Beehiiv vs ConvertKit 2024: Battle Of the Newsletters
Who wins?
Email marketing remains one of the highest returning digital marketing channels delivering outstanding ROI at scale when executed properly. And having the right platform powering audience growth through compelling campaigns provides the foundation for success.
In recent years, ConvertKit* rose as a favorite for content creators wanting to leverage email while Beehiiv* emerged as a new solution tailored specifically to the newsletter model. And this Beehiiv vs ConvertKit comparison highlights how they align and differ.
By evaluating key metrics from core features to growth levers to monetization and scaling tools, publishers can assess which aligns best with their business needs. This piece provides an in-depth analysis across all considerations influencing platform selection around Beehiiv vs ConvertKit.
Beehiiv vs ConvertKit: Email Marketing Focus and Power
First understanding the underlying approach of each platform in enabling email marketing clarifies their broader positioning.
ConvertKit focuses broadly on creators producing diverse content types from blogs to courses wanting consolidated engagement tools. Email becomes part of a centralized communication stack integrated with landing pages, webinars, and messaging.
Comparatively, Beehiiv directly targets newsletter publishers often treating email updates as their core monetization vehicle. Templates, designs, and virality levers all hone in on emails vs. ConvertKit’s wider net.
For advanced email marketers, ConvertKit brings superior workflow automation leveraging triggers, tags, and sequences powering highly targeted, multi-step campaigns. Beehiiv instead streamlines sending newsletter updates without similar sophistication yet also less complexity.
So the Beehiiv vs ConvertKit contrast emerges in broader customer engagement scope vs specific newsletter focus.
Beehiiv vs ConvertKit: Core Feature Comparison
Drilling down into the tools and capabilities showcases ConvertKit’s broader platform scope harnessing email as part of an integrated stack while Beehiiv zones in solely on email and newsletters.
ConvertKit provides a powerful visual automation builder to create sequences, complex conditional logic, and workflows without coding expertise. Beehiiv only offers simpler trigger-based rules but promises to expand capabilities.
For creating landing pages, forms and sales pages, ConvertKit again brings an advanced editor and numerous templates facilitating customization for capturing leads. Beehiiv focuses forms solely on newsletter sign up without similar standalone page creation tools.
In contrast on broadcasting emails or newsletters themselves, Beehiiv offers more elegant templates tailored to written content for quicker customization without major HTML/CSS skills. So better optimized for that core job.
And for critical performance analytics, ConvertKit has far more segmentation options, custom goal setting, and filtering capabilities to analyze data. This allows optimizing multiple initiatives from lead gen to sales funnels. Beehiiv provides simpler overall stats better suited for sending updates to a core audience vs varied conversion funnels.
So in nearly all feature aspects, ConvertKit demonstrates greater depth and sophistication with Beehiiv streamlining specifically for newsletter use cases.
Beehiiv vs ConvertKit: Target Customer Personas
The feature differentiation directly maps to ideal customer profiles based on business models.
ConvertKit aligns better to multi-faceted content creators leveraging email as part of their integrated martech stack:
Bloggers
Podcasters
Writers
Coaches
Educators
Consultants
Other creators monetizing through various assets benefiting from workflow automation across engagement channels.
Meanwhile, Beehiiv zones in on publishers treating newsletters as their primary monetization vehicle:
Newsletter entrepreneurs
Substackers
Bloggers wanting streamlined email
Freelance journalists or writers
Industry analysts
Niche market experts
So ConvertKit wins for users managing diverse content formats while Beehiiv directly matches simpler newsletter first creators.
But both do a lot of things great.
Beehiiv vs ConvertKit: Growth Tools Enabling Scalable Revenue
Critical to any marketing platform lies capabilities accelerating customer acquisition for revenue growth. Both Bring solid options to the table.
ConvertKit touts its Creator Network facilitating partnerships and collaborations between users to expand reach. Simply put, creators cross-promote and share content updates leveraging joint audiences for mutual benefit. For participants, it unlocks exponential subscriber gains.
Beehiiv lacks a similar network effect but enables creators to easily run full-featured referral marketing programs with discounts or exclusives to incentivize shares. These rewards for referrals spark increased virality.
Additionally, ConvertKit’s Lead Magnets function lets users gate eBooks or kits with email opt-ins while Beehiiv currently lacks Lead Magnet creation or hosting. So ConvertKit brings more advanced audience building tools.
Beehiiv vs ConvertKit: Capabilities for Monetization and Recurring Revenue
Scaling newsletter subscribers offers little value without monetization. Thankfully both platforms provide sufficient commerce capabilities.
Natively, ConvertKit now enables selling digital goods like online courses, virtual workshops, premium content and more while handling delivery and processing. So it readily facilitates recurring subscription revenue.
Beehiiv similarly makes it easy to put certain newsletters or content behind paywalls based on subscriber tiers. Users can tag paid vs free members for gating. However, Beehiiv doesn’t handle product delivery or payments. You must integrate your payment provider.
The pivotal difference emerges in revenue cuts. ConvertKit deducts significant percentages from transactions processed natively. But by using your own Stripe account on Beehiiv, you keep 100% of earnings beyond nominal processing charges.
This hands publishers wanting to scale paid newsletter subscriptions 6 or 7 figures without platform fees significant upside relative to ConvertKit. Just consider handling fulfillment and member management yourself.
Beehiiv vs ConvertKit: Pricing and Usability Tradeoffs
Pricing often demonstrates the dichotomy in depth vs simplicity. ConvertKit predictably brings more advanced capabilities per tier while Beehiiv streamlines core email needs at each level:
ConvertKit Pricing:
Free tier - up to 1,000 subscribers
Creator tier - 300 subscribers - $9/month
Creator Pro tier - scales pricing gradually from $29/month for 300, based on number of subscribers
Beehiiv Pricing:
Free forever tier - up to 2,500 subscribers
$49 per month annually for up to 10,000 subscribers
$99 per month for up to 100,000 subscribers
More upon request
Key differences:
ConvertKit features unlocked by higher monthly spend
Beehiiv pricing with fixed rate
ConvertKit offers more advanced capabilities, at elevated cost for large subscriber lists
Beehiiv retains simplicity in pricing, more affordable at larger scale
Additionally, ConvertKit simply has far more settings, options, and customizations possible. This provides exceptional scalability yet also complexity. Beehiiv opts for simplifying choices to make navigating the platform and core emailing easier.
So advanced marketers valuing expandability align better with ConvertKit while newsletter first creators wanting straightforward access to basic tasks may appreciate Beehiiv’s more opinionated approach. Just recognize the limitations or power.
Conclusion: Which is Better for You – Beehiiv vs ConvertKit?
In closing, when evaluating the best email marketing and newsletter platform between Beehiiv vs ConvertKit*, creators should assess their content mix and monetization plans.
ConvertKit brings significantly richer features, unlimited scaling and automation power positioning it as the superior email marketing toolkit for consolidated engagement stack and selling various digital goods. Customizations abound.
But for publishers focused singularly on newsletters, prioritizing fast template customization, simple broadcasts and keeping all revenue, Beehiiv warrants consideration. Its comparably basic functionality reduces complexity.
And if managing a newsletter, you could also explore MailerLite*, EmailOctopus*, and Substack*, each with its own strength and weaknesses, yet still capable alternatives to anchor email efforts.
No single platform universally best fits all publisher needs and business models. But by pinpointing core requirements around email marketing sophistication vs newsletter sending ease of use along with monetization methods, creators can determine where Beehiiv* vs ConvertKit* each excel – and align their platform choice accordingly.