Flodesk does email beautifully.
We do the whole business.
Flodesk is one of the most beautifully designed email tools out there. Their templates are gorgeous, their editor is a pleasure, and for a long time they offered the rarest thing in email: flat, honest pricing. If pure email is your whole need, they're a fine choice. The trouble starts when you also want courses, a community, a CRM, real automations, and a checkout that doesn't take a cut.
Flat-pricing, done right.
Until you need more than email.
Flodesk has historically had the most honest pricing in email — a flat rate, no per-subscriber tax, no fake “20% off” theatre. We respect that. Here's the catch: Flodesk only does email (and a small checkout). To run a coaching, course, or community business on Flodesk, you're stacking 4–5 more tools on top.
At ~5,000 subscribers, running courses + email + community:
At smaller scale (~500 subscribers, just starting):
Flodesk's flat pricing was genuinely honest for a long time. As of December 2025, Flodesk moved to subscriber-based pricing for new accounts — still much fairer than most, but the famous “unlimited subscribers for $38” deal is gone. The graduation point is the same: when email is no longer enough, you'll need everything else.
What Flodesk doesn't do.
Flodesk does email beautifully. That's the brand promise, and they keep it. Here's what you'll need to add when your business is more than just email.
No native LMS or courses.
No course modules, drip schedules, member progress tracking, quizzes, or certificates. Flodesk Checkout can sell a digital download or a small course as a delivered file, but there's no real learning environment. You'll need Thinkific, Teachable, Kajabi, or Simplero on top — $39–$199/month plus integration glue.
No community or forums.
No spaces, no threads, no member discussions, no live cohorts. If your offer includes a community (most coaching offers do now), you'll need Circle ($89–$199/mo) or Mighty Networks ($41–$179/mo + transaction fees) layered on top of Flodesk.
Basic automation, no real CRM.
Flodesk Workflows are simple by design — great for a welcome series, limited for behavior-based segmentation, lead scoring, or sales pipelines. No deals, no pipelines, no tagging at the depth a coaching or course business needs. Plus: Flodesk Checkout takes 1.9% on every sale on top of Stripe's processor fees.
Flodesk Lite $19/mo + Thinkific $74/mo + Circle $89/mo + Stripe = $182/mo just to run a basic course-and-community business — and you're still gluing four tools together. Simplero Starter replaces all of it for $59/mo. Or run the whole thing on Skyrocket for $249/mo.
In their own words.
Flodesk has plenty of fans — and they're vocal. We're not pretending otherwise. Here's a representative slice of what current and former Flodesk users say. Verbatim. Attributed.
“Flodesk's strength is its visual appeal. The downside is that automation features are basic compared to platforms like ConvertKit or ActiveCampaign. There's no A/B testing, reporting gives you the minimum, and integrations are more limited than competitors.”
Independent review, 2026
“I love Flodesk's templates — they make my emails look like a designer made them. But I've outgrown the workflows. I need behavior-based triggers and tagging that Flodesk just doesn't do.”
Reddit r/Emailmarketing
“Flodesk is gorgeous, but after Dec 2025 the pricing changed — the unlimited subscriber plan is gone. New accounts pay per subscriber tier now. Still fair, but the headline reason I picked it is over.”
Nov 2025
“Flodesk Checkout takes 1.9% + Stripe fees on every sale. Fine for a few digital downloads. Not fine when you scale.”
Flodesk Checkout Review
“I ended up paying for Flodesk and Kajabi at the same time. Flodesk for the pretty emails, Kajabi for the courses. Two bills, two logins, integration drift.”
Reddit r/onlinecourses
“Templates are stunning. The editor is a joy. Reporting and segmentation are weak. If you just want pretty newsletters, perfect. If you want to run an actual marketing operation, you'll feel it.”
flodesk-review
Side by side. Whole platform vs. whole platform.
A factual comparison of Flodesk vs. Simplero — features, pricing, and what each company actually is. Numbers current as of May 2026 from flodesk.com/pricing and simplero.com/pricing.
| Flodesk | Simplero | |
|---|---|---|
| Plans available | Free · Lite $19/mo (≤25K subs) · Pro / Everything (subscriber-tier pricing as of Dec 2025) | Starter $59/mo · Scale $149/mo · Skyrocket $249/mo |
| Pricing model | Subscriber-based as of Dec 2025 (was flat-rate). Lite caps at 25K. Pro / Everything scale with active subscriber count. | Three flat tiers (500 / 1,000 / 5,000 contacts). $15/mo per 2,500 contacts above 10K. No per-user fees. Hasn't raised prices in years. |
| Transaction fees | 0% on email · Flodesk Checkout takes 1.9% on top of Stripe fees on every sale | 0% on every plan, every processor, every sale |
| Email marketing | ✓ Beautiful templates, easy editor — their core strength | Full email + automations + segmentation on every plan |
| Automation depth | Workflows are basic by design — great for welcome series, limited for behavior triggers, lead scoring | Full automation engine: triggers, conditions, tags, behavior-based segments, lead scoring |
| Native CRM | — No deals, pipelines, or sales tagging | Full native CRM on every plan: tags, segments, deals, pipelines |
| Online courses / LMS | — No courses, modules, drip, quizzes, or certificates | Full course platform: lessons, modules, drip, quizzes, certificates |
| Community / forums | — No community features | Native community forums included on every plan |
| Funnels / pages | Forms + landing pages (basic, on-brand) | Full multi-step funnels + drag-and-drop multi-site page builder |
| Checkout / payments | Flodesk Checkout (1.9% fee) — supports digital products, subscriptions, payment plans via Stripe | Native checkout with Stripe + PayPal + Apple/Google Pay. 0% platform fee. Order bumps, upsells, downsells, payment plans. |
| Affiliate program | — No native affiliate management | Full affiliate program from Scale up |
| Video hosting | — No native video hosting | Native video hosting on every plan + AI transcripts on Skyrocket |
| Custom domain | ✓ For forms / landing pages | ✓ Full custom domains for sites, courses, communities |
| Founder access | — Standard support channels | Calvin (founder) still answers customer emails. Concierge tier for direct line to founder + product team. |
| Years in business | Founded 2019 (~7 years) | Founded 2009 (17 years) |
| Funding model | Bootstrapped to ~$25M ARR (Forbes, 2024) — fellow bootstrappers, fair play to them | Bootstrapped, profitable, independent. No outside investors. No acquisition. |
Flodesk is genuinely good at email and they built a beautiful product. The question isn't Flodesk or Simplero for email — it's Flodesk plus 4 other tools, or Simplero alone when you want courses, community, CRM, real automation, and a checkout that doesn't take a cut.
The real difference.
Flodesk is a beautiful email tool. Simplero is the whole business. Both can be true — the question is what you actually need.
Flodesk is one tool. We're the platform. Beautiful email is a real value, and Flodesk delivers it. But a coaching, course, or community business needs courses, a CRM, real automation, a community, a checkout that doesn't take a cut, affiliates, and a website. Flodesk does one of those things. We do all of them.
0% transaction fees. Every plan. Every processor. Flodesk Checkout takes 1.9% on top of Stripe's fees on every sale. We take zero. On a $50K year of digital product sales, that's $950 saved — about a year of Simplero Starter, on the platform fee gap alone.
Founder access included. Calvin (founder) still answers customer emails personally. Concierge tier for direct line to founder + product team. Flodesk has investors and a CEO; we have the founder still in the trenches answering tickets. Different model, different stakes.
Founded 2009 · Bootstrapped · 17 years · Proud of it.
What Simplero customers say.
Verbatim. Real names. Real businesses.
“I scored 12 platforms on a spreadsheet. Simplero won. I have never worked with a software company whose support team is fast, courteous, and knows what they're talking about.”
Conscious marketing
“When I found Simplero, it literally changed my life. I migrated my entire business and never looked back. My income tripled, quadrupled in the last six years.”
Clinical nutritionist
“I ended up paying my annual plan for Simplero in what I was paying for one month of all my subscriptions. And I had it just in one place.”
Business coach
“Over the years Simplero has become increasingly easier to use. What I love most is access to personal professional support. There are no chatbot-gates you have to get through to get support from an actual human.”
Trustpilot
Simple, honest pricing.
Three flat tiers. No transaction fees. No per-user fees. Prices shown are the monthly rate when paid annually. We haven't raised prices in years.
$59 /mo
10 products, 10 courses, 2 sites, 500 contacts. Email, courses, payments, website, automations, CRM — all in one place from day one. 0% transaction fees.
Choose Starter$149 /mo
Unlimited products, courses, and sites. Affiliates, help desk, upsells, text messages, API. Where most growing businesses land. 0% transaction fees.
Choose Scale$249 /mo
Everything in Scale plus unlimited storage, AI transcripts, AI bots, split testing, sales pipelines. The full power of the platform. 0% transaction fees.
Choose SkyrocketAll plans include email delivery, video hosting, and zero transaction fees. Need more than 5,000 contacts? Add them in blocks — $15/mo per 2,500 contacts above 10K.
Beautiful email. Real business.
14 days. Every feature unlocked. Bring your Flodesk audience over (we'll help you migrate), keep the design sensibility, and add courses, community, CRM, real automations, and a checkout that doesn't take a cut. Founder still answers the support email. Hasn't raised prices in years.
Founded 2009 · Bootstrapped · Proud of it.
Make it simplero™
