FluentCRM is self-hosted email marketing inside WordPress. Growffinity is an external CRM built for WooCommerce. Different tools, different tradeoffs.
Try Growffinity FreeFluentCRM has built a strong following in the WordPress community. It's a self-hosted email marketing and CRM plugin that lets you run campaigns, build automations, and manage contacts without paying for external email platforms.
Growffinity offers email campaigns and CRM too, but with a fundamental difference: it runs in an external dashboard instead of inside WordPress.
Both tools can send emails and automate workflows for WooCommerce stores. The question is whether you want that functionality running inside your WordPress database or outside it.
Both FluentCRM and Growffinity help WooCommerce store owners manage customers and send emails. The core difference isn't what they do. It's where they do it.
Runs inside WordPress. Every contact, every email log, every automation runs on your server and lives in your WordPress database. You get full control over your data and no monthly SaaS fees for the platform itself.
Runs externally. Your WooCommerce data syncs to a separate, optimized environment. Emails send through your connected provider (SendGrid, AWS SES, or MailerSend), but the CRM processing happens off your server.
Both approaches work. But as your store grows, the architectural difference creates real performance implications.
FluentCRM's biggest selling point is also its biggest limitation: everything runs on your server.
Growffinity sidesteps this entirely. Your CRM runs externally. A lightweight sync plugin connects your WooCommerce data, but the heavy lifting happens off your server. Your WordPress stays fast regardless of how many customers you have or how much data Growffinity processes.
Stores contacts in WordPress with tags, lists, and custom fields. Organized around email marketing needs. Good for building audiences to email.
Stores customers externally with full purchase history, lifetime value, order frequency, and behavioral data. Organized around e-commerce insights.
Can connect to WooCommerce to trigger automations based on purchases. Order data is used for email triggers, not for CRM analysis.
Full order management including viewing orders, updating statuses, tracking fulfillment, and analyzing purchasing patterns. Orders are central to the platform.
Tag-based and list-based segmentation designed for email targeting. You can segment based on tags, email activity, and some WooCommerce purchase data.
Dynamic e-commerce segmentation based on purchase history, lifetime value, order recency, frequency, product categories, and more. Segments update automatically.
Full email marketing platform. Campaign builder, email sequences, A/B testing, analytics, and deliverability tracking. Sends through your SMTP or email provider. Everything runs on your server.
Email campaigns to segments and groups, plus automated workflow emails triggered by e-commerce events. Sends through SendGrid, AWS SES, or MailerSend. Processing happens externally.
Visual automation builder with triggers based on email activity, WooCommerce events, form submissions, and more. Automations run on your server.
Workflow automation with e-commerce triggers like First Order, Order Placed, Order Status Changed, High Value Order, Tag Added, and Group Added. Actions include sending emails, adding tags, and webhooks. Automations run externally.
Email analytics including open rates, click rates, and campaign performance. Revenue attribution if connected to WooCommerce.
Customer and revenue analytics including lifetime value, cohort analysis, churn prediction, and purchasing trends. Built for understanding store performance.
Runs entirely inside WordPress. Database grows with your contact list and email history. Email sends and automations consume server resources.
Runs externally. Lightweight sync plugin handles data transfer. No additional WordPress database load. No server resource consumption for CRM operations.
One-time license fee for the pro version. No monthly costs for the software itself, but you pay for email sending (SMTP service or Amazon SES) and hosting capable of running it well.
Subscription pricing with all features included. Email sending is through your connected provider (SendGrid, AWS SES, or MailerSend).
FluentCRM is a solid choice in specific situations:
Growffinity is the stronger option when:
Probably not. Both tools now cover email campaigns, automation, and CRM for WooCommerce.
The main reason to run both would be if you specifically need FluentCRM's advanced email features (like A/B testing) while wanting Growffinity's external performance and e-commerce analytics.
For most stores, choosing one or the other makes more sense. The decision comes down to architecture: do you want everything self-hosted inside WordPress, or do you want external processing that keeps your site fast?
FluentCRM and Growffinity both offer email and CRM for WooCommerce. The difference is architecture.
FluentCRM runs inside WordPress. You get full control and self-hosting, but your database grows and your server works harder as you scale.
Growffinity runs externally. You get email campaigns, workflow automation, and deep e-commerce CRM without adding load to WordPress. Your site stays fast regardless of how many customers you have.
Choose based on what matters more: self-hosted control or external performance.
For most stores, yes. Both handle email campaigns, automation, and CRM for WooCommerce. The main difference is that Growffinity runs externally while FluentCRM runs inside WordPress. If you specifically need FluentCRM's advanced email features like A/B testing, you might keep it. Otherwise, Growffinity covers the same ground without the performance impact.
Yes. Growffinity sends email campaigns to segments and groups, plus automated workflow emails based on e-commerce triggers. You connect your own email provider (SendGrid, AWS SES, or MailerSend) rather than sending through your WordPress server.
Both use external email providers for actual sending, so deliverability depends on your provider and sender reputation. The difference is that FluentCRM processes everything on your server before sending, while Growffinity handles processing externally.
Performance. Running CRM and email processing inside WordPress adds database load and slows down wp-admin as you scale. Growffinity's external architecture keeps your site fast regardless of how many customers or campaigns you have.
It depends on scale. Small lists on good hosting run fine. But FluentCRM stores everything in WordPress, including email logs, automation history, and engagement data. At scale, this creates significant database bloat. Many users report needing hosting upgrades or experiencing admin slowdowns after extended use.
Comparable. FluentCRM requires plugin installation, extension configuration, and SMTP setup. Growffinity requires connecting via the WooCommerce API (or optional plugin) and connecting an email provider. Both take under 30 minutes for most stores.
Email campaigns, workflow automation, and customer intelligence. All running externally.