Hosting: Beehiiv allows users to host their websites directly within the platform.
• Custom Domains: Users can use custom domains for their newsletters.
• API Access: Beehiiv offers API access for advanced integrations.
• Community Access: The platform provides access to a community of creators and entrepreneurs.

Cons

• Slightly Higher Pricing: Beehiiv’s pricing is slightly higher compared to other email marketing platforms, such as ConvertKit.
• Limited Design Flexibility: The platform has limitations around integrating custom fonts and Webflow, which can be a drawback for some users.
• Limited Growth Features on Free Plan: The free plan has limited growth features, which may not be suitable for larger audiences.
• New Features May Include a Learning Curve: Beehiiv is constantly launching new features, which can include a learning curve for users.
• Bigger Plans Better for Faster Growth and Monetization: Larger plans are more suitable for users focused on faster growth and monetization.

Overall, Beehiiv offers a powerful and comprehensive platform for newsletter creation and monetization, but users should consider the pricing and limitations before making a decision.

How to Start Using Beehiiv?

Getting started with Beehiiv is easy.

1. Sign up for a Free Plan: The first step is to sign up for Beehiiv’s free plan, which allows you to have up to 2,500 subscribers. This gives you access to features like website hosting, a newsletter CMS, advanced customization, analytics, and external embed forms.
2. Complete the Onboarding Process: After creating your account, you’ll go through an onboarding process where you’ll choose a name and URL for your newsletter’s website, pick your brand colors and design, and provide information about your existing newsletter.
3. Navigate the Dashboard: Once you reach the main dashboard, you’ll see detailed analytics on your subscriber growth and newsletter performance. The dashboard also provides access to your newsletter settings and email design tools.
4. Create Your First Newsletter: Beehiiv’s newsletter builder has a modern and minimalistic feel, making it easy to create and design your newsletters. You can publish your newsletters directly on your Beehiiv-hosted website.
5. Set Up Subscriber Forms: Beehiiv allows you to create custom subscribe forms and embed them on your existing website to grow your email list. You can also set up automated email sequences to deliver lead magnets or other content to new subscribers.
6. Explore Monetization Options: Beehiiv offers various monetization features, such as premium subscriptions, affiliate marketing, and the Boosts program, which allows you to earn money by promoting other newsletters to your audience.
7. Utilize Automation and Integrations: Beehiiv provides automation tools and integrations with other platforms to help streamline your newsletter operations and expand your reach.

The key is to take advantage of Beehiiv’s user-friendly interface, powerful features, and generous free plan to get your newsletter up and running quickly and efficiently.

Who Should Use Beehiiv & Who Shouldn’t?

Beehiiv is a versatile platform that caters to a wide range of content creators, making it a suitable choice for many individuals and organizations.

If you are an independent writer, media company, startup, or any content creator looking to launch and monetize your own newsletter, Beehiiv provides the tools and features you need to grow your subscriber base and generate revenue.

One of the key advantages of Beehiiv is its all-in-one approach, allowing you to create, customize, and monetize your newsletters seamlessly.

With Beehiiv, you can have multiple publications, ranging from 3 to 10, and each publication can have up to 100,000 subscribers. This scalability is perfect for content creators who want to reach a large audience and expand their brand.

Beehiiv offers a range of features that can benefit your newsletter strategy. The acquisition source feature helps you track subscriber sources, although it may lack the granularity of custom tracking systems.

The recommendation feature allows publications to recommend each other, providing valuable exposure and potential collaborations with approximately 10 publications available for recommendations under certain hashtags.

Additionally, the magic links feature enables direct subscriptions without the need for opt-in forms, making it convenient for both you and your subscribers.

When it comes to monetization, Beehiiv offers four methods: ads, subscriptions, the Beehiiv Partner Program, and Boosts. Boosts allows you to promote other newsletters and earn around $2 per active subscriber.

Publishers can also take advantage of the Beehiiv affiliate program, which shares 50% of revenue for 12 months and pays out via Stripe. It’s important to note that these commissions are only valid for the first 12 months after the user signs up.

Compared to its competitors, Beehiiv stands out with its custom fields on subscribers, API integrations, and visual automation builder functionality.

These features enhance your ability to segment your email list and provide thorough analytics, giving you valuable insights into your audience and campaign performance.

While Beehiiv offers numerous advantages, it may not be the best fit for everyone. If you are already using a different platform and are satisfied with its features and capabilities, you may not need to make the switch.

However, if you are seeking an email marketing platform that is specifically designed for newsletter growth and offers robust email marketing capabilities, Beehiiv is worth considering.

Remember to assess your individual needs, compare Beehiiv with alternative platforms, and determine which one aligns best with your goals and requirements.

Whether you are a lean content creator, an independent writer, or a media company, Beehiiv provides the tools and features to help you succeed in the competitive world of email marketing.

Conclusion

Beehiiv is an ideal platform for independent writers, media companies, startups, and content creators who are looking for an all-in-one solution to launch and monetize their newsletters.

With its free plan and affordable paid plans, Beehiiv provides creators with the tools and flexibility they need to succeed in the competitive world of email newsletters.

Its emphasis on customization, ease of use, and analytics, provide creators a strong value proposition to grow their subscriber base and monetize their newsletters.

Try Beehiiv and see it for yourself.