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Comparing Constant Contact and Mailchimp

Why Choose Mailchimp?

Email marketing matters. Even in an age when you can reach your customers across many channels, email is still an effective way to engage your audience. And as the #1 AI-powered email marketing and automation platform*, we know how to help you turn emails into revenue—with tools and insights that optimize your campaigns, personalize content, and maximize conversions.

And with Mailchimp, you also have the advantage of managing all your marketing channels, including email and SMS*, from one unified platform. This consolidation allows you to streamline your efforts, enhance engagement, track ROI, and seamlessly execute your omnichannel marketing strategy with the intuitive editor provided within our platform.

Advantages of a powerful marketing and automations tool

If you use separate platforms to manage different aspects of your marketing, you may be sending performance data back and forth between them and manually importing customer files to make sure everything contains the latest information. This leaves room for error, and can allow crucial data—and customers—to slip through the cracks. A marketing automation platform streamlines your workflow and helps you get the most out of your marketing budget.

Mailchimp’s marketing automation platform compared to Constant Contact email marketing

Of the thousands of reviews for Mailchimp (12,000+) and Constant Contact (5,000+) on G2.com, Mailchimp outperformed Constant Contact in 31 areas of user satisfaction in the email marketing category, including:


  • Ease of use
  • Ease of setup
  • Performance and reliability
  • Data import and export tools
  • Building and personalizing emails
  • Reporting

Comparing Mailchimp and Constant Contact at a glance

Plan

Mailchimp Standard Plan

Constant Contact Standard Plan

Price for Email Sends

$20+ per month

$35+/month 

Price for SMS sends

$20 for 1000 credits with standard vetting

$10/month for up to 500 messages

Marketing Channels and Features

• Email marketing

• SMS marketing

• Social ads and post scheduling

• Campaign Manager to plan, execute and analyze marketing efforts

• Custom domains and landing pages

• Creative Assistant

• Free website builder (publish websites, landing pages and sign-up forms at no additional cost)

• Transactional emails (via API or SMTP and at extra cost)

• Customize with your branding

• Email marketing

• SMS marketing

• Websites (to publish, additional fees apply)

• Landing pages and sign up forms

• Facebook and Instagram ads integration

• Social posting and scheduling

• Campaign calendar

Email Design

• Drag-and-drop builder

• 120+ Customizable templates

• Built-in photo editor

• Image library

• A/B testing for subject lines

• Dynamic product recommendation feeds such as Personalized recommendation, Best sellers

• New arrivals, Random, Recently Viewed Products,

• Most viewed Products

    • Inbox preview (100 tokens)

    • Email scheduling

    • Dynamic content

    • Send time optimization

    • Order notifications

    • Promo code block and other content blocks

• Drag & drop email templates

• Image library

• Photo cropping and resizing

• A/B testing for subject lines

• Dynamic content

SMS Marketing

• Bulk and 2-way messaging

• SMS and MMS campaigns

• Branded link shortener 

• Real-time reporting for both email and SMS including revenue attribution, SMS credits usage

• 13+ Pre-built content templates 

• SMS Automation and multi-channel automation

• Tap/Text to join

• 2-step SMS pop-up form

• Text scheduling

• Bulk messaging

• SMS Campaigns

• Non-branded link shortener

• Regular reporting to track click-rates

• Tap/Text to join

Single-step Automation Series

• 100+ pre-built automations

• Welcome and birthday messages

• Event and behavior-based automations

• 100+ pre-built automations

• Welcome and birthday messages

• Event and behavior-based automations

• Abandoned cart emails

• Product retargeting

• Product recommendations

• Abandoned cart emails

• Product retargeting

• Product recommendations

• Automated welcome emails, birthday email

• Some personalized email functionality

Multistep Automations

A/B and multivariate testing

• AI-generated automations

• Visual automation builder

• Multiple starting points

• Branching points

• Pre-built journeys

• Dedicated explore page

• Drag-and-drop builder

• A/B Testing

• Visual automation builder

• Single starting point

• Branching points

• Triggered email series

Reporting and Analytics (from reported data)

• Marketing dashboard

• Audience analytics dashboard

• Custom reports

• Data on many key marketing metrics including open, bounce, and clickthrough rates

• Real-time campaign analytics

• Click map

• Interactive data visualization

• ROI tracking across all channels

• Revenue reporting

• Heat map

• Campaign comparison report

• Basic engagement and reach reporting

• Drilldown reporting

Customer Support

• Email and chat support 24/7

• Social media support

• Award-winning customer support

• Comprehensive support article database available in-app and on Mailchimp.com

• Personalized onboarding within your first 30 days

• Phone and chat support 6 days per week

• Twitter & crowd-sourced support

• Learning resource library

SMS Marketing*

Both Mailchimp and Constant Contact offer effective SMS marketing solutions, but businesses may opt for one over the other depending on their specific needs and preferences.

Using Mailchimp, you can reach and grow your customer base through SMS messaging. With multi-step Email & SMS pop-up forms, embedded forms and landing pages, you can effortlessly build your SMS subscriptions and expand your contact list. Additionally, you have the flexibility to upload contacts and add tags to customer data, allowing for segmentation and organization.

Mailchimp lets you craft integrated email and SMS journeys through the same platform in tandem, engaging audiences simultaneously across channels. Whereas Constant Contact doesn't have automation capabilities to trigger SMS journeys.

With Mailchimp's SMS capabilities, you can create meaningful connections and drive results for your business by sending tailor-made messages. Show your audience that you genuinely care about their preferences by utilizing SMS to send transactional follow-ups, customer support messages, and foster deeper customer relationships through personalized 1-1 messaging. Constant Contact does not offer 1-1 messaging with customer or transactional follow-ups.

Marketing automation

Mailchimp and Constant Contact both offer robust automation features, but there are some differences between the two platforms.

Mailchimp’s Standard plan offers several different automation tools to keep you connected with your customers, including:

  • Welcome emails triggered by signups
  • Emails sent on birthdays and other special days to show customers your appreciation
  • Product retargeting emails for customers who don’t complete a purchase
  • Special offers and promo codes for high-value customers
  • Customer Journey Builder to give you control over your automations
  • Advanced segmentation to target an ultra-specific set of contacts

Mailchimp’s marketing automations keep you connected to your audience while you attend to other areas of your business. With Mailchimp’s Customer Journey Builder, you can create experiences for your customers based on their interests and how they interact with your business, from prospect to purchase. The builder’s visual interface makes it simple to use and understand. Drag-and-drop functionality for your starting points, branching points, and specific actions allow you to tailor your journeys to deliver personalized, targeted messaging at every stage. 

Plus, pre-built journeys can keep your audience engaged from the start. With Mailchimp, you can choose the messages you automate based on your business’s needs, and you get several pre-built automation options at every level, including on the Free plan. Although the Customer Journey Builder is a paid feature, you can build a journey on the Free plan to see if it's the right automation solution before you upgrade.

Optimize with AI-powered content tools*

Mailchimp generated 8M+ data-backed recommendations through its AI-powered features in 2022 alone.* By harnessing our advanced AI tools, you can effortlessly inspire your customers to take action.

In-line content creation

Let AI create the first draft of your promotions to help drive more customers to your store.

AI-generated automations at scale

Welcome new contacts, recover abandoned carts, and win back lost customers with AI-generated automations and fully-built emails you only need to review and publish.

Reporting

The value of an email campaign lies not just in how much revenue it generates, but also in the insights it provides about what works and what doesn’t.

Constant Contact gives you numbers for opens, click-throughs, and forwards, but they offer fewer advanced reporting features than Mailchimp.

Mailchimp’s in-depth reporting capabilities let you analyze audience responses and see what parts of a campaign draw the most customer interaction. You can also track your return on investment (ROI) across all channels, including your website, email list, and social media accounts when you connect your store to your Mailchimp account. This helps you learn which campaigns are working and if you should use any of your marketing funds differently.

300+ seamless integrations

Work smarter by sharing information between Mailchimp and your business’s other online accounts.

Easily connect with hundreds of the apps and services you use every day, including Square, Salesforce, Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce and QuickBooks Online.

Customer support and onboarding services

Get started with ease when you’re new to Mailchimp with personalized onboarding, included in every paid plan, in the first 30 days. Our Onboarding Specialists offer 1:1 support to help you get set up and get going more quickly.

Constant Contact features a knowledge base on their website with resource articles, tutorials, and guides. If you need more help, Constant Contact has a directory of 3rd-party experts who you can hire.

Mailchimp’s award-winning support team offers all users 30 days of chat and email support and paid users ongoing 24/7 chat and email support in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French. Premium plan users also have access to phone support.

From 2020 through 2022, Mailchimp has won 13 prestigious Stevie® Awards for exceptional Sales and Customer Service, including a 2022 Stevie® Awards Gold for “Empowering Our Customers During Times of Uncertainty”. You can count on our support team to provide the answers you need for your growing business.

In addition to these by-request services, Mailchimp also offers an in-depth library of resource articles, guides, and tutorials and a directory full of 3rd-party experts who are available for hire if you need extra assistance.

Switching to Mailchimp is easy

We have plenty of resources to help you along the way, and for the first 90 days, every Mailchimp paid Marketing plan includes personalized onboarding to help you get set up and get going more quickly.*

*Disclaimers:

  1. #1 AI-powered email marketing platform: Based on December 2023 publicly available data on number of customers of competitors that also advertise using AI to enhance their email marketing and automation products and services.
  2. SMS Marketing: SMS is available as an add-on to US paid plans only and SMS credits are added to your account after purchase. Application and agreement to terms is required before purchasing credits. Credits are issued monthly and unused credits expire and do not roll over. MMS only available in Standard and Premium plans. Pricing varies. See terms for details.
  3. Up to 7x more orders: Up to 7x more orders generated through users' connected stores versus when they used bulk emails for Jan 1 2022 - Jul 1 2023 period. Features and functionality of CJB varies by plan.
  4. 9 out of 10 easy to onboard: Based on Mailchimp survey of Assisted Onboarding service users who had an opinion from Oct 2022 - May 2023. Onboarding services differ by plan.
  5. Intuit Assist: Intuit Assist functionality (beta) is available to certain users with Premium, Standard and Legacy plans in select countries in English only. Access to Intuit Assist is available at no additional cost at this time. Pricing, terms, conditions, special features and service options are subject to change without notice.  Availability of features and functionality varies by plan type. Features may be broadly available soon but represents no obligation and should not be relied on in making a purchasing decision. For details, please view Mailchimp’s various plans and pricing.
  6. 8 Million+ data-backed recommendations: 8M data-backed recommendations based on 2022 data for the following products: Product recommendations, Send Time Optimization, A/B testing, CLV segmentation, Likelihood to Purchase Segmentation, and PBJ.
  7. Onboarding services: Onboarding services differ per plan and are available for new or upgraded users with a Standard or Premium plan for the first 90 days after account creation or upgrade. Onboarding services are currently offered in English, Spanish and Portuguese for Premium plans, and in English for Standard plans.
  8. Availability of features and functionality varies by plan type. For details, please view Mailchimp's various plans and pricing.
  9. Comparisons based on features and prices listed on ConstantContact.com as of 1/2/24.
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