Flodesk Vs. ConvertKit: Why I Switched Back to ConvertKit
This post contains affiliate links—I receive a small commission if you sign up through my links. I only recommend software that I use myself, or have used and would recommend.
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When it comes to email marketing software, not all software is created equal. There are pros and cons to each software, and I’d like to do a short comparison of two popular ones out there: ConvertKit and Flodesk.
ConvertKit is an established software, while Flodesk is an up-and-coming one that has recently captured the attention of the female solopreneur market.
First off, I do think both ConvertKit and Flodesk have merit, depending on what you need and want.
Now that I’ve tried both and settled on ConvertKit for good, I want to share why I moved back, and the reasons you might want to go with either platform.
Flodesk Pros + Cons
Pros
Flodesk has stunning templates and design features, and is fairly easy to use for email blasts, landing pages (to collect email addresses), and visual automation (set-it-and-forget it email sequences).
Also great is their flat monthly fee, no matter how many subscribers you have. So you can grow your email list to 10,000, and still only pay $38/month (or $19/mo for the first year with my link). This is a HUGE plus when it comes to email marketing software.
(In comparison, if you have 10,000 subscribers on ConvertKit, you’ll pay $119/mo...and the monthly fee goes up depending on how many people are on your list. Having said that, I do think the monthly fee is worth it because of the functionality that’s available.)
So the sleek design and the flat fee are the highlights of this platform.
Admittedly Pretty Flodesk Emails
Cons
Because it’s new and currently in Beta, as they are still building the platform (as of Spring 2020), it lacked a few features that I felt were absolutely essential for the serious entrepreneur who wants to use email marketing in its fullest. I’m sure over time they will expand their functionality, and it’s true that they continue to roll out new features.
But the fact that entrepreneur Jenna Kutcher was part of their launch to promote Flodesk, but doesn’t actually use Flodesk for regular communications, says a lot about how it doesn’t yet work for a big business.
I had to jump ship when I wanted to resend an email to those who didn’t open, and there wasn’t an easy way to do this (ok, this has since been resolved, but there was basic functionality like this that was missing.)
Why I Moved to Flodesk From ConvertKit in the First Place
In the Fall of last year I became frustrated with ConvertKit’s design limitations, and as a website designer, felt drawn to the beauty of Flodesk emails. I thought at the time that the lack of functionality might change quickly enough, and that the impressive design features of Flodesk would be worth the switch.
I also wanted to support a new female-run startup (and Flodesk has grown so much in the past few quarters!). And most recently they have been incredibly vocal about and supportive of Black Lives Matter, so they deserve your money!
I would still recommend Flodesk to my clients if they are a design- or style-based business who, for now, don’t plan on doing much more with email marketing than the simple email blast or simple automations.
It works well for those who just want to email their entire lists or certain segments here and there without the need for manual tagging (the ability to apply a specific label to someone who takes a specific action, such as clicking a link).
As of this moment that I’m writing this, Flodesk is releasing a feature whereby tags are applied automatically on their end: “We do all of the tagging for you, so you don't have to.”
Having AI do your tagging is interesting and cool, but I’d rather choose and control my tags. I personally need to have certain features to operate my business, and tagging is one of them.
If you have simple email marketing needs, and design is really important to you, and you are willing to grow with a new company, Flodesk might be for you! Here’s a link to get 50% off your first year.
I will say that while the design features are top-notch, and the emails are truly gorgeous, I found myself spending more time on designing emails than I wanted or needed to. Their design editor was good but often required reformatting (if you copy text from one area of the email, you’d need to reformat that text! Not exactly time friendly.)
Plus, as a digital marketer I know that the design doesn’t mean I will have more success with my emails. Research shows that emails do not need to be pretty or fancy to be effective. Plus images can affect deliverability (the ability for emails to land in an inbox), and plain email can get you into people’s primary inbox, not buried in other promotions.
Right now, I need to be smart with my time and not spend time on designing emails...so ConvertKit, here I come...again.
Why I Moved Back to ConvertKit
ConvertKit has upped their game in the design department in the past few quarters. A half a year ago I truly struggled with making their forms look good enough on my Squarespace website.
But then I was setting ConvertKit up for a client a few months ago and noticed a change. It was way easier to make things look good. And that was my biggest gripe.
I found myself longing for the capabilities of ConvertKit! It’s such an intuitive, simple system, but does all the things that a serious entrepreneur needs, such as:
Integrate directly with Crowdcast (webinars), Teachable (online courses) and Shopify (e-commerce) - and can still be integrated with Squarespace Commerce and Acuity (via Zapier, which helps apps talk to each other when they don’t have native integrations.)
Link triggers: when someone clicks a link, it drops them into a whole new email sequence (so when someone expresses interest in an online course or product, you can tell them about it without manually sending any emails because it’s automated).
A/B testing, so you can see which email subject lines are more effective at getting people to actually open the email. This is a HUGE feature not to be overlooked. Your subject line can make or break the success of your email blast, and you don’t want to just “hope” you chose a good one. ConvertKit will send emails with both subject lines to a subset of your list and then go with the winner, and the discrepancy in open rate can be massive.
Pop-ups that trigger with “exit intent”—Flodesk does not have this (at the moment I published this post), and I do think it’s a really good option to have. This is when you’re about to leave a site and that’s when you get an offer or popup—it’s really nice to have the option because I don’t always want my popups at the beginning of the session when people are trying to gather information about my services.
ConvertKit is a great solution for people who want to be able to segment and tag their subscribers based on clicks, and even based on people who don’t click!
It’s great for any serious entrepreneur who wants to get that email out quick, with no distractions.
It’s no frills design-wise, but major frills when it comes to functionality. But it’s not complicated, and there aren’t a million options, which is why I am recommending ConvertKit to most of my creative and wellness clients.
There are some nuances to designing in ConvertKit, and the tech can sometimes be challenging—which is why I set up ConvertKit for my website design clients.
The gist?
Use Flodesk if you only plan to send out simple blasts, don’t need tagging, and need your emails to look stunning and fashionable (aka you are a small fashion brand, solo designer, stylist).
Use ConvertKit if you want the message and substance of your emails to be the focus, if you don’t want to spend time designing your emails, and if you want expanded functionality and analytics— so you can see what emails lead to the most sales of a product, for instance.
