If you’re picking your first email platform for your small business, you’ve probably narrowed it down to a couple of names, and Kit and Flodesk are likely both on that list. I’m an affiliate for both, I’ve used both, and I want to give you a genuinely honest comparison instead of just telling you what you want to hear.

Here’s the short version before we get into it: I chose Kit for my own business because of its automations and segmentation. But Flodesk is a real contender, especially if design is what matters most to you. Let’s break down exactly where each one wins.

AFFILIATE DISCLAIMER: I SOMETIMES LINK TO PRODUCTS AND SERVICES TO HELP COVER THE COSTS OF RUNNING THIS BLOG. THERE’S NO EXTRA COST TO YOU – AND I ONLY RECOMMEND PRODUCTS THAT I’VE BOTH USED PERSONALLY AND THINK ARE QUALITY PRODUCTS THAT HELP WITH EFFICIENCY. PLEASE READ MY AFFILIATE DISCLOSURE FOR MORE INFORMATION. THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT! 

Kit vs Flodesk: Pricing (Including Flodesk’s New Pricing Structure)

Kit:

• Free — $0/month, up to 10,000 subscribers, no automations (I broke down Kit’s recent free plan changes in detail if you want the full picture)
• Creator — starting at $33/month (billed yearly) for up to 1,000 subscribers, includes unlimited automations and sequences
• Pro — starting at $66/month (billed yearly) for up to 1,000 subscribers, adds advanced analytics

Flodesk:

• Free — $0/month, but this tier only covers forms, landing pages, and link-in-bio pages. It doesn’t include email sending.
• Lite — starting around $19–25/month for 1,000 subscribers, includes unlimited email sends but caps you at one automated workflow and keeps Flodesk branding on your emails
• Pro — starting around $25–28/month for 1,000 subscribers, unlocks unlimited automations, removes branding, and adds one product checkout
• Everything — starting around $49–54/month, adds unlimited checkouts for selling multiple digital products

One thing worth knowing if you’ve researched Flodesk before: their pricing changed significantly in December 2025. They used to offer one flat rate for unlimited subscribers, which was a huge draw. That flat-rate plan is gone for new signups — Flodesk now scales with your subscriber count, similar to most other platforms, including Kit.

Kit vs Flodesk: Design

This one goes to Flodesk, and it’s not close. Flodesk’s templates are genuinely beautiful — they look designed, not assembled from generic blocks, and that matters if your brand leans heavily on visual presentation. If you’re a photographer, designer, or anyone whose business lives and dies by aesthetics, Flodesk’s templates will likely feel more “you” right out of the gate.

Kit’s templates are more straightforward. You can absolutely make them look good, and honestly, simpler designs load faster and can outperform heavily designed emails in terms of opens and clicks. But if beautiful design is the deciding factor for you, Flodesk wins this category outright.

Kit vs Flodesk: Automations

This is where Kit pulls ahead, and it’s the main reason I chose it for my own business. If you want the full breakdown of what Kit’s automations include and whether they’re worth the upgrade, I covered that in depth in my post on Kit’s automations.

Kit’s Visual Automation Builder lets you build out complex, multi-path automations — different entry points, conditional branches, behavior-based triggers — and see the whole thing laid out visually. Flodesk’s automations, by comparison, are much more basic. On their Lite plan, you’re capped at a single automated workflow, and even on Pro, Flodesk’s automations are built for simpler sequences rather than the kind of multi-path funnels Kit handles well.

If your business depends on automations doing real work for you — delivering freebies, running welcome sequences, moving people through a sales funnel — Kit’s automation depth is going to serve you better long-term.

Kit vs Flodesk: Segmentation

Another category where Kit has the edge. Kit lets you tag and segment subscribers in detail — by what they signed up for, what they’ve clicked, what they’ve purchased, and more — so you can send genuinely targeted content instead of one blanket email to your whole list.

For example, say you have a blog that covers both Pinterest strategy and email marketing. With Kit, someone who downloads your Pinterest freebie can get tagged “Pinterest interest,” while someone who downloads your email marketing guide gets tagged “email interest.” From there, each group gets a nurture sequence and future emails relevant to what they actually care about, instead of every subscriber getting the same generic newsletter regardless of why they joined your list.

Flodesk’s segmentation is more basic. You can organize subscribers into segments, but it doesn’t offer the same depth of behavior-based tagging that Kit does. If you want to categorize your audience in detail from the start, this is a meaningful difference.

Kit vs Flodesk: Selling Digital Products

Both platforms let you sell digital products directly, but they approach it differently. Flodesk’s Everything tier includes unlimited checkouts built right into the platform, which is appealing if you want everything in one place. Kit also supports selling through Kit Commerce, plus it connects into the same automations and segmentation you’re already using — so a purchase can trigger a specific follow-up sequence based on exactly what someone bought.

If simple, design-forward checkouts are your priority, Flodesk’s approach is clean. If you want your sales process tightly connected to detailed automations, Kit’s setup does more of that work for you.

Who Should Pick Which

Here’s where I’ll actually make the call instead of leaving you to weigh ten categories on your own. If you’re searching for a Flodesk alternative because automations or segmentation feel limiting, or you’re looking at Kit and wondering if Flodesk might suit you better, this is the section for you.

Choose Kit if:

• You want automations and segmentation set up well from the very beginning, not as an afterthought
• You’re planning to sell digital products, courses, or offers and want your email marketing to actively support that
• You’d rather your list work behind the scenes without much manual effort from you
• You’re growing your audience through blogging, Pinterest, or social media and need different automated paths for different traffic sources

Choose Flodesk if:

• Design is genuinely your top priority, and you want templates that feel custom without hiring a designer
• Your automation needs are simple — a welcome sequence and maybe one nurture sequence is plenty
• You run a highly visual brand (photography, design, boutique retail) where the emails themselves are part of your product experience
• You’re just getting started and want something visually polished with a gentler learning curve

If you’re stuck between the two, ask yourself this: when you picture your ideal subscriber’s inbox experience, is the win “this email is gorgeous” or “this email showed up exactly when I needed it, based on what I actually care about”? Your honest answer to that question is probably your answer to this whole post.

Related Article: Kit Automations: Worth the Upgrade? Here’s My Honest Take

My Personal Take

I want to be upfront that I use and recommend both, because I think Flodesk is a genuinely good platform — it’s just not the one I built my business on. When I was choosing, I wanted better automations and detailed segmentation from day one, since I knew I’d be relying on both heavily as I grew. That’s what pushed me toward Kit.

But if someone tells me design is what they care about most, or their automation needs are genuinely simple, I still point them toward Flodesk without hesitation. It’s a good second option, and for the right person, it might be the first and only option they need.

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Try Either One

If Kit sounds like the right fit based on what you’ve read here, you can start with Kit here — you can build your list free up to 10,000 subscribers, then try a 14-day trial of Creator to test automations before paying anything.

If Flodesk’s design-first approach sounds more like what you need, you can check out Flodesk here for 25% off your first year.

Done beats perfect. Pick the platform that matches how you actually plan to use it, not the one with the most features you’ll never touch.

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