When Flodesk entered the email marketing space about six years ago, the market was already crowded with countless tools. So, what made it stand out?
Turns out, it nailed the brief. Instead of trying to be everything for everyone, Flodesk carved out its spot by focusing on the key features creators and small businesses needed in an email marketing tool.
One G2 reviewer put it simply: “It’s easier to understand and use! I definitely recommend it to people who want a more user-friendly alternative to Mailchimp.”
Another fan added: “the most gorgeous [email templates] that make our life so much easier, I love that flodesk doesn’t have different tiered packages/prices for the number of contacts in your account.”
What glowing reviews! But as the saying goes, one person’s meat is another’s poison.
By the end of this review, you’ll have a full picture of Flodesk’s strengths and limitations so you can decide whether it belongs in your marketing toolkit.
What is Flodesk?
Flodesk was launched in 2019 by Rebecca Shostak, Martha Bitar, and Trong Dong, who saw a big problem: most email marketing platforms were too clunky and complicated for small business owners.
Their solution? A simple platform that made it easy to create emails people actually wanted to open.
Since then, Flodesk has grown to over 70,000 users—and it’s easy to see why. The platform keeps a clean user interface while offering essential email features like automations, segmentation, and analytics.
One thing users really appreciate is Flodesk’s library of aesthetic templates that make it easy for anyone to send polished, professional emails without needing design experience.
It also comes with built-in commerce tools, so small business owners can sell digital products directly from the platform.
And unlike most email tools, Flodesk uses flat-rate pricing. That means you pay the same fee no matter how many subscribers you have, which makes it a huge plus for small businesses looking to grow without stressing over rising costs.
Flodesk Review: Key Features
Set up and use Flodesk with little to no guidance
If you’ve tried other popular email marketing tools, you’ve probably dealt with dashboards that feel like a maze—too many tabs, too much clutter, and no clue what to do next.
For most people, this situation calls for pulling up a tutorial and following along step by step just to send a simple email.
Flodesk takes the opposite approach.
Creating an account and getting into the app takes less than five minutes, and once you’re in, everything feels clean and intuitive. The dashboard isn’t crammed with buttons or buried menus. Plus, your core tools like emails, landing pages, and automations are easily accessible from the top bar.
From there, you can move around and set things up without needing to hit pause and search for instructions. That said, if you do want extra guidance, Flodesk has plenty of resources ready for you.
Design beautiful emails with no design skills
At the heart of email marketing is designing and writing emails. For most people, this can be a huge time sink, especially if design isn’t your thing.
Flodesk makes this process simple and fast with its template library. You get access to 85 professionally designed, modern templates, neatly organized by use cases like welcome emails, thank-you notes, sales pitches, and announcements.
So you pick a template, update the content, adjust the styling, and you’re ready to hit publish.
If you’d rather start from a blank slate, Flodesk’s email editor makes it easy to build emails block by block.
You can add text, images, videos, polls, countdown timers, or even pull in posts from your Instagram feed. And the best part? You don’t need to leave the app to hunt for visuals—you can pull images straight from Unsplash, GIFs from Giphy, and designs from your connected Canva account.
Now, the editor isn’t drag-and-drop, so you can’t move elements around freely. But it does offer flexible layout options so you can arrange content the way you like.
Plus, when it comes to fonts, you’re not stuck with Flodesk’s standard library. You have the option to upload your own custom font…super cool, right?
Grow your email list with forms and landing pages
Flodesk’s Forms feature lets you create everything from inline and popup forms for your website to full-on “link in bio” pages (or more commonly, landing pages) for your social media accounts. These allow you to collect email subscribers to grow your list.
To get started, you simply choose a suitable form template and customize it inside the Forms editor.
With 114 templates available, you’re sure to find one that fits your needs. It’s important to pick carefully, though—each template comes with fixed elements and layout positions.
Once you’re in the editor, you won’t be able to add new elements or rearrange existing ones. What you can do is adjust the content, fonts, and styling to match your brand.
Place subscribers into segments
Like most email marketing platforms, Flodesk includes a segmentation feature. Segmentation lets you organize subscribers into groups so you can send them targeted emails.
Creating a segment in Flodesk is simple.
Click the black “Add new segment” button, give your segment a name, and pick a color to keep things organized (and a little prettier). From there, you can add people manually, upload a CSV to bring them in all at once, or let Flodesk do the work automatically.
For example, subscribers can land in certain segments depending on which signup form they used, or based on actions they take in your emails, like clicking a link or answering a poll.
That’s pretty much what segmentation in Flodesk can do. You won’t be able to do things like segmenting subscribers by demographics or engagement levels. If your list grows and you want more complex targeting, this feels very limiting.
Set up basic workflows
Flodesk’s workflows (aka automations) let you create a series of emails that run automatically to achieve a goal. This could be welcoming new subscribers, driving more product sales, or encouraging signups for an event.
You can start with one of Flodesk’s nine customizable workflow templates or build your own from scratch using the visual automation builder.
Each workflow starts with a trigger such as someone subscribing to a form or being added to a segment. You can set up to two triggers per workflow. After that, you can build the sequence by adding time delays, using if/else conditions, and choosing actions like sending an email or moving a subscriber into or out of a segment.
For most small business owners, these features are enough. However, If you need more advanced features, such as using more than two triggers, running SMS campaigns, or connecting with third-party apps, you may need a different platform.
Sell digital products on Flodesk
Flodesk lets you build checkout pages for selling digital products and services and process payments via Stripe. The good news is that Flodesk doesn’t take a cut of your earnings. You only pay the standard Stripe processing fees.
Okay, back to checkout pages.
You can customize them with email opt-ins, discount codes, upsells, and testimonials. These are helpful to build trust with potential buyers, boost order value, and grow your email list.
When someone purchases and opts into your list, you can send automated post-purchase emails. These are great for sharing tips on how to use the product or recommending related items they might find useful.
The only drawback is that Flodesk doesn’t support advanced flows like cart abandonment or browse abandonment emails.
Visualize your email performance
Flodesk’s analytics dashboard gives you a clear, visual overview of how your marketing is performing across different areas:
- Subscribers: See how your list is growing over time and identify your most engaged subscribers.
- Emails: Get a breakdown of the open, click, and unsubscribe rates for each email and compare them to your overall averages. You’ll also get insights into the best days and times to send emails.
- Forms: Track visitors, opt-ins, and conversion rates for each signup form to identify your top performers.
- Workflows: Spot your best-performing automations by tracking which ones drive the most engagement.
- Checkouts: Get insights into total customers, orders, sales, and conversion rates across all checkout pages.
Connect Flodesk with external tools
Flodesk offers 13 native integrations with popular platforms like Instagram, Shopify, BookFunnel, HoneyBook, and Canva.
If you want to connect with additional tools, you can do so via Zapier or Pabbly Connect. There’s also an API available for custom integrations.
Get support when you need it
Need help setting up a Flodesk feature or fixing an issue? Flodesk’s Help Center and YouTube channel are good places to start. They have answers to most of the common questions.
If you still can’t find what you need, you can reach out to the support team by email at support@flodesk.com. Just note that support is only available Monday through Friday during specific hours, and there’s no option for live chat and calls.
Flodesk Review: Pricing
Flodesk’s pricing is pretty straightforward.
Free plan:
The free plan is limited. It lets you collect subscriber emails through signup forms and link-in-bio pages. However, you can’t actually send emails on this plan. You’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan to do that.
Paid plans:
If you’re not happy with Flodesk’s free plan, its paid plans more than make up for it. Instead of charging you more as your subscriber list grows, Flodesk uses a flat-fee model:
- Email-only plan: $38/month for unlimited subscribers and unlimited email sends.
- Email + Ecommerce plan: $68/month, which adds features like sales pages, checkout flows, and sales analytics.
Flodesk Review: Pros and Cons
Here’s a summary of Flodesk’s pros and cons:
Flodesk Pros
- Low learning curve
- Flat fee pricing plans
- Aesthetic email templates
- Visual analytics dashboard
- 0% fee on sales via Flodesk checkout
Flodesk Cons
- Limited free plan
- Email support only
- Few native integrations
- Can’t create custom email templates
- Limited segmentation and automation
Who is Flodesk for?
Truly, Flodesk is the definition of marketing automation made easy.
Anyone can pick up Flodesk today and become very familiar with the ins and outs of it in no time.
So, use Flodesk if:
- You need a simple and affordable email marketing platform.
- You want to sell your products and services inside your email platform.
- You don’t want to worry about paying more as your subscriber base grows.
- You don’t need advanced segmentation and automation features.
