Mailchimp vs Constant Contact (2026)

Mailchimp is the better pick for most small businesses that want automation on a budget. It has a free plan for up to 250 contacts, and its Standard plan includes flows of up to 200 points from $20 a month, while Constant Contact keeps custom automations for Premium, from $80. Constant Contact is the better fit if you run events, are a nonprofit that can prepay, or want to phone a person from the cheapest plan. It has no free plan, but its 30-day trial asks for no credit card. Prices checked November 4, 2026.

Pricing compared

Both companies price by plan and list size. These are US starting prices, billed monthly, checked November 4, 2026:

Plan level	Mailchimp	Constant Contact
Free	$0 for 250 contacts	No free plan
Entry	Essentials, $13 for 500 contacts	Lite, $12
Mid	Standard, $20 for 500 contacts	Standard, $35
Top	Premium, $350 for 10,000 contacts	Premium, $80

At the entry level the sticker prices are a dollar apart, but the plans hold different things. Mailchimp Essentials gives you 3 users, campaign scheduling, A/B testing and flows of up to 4 steps. Constant Contact Lite gives you 1 user and 1 automation template, and it can't schedule emails or test subject lines. To get scheduling and 3 users on Constant Contact you need Standard, which costs $35 against Mailchimp's $13.

Mailchimp gives more at the mid level. Its Standard plan costs $20 for 500 contacts and adds flows of up to 200 points, predictive segments, custom reports and Intuit Assist. Constant Contact Standard costs $35 and adds 3 active automations, 10 custom segments, resend to non-openers and its AI Campaign Builder, but custom automations wait for Premium.

The top plans don't line up neatly. Mailchimp Premium starts at 10,000 contacts, so its $350 entry price isn't comparable with Constant Contact Premium's $80 at its smallest tier. Mailchimp publishes every tier: at 10,000 contacts Essentials is $110 a month, Standard $135 and Premium $350. We could not read Constant Contact's prices for larger lists, so ask it for a quote at your list size before you decide.

Constant Contact takes 15% off if you prepay for 12 months, which brings Lite to $10.20 a month, Standard to $29.75 and Premium to $68, and paying for 6 months takes 10% off. Mailchimp's marketing plans bill monthly, though it was offering 15% off the first 12 months for lists over 10,000 contacts when we checked. Mailchimp also sells Pay As You Go email credits with Essentials features, which suits someone who sends a few times a year.

Sending limits and list counting differ too. Mailchimp lets Essentials send 10 times your contact limit each month, Standard 12 times and Premium 15 times. Constant Contact allows 10, 12 and 24 times on Lite, Standard and Premium, then charges $0.002 for each extra send, or $2 per 1,000. Mailchimp bills subscribed, unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts unless you archive or delete them. Constant Contact bills the highest number of active email contacts you had during the billing period, and deleting contacts mid-period doesn't lower it.

Free plan, trial and refunds

Mailchimp is the only one of the two you can use for free. Its Free plan covers 250 contacts and 500 emails a month (no more than 250 a day) for 1 user. You can't schedule campaigns or build flows, Mailchimp branding stays in your emails, and email support lasts for your first 30 days. If your list grows past 250, Mailchimp holds sending until you upgrade or trim the list.

Constant Contact offers a 30-day trial instead. Its pricing page says you don't need a credit card, and you can send up to 100 emails in that time. You can build landing pages, surveys, events and automated emails during the trial, but you can't publish them until you pay. After you buy, a 30-day money-back guarantee covers your first plan.

Mailchimp's trial covers Essentials or Standard for 14 days, and its offer terms ask for valid payment details when you sign up. If you want to test the paid features before handing over a card, Constant Contact's trial is the easier start. If you want to keep sending for free while a small list grows, Mailchimp is the only option here.

Automation, segments and testing head to head

Automation is the biggest gap between the two at the lower price points.

Mailchimp Essentials allows flows of up to 4 steps, which covers a short welcome series. Standard opens up flows of up to 200 points with branching, plus advanced segmentation, predictive segments that group contacts by how likely they are to buy, and custom reports. For a welcome series, an abandoned cart reminder and a follow-up after purchase, Standard at $20 a month for 500 contacts handles all three.

Constant Contact counts automations differently. Lite allows 1 active automation and Standard 3, both built from pre-made templates such as a welcome email or a birthday email. Standard adds an automatic resend to people who didn't open. Custom automations, ecommerce automation templates and taking contacts out of a path automatically all need Premium, from $80 a month.

Segments follow the same pattern. Constant Contact Lite allows 1 custom segment, Standard 10 and Premium as many as you need. Standard adds ready-made segments based on engagement and store activity, and only Premium segments by ecommerce activity you define yourself. Mailchimp segments by tags, fields and activity, and adds predictive segments on Standard.

Testing favors Mailchimp. A/B tests start on Essentials, and multivariate tests, which try several subject lines, content blocks or send times at once, run on Standard and Premium. Constant Contact tests subject lines on Standard and Premium and lists no multivariate testing. Constant Contact Premium does add a click heat map that shows where people click inside an email.

Email building, AI, events and SMS

Both have a drag-and-drop email editor with templates on every plan. Mailchimp lets Standard and Premium send your own coded templates. Constant Contact includes its AI Content Generator on every plan for drafting emails, landing pages, social posts and texts, and Standard adds Campaign Builder, which suggests a full campaign from your goals. Mailchimp's AI writing help, Intuit Assist, comes with Standard and Premium at no extra cost, and Mailchimp labels it a beta in English for selected countries.

Events are Constant Contact's clearest advantage. Every plan includes event registration forms, taking payments and selling products, an RSVP block you drop into an email, and survey pages. A local business running classes or a nonprofit running a fundraiser can invite, register and follow up from one account. Mailchimp has landing pages, sign-up and pop-up forms and surveys, but neither its pricing page nor its features page lists event registration.

Constant Contact also posts to Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn from every plan, with scheduling from Standard. Premium adds Google Ads Manager, Facebook Lookalike targeting and SEO recommendations for your website.

For text messages, Constant Contact Premium includes 500 a month, and Lite and Standard can add texting from $10 a month for up to 500 messages. Its help center says texting works for US and Australian accounts. Mailchimp sells SMS as an add-on for paid plans in selected countries.

Ease of use, seats and apps

We didn't test either product in an account, so this section sticks to what each plan allows.

Seats matter if more than one person builds emails. Mailchimp gives 1 user on Free, 3 on Essentials, 5 on Standard and unlimited on Premium. Constant Contact gives 1 on Lite, 3 on Standard and unlimited on Premium. A team of four can work on Mailchimp Standard from $20 a month, while on Constant Contact it needs Premium from $80.

Both help you get started. Constant Contact lists live one-to-one onboarding on every plan and priority onboarding on Premium. Mailchimp Standard includes one onboarding session, and Premium adds four sessions with a dedicated specialist.

Both have iOS and Android apps. Mailchimp's lets you create and edit campaigns, read reports and add contacts. Constant Contact's lets you add, search and filter contacts and manage campaigns, though importing contacts from a file works on iOS only. Each lists more than 300 integrations, and Constant Contact names Shopify, Eventbrite, Canva and Zapier among them, so check your own apps against both lists before you choose.

Support and the companies behind them

Constant Contact puts live help on every plan. You can phone US and Canada support Monday to Friday from 8am to 8pm ET and on Saturday from 10am to 6pm ET, or chat with a representative Monday to Friday from 3am to 8pm ET. Ask a Trainer sessions run on weekdays from 10am to 4pm ET, and Premium accounts get a dedicated priority support team.

Mailchimp gives every paid plan 24/7 email and chat support, starting with Essentials at $13 a month. Phone and priority support come only with Premium, from $350 a month. Free accounts get email support for 30 days. If you want chat at any hour, Mailchimp covers that from its cheapest paid plan. If you want to pick up the phone on a small budget, Constant Contact is the one to choose.

Mailchimp started in Atlanta in 2001 and has belonged to Intuit, the company behind QuickBooks, since 2021. Constant Contact was founded in 1995, is based in Waltham, Massachusetts, and has been an independent company owned by affiliates of Clearlake Capital and Siris Capital since February 2021. Nonprofits get 15% off Mailchimp, while Constant Contact gives them 20% off for six months prepaid or 30% off for a year, with no discount on monthly billing.

Who each one suits

Pick Mailchimp if you want to start free, need multi-step automation without paying for a top plan, or have a small team that shares one account. Standard at $20 a month for 500 contacts includes most of what a growing shop or service business needs. Expect the bill to climb as the list grows: Standard is $135 a month at 10,000 contacts.

Pick Constant Contact if you run events, classes or fundraisers, are a registered nonprofit that can prepay, or want to call support from day one. Its Lite plan is a fair start for one person sending a monthly newsletter, but most growing accounts end up on Standard or Premium for scheduling, extra users and custom automations.

If you sell online and want to see which email, link or source brought in each sale, Platformly imports sales from Stripe, Paddle, Shopify and WooCommerce and ties them to the same contact records your automations use. If price is your main concern, MailerLite has a free plan with automations and lower paid prices than either. If you want SMS and live chat in the same account, look at Brevo.