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Flodesk Zapier integrationAutomate Flodesk with Zapier.

The Flodesk Zapier integration gives you 3 triggers, 6 actions and 1 search. All three triggers are instant, so even a free plan reacts the moment a subscriber joins, leaves or lands in a segment. Here is what each one does, and what it costs.

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Overview

What the Flodesk Zapier integration actually does

Zapier links Flodesk to your other tools through a Zap, the automation you build: one event that starts it (the trigger), then one or more things it does for you (the actions). On the Flodesk side, that means reacting to subscribers as they arrive, move or leave, and changing their segments and workflows without opening the app.

A welcome sequence that starts on its own. Pair Subscriber Created with Add Existing Subscriber to Workflow and every new signup enters your onboarding emails the moment Flodesk records it. If you sell an online course, that is the gap between a buyer getting their first lesson now or whenever you remember to tag them.

A clean list when someone leaves. Subscriber Unsubscribed fires as soon as a person opts out. Follow it with Remove Existing Subscriber From Workflow and your workflows only hold people who are still subscribed.

Segments kept in sync from outside. Create/Update Subscriber takes contacts coming from another tool and files them into a segment, while Find a Subscriber by Email Address checks who is already there before a later step touches them.

What Zapier does not do here: it cannot design or send a Flodesk email, it cannot create a segment or a workflow, and it cannot pull in subscribers who signed up before your Zap was switched on. Four of the six actions also expect the person to exist in Flodesk already, which shapes almost every Zap you will build (more on that below).

Weighing a different automation platform for the same job? The Flodesk Make integration page is the companion of this one, and our Zapier review is there if you are still deciding on Zapier itself.

Vocabulary

Zapier vocabulary in one minute

Seven words come back on every line of this page. Here they are in plain English.

Zap
The automation you build on Zapier: a trigger, then one or more actions that run every single time that trigger event happens.
Trigger
The event that starts a Zap, such as a new subscriber in Flodesk. Once the Zap is on, Zapier sits and waits for it.
Action
What the Zap does once it has started: the step that writes, sends or moves something for you in an app.
Task
The unit Zapier bills: one action your Zap completes successfully. Your plan allowance is simply a count of those.
Polling vs instant
A polling trigger is checked on a timer, and the timer depends on your plan. An instant trigger is pushed by the app the moment the event happens.
Filter
A step that lets the Zap carry on only when what arrived meets your condition, and quietly stops it otherwise.
Search step
A step that looks up something already stored in an app, so the steps after it can reuse what it found.
Cost

What a Flodesk Zap really costs

Zapier never charges you for watching Flodesk. It charges for what your Zap does afterwards.

  • TriggerFree, never counted
  • Each successful action1 task
  • Free plan100 tasks a month, two-step Zaps only
  • Flodesk on the free planYes, not a premium app

The trigger costs nothing, and neither does checking for new data. Each action that succeeds counts as one task, separately: a Zap with three actions uses three times what a one-action Zap uses. An action that fails is not counted. The free plan gives you 100 tasks a month and unlimited Zaps, but only two-step Zaps: one trigger and one action. Add a filter, a search or a second action and the Zap becomes multi-step, which needs a paid plan. Flodesk is not a premium app, so it works on the free plan. Its three triggers are instant, so the polling grid below never slows them down.

Connect

Connect Flodesk to Zapier

  1. 01

    Open the Apps page

    In your Zapier account, go to Apps and click + Add connection. A connection is your Flodesk account linked to Zapier once, then reused by every Zap that touches Flodesk.

  2. 02

    Pick Flodesk

    Type Flodesk in the search box of the dialog, select it, then click Add connection. You need a Flodesk account of your own before this step goes anywhere.

  3. 03

    Sign in and grant access

    A new tab opens on Flodesk. Sign in, then allow Zapier to work with the account. If the segments or workflows you plan to use belong to someone else, make sure your login can read and change them.

First Zap

Your first Zap: clean up after an unsubscribe

GoalWhen someone unsubscribes, take them out of your nurture workflow and out of your launch segment, so both only hold people who still want your emails.

  1. 01

    Build: choose the trigger

    Create a new Zap, pick Flodesk as the app and Subscriber Unsubscribed as the event, then select your Flodesk connection. Nothing to set beyond that.

  2. 02

    Test the trigger

    Run the test. Zapier pulls the three most recent unsubscribes from your account, so you map the next steps on a real person rather than an empty template.

  3. 03

    Add the first action

    Add Remove Existing Subscriber From Workflow, map the email from the trigger, and pick the workflow your course buyers or leads move through.

  4. 04

    Add the second action

    Add Remove Existing Subscriber From Segment with the same email and your launch segment. Two actions make this a multi-step Zap, so it needs a paid plan.

  5. 05

    Test, then Publish

    Test each action and read what came back. When both succeed, click Publish. Each future unsubscribe now uses two tasks, one per action.

Triggers

Flodesk triggers on Zapier

3 events start a Zap when something happens in Flodesk, and 3 of them are instant: the app calls Zapier straight away, whatever your plan.

1

Subscriber Added to Segment

Instant trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a subscriber is added to a segment.”

Starts your Zap each time a subscriber is added to the segment you pick. Think of segments as doors: this trigger tells you who just walked through one.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan
When to use it
a coach who segments clients by program can hand each new member of the VIP cohort to a dedicated onboarding workflow.
Watch out
the segment is a required setting, so pick it before you test; the Zap only reacts to the segment you chose.
2

Subscriber Created

Instant trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a new subscriber is created.”

Runs for every new subscriber created in your Flodesk account. It is the widest net of the three triggers, since it does not care about segments at all.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan
When to use it
push every fresh signup into a welcome workflow, or log each new contact in another tool your team already reads.
Watch out
it only sees people created after the Zap is published; your existing list never passes through it.
3

Subscriber Unsubscribed

Instant trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a subscriber is unsubscribed.”

Reacts when a person opts out of your Flodesk emails. That is the signal to stop everything else you had planned for them, in Flodesk and elsewhere.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan
When to use it
pull the person out of active workflows and segments, or tell your sales tool to stop following up with someone who clearly said no.
Watch out
it only fires for opt-outs that happen after the Zap is published, so earlier unsubscribes need a separate cleanup.
Actions

Flodesk actions on Zapier

Flodesk gives you 6 actions. For each one: what it does for you, when to reach for it, and what to watch out for.

1

Add Existing Subscriber to Segment

Action

In Zapier“Adds a subscriber to a segment. Note: the email address must already exist in Flodesk, or this zap will fail.”

Drops someone who is already on your list into one more segment of your choice.

When to use it
tag a subscriber as a customer the moment a payment arrives, so your next broadcast to buyers includes them.
Watch out
if the email does not exist in Flodesk yet, the step fails; put Create/Update Subscriber in front of it for new people.
2

Add Existing Subscriber to Workflow

Action

In Zapier“Adds a subscriber to a workflow. Note: the email address must already exist in Flodesk, or this zap will fail.”

Starts a known subscriber on one of your Flodesk workflows, the automated email sequences you build inside the app.

When to use it
someone books a discovery call and should get your pre-call sequence instead of the generic newsletter.
Watch out
the workflow cannot be a draft or an abandoned cart workflow, and the email must already be in Flodesk, or the Zap fails.
3

Create/Update Subscriber

Action

In Zapier“Creates a new subscriber or updates an existing one.”

Adds a person to Flodesk, or refreshes their record if the email is already there, and files them into a segment in the same move. Unlike the four Existing actions, it works for someone Flodesk has never seen.

When to use it
buyers from your checkout or attendees from a webinar tool should become subscribers without a CSV export.
Watch out
a segment is required; with Double opt-in set to True, the person must confirm by email before getting anything else.
4

Remove Existing Subscriber From Segment

Action

In Zapier“Removes a subscriber from a segment. Note: the email address must already exist in Flodesk, or this zap will fail.”

Takes a known subscriber out of the one segment you name in the step.

When to use it
once a lead becomes a client, drop them from the prospects segment so sales emails stop reaching them.
Watch out
same rule as the other existing-subscriber actions: an unknown email makes the step fail.
5

Remove Existing Subscriber From Workflow

Action

In Zapier“Removes a subscriber from a workflow. Note: the email address must already exist in Flodesk, or this zap will fail.”

Takes a subscriber out of a given workflow, the sequence they were moving through.

When to use it
a trial user upgrades and your conversion sequence suddenly makes no sense for them.
Watch out
the email has to exist in Flodesk; the step does not create anyone and fails if it cannot find them.
6

Unsubscribe Subscriber

Action

In Zapier“Unsubscribes a subscriber.”

Opts a person out of your Flodesk emails from outside the app, using nothing more than their email address.

When to use it
a customer asks your support desk to stop all marketing, and you want that request honored in Flodesk too.
Watch out
wire it to an explicit request only, such as a support ticket tagged as an opt-out, never to a guess.
Searches

Flodesk search on Zapier

1 search step looks for data that already exists in Flodesk, so a later step can use it.

A search step does not change anything in Flodesk. It looks someone up so the following steps know who they are dealing with. You will find it at the bottom of the Action event list, under SEARCH, and some action fields offer a + Add search step button that inserts it for you. Three settings decide what happens next.

1

Find a Subscriber by Email Address

Search

In Zapier“Find a Subscriber by email address”

Checks whether an email address belongs to someone on your Flodesk list and hands their record to the next steps.

When to use it
before calling an existing-subscriber action, confirm the person is there, so the Zap stops cleanly instead of failing on an unknown email.
Watch out
the email is the only field, so map the address your source app really holds for that person.

The three settings every search exposes

  1. Successful if no search results are found?
    Left on its default, a search that finds nobody stops the Zap there and the steps that relied on it are skipped. Switch it on and the Zap carries on empty-handed.
  2. Create X if it doesn't exist yet?
    Ticking this box turns a search into a find-or-create. Flodesk offers no such variant here, so the box does not apply to its search.
  3. If multiple search results are found?
    Three ways out when several matches come back: keep the first one (the default), stop the Zap, or hand all of them to the next steps.
When it breaks

When a Flodesk Zap breaks

Two rules on the Flodesk side explain the first failures, and the general habits of Zapier explain the rest.

The first two cases come from the descriptions of the actions themselves; the others are general to Zapier, as they play out with Flodesk. If you would rather hand the diagnosis to someone, see our Zapier troubleshooting page.

  • The email is not in Flodesk yet

    Four actions refuse people Flodesk has never seen, and the step fails. Run Create/Update Subscriber first, or check with Find a Subscriber by Email Address.

  • The workflow is a draft

    Add Existing Subscriber to Workflow rejects a workflow still in draft, and abandoned cart workflows are off limits too. Publish the workflow in Flodesk first.

  • Your old subscribers never show up

    A Zap only reacts to what happens after it is switched on. The people already on your list are not replayed; moving them is a separate job.

  • The Zap keeps setting itself off

    A Zap that adds people to the very segment its trigger watches restarts itself on each run and burns through your tasks. Watch one segment, write to another.

  • A bulk import stalls the Zap

    When a trigger suddenly returns a huge batch, after an import or a migration Zapier's flood protection can hold the runs back instead of firing them all at once.

  • A failed action does not cost you

    If a step fails, that action is not billed. The upside is real, but so is the downside: the subscriber was not updated on that run, so test each step before you publish.
Need help

Need help automating Flodesk with Zapier?

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FAQ

Flodesk Zapier integration: your questions

01Is the Flodesk Zapier integration free?
Yes, as far as Zapier is concerned. Flodesk is not a premium app, so it works on the free Zapier plan, which includes 100 tasks a month and unlimited Zaps. The catch is the shape of the Zap: the free plan only builds two-step Zaps, one trigger and one action. The moment you add a second action, a filter or a search step, the Zap becomes multi-step and needs a paid plan.
02How many Zapier tasks does a Flodesk Zap use?
One task per action that succeeds, each time the Zap runs. The trigger itself is free, and so is the waiting. A Zap that removes an unsubscribed person from a workflow and from a segment uses two tasks per unsubscribe. An action that fails is not counted. A few apps and actions take more than one task when they complete, so keep that in mind for the other apps in your Zaps.
03Does Flodesk trigger Zaps in real time?
Yes. All three Flodesk triggers, Subscriber Created, Subscriber Added to Segment and Subscriber Unsubscribed, are instant: Flodesk tells Zapier the moment the event happens, and the Zap starts right away whatever your plan. The polling interval of 15 minutes on the free plan does not apply to them. You can spot this in the editor, where a Zap built on an instant trigger shows a lightning bolt. In practice, a new subscriber reaches your workflow while their signup is still fresh in their mind.
04What does it take to connect Flodesk to Zapier?
A Flodesk account and a Zapier account. In Zapier, open Apps, click + Add connection, search for Flodesk, click Add connection, then sign in to Flodesk in the tab that opens and grant access. If the segments or workflows you want to automate belong to another person, your login needs the rights to read and change them. The connection is made once and reused by every Zap. Nothing else is required on the Zapier side.
05Why does a Flodesk Zap fail on an unknown email?
Because four actions only work on existing subscribers: Add Existing Subscriber to Segment, Add Existing Subscriber to Workflow, and the two Remove actions. If the email address is not already in Flodesk, the step fails. The fix is to put Create/Update Subscriber before them, which creates the person if needed, or Find a Subscriber by Email Address, which lets the Zap stop cleanly when nobody matches. Either way, the run stops being a silent failure.
06What if the Flodesk action you want is not in Zapier?
Then it is not available through this integration today. Zapier offers six Flodesk actions, all about subscribers, segments and workflows; there is no step to create a segment, build a workflow or send a single email. The usual way around it is to let Flodesk do that part itself: build the workflow in Flodesk once, then use Zapier only to move people in and out of it. A different automation platform may expose other operations.
07Zapier, Make or n8n for Flodesk?
It depends on your criteria rather than on a winner. On Zapier, the deciding facts are known: the three Flodesk triggers are instant, the integration works on the free plan, and every successful action counts as one task. For Make and n8n, look at the same three things on their side: which Flodesk operations they offer, how they bill each run, and how quickly they react. Then pick the platform whose list of operations covers your use case, rather than the one with the loudest reputation.
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