One of the most important tools for every business is email marketing software. This is what enables you to gather email lists and send messages to subscribers around the globe at the click of a button. With over 4 billion active email users across the globe, you’ll do your business a disservice by not paying attention to email marketing.
There are many email marketing tools, and two well-known examples are MailChimp and Constant Contact. MailChimp is the leading email marketing platform, with over 13 million customers. Others like Constant Contact offer comparable tools but don’t have a wide-reaching user base as much as MailChimp’s.
We want to see how MailChimp and Constant Contact fare against each other. We’ll compare them based on critical factors like features, pricing, performance, and customer support. After reading this article, you can also see our previous MailChimp review and Constant Contact review for more information.
Features
MailChimp is a web-based platform. There’s a free version that gives you access to the basic features and premium pricing tiers that unlock the more advanced features. With MailChimp, you can send messages to as many email addresses on your list at the click of a button.
After registering on MailChimp, you can set out to build a new email list or import an existing one you have. Ensure any address you’re importing has given you explicit permission to send marketing emails. Otherwise, sending messages to unauthorized addresses constitutes spam, and MailChimp will penalize you.
To build a new email list, MailChimp lets you create and embed forms on your website or social media pages. Any address that someone inputs into the form will be automatically added to your email list. This platform also provides analytical tools to give you insights about your email audience to know what needs improvement.
Constant Contact is a web-based platform just like MailChimp. It gives you tools to grow your email list and analytical tools to gather insights into your email audience. But, Constant Contact goes a lot further than email. It lets you send messages to customers and market via SMS. It also has a website builder that lets you design visually appealing websites for your business. The web builder includes an e-commerce tool that lets you accept payments from customers and sell goods online.
Constant Contact is a more versatile tool than MailChimp.
Performance
MailChimp is primarily a web-based app, but it also has mobile apps for iOS and Android. These apps enable you to manage your email campaigns on the go but don’t provide the full functionality you can access on the web-based interface.
MailChimp’s web-based interface is easy to navigate despite packing many features. Different functionalities are neatly arranged across the dashboard, so it’s easy to find what you want.
Constant Contact is a versatile platform with many advanced features focused on email marketing and some other types of marketing. The platform offers a great user experience, with features neatly arranged on the dashboard’s top menu. In May 2022, the team behind Constant Contact revamped its user interface to make it simpler than it was.
Constant Contact is primarily a web-based app, just like MailChimp. It has mobile apps for iOS and Android but you’ll be better off using the web-based interface, as you can’t access all the platform’s features on the mobile app.
We didn’t notice any pattern of customer complaints with the performance of MailChimp or Constant Contact, so it’s a tie in this category.
Support
MailChimp offers direct customer support through email, live chat, and telephone, although the options available to each user depend on their premium pricing plan. All premium plans include email and live chat support but only the highest plan includes phone support. One good thing about MailChimp is that even free users get access to email support, but only for the first 30 days after their registration.
You can also access the official MailChimp help center, which contains user guides and tutorials to help you navigate the platform. Likewise, there’s an official marketplace where you can hire vetted MailChimp experts (for a fee) to help your marketing efforts.
Constant Contact offers email and phone support to all paying users, unlike MailChimp which limits phone support to the highest tier. However, we observed a lot of complaints from customers about the platform’s customer service being inadequate. For reference, Constant Contact has a low rating of 1.4 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot, although MailChimp has the same score.
All things equal, we consider Constant Contact’s customer service to be better than MailChimp’s, given that the former doesn’t limit the support options according to pricing tiers.
Pricing
One big difference between MailChimp and Constant Contact is that the former has a free tier, while the latter doesn't. You must pay to use Constant Contact, which gives it a disadvantage against MailChimp, although there’s a long 60-day free trial period.
MailChimp offers three premium plans; Essentials for $11 / £11 / AUD$16 per month, Standard for $17 / £17 / AUD$25 per month; and Premium for a high $299 / £299 / AUD$499 per month. The Essentials plan supports a maximum of 5,000 monthly emails to 50,000 contacts, the Standard plan supports 6,000 monthly emails to 100,000 contacts, and the Premium plan is unlimited.
Constant Contact offers two plans; Core, starting at $9.99 / £9.99 / AUD$14.99 per month, and Plus, starting at $45 / £45 / AUD$70 per month. The price of both plans rises depending on the number of contacts. For example, you'll pay $35 / £35 / AUD$55 per month for 501-2,500 contacts and $300 per month for 45,001-50,000 users on the Core plan, or $70 / £70 / AUD$100 per month for 501-2,500 contacts and $410 per month for 45,001-50,000 contacts on the Plus plan.
MailChimp is a much more affordable tool than Constant Contact.
Verdict
MailChimp and Constant Contact each have their pros and cons. Constant Contact is a more versatile marketing tool than MailChimp and offers a better user experience. Yet, MailChimp provides better customer support and is much more economical to use.
We consider MailChimp the superior tool for individual and small business users. Constant Contact is best suited for big enterprises with high marketing budgets.
