Shared IP vs Dedicated IP

Are Your Beehiiv Emails Going to Spam?

Beehiiv relies on shared sending infrastructure—meaning your sender reputation is tied to every other newsletter on their platform. When someone else on the same IP pool sends spam or gets complaints, your emails suffer too. Self-hosted Broadcast gives you a dedicated IP and full DNS control so your deliverability is entirely in your hands.

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Deliverability at a Glance

IP Address

Beehiiv: Shared pool

Broadcast: Your dedicated IP

DNS Control

Beehiiv: Platform-managed

Broadcast: Full SPF/DKIM/DMARC

Reputation

Beehiiv: Shared with strangers

Broadcast: 100% yours

ESP Choice

Beehiiv: Beehiiv only

Broadcast: SES, Postmark, any SMTP

The Shared Infrastructure Problem

When you send emails through Beehiiv, your messages travel from shared IP addresses alongside thousands of other senders. This is like sharing a mailing address with strangers—if one of them sends junk mail, the postal service starts scrutinizing everything from that address, including your legitimate correspondence. Here is how shared infrastructure undermines your deliverability:

Shared IP Pools

Your sender reputation is tied to strangers. Beehiiv routes your emails through IP addresses shared with thousands of other newsletters. If another sender on the same IP gets flagged for spam, every sender on that IP suffers—including you. You have no visibility into who else is sharing your IP or what they are sending.

Domain Reputation Bleed

Other senders’ bad practices affect you. Because Beehiiv’s sending infrastructure is shared at the platform level, poor list hygiene, high complaint rates, or spammy content from other users can bleed into your domain’s reputation. Mailbox providers like Gmail and Outlook evaluate reputation holistically, and shared infrastructure makes isolation impossible.

No Warm-up Control

You cannot control the pace of IP warming. On a shared platform, the IP reputation is pre-established—but not by you. You cannot gradually build trust with mailbox providers at your own pace. If the shared IP’s reputation degrades, you have no mechanism to recover it independently. Your hands are tied.

Limited DKIM/SPF Control

Email authentication is tied to Beehiiv’s infrastructure. While Beehiiv sets up basic authentication, you do not have full control over your SPF records, DKIM signing keys, or DMARC policies. This limits your ability to fine-tune authentication alignment—a critical factor that mailbox providers use to decide whether your emails reach the inbox or the spam folder.

The Self-Hosted Advantage with Broadcast

Broadcast solves every shared infrastructure problem by putting you in complete control. Your server, your IP, your reputation. Here is how each issue is addressed:

Dedicated IP Address

Your sender reputation is 100% yours. Because Broadcast runs on your own server, every email you send comes from your dedicated IP address. No other sender can contaminate your reputation. Good sending practices directly translate into better inbox placement—and you reap all the rewards.

Full Domain Control

Complete DKIM, SPF, and DMARC control. With Broadcast, you configure your own DNS records for perfect authentication alignment. Your DKIM keys are yours alone, your SPF record points only to your server, and your DMARC policy enforces exactly the rules you set. This level of control is impossible on shared platforms.

Custom Warm-up Schedule

Warm your IP at your own pace. Broadcast includes a comprehensive domain warm-up guide that walks you through gradually increasing your sending volume. You control the timeline, the volume ramps, and the engagement metrics. Build a pristine reputation from day one on your terms.

ESP Flexibility

Choose the email service provider that best fits your needs. Broadcast works with Amazon SES, Postmark, or any SMTP provider. If one provider’s deliverability does not meet your expectations, switch to another without migrating your entire platform. This flexibility ensures you always have the best sending infrastructure available.

Common Deliverability Issues with SaaS Platforms

These are not theoretical problems. Email marketers on shared platforms encounter these issues regularly, and the root cause is almost always the same: shared infrastructure that you cannot control.

Sudden Spam Folder Placement

One day your open rates are healthy; the next, they plummet. This often happens when another sender on your shared IP pool triggers a spam trap, gets blocklisted, or accumulates excessive complaints. Mailbox providers respond by throttling or filtering all mail from that IP—including yours. You did nothing wrong, but your emails are now landing in spam folders. On a SaaS platform, you have no visibility into what caused the drop and no ability to fix the underlying issue.

With Broadcast: Because you are the only sender on your IP, reputation drops are always traceable to your own sending behavior and are within your power to fix.

Inconsistent Open Rates

Shared platforms rotate emails across pools of IP addresses. Each IP in the pool has a different reputation score with different mailbox providers. This means the same email campaign can deliver to the inbox via one IP and land in spam via another. The result is unpredictable, inconsistent open rates that make it nearly impossible to accurately measure campaign performance or optimize your strategy.

With Broadcast: Every email goes through the same dedicated IP. Your open rates reflect your actual content and audience engagement, not infrastructure lottery.

No Ability to Troubleshoot or Fix Root Causes

When deliverability degrades on a shared platform, your only option is to submit a support ticket and wait. You cannot inspect your sending IP’s reputation, check blocklist status, review authentication headers, or adjust DNS records. The platform controls the infrastructure, and you are dependent on their team to investigate and resolve issues—which can take days or weeks while your campaigns underperform.

With Broadcast: You have full server access, DNS control, and the ability to check blocklists, review mail logs, and adjust configuration in real time. Problems get resolved in minutes, not days.

Broadcast Deliverability Tools

Free tools and guides to help you achieve and maintain excellent inbox placement

SPF Record Generator

Generate a valid SPF record for your domain to authorize your sending servers.

Generate SPF record →

DMARC Record Generator

Create a DMARC policy to protect your domain from spoofing and phishing.

Generate DMARC record →

DKIM Signature Alignment

Learn how to properly align your DKIM signatures for maximum deliverability.

Read the guide →

Domain Warm-up Guide

Step-by-step instructions for warming up a new sending domain and IP address.

Start warming up →

DMARC Testing Tool

Test your domain’s DMARC configuration and identify authentication issues.

Test your DMARC →

Deliverability Consultant

Get expert guidance on optimizing your email deliverability and sender reputation.

Get expert help →

Frequently Asked Questions

The most common cause is shared IP reputation. Beehiiv sends your emails from IP addresses shared with thousands of other newsletters. If another sender on the same IP triggers spam complaints, gets blocklisted, or has poor list hygiene, it drags down the reputation for everyone on that IP—including you. Additionally, limited control over email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) means your emails may not pass strict authentication checks that modern mailbox providers require.

Dedicated IPs are not available on Beehiiv’s standard plans. They may be offered on enterprise-level contracts, but these come at a significantly higher cost and are typically reserved for very large senders. With Broadcast, every user gets a dedicated IP by default because the software runs on your own server. There is no extra cost and no minimum sending volume required.

Self-hosting improves deliverability in three key ways. First, you get a dedicated IP address, so your sender reputation reflects only your sending practices. Second, you have full DNS control to properly configure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records for perfect authentication alignment. Third, you can choose your ESP (Amazon SES, Postmark, or any SMTP provider), selecting the one with the best deliverability for your specific audience and use case. This combination of dedicated infrastructure and full control is why self-hosted senders consistently achieve better inbox placement.

Not at all. Broadcast’s automated installer configures SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records for you during the initial setup process. The installer walks you through the DNS changes needed and verifies that everything is correctly configured before you start sending. If you need additional help, our DKIM alignment guide, SPF generator, and DMARC generator tools are available for free.