Is Flodesk Studio Worth It? What It Does (& What It Doesn't)
Disclaimer:
I am a Flodesk Partner and received early access to test out Flodesk Studio. This post is my honest review of the platform.
When Flodesk started teasing their new AI tool, my gut reaction was, "Oh no, not Flodesk jumping on the AI bandwagon too 😩" quickly followed by, "Hold up, Flodesk doesn't do bandwagons. What are they up to? 👀”
As an avid AI user, the one thing I hate right now is everyone slapping new AI features onto their platforms and calling it an upgrade. Most of them are just a glorified ChatGPT widget. So whenever a platform I use rolls out new AI features, I'm skeptical.
Curious… because I do love a good tool when it actually does something useful for me or my clients.
But skeptical.
Now that the secret is out, I can confidently say that Flodesk Studio is changing the game when it comes to AI integration.
While the rest of the world raced to launch assistants, chatbots, and helpers, essentially handing the creative work to the machine, the Flodesk Team asked a different question. Not "how do we build you a better helper?" but "how do we build you a better place to work?"
Supporting creative work is still at the heart of Flodesk and their new platform is no different. They’re not setting out to replace email designers with AI generated slop.
They want to make it easier and faster to design emails, without losing the human touch.
So let's get into it.
What Is Flodesk Studio?
Simply put, Flodesk Studio is a brand new email design app, built by real, human designers and accelerated by AI.
If you’re anything like my health practitioner clients, you didn't get into this work to become a graphic designer. But you also know how important a cohesive brand is for your credibility. Generic, AI-generated, or sloppy-looking emails can undo a lot of the trust you spent months building in the DMs.
That’s what makes Flodesk Studio different. You’re not getting generic AI output; everything is created uniquely for you, according to YOUR brand guidelines. And at the end of the day, you, the human, are still in complete control of every single word and pixel.
How It Works
Everything inside Flodesk Studio starts with your own branding.
Upload your fonts, brand colors, and photos. If you don't have those, or you just want to play around with other options, you can choose from a set of pre-made brands.
Then you give the system a prompt.
Tell the tool exactly what you're looking to create, in as much or as little detail as you want. Give it a short prompt and it'll write an entire email for you based on your brand.
Here are a few prompts I’ve tested for my health clients:
“welcome email for a new client after their intake call"
"reminder that enrollment for this month's group program closes Friday"
"monthly newsletter recapping my last two blog posts"
Often, it will follow up with additional questions to make sure it understands what you’re looking for before it designs.
I tend to lean towards a shorter, more open prompt that gives the system the bones of what I’m creating, then go in and make it sound like me later. But you can also include completed email copy in your prompt (just make sure to tell it to use your exact copy!).
Once you submit a prompt, you'll get three email designs to choose from.
This is where it gets fun! You have two options: keep editing agentically (basically, keep prompting until you get the changes you want to see), or, my favorite, get in there manually and start editing yourself.
The design interface is set up just like the OG Flodesk, so if you're already using that, this will feel familiar.
How It’s Different
Unlike other AI design apps, this isn't spitting out a generic layout with your logo and a few of your brand colors sprinkled in.
The design team at Flodesk hand crafted thousands of individual components: layouts, blocks, typography, palettes. The AI isn't designing from scratch. It takes your prompt and pulls from those thousands of human-designed pieces to assemble an email that actually looks and feels like your brand.
As they say…
"The reason a Flodesk Studio email looks like a real designer touched it is simple. One did."
Why Flodesk Studio Might Be the Most Unique AI App on the Internet Right Now
Design magic aside, I want to call out what makes Flodesk Studio stand out (in my opinion) from pretty much every other AI tool in your tech stack right now. You might assume this is just another way for them to get more people to use Flodesk for their email marketing.
And I mean, duh, they’re not gonna say no to new subscribers.
**If you’re Flodesk-curious, you can read my honest Flodesk review right here.
What they're not doing is gatekeeping good email design.
The Flodesk Studio app runs completely independently of Flodesk.
You don't need a Flodesk account to use it, and in fact, you can use it completely free right now while it's in beta.
When your email is done, you can choose to export it into your Flodesk account, or you can export it into any ESP that supports HTML.
That's right.
Use Flodesk Studio to design the most beautiful email your brand has ever seen, then export it for free into whatever ESP you're currently using.
My jaw literally dropped when I first heard that. I don't think people are talking about it enough!
It's the definition of supporting small business and one of the many reasons Flodesk will always be that girl to me 💅
It has to be said. Just like any other AI tool, this is not a replacement for email strategy.
Flodesk Studio can design the email. It can even help you draft basic content to get you started so you’re not left staring at a blank page.
But it can't tell you what your client on week three of your online program actually needs to hear right now. Or how to talk about a health struggle in a way that makes someone feel safe enough to book a call instead of scroll past.
That deeper level to your messaging is not a design problem and it still requires you (and your email strategist’s, if you have one!) real human thought process.
Is Flodesk Studio Worth Trying?
If you've got a designer or an agency handling your emails for you already, this doesn't replace that relationship. This is a tool for the person doing it themselves, not a substitute for someone who's already doing the strategic thinking for your brand.
Flodesk Studio is never going to replace the need to understand your brand, your audience, and your goals at a deeper level. But it’s a very good starting point if you love writing and designing your own emails and just want to get it done a little faster.
This is the first AI design tool I've used that actually gives me custom design work, not copy/paste drafts that look the same as everyone else. They’re not cutting corners just to hop on the AI bandwagon and get you to sign up for yet another app.
It's free (for now), it works with whatever email platform you're already using, and the designs actually look designed.
Give Flodesk Studio a try during the free beta period—you have literally nothing to lose!
