Mailchimp vs Constant Contact

Mailchimp has a free plan (500 contacts, 1,000 emails/month). Constant Contact has no free plan — just a 60-day trial. This alone gives Mailchimp the edge for businesses that aren't ready to commit.

At 500 contacts: Mailchimp Essentials is ~$20/month, Constant Contact Lite is ~$12/month. But pricing diverges at scale. Mailchimp Standard at 5,000 contacts costs ~$60/month. Constant Contact Standard at 5,000 contacts is ~$80/month. Both scale pricing significantly with contact count, and neither is the best value in the market.

Honest take: both platforms are overpriced compared to alternatives like Brevo (unlimited contacts) or MailerLite (better free plan). If budget is a concern, look beyond these two.

Mailchimp offers stronger automation, better analytics, and a larger integration ecosystem (300+ integrations). Its segmentation capabilities are also more sophisticated, especially on Standard and Premium plans.

Constant Contact has unique strengths: built-in event management tools (registrations, invitations, tracking), 200+ email templates, social media posting from the dashboard, and survey/polling capabilities. These features make it particularly useful for nonprofits, local businesses, and organizations that run events.

Both platforms are designed for beginners and offer intuitive drag-and-drop email builders. Mailchimp's interface is more modern and polished. Constant Contact's interface feels slightly dated but is straightforward and functional.

Constant Contact's biggest usability advantage: phone support on all plans, including the cheapest tier. Mailchimp restricts phone support to Premium users ($350+/month). For small business owners who want to talk to a human when something goes wrong, Constant Contact is more accessible.

Mailchimp's Customer Journeys offer more sophisticated automation: multi-step workflows, conditional branching, time delays, and behavioral triggers. You can build complex sequences that respond to subscriber actions.

Constant Contact's automation is more basic: welcome sequences, birthday/anniversary emails, and simple trigger-based sends. It gets the job done for straightforward use cases but lacks the depth for complex customer journey mapping.

Choose Mailchimp if: You want a free starting plan, need advanced automations, or rely on a large ecosystem of integrations. Mailchimp is the stronger email marketing platform overall.

Choose Constant Contact if: You run events, need phone support on day one, or want a simple platform with 200+ templates and social media posting. Its event management tools are genuinely best-in-class.

Or consider alternatives: Both are overpriced for what you get. Brevo offers more features for less, and MailerLite has a better free plan than either.

Mailchimp is the better email marketing platform overall. Stronger automation, better analytics, a free plan, and a massive integration ecosystem give it the edge for most businesses.

Constant Contact wins on event management and customer support accessibility. But honestly, both are overpriced compared to alternatives like Brevo or MailerLite for what you get in 2026.