Constant Contact and Mailchimp are the two platforms that show up first when a small business owner searches for email marketing. They have been direct competitors for over two decades. Both are beginner-friendly, both cover the basics, and both are significantly less expensive than enterprise alternatives like HubSpot or Salesforce Marketing Cloud. So which one is worth your money — or in Mailchimp's case, worth starting with for free?
This is an honest comparison. No affiliate links, no paid positioning. Just what each platform actually does, where each falls short, and a clear recommendation for the type of business each fits best.
Quick comparison: Constant Contact vs Mailchimp
| Feature | Constant Contact | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | ~$12/mo (up to 500 contacts) | Free (up to 500 contacts) |
| Free plan | No — trial only | Yes — 500 contacts, 1,000 sends/mo |
| Paid plan range | ~$12–$80+/mo depending on contacts | $13–$350/mo depending on tier and contacts |
| Automation | Basic — welcome emails, birthday sends | Stronger on paid tiers (Customer Journeys) |
| Event management | Built-in — registration, invites, reminders | Not included natively |
| Phone support | Yes, included | Email and chat only (lower tiers) |
| Integrations | Good — 300+ integrations | Excellent — 300+ integrations, stronger ecosystem |
| Analytics | Standard open/click reporting | Stronger — revenue attribution, A/B testing |
| Learning curve | Very low — simpler interface | Low to moderate — more features to navigate |
| Best for | Non-technical users, event-driven businesses, nonprofits | Businesses wanting free start, stronger automation, more integrations |
Pricing: the most important difference
Mailchimp has a real free plan. Up to 500 contacts, 1,000 sends per month, no credit card required. For a business that is just starting to build an email list — or testing whether email marketing is worth the effort at all — that is a meaningful advantage. You can get a welcome sequence running, add a signup form to your website, and start learning what works before committing any budget.
Constant Contact has no free plan. You get a trial period, then it costs money. Entry-level pricing starts at roughly $12/month for up to 500 contacts. That is not expensive, but it is $144/year for essentially the same feature set you can get on Mailchimp for free at the same contact count. If you have 500 contacts and a tight budget, that gap matters.
Mailchimp free plan reality check: The 1,000-send limit means a list of 500 contacts can receive at most 2 emails per month before hitting the cap. If you want to send weekly, Mailchimp Essentials at $13/month removes the send limit entirely. Constant Contact's base plan has no per-send limit. Verify current pricing at both platforms — rates change frequently.
Once you grow past 500 contacts, pricing for both platforms scales based on list size. At 2,500 contacts, Mailchimp Standard runs roughly $35/month; Constant Contact's standard plan is in a similar range. Neither platform is dramatically cheaper than the other at scale — the free tier is where the pricing story matters most.
Constant Contact deep dive
Constant Contact has been around since 1995. It is not trying to be an automation powerhouse — it is trying to be the email platform that anyone can use without a manual. That bet has paid off with a loyal user base of local businesses, nonprofits, and community organizations that have no interest in building complex behavioral sequences. They want to send a newsletter and get on with their day.
The interface reflects this. Fewer options on each screen means fewer decisions, which means less friction for users who are not native to marketing software. The email editor is clean and the template library is solid. If you have never used an email platform before, you can send your first campaign in under an hour.
The standout feature that Mailchimp genuinely does not match: built-in event management. Constant Contact lets you create event registration pages, send invitations and reminders, track RSVPs, and follow up with attendees — all inside the same platform. For a local business that runs regular workshops, fundraisers, open houses, or classes, this is genuinely useful. Stitching together a separate event tool with an email platform via Zapier is friction that Constant Contact eliminates entirely.
Phone support is the other real differentiator. Mailchimp does not offer phone support on lower-tier plans — you are stuck with email tickets and chat. Constant Contact includes phone support across its plans. For a 60-year-old florist shop owner who needs a human on the line when something breaks, that matters more than advanced automation features they will never use.
Limitations to know:
- No free plan — you are paying from the first month
- Automation is basic — welcome sequences and simple triggers, not behavioral branching
- Analytics are functional but limited compared to Mailchimp's paid tiers
- Less integration depth — works fine for standard tools, but Mailchimp's ecosystem is broader
Mailchimp deep dive
Mailchimp has become the default first email platform for small businesses. Part of that is the free plan. Part of it is name recognition. The larger part, honestly, is that Mailchimp has kept improving while Constant Contact has stayed relatively static. On paid tiers, the gap in automation capability and analytics is real.
The Customer Journeys automation builder — Mailchimp's visual workflow tool — supports multi-step sequences with conditional logic, behavioral triggers, and branching paths. It is not as powerful as ActiveCampaign or Klaviyo, but it is significantly stronger than Constant Contact's automation layer for a business that wants to do more than send a welcome email. You can build a 5-step onboarding sequence that responds differently based on whether a contact clicked your pricing page, purchased, or went quiet.
Mailchimp's analytics stand out on paid tiers. Revenue attribution, click maps, A/B testing, comparative campaign reports — if you want to understand what is working and why, Mailchimp gives you more to work with. Constant Contact shows you opens and clicks. Mailchimp shows you which campaigns drove actual revenue.
The integration ecosystem is Mailchimp's other genuine strength. Shopify, WooCommerce, Squarespace, QuickBooks, Salesforce, Eventbrite, and hundreds more — Mailchimp tends to have the deeper, more maintained integration. For an ecommerce store that wants abandoned cart flows and product recommendations without heavy configuration, Mailchimp's Shopify integration has been a standard setup for years.
Limitations to know:
- No phone support on lower tiers — email and chat only
- The free plan's 1,000-send cap is easy to hit if you are sending to the full 500-contact limit more than twice a month
- Pricing can get expensive fast — contact-based scaling means costs jump at 1,000, 2,500, 5,000 contacts
- More features also means more decisions — the interface is less streamlined than Constant Contact for pure beginners
Mailchimp is the industry standard for a reason. But "industry standard" does not mean "best for your specific situation." Constant Contact has held its user base for 30 years by being genuinely easier for people who are not marketers.
Ease of use: who each platform is really built for
Both platforms have drag-and-drop editors. Both have template libraries. Both are described as "easy to use" on every review site. The real difference shows up in the experience of a first-time user.
Constant Contact strips the interface down. Fewer tabs, simpler menus, less to configure. If you log in, find a template, drop in your content, and hit send — it works. There is not much in the way. That simplicity is the product. Nonprofits have adopted it in large numbers for exactly this reason: staff turnover means new users who need to get up to speed without a training program.
Mailchimp has more options, which means more surface area to navigate. That is not a flaw for marketers — it is a feature. But for a local restaurant owner who just wants to send a weekly specials email and not think about automations, segmentation, or A/B tests, Mailchimp can feel like a lot. The free plan gets you in the door. Learning the full platform takes more effort.
Automation: where the real gap is
For basic automation — a welcome email when someone signs up, a birthday offer, a follow-up after a purchase — both platforms handle it. Constant Contact covers these use cases cleanly. If that is all you need, neither platform is lacking.
Past that baseline, Mailchimp pulls ahead. Customer Journeys lets you build sequences that branch based on whether contacts opened an email, clicked a specific link, or hit a custom event. You can add wait steps, conditional splits, and tag contacts based on behavior. It is not ActiveCampaign-level depth, but for a small business that wants to run a 3-step post-purchase nurture sequence or a re-engagement campaign for contacts who have gone cold, Mailchimp on a paid plan can handle it without outside tools.
Constant Contact's automation is functional but limited to linear sequences. You can build a welcome series. You cannot build an automation that responds differently to contacts based on their behavior within the sequence. If that conditional logic matters to you, Constant Contact is not the right tool.
Who each platform is for
The business is non-technical and wants simplicity above all else. They run events (workshops, fundraisers, open houses) and need registration built in. Phone support matters. They are a nonprofit, local retailer, or community organization. They do not need behavioral automation.
Budget is tight and a free starting point matters. They want stronger automation on paid tiers. They need a broad integration ecosystem — Shopify, WooCommerce, CRM connections. They are comfortable with a slightly more complex interface and want more analytics data to work with.
They need behavioral automation that rivals ActiveCampaign, deep ecommerce triggers (Klaviyo territory), or a platform with a built-in CRM and deal pipeline. Both Constant Contact and Mailchimp are beginner-to-intermediate tools. Neither is the right call for a mature marketing funnel.
The decision framework
Five questions that actually settle this choice:
Do you need a free starting point? If yes, Mailchimp is the only option here. Constant Contact requires payment from month one. For a business that is still validating whether email marketing is worth the effort at all, starting on Mailchimp's free plan and upgrading later is the rational path.
Do you run events? If your business hosts workshops, fundraisers, networking events, open houses, or classes more than a couple times per year, Constant Contact's built-in event tools are worth the price difference. Avoiding the Zapier-plus-Eventbrite stack alone saves time and headaches.
How important is phone support? If you or your team is not comfortable troubleshooting issues through a chat window or email ticket, Constant Contact wins. Mailchimp does not offer phone support on base plans. That is a real difference for certain business owners.
Do you need automation beyond welcome emails? Constant Contact handles the basics. Mailchimp handles intermediate automation on paid tiers. If you are thinking about multi-step behavioral sequences, look at both Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign — they serve different levels of that need.
What other tools do you use? Mailchimp's integration ecosystem is broader and generally more maintained. If you are running Shopify, a specific CRM, or a booking platform and you want a tight native connection, check whether Mailchimp or Constant Contact has the better integration for that specific tool before committing.
Tools that commonly appear alongside this decision:
The automation gap neither platform fills
Here is something both platforms have in common: they do not know what is happening in the rest of your business.
A new customer added to your CRM. A signed contract in your proposal tool. A completed job in your field service software. A paid invoice in QuickBooks. Neither Constant Contact nor Mailchimp sees any of those events unless someone builds a connection between those systems and your email platform. The email platform is just the sending layer. The triggers — the things that should cause a specific email sequence to fire — live somewhere else entirely.
This is the gap we see consistently across small businesses. The email platform is set up. The list exists. A welcome sequence is running. But nobody built the automation that fires a check-in email three days after a job is completed, or a review request one week after a contract is signed, or a re-engagement sequence when a customer has not booked in 90 days. Those triggers require a layer of cross-platform automation that neither Constant Contact nor Mailchimp builds for you out of the box.
Zapier can bridge some of it. Custom integrations can bridge the rest. But someone has to design the trigger logic, build the connection, and test that it actually fires when it should. Most small businesses never get there — not because they do not want those automations, but because it requires time and technical work that falls outside running the actual business.
Not sure which sequences are missing from your email setup — or whether your existing automations are actually firing correctly? We audit your email stack and show you exactly what's working, what's not, and what it would take to connect your email platform to the rest of your tools.
Get a Free Automation Audit →Your email platform is only as useful as the triggers connected to it.
Constant Contact and Mailchimp both send email. Neither knows when a new customer lands in your CRM, a job closes in your field service software, or a contract gets signed. We build that connecting layer so the right email goes out automatically — without manual work.
Frequently asked questions
It depends on what you need. Mailchimp has a free plan (up to 500 contacts, 1,000 sends per month) and stronger automation on paid tiers — it is the better starting point for most businesses. Constant Contact has no free plan but offers better phone support, stronger event management tools, and a simpler interface that non-technical users tend to find easier to navigate. If cost is the deciding factor and you are just getting started, Mailchimp wins. If you run events or want a human on the phone when something breaks, Constant Contact is worth the $12/month.
No. Constant Contact does not offer a free plan. It offers a trial period, but paid plans start at approximately $12/month for up to 500 contacts. Mailchimp is the platform in this comparison that offers a genuine free tier — up to 500 contacts and 1,000 sends per month, no credit card required.
Mailchimp's free plan covers up to 500 contacts and 1,000 email sends per month. Paid plans start at $13/month (Essentials) and scale up based on contact count, reaching roughly $350/month at the top Standard tier for large lists. At 10,000 contacts, expect to pay around $100/month on the Standard plan. Always verify current pricing at mailchimp.com.
Both have beginner-friendly drag-and-drop editors, but Constant Contact has the edge for non-technical users. Its interface is more streamlined, support options include phone (which Mailchimp does not offer on lower tiers), and its feature set is less overwhelming for someone who just wants to send a newsletter and promote an event. Mailchimp has more features overall, which also means more decisions to make.
Both platforms are email tools. Neither knows what is happening in the rest of your business — a new customer added to your CRM, a completed job in your field service software, a signed contract in your proposal tool, or a paid invoice in your accounting system. Connecting those triggers to an email sequence requires a layer that neither platform builds for you. That is the gap Aplos AI closes: we connect your email platform to the tools you already use so the right email goes out automatically based on what actually happens in your business.