Constant Contact vs Mailchimp: Which Email Marketing Platform Is Better?

For every dollar you spend on email marketing, you stand to earn 36 more for your business. That’s an impressive return on investment (ROI). So, you might be looking for the best email marketing software to boost your income.

If you’re debating between Constant Contact vs Mailchimp, you’ve come to the right place. While these email tools are similar, they offer different levels of features. You’ll want to know the key details of each tool before making a decision. This includes their user interface, pricing, and more.

In this post, we’ll take a closer look at what an email marketing platform does. Then, we’ll compare Constant Contact vs Mailchimp in terms of features, security, and more. Let’s dive right in!

What Is an Email Marketing Platform?

Before we compare Constant Contact vs Mailchimp, let’s discuss email marketing platforms more broadly. This way, you’ll have a better sense of how they work.

To put it simply, this is software that lets you build and send email marketing campaigns. Typically, an email marketing solution will provide you with the following:

• An email builder and email templates. Often, you’ll be able to use an intuitive, drag-and-drop editor to design your email campaigns. To help you streamline the process even further, many platforms give you ready-made email templates.
• Email automation and advanced segmentation. Automation features can help you boost productivity and reach more people. Similarly, having the ability to segment subscribers into different groups enables you to target the right users at the right time.
• Ecommerce features. Since email marketing software is often designed for online businesses, it should provide you with some basic ecommerce features. For instance, you might be able to send order notifications, product recommendations, and items in cart reminders.
• Essential integrations. Email marketing tools can also integrate with your pre-existing ecommerce software. For example, if you use WordPress, you might be able to use a dedicated plugin to connect your site with your email marketing platform.
• Optimization tools and reports. Sometimes, it will take some experimentation to perfect your email marketing strategy. That’s why the best email platforms give you optimization tools, like the option to run A/B or multivariate tests. You may also view reports on the performance of your marketing emails.

In addition to these email marketing features, you’ll also have access to a customer support team to help you troubleshoot any issues with your campaigns.

Constant Contact vs Mailchimp: 4 Key Factors Compared

Now that you know more about what an email marketing platform can do, here’s our comparison of Constant Contact vs Mailchimp.

Key Features

Let’s begin with the main features that each of these email marketing tools has to offer. We’ll start with Constant Contact:

This comprehensive email marketing solution gives you everything you need to run successful campaigns. That includes:

• A drag-and-drop editor for creating emails
• 200+ customizable email templates
• Marketing automation, including for abandoned carts, birthdays, and welcome emails
• List-building tools and advanced segmentation
• Landing page templates, A/B testing, and reports
• An AI content generator with some basic functionality

As you can see, you’ll have everything you need with Constant Contact’s features. However, it’s worth noting that the platform is specifically geared toward small businesses. Therefore, some of its features only give you the most basic functionality (more on this later).

Now, let’s take a look at Mailchimp:

This is one of the most popular email marketing platforms you’ll find. It provides the following:

• A drag-and-drop editor
• 100+ email and landing page templates
• Advanced marketing automation that gives you everything from welcome emails to recommendations
• Ultra-specific segmentation thanks to the Customer Journey Builder
• Advanced analytics, reports, and AI-assisted optimization tools
• AI content generator and Intuit Assist are available with some plans (coming soon for all)

As you can see, Mailchimp gives you much more in terms of multi-step automation and AI-powered features. It also has a lot more to offer when it comes to targeted email campaigns for ecommerce.

User Experience/Interface

Next, we’re going to look at the user experience and interface for Mailchimp and Constant Contact. Both platforms give you a drag-and-drop editor, so they’re great for beginners.

When it comes to Mailchimp, signing up is simple. All you need to do is provide your name, email, and some basic information. Alternatively, you can sign up using a social media account.

Then, you’ll be able to use the Mailchimp setup wizard, which asks you some questions to get a sense of what your needs and goals are:

If you take the time to answer these questions, you’ll get a more customized experience with the tool.

When you make it to the end of the wizard, you’ll need to choose a Mailchimp plan. Alternatively, you could use the free version to test it out.

Then, you can check out your Mailchimp dashboard:

As you can see, the interface is highly straightforward, with a neat menu on the left and prompts to help you get started on the right.

To start building an email, click on Create and choose a template. Then, you can customize it in the builder:

You’ll get blocks on the left, which you can drag into your design. Plus, if you’re just getting started, you’ll see tips that guide you through the process.

Constant Contact’s signup process is equally straightforward. Once you’ve created your account, you can access your dashboard and complete the steps for its “onboarding recommendations”:

These steps include creating your first email, adding contacts to your account, and connecting Constant Contact with pre-existing tools.

When you’re ready to design your first email, you can hit Create followed by Email. You have the option to start from scratch or choose a template.

Here’s what the builder looks like:

As you can see, Constant Contact offers a drag-and-drop builder that’s very similar to Mailchimp’s. Its Design tab gives you similar settings to the Style tab in Mailchimp. It even enables you to build an image library.

Still, Constant Contact lacks the more advanced features for optimization that you’ll get with Mailchimp.

Overall, both tools are highly user-friendly, giving you straightforward interfaces to customize your email marketing campaigns.

Integrations and Security

Now, let’s talk about integrations. Constant Contact integrates with all the major ecommerce platforms, including Wix, Shopify, and WooCommerce. It also works well with Stripe and Facebook Ads.

Mailchimp offers all that and more. You can check out its integrations directory to see if it’s compatible with a specific tool.

In terms of security, that’s more determined by your email host. We’ll discuss this more in the next section.

Pricing

Both Mailchimp and Constant Contact offer three premium plans. However, Mailchimp also has a free version, and Constant Contact allows a generous 60-day free trial.

Contact Contact’s plans range from $12-80/month. Meanwhile, Mailchimp’s range from $13-350/month.

Generally, these pricing plans are pretty similar in terms of the limits and storage they offer. So, if you’re choosing between the mid-level plans, pricing might not be that relevant.

The Importance of a Secure Email Hosting Provider

By now, you should have a good sense of what Mailchimp and Constant Contact have to offer. While it’s difficult to say which is the better email marketing platform, hopefully you know which solution is the right one for your needs.

In addition to an email marketing tool like Constant Contact or Mailchimp, you’ll also need a quality email hosting provider for your “business as usual” emails, like SirsteveHQ.

With SirsteveHQ email hosting, you’ll be able to create a custom email domain for your business.

What’s more, all of SirsteveHQ’s email hosting plans give you a dedicated IP for increased security and improved email deliverability. Plus, you’ll get superior spam protection, multiple email accounts, and an integrated calendar.

You’ll also get support for all the essential email authentication protocols, including POP3 and IMAP, as well as SMTP.

Finally, you’ll have access to a 24x7x365 support team to help you solve any problems that arise.

Conclusion

When it comes to Contact Contact vs Mailchimp, both tools are excellent for building email lists, driving conversions, and growing your business. Still, you’ll want to choose carefully to ensure that you get the functionality that you need.

Overall, Constant Contact is probably a better option for small businesses that only need basic automation and integration features. On the other hand, Mailchimp offers a set of advanced features to help mid-sized and scaling companies. For instance, it gives you AI-assisted content generation and multi-step automation.

Regardless of the platform you choose, you’ll want to pair it with a secure email host like SirsteveHQ. Check out our plans today!