Beefree blog

From BEE to Beefree: Email creation with no limits

Luca Penati
Luca Penati
Aug 28, 2023
From BEE to Beefree: Email creation with no limits
From BEE to Beefree: Email creation with no limits

The story behind the name change

Every great story has a beginning, and ours started back in 2014 with a simple yet ambitious goal: to revolutionize email creation and empower individuals to effortlessly design email newsletters. This is how BEE —an acronym for "Best Email Editor" came into existence. Little did we know that this name would resonate so deeply with our users and become an integral part of our brand identity for nearly a decade.As our company grew, we realized that we had outgrown our humble code name. While BEE had served us faithfully, we knew it was time for a change. A rebranding that could truly capture our evolution, values, and aspirations. Thus, after an incredible nine years, we embarked on a meaningful journey, transitioning from BEE to Beefree. This change represents a natural progression, reflecting the essence of our brand's growth and the vast opportunities ahead.In this blog post, we invite you to join us as we dive into the story of our brand refresh. We'll share the motivations and considerations that led us to make this decision. Discover the significance of this evolution and how Beefree embodies our unwavering commitment to delivering innovative, intuitive, and exceptional content design experiences for our cherished customers. Together, let's explore the exciting new chapter of our brand and the remarkable possibilities that lie ahead.

Why the change:

1. Evolving beyond an email editor:

When we first launched BEE, our aim was to offer the finest email editor in the market. As we progressed, we realized the need to broaden our scope and improve our functionalities. Today, our tool has transformed into an all-encompassing design suite, incorporating AI capabilities and sophisticated features. These advancements facilitate brand control, expedite the design process, promote teamwork, and provide integration with various Email Service Providers (ESPs) and Marketing Automation Platforms (MAPs).Our email editor has become a powerful solution that empowers designers and marketing teams to streamline their email production processes, reducing production time by up to 3X or more. With Beefree, teams without extensive design skills can create professional-grade emails and landing pages that align perfectly with their brand, without the need for technical expertise.With our white-label email builder integrated into over 600+ SaaS companies, Beefree SDK now also provides a landing page builder, popup builder, file manager, and has many exciting components and services in the pipeline. Beefree SDK enables SaaS applications to offer customers a smooth and intuitive content creation experience.

2. Standing out from the crowd:

While BEE served us well for many years, we realized that the name presented challenges. A Google search for "BEE" yields over 2,000,000,000 results, primarily dominated by one of the world's most popular insects. Establishing a distinct online presence and effectively differentiating ourselves became increasingly difficult. We desired a name that truly captured our unique identity and offerings, allowing us to stand out in a crowded market.The transition to Beefree resolves the confusion caused by our previous name and creates a stronger brand presence that aligns with our expanded range of services and solutions. Beefree embodies the freedom to create, innovate, and break free from the limitations of traditional email design. While paying homage to our roots and exceptional email editing capabilities, it symbolizes our commitment to providing an unparalleled experience that empowers creativity and unleashes limitless possibilities.

Embracing Beefree: a serendipitous revelation

At first glance, the change may not appear significant to some of you. In fact, many of you have already referred to us as Beefree. Surprisingly, our web domain has always been Beefree.io, chosen somewhat accidentally due to its availability and affordability. This fortunate choice has proven to be a stroke of serendipity.The widespread adoption of Beefree among our users is a testament to their intuitive understanding of our brand and the freedom it represents. It aligns with our core values and our purpose of democratizing beautiful, on-brand content by providing tools that free you up to do your best work. This realization solidified our decision to embrace Beefree as our new brand name, reaffirming that accidents can lead to meaningful discoveries and pave the way for profound transformations. We are excited to tackle this new chapter as Beefree, united in our shared commitment to empowering your creative endeavors and breaking free from limitations.

Explaining the free in Beefree.

At Beefree, freedom lies at the core of our philosophy. We believe in granting our users the freedom to design with no limits, allowing their creativity to soar and their ideas to take flight. But our commitment to liberation extends far beyond the creative process itself—it encompasses our dedication to providing accessible solutions for all, regardless of budget or resources.That's why, just over a year ago, we introduced our freemium model. We wanted to ensure that anyone, regardless of their financial means, could experience the incredible potential and boundless possibilities that Beefree has to offer. We're here to empower individuals and businesses of all sizes, removing limitations and opening doors to new opportunities for innovation and success. In line with this commitment, we are actively investing in enhancing the accessibility of both our visual content builders and the assets they produce for people with disabilities.Our freemium model reflects our belief in the democratization of creativity. We're dedicated to making impactful solutions accessible to everyone because we firmly believe that greatness can be found in every corner, regardless of financial constraints.

What’s in it for you, our customers?

Our rebranding efforts go beyond just a change in appearance. They reflect our commitment to delivering even greater value to you, our beloved customers. With our fresh new look and feel, we are revitalizing our brand to align with our exponential growth, visionary outlook, and ever-evolving content needs. While our appearance evolves, our core values of excellence, reliability, and dedication to your satisfaction remain unwavering.As we venture on this exciting journey as Beefree, we are working diligently to bring you many innovative features and enhancements. At the heart of our work is the principle of staying as close as possible to the problems we are trying to solve. We believe that the best new features come from deeply understanding those frustrations. That's why we are investing more resources in customer research and will continue to turn insights from that research into cutting-edge content design tools. As heavy users of our own products, we are there with you along this journey.Our dedicated team is actively developing new solutions to enhance collaboration, streamline workflows, and unlock even more creative possibilities. You can count on a continuous stream of updates and improvements as a Beefree customer, empowering you to achieve remarkable results.As part of our rebranding initiative, we are simplifying the names of our products. BEE Pro will now be known as Beefree. This transition symbolizes our dedicated commitment to conveying simplicity and freedom, capturing the true essence of our product. Additionally, we introduce Beefree SDK, an evolution of BEE Plugin. This software development kit offers developers a comprehensive solution for seamlessly integrating the content creation workflow into any application.

Our rebranding journey

We're thrilled to begin this rebranding journey, where we've revitalized the very essence of who we are. We've delved deeply into our core foundations, carefully crafting a purpose, vision, and mission that truly embody our passion and commitment to empowering your creative and technological endeavors.Our Purpose is simple yet powerful: we want to democratize beautiful, high-performing content design. We believe in creating tools that free you up to do your best work, unleashing your creativity (or that of your users) without constraints.Our Vision is ambitious but inspiring: We strive to become the no-code design standard for all businesses. By enabling centralized content design and decentralized editing, we aim to empower teams to collaborate seamlessly and effortlessly, creating impactful content that resonates with their audience.Our Mission is at the heart of everything we do: We create intuitive design tools that empower you to produce on-brand content quickly and collaboratively. We want to help you drive real impact, making your ideas come to life in ways that captivate and inspire.Through this renewed focus on our purpose, vision, and mission, we are committed to providing innovative solutions that revolutionize the way businesses approach content design and empower individuals to excel in their creative endeavors. This commitment led us to develop a Beefree narrative, which is captured in this video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq5qKtYBBI0

An overview of the new Beefree visual identity

Our new logo: a symbol of freedom and dynamic growth

As we embarked on our brand refresh journey, we recognized the need for a logo that would embody the essence of our evolution while maintaining a sense of familiarity. While our previous logo had a static and stable representation reminiscent of a hive, we wanted to make a subtle, yet important change that would highlight our brand's growth without overshadowing its roots.With great care and consideration, we refined our logo to embrace concepts that resonate deeply with our customers. The transformation captures the spirit of freedom, dynamism, and modernity, aligning our visual identity with the ever-evolving needs of our valued community. This change reflects our commitment to continuously evolve and provide innovative solutions that empower our customers to thrive in an ever-changing digital landscape.We invite you to explore our new logo with an open mind and discover the symbolism that resonates with you personally. Whether it's the reminder of a hive's strength, the symbolism of progress, the freedom of wings, or the exhilaration of a bird in flight, our logo is a visual representation of the limitless possibilities that lie ahead as we continue to evolve and serve you with innovative content design solutions.

Colors and fonts that define Beefree's new brand identity

In our rebranding journey, we have carefully chosen colors and fonts that reflect the essence of Beefree. Our primary color is Beefree Ultraviolet, HEX #7747FF, a violet that embodies the spirit of limitless possibilities and empowers users to break free from the constraints of traditional email design. Cherry pie, HEX #26045D, adds depth and sophistication to our visual identity, symbolizing our dedication to providing exceptional design experiences. Black rock, a darker purple, HEX #140231, creates a sense of elegance and enhances readability. Complementing these shades, the vibrant green, HEX #82EDA8, brings a fresh and energetic touch, representing growth and vitality.To ensure a modern, clean, and inclusive aesthetic, we have deliberately selected the fonts Urbanist and Inter. Urbanist strikes a balance between friendliness and professionalism, giving our brand a distinct personality. Inter, on the other hand, goes beyond aesthetics and prioritizes excellent legibility and versatility across various interfaces and devices. These choices reflect our commitment to inclusivity and accessibility, ensuring that our visual elements are legible and enjoyable for everyone. By combining these thoughtfully chosen fonts with our carefully selected colors, we create a cohesive and engaging visual experience that empowers your creative journey with Beefree.

Beefree old to new logo fig

Our Brand Architecture

Our legal name, BEE Content Design, Inc., remains unchanged, and we proudly continue to operate as a business unit under Growens. As mentioned earlier, we have transitioned from the name BEE to Beefree, embracing our new brand identity and simplifying our product names: BEE Pro is now Beefree, and BEE Plugin is now Beefree SDK.

Beefree brand architecture

Soar to new heights with Beefree!

In closing, the transition from BEE to Beefree marks a significant milestone in our brand's evolution. Deliberately embedding “free” in our name reflects our commitment to delivering even more value to you, our cherished customers: We will develop products that truly free people up to create their best content.Join us in embracing a future of email creation with no limits, and let's shape it together!For more information, explore our new websites at beefree.io and developers.beefree.io or try our products for free – Beefree and Beefree SDK.

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If you’re using Salesforce Account Engagement (formerly Pardot), you’ve likely hit a wall with its native email editor. Whether you’re a nonprofit, a growing SaaS company, or an enterprise with multiple brands, the common complaint is the same:

"Pardot is just way too restrictive for our needs."

"The collaboration part just isn’t happening smoothly. It is too hard to involve writers and designers effectively."

 "It isn’t like we were doing anything overly creative—it just doesn’t give us the flexibility we needed."

Let’s face it: as powerful as Pardot is on the automation side, its design capabilities often fall short. And Salesforce doesn’t seem in a rush to improve them. If you’ve been trying to get more from your marketing emails—faster, better, more on-brand—it’s time to consider a better way.

Beefree isn’t a replacement. It’s the perfect addition to your workflow

The good news is that you don’t have to abandon Pardot. It is excellent at what it’s built for—automation, CRM integration, lead scoring, and financial compliance. 

But when it comes to design and collaboration, the limitations start to pile up. Whether it’s because of its clunky editor, lack of customization, or the time spent fixing buttons and web fonts (insert eye roll). 

Pairing Beefree with Pardot doesn’t just improve how your emails look, it transforms how your team works. This pair is especially perfect for: 

  • Healthcare & Financial Services: where compliance and approvals are non-negotiable.
  • SaaS, Consumer Brands, and Professional Services: where keeping brand consistency across touchpoints is critical.
  • Higher Ed, Manufacturing, Real Estate: where teams juggle multiple departments, audiences, and localizations.
  • Nonprofits: where lean teams need to move fast 

Teams from all walks of life all come to Beefree looking for the same thing: a fast and flexible email design solution that seamlessly integrates with their tech stack (without slowing their team down).

(source)

From chaos to control: Why teams choose Beefree

Now that you know what Beefree is, it’s time to talk about how it can help. 

When email production feels scattered (we’re talking files everywhere, last-minute edits, branding inconsistencies), it’s not just frustrating, it’s risky. It opens the door to real mistakes: off-brand messaging, broken layouts, missed approvals, or worse, emails that get flagged for non-compliance.   

1. Keeps your team organized with Workspaces

Instead of one cluttered space where everyone shares the same templates and folders, Workspaces allows you to manage email assets across brands, departments, and regions in unique environments. 

  • Create separation without silos: Marketing ops can manage everything in one platform, while individual teams work independently within their own workspace. It’s the best of both worlds.
  • Prevent cross-team mixups: With workspace-specific templates and permissions, there’s no risk of someone accidentally launching a healthcare email from the real estate workspace.

2. Allows you to move faster without sacrificing brand integrity

Beefree empowers teams to scale production while keeping every email perfectly on-brand.

  • Style Kits: Automatically apply your brand’s fonts, colors, and design settings to every email in a workspace
  • Saved Rows: Save your most-used content blocks (like hero sections, testimonials, or product features) and reuse them across campaigns.
  • Synced Rows: Make a global update, like changing your holiday promo footer or legal disclaimer, and Beefree automatically applies it to every email using that row. 

3. Helps you catch mistakes before they go live

Beefree helps your team build error-resistant emails with features designed to catch issues before they go live. 

  • Smart check: Beefree’s Smart Check automatically checks your designs and alerts you of any red flags, such as missing links, heavy images, and large HTML files, so you can fix them before they cost you. 
  • Built-in approval flows: Ensure the right eyes are on every email. No more chasing approvals in Slack or email threads.

Learn more about sending error-free emails with Beefree: https://beefree.io/blog/error-free-emails-beefree

4. One click export from Beefree to Pardot

With Beefree’s native Pardot integration, your team can export emails with confidence. What you see in Beefree is exactly what your audience gets in Pardot. No weird spacing. No layout issues. No surprises.

Real results: How USC Marshall scaled campaign production with Beefree

In 2020, Dwayne Rice, Senior Associate Director of CRM Management at USC Marshall, was juggling comms for 11 graduate programs. Each had its own drip campaigns, deadlines, and unique audiences.

“I needed an efficient process to crank out emails,” he said.“But Pardot’s editor was slowing us down.”

By switching to Beefree, Dwayne’s team was able to build reusable templates and modular elements—cutting production time and removing the need for third-party vendors.

“Beefree has enabled us to create content efficiently enough to bring multiple processes in-house and discontinue relationships with several vendors, saving time and money.”— Dwayne Rice, USC Marshall

Read the full case study

Stop letting Pardot’s email builder hold you back

From higher ed to healthcare, SaaS to nonprofits—teams across industries are making the switch to Beefree not to replace Pardot, but to complete it. With Beefree you can:

  • Design polished, responsive emails in minutes
  • Collaborate seamlessly with writers, designers, and stakeholders
  • Export to Pardot with full confidence

Start building better emails for Pardot today — Try Beefree for free

Or if you're a non-profit, apply for a $1,000 annual credit!

(source)

Frequently asked questions about using Beefree with Pardot

1. How does Beefree integrate with Pardot?

Beefree serves as an external email design tool that integrates seamlessly with Pardot. Users can design emails in Beefree and export them directly to Pardot as new templates or update existing ones. This integration streamlines the email creation process by allowing for more flexible and visually appealing designs than Pardot's native editor.

2. Does Beefree provide analytics for email performance?

Beefree focuses primarily on email design and does not offer built-in analytics. However, once emails are exported to Pardot, users can leverage Pardot's robust analytics and reporting tools to track performance metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates.

3. How does Beefree enhance email design capabilities for Pardot users?

Beefree offers a no-code, drag-and-drop email builder that allows users to create visually appealing emails without HTML knowledge. It integrates seamlessly with Pardot, enabling users to export their designs directly into the platform, thereby overcoming Pardot's design limitations .​

4. What collaboration features does Beefree offer compared to Pardot?

Beefree offers robust collaboration features that surpass those in Pardot, including:

  • real-time design-specific comments
  • role-based permissions
  • approval workflows

all available directly within the email design environment. These tools make it easier for teams to co-create and review content without switching platforms. In contrast, Pardot’s collaboration tools are more limited and typically rely on Salesforce’s broader ecosystem for team coordination.

5. Does Beefree support features like AI copywriting or mobile optimization?

​Yes, Beefree supports both AI-driven copywriting and mobile optimization features. Its AI Writing Assistant enables users to:

  • generate email and landing page content or revise existing copy
  • create alt text for images
  • translate content to different languages

Additionally, Beefree's Mobile Design Mode allows for editing of mobile-specific styles, such as:

  • text alignment
  • padding
  • font size
  • and more

to ensure responsive and user-friendly designs across devices.

6. Can Beefree help maintain brand consistency better than Pardot?

Yes, Beefree helps maintain brand consistency more effectively than Pardot through its Brand Style Guidelines feature, which lets teams lock in brand colors, fonts, and content blocks across all email designs.

Users can also create reusable templates and design systems that ensure uniformity, even across multiple teams or clients. While Pardot offers some branding controls, it lacks the same level of built-in visual governance and flexibility found in Beefree’s design-focused environment.

Send Error-Free Emails with Confidence Using Beefree

Learn about the Beefree features that can help you and your team catch mistakes, streamline collaboration, and send with confidence every time.
Beefree team
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We’ve all been there: You craft the perfect email, hit “send”, and just as you settle into the satisfaction of a job well done, someone slacks you: “Hey, something doesn’t look right with that campaign.” 

If this sounds familiar, you should know that you’re not alone: According to the 2025 Really Good Email Survey “90% of email marketers say they have a history of noticing mistakes in their emails after they’ve hit the send button.

This becomes especially common when your team constantly juggles multiple campaigns or makes edits until the last minute. Sadly, even the smallest mistakes don’t just slip through the cracks; they cost you.

Luckily for us all, mistakes can be avoided. And no, not by lighting a Pre-Send Protection Candles™ and hoping for the best. But rather by equipping your team with the right tools that work with your team – not slow them down. Let’s talk about it!

Building your team’s safety net for mistake-free emails with Beefree 

When everyone involved in the email creation process is aligned and supported by smart systems, executing mistake-free emails becomes second nature. Instead of scrambling to do damage control, you’ll want to set up the tools and processes that help your team focus on what they do best: creating emails that connect, convert, and confidently represent the brand.

In this article, we’ll discuss how you can use Beefree to: 

  • Reduce human errors 
  • Implement systems of checks and balances 
  • Establish guardrails & frameworks for on-brand email design

1. Catch mistakes before they happen with Smart Check

Missing links that lead nowhere? Forgotten subject lines? HTML emails that get clipped in Gmail? It’s easy to make little mistakes that derail your campaign’s performance. 

Learn more about Smart Check → 

Beefree’s Smart Check automatically checks your designs and alerts you of any red flags so you can fix them before they cost you opens, clicks, or conversions. Think of Smart Check as your built-in QA partner who will catch:

  • Missing links
  • Heavy images that could slow down email load times
  • Missing subjects & preheaders that impact engagement
  • Missing alt text on images that hurt your email’s accessibility
  • Large HTML files that might affect deliverability (or get clipped in Gmail)

2. Keep every email on-brand with built-in guardrails 

Most of us don’t nail the perfect campaign on the first try. Great emails are a team effort. However, when multiple teams are involved in the email creation process, branding can quickly go off the rails. 

A misused font, clashing colors, or buttons that are too small to click don’t just make emails look disjointed—they can damage your brand’s credibility.

With Beefree’s Advanced Style Kit, you can set clear, predefined guidelines for fonts, colors, spacing, and more—so every design starts on the right foot. Once configured, all new emails automatically inherit your brand styles, reducing the need for constant oversight and minimizing errors.

Advanced user permissions let you lock down specific design elements, giving you full control over what can (and can’t) be edited. That means anyone on your team—regardless of design expertise—can confidently create emails that look and feel like your brand.

3. Empower your team to create with confidence with reusable content

When your team isn’t bogged down by the cumbersome process of creating content from scratch (or fear of going off-brand), they can move faster—and with far more confidence.

With Saved and Synced Rows, you can provide your team with pre-approved content blocks—like headers, footers, and other commonly used design elements—that they can use in their designs without creating them from scratch. That ensures design consistency, eliminates redundant work, and makes email creation a lot faster.

Learn more about Saved Rows → 

4. Ensure your team is aligned with centralized reviews and approvals:

Creating the perfect email often takes a team of designers, copywriters, marketers, and other team members working together. But when multiple people are involved, endless back-and-forth and feedback scattered across multiple conversations and channels can slow things down, lead to miscommunication, and ultimately cause mistakes. 

With Beefree’s built-in commenting, your team can collaborate and share feedback where the work is actually happening—right inside the builder. And if you’d like to involve external reviewers into the review process, you can do that as well. 

Learn more about commenting → 

Plus, with Beefree’s built-in Approval flow, you can ensure your designs are reviewed and approved by the right stakeholders. Stay aligned with real-time notifications on design changes, lock edits on approved content, and get a clear view of project status for smoother team collaboration and high-quality results.

Learn more about Approvals →

5. Need an additional pair of eyes? Use the power of AI to support your team

Take some weight off your team's shoulders and use AI to support them in the final stretch. Whether it’s catching typos, flagging inconsistencies, or suggesting optimization, AI can be a saving grace when deadlines are creeping in.

For those times when you can’t remember the difference between “there, their, and they’re,  Beefree’s  AI Writing Assistant is there to help. This eager-to-learn helper can  review your copy for grammatical errors, tone of voice, and even share suggestions for making it just a bit more compelling. Our AI Writing Assistant can also seamlessly translate content or automatically generate ALT text for images to enhance the accessibility of your emails. 

Learn more about AI-powered content creation in Beefree →

The tangible cost of email mistakes

Mistakes don’t just impact performance; they slowly erode credibility. What starts as a small oversight can be a massive inconvenience for your readers, sending them straight to the unsubscribe button. As for your team, mistakes chip away at their confidence. Instead of brainstorming for the next campaign, they’re scrambling trying to figure out how to do damage control.   

When done right, email is a powerful tool for connecting with your audience. But a single mistake can unravel that connection and undermine trust.

  • A missing or broken links can interrupt your subscribers’ journey to conversion, negatively impacting campaign performance.
  • A missing subject lines means your emails won't stand out in the inbox, hurting your open rate
  • An awkward typo might signal a lack of attention to detail
  • An off-brand design can make your brand look disorganized
  • An email that gets clipped in Gmail because it’s too big means some subscribers might never see the full email content.

Design error-free emails and send with confidence with Beefree 

Beefree helps teams of all sizes create polished, on-brand emails—without the risk of costly errors. With built-in safeguards, streamlined approval flows, and collaboration tools that keep everyone aligned, Beefree acts as your team’s system of checks and balances. From first draft to final sign-off, you’ll have everything you need to send with confidence, build trust, and get results.

Try Beefree's Business for free for 15 days and get access to all of Beefree’s tools that help you catch mistakes, streamline collaboration, and send with confidence every time. Or schedule a call with one of our experts to discover everything Beefree can support your team.

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