Flodesk vs. Mailerlite: Which is the Best Choice For Use With WordPress?

Email marketing offers one of the highest ROIs among all digital marketing strategies.

The reason why it’s so effective is the incredibly powerful email marketing automation tools.  Flodesk and Mailerlite are two of the most popular ones out there. If you’re a WordPress user and aren’t sure which one to pick for your WordPress site, you need to read this review.

Why is it important? Because you want to make sure that your email marketing software works perfectly with the WordPress CMS. In this post, we’ll be comparing Flodesk and Mailerlite in detail, allowing you to select the right one for your WordPress site.

Before we dive into the comparison review, let's have a quick summary of the two email marketing automation tools, and their pros and cons.

Factors to Consider for WordPress Users When Choosing Between Flodesk & Mailerlite

Here are some factors for WordPress users to consider when choosing between Flodesk and Mailerlite:

With all that out of the way, let’s dive into the Flodesk vs. Mailerlite review.

Flodesk vs. Mailerlite: Which is Best for WordPress Users?

Both Flodesk and Mailerlite are popular for their simplicity, ease of use, and beginner-friendliness. Both offer industry-leading email marketing features to help you grow your business.

Let’s take a look at their features to see how they stack up against each other.

About Mailerlite

Founded in 2010, Mailerlite is a cloud-based email marketing platform that lets you create email marketing automations, landing pages, sign-up forms, and even websites. If there’s one thing that makes Mailerlite stand out from the competition, it’s the user-friendliness and ease of use. The software platform also stands out because of its straightforward and cost-effective pricing model. (Related: Mailerlite vs. Mailchimp: Best Lightweight Email Marketing Software)

About Flodesk

Created in 2019, Flodesk is a relatively new player in the email marketing game. Despite that, the email marketing platform has become pretty popular. Like Mailerlite, Flodesk also has a simple and effective interface. Another thing that attracts many WordPress users to this software is its great-looking templates. (Related: Flodesk vs. MailChimp: Which One is Best for Email Marketing?)

With the introductions out of the way, let’s now take a look at Mailerlite’s features first.

Mailerlite Features

Here we go...

Dashboard

As you can see, Mailerlite’s dashboard is intuitive and easy on the eyes. The sign-up might take a few minutes as it takes you through a round of questions. Once you sign up, you’ll see everything at a glance on your dashboard.

You’ll see the following set of data as you scroll down the page:

Email Segmentation

Email segmentation is important because it lets you deliver the right kind of content to the right audience.

Here’s what that means. Let’s say you’re selling an e-book on the Keto diet. Now, people who aren’t looking to try out the Keto diet won’t be interested in your offer. You want to connect with people who in some way or another implied that they’re interested in knowing about the Keto diet.

Mailerlite’s email segmentation features let you do just that. You can either manage your lists in segments or groups. Clicking on the “Subscribers” tab will redirect you to a page where you can manage your subscribers.

The segments tab tells you the total subscribers, your open rate, and click rate. To create a new segment in Mailerlite, you’ll just need to click on “Create segment”.

Automation Features

Impressively, Mailerlite’s automation features are quite easy to use. The email marketing tool’s workflow builder lets you:

Clicking on “Automations” on the dashboard will redirect you to the following page.

Here, you can select a trigger for your email marketing campaign.

A trigger, for those of us who don’t know, is an action that qualifies a person for a particular segment. For instance, the “When subscriber completes a form” trigger would add the user to your subscribers’ list. These triggers automatically add users in different segments and groups. The cool thing is that you can even add multiple triggers, which gives you more control over who gets added to your list.

Mailerlite lets you create automation workflows however you want, including:

Here’s what the Mailerlite email automation workflow looks like at the backend.

It’s important to remember that although you can move subscribers to another group they can’t be moved to different automation.

Landing Pages and Forms

A lot of WordPress users prefer Mailerlite because of its beginner-friendly forms and landing pages. Like most email marketing tools, Mailerlite lets you design forms and landing pages with a simple drag-and-drop action.

To create a form, you’ll need to click on the “Forms” option on your dashboard and select the type of form you want to create.

The tool lets you create three types of forms:

Now, here’s an important thing to remember about using forms on your WordPress website. Pop-up forms tend to be a little invasive and even annoying, so you don’t want to overuse them. Try to use embedded forms if you want to collect information about your prospects/readers.

On the next page, you can either select a template or start designing your form from scratch.

To create a landing page, you’ll need to click on “Site” and select “Landing page”.

You can either design your landing pages from scratch or pick a pre-designed template and make tweaks to it.

Once you select a template, you’ll be redirected to the landing page editor. Here’s how it looks:

As you can see, it looks clean and easy to use.

Integrations

Mailerlite also lets you connect a variety of apps directly as well as through Zapier. So, if you’re already using some apps, this feature will come in handy.

Split-Testing

Mailerlite’s split-testing feature lets you test two variations of the same email, allowing you to identify the better-performing one.

Moreover, you can split-test different aspects of your emails, including:

Reporting and Analytics 

On your Mailerlite dashboard, you’ll see a basic overview of your performance.

As you scroll down, you’ll be able to monitor your campaign data.
This includes:

Next, Mailerlite shows you the data related to your:

Flodesk Features

Here we go...

User-friendliness

When it comes to user-friendliness, Flodesk stands out from the pack. The simple beginner-friendly interface of the tool makes it perfect for WordPress users.

Split-Testing

Split-testing, also known as A/B testing, lets you test different variations of the same email. Unfortunately, Flodesk doesn’t offer A/B testing, which could be a huge deal breaker for many advanced email marketers.

Without the A/B testing feature, you’ll have to send separate campaigns to identify the best variations, which would be time-consuming.

Landing Pages

Flodesk’s intuitive and easy-to-use landing page editor lets you design and convert landing pages with ease. Thanks to this drag-and-drop builder, anyone with a basic design understanding can create stunning landing pages.

To create a landing page, you’ll have to go to “Forms” and then select “Full page”.

Selecting a pre-made landing page template would speed up the design process. Once you pick a template to edit (or start from scratch), you can select a segment.

Any new subscribers will be added to the segment you choose at this step. You’ll then be able to edit your Flodesk landing page.

Notice that the editor lets you switch between the mobile and desktop versions of your landing page. This lets you see how your page will look on both devices.

Email Designer

Flodesk’s email designer is what makes it stand out from the pack. The intuitive and user-friendly designer is the top reason why the software has been growing in popularity. As soon as you click on “New email” on your dashboard, you’ll be prompted to select a template (or start from scratch).

There are four simple steps in the email designing process.

Now, the editor is a bit different than you may be used to seeing on other tools. To add different elements to your email’s design, you’ll need to click the “+” icon.

After you select or add an element, you can edit it from the right menu.

Once you’re done designing your email, you’ll need to type in:

Lastly, Flodesk will ask you to choose your recipients. You can add segments, individuals, or upload a CSV file.

Automation

Flodesk email automation is easy to create. The feature is called “Workflows”. You’ll find it at the top of your Flodesk dashboard.

Next, you’d just need to create a “New workflow”.

In the next step, you can select one of Flodesk’s pre-designed workflows, including:

You can also choose the “or start from scratch” option just below “Browse all”. Selecting a pre-made workflow does speed up the process though. Next, you can add suitable triggers to your workflow.

For instance, you could send a welcome email right after someone subscribes to your newsletter.

Audience Management

Flodesk lets you manage your audience under a separate tab. The “Audience” section on your dashboard has three sections:

You can add subscribers and segments right within this tab.

Checkouts

Flodesk has recently added the new “Checkouts” feature to help you sell all kinds of products. As soon as you select “Checkout” on your main dashboard, you’ll be redirected to the templates page.

You can then select a template and start customizing the sales page.

Here’s what Flodesk’s sales page editor looks like.

The next step after editing the sales page is to design your checkout page.

After you’re done with the checkout page setup, it’s time to design your delivery page or the Thank You page.

However, the “Checkouts” feature is in the beta stage, so you might notice some changes in it with time. Nonetheless, it looks promising and can prove to be a pretty handy addition for marketers. However, it’s important to keep in mind that the checkout feature doesn’t come on the basic plan.

You’ll have to invest a little more to get it (more on this in the pricing section).

Integrations

If you’re already using other applications, you’d want to have this feature. Flodesk is compatible with Zapier, allowing you to integrate thousands of other apps with your email marketing tool.

Marketing Insights/Analytics

If you want to analyze your existing strategies and identify what works and what doesn’t, you need marketing analytics.

Unfortunately, you don’t get any analytics with Flodesk. So, all you can do is execute your campaigns. You won’t be able to measure their effectiveness, which can be a deal-breaker for advanced marketers. However, if you don’t need to measure your campaigns, not having analytics would mean less clutter and a cleaner interface.

Pricing

Previously, you could get everything on Flodesk at a single monthly/yearly price. But, the pricing model shifted from a single plan to three plans.

This is probably because of the addition of checkouts to the tool. So, you have three options:

The third one is slightly more expensive, but it’s worth the extra investment.

Verdict

If you’ve read this far, you know everything you need to know about two of the simplest email marketing software out there. The important thing is you get the features you need to grow and nurture your email leads with both tools. But, let’s face it, you cannot use both of them on your WordPress site. You need to pick one.

By now, you probably have a tilt towards one of these. It could be because Flodesk is super simple and easy to use. Or, maybe you like Mailerlite’s A/B testing and analytics features.

So, the decision mainly depends on what you expect from your email marketing tool.  Let’s quickly see when should you choose Mailerlite and when should you choose Flodesk.

Choose Mailerlite if you:

Choose Flodesk if you: