Flodesk or ConvertKit? Find out which is the best
If you want beautiful, easy-to-create emails, Flodesk is the better choice for many small businesses and design-focused creators. If you need advanced automation, detailed tagging, segmentation, and creator-focused growth tools, ConvertKit—now called Kit—is stronger. Your best choice depends on whether simplicity and design or automation and audience management matter more.
Flodesk vs ConvertKit at a glance
Flodesk and ConvertKit (now Kit) are both built around email marketing, but they take different approaches. Flodesk puts more emphasis on visual design and keeping the experience simple. Kit focuses more heavily on creator workflows, subscriber organization, automation, and monetization.
| Feature | Flodesk | Kit (ConvertKit) |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Design-focused creators and small businesses | Creators who need deeper automation |
| Email editor | Highly visual and brand-focused | Simple, creator-focused editor |
| Automation | Yes | Yes, more advanced |
| Tags & segmentation | Yes | Strong tagging and segmentation |
| Landing pages | Yes | Yes |
| Forms | Yes | Yes |
| Digital products | Yes | Yes |
| Paid newsletters | Yes, through subscriptions | Yes |
| Free plan | List-building tools; email sending requires paid plan/trial | Up to 10,000 subscribers |
| Starting paid plan | $19/month annually for up to 1,000 subscribers | $33/month for up to 1,000 subscribers |
| Advanced automation | Pro and above | Creator and above |
| A/B testing | Available features vary by plan | Subject-line testing on Creator; more testing on Pro |
| Best strength | Email design and simplicity | Automation and subscriber management |
Kit currently offers a free plan for up to 10,000 subscribers, while its Creator plan starts at $33 per month for 1,000 subscribers. Flodesk’s paid Lite plan starts at $19 per month when billed annually for up to 1,000 active subscribers.
The biggest difference between Flodesk and Kit
The easiest way to understand the difference is to think about what each platform wants you to do.
Flodesk is design-first. It is built to help you create polished emails, forms, landing pages, and sales experiences without needing a complicated setup. Its editor supports brand colors and custom fonts, which makes it attractive to businesses that care about visual consistency.
Kit is automation-first. It gives creators a more detailed way to organize subscribers and build automated journeys. Tags, segments, sequences, and Visual Automations can work together to create different paths for different subscribers.
That difference becomes important as your email list grows.
Flodesk is better if email design matters most
Flodesk has a strong advantage for people who want emails to look polished without spending a lot of time building them.
Its visual editor lets you customize layouts, fonts, colors, images, and other brand elements. You can also use custom fonts and brand colors to keep your emails consistent with your website and other marketing materials.
This can be especially useful for:
- Photographers
- Designers
- Bloggers
- Coaches
- Wedding professionals
- Lifestyle brands
- Creators who sell visual products
- Small businesses sending newsletters
Imagine you run a photography business and send a monthly email featuring recent work, booking information, and a seasonal offer. You probably care more about making the email look professional than building a complicated subscriber scoring system.
That’s where Flodesk makes sense.
Kit is better for advanced email automation
Kit has the stronger automation system if your email strategy depends on subscriber behavior.
Its Visual Automations can trigger when someone joins a form or landing page, receives a tag, changes a custom field, or purchases a product. The automation can then add or remove tags, send sequences, delay subscribers, or move them through different paths.
For example, suppose you have a business selling three online courses.
A subscriber downloads your free beginner guide. Kit can:
- Add the subscriber to the appropriate automation.
- Apply a tag based on their interest.
- Send a welcome sequence.
- Track their interaction.
- Move them toward a relevant course offer.
- Exclude customers from promotional emails for the product they already purchased.
That level of control is one of Kit’s biggest advantages.
Flodesk vs Kit for email design
If design is your priority, Flodesk has the edge.
Flodesk was built around visually appealing email creation, with templates and a design system aimed at making professional-looking emails easier to produce. Its current platform also includes custom fonts and brand colors.
Kit’s editor is more focused on creator communication than highly designed newsletters. That’s not necessarily a weakness. For newsletters where the writing and message are more important than elaborate layouts, Kit’s approach can be perfectly suitable.
Choose Flodesk when:
- Your emails are highly visual.
- Brand consistency is important.
- You want a simple editor.
- You don’t want to spend much time learning email software.
- Your newsletter depends heavily on images and design.
Choose Kit when:
- Your emails are primarily content-driven.
- You need subscriber-specific messaging.
- You use tags and segments heavily.
- You build complex email funnels.
- You expect your automation needs to grow.
Flodesk vs Kit for automation
Kit wins this category.
Flodesk includes workflow automation, and its Pro plan adds unlimited workflows. Its workflows can automate subscriber journeys and email sequences.
But Kit gives you more granular control over subscriber journeys. Its Visual Automations can combine triggers, actions, delays, conditions, tags, custom fields, and email sequences.
Kit’s system is particularly useful when you have multiple lead magnets, products, audiences, or sales funnels.
If your automation needs are simple, however, Flodesk may be easier to manage.
Flodesk vs Kit for segmentation
Kit has a clear advantage for advanced audience organization.
Kit uses tags and segments instead of forcing subscribers into separate lists. Tags can represent fixed characteristics, while segments can automatically update based on filtering conditions.
For example, you might have:
- Customers
- Prospects
- Webinar attendees
- Free-guide subscribers
- Course buyers
- People interested in photography
- People interested in video
A subscriber can have multiple tags, allowing you to build more detailed audience groups.
Flodesk also supports audience segmentation and subscriber behavior-based organization. For many small businesses, that may be enough. But if audience management becomes a major part of your marketing strategy, Kit gives you more room to build complex systems.
Flodesk vs Kit for landing pages and forms
Both platforms can help you collect subscribers without requiring a separate form platform.
Flodesk includes forms and landing pages as part of its platform. Its current free plan includes unlimited forms and landing pages, making it possible to start building an audience before paying for email sending.
Kit also provides unlimited landing pages and forms on its free plan. Its landing pages can connect directly to automations, allowing new subscribers to enter a welcome flow and receive tags or lead magnets automatically.
The difference is less about whether the feature exists and more about what happens after someone signs up.
If you want a visually polished signup experience with a straightforward workflow, Flodesk is attractive.
If the signup needs to trigger a more complex subscriber journey, Kit is usually the better fit.
Flodesk vs Kit for selling products
Both platforms have moved beyond basic email newsletters.
Flodesk’s higher-tier Everything plan includes ecommerce features such as checkouts, sales pages, payment plans, subscriptions, and abandoned-cart automations.
Kit also includes digital product and subscription selling. Its platform supports digital products, paid newsletters, recurring subscriptions, and other creator monetization options.
This means you may not need a separate tool for every part of your creator business.
A practical example
Suppose you’re a fitness creator selling a $49 digital workout program.
With Flodesk, you can combine email marketing with sales pages, checkout, and automated follow-up on the appropriate plan.
With Kit, you can connect the product-selling side with tags, sequences, and Visual Automations. That can become useful if you sell several products to different audience groups.
For a simple product funnel, either platform can work.
For a more complicated customer journey, Kit has the advantage.
Flodesk vs Kit pricing
Pricing is one area where the difference is easy to miss because the two companies use different pricing structures.
Flodesk’s current pricing is based on active subscribers. Its Lite plan starts at $25 per month monthly or $19 per month with annual billing for up to 1,000 subscribers. Pro starts at $28 monthly or $25 annually for the same subscriber level. Everything starts at $54 monthly or $49 annually.
Kit currently offers a free plan up to 10,000 subscribers. Its Creator plan is $33 per month for 1,000 subscribers, or $390 billed yearly, while Pro is $66 monthly or $790 billed yearly at the 1,000-subscriber level.
| Platform | Entry option | Paid starting price at 1,000 subscribers |
|---|---|---|
| Flodesk | Free list-building plan | $19/month annually |
| Flodesk Pro | Paid | $25/month annually |
| Flodesk Everything | Paid | $49/month annually |
| Kit | Free up to 10,000 subscribers | $0 |
| Kit Creator | Paid | $33/month |
| Kit Pro | Paid | $66/month |
There is an important difference here: Flodesk’s Free plan is primarily for list building and does not include email sending, while Kit’s Free plan includes unlimited email broadcasts for up to 10,000 subscribers.
Also, Flodesk changed from its older flat-rate unlimited model to active-subscriber-based pricing for new customers in December 2025. Existing customers who joined before that change can remain on legacy plans while they maintain their subscriptions.
Which is cheaper: Flodesk or Kit?
For someone who is just starting and wants to send regular emails, Kit can be cheaper because its free plan supports up to 10,000 subscribers and includes email broadcasts.
For someone with a smaller list who wants a polished email platform, Flodesk’s paid plans can be attractive, especially with annual billing.
The better value depends on what you actually use.
Paying less for software isn’t useful if you need features that aren’t included in your plan. Likewise, paying for advanced automation doesn’t make sense if you only send one newsletter each week.
Which is easier to use?
Flodesk is generally the better choice for beginners who want a visually simple experience.
Its focus on design reduces the need to understand complicated email-building systems. You can choose a template, customize it, and create branded emails without building a large automation system.
Kit has a learning curve because its strength comes from giving you more control.
If you’re only sending a weekly newsletter, some of Kit’s capabilities may feel unnecessary. If you’re building lead magnets, product funnels, subscriber tags, and automated sequences, that extra complexity becomes useful.
Which is better for creators?
Both are aimed at creators, but they suit different creator business models.
Choose Flodesk if your business depends heavily on presentation. A photographer, designer, blogger, or lifestyle creator may appreciate its design-focused approach.
Choose Kit if your business depends heavily on content, audience segmentation, or monetization. Authors, newsletter writers, YouTubers, podcasters, course creators, and coaches can benefit from its automation and subscriber-management tools. Kit explicitly positions the platform around creators including authors, bloggers, coaches, course creators, musicians, newsletter creators, podcasters, and YouTubers.
Flodesk vs Kit: which one should you choose?
The decision becomes much easier when you focus on your main job.
| If your priority is… | Better choice |
|---|---|
| Beautiful newsletters | Flodesk |
| Easy visual design | Flodesk |
| Simple email marketing | Flodesk |
| Brand-focused emails | Flodesk |
| Advanced automation | Kit |
| Detailed tagging | Kit |
| Complex segmentation | Kit |
| Creator funnels | Kit |
| Starting for free | Kit |
| Growing a complex creator business | Kit |
| Selling through a visually focused system | Flodesk |
| Building behavior-based subscriber journeys | Kit |
Flodesk or ConvertKit: which is the best for you?
Flodesk is the better choice if you want simplicity, strong email design, and an easy way to keep your brand looking consistent. It is especially appealing when your email strategy is straightforward and presentation matters.
Kit is the better choice if you want deeper automation, subscriber segmentation, and creator-focused monetization tools. Its free plan also makes it a strong option for creators who are building their audience and want to keep software costs low at the beginning.
For a beginner sending attractive newsletters, I’d lean toward Flodesk.
For a creator building a serious email funnel with multiple audience groups and automated journeys, I’d choose Kit.
The most practical approach is to decide based on the system you expect to need—not just the email editor you like today.
Frequently asked questions
Is Flodesk better than ConvertKit?
Flodesk is better for users who prioritize beautiful email design and simplicity. ConvertKit, now called Kit, is better for advanced automation, tagging, segmentation, and creator-focused email funnels.
Is Flodesk cheaper than Kit?
Not always. Flodesk starts at $19 per month with annual billing for up to 1,000 active subscribers, while Kit offers a free plan for up to 10,000 subscribers. Kit’s first paid Creator plan starts at $33 per month for 1,000 subscribers.
Can I sell digital products with Flodesk and Kit?
Yes. Both platforms support selling digital products and subscriptions. Flodesk offers ecommerce tools on its higher-tier Everything plan, while Kit includes digital products and subscription features as part of its creator-focused platform.
Final verdict
There isn’t one universal winner between Flodesk and ConvertKit.
Pick Flodesk for design, simplicity, and polished brand communication. Pick Kit for automation, segmentation, and a more advanced creator marketing system.
If you’re unsure, start by mapping your first three email campaigns and automation needs. If they are simple, Flodesk may be all you need. If you already see multiple tags, subscriber paths, products, and sequences in your plan, Kit is likely the better long-term fit.





