Author Nation Live 25 P2-44 Fluent Alternatives to Expensive Software
The DIY Expenses: Fluent Alternatives to Expensive Software session at Author Nation 2025 presented by Bradley Charbonneau, Blaine Moore, and Erin Wright introduced WP Manage Ninja's Fluent ecosystem as comprehensive replacement for expensive monthly SaaS subscriptions. The presenters documented saving $2,500+ annually by consolidating Teachable, MailerLite, Calendly, TypeForm, Gravity Forms, Circle, and numerous other subscriptions into WordPress-based lifetime-deal plugins with robust free versions. Wide For The Win nonprofit demonstrated practical implementation, migrating 15,000 subscribers from $120/monthly MailerLite to Fluent CRM with $0.01 per 10 emails via Amazon SES, eliminating $300/monthly Circle costs through Fluent Community, and replacing $35/monthly TypeForm with one-time Fluent Forms purchase. The India-based company (200+ employees, 5-8 years operational) employs separate development teams per product ensuring seamless integration—contact actions in Fluent Forms automatically create CRM tags, purchase history appears in customer profiles, support tickets link to transactions. Critical technical requirement: WordPress self-hosting mandatory for all Fluent plugins. Presenters emphasized products integrate SPF/DKIM/DMARC email authentication, support conditional logic workflows, and offer 20-50% frequent sales on already-affordable annual/lifetime pricing tiers.
Core Company Information:
- WP Manage Ninja: Parent company creating Fluent product ecosystem, based in India with global employee distribution
- 200+ Employees: Company size with separate development teams per product line
- 5-8 Years Operational: Established timeframe providing legitimacy and stability concerns
- Hundreds of Thousands of Customers: User base scale demonstrating market adoption
- Active Facebook Community: User support and feedback forum with developer participation
- Responsive Development: Quick bug fixes, often overnight turnaround due to India time zone
Fluent Product Ecosystem:
- Fluent CRM: Customer relationship management system with email marketing capabilities; core product of ecosystem
- Fluent SMTP: Free email routing plugin connecting websites to Amazon SES, Elastic Mail, Mailgun, or other providers
- Fluent Forms: Form builder replacing TypeForm, SurveyMonkey, Google Forms, Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms
- Fluent Cart: E-commerce solution targeting Shopify and WooCommerce; launched less than 1 month before conference
- Fluent Affiliate: Commission tracking and management for affiliate programs
- Fluent Booking: Calendar/scheduling system replacing Calendly, with Stripe/PayPal payment integration and Zoom auto-linking
- Fluent Boards: Project management tool replacing Asana, Trello, Basecamp; lacks dedicated mobile app
- Fluent Community: Membership/forum platform replacing Circle, Discord; launched Spring 2025
- Fluent Support: Help desk ticketing system for customer support
- Fluent Social Ninja: Social proof and review aggregation tool pulling Facebook feeds and testimonials
- Fluent Ninja Tables: Searchable data table creator loading from Google Docs/Excel, integrating with Fluent Forms
- Fluent Azon Press: Amazon affiliate link manager with geolocation-based store routing
- Fluent Snippets: Free code snippet manager for JavaScript/PHP without full plugin development
Replaced Expensive SaaS Subscriptions:
- Teachable: Course platform costing presenters $1,400 over 5 years
- MailerLite: Email service provider charging $120/month for 15,000 subscribers
- Calendly: Booking calendar service with years of monthly fees
- TypeForm: Form builder at $35/month for 5-7 years
- Circle: Community platform costing $300+/month for Wide For The Win
- Asana: Project management tool with per-administrator/moderator pricing increments
- Trello: Kanban board alternative to Fluent Boards
- Shopify: E-commerce platform Fluent Cart targets for replacement
- WooCommerce: WordPress e-commerce plugin Fluent Cart will integrate with (Q4 roadmap)
- Zapier: Automation connector for disparate systems, reducing need through Fluent integration
- Gravity Forms: WordPress form plugin alternative
- SurveyMonkey: Survey creation tool alternative
- Google Forms: Free form tool surpassed by Fluent Forms capabilities
- Basecamp: Project management alternative to Fluent Boards
- Discord: Community platform alternative to Fluent Community
- Patreon: Membership platform potentially replaced by Fluent Community
Email Delivery Services:
- Amazon SES (Simple Email Service): Primary SMTP provider recommended; $1 per 10,000 emails sent
- Elastic Mail: Alternative SMTP provider for email delivery
- Mailgun: Alternative SMTP email sending service
- Mailpoet: Email service provider option
- 18 Cents First Bill: Wide For The Win's initial Amazon SES charge for 4,872+ emails
Technical Requirements & Integrations:
- WordPress Self-Hosted: Mandatory platform for all Fluent plugins; cannot use WordPress.com
- SPF (Sender Policy Framework): Email authentication record authorizing sending servers
- DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail): Email signature verification preventing spoofing
- DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication): Email policy enforcement for deliverability
- API Keys: Credential method for connecting Stripe, PayPal, and other services
- Web Hooks: Alternative integration method when direct API unavailable
- Stripe: Payment processor integration for forms, booking, cart
- PayPal: Payment processor alternative to Stripe
- Zoom: Video conferencing auto-linking in Fluent Booking with calendar integration
- Google Analytics: Tracking tool for website behavior analysis
- Mouse Flow: User behavior tracking service (free for single website)
Automation & Workflow Tools:
- Conditional Logic: If-then automation creating branching workflows based on user actions
- Tags (in CRM): Automated labeling based on form responses, purchases, or behaviors
- Flow Charts: Visual automation builders showing decision trees
- Welcome Sequences: Automated email series triggered by form submissions or actions
- Segmentation: Dividing contact lists by tags, behaviors, or responses (e.g., Barnes & Noble readers vs Amazon readers)
- Transactional Emails: Automated messages like password resets, receipts
- Marketing Emails: Promotional campaigns and newsletters
- Remarketing: Targeting users who previously engaged with brand
Pricing Models:
- Lifetime Deals (LTD): One-time payment for permanent access; limited availability per product
- Annual Subscriptions: Yearly recurring payment model for products no longer offering LTD
- Free Versions: Robust feature sets covering 60-80% of pro functionality for most products
- Tiered Licensing: Pricing based on number of website installations (1, 3, 5, 10, 50, unlimited sites)
- 20-50% Sales: Frequent promotional discounts, typically month-long durations
- $109 Current Sale Price: Example Fluent CRM pricing at 20% off during conference
- $2,500+ Annual Savings: Bradley Chervino's documented cost reduction
- $120/Month MailerLite Eliminated: Aaron Wright's specific savings
- $300+/Month Circle Eliminated: Wide For The Win's community platform savings
- $35/Month TypeForm Eliminated: Aaron's form builder savings over 5-7 years
🔒 Unlock the Full Replay
📌 The 18-Cent Email Bill That Replaced $120/Month MailerLite
In the full video, Erin Wright reveals the exact migration process moving 15,000 subscribers from MailerLite to Fluent CRM—including the shocking first Amazon SES bill of 18 cents for 4,872+ emails that the team thought was an error. The complete session walks through why MailerLite's subscriber-count penalty ("you're above 15,000 so now pay this much") kept Aaron from growing her list versus Fluent's $1-per-10,000-emails-sent model where not emailing your list means paying nothing. Discover the specific Fluent CRM automation that automatically tags Barnes & Noble readers versus Amazon readers from welcome survey responses, enabling platform-specific promotions without manual list management, and why this integration would have required paying Zapier $X/month to connect TypeForm answers to MailerLite segments..
Q:If I have multiple pen names, do I need to buy Fluent products multiple times or does one purchase cover everything?
A: Fluent licensing is based on number of website installations, not number of pen names. Free versions install on unlimited sites. Paid tiers typically offer 1, 3, 5, 10, 50, or unlimited site licenses depending on the product. So if you run three different pen name websites on separate WordPress installations, you'd need at minimum a 3-site license. However, if you manage multiple pen names through a single WordPress website (different pages, different author profiles, all same domain), one installation covers everything. Blaine noted pricing slides shown were for one-website scenarios, with multi-site licenses scaling up from there.
Q: What's Fluent's email deliverability like compared to established providers, and how do you ensure emails actually reach inboxes?
A: Blaine reported "very good" deliverability after properly configuring SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records—the DNS authentication telling Gmail, Yahoo, and major providers "these servers have permission to send my email." He emphasized setting up DMARC to reject spoofed emails pretending to be from your domain. The technical setup takes 5 minutes for experienced users but requires hiring help ($100 typical cost on Fiverr/Upwork) if unfamiliar with DNS records. Critical advantage: Amazon SES servers are "very trustworthy to everybody because they are pretty strict" about preventing spam, unlike sending directly from websites where emails get automatically rejected. The authentication is one-time setup, after which deliverability remains consistent without ongoing maintenance.
Q:Is Fluent Community's course module as robust as Teachable and Thinkific for selling courses?
A:No, not yet—Bradley acknowledged this honestly. Courses are "quite a difficult thing" requiring progress meters, end-of-module quizzes, and complex features. Fluent Community launched Spring 2025, making it their newest product still rapidly iterating based on user feedback. Bradley admitted "trying to be patient because they really want to add things" and noted high demand ("can you do this, can you do this?"). The technical term he used: "minimum viable product," though he clarified Fluent releases "fully featured products" that continually improve rather than bare-bones launches. For authors committed to Teachable-level course sophistication, this remains the weakest Fluent offering. However, the roadmap shows quarterly enhancements, and integration with other Fluent products (CRM, Cart, Forms) provides unique advantages established course platforms can't match.