In this article, we compared one of the oldest marketing platforms, Constant Contact, with five other alternatives. Constant Contact, being one of the pioneers of email marketing, managed to evolve over almost 30 years into a strong marketing platform with strong event and social marketing functions.
While Constant Contact is one of the great platforms to consider for your business, what are Constant Contact alternatives? In this article, we also talked about some old and new players among email marketing platforms: AWeber, GetResponse, Klaviyo, Selzy, and MailerLite. While we did not have the opportunity to cover in this article all the pluses and minuses of email services like Constant Contact, we, nonetheless, tried to highlight some of the most pronounced strengths and weaknesses of each.
Check out the key takeaways in the table below and keep on reading to discover all the details.
AWeber
Features
AWeber is a Constant Contact alternative with advanced email automation tools, drag-and-drop builder, and behavioral automation. Besides, the company is considered to be the inventor of the autoresponder function.
AWeber is focused primarily on email functions, which makes it lacking in overall functionality in comparison to some other platforms. Nonetheless, its email-related features, like A/B testing, autoresponder follow-ups, and segmented subscriber lists based on user actions, are considered to be its strong side.
Constant Contact, on the other hand, decided to diversify and evolve beyond just email marketing. What sets it apart from other platforms is its event management tools and social media campaign capabilities.
Both platforms provide a variety of email templates and a built-in image library. AWeber templates are considered modern, responsive, and plentiful too. Nonetheless, while some templates are available on the AWeber free plan, Constant Contact is missing this option due to a different pricing policy.
Pricing plans
AWeber offers a free plan for up to 500 subscribers, which includes most of the platform’s primary features, making it a great choice for new businesses or those with a limited budget. The paid plans start from $12.50 per month and offer an unlimited number of subscribers and a good set of features.
The Constant Contact pricing model seems to be less advantageous with no free plan and its Lite plan starting at $12.50/month for up to 500 subscribers and altogether quite limited functionality. In the Constant Contact model, prices increase with the number of contacts and additional features, such as advanced automation and customer segmentation.
User interface and ease of use
All in all, AWeber is considered to have an intuitive and clean interface. It allows users to quickly grasp the full functionality of the tool without a steep learning curve. The drag-and-drop email builder and the ability to easily create automated campaigns make it an attractive option.
Unlike most other platforms, the set of its features is presented not under Features but under the Menu tab, which makes it somewhat confusing, even though it is not critical for overall exploitation.
Constant Contact, similarly, is considered to have a user-friendly interface that smoothly guides users from account setup to campaign execution. Its design prioritizes simplicity and efficiency, making it a similar alternative to AWeber in this regard.
Integration capabilities
AWeber offers an impressive choice of 850 integrations, which makes it a strong Constant Contact competitor in this regard. While providing all the essential options like WordPress, Shopify, and PayPal, it might, nonetheless, miss out on more specialized integrations available with Constant Contact.
Customer support and resources
Constant Contact provides excellent customer support with multiple channels, including phone, email, and live chat. Support is available during extensive business hours to accommodate a wide range of time zones and includes access to a comprehensive knowledge base and community forums. Users on all plans can access its support and resources.
AWeber also offers strong support options, which nonetheless vary depending on the plan. While all plans include email and chat support, phone support is not available on a free plan. Plus, its unlimited plan includes a personal account manager. Users note the quality of AWeber support across all mediums, as well as its extensive knowledge base.
Business sectors
While Constant Contact is particularly advantageous for businesses engaged in direct event marketing or those that utilize social media campaigns, AWeber, on the other hand, is suitable for a broad range of businesses. They are particularly popular with small to medium-sized enterprises or solopreneurs. It is used by YouTubers, bloggers, and small e-commerce shops alike.
Types of businesses using AWeber
GetResponse
Features
GetResponse stands out with its straightforward email and newsletter builder that guides users through the design process on a single page. Plus, its templates are considered to be superior to many competitors and can be easily customized or created from scratch, including options to design in HTML.
Its automation is considered to be advanced and user-friendly in comparison to many other alternatives.
GetResponse also includes a lesser-known but effective website builder, offering easily customizable templates through a code-free editor.
The Constant Contact automation seems to be overall less advanced and does not offer a multi-channel option. Similarly, its template library, while being rather extensive, might benefit from being updated with more modern and better-looking templates.
GetResponse might exceed Constant Contact in automation and email templates. Nonetheless, it does not make it better than Constant Contact—just two platforms might prioritize different functions, which makes them both a better choice for different audiences.
Pricing plans
Altogether GetResponse looks like a more reasonably priced option in comparison to Constant Contact. Thus, the price for 2500 contacts on its Email Marketing plan is $23.8 per month (if billed annually). For the same number of contacts on Constant Contact’s Lite plan, you will pay $50.
Besides, GetResponse offers a free forever plan, unlike Constant Contact. Even though it is quite limited and mostly fits for testing the platform, it is still a good offer.
GetResponse’s higher tiers come with automation, integration, customer support, and other useful options.
User interface and ease of use
GetResponse gets overall positive feedback on its user interface, with users calling it user-friendly and easy to use. While it might have a slightly steeper learning curve due to its more advanced features, once familiar, users can efficiently manage complex campaigns, automate workflows, and analyze detailed reports.
Constant Contact is also praised for its user-friendly interface that is straightforward to navigate, making it ideal for beginners and those who prefer simplicity in their marketing tools.
Integration capabilities
GetResponse provides a choice of over 170 integrations with e-commerce, CRM, social media, and CMS apps, which is considered to be not enough by some users in comparison to other platforms.
Nonetheless, GetResponse offers integrations with e-commerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce, CRMs like Salesforce, and other popular tools like WordPress and Slack.
Customer support and resources
GetResponse provides robust support with 24/7 live chat and email, ensuring users can get help whenever needed. The platform also provides a comprehensive help center, including video tutorials, webinars, and a rich blog full of marketing tips and strategies. While phone support is limited to higher-tier plan subscribers, users find this function overall amazing.
In this regard, the platforms can be equally complimented, with Constant Contact similarly praised for the quality of its support.
Business sectors
GetResponse is considered to be a platform that can serve both small businesses and larger enterprises that require sophisticated marketing automation and good e-commerce functionality. It’s a strong choice for online businesses, digital marketers, and companies that host webinars as part of their marketing strategy.
Klaviyo
Features
While Klaviyo, of course, offers features like automation, analytics, and integrations, what makes it one of the best Constant Contact alternatives is its segmentation capabilities. Klaviyo offers a particularly advanced segmentation option with various metrics to shape it for your target audience.
Klaviyo’s automation and analytic tools are also more advanced in comparison to Constant Contact. Nonetheless, a steeper learning curve is the price you’ll have to pay to reap those benefits offered by Klaviyo.
Klaviyo’s new feature—Portfolio—allows you to manage all your accounts in one place. This is a great tool for unifying, comparing, and performance monitoring, all in one place.
Pricing plans
Klaviyo operates on a scale-based pricing model that increases with the number of contacts. Klaviyo offers a free tier for up to 500 emails per month and 250 contacts. The pricing can get significantly higher as the subscriber list grows, which might be a consideration for larger operations but also a barrier for smaller businesses with fast growth rates.
While Constant Contact also operates on a scale-based pricing model, it does not offer a free plan. If you want to test the platform, you can use its 30-day free trial offer.
User interface and ease of use
While Klaviyo definitely looks like a very professional and well-organized platform with advanced features, some users consider it steering toward more professional marketers that have a good grasp of advanced marketing automation and segmentation techniques.
While the platform takes some time to learn, it offers support to its users in the form of case studies, help centers, and even interactive workshops.
Nonetheless, if you are a beginner and not ready to go into the depths of advanced marketing, you might consider other options to choose from.
While having a user-friendly interface, Constant Contact is designed to help users quickly set up and execute email marketing campaigns without prior experience. This is a better platform for beginners and smaller companies with less advanced needs.
Integration capabilities
Klaviyo offers a good range of 300+ integrations, particularly with e-commerce platforms, including Shopify, Magento, and WooCommerce. Klaviyo’s integrations are designed to leverage real-time data from these platforms to enable powerful segmentation and personalization features.
Constant Contact integrates with a wider range of platforms, allowing for wider diversification but providing overall less advanced data leverage across platforms.
Customer support and resources
Constant Contact provides excellent customer support, with options including live chat and phone support across all plans.
Klaviyo offers no phone support, while email and chat support are available for its paid plans. The free plan has email support for the first 60 days. Considering that Klaviyo is targeting businesses with more advanced marketing needs, its customer support might have been more advanced and diverse.
Nonetheless, Klaviyo places a strong emphasis on education, providing users with extensive documentation, training webinars, and a community of users.
Business sectors
Like Constant Contact, Klaviyo is well-tailored to a wide range of businesses of all sizes, especially to e-commerce and retail marketing. Considering that the platform is rather advanced, it might not fit solopreneurs or bloggers, which might require more straightforward options.
Selzy
Features
Selzy is a newer platform that focuses on making the overall email marketing experience both pleasant and effective for its users. It provides advanced automation tools with more than 12 different pre-designed templates. Its segmentation also comes out as strong, with 70+ criteria for customer segmentation.
Being focused on email deliverability, Selzy encourages A/B testing as well as provides drag-and-drop templates, supported by a built-in media gallery and AI-supporting tools.
In comparison to Constant Contact, the platform seems to have fewer email templates, which is sometimes observed by users.
Pricing plans
Selzy pricing models seem to be both flexible and affordable. The platform offers a free plan, which includes both personalization and automation options. Its Lite plan starts at just $7 per month and 1000 contacts for unlimited emails, which seems to be a good deal. Other plans look very reasonably priced too, while offering good sets of features, including full campaign management service on a premium plan.
The Constant Contact pricing model looks less flexible and attractive in comparison. Unlike Selzy, it does not offer a free plan, and its monthly price for 10K contacts and 120K emails comes at $160 on a Standard plan compared to Selzy’s $49 for the same number of contacts and an unlimited number of emails.
So, if you are looking for free Constant Contact alternatives, Selzy might be your preferred choice.
User interface and ease of use
Selzy’s platform is designed to be user-friendly, especially for those who are less experienced in email marketing, offering guided workflows and smart recommendations to enhance user engagement. Selzy features a modern interface that is considered to be “friendly,” “intuitive,” and even “the best.”
Constant Contact, similarly, is also considered to be a user-friendly platform, easy to navigate and manage email campaigns with minimal technical knowledge.
Neither of the platforms requires a steep learning curve to start creating great email campaigns.
Integration capabilities
Several Selzy integrations, which account for just 22 tools, might be considered its limiting factor. While it does integrate with WordPress, Shopify, HubSpot, and some other major services, it is still rather limited in this regard in comparison to most other platforms, including Constant Contact.
Customer support and resources
Both platforms seem to be equally helpful when it comes to their customer support.
Selzy offers 24/7 customer support on all plans via chat and email, which is considered to be great. Constant Contact helps its users via email, phone, and chat during extended working hours and is also highly valued by users.
Business sectors
With its easy-to-use marketing approach, Selzy targets small and medium-sized companies from different sectors, as well as startups that prioritize innovation and efficiency in their marketing strategies. Considering the included automation builder and some other useful features, it seems like an attractive offer.
MailerLite
Features
MailerLite might be one of the newer alternatives to Constant Contact. Email automation is easy to use and has an auto-resend option; nonetheless, some users find it a bit too simple in comparison with other platforms.
Its segmentation seems, on the other hand, quite advanced, offering to apply different conditions and filters to your subscribers.
MailerLite has a large choice of email templates, while their drag-and-drop design requires no special knowledge to build an email. It is also supplemented with a plain text editor and HTML editor.
Analytics might not be the strongest side of MailerLite, as the platform offers it on a somewhat basic level.
Pricing plans
When it comes to pricing, MailerLite seems like a great alternative to most other platforms. It offers a free plan with up to 1000 subscribers and 12K emails per month.
Its paid plans also come out as very reasonably priced: on the Growing Business plan, you can get 10K subscribers and unlimited emails just for $73 dollars a month. For the same number of contacts and a limited number of emails, Constant Contact charges more than twice—a substantial difference. No free plan is offered by Constant Contact—another point to MailerLite.
User interface and ease of use
Both platforms are considered to have very user-friendly interfaces. Nonetheless, MailerLite, being a platform for small businesses and beginners, takes it to the next level. It makes the process of email creation simple and intuitive, both for professionals and beginners.
Integration capabilities
MailerLite offers a very reasonable number of integrations (148), which includes diverse tools for videos, e-commerce, event planning, project management, and others. Besides, its integration with Stripe allows you to sell products and services right on your landing page.
If there’s a tool that you miss, Mailer Lite still allows you to connect with it by using their API.
Constant Contact’s integration list is more diverse and offers more tools for those specializing in event marketing.
Customer support and resources
MailerLite offers 24/7 email and chat support and, it seems, it does so exceptionally well.
Constant Contact adds phone support on top of two other options and does so similarly well.
Business sectors
Being very reasonably priced, this platform is great for small companies, freelancers, or individual entrepreneurs. It will also be a good option for bloggers since it offers features like video marketing and RSS campaigns.
To Sum Up
In this article, we provided an overview of five email platforms that are like Constant Contact in some ways and different in others. By comparing them between each other, we showcased that all of them have their pros and cons. And that’s the beauty of it, because the good news is—we do not need a perfect tool either. Each platform stands out with some unique features, be it amazing analytics or simplicity of use. Like this, marketers get not one product with different names but real diversity and can choose the provider that fits their needs best.