Executive take
Workshop and Broadcast Foundations are both purpose-built to help internal comms teams produce better employee emails than “raw Outlook” without needing marketing automation tooling. The difference is mostly commercial model + how deep you want the email program mechanics to go.
- Workshop tends to win when you want a polished email-first comms workspace with strong usability, packaged workflow/analytics, and you are fine with a paid subscription that scales with audience size, admin seats, and integrations. (Workshop)
- Broadcast Foundations tends to win when budget friction is real (free forever) and you want a modern internal-email toolset that includes pulse surveys, acknowledgements, and retargeting as part of the core Foundations plan, with clear upgrade paths when volume or complexity grows. (Cerkl)
What each platform is optimized for
Workshop
An email-first internal communications platform designed around creating, sending, managing, and measuring internal emails, with segmentation/personalization, embedded pulse surveys, and a workflow layer (calendar, campaigns, blackout dates, permissions). (Workshop)
Broadcast Foundations
A free-forever internal email solution positioned as “everything you need to build (and measure) beautiful employee emails,” including a drag-and-drop designer, templates, analytics, audience manager, plus pulse surveys, acknowledgements, and retargeting. Foundations includes 5,000 email sends/month and 3 communicator seats. (Cerkl)
Capability comparison (email-only lenses)
1) Ease of email creation (builder + QA)
Workshop strengths
- Strong emphasis on “comms-friendly” production: drag-and-drop editor, test sends, scheduling, plus a notable operational feature: fix/edit links after an email is sent. (Workshop)
Broadcast Foundations strengths
- Drag-and-drop designer and template library included. (Cerkl)
Tradeoff
- Workshop’s “post-send link fixing” is unusually practical for comms teams that live in fear of one wrong URL. Broadcast’s advantage shows up more in the program mechanics (see retargeting + acknowledgements below).
2) Email templates
Workshop
- Publicly emphasizes a sizeable template library (examples and “30+ new designs” called out in product updates and templates pages). (Workshop)
Broadcast Foundations
- Template library included. (Cerkl)
Tradeoff
- Both check the box; Workshop is more visibly “template-forward” in their public materials, while Broadcast’s differentiation tends to be in targeting + follow-up behaviors.
3) Pulse surveys
Workshop
- Embedded pulse surveys are a first-class feature, including anonymous response options. (Workshop)
Broadcast Foundations
- Pulse surveys are included in Foundations. (Cerkl)
Tradeoff
- Both cover pulse feedback. Workshop is explicit about anonymous survey mode in its surveys feature page. (Workshop)
4) Acknowledgements (read-and-attest / “I confirm”)
Broadcast Foundations advantage
- Acknowledgements are included in Foundations (useful for policy attestation, mandatory training notices, safety/compliance communications). (Cerkl)
Workshop
- Workshop is strong on engagement analytics and surveys, but acknowledgements as a distinct comms mechanic are not clearly positioned as a core feature in the materials surfaced here. (That does not mean it does not exist in some form; it’s just not evidenced in the sources above.)
Tradeoff
- If you have a lot of “must-read / must-confirm” comms, Broadcast Foundations is the more clearly evidenced fit.
5) Retargeting (resend/follow-up to non-openers, non-clickers, etc.)
Broadcast Foundations
- Retargeting is included in Foundations. (Cerkl)
Workshop
- Workshop supports targeting unopeners by creating a list from non-openers and resending to that list (with a caveat: if GDPR anonymization mode is enabled, “target unopeners” won’t work because opens are anonymized). (Workshop)
Tradeoff
- Workshop’s approach is workable and transparent, but it is more “build a list then resend.” Broadcast positions retargeting as a built-in comms behavior (at least at the plan-inclusion level). (Cerkl)
6) Email analytics depth
Workshop strengths
- Goes beyond opens/clicks to include read time, click maps, campaign insights over time, downloadable reports, and segment-level drilldowns (department/location/role/custom segments). (Workshop)
- Has an optional anonymization setting for privacy-sensitive orgs. (Workshop)
Broadcast Foundations
- Email analytics included (the public plans page doesn’t enumerate metrics, but it clearly includes email analytics as a core capability). (Cerkl)
Tradeoff
- If your stakeholders demand richer “consumption” signals (like read time) and very presentation-ready reporting, Workshop is more explicit and differentiated in the evidence above. (Workshop)
7) Roles / permissioning / governance
Workshop
- Workshop explicitly calls out user roles + permission management in its plans/features list. (Workshop)
Broadcast Foundations
- Foundations includes “Audience Manager” and SSO availability as an add-on, plus the platform supports multiple communicator seats (3 included). Public plans page is lighter on approval-workflow specifics at the Foundations level. (Cerkl)
Tradeoff
- If you need clearly defined permissions for a larger comms team from day one, Workshop’s packaging is more explicit. If you’re a small team and mainly need “a safe place to operate” with basic structure, Broadcast Foundations can cover the essentials.
8) Email throughput (volume + cost predictability)
Broadcast Foundations
- Free forever, but includes 5,000 email sends/month; additional sends are priced per-send. Seats beyond the included 3 are priced per month. (Cerkl)
Workshop
- The most basic plan starts at $250/month, and pricing is based on (1) number of employees/recipients, (2) number of users creating/sending, and (3) integrations needed. (Workshop)
Tradeoff
- Broadcast Foundations is extremely budget-friendly for small programs, but you need to model your monthly send volume. Workshop is more “subscription-like,” but you still need to model employee count + admin licenses + integration needs.
Pricing and licensing realities (what to expect)
Workshop
- Paid SaaS with a stated $250/month starting point. (Workshop)
- Pricing drivers: recipient count, admin/user licenses, integrations; 14-day trial offered; enterprise plans available for 10,000+ employees. (Workshop)
Broadcast Foundations
- Free forever, no credit card required, no contract for Foundations. (Cerkl)
- Included limits: 5,000 sends/month, 3 communicator seats; paid overages for additional sends and seats. (Cerkl)
Budget-oriented implication: If you’re trying to modernize internal email without first winning budget approval, Broadcast Foundations is structurally advantaged. If you already have budget and want a more bundled paid environment with a strong workflow layer, Workshop is typically the more direct “paid comms platform” motion. (Cerkl)
Best-fit scenarios
Workshop is often a better fit when…
- You have a dedicated internal comms function that wants a clean “home” for email production: comms calendar, campaign management, blackout dates, polished analytics outputs, and explicit role/permission packaging. (Workshop)
- You value analytics signals like read time and click maps, and you want easy stakeholder-ready reporting. (Workshop)
- You operate in a privacy-sensitive environment and may need analytics anonymization options. (Workshop)
Broadcast Foundations is often a better fit when…
- Your team is small and/or budget-constrained and needs a credible internal email stack immediately with minimal procurement friction. (Cerkl)
- You need acknowledgements and retargeting as standard mechanics for compliance-heavy or operational comms. (Cerkl)
- Your volume is modest or predictable enough to live comfortably within (or model around) the monthly send limit and overages. (Cerkl)
Practical decision triggers (the “don’t overthink it” version)
Pick Workshop if your buying center is comfortable paying for a packaged internal email workspace and you want the strongest evidence of advanced email consumption analytics and workflow structure. (Workshop)
Pick Broadcast Foundations if your biggest constraint is budget/procurement or you run a lot of “must-read / must-acknowledge / follow-up” communications where acknowledgements + retargeting matter as core behaviors. (Cerkl)
