Pimcore
A security-hardening train: nine advisories across six patch releases, no feature work in sight.
Comparison · Mkt Auto
Craft CMS vs Flodesk
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Craft CMS and Flodesk — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Craft CMS vs Flodesk: at a glance
What is Craft CMS?
Craft 6 is being rebuilt on Laravel, and the alphas are breaking plugins to get there.
Craft runs two trains at once: a 6.0.0 alpha series rearchitecting the CMS, and 5.10.x patches that are single-bug fixes shipped within hours of each other. The alphas carry the work — queue jobs and dependency resolution moved onto Laravel's service container, control-panel serialization switched to Illuminate helpers, the imagine image library replaced with intervention/image, and a first-party control-panel component library added. Alpha 14 shipped with an explicit breaking-changes notice for plugin authors.
What is Flodesk?
Flodesk keeps closing the table-stakes gap - this time it is account security.
Flodesk is adding the operational depth a design-first ESP can skip early. MFA now protects logins with an authenticator app, replacing the email one-time code and gating third-party API connections. The list-hygiene cluster is the other visible track: an unengaged-subscribers segment identifies dead weight and archiving removes it reversibly without deleting history or counting against the plan limit, with subject-line A/B testing and a calendar view rounding out the send workflow.
Craft CMS vs Flodesk: editorial side-by-side
Craft CMS
6.3MKT AUTO
Craft 6 is being rebuilt on Laravel, and the alphas are breaking plugins to get there.
◆ Current state
Craft runs two trains at once: a 6.0.0 alpha series rearchitecting the CMS, and 5.10.x patches that are single-bug fixes shipped within hours of each other. The alphas carry the work — queue jobs and dependency resolution moved onto Laravel's service container, control-panel serialization switched to Illuminate helpers, the imagine image library replaced with intervention/image, and a first-party control-panel component library added. Alpha 14 shipped with an explicit breaking-changes notice for plugin authors.
◆ Where it's heading
The direction is a Laravel-native Craft: Artisan command discovery, container-resolved queue jobs, Illuminate helpers, and plugins that no longer register through composer extra fields or automatic trait lifecycle hooks. The image pipeline swap brings libvips and formats like HEIC, JPEG XL and TIFF along with it. Meanwhile 5.10 receives nothing but same-day bug fixes, which is what a maintenance branch looks like once the team's attention has moved.
◆ Prediction
Expect further alphas to keep narrowing the plugin API surface ahead of a beta, with the 5.10 line continuing at one or two same-day patch releases a week.
Flodesk
5.0MKT AUTO
Flodesk keeps closing the table-stakes gap - this time it is account security.
◆ Current state
Flodesk is adding the operational depth a design-first ESP can skip early. MFA now protects logins with an authenticator app, replacing the email one-time code and gating third-party API connections. The list-hygiene cluster is the other visible track: an unengaged-subscribers segment identifies dead weight and archiving removes it reversibly without deleting history or counting against the plan limit, with subject-line A/B testing and a calendar view rounding out the send workflow.
◆ Where it's heading
The design-led product is being backfilled with the things buyers check on a diligence list rather than in a demo. Security, deliverability hygiene, testing and scheduling are all areas where Flodesk previously had nothing to point at, and each release closes one. The pattern points at customers who evaluate Flodesk against established ESPs instead of choosing it for the editor alone.
◆ Prediction
Expect the security and account-administration track to continue - team roles, session management or audit visibility are the natural follow-ons now that MFA and API-connection protection are in place.
Alternatives to Craft CMS and Flodesk
Other Mkt Auto products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Craft CMS or Flodesk.
n8n
Three release lines running in parallel, all of them shipping nothing but fixes this week
OpnForm
OpnForm is turning its V2 platform into an automation surface, one integration at a time.
Zoho Social
Zoho Social opens its management surface to AI assistants via MCP.
AWeber
AWeber is moving the console out of the browser and into the chat window
SalesBlink
Building an agent-drivable outreach stack — MCP, then OpenClaw, now an in-dashboard AI copilot.
See all Craft CMS alternatives → · See all Flodesk alternatives →
Recent activity from Craft CMS and Flodesk
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 6d agoCraft CMSAlpha 16 fixes double-required migrations and a widget gap
- 6d agoCraft CMS5.10.13.2 fixes a SQL error on empty Categories fields
- 6d agoCraft CMS5.10.13.1 restores rendering of sanitized SVGs
- 7d agoCraft CMSCraft 6 swaps its image pipeline to intervention/image and libvips
- 7d agoFlodeskMulti-factor Authentication (MFA)
- 8d agoFlodeskUnengaged Subscribers segment
- 20d agoCraft CMSCraft 6 alpha 14 breaks plugin providers and lifecycle hooks ⚡
- 26d agoCraft CMSCraft 6 moves queues and DI onto Laravel's container
- 1mo agoFlodeskA/B test your subject lines
- 2mo agoFlodeskCalendar view
- 2mo agoFlodeskArchive subscribers
- 3mo agoFlodeskEmail Expiration in Workflows
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Craft CMS and Flodesk?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Craft CMS is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 5.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Craft CMS better than Flodesk?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Craft CMS is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 5.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Mkt Auto products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Craft CMS?
Top Craft CMS alternatives in Mkt Auto are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Craft CMS alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/craft-cms for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Flodesk?
Top Flodesk alternatives in Mkt Auto are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Flodesk alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/flodesk for the full list with editorial commentary on each.