Constant Contact Vs. MailChimp: Which is the Better Email Marketing Tool?

Among the possible ways to connect with customers, email marketing is the most effective and convenient. Indeed, Pay Per Click advertising and social media advertising are also helpful but not as much as email marketing. 

One interesting thing about email marketing is that it lets you effectively connect with old and new clients. That means you can build a community of loyal customers and stay in touch with them by using this marketing technique. 

But the main concern is using the right tool for email marketing. Since there are multiple options, you can quickly get confused. You can, however, eliminate this confusion by choosing either Constant Contact or MailChimp. 

MailChimp vs. Constant Contact: Summary 

MailChimp is one of the largest email marketing applications used by thousands of people. The highlight of this tool is that it has an excellent program and offers interesting features. 

Another reason people select MailChimp is that it’s modern, simple to understand, and has flat designs. In addition, it has a mobile application, which makes it convenient. It also offers a free plan. 

While Constant Contact doesn’t have as many users as MailChimp, it’s still considered a reliable email marketing tool.

As far as the plans are concerned, its payment plans are affordable. Although Constant Contact doesn’t offer a free plan, it offers a 60-day trial.

MailChimp and Constant Contact: Features Compared

Ease of Use and Editor

Whether you choose Constant Contact or MailChimp, you can expect to be able to navigate the interface intuitively. The friendly interface makes both the tools excellent for beginners.

Among these two, if you have to pick one based on ease of use, it should be MailChimp. That’s because it comes with advanced features. Also, it looks more modern and works faster than Constant Contact. 

Furthermore, MailChimp also features an outstanding navigation menu. It lets you create a campaign and move forward or backward with zero difficulties.

On the other hand, Constant Contact has some advanced features, but those are a bit difficult to understand. Some features are hidden in the menu and don’t feel very handy. 

Winner: The clear winner of ease of use and editor section is MailChimp because its advanced features make creating a campaign uncomplicated.

Further Reading: Email Subject Line Statistics To Help You Maximize Your Open Rates

Design and Flexibility 

When it comes to templates and designs, you will be quite impressed with both tools. Their designs are modern, and they do not look dull. Also, both the tools let you use HTML. 

MailChimp offers about 100 fewer templates than Constant Contact does. However, it comes with sevaren’tully-customizable layouts to help you get creative with how your site looks.

You can use functional layouts like product recommendations and content blocks on your site. You can import HTML code via a .zip file or URL.

On the other hand, Constant Contact offers more templates, but those aren’t as customizable. The templates are not as user-friendly as those on MailChimp.

Winner: MailChimp has fewer templates, but it’s a clear winner here.

Email Marketing Features 

For better email marketing, Constant Contact offers decent autoresponders. In addition, this tool lets you add coupons and surveys. 

MailChimp also offers autoresponders, but it also prsubscriber’sation. The automation features enable you to set up email sequences and campaigns triThat’s by segments.

Besides this, you also get the A/B split testing option. You can also set up complex, multivariate testing, but those features are unlocked by paying extra.

Winner: MailChimp offers a few more email marketing platform features that are usisn’t

Registration Forms 

Registration forms are an essential tool that can make or break your subscriber’s list. If you prefer an uncomplicated form-building process, we recommend MailChimp. That’s becasubscriber’sore customization options and boasts a drag and drop editor.

In contrast, Constant Contact does not offer as many registration form customization options. You can change the font, background, image banner, and color, but the interface isn’t intuitive. You will need to click acan’t a lot to make simple changes in the design.

However, it does let you creatit’sQR code that can directly be linked to the forms.

Winner: Constant Cthey’rehas some cool features, but the intemail’sis not user-friendly. It makes MailChimp the better option for registration forms.

Spam and Design Testing

Next comes the span and design testing. If you want to send good-looking emails to your subscriber’s inboxes, choose MailChimp. This platform works with a third-party tool called Image Preview. 

With this tool, you get the freedom to see how your created newsletter looks on different devices. 

On the other hand, Constant Contact offers better spam testing features, but you can’t entirely rely on them.

Winner: The winner of this round is MailChimp, but it’s a soft win. 

Reporting 

Solid reporting features are a must, since they’re your only window into checking an email’s performance. 

With Constant Contact, you can see who has opened the newsletter and clicked on the link inside. Furthermore, this platform has Google Analytics Integration for tracking conversions.

On the other hand, you get plenty of cool reporting features on MailChimp as well. 

These include social media reports, geo-tracking, and click maps. Besides this, it also comes with a unique eCommerce conversion tracking feature. With its help, you can get an idea of when products are sold from your store.

Winner: The clear winner of this section is MailChimp, as it offers the best feature and has the most interesting reporting system. 

Deliverability Rate

An email is seen as successfully delivered in the customer’s inbox when it doesn’t go into the spam folder. The percentage of emails delivered is called the deliverability rate. 

You can effectively measure the success of an email before the targeted customers read it with the help of the deliverability rate. 

After monitoring the performance of both these tools, we can say that Constant Contact has better and more consistent email deliverability than MailChimp. 

Surprisingly, Constant Contact does a better job considering MailChimp is better than its competitor in many areas.
Winner: As you can see, the clear winner of this round is Constant Contact since it delivers emails more reliably.

Integration and Extras

With more and better integrations, your email marketing ROI can improve. But choosing the right integration is not easy. 

Comparing the two tools based on the number of integrations they offer is not the right way to go.

There are different kinds of integrations, each adding unique sets of features. You can use CRMs to set up lead-nurturing emails and upsell emails. On the other hand, Using a content management system with your email marketing tool will enable you to improve brand awareness.

Accounting and billing integrations allow you to collect unique customer data and use them in your email campaigns. Using social media integrations is an excellent way to extend a brand’s reach.

The quality of integrations and what you get out of them is more important than the variety and diversity of integrations available to you.

MailChimp can integrate with over 200 apps and web services. But Constant Contact does not offer these many integrations. 

MailChimp integrations include Twitter, SalesForce, WordPress, WooCommerce, Instagram, and Facebook. However, MailChimp does not offer an integration with Shopify, which can be a setback for some marketers.

On the other hand, Constant Contact offers direct integration with Shopify and also Facebook, Zapier, and WordPress, among others. 

Earlier, this tool had event management software available at $45 per month, but now it’s removed. Instead of this, users are offered Eventbrite for free.

Winner: The clear winner of this section is MailChimp because it offers more integrations that you can rely on. 

Customer Support 

Customer service is an essential feature that cannot be overlooked. The best thing about MailChimp customer support is that it is available 24/7 via live chat and email service.

Constant Contact offers phone and chat support. In addition to this, the platform also regularly checks social media like Twitter and community forums during weekends. But their support is not as good as they claim. 

That said, support responses often take too long, and Constant Contact’s cancellation system is also quite time-consuming. Getting support can be frustrating in some cases.

Winner: MailChimp offers better support and hence is more reliable overall.

Price 

MailChimp offers a free plan, but its Essentials plan is slightly more expensive than Constant Contact’s Core plan. MailChimp offers four plans:

• Free: With the free plan, you get access to MailChimp’s marketing CRM, the website builder, creative assistant, a MailChimp domain, and forms and landing pages. You can add up to 2,000 contacts and send up to 1000 emails per month. 
• Essentials: Starting at $11/month, in addition to offering everything in the free plan, it offers a customer journey builder, custom branding, A/B testing tools, and email and landing page templates. 
• Standard: The standard plan starts at $17/month and offers features such as send-time optimization, behavioral targeting, custom templates, dynamic content, and everything in the Essentials plan.
• Premium: The Premium plan is the company’s flagship offering, boasting advanced segmentation features, multivariate testing, comparative reporting, unlimited sends, and much more.

On the other hand, Constant Contact does not provide a free plan. But it lets its users try the platform for 60 days.

It offers two price plans. They are:

• Core: Starting at $9.99/month, the plan offers over 300 email templates, social media posting features, real-time reporting, contact storage and organization features, and all the email marketing features you need to get started.
• Plus: The Plus plan starts at $45/month and offers some additional customer list growth tools, automated emails, auto-generated segments, and conversion and sales reporting features.

Winner: MailChimp is clearly priced better and is more affordable

Niche Features 

The last comparison factor is niche features. So, to deliver a better experience, both platforms have added website builder offerings. Along with this, MailChimp also offers appointment scheduling software. Constant Contact is best known for its niche event management features. 

MailChimp vs Constant Contact: Side-by-Side Comparison

MailChimp and Constant Contact are highly popular email marketing tools. These long-standing companies offer better service and plans and are reliable.

But certain differences make them unique. Scroll down to check out the MailChimp vs Constant Contact comparison table.

Considering this comparison chart, you can conclude that MailChimp has got 4.1 out of 5 stars, whereas Constant Contact has 3.6 out of 5. 

MailChimp vs. Constant Contact: Pros and Cons 

MailChimp is a leading marketing solution that can help you send and analyze email campaigns. It also comes with third-party integrations, and its email templates are quite impressive. 

MailChimp Pros

• One interesting thing about MailChimp is that its free plan comes with 2000 contacts and 10000 sends per month. 
• In addition, it has automation features that you can use to send personalized product recommendations and follow-ups. 
• Lastly, it has thorough reporting that lets you take the help of Google Analytics Integration and group-tracking to generate better results.

MailChimp Cons

• While MailChimp is an extraordinary marketing solution, its interface can feel a bit odd and chunky. 
• As far as customer support is concerned, you might not be very impressed with it. 

Constant Contact is also a powerful marketing solution. It is getting popular in the market because of its marketing automation features. You can use the features to send personalized, targeted emails. 

Constant Contact Pros

• The interesting thing about Contact Contact is that it offers more than 300 different templates from which you can find the right one.
• It has blacklisted several domains and has strict affiliate link policies. 
• This marketing solution also offers coupon features. That means you no longer have to rely on external integrations. 

Constant Contact Cons

• The only downside of Constant Contact is that it has limited reporting and A/B testing capabilities. 

Final Thoughts: Which One Should You Choose?

Both MailChimp and Constant Contact are useful marketing tools. But if you compare the two, MailChimp is better in almost all aspects. It’s affordable, offers better reporting, and has a flexible design. 

But if you don’t want to use MailChimp, then Constant Contact is an alternative. It’s equally useful and is packed with interesting features. 

Also, if you are looking for a very-easy platform or want simple list management, then Constant Contact is recommended. If you want, you can also check these MailChimp alternatives.