Constant Contact vs. Mailchimp Comparison: Which is better?

Struggling to get real-time data on customer behavior on your website? Learn how this software can fix it in this Constant Contact vs. Mailchimp comparison.

Tired of email marketing platforms that lack modern tools to win new customers? Try using Constant Contact or Mailchimp.

Both have proven track records of evolving with time. Constant Contact excels at email deliverability, while Mailchimp offers automation tools.

However, how does each perform as an email marketing software?

Let’s find out in this Constant Contact vs. Mailchimp comparison.

Constant Contact vs MailChimp: At a Glance

Criteria	Constant Contact	Mailchimp	Winner
SMB Guide’s Rating	8.8/10	8/10	Constant Contact
Marketing Automation Capabilities	Basic social media posting	Basic automation	Mailchimp
Email Builder	Customization options	Intuitive, easy-to-use	Mailchimp
Personalization & Customization	Dynamic content features	Basic personalization	Mailchimp
Campaign Performance Tracking	Email marketing metrics	Standard metrics	Mailchimp
Email Deliverability	✅	✅	Constant Contact
List Management	Segmentation based on set criteria	Simple lists	Mailchimp
A/B Testing	✅	✅	Mailchimp
Advanced Reporting & Insights	Lacks predictive analysis	Basic reports	Mailchimp
Compliance & Security	✅	✅	Tie
User Experience and User Interface	UI is clean but, in some cases, clunky	User-friendly interface	Mailchimp
Integrations and Compatibility	300+ integrations	300+ integrations	Mailchimp
Customer Support	Phone, live chat, and X	Limited support	Tie
Pricing	$12/mo – $80/mo	Free – $1,600/mo	Mailchimp
Scalability	✅	✅	Klaviyo

Constant Contact: Key Features, Pros, Cons, & Pricing

Constant Contact is an email marketing software built to support general brand marketing. Given its e-commerce-targeted marketing, it suits small and growing businesses. 

Now, Constant Contact offers a good blend of features. Some include a built-in CRM, 200+ templates, and a modern editor. The best part is that it includes phone calls and quick live chats for support.

Pros & Cons

Pricing

Constant Contact’s pricing structure is straightforward. It offers three scalable plans, a month-long money-back guarantee, and a 2-week free trial period.

Billing is monthly or annual, with yearly pre-payments getting a 15% discount.

Here are the plans:

• Lite: $12 monthly (500 emails)
• Standard: $35 monthly (500 emails)
• Premium: $80 monthly (500 emails)

Mailchimp: Key Features, Pros, Cons, & Pricing

Mailchimp is an email marketing software built for small and growing businesses. Over time, it has expanded to include a native CRM, customer journey builder, and more. 

One of its standout features today is the AI tools that help with automation. They make Mailchimp a multi-channel software for modern marketing.

Pros & Cons

Pricing

Mailchimp’s pricing structure is simple, offering four scalable plans with a freemium. The free plan offers limited features and caps contacts at 500.

The billing cycle is monthly, and at the moment, the Standard and Premium plans have a 50% off promo.

Here are the plans:

• Free: $0 (500 contacts)
• Essentials: $13 monthly (up to 1500 contacts)
• Standard: $20 monthly (up to 1500 contacts)
• Premium: $350 monthly (10K contacts)

Marketing Automation Capabilities

MailChimp shines here, providing advanced branching logic and conditional actions. It can trigger email sequences depending on specific contact behavior.

Constant Contact offers basic automation with pre-built workflows for common scenarios.

On trigger range, Mailchimp offers a broader range than Constant Contact. It includes time triggers, engagement, behavior, and custom events.

With cross-channel automation, Constant Contact offers basic social media posting. However, it lacks native support for building automated workflows across them or SMS.

Mailchimp supports multi-channel automation. It allows users to integrate landing pages, SMS, pop-ups, and social media within workflows.

On dynamic content personalization, Mailchimp edges Constant Contact. Mailchimp allows inserting content based on subscriber behavior and attributes.

✅ Winner: Mailchimp

Email Builder

Constant Contact provides 200 responsive email templates categorized by campaign type. However, the templates lack in aesthetics.

MailChimp library is smaller (100), but the templates are visually appealing and modern.

On the email editor, both software offers a builder with drag-and-drop functionality. However, the customization options vary.

Mailchimp’s editor offers advanced capabilities besides the standard features. They include pre-built content blocks.

Both platforms also provide mobile responsive templates that display emails across various devices.

On custom HTML editing, Constant Contact allows direct editing for custom templates. Mailchimp lacks this feature, but its editor caters to most design needs, including importing code from URLs.

✅ Winner: Mailchimp

Personalization & Customization

Mailchimp edges Constant Contact here by providing advanced dynamic content features. It allows users to personalize elements in an email based on subscriber attributes.

On merge tags, Constant Contact offers standard ones for basic personalization.

Mailchimp provides more merge tags, including conditional ones. It allows the display of content based on specific criteria.

On segmentation options, Mailchimp edges Constant Contact. It offers advanced capability, allowing precise targeting based on multiple variables.

With personalization tokens, Mailchimp offers a broader range than Constant Contact. It allows the dynamic insertion of several recipient data within the email text.

✅ Winner: Mailchimp

Campaign Performance Tracking

Constant Contact tracks the essential email marketing metrics. These include CTR, unsubscribes, and open and bounce rates but lack deep ROI tracking.

Mailchimp tracks a broader range of metrics. These include social shares, CTR, open rates, and more. It also offers advanced ROI tracking and e-com integration capability.

On real-time reporting, Mailchimp excels, providing in-depth reporting dashboards. It includes customizable visualizations for granular analysis.

With campaign goal setting, both software allow users to set and track specific objectives. Both software also provide an a/b testing tool for testing the email elements.

Not only that, but they also integrate with analytics tools like Google Analytics.

✅ Winner: Mailchimp

Email Deliverability

Constant Contact shines here, offering a powerful spam testing tool for analyzing emails. Mailchimp also provides a spam checker to check spammy elements.

On sender reputation management, both software monitors spam complaints and bounce rates. However, Constant Contact offers more consistency, unlike Mailchimp, which delivers more emails to the spam folder.

On emergency access control, Constant Contact edges Mailchimp. It offers contact management functionality.

✅ Winner: Constant Contact

List Management

Constant Contact allows segmentation based on basic criteria like email activity and demographics.

Mailchimp segmentation options are broader, allowing for highly targeted campaigns.

On list cleaning, both software offers tools for removing duplicate and dormant contacts. Both also provide subscriber preference management functions.

Lastly, the softwares offers opt-in/out options along with subscription confirmation processes.

✅ Winner: Mailchimp

A/B Testing

Constant Contact A/B testing tool only allows users to test subject lines on the Plus and Premium plans.

On the other hand, Mailchimp A/B testing tools offer more flexibility. It allows users to test various elements of the email content. 

These include content sections, CTAs, subject lines, and more. Mailchimp also allows users to define winning criteria and pick the audience to receive the test variations.

Both softwares make setting the A/B tests straightforward. Regarding reporting, Mailchimp edges Constant Contact.

It provides in-depth reports comparing each variation’s performance. It helps users understand areas needing optimization.

✅ Winner: Mailchimp

Advanced Reporting & Insights

Mailchimp edges Constant Contact here. It provides detailed segmentation reports. It allows users to analyze email performance metrics across multiple segments.

On conversion tracking, Mailchimp supports integration with e-commerce platforms and CRMs. It allows granular tracking of conversions from email campaigns.

Unlike Constant Contact, the best part is that users can create custom conversion goals.Constant Contact lacks predictive analysis.

However, Mailchimp includes ‘Send Time Optimization’ in its top plans for prediction.

✅ Winner: Mailchimp

Compliance and Security

Constant Contact and MailChimp provide CCPA and GDPR compliance tools to manage consent. Both also facilitate data access requests and user processing agreements.

On data encryption, both software use standard SSL/TLS.

With permission-based marketing, Constant Contact offers unsubscribe options in emails. MailChimp requires subscribers to opt in before receiving emails.

✅ Winner: Tie

User Interface and User Experience

The Constant Contact interface is clean but, in some cases, clunky. The good thing is that navigation is straightforward during email creation and sending.

The Mailchimp interface is visually appealing and has more features than Constant Contact. However, the wide range of features makes learning complex for new users.

Both software also offer an editor with drag-and-drop functionality for email creation. However, Mailchimp offers more customization options than Constant Contact.

Regarding pre-designed templates, Constant Contact offers a wider selection (200) categorized by industry. Mailchimp library is smaller (100) but focuses on specific goals like events.

On email preview and testing, Mailchimp edges Constant Contact. It allows previews across various devices and email clients.

Regarding dashboard customizations, Mailchimp offers more options than Constant Contact.

✅ Winner: Mailchimp

Integrations and Compatibility

Constant Contact and Mailchimp integrate with popular CRMs like Zoho and Salesforce. However, the complexity will depend on the CRM and subscribed plan.

On API, Mailchimp edges Constant Contact. Its API is powerful and well-documented for use in integrating custom systems. Constant Contacts’ has limitations in its capability.

Both platforms integrate with e-commerce platforms. However, Constant Contact’s data sync capability has limitations compared to MailChimp’s.

Regarding social media integration, both softwares connect with popular platforms. However, Constant Contact cannot track social media within the workflows.

Both softwares also offer mobile apps capable of managing workflows.

✅ Winner: Mailchimp

Customer Support

Constant Contact offers three support channels: Phone, live chat, and X (Twitter). The response time on X and live chat are the quickest, taking less than 10 minutes.

The feedback is helpful even on technical issues. Mailchimp provides support through email, live chat, and phone (premium plan).

However, the support level depends on the subscribed plan. The good thing is that the agents help give feedback, even on technical issues.

Regarding self-help resources, both softwares provide a blog, glossary, and documentation. They cover topics such as marketing and the software’s inner workings.

✅ Winner: Tie

Pricing

Constant Contact offers three scalable plans but without a freemium. Its Lite plan offers a good entry point for small businesses starting.

However, higher plans become pricier compared to Mailchimp. Mailchimp offers four scalable plans, including a forever-free plan.

It gives it an edge over Constant Contact as an entry point. Unlike Constant Contact, Mailchimp’s paid plans offer a good balance of affordability and features.

✅ Winner: Mailchimp

Scalability

Constant Contact limits scalability because the plans offer fixed contact caps at 500. Exceeding allocated contacts and accessing advanced features requires upgrading.

Unlike Constant Contact, Mailchimp offers flexible contact limits (500-1500). The plans also provide more features suitable for growing businesses.

The best part is that users can purchase add-on features on a need-basis without upgrading.

✅ Winner: Mailchimp

Standout Features of Constant Contact

Constant Contact offers one of the best email marketing software for SMBs to boost sales. Here are two features we found that make it stand out.

SMS marketing

Constant Contact allows businesses to target audiences through SMS marketing. It is a clever way to add a new marketing approach besides email and social media strategies.

Event marketing

Whether it’s a webinar or cooking class, Constant Contact allows users to create, promote, and manage their events. It allows users to become hosts with the most clicks.

Standout Features of Mailchimp

Mailchimp has evolved to become an all-rounded marketing platform for SMBs. Here are two features that make it stand out.

Campaign manager

It allows users to build campaigns across several channels and manage them from one spot. From there, users can define their goals and track their campaign performance.

Content optimizer

It allows users to benchmark their email content against top-performing campaigns in their niche. It also provides data-driven recommendations for improving results.

Constant Contact vs. Mailchimp: SMB Guide’s Verdict

Our Constant Contact and Mailchimp comparison shows that each software has its strengths. Constant Contact excels at email deliverability, while Mailchimp offers robust marketing automation.

However, after an in-depth comparison, Mailchimp wins. Here is why:

Mailchimp offers better reporting, automation tools, and an extensive integration stack. It also includes a forever-free plan, making it an excellent entry point for SMBs.

Choose Constant Contact If:

You are a small business that prioritizes high email deliverability.

Choose Mailchimp If:

Your growing business that needs to use remarketing in its email campaigns.