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Last updated on November 13th, 2023 at 09:07 am
Every online business expert will tell you to build your email list. What you don’t hear is that keeping up with the growth of that list is a growing pain. It’s important to choose an email service provider that can grow with you but not kill your budget! That’s why I switched to Flodesk from ActiveCampaign.
When I first started building my list, I used the free version of Mailchimp. I don’t miss those confusing days of trying to keep the 1 list straight with tags and segments.
Two years ago, I moved to ActiveCampaign. It was great to break free from the limits of 1 list and to have more room for building my list. But my first impression of the platform was not good. It’s not pretty, it’s cluttered, and it takes practice to get used to.
Two years later, with my list growing steadily, the cost was going up significantly with ActiveCampaign.
I’d heard so much about the all-in-one pricing for Flodesk, which piqued my interest. But after I saw the gorgeous email designs land in my inbox, I knew I had to switch.
Here are the reasons why I switched to Flodesk from ActiveCampaign.
01. Pricing
The biggest reason I switched to Flodesk from ActiveCampaign was the pricing. With Flodesk, I get unlimited subscribers, unlimited email sending, unlimited segments, and unlimited forms and form types (pop-ups, embedded, landing pages) all for one price.
To compare, ActiveCampaign charges based on the number of subscribers and upgraded features. They do offer unlimited email sends, lists, and forms on their lowest tier option. But once you hit your subscriber limit, you’re paying a lot more for fewer features.
02. Design
Designing beautiful emails in Flodesk is easy, and beautiful emails will wow your subscribers! Flodesk offers many design templates for images and so many font options to personalize your emails.
Not only are the email designs more beautiful, but the platform itself is gorgeous. It’s clean, minimal, and straightforward.
ActiveCampaign’s email designs are stuck in the past and super clunky. The emails, like the platform, are not pretty. Design elements are limited and the fonts are basic. It’s hard to add personality to those emails.
Get a 30-day free trial of Flodesk (and 50% off when you commit) by using this link.
03. Ease of Use
It only took me a few minutes to set up my Flodesk account, from connecting my domain to setting up branding preferences. ActiveCampaign doesn’t even have an option for setting up branding!
As mentioned earlier, Flodesks’s platform is straightforward to use.
There are no lists, only segments (which work as a combination of a list and a tag). Emails are easy to segment to specific subscribers. Plus, emails can be scheduled for the “best times” as suggested by Flodesk. (I was surprised the time I normally send emails was a suggested time by Flodesk.)
It’s easy to keep the segments, workflows, emails, and forms organized by color coding and folders. (This makes my organizer heart very happy.)
Migrating my list to Flodesk from ActiveCampaign was extremely easy. Previously, when I switched from Mailchimp to ActiveCampaign, moving my list was a headache. With Flodesk, I simply exported each list from ActiveCampaign (with proper permissions) and uploaded them as separate segments.
No headaches. Everything was so smooth I wondered if I missed something. (I didn’t.)
04. Analytics (2023 Update!)
As of spring 2023, Flodesk now has in-depth email analytics!
Previously, this lack of analytics was a serious drawback but now, you can see everything from:
- Subscriber growth and activity,
- Email metrics, including best days & times to send & performance by email,
- Opt-in form performance (so you can see which types & which content perform best), and
- Workflow performance, including entries, completions, open rates, & click rates.
- (If you decide to use Flodesk Checkouts, there are also analytics for that.)
05. Improvements & Updates
One of the biggest things I love about Flodesk is that they’re constantly working to add features and make improvements.
In addition to analytics in early 2023, Flodesk has added countdown timers (something I’ve really needed) and e-commerce blocks to emails during Q4 2023.
I expect them to continue adding features and making improvements as they receive feedback from users.
Cons
No ESP is perfect, and Flodesk is no different. There are a few things I wish were different.
Workflows have to be completely paused in order to review each email. I’d like to be able to see the content of the emails in the workflow without having to pause emails from going out.
Despite this, I’ve still been able to gather that since switching to Flodesk from ActiveCampaign, my open rates increased by an average of 10%.
The pros for Flodesk far outweigh the cons.
If you’re just starting your list or you’re looking to migrate, I highly recommend using Flodesk. The pricing is incredible for all the features, email designs are unlike any other email service provider, and the platform is simple and easy to use.
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