Mailchimp vs Constant Contact: Pricing, Plans and Fit

Mailchimp and Constant Contact have sold email marketing to small businesses for a long time. Constant Contact traces its mission back to 1995; Mailchimp was acquired by Intuit in 2021. Both now bundle email, SMS, social posting, landing pages and AI writing help, and both bill by the size of your contact list. The real differences sit in which plan gets which feature, how support works, and how fast the price climbs as your list grows. A bakery with 400 subscribers and a 30,000-contact nonprofit will reach different answers.

The short answer

• Choose Mailchimp for a free start, automation-heavy programs on Standard, and stores that want predictive segments such as customer lifetime value and purchase likelihood.
• Choose Constant Contact for local businesses, event organizers and nonprofits that value phone support, event registration and an affordable top tier with SMS included.
• Price both at your actual contact count before you decide, because both bills rise with every contact tier.

Mailchimp vs Constant Contact at a glance

Pricing and plans

Mailchimp pricing (as of October 2026)

Mailchimp has four marketing plans, priced by contact tier. Free covers up to 250 contacts, 500 sends a month (250 a day), one seat and one audience, with email support for the first 30 days. Essentials starts at $13 a month, with sends at 10x your contacts, 3 seats, 3 audiences, A/B testing and scheduling, and a ceiling of 50,000 contacts (its $385 a month tier). Standard starts at $20 a month, with sends at 12x contacts, 5 seats, up to 200 automation flows, predictive segmentation, generative AI and a ceiling of 100,000 contacts (its $800 a month tier). Premium starts at $350 a month, with sends at 15x contacts, unlimited seats and audiences, phone and priority support, and custom plans for more than 250,000 contacts through sales. Essentials and Standard come with a 14-day free trial that needs valid payment details. Overages apply on paid plans if you exceed the contact or send limit, and a Pay As You Go credit option exists for infrequent senders. See Mailchimp pricing.

Constant Contact pricing (as of October 2026)

Constant Contact sells three self-serve plans, priced by contacts and email sends. Lite starts at $12 a month with 1 user, 1 automation template, 1 custom segment, basic reporting and sends at 10x contacts. Standard starts at $35 a month with 3 users, email scheduling, subject line A/B testing, 3 automation templates, an AI campaign builder, 10 custom segments, open and click reporting and sends at 12x contacts. Premium starts at $80 a month with unlimited users, unlimited custom automations and segments, dynamic content, Google Ads Manager, SEO recommendations, revenue reporting, 500 SMS messages a month and sends at 24x contacts. Prepaying for 12 months cuts those starting prices to $10.20, $29.75 and $68 a month. Extra sends cost $0.002 each, or $2 per 1,000 over your allowance, and your emails keep going out. Lite lists above 50,000 contacts and Multi-Account setups of 5 or more accounts are priced by sales. See Constant Contact pricing.

The headline numbers mislead in one direction each. Mailchimp looks cheaper in the middle ($20 against $35), but many features people expect, like predictive segments and send time optimization, only start at Standard. Constant Contact looks far cheaper at the top ($80 against $350), but a starting price only tells you the lowest contact tier each vendor will sell that plan at. Run both calculators at your real contact count.

Channels

Email is the core of both. Around it, Mailchimp adds landing pages, forms and pop-up forms, and social posting on every plan, with social post scheduling and Google retargeting ads from Standard up. SMS is a paid add-on in select countries; credits are issued monthly and unused credits expire, and MMS is limited to Standard and Premium for US and Canada contacts. Mailchimp also sells transactional email (formerly Mandrill) as an add-on on Standard and Premium.

Constant Contact posts to Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and other networks, includes a social ads manager, and lets every plan host events, sell products and take payments. Premium adds Facebook lookalike targeting and Google Ads Manager. Its SMS works only for paid-plan customers in the US, with Text to Join, a local 10-digit number (10DLC) and automated texts such as abandoned cart reminders. If you sell outside the US and want SMS, that settles it.

Automation and segmentation

This is where Mailchimp pulls ahead per dollar. Its Marketing Automation Flows (renamed from Customer Journey Builder in June 2025) allow up to 4 flow steps on Essentials and up to 200 flows on Standard and Premium, with multiple starting points and branching on the upper plans, and Mailchimp advertises 60+ flow templates. Standard also brings predictive segmentation, behavioral targeting, customer lifetime value, purchase likelihood, dynamic content, send time optimization and multivariate testing.

Constant Contact ships ready-made automations for a welcome series, cart abandonment, thank-you series and birthdays, resends to non-openers from Standard, and tags contacts automatically by clicks, purchases or event attendance. Building your own path, with custom starting points, branching and actions, is a Premium feature, as are unlimited segments and dynamic content. Fine for a monthly newsletter plus a welcome series. Tight if you want ten behavior-driven flows on the middle plan. For the basics of how triggers and flows fit together, see our guide to email marketing automation.

Data and integrations

Both list 300+ integrations. Mailchimp highlights Shopify, WooCommerce, Square, Stripe, Wix, Squarespace, Salesforce, Canva and Zapier, and its one-click site tracking pixel supports Shopify, Wix, WooCommerce and custom sites, which feeds the purchase and page-view data behind its predictive segments. Constant Contact lists Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Canva, LinkedIn, Vimeo, Zapier, Shopify and Eventbrite, connects stores on Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix and Squarespace so you can drop products into emails, and offers a V3 API for developers. If most of your customer data lives in a store platform, Mailchimp's pixel and predictive segments do more with it.

AI features

Mailchimp includes generative AI features at no additional cost on Standard and Premium, including Write with AI in the email editor. Intuit Assist is in beta for certain Premium, Standard and legacy users in select countries, in English only, and Intuit Intelligence (beta, limited availability on paid plans) adds Analytics AI that explains which campaigns drive revenue. Mailchimp also connects to ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Codex and Google Workspace, so you can draft email and SMS campaigns from an assistant.

Constant Contact's Assistant sits inside the app as a chat: it drafts emails, texts and social posts, applies edits you ask for, reports on campaign results, and adds or updates contacts. Every plan includes the AI copy generator; the AI campaign builder starts at Standard. Constant Contact can also turn each email into social posts. Both are writing aids first. Neither replaces a marketer deciding what to send.

Support and onboarding

Constant Contact wins this one on paper. Every plan gets live phone and chat support plus live 1:1 onboarding, and Premium gets priority onboarding and a dedicated priority support team. Mailchimp gives Essentials and Standard 24/7 email and chat support, keeps phone and priority support for Premium, and offers personalized onboarding sessions on Standard (1) and Premium (4) during the first 90 days. On the Free plan, email support ends after 30 days.

Who each is for

• Mailchimp fits online stores and growing small businesses that want to start free, then run several automated flows and predictive segments on Standard without paying for a top tier.
• Constant Contact fits local businesses, franchises, real estate agents, associations and nonprofits that send newsletters and promote events, want a person on the phone, and are mainly marketing to US contacts.

Limits of each

• Mailchimp: Essentials is thin (4 flow steps, basic segmentation, no generative AI), so most teams end up on Standard.
• Mailchimp: Premium starts at $350 a month, a large step up from Standard.
• Mailchimp: on the Free plan, sending pauses when you hit the contact or send limit, and SMS credits on paid plans expire monthly.
• Constant Contact: no free plan, and Lite allows 1 user, 1 custom segment and 1 automation template.
• Constant Contact: custom automation paths, unlimited segments and dynamic content need Premium.
• Constant Contact: SMS is US only, and its Lead Gen & CRM product is a separate offering sold through a demo.

Which should you choose

Start with two questions. Do you need automation beyond a welcome email? Then Mailchimp Standard gives you more for less. Do you want a human on the phone, events built in, or SMS bundled into a top tier at a small-business price? Then Constant Contact is the calmer choice. A quick test: build the same welcome series in both trials, import a real slice of your list, and price each at your contact count with SMS included. The tool that gets you there with fewer workarounds is your answer. Our roundup of email marketing platforms covers more options if neither feels right.

Alternatives worth a look

If you sell online and want store data driving every message, read Klaviyo vs Mailchimp. If you need a CRM and deeper automation next to email, compare ActiveCampaign vs Mailchimp. And for a wider list, see our Mailchimp alternatives, which include Brevo and MailerLite.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Mailchimp or Constant Contact cheaper?
At the entry level they are close: as of October 2026 Mailchimp Essentials starts at $13 a month and Constant Contact Lite starts at $12 a month (or $10.20 a month when prepaid for 12 months). Mailchimp Standard starts at $20 a month against $35 for Constant Contact Standard. At the top, Constant Contact Premium starts at $80 a month and Mailchimp Premium at $350 a month. Both price by contact count, so compare quotes at your real list size.

Does Constant Contact have a free plan?
No. Constant Contact says it is a paid platform, offers a free trial with no credit card required, and backs new plans with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Mailchimp has a Free plan for up to 250 contacts, with a maximum of 500 sends a month or 250 a day.

Which has better marketing automation?
Mailchimp, for most teams. Its Standard plan includes up to 200 Marketing Automation Flows with multiple starting points and branching, while Constant Contact keeps custom automation paths and unlimited automation templates for its Premium plan. Constant Contact Standard gets 3 automation templates, an AI campaign builder and automatic resends to non-openers.

Do Mailchimp and Constant Contact include SMS?
Mailchimp sells SMS as an add-on to paid plans in select countries, with MMS on Standard and Premium for US and Canada contacts. Constant Contact SMS is available to paid plans in the US only: Premium includes 500 messages a month, and Lite or Standard can add SMS from $10 a month for up to 500 messages.

Which is better for nonprofits?
Both offer discounts. Mailchimp gives nonprofits and charities 15% off after they contact its billing team. Constant Contact gives nonprofits 20% off when prepaying for six months or 30% off when prepaying for 12 months, with no discount on monthly billing. The better pick depends on whether you need events and phone support (Constant Contact) or deeper automation (Mailchimp Standard).