Email Marketing Platform Showdown (ConvertKit vs. Flodesk vs. Squarespace Email Campaigns)
Updated December 2023
I’ve talked alot before about the virtues of email marketing. We’ve covered why email beats social media, how to use email marketing to increase customer lifetime value, and lots of other things that all boil down to this: email marketing needs to be a part of your eCommerce strategy.
And not just a small part. Like, actually - a pretty big part. Some quick stats for the uninitiated:
Email generates $42 for every $1 spent. A 4,200% ROI is CRAZY, and also means this is a marketing strategy that you should absolutely be using, and using better.
Roughly half of all consumers want to hear from their favorite brands on a weekly basis.
Marketing and advertising emails influence the buying decision of more than half of customers.
Email is 40% better at converting compared to social media.
TL;DR - email marketing is super effective, customers want to get emails from you and they are willing to make purchases as a result of receiving an email from you.
Now for the big question: what email marketing platform to go with - especially if you’re using Squarespace for eCommerce? I’m comparing my top three faves below but first, a quick note about the emails your site sends automatically.
Non-Marketing Emails
There are some eCommerce emails that your Squarespace site is going to send automatically, no email marketing platform required. These are things like:
Order confirmation emails
Shipping confirmation emails
Abandoned cart emails
Waitlist notification emails
Etc.
You can find out more about these types of emails in this post, which also covers how you can customize them to match your brand and how you can personalize them to improve customer experience.
These emails don’t require you to receive any special consent or approval from your customers since they are sent as a result of an action they’ve already taken on your site: making a purchase (or not), or signing up for an out of stock email reminder, for example.
On the other hand, the emails we’re going to be talking about sending from an email marketing platform below are emails that are above and beyond the basics. These are emails that welcome people who sign up to your list with a special coupon code or offer, marketing promos that shout out a new product drop, or sales emails that invite past customers to revisit your shop.
Getting Approval to Send Emails
Anti-SPAM laws help protect people from getting junk they didn’t sign up for by outlining who you can send to and what needs to be included in each email. Luckily, all the email marketing platforms out there help make this easy by not allowing you to send emails to people that haven’t given their approval and by including an unsubscribe link in the footer of every email, amongst other protections. The important thing to note here is that customers can opt in/out of marketing messages while still receiving things like order confirmation and abandoned cart emails that are sent automatically from Squarespace.
Comparing Platforms
All this being said, all email marketing platforms are not created equal. There are definitely reasons why you may want to choose one over the other and the one that works best for you may be the worst choice for someone else. That’s why we’re going to look at the top 3 choices (ConvertKit, Flodesk and Squarespace Email Campaigns) within the lens of eCommerce and also as a Squarespace user.
Here’s the criteria that I think matters most:
Ease of use
Looks
Automations
Integration
Cost
Let’s jump in!
Squarespace Email Campaigns
I’m kicking off our email marketing platform battle with Squarespace’s built-in option: Squarespace Email Campaigns. There have been a lot of improvements to this feature since it first launched a few years ago making it a great option if you’re needing something relatively simple that has all the features you need and none that you don’t.
Ease of use - You literally cannot get any easier than Squarespace Email Campaigns. You can connect any newsletter block to your list with just one click. It’s super easy to style your emails to match the rest of your site since everything is in the same place. Adding content to emails is also a breeze; things like text, image and button blocks are as simple to use as those on your regular site. The fact that it looks and works just like the rest of your website is one of Squarespace Email Campaigns stronger selling points if you feel like the last thing you need is to learn yet another piece of software!
Looks - Squarespace emails look pretty great! There are lots of pre-styled templates you can use as a jumping off point but it’s also easy to make your own branded templates that you can re-use again and again to keep things consistent. Pulling in assets from your website like your logo, some images and your color palette is as easy as pressing one button but the font choices for emails are purposefully kept to a limited selection to make sure that your emails come through into pretty much every email tool and on any device. You can create nice-looking email layouts that feature your site’s content (or new content that you upload) and the options for controlling how each block displays are pretty intuitive.
Automations - You’ll need to be on the Core plan or above to have access to automations that allow you to create things like welcome emails or other emails based on subscriber or customer activity. You can create series of emails triggered by an event but those emails aren’t as organized or visual as those on ConvertKit or Flodesk. Squarespace Email Campaigns also doesn’t yet have some advanced workflow things like being able to tag people based on activity or route them down different paths based on variable conditions.
Integration - You can add product and blog info right into emails without needing to copy/paste links or other info which is AMAZING. And it should go without saying that because this is a tool that’s built right into Squarespace that there’s no need to fuss with embed codes or trying to figure out how to get different programs to play nice and talk to one another. One of the stronger points is that for simple purchase follow-up emails, you can use product purchases as a trigger for an automation due to the fact that this tool is built right into your eCommerce website. Having everything in one place sure is nice!
Cost - It costs nothing (nada, zip, zero!) to use Squarespace Email Campaigns to build your email list and you can also send your first three email campaigns for free. After that, the pricing tiers start at $5/mo and go up to $48/mo (Starter Plan and Max Plan, respectively - paid annually). Most people will want to skip the Starter plan though because it doesn’t offer email automations which I think are absolutely necessary for any eCommerce business. Beyond that, there is no difference between the other plans aside from how many campaigns and emails you’re allowed to send monthly (you’re allowed unlimited subscribers). If you’re just starting out, I recommend the Core plan which is super reasonable at just $10/mo and allows for up to 5 campaigns and 5,000 emails.
Overall Thoughts
There’s a lot to love about this simple email marketing solution and if you’re just getting started it should definitely be on your radar as a great all-in-one tool.
Flodesk
Flodesk is a relative newcomer to the email marketing arena but - hoo boy - did they come in like a wrecking ball! Everyone seemed to fall in love instantaneously with their great-looking templates and the simple pricing setup. Flodesk is a great option for beginners and more advanced marketers alike and it’s easy to incorporate into Squarespace. That said, it’s not without it’s own quirks and issues.
Ease of use - Based just on the simplicity of the interface alone, Flodesk is a dream to work with. It’s clean, modern and minimal which is a breath of fresh air over some other platforms that seem to make things unnecessarily cluttered. So for that alone, Flodesk wins points in my book. The interface is broken down into four parts: Emails, Forms, Workflows & Audience. Emails are where all the one off, newsletter-type emails live. Forms are where you can create either forms or landing pages to embed onto Squarespace for collecting sign ups. Workflows are where you can create visual automations like welcome sequences. And, lastly, Audiences is where you can create mailing list segments.
Looks - All of the pre-made forms, email layouts and layout blocks for within emails are very visually appealing and that’s a lot of what attracts people to Flodesk. You can also save some settings like your logo and custom color palette so that it’s easy to make sure those aspects are on brand every time. The one thing that kind of drives me crazy about Flodesk though is one of the most important: fonts! Every single time you add new blocks or copy in new text (which is likely going to be every single email you send since who sends the same thing each time?) you need to redo the font settings. This can either be really time consuming (if you actually take the effort to do it) or result in sloppy looking emails (if you don’t).
The other thing to note about the super pretty layouts is that a lot of your email will get converted into an image when it shows up in people’s inboxes. There are some studies out there that show that this can negatively impact deliverability rates and/or increase the chances of your email getting filtered into the promos tab or marked as spam. This is just a word of caution that while the layouts look really good that relying too much on them can mean that your emails also don’t have actual “readable” text in them that could be an accessibility issue.
Automations - Flodesk workflows are actually pretty powerful considering the interface is so simple - you may not realize all that you’re really able to do! Workflows are kicked off when someone is added to a segment and can include as many emails as you like set apart by any time delays you specify. Unlike Squarespace Email Campaigns, all the emails for a specific action are kept in one place which makes it easy to organize. You also have lots of advanced thing like conditional actions which are things like if/then rules based on whether someone clicks a link or has opened up the message that was sent prior.
What’s not so easy is setting up automations based on commerce activity, such as those on Squarespace that allow you to send emails after someone buys a certain product, for example. However, they recently launched a new Checkout add-on that allows you to set up sales pages and checkout pages, add upsells, accept payments and follow up instantly. This could be a pretty cool option if you’re not needing a full platform such as Podia to sell digital goods.
Integration - There are two ways to integrate Flodesk & Squarespace. The first is by embedding the code that’s automatically generated by Flodesk into a code block on Squarespace which is as easy as copy-and-paste! The second is by setting up Zapier so that you can use Squarespace forms but then map those submissions to various Flodesk segments. The latter option is great if you want to make sure your forms still always match the rest of your website 100%. An other option if you do use Podia is that Flodesk is now a native integration for that platform making it super easy to connect those two pieces!
Cost - The pricing on Flodesk is crazy simple: it’s a flat rate $38/mo and it includes unlimited everything, forever. You do get a month free if you pay annually and all new sign ups also come with a 30 day free trial of the software. This pricing set up is great because you’ll never pay more as your list grows and all the features are included so long as you’re a subscriber. The Checkout add-on can be purchased separately from email or in a bundle with it and increases the cost accordingly. (Bonus: use my link here to save 50% on your Flodesk subscription!) All this being said, there are more affordable plans with both Squarespace & Convertkit - especially for those with smaller lists.
Overall Thoughts
Flodesk is a good option if you’re looking for something that has a great user interface and if image-based emails are important to you. It integrates well with Squarespace but more so for traditional email marketing & list building than for eCommerce-specific automations.
ConvertKit
ConvertKit is an OG in the email marketing space and it shows. It has a robust suite of tools available to email marketers of all sizes and super powerful tools to help you automate and sell online. It has a bit of a bad rep for creating “ugly” emails but stay tuned because there may be a little method to the madness!
Ease of use - Even though Convertkit has been around for a long time, they still work on releasing improvements to the product which I really appreciate! For example, when I first tried Convertkit back in the day the interface was a little confusing and overwhelming but today it’s clean, simple and well-organized. It’s easy to see all the tools and understand how they relate to one another and even things like their email templates have received a nice facelift! The main dashboard is broken up into 4 main parts. The first is “Grow”, which houses all your subscriber info, forms and landing page. “Send” is where you can find broadcasts, sequences, email templates and snippets. “Automate” has visual automations, rules, integrations & RSS. And, lastly, “Earn” has products, tip jars, and payouts. Whew! So you can see that there are so.many.tools to choose from!
Something else worth noting is that of all the programs reviewed in this post, I find the dashboard of Convertkit the most helpful. It’s so easy to see stats and analytics at a glance!
Looks - Ok, on to the contentious topic of ConvertKit’s looks. And this is not in regards to the platform itself which is really great-looking but instead about the emails it sends. I mentioned above that ConvertKit tends to have a reputation for creating somewhat “boring” text-based emails. However, ConvertKit’s founder makes a very strong argument for this type of email (you can read more about it here) and I think that so many people have made a turn towards overly visual emails these days that text-based emails may have an even stronger appeal than they did almost a decade ago. All this is not to say that you can’t create nice-looking emails in ConvertKit because you actually can, just know that they will be somewhat less flashy than those created in either Squarespace Email Campaigns or Flodesk. You can still add nice images, brand colors and fonts - all the bare components of those other platforms - they’re just going to be a little more simple overall.
Automations - ConvertKit probably has the most powerful automations of any of the tools we’re looking at in this post! So much so that it actually breaks them down into two parts: Sequences and Visual Automations. Sequences are the simpler of the two and they can be compared to workflows in Flodesk. Sequences are a series of emails set off by an event such as signing up for a freebie or opting in to receive email updates. Visual Automations are Sequences on steroids and have some of the same features as Flodesk workflows but then 1,001 other options as well. You can do things like filter subscribers based on conditions, take actions based on when products/services are purchased, create multiple paths into the automation, add/remove subscriber tags, etc. If any of this all seems overwhelming, ConverKit also has automation templates that you can just duplicate and customize for everything from creating a paid newsletter to promoting and upselling other products.
Integration - ConvertKit integrates with Squarespace in much the same way as Flodesk, with one major notable addition. For basic things, you can either embed ConvertKit forms right into your Squarespace website using a code block or use Zapier to pull info into Flodesk from Squarespace forms and newsletter blocks. Where things get really cool though is the Squarespace Commerce API integration with ConvertKit. IT. IS. AWESOME. Once connected, this means that you can pull purchase activity from Squarespace into Flodesk and use it to tag subscribers, trigger automations - all sorts of things! You can even track revenue data for each subscriber and also see previous purchase history. ConvertKit also has integrations with tools like Teachable, Stripe and Podia so if you use any of those in other parts of your business it would be a great place to pull all your eCommerce data together on the marketing front.
Cost - ConvertKit has a free plan that would be great if you’re just getting started out and have a list of 300 subscribers or fewer. However, most people will want to subscribe to the Creator plan at $9/mo (if paid annually) in order to send automated emails and sequences. Plans go up to $49/mo if you have 3,000 subscribers, or more if you have more. There’s also a Creator Pro plan that includes things like subscriber scoring, advanced reports and a newsletter referral system that starts at $29/mo.
Overall Thoughts
If you’re as serious about email marketing as you are about selling online, ConvertKit should be at the top of your list of tools! It’s powerful where it needs to be and simple where it matters; it’s clear that everything about it is geared to convert.
Bottom Line
The good news is that in our email marketing software epic showdown battle, you really can’t go wrong. But you can definitely do… more right? Here’s how I think things shake out:
Choose Squarespace Email Campaigns … if you’re just getting started with both eCommerce and email marketing.
Choose Flodesk … if you’re focused on building your list but don’t necessarily need it to be based on Commerce activity.
Choose ConvertKit … if email marketing is the corner piece of your marketing strategy and it’s important to you that it’s integrated with all the places you sell online.
