beehiiv: A New Kid In Newsletter Town.
Of Newsletter Platforms, Monetization Paths, and Choice.
Heard of a newsletter platform called beehiiv?
It was created by former employees of ‘The Morning Brew,’ a highly successful newsletter which was acquired by Business Insider for $75M in an all-cash deal in 2020.
The acquisition was driven by the content and its three million new subscribers who enjoyed the modern and direct writing style on business topics.
Then, the former ‘growth’ team of ‘Morning Brew’ decided that the same sales and marketing tools that enabled the fast growth of that newsletter could also help other creators. Thus, beehiiv was born.
Recently, they raised $33M in April 2024 to ‘make their newsletter sticky,’ bringing their overall funding to over $45M.
Note: ‘Sticky’ is industry jargon meaning active and engaged customers who stay on the platform long enough to matter in terms of revenue, lifetime value, low churn, etc.
According to TechCrunch, which interviewed the beehiiv team, beehiiv has 7,500 ‘active’ newsletters, 35 million unique readers, a monthly revenue run rate (MRR) of $4M, and an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $3 million.
Substack on the other hand states in its ‘About’ page that it has 35 million ‘active’ subscriptions including more than $3 million paid subscriptions.
In this post, I assume you are familiar with newsletter content delivery systems—writing, editing, and publishing to an email list, which beehiiv also offers.
Instead, I focus on what sets beehiiv apart from Substack, highlighting its unique features and similarities, and offering insights into when you should consider moving to it.
Check out my earlier article on what makes a good newsletter platform.
Below, I walk you through the following:
Business Model
Monetization Features
Ease of Use, and Customization
Automation
Missing Features
Should You Move to beehiiv?
Conclusion
Curious about beehiiv's potential to elevate your newsletter game? Explore its unique features and decide if it's time to make the switch. Discover more in my summary comparison with Substack below.