beehiiv.

What do I use beehiiv for?

My weekly newsletter.

Alchemy AI goes out from here every Friday. It’s how I stay in touch with clients and customers, and where I put the resources worth passing on.

Which feature would I miss most?

Ask me again when I’m paying.

Straight answer: I’m on the free plan, and the feature set there is thin. I’d rather leave this blank than invent an opinion I don’t have yet. I’ll come back and fill it in properly once I’ve upgraded.

Who is beehiiv for, and who should skip it?

Anyone who wants their newsletter to be findable.

If you stay in regular contact with your clients, or you want to, this is built for that.

The real reason to pick it is discoverability. Your issues live somewhere public and searchable instead of vanishing into inboxes, so new subscribers can find you through something you wrote months ago.

Skip it if that isn’t the point for you. If all you need is email arriving in inboxes, you don’t need this.

How have I used beehiiv recently?

Every Friday.

Alchemy AI ships weekly. One useful AI build you can steal, every Friday, and you can sign up here.

What do I wish I had known about beehiiv on day one?

Automations are behind the paywall.

The free subscriber ceiling is generous, which is what sold me. What I didn’t catch until I’d set everything up and sent a few issues is that automations and workflows aren’t included.

By the time I worked that out I’d already built the thing. I wasn’t starting over, so I’m running without them.

Read the feature list against the plan you’re actually going to be on, not the one you’ll be on in two years.

How does beehiiv fit with my other tools?

Claude drafts it. I press send.

There’s an MCP connection, though you get it from beehiiv rather than the standard Claude connector list.

It does more than I first gave it credit for. It writes the draft, edits the body block by block, and handles the settings. What it won’t do is publish. Sending stays a human action in the beehiiv dashboard, which is exactly where I want that particular button.

So Claude builds the issue and I’m the one who decides it’s ready.

Would I pay for beehiiv?

Not yet. Eventually.

The free plan carries me for now. The automations will get me in the end.