beehiiv · The Weekly BuildTuesday’s issue went out at 7am. By lunch you’ve opened beehiiv three times, not to write anything, just to see the subscriber number.
It’s the one number a newsletter lives on. It deserves a spot where you don’t have to go looking for it.
What the board shows
Active subscribers: beehiiv’s own count for the publication, free and paid together, as a big number. The board keeps its readings, so a line grows under it from the day you add it, with the change over 24 hours, 28 days or a year.
Every publication you run: one key reads several. The board lists the publications your key can see, you pick one, add its widget, and pick the next.
A goal: point a goal ring at the same number and watch it fill toward 6,000, or whatever you’re chasing this quarter. The Launch week template already has a subscribers goal waiting for one.
Beside it: your Stripe or Lemon Squeezy revenue, your site’s visitors from Plausible or Google Analytics, and the to-do list for next week’s issue.
Where the numbers come from
The board reads your publication from beehiiv’s API with a key you save once in Connect. The key is sealed on the board’s server and never shown again. It only goes to beehiiv’s API, and only on requests that read, so the board can’t add, remove or email anyone on your list.
While the board is open, it reads the count again about once an hour. Close the tab and it waits until somebody opens the board again.
You don’t need to remember the publication ID. When you save the key, the board asks beehiiv which publications it reads and shows them by name. With one publication there’s nothing to pick.
If a read ever fails, the widget keeps the last count it got and tells you what went wrong and when. It never fills in a number beehiiv didn’t send.