This article will compare Mailchimp and Constant Contact, two popular email marketing tools in 2024. Here, we'll compare the ease of use, UI, features and pricing to help make the decision between two a bit easier.

Email is dead. Email does not work anymore. Email is just not that useful.

I have heard of erroneous statements like these for years, and yet e-mail marketing continues to bring billions of dollars of revenue year after year.

Why Email Marketing?

And for those of you who relate to numbers (facts and data), e-mail marketing offers a whopping 4300% ROI.

In other words, email generates $42 for every $1 spent.

Hence, it is safe to say that email is one of the most effective and inexpensive marketing channels out there.

Every day, globally, over four billion users open or read an email.

Perform a Google Search for email marketing platforms, and you will be flooded with ads related to all kinds of e-mail marketing tools.

In the last few years, I have worked with at least six different e-mail marketing tools.

And as digital marketing becomes more complex, e-mail and marketing automation have become more important than before.

What is Email Marketing?

E-mail marketing is not just sending an email to a user.

Segmentation, triggers, flows, templates, creatives, copy and a host of other technicalities go into creating a successful email marketing campaign.

Email Marketing Space

Earlier, I mentioned the availability of dozens of e-mail marketing tools.

Yet, there are two names that continue to come up year after year in the top e-mail marketing platforms list.

I am referring to MailChimp and Constant Contact. 

Both MailChimp and Constant Contact are reputed email marketing automation tools.

While these tools have the same goal (e-mail and marketing automation), they differ in features.

In this article, we will review these two e-mail marketing tools in detail.

The goal is to help you understand the features of MailChimp and Constant Contact, so you can decide for yourself which one is better suited to your needs.

Mailchimp vs Constant Contact: Key Differences

If you are a marketer, email deliverability would mean the world to you in the digital marketing realm.

In my experience using these two platforms, I found the email deliverability rate to be a tad better with Constant Contact than with MailChimp. 

Another difference is in their pricing. While Mailchimp comes with a free plan, you can only use Constant Contact by paying $20/month.

Reporting is better with Mailchimp.

I also found that Mailchimp has more reporting fields than Constant Contact.

What about affordability?

Well, Mailchimp does cost less across each tier when compared to Constant Contact.

But these differences are not enough to give you a complete picture of these two e-mail marketing tools. Let’s dive into MailChimp and Constant Contact.

Mailchimp vs Constant Contact: Overview

Mailchimp

If you want a reputed email marketing software that comes out of the box with a wide range of customizable email templates, MailChimp might be a good choice. With MailChimp, you can automate emails with great ease.

I want to emphasize that Mailchimp was one of the first email marketing solutions that I got my hands wet. Even with its free plan, you can add up to 2000 subscribers. At least that would give you enough room to get started and learn its features. I have always been a fan of analytics. Thanks to its integration with Google Analytics, Mailchimp allows you to dig into data, and analyze what’s working and what’s not.

Constant Contact 

Constant Contact email marketing software resembles Mailchimp in a lot of ways. But, hold on. It is different. We will dive deeper into it later.

For starters, Constant Contact starts at $20 per month and offers unlimited emails. By the way, the first month is free.

Like Mailchimp, Constant Contact comes with a wide range of email templates. The templates are not as fancy and cool as those found in Mailchimp though.

Mailchimp vs Constant Contact: Features

Ease of use

I have had no issues using either of these e-mail marketing platforms.

Both these tools are easy to navigate.

That is why both Mailchimp and Constant Contact are popular among beginners.

You won't have to spend weeks trying to master either of these email marketing platforms.

Having said that, I am a bit more biased towards Mailchimp in terms of ease of use and navigation.

Its editor is more intuitive and faster.

I have observed an issue with most email marketing tools- navigating back and forth when creating an email marketing campaign.

Mailchimp does not have that issue.

You can easily move forward and backward and review various steps of the campaign in Mailchimp. In this regard, Constant Contact is not that great. I feel Constant Contact still uses a legacy design and navigation pattern (UI and UX both). 

Design and Flexibility

There is no shortage of email design options with Mailchimp. Based on my last check, it offers around 100 templates.

It gives you the flexibility to add custom fields.

Registration Forms 

You cannot have a successful email marketing automation setup without focusing on registration and sign-up forms.

Mailchimp offers opt-in messages that you can customize and test. The one thing I dislike is the use of the Hex color code. It could get a little annoying at times.

Constant Contact, on the other hand, offers 200 design templates. Mailchimp offers templates across different categories such as ecommerce, holidays, and events, thus making it easier for the user to find.

Both Mailchimp and Constant Contact work with HTML. A slick functionality of Mailchimp is that it allows you to import the HTML code both from a URL and a ZIP file.

Layouts 

Have you wondered what the layouts are in Mailchimp? These are just fancy names for blank templates. Think of these as an empty canvas where you can add content (images and text). 

With Mailchimp, you would get more flexibility and features. Whether it is more content blocks or creative features, Mailchimp does a good job.

In this regard, Mailchimp is better than Constant Contact.

Mailchimp vs Constant Contact: Integrations

Given the age we live in, third-party integration is almost essential to getting the best-of-breed tools. Email marketing is no different.

For instance, you want your content management system (CMS) such as WordPress or Shopify to integrate with your email marketing automation. The same applies to your CRM (customer relationship management) and email marketing.

If you have an e-commerce store, you want to make sure you can integrate your email platform with your site to get insights about your prospects and customers. And lastly, social media integration is crucial, so you can boost your outbound efforts.

Mailchimp wins hands down when it comes to integration.

This email marketing platform offers integration with over 700 tools, such as SalesForce, WordPress, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and others.

Constant Contact offers around 450 integration possibilities. Although it is less than Mailchimp, it still has more than enough. Constant Contact integrates seamlessly with Shopify, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other platforms.

Mailchimp vs Constant Contact: Rate of Deliverability 

Say you send 1000 emails a day, and only 600 are delivered.

That’s bad for your business.

You want to work with an email marketing tool that delivers most of your emails.

If an email lands in the recipient’s spam folder, it is not considered delivered.

This is where technology comes into play.

With Mailchimp’s Omnivore technology, you can be sure that your email follows all ethical practices that improve its deliverability.

Constant Contact comes with a spam check tool to ensure your email is good to get.

As per data, Constant Contact offers a deliverability rate north of 95%.

In my experience, the deliverability rate with Constant Contact is better than that of MailChimp. 

Measurement: Reporting and Analytics

Alright, you sent 10,000 emails.

What next?

You want to measure the email campaigns' progress.

How many people opened the email?

How many bounced?

What actions did your users take on the email?

These and many more questions help devise a good email marketing strategy.

With Mailchimp, you can easily track bounce rates, open rates, and click-through rates. This platform also offers interactive graphs to understand your performance. Thanks to its click map, you can understand what part of the email is most compelling to your users.

You can also compare the metrics of your email campaigns with industry averages. This allows you to understand whether you are falling short, or excelling. Mailchimp lets you track revenue and average order value from your emails. Use the average performance per hour to understand what time works best for your users.

Constant Contact offers most core metrics such as bounce rates, open rates, and click-through rates. However, unlike Mailchimp, Constant Contact does not offer a click map. Overall, in the reporting domain, Mailchimp has better and more intuitive features than Constant Contact.

Mailchimp vs Constant Contact: Customer Support

I am a big proponent of using tech that is backed by responsive customer support.

Since email marketing has a lot of tech behind it, it makes sense to use a tool that offers round-the-clock support.

With Mailchimp, you get 24/7 email support and live chat help.

What I particularly like about this tool is its extensive knowledge base of videos and documentation. In most cases, you would be able to browse through these and resolve your issue on your own.

If you are on Mailchimp’s free plan, you will get Mailchimp customer support for the first month. From month two onwards, you will not have customer support.

Constant Contact, on the other hand, offers customer support through phone support, email, and chat.

In this regard, Constant Contact is better.

Mailchimp vs Constant Contact: Pricing

Mailchimp Pricing

You can get started with Mailchimp without spending a dime.

That is right.

Mailchimp offers a free plan.

The free version of Mailchimp comes with all the basic features you would need to start email marketing.

Recently, Mailchimp has segregated its products into three areas- Marketing, Websites & E-commerce, and Transactional Emails.

For the sake of this post, we will be focusing on their Marketing product.

Mailchimp Essentials is the next level from the free version.

This tier offers up to 50,000 contacts, and three seats (team members).

It starts at $11 per month.

Next is the Standard Plan, which starts at $17 per month.

This plan comes with 5 seats and up to 100k contacts.

Their Premium plan starts at $299/month and offers unlimited seats and a customized contact limit. 

Constant Contact Pricing

Constant Contact does not offer a free plan.

Constant Contact offers two plans- Core and Plus.

The Core Plan of Constant Contact starts at $9.99 a month and offers up to 500 contacts.

You can also have more contact with this plan at an additional cost.

For example, you would have to pay $35 per month for 501-2500 contacts in Constant Contact.

This plan offers more than 300 email templates, real-time reporting, and live phone and chat support.

The Plus plan starts at $45 per month and includes everything in Core plus additional list growth tools, automated emails, auto-generated segments, conversion and sales reporting, and a personalized kickoff call.

Conclusion

You cannot go wrong with MailChimp and Constant Contact. Both Constant Contact and Mailchimp offer a wide range of marketing automation and reporting features to get you up and running.

Having used these tools for a few years, I find Mailchimp to be more advanced in terms of design, automation, and reporting. It also integrates better with third-party tools.

In terms of pricing, Mailchimp offers some limitations as the number of contacts is tied to the plan or tier. This is not the case with Constant Contact, as you get unlimited contacts with whichever plan you choose.

I never had an issue navigating Mailchimp and Constant Contact. Both are fairly easy to learn and use. If you are a data lover, Mailchimp might impress you more with its A/B testing feature. But, then again, you get higher deliverability with Constant Contact.

The best way to choose one of these is to try them both for at least a week. That way, you will know what works best for you.