Substack vs Flodesk for Building Your Audience 2024: A Helpful Breakdown
Substack vs Flodesk for Building Your Audience 2024: A Helpful Breakdown
What are Substack and Flodesk, what's their market, how do they compare, which one should you pick
As an entrepreneur, content creator, or business owner, email marketing can be an incredibly effective way to build meaningful relationships with your ideal audience.
But with so many email service providers to choose from, how do you know which one is right for you and your goals?
Two options are Substack* and Flodesk*. But when it comes to Substack vs Flodesk, which platform should you pick?
This comparison covers the key features, pros and cons, ideal users, pricing, and more to help you determine if Substack or Flodesk is the better choice for your email marketing and audience-building efforts.
Always select the solution that best fits YOUR objectives and constraints.
What is Substack?
Substack is an email newsletter platform founded in 2017 that offers writers, journalists, and creators a simple way to start and grow their own paid or free email newsletters.
The Substack interface and editing experience is purposefully minimalist to let creators focus on writing high-quality content rather than design elements.
Writers like its simplicity for sending subscribers customized email content directly to their inbox on whatever schedule they choose.
In essence, Substack is a blogging platform with integrated newsletter.
Some use Substack to build a paying audience of fans and subscribers who value their perspectives, while others keep their newsletters free and incorporate other earning avenues like affiliate marketing, sponsors, etc.
What is Flodesk?
In contrast to Substack’s focus on email newsletters specifically, Flodesk is a more full-featured email marketing platform catering to small businesses and online entrepreneurs.
It's strength is the marriage of simplicity and advanced functionality.
Launched in 2018, Flodesk’s mission has centered around helping users create professional yet personal and beautifully designed emails.
The company places a strong emphasis on providing an intuitive drag-and-drop email builder along with gorgeous, ready-to-use templates, fonts, images, automation workflows, and other tools to craft engaging emails, landing pages, and marketing funnels.
Their motto says it all:
“Design emails people love to open.”
Key Feature Comparison:
Substack vs Flodesk Unlimited Emails/Subscribers
Substack* places no limits on the number of free or paid subscribers you can have. You only pay when you charge for subscriptions.
With Flodesk*, all plans allow unlimited emails and subscribers. No subscribers limits makes it easier to scale your list over time without worrying about being penalized for growth.
Email Design Customization
Flodesk has 100+ fonts and stylish templates, so entrepreneurs with no design experience can create professional, eye-catching emails that reinforce their brand.
Substack’s design options are very minimal - headers, bold, italics, inserting media - to keep the focus on writing.
Landing Pages
Flodesk provides beautiful premade templates along with drag-and-drop customization for landing pages to help convert visitors into email subscribers.
Substack currently has no landing page customization options other than an image and colors — your publication welcome page serves as the landing page.
Automations/Workflows
Flodesk makes it simple to set up automated sequences to onboard new subscribers, nurture existing ones, and trigger actions when someone purchases. This saves considerable time compared to manually sending each email.
Substack does not currently include automation options, since it’s newsletter-focused. Writers publish on their own cadence.
Analytics and Metrics
Both Substack and Flodesk provide email analytics like open, click-through, and unsubscribe rates to measure reader engagement and optimize content.
Flodesk also tracks metrics on landing pages, links, and purchases for additional insight. This allows creators to continually refine their email and business strategy.
Payments and Checkout
A core part of Substack’s value proposition is helping writers monetize premium content through paid subscriptions.
Flodesk also enables you to sell products, and services and collect payments for digital goods.
Both integrate with Stripe to accept payments and take a transaction fee percentage.
Ideal Users: Who is Each Platform Best Suited For?
When considering Substack vs Flodesk, keep your goals and audience in mind. Certain types of users tend to align better with one platform over the other:
Substack Best For:
Writers, journalists, authors
Publishing written content on your own schedule
Building an engaged audience and community
Monetizing premium written content
Flodesk Best For:
Online entrepreneurs, small e-commerce sites
Sales funnels and digital products
Design-focused email campaigns
Building email lists with landing pages
Automating workflows to nurture leads
Ultimately, Substack caters to creators focused on writing, while Flodesk serves entrepreneurs who want to design emails converting readers into buyers.
Evaluate which direction you’re leaning before deciding!
Substack and Flodesk Pricing Plans Compared
When weighing Substack vs Flodesk in terms of pricing and fees, both take a percentage transaction fee on paid subscriptions or purchases while also offering free access initially to remove barriers to getting started.
Here is how their pricing models shape up:
Substack Pricing
Free to publish — keep your entire subscription revenue until you enable paid subscriptions
10% platform fee on subscription revenue
Stripe payment processing fees on transactions
Flodesk Pricing
14-day free trial
$38/month annual billing — about $1.25 per day
50% discount for first year are often available* (like here* ↗)
Stripe payment processing fees per transaction
The key distinction is that Flodesk charges a flat monthly fee regardless of email volume sent or number of subscribers (or digital products sold when you take their plan with digital products included).
With Substack, you control when you start collecting subscription fees, which then triggers their 10% cut.
For extremely high email volumes, Flodesk will customize an annual plan pricing.
Pros and Cons of Each Platform
No platform is perfect across the board.
As part of determining whether Substack or Flodesk better matches your goals and priorities, let’s examine the unique pros and cons of each solution:
Substack Pros
Very easy to get started writing instantly
Keep 100% subscriber revenue until you charge subscriptions
Discussion threads allow reader conversations
Top writers can make high incomes
Robust service, updating regularly
Includes Substack Notes (Twitter competitor)
Substack Cons
No automation options
No segmentation
Minimal design/branding capabilities
Must market yourself to gain subscribers
Transaction fees can add up quickly
No API access
Flodesk Pros
Beautiful templates require no design skills
Automate workflows to save time
Landing pages convert visitors into emails
Affordable flat monthly pricing
Option for digital product sales
Flodesk Cons
More complex with a steeper learning curve
Support only via email currently
Primarily targets English-speaking market
No API access
Which Platform is Best For You?
We’ve covered a lot of ground contrasting Substack versus Flodesk features, pricing plans, and ideal use cases.
How do you determine which solution is the best match?
Here are a few key questions to ask yourself:
Is my priority to publish written content or email marketing campaigns?
Do I want to monetize my writing itself or promote products?
What design customization and automation capabilities do I need?
What is my budget for getting started?
Who is my target audience and market?
Once you reflect on your responses to these strategic questions, you’ll gain much greater clarity about whether Substack or Flodesk is the superior choice.
In short, Substack is for writers, Flodesk is for marketers.
For writers who want a simple, distraction-free way to start sharing their ideas through email newsletters, Substack provides an excellent starting point.
If beautiful templates, automation, and landing pages matter more to your business model, Flodesk will likely be the preferable direction.
The Bottom Line
When comparing Flodesk versus Substack in the context of email marketing and audience building, both platforms have strengths that lend themselves better to certain users, objectives, and content models.
Neither can claim across-the-board superiority.
Substack first captured attention for facilitating a paid newsletter movement among writers wanting independence.
Flodesk* responded by filling an important niche for small business owners needing to design quality emails without hassle.
Understanding their differing features, pricing plans and ideal applications based on your aspirations is crucial in determining if Substack or Flodesk better enables you to maximize the potential of email.
You do you!
Both platforms are great choices, offer amazing features, and will stay major players in the content creator economy.