Constant Contact Review: Features, Pricing, & Alternatives

Constant Contact is an email marketing platform that helps businesses create and send newsletters and other campaigns. With so many handy features, it sounds promising. But does it really live up to expectations?

This review of Constant Contact will break down its features, so you know exactly what to expect from the platform.

SMB Guide’s Verdict for Constant Contact

Constant Contact is a reliable email marketing service that we rate 8.8 out of 10.

In the first place, we appreciate its clean and intuitive interface, which makes it easy to navigate. Then, we were impressed with the email builder, which offers a variety of templates and customization options. Its email builder also comes with an AI writing assistant.

But be aware that Constant Contact currently doesn’t offer a free plan, and its free trial is limited to 14 days.

Factor	Rating (out of 10)
Pricing & Plans	7.6
Marketing Automation Capabilities	9
Email Builder	9
Personalization & Customization	9
Campaign Performance Tracking	8.8
User Interface and User Experience	8.9
Integrations and Compatibility	9.2
Customer Support	8
SMB Guide Rating	8.8

In this review of Constant Contact, I’ve followed SMB Guide’s detailed criteria for evaluating the email marketing software.

Pricing & Plans

Constant Contact offers 3 pricing plans: Lite, Standard, and Premium. It also offers a 14-day free trial.

Lite

Price

• $12/month

Features

• 1 user only
• Drag & drop email templates
• AI content recommendations
• Polls & surveys
• Automated welcome email
• Contact management
• Registration forms
• Web sign-up forms
• Post on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn
• Social reporting
• Marketing campaign calendar
• 300+ integrations

Who it’s for: Small businesses just starting out with basic email and social marketing.

Standard

Price

• $35/month

Features

• Scheduled email sends
• Subject line A/B testing
• Subject line personalization
• Reach and engagement reporting
• Drilldown reporting
• Resend to non-openers
• Automation path templates
• Contact segmentation
• Social media ads manager

Who it’s for: Growing businesses that want advanced email and social marketing tools with automation.

Premium

Price

• $80/month

Features

• Dynamic content in email
• Engagement heat map
• Custom automation paths
• SMS reporting
• Facebook Lookalike Ad targeting
• Revenue reporting
• SEO recommendations

Who it’s for: Large organizations that need robust tools for custom automation, segmentation, and advanced reporting.

Marketing Automation Capabilities

The automation process with Constant Contact begins with selecting a template from many options. These include welcome series, anniversary and birthday campaigns, abandoned cart follow-ups, and thank-you sequences, among others.

Once you’ve chosen a template, you’ll be directed to the automation editor. This is where you can customize your campaign’s triggers, rules, and actions.

The interface features a main screen for visualizing your automation path and a sidebar containing elements you can add.

First off, the interface stood out to me. On the left, there’s this path builder that shows your entire automation flow.

Below that, you’ve got all these actions and rules you can drag and drop into your automation. I also had fun playing around with the condition splits—these let you create different paths based on yes/no scenarios.

It’s pretty cool how you can personalize the journey for each contact. Overall, I found Constant Contact’s automation tool to be a nice balance of power and ease of use.

It gave me all the tools I needed to create some pretty sophisticated campaigns, without any headache I’ve experienced with some other platforms. So, I believe this would be a big plus for beginners who might be intimidated by more complex platforms.

Email Builder

What I liked right off the bat was the variety of email templates. They’ve got everything from newsletters to sales promotions and event announcements. I picked a newsletter template, as shown below.

The interface is laid out nicely. On the left, you’ve got all your building blocks—buttons, dividers, social share options, polls, you name it.

What I found useful was the image section right next to it. You can upload your images there and easily drag them into your email.

The design settings were a pleasant surprise too. I enjoyed playing around with fonts, colors, and even button styles. It gives you a lot of control over the look and feel of your email.

Now, here’s where it gets interesting—they have this AI writing assistant built right into the editor. I decided to give it a spin. I asked it to whip up a tech newsletter about some new platform integrations and an AI analytics dashboard.

Here’s the exact prompt I tried:

• I need a concise, tech-related newsletter copy tailored for our subscribers. The newsletter should focus on the new integration of our platform with Salesforce and Slack, along with the introduction of the AI-powered analytics dashboard that offers real-time insights into user behavior and trends.

Here’s the result the AI writing assistant gave me:

• We are excited to announce a groundbreaking integration of our platform with Salesforce and Slack, designed to enhance your workflow and streamline communication. This new synergy empowers you to harness the full potential of your data, making collaboration more efficient than ever. Additionally, we are thrilled to introduce our AI-powered analytics dashboard, which provides real-time insights into user behavior and emerging trends. This innovative feature enables you to make informed decisions swiftly, ensuring your strategies are always aligned with the latest insights. Stay ahead of the curve with these powerful tools that promise to transform your experience and drive your success.

On the positive side, it did cover all the points I mentioned. It talked about the Salesforce and Slack integrations, and touched on the AI analytics dashboard. But if I’m being honest, the copy felt a bit dry and generic to me. It’s not bad as a starting point, but I’d definitely want to add some personality to it before sending it out.

One thing that bugged me a bit was the layout of this AI feature. The prompt section and the result look pretty similar, which could get confusing. I think it’d be better if they separated these more clearly, maybe putting the AI stuff in its own dedicated area.

Overall, I enjoyed using the email editor. It’s got a good balance of features without being overwhelming. The AI assistant is a neat addition, even if it needs some refining.

Personalization & Customization

Constant Contact’s segmentation tools enable users to divide their contacts into groups based on shared characteristics or interests. This feature helps you improve open and click rates by sending more targeted emails.

The platform allows for up to 1000 unique lists.

Lists are the most basic form of segmentation in Constant Contact. You can move existing contacts onto specific lists or create sign-up forms that add new contacts directly to designated lists. A single contact can be on multiple lists.

Then, you have tags that take list segmentation a step further. You can label individual contacts with up to 500 unique tags. This feature adds an extra layer of precision to contact organization.

Regarding customization, the platform offers a range of customization options for email templates. You can adjust layouts, colors, fonts, and other design elements to match your brand identity.

Campaign Performance Tracking

I liked how they split the reports into three main categories: emails, contacts, and eCommerce. This makes it super easy for you to find exactly what you’re looking for without having to wade through irrelevant data.

When I clicked on the email reports, I was immediately given the option to choose a date range. This flexibility allows you to zoom in on specific campaigns or get a broader view of your email performance over time.

What else you’ll enjoy is the instant overview you get right off the bat. They serve up some key metrics right away, including:

• Emails sent
• Emails delivered
• Open rate
• Click rate
• Bounce rate
• Unsubscribe rate

But here’s where it gets really interesting—there’s this beautiful section they call the “Email marketing funnel”. I found this useful because it gives you a visual representation of your audience’s journey from the first interaction.

It’s like seeing your entire email strategy laid out in front of you.

The reporting doesn’t stop there, though. As I scrolled down, I found even more detailed metrics:

• Overall click rate
• Opens by device
• Clicks by device
• Top performing campaigns by open rate
• Low performing campaigns by open rate

All these metrics help you understand not just how your emails are performing overall, but also which specific campaigns are hitting the mark (or missing it). This kind of insight is gold when you’re trying to refine your email strategy.

One feature that stood out to me was the ability to download these reports in different formats. Whether you need a PDF for a presentation, a JPG or PNG for a quick visual reference, or a CSV for deeper data analysis, they’ve got you covered.

My opinion on campaign performance tracking capabilities is that whether you’re a data junkie who wants to dive deep into the numbers or a busy marketer who just needs a quick overview, I think you’ll find a lot to like here.

The visual appeal of the reports, combined with the export options, makes the reporting experience insightful and user-friendly.

User Interface and User Experience

The platform’s layout is well-organized. I found it easy to locate all the features I wanted to try without any hassle. The main navigation menu is clear and logically structured, which made my workflow smooth and efficient.

Then, throughout my time using Constant Contact, I didn’t face any unresponsiveness or technical issues. The platform performed consistently well, whether I was creating emails, managing contacts, or checking out the reports  section.

The overall design of the interface is clean. It’s not cluttered with unnecessary elements, which I appreciate.

As someone who’s used different email marketing platforms, I found Constant Contact to be particularly user-friendly. The learning curve isn’t steep, and I was able to get up and running quickly.

Even when exploring more advanced features, I didn’t feel overwhelmed.

Integrations and Compatibility

Constant Contact’s integration capabilities are impressive—we’re talking about a library of over 300 integrations.

What I like is how they’ve organized these integrations into different categories. You have sections for marketing tools, CRM systems, social media platforms, scheduling and booking software, analytics tools, HR solutions, customer support platforms, and a whole lot more.

This categorization makes it super easy for you to find exactly what you’re looking for.

But here’s the kicker: even if you can’t find a direct integration for a specific tool you’re using, Constant Contact has an integration with Zapier. This basically opens up the possibility for thousands more integrations.

Another thing that I like is the search function. Instead of having to scroll through all those integrations, you can just type in the name of the platform you want to connect with. It’s a small thing, but it saves you some time.

What I can add is that Constant Contact’s integrations cater to businesses of all sizes and types. Whether you’re a small startup using basic tools or a large corporation with a complex tech ecosystem, there’s something here for you.

The wide range of integrations means you can customize your setup to fit your specific needs, which I consider to be a major strength of the platform.

Customer Support

All Constant Contact plans come with self-service options, live chat, and phone support. That’s a solid baseline.

If you’re looking for more personalized attention, they offer a dedicated, priority support option with their Premium plan. I didn’t try this myself, but it’s nice to know it’s there if you need it.

I found their live chat feature to be convenient. It’s available Monday through Friday from 3 AM to 8 PM (Eastern Time). That’s a pretty wide window, to be honest.

They also offer live “Ask a Trainer” drop-in sessions. You can take advantage of this when you struggle with some of the more advanced features.

Then, I was surprised to find that they offer weekend support too. You can get phone support on Saturdays, and they’re active on Twitter and their Community forum on both Saturdays and Sundays.

Last but not least, their community forum is a goldmine of information. You can browse through discussions started by other users, and learn from their experience with the tool. They also list upcoming webinars on the community page, which is a good addition.

Another thing I liked about the community page was the “Most Kudoed Authors” section. It’s a great way to identify the most helpful community members.

Now, considering the variety of support options they offer, you’re never far from help when you need it. I’d say the standard offerings were more than sufficient for my needs. If you value good support when choosing a platform, you’ll be pretty happy with Constant Contact.

Constant Contact — Unique Features

Check out the unique features that set Constant Contact apart.

Content scheduling

What’s unique about this feature is that it’s essentially a social media management tool built right into your email marketing platform. Usually, you’d need a separate tool like Hootsuite or Buffer for this kind of functionality, but Constant Contact has integrated it seamlessly.

Using this feature, you can integrate your Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn accounts directly into Constant Contact. This means you can schedule your social media posts in advance, right from the same platform where you’re managing your email campaigns.

What else I found useful was the ability to read and respond to conversations on Facebook and Instagram directly from Constant Contact.

As you probably know, each social media platform has its own quirks and best practices. So, they’ve made it super easy to tailor your content for each platform.

For example, let’s say you want to share the same basic message across Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. With Constant Contact, you can create multiple posts at once, but customize each one for its specific platform.

I liked this because it means I can include URLs in my Facebook post (which works great there), but leave them out of my Instagram post (where they’re not clickable in the main feed).

What the Experts Say About Constant Contact

Take a look at what Constant Contact users are saying about their experience.

We set up a landing page with a form fill, ad traffic to the landing page. Constant contact handled email and responses for all of the opted in addresses, and kept the leads warm while we developed them. Excellent deliverability, easy to use, just a first class software.

Michael N., Consultant – Verified Capterra review

My overall experience with Constant Contact has been very positive. I have seen a noticeable increase in customer engagement and sales since I started using their services. The automation features have saved me time by allowing me to schedule campaigns and follow-ups effortlessly. Customer support has also been very responsive and helpful whenever I had questions or issues.

Hedi S., Informatique – Verified Capterra review

Constant Contact Alternatives

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is a popular all-in-one marketing platform that offers email marketing, automation, and customer relationship management (CRM) tools. It caters to businesses of all sizes, from small startups to large enterprises.

Key features of Mailchimp include an email builder with customizable templates, advanced segmentation options, and marketing automation workflows. The platform also provides a landing page creator and signup forms to help grow your email list.

Start your free trial of Mailchimp today

MailerLite

MailerLite is an email marketing tool solution that offers a straightforward approach to creating and sending email campaigns. MailerLite offers an intuitive drag-and-drop email editor that helps you create attractive emails quickly.

It also offers automation tools to set up email sequences based on subscriber actions.

Sign up for MailerLite today for free

Kit

Kit is an email marketing platform specifically designed for creators, bloggers, and podcasters. It focuses on helping content creators build and manage their email lists, automate their marketing, and sell digital products.

Kit offers a clean and simple email editor that lets you create both text-based and visual emails without much fuss. It provides powerful tagging and segmentation tools to organize your subscribers based on their interests or behaviors. Kit includes visual automation workflows that help you set up complex email sequences easily.

Start your free trial of Kit today

Other options: Best Constant Contact alternatives

Getting Started with Constant Contact

We’ve talked about the key features Constant Contact offers, and we had fun trying them out. If you’re searching for a reliable automation and email marketing tool, you’ll enjoy using Constant Contact.

It’s easy to learn, with a minimal learning curve, so this is a big advantage. Try it for yourself and see how it can improve your email marketing and automation efforts.

Start your free trial of Constant Contact today!