Mailchimp vs Constant Contact Compared

Email marketing remains one of the highest-ROI marketing channels for small businesses, and the two platforms that dominate the conversation are Mailchimp and Constant Contact. Both have been around for over two decades. Both serve millions of small businesses. Both promise to make email marketing simple and effective. But they cater to different types of users, and choosing the wrong one can cost you time, money, and missed opportunities.

This comparison breaks down exactly how Mailchimp and Constant Contact differ on the factors that matter most to small business owners: pricing, ease of use, automation capabilities, design tools, deliverability, and the specific business types each platform serves best.

A Quick Overview

Mailchimp started as a pure email marketing tool and has expanded into an all-in-one marketing platform. It now offers email campaigns, landing pages, social media management, a basic website builder, CRM features, and advanced automation. Mailchimp has positioned itself as the marketing platform for growing businesses.

Constant Contact has stayed more focused on its core strength: making email marketing accessible to small business owners who are not marketers by trade. It offers email campaigns, basic automation, event marketing, social posting, and surveys. Constant Contact has positioned itself as the easy-to-use solution for businesses that just want to send professional emails.

Pricing Comparison

Pricing is where these platforms diverge significantly, and it is a common source of frustration for users who do not read the fine print.

Mailchimp Pricing

Mailchimp offers four tiers, all based on the number of contacts:

• Free: Up to 500 contacts and 1,000 sends per month. Basic email templates, limited automation (single-step only), landing pages. Mailchimp branding on all emails.
• Essentials (starting at $13/month for 500 contacts): All email templates, A/B testing, 24/7 email and chat support, remove Mailchimp branding. Up to 5,000 contacts for around $75/month.
• Standard (starting at $20/month for 500 contacts): Advanced automation, customer journey builder, send-time optimization, behavioral targeting. Up to 5,000 contacts for around $100/month.
• Premium (starting at $350/month): Advanced segmentation, multivariate testing, phone support, unlimited contacts and audiences.

Important note: Mailchimp counts unsubscribed contacts toward your contact limit unless you archive them. This catches many users off guard and inflates costs.

Constant Contact Pricing

Constant Contact offers two main tiers:

• Lite (starting at $12/month for up to 500 contacts): Basic email campaigns, hundreds of templates, basic reporting, social posting.
• Standard (starting at $35/month for up to 500 contacts): Automation, contact segmentation, A/B testing, scheduled social posting.
• Premium (starting at $80/month for up to 500 contacts): Advanced automation, dynamic content, SEO recommendations, Google Ads integration.

Prices increase based on contact count. For 5,000 contacts, expect to pay approximately $55/month for Lite, $110/month for Standard, and $150/month for Premium.

Pricing Verdict

At the entry level, Mailchimp's free plan is a clear advantage for businesses just getting started. For paid plans with comparable features, the platforms are priced similarly, though the exact comparison depends on your contact count and required features.

Mailchimp gets expensive quickly as your contact list grows, especially if you need the Standard plan's automation features. Constant Contact's pricing is more transparent and predictable. Check both platforms' pricing calculators with your actual contact count before deciding.

For a broader overview of email marketing options, see our roundup of the best email marketing tools for small businesses.

Ease of Use

Both platforms prioritize usability, but they achieve it differently.

Mailchimp's Interface

Mailchimp's interface is modern, visually appealing, and well-organized. The dashboard provides a clear overview of your recent campaigns, audience growth, and engagement metrics. Creating a campaign follows a logical step-by-step process: choose your audience, design your email, write your subject line, and send.

However, Mailchimp's expansion into an all-in-one marketing platform has added complexity. The navigation now includes sections for email, automations, landing pages, websites, social media, and more. For users who only need email marketing, this breadth can feel overwhelming. Finding specific settings sometimes requires hunting through nested menus.

The email editor is drag-and-drop and works well for most layouts. Mailchimp offers a large library of pre-designed templates organized by industry and purpose.

Constant Contact's Interface

Constant Contact's interface is simpler and more focused. The dashboard highlights your most common tasks: create an email, view contacts, check reports. The navigation is straightforward because there are fewer features to navigate between.

The email editor is also drag-and-drop and is arguably more intuitive than Mailchimp's for beginners. Templates are well-organized and easy to customize. Constant Contact's editor makes it particularly easy to create branded emails by pulling your logo, colors, and social links from your website automatically.

Ease of Use Verdict

Constant Contact is easier to learn and use for email marketing beginners. Mailchimp is more powerful but has a steeper learning curve, especially for its advanced features. If you just want to send professional-looking emails without a learning curve, Constant Contact wins. If you are willing to invest time learning the platform, Mailchimp rewards you with more capabilities.

Email Design and Templates

Both platforms offer drag-and-drop email editors and pre-designed templates, but the experience differs.

Mailchimp offers 100+ templates with a modern aesthetic. The editor supports custom HTML, dynamic content blocks, and product recommendations. Templates are responsive and generally well-designed. You can save custom templates for reuse and create a brand kit with your colors, fonts, and logo.

Constant Contact offers 200+ templates with a wide variety of styles. The editor is slightly more user-friendly for basic layouts. Templates are organized by industry and occasion, making it easy to find a relevant starting point. Constant Contact's brand import feature (which scans your website and creates a branded template) is a nice time-saver.

Verdict: Both platforms offer good email design tools. Mailchimp's editor is more flexible for complex layouts. Constant Contact's editor is faster for creating standard business emails. The template quality is comparable.

Automation

Email automation is where Mailchimp pulls ahead significantly.

Mailchimp Automation

Mailchimp's Customer Journey Builder (available on Standard and Premium plans) is a visual automation tool that lets you create complex, multi-step workflows. You can build automations based on:

• Subscriber behavior (email opens, clicks, website visits)
• Purchase activity (first purchase, repeat purchase, abandoned cart)
• Tags and segments
• Dates (birthdays, anniversaries, subscription dates)
• Custom triggers

The visual builder makes it easy to create branching logic: "If the subscriber clicked link A, send email X. If they clicked link B, send email Y." This level of sophistication is valuable for businesses with complex customer journeys.

Mailchimp also offers pre-built automation templates for common scenarios: welcome series, abandoned cart recovery, post-purchase follow-up, re-engagement campaigns, and more.

Constant Contact Automation

Constant Contact's automation capabilities are more basic. The platform supports:

• Welcome email series for new subscribers
• Birthday and anniversary emails
• Resend to non-openers
• Contact activity triggers (opens, clicks)
• Basic drip campaigns

The Standard and Premium plans add more automation triggers and the ability to create multi-step sequences. However, the visual workflow builder is less sophisticated than Mailchimp's, and the branching logic options are more limited.

Automation Verdict

Mailchimp wins on automation, and the gap is significant for businesses that need complex workflows. If automated email sequences are central to your marketing strategy, Mailchimp's Customer Journey Builder is the stronger tool. If you only need basic automation (welcome emails, birthday messages, simple drip campaigns), Constant Contact handles those adequately.

For strategies on building effective email campaigns, check out our guide on email marketing strategy for small businesses.

List Management and Segmentation

Effective email marketing depends on sending the right message to the right people.

Mailchimp offers robust segmentation based on demographics, behavior, purchase history, engagement level, and custom fields. The platform supports tags (for manual categorization) and segments (for dynamic, criteria-based grouping). Advanced segmentation on the Premium plan allows complex combinations of conditions.

One major frustration with Mailchimp: the platform uses "audiences" as its primary organizational structure, and contacts in different audiences are counted separately toward your contact limit. This means the same person in two audiences counts as two contacts for billing purposes.

Constant Contact offers segmentation based on engagement, contact details, tags, lists, and ecommerce activity. The segmentation is straightforward and covers common use cases. Constant Contact uses a traditional list structure that is easier to understand than Mailchimp's audience model. The same contact in multiple lists is only counted once for billing.

Verdict: Mailchimp offers more powerful segmentation capabilities. Constant Contact offers simpler, more intuitive list management. For most small businesses with contact lists under 10,000, Constant Contact's segmentation is sufficient. For businesses with sophisticated targeting needs, Mailchimp is superior.

Reporting and Analytics

Understanding what works and what does not is essential for improving your email marketing.

Mailchimp provides detailed analytics including open rates, click rates, bounce rates, unsubscribe rates, click maps (showing where people clicked in your email), revenue tracking for ecommerce, and comparative reports that benchmark your performance against industry averages. The Standard plan adds audience insights and predictive analytics.

Constant Contact provides clear, visual reports with open rates, click rates, bounces, unsubscribes, and heat maps. The reporting is less granular than Mailchimp's but easier to interpret. Constant Contact also offers campaign comparison tools and basic revenue tracking for ecommerce users.

Verdict: Mailchimp's reporting is more comprehensive and data-rich. Constant Contact's reporting is cleaner and more actionable for users who want quick insights without data overload.

Deliverability

Deliverability (the percentage of emails that actually reach the inbox rather than spam folders) is arguably the most important factor in email marketing.

Both Mailchimp and Constant Contact invest heavily in deliverability infrastructure. Both platforms maintain strong sender reputations, support authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), and actively monitor for spam and abuse.

Independent deliverability tests show both platforms achieving inbox placement rates above 85%, which is good. Results vary by industry, content, and sender reputation. Neither platform has a consistent, decisive advantage over the other in deliverability testing.

Verdict: Both platforms deliver reliably. If deliverability is a concern, focus on your own email practices (list hygiene, engaging content, proper authentication) rather than the platform.

Integrations

Both platforms integrate with hundreds of third-party tools, but the scope differs.

Mailchimp integrates with 300+ apps and services including major ecommerce platforms (Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce), CRM systems (Salesforce, HubSpot), social media platforms, analytics tools, and content management systems. The API is well-documented for custom integrations.

Constant Contact integrates with 300+ apps as well, with strong coverage of common business tools. The integration ecosystem includes ecommerce, CRM, social media, and event management tools. Constant Contact also integrates with Eventbrite and offers native event marketing features that Mailchimp does not.

For connecting your email platform to your website, our guide on how to connect your website to email marketing covers the technical details.

Verdict: Both platforms offer extensive integrations. Mailchimp has a slight edge in ecommerce and developer-focused integrations. Constant Contact has a unique advantage in event marketing integrations.

Unique Strengths

Mailchimp's Unique Advantages

• All-in-one marketing: Landing pages, social scheduling, postcards, and a basic website builder are included
• Ecommerce focus: Product recommendations, abandoned cart emails, and detailed purchase analytics
• Advanced automation: The Customer Journey Builder is one of the best visual automation tools at this price point
• Free plan: A genuine free tier that lets you start with zero investment
• Predictive insights: AI-powered recommendations and send-time optimization

Constant Contact's Unique Advantages

• Event marketing: Built-in tools for creating, promoting, and managing events (registrations, invitations, reminders)
• Social posting: Create and schedule social media posts directly from the platform
• Surveys and polls: Built-in tools for collecting feedback from your audience
• Phone support: Available on all paid plans (Mailchimp reserves phone support for Premium)
• Simpler pricing: No confusing audience model, straightforward contact counting

Customer Support

Support quality matters when you run into issues with an email campaign or need help with a feature.

Mailchimp offers email and chat support on the Essentials plan and above. Phone support is only available on the Premium plan ($350+/month). The free plan has email-only support for the first 30 days, then no support at all. Mailchimp's self-service resources (knowledge base, tutorials, guides) are extensive.

Constant Contact offers phone, email, and chat support on all paid plans. Phone support is a significant differentiator for small business owners who prefer talking to a person. The support team is generally well-regarded for helpfulness and patience with non-technical users.

Verdict: Constant Contact wins on customer support accessibility. Having phone support available on all paid plans is a meaningful advantage for small business owners who value human assistance.

When to Choose Mailchimp

Mailchimp is the better choice if:

• You want an all-in-one marketing platform, not just email
• Advanced automation is central to your email strategy
• You run an ecommerce store and want deep purchase-based segmentation and product recommendations
• You are comfortable with a steeper learning curve for more power
• You want to start free and upgrade as you grow
• Data and analytics drive your marketing decisions

When to Choose Constant Contact

Constant Contact is the better choice if:

• You want the simplest, most approachable email marketing experience
• Phone support is important to you
• You host or promote events as part of your business
• You want straightforward pricing without audience-counting complexities
• You prefer a focused email tool over an all-in-one marketing suite
• Your email marketing needs are standard (newsletters, promotions, announcements)

The Bottom Line

For the average small business that sends monthly newsletters, promotional emails, and basic automated sequences, both platforms get the job done. Constant Contact is the easier, friendlier choice. Mailchimp is the more powerful, scalable choice.

If you are just starting with email marketing and feel uncertain about the technical aspects, Constant Contact's combination of simplicity and phone support makes it the safer starting point. You can always migrate to Mailchimp later if you outgrow Constant Contact's capabilities.

If you already have some marketing experience, plan to build sophisticated automation workflows, or want a single platform for email and other marketing channels, Mailchimp's depth will serve you better from the start.

Either way, the most important step is to actually start building your email list and sending consistent emails. Our guide on email marketing for small businesses covers the foundational steps to get your first campaign running regardless of which platform you choose.