Softwr

Email Marketing · head to head

Flodesk vs Sailthru

Flodesk logo

Flodesk

Email Marketing

Email marketing built for creators and small business

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Sailthru logo

Sailthru

Email Marketing

Retail and publisher email personalisation, now one product inside the Marigold portfolio

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Flodesk has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Flodesk variable pricing per subscriber with no clear rate card; Sailthru the product sits in a portfolio with several overlapping platforms under one owner, so roadmap investment is a portfolio decision rather than a product decision and is worth asking about in writing.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Flodesk and Sailthru actually diverge.

Attributes where Flodesk and Sailthru differ
AttributeFlodeskSailthru
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelfreemiumquote
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWebWeb, REST API

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Email Marketing).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Flodesk

Nothing recorded that Sailthru does not also cover.

Only in Sailthru

  • Interest profiles
  • Personalisation engine
  • Prediction Manager
  • Site personalisation
  • Zephyr templating
  • Lifecycle optimiser

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Flodesk

  • Designers creating branded emails without external design softwarenot Sailthru
  • Content creators building automations with high form conversionnot Sailthru
  • Small entrepreneurs consolidating multiple email tool costsnot Sailthru
  • Membership businesses processing recurring payments through checkoutnot Sailthru

Sailthru

  • A publisher sending a personalised daily newsletter assembled per reader from a content cataloguenot Flodesk
  • A retailer that wants email and on-site recommendations driven by the same affinity modelnot Flodesk
  • High-cadence sending where per-recipient content assembly matters more than journey branchingnot Flodesk
  • Teams that want churn and lifetime value scores available as native campaign conditions rather than imported fieldsnot Flodesk

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Flodesk

  • Variable pricing per subscriber with no clear rate card
  • Prices scale based on subscriber count and can vary significantly within each tier

Sailthru

  • The product sits in a portfolio with several overlapping platforms under one owner, so roadmap investment is a portfolio decision rather than a product decision and is worth asking about in writing.
  • Pricing counts stored profiles, so retained inactive readers keep costing money long after they stopped opening anything.
  • On-site personalisation requires a developer to implement the JavaScript and maintain the content feed, which puts the highest-value feature behind engineering time.
  • Zephyr is a proprietary templating language, so template maintenance skills are scarce compared with the Liquid syntax used by most competitors.
  • It is built for high-cadence content and retail sending, and B2B lifecycle programmes with long sales cycles sit poorly on the model.

Pricing, plan by plan

Flodesk

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Unlimited active subscribers
    • Forms, landing pages, audience segmentation
    • Email sending with analytics
  • Lite$0.25/month
    • Up to 25,000 subscribers
    • Unlimited email sends
    • Email analytics
  • Pro$0.28/month
    • Up to 255,000 subscribers
    • Unlimited workflows
    • Advanced analytics
  • Everything$0.54/month
    • Up to 255,000 subscribers
    • Unlimited integrated checkouts
    • Sales pages, subscriptions, payment plans

Sailthru

On request
  • Sailthru$undefined/year
    • Priced on stored profiles and send volume
    • Site personalisation and prediction features licensed by module
    • Annual contract through Marigold

Which should you pick?

Choose Flodesk if

  • You want to start without paying.
Flodesk review

Choose Sailthru if

  • You need interest profiles.
  • You work on Web, REST API.
  • You also want personalisation engine.
Sailthru review

Questions people ask

Is Flodesk or Sailthru better?
Neither clearly leads. Flodesk starts at Free and Sailthru at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Flodesk or Sailthru?
Flodesk has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Flodesk and On request for Sailthru.
Does Flodesk or Sailthru run on more platforms?
Flodesk runs on Web. Sailthru runs on Web, REST API.
Can I use Flodesk for free?
Yes. Flodesk has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Sailthru starts at On request.
What is Flodesk best used for?
Flodesk is most often used for designers creating branded emails without external design software, content creators building automations with high form conversion, small entrepreneurs consolidating multiple email tool costs, membership businesses processing recurring payments through checkout. Of those, designers creating branded emails without external design software and content creators building automations with high form conversion are not what Sailthru is typically brought in for.
What can Flodesk do that Sailthru cannot?
Sailthru covers Interest profiles, Personalisation engine, Prediction Manager, Site personalisation.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Flodesk: How much does Flodesk cost?

Flodesk offers a free plan and four paid plans with variable pricing based on subscriber count. Lite ranges from $0.25 to $25 per month, Pro from $0.28 to $1,457 per month, and Everything from $0.54 to $1,766 per month for up to 255,000 subscribers.

Source
Sailthru: Who owns Sailthru now?

Marigold, formerly CM Group, which also owns Campaign Monitor, Emma, Selligent, Liveclicker and Cheetah Digital.

Flodesk: Is there a free version of Flodesk?

Yes, Flodesk offers a free plan that includes forms, landing pages, audience segmentation, and unlimited email sending to unlimited active subscribers.

Source
Sailthru: Does that affect the roadmap?

It can. Overlapping products in one portfolio compete for investment, so ask which platform is the strategic one for your segment before signing multi-year.

Flodesk: Does Flodesk offer annual billing discounts?

Annual plans offer 1 month free compared to monthly billing, providing a discount for customers who commit to annual subscriptions.

Source
Sailthru: Is it worth it just for newsletters?

For personalised daily newsletters at publisher scale it remains one of the strongest options. For simple broadcast sending it is heavily over-specified.

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