Flodesk Review: Is this the most beautifully designed email tool? (2023)

Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to connect with customers and promote your business. But finding the right email marketing tool can be a challenge.

Flodesk is a relative newcomer to the email marketing scene, but it's quickly become a favorite among small businesses and entrepreneurs for its beautiful email designs and ease of use.

In this Flodesk review, we'll take a close look at the features and benefits of this email marketing tool to help you decide if it's the right fit for your business.

Interested in trying Flodesk? Sign up today.

What is Flodesk?

Flodesk is an email marketing platform founded by Martha Bitar and Rebecca Shostak in 2019. Flodesk is focused on helping businesses create beautifully designed emails and automations with ease.

One of the things that sets Flodesk apart from other email marketing tools is its focus on design. Flodesk offers a library of beautiful email templates that are easy to customize, so you can create stunning emails without any design experience.

Interested in trying Flodesk? Sign up today.

Flodesk features

Flodesk is still a relatively new email marketing tool compared to some of its peers like MailChimp and ActiveCampaign. This means its feature set is not as comprehensive as some of the other tools on the market. Nevertheless,  Flodesk offers a solid set of features that should meet the needs of most small businesses and entrepreneurs.

Here's an overview of some of the key features offered by Flodesk:

Flodesk email builder

Flodesk prides itself on its beautiful and easy-to-use email builder. We found this to be true in our own testing. The email builder is drag-and-drop, so you can easily add and rearrange elements like text, images, buttons, and social media icons. If you've used other email tools like MailChimp before then you'll find the Flodesk builder very familiar.

It should be noted that Flodesk doesn't offer custom HTML code. Their reason for this is that custom HTML code can negatively affect how Flodesk emails are displayed. We didn't find this a problem, but it's something to be aware of if you're used to having the ability to add custom code to your emails.

Flodesk templates

Flodesk's email templates are some of the most gorgeous we've seen. There are  dozens of beautiful templates to choose from across a variety of industries, so you're sure to find something that fits your brand. And if you're starting from scratch, you can use the blank template to create a custom design.

One of the best things about Flodesk's templates is that they're all mobile responsive, so you don't have to worry about your emails looking good on mobile devices.

Flodesk workflow automations

Flodesk's workflow feature  is perfect for automating your email marketing. Workflows are a sequence of automated emails that are automatically sent based on actions taken by subscribers such as joining your email list.

Workflows are triggered when a subscriber is added to a specific segment, so you can send targeted content to specific groups of people. For example, you could create a workflow for new subscribers that includes a welcome email and a series of follow-up emails with helpful information about your product or service.

Workflow also allow you to add time delays between emails, so you can space out your content and avoid bombarding subscribers with too many emails at once.

Workflows can be controlled by conditions and actions, so you can create very specific and sophisticated automations. For example, you could add a condition that only sends an email if the subscriber has opened an email, clicked a link or a field in their profile matches a certain value.

We found Flodesk's workflow feature to be very user-friendly and easy to use. You can visually see your workflow automations in the Flodesk interface, so it's easy to keep track of what's going on.

Interested in trying Flodesk? Sign up today.

Flodesk forms

Flodesk's forms feature makes it easy to add sign-up or opt-in forms to your website or blog. You can choose from a variety of templates or create a custom form. Forms are very easy to customize and you can use the drag-and-drop builder to add or remove fields.

Flodesk offers three form types:

• Pop-up forms: These are forms that pop up on your website or blog when someone visits your website. These are usually used to offer freebie downloads, discounts or other offers in exchange for a visitor's email.
• In-line forms: This type of form is embedded in your website or blog content. For example, you could add an in-line form to the end of a blog post to capture email addresses from people who are interested in learning more about the topic.
• Full page form: This type of form is perfect if you don't have a website. It acts as a landing page which you can  use to collect emails.

Flodesk forms allow you to also add custom fields to collect additional information. During our review, we noted that Flodesk only offers text based customer fields which means you cannot add other types of fields including a dropdown, checkbox or paragraph text field. This may be a problem if you need to collect additional information from your subscribers.

Overall we found Flodesk forms to be very user-friendly and easy to use. The drag-and-drop builder makes it easy to add or remove fields and the interface is very intuitive.

Flodesk segments

Flodesk's segments feature allows you to segment your subscribers so you can send targeted hyper-personalized content.

You can create segments manually either via a CSV spreadsheet upload or you can use the bulk selection and action feature to add subscribers to a new segment in your dashboard. Alternatively you can automatically add new subscribers to segments as they sign up via forms on your website.

In addition to segments, Flodesk also log user behaviors via tags so you can segment better and automate more. For example, behaviors that are tagged in Flodesk include subscribers who haven't open an email in a certain number of days or who have clicked a specific button link in an email.

Overall we found Flodesk's segments feature to be very user-friendly and easy to use. The interface is very intuitive and the bulk selection and action feature makes it easy to add subscribers to a new segment.

Flodesk analytics

Flodesk offering analytics on any email that has been sent through their platform. The analytics dashboard provides an overview of your email performance including open rates, click rates, bounces, unsubscribes, spam, deliverability and more.

In addition, Flodesk lets you drill down into the details of each email to see exactly who opened, clicked and unsubscribed from your email. This is very useful information that can help you to improve your email campaigns.

Flodesk also offer a workflow analytics reports which contain similar metrics to individual email analytics.

We found the Flodesk analytics dashboard clear and easy-to-use. The reports are very detailed and provide valuable insights into email performance.

Flodesk integrations

Flodesk offers integrations both natively and via Zapier.

Native integrations include:

• Instagram: Flodesk can automatically pull your instagram feed in your emails.
• Shopify: Import Shopify customers who have opted-in for email marketing updates.
  

For other types of integrations, you can use Zapier to connect your Flodesk account to your other apps. Some popular apps you can connect to include WooCommerce, Facebook Ads, Google Sheets, Slack, Typeform and many more.

Flodesk Checkout

Flodesk Checkout is a feature that lets you accept payments online for digital downloads, courses and service. Flodesk Checkout lets you create a checkout-only page or an entire sales experience with a sales page using the same easy-to-use builder as Flodesk emails. You also have access to a number of templates to help you get started with Flodesk Checkout. Flodesk uses Stripe to power payments, so you will be charged a 3% Stripe fee and $0.30 on every transaction.

Interested in trying Flodesk? Sign up today.

Flodesk Pricing

Flodesk offers a free trial which includes access to all features with no credit card required. Flodesk's Email plan is $38 USD per month and gives you unlimited emails, subscribes, forms, landing page forms, workflows, segments and more. Flodesk also has a Checkout plan which costs $38 USD per month and gives you unlimited sales pages, checkout pages, upsells, payments, transactions, instant deliveries and more. You can bundle both the Email and Checkout products by paying for the Everything plan which is $64 USD per month.

Flodesk's fixed pricing is very unique compared to most other email marketing platforms which require you to upgrade to more expensive plans as you contact list grows.

Interested in trying Flodesk? Sign up today.

Flodesk alternatives and competitors

The email marketing space is very competitive and there are a number of alternatives you may be already using or have considered. Here are some of  the most popular Flodesk alternatives:

Flodesk vs Mailchimp

Mailchimp is one of the most popular email marketing platforms and has been around since 2001 making it a more feature rich platform compared to Flodesk. Here are some of the main differences between Flodesk and Mailchimp:

• Flodesk is more user friendly for email marketing beginners who aren't looking for heavy customizations.
• Mailchimp is a better choice for more experienced email marketers who expect advanced features and a wider range of integrations.
• Flodesk has a fixed monthly pricing structure which offer unlimited subscribers while Mailchimp becomes more expensive as your subscriber list grows.

Flodesk vs ConvertKit

Flodesk and ConvertKit are both focused on helping businesses with their email marketing. Here are the main differences between Flodesk and ConvertKit we found:

• ConvertKit has a wider range of native integrations with tools such as Squarespace, Teachable, Typeform and more. Flodesk on the other hand only has native integrations with Instagram and Shopify currently.
• ConvertKit offers more advanced features such as A/B testing, custom HTML code embed and more.
• ConvertKit offers a free plan for up to 300 subscribers, while Flodesk doesn't have a free plan. However, Flodesk's pricing is fixed, while ConvertKit increases substantially as your subscriber list grows.

Flodesk vs Klaviyo

Klaviyo is a Flodesk alternative that offers a powerful marketing platform that is popular with ecommerce businesses. Here are the main differences between Flodesk and Klaviyo we found:

• Klaviyo offers both email and SMS marketing software through its platform. Flodesk only offers email marketing.
• Flodesk offers a checkout feature to accept payments, which is something Klaviyo doesn't offer natively on its platform.
• Klaviyo has a significantly more advanced reporting feature that lets you see data such as source, channel, revenue and more from your campaigns. The analytics feature also offer campaign trend analytics and the ability to build custom reports. The Flodesk analytics offering is a lot more basic in comparison.
• Over 200 native integrations with other platforms such as Salesforce, Gorgias, Woocommerce, Shopify and more. Flodesk in comparison only has 2 native integrations with Instagram and Shopify currently, however you can integrate with many more apps through Zapier.
• Klaviyo offers a free plan for the first 250 subscribers and becomes more expensive as your subscriber list grows. In comparison, Flodesk has a fixed price for unlimited subscribers.

Our verdict

Flodesk is a great email marketing platform for creators and small to medium sized businesses. It's beautiful designed email templates and easy-to-use interface makes it ideal for people new to email marketing.

However, if you are a more advanced email marketer, you may find its feature set a little limiting in comparison to some of the more established players in the email marketing space such as Mailchimp, ConvertKit and Klaviyo. This is especially the case if you are after features like SMS marketing, advanced reporting, A/B testing and native integrations with a wide range of apps.

If you think Flodesk is right for you, we recommend signing up for a free trial to see if it's a good fit. You can always upgrade to a paid plan later if you find that Flodesk meets your needs.

Interested in trying Flodesk? Sign up today.