Constant Contact Alternatives: Your Guide to Better Email Tools

Constant Contact Alternatives - The Short List

You’re likely here for two reasons.

One, you’re frustrated with the lack of design freedom and features of Constant Contact’s email templates, or two, you’re looking for a cheaper alternative.

Constant Contact has been around for a long time; nobody can argue that it has earned its place in today’s email marketing software landscape. But times are changing and we’re now spoilt for choice - we get to pick and choose which features are most important to us and what we’re willing to pay.

So, if you’re looking for the best Constant Contact alternatives, for whatever reason, we’re here to help. Let’s look at some popular platforms and how they compare. Is newer always better? Let’s find out!

1. Our Standout Alternative - MailWizz

Yes, yes. We know it’s not nice to blow your own trumpet. But we do happen to think our product is pretty impressive. What makes it stand out from the other alternatives on our list is the fact that it's a self-hosting email marketing platform.

Self-hosting means you manage your email marketing tasks on your own server, as opposed to using a SaaS tool to host it for you. With hosted email software, you will never have full control over your campaign, and here’s an interesting fact: A higher risk of deliverability issues.

How so? You will share email servers with potentially thousands of other users who might not be as good at preventing spam messages as you are. This means a higher risk of your emails not being delivered.

Self-hosting is the next level in email marketing software. To help you decide if this is right for you, here are some of the pros and cons of choosing MailWizz:

Pros:

• No monthly fees: With MailWizz, you will pay a once-off fee of $79. That’s it. For $79, you get an unlimited number of email marketing campaigns and subscribers. That makes us the most affordable Constant Contact alternative on the list.
• Greater control: Fully customize your campaigns to suit your needs, integrate with your existing systems, and ensure data security regardless of where you are in the world.
• Low risk of delivery issues: When installing software on a private server or VPS, it's primarily intended for personal or team usage. This setup minimizes concerns about external users potentially compromising your system's reputation and deliverability rates through spam messages.

Cons:

• With great power comes great responsibility: Your team (or a hired professional) will be responsible for installation, updates and maintenance. A small price to pay for freedom, but we understand that this might be daunting for some. If you have your doubts, MaiWizz offers a full 6 months of free support once you purchase our software.

By the way, we do also offer a Hosted version of MailWizz.

Why Choose MailWizz over Constant Contact?

Choose MailWizz for complete freedom of email campaigns. You control every step in the process, and unlike Constant Contact, there is no limit to the number of contacts or campaigns sent—all for a once-off fee.

In addition, MailWizz allows you to create an endless number of email templates. And for those who want to use an existing template, no problem. You can upload pretty much any email template and it will just work.

We could continue telling you why MailWizz is awesome, but then we wouldn’t have time to give the other providers on our list a fair shot. So why not check out our full list of features instead?

2. Best for automation - Active Campaign

activecampaign.com

Overall, Active Campaign gets email marketing right. They are a great alternative if you have a long list of email contacts and send endless amounts of emails each month. If you’re looking for more than just a means to send emails, they also offer Customer Relationship Management (CRM), sales and ecommerce tools.

Pros of Active Campaign:

• It integrates with 870+ apps, including Shopify, Paypal, and Facebook.
• 250 automation templates, including after-purchase follow-up, abandoned cart reminders. webinar reminder email series, and much more.
• All plans offer an unlimited amount of emails each month.

Cons of Active Campaign:

• It is not as user-friendly as other email marketing tools. If all you’re after is email marketing software, it might be easier to use something simpler
• A/B Testing is limited to subject lines and preview text of emails
• Landing pages are only available on the Plus plan and up

Why Choose Active Campaign over Constant Contact?

Active Campaign offers much more advanced automation and CRM capabilities than Constant Contact. And even though Constant Contact has significantly more email templates to choose from, most people prefer the sleek and modern design of Active Campaign.

3. Best For Email Testing - MailChimp

mailchimp.com

Okay, so we’ll give props to MailChimp because whether they offer good email marketing software or not, they sure are good at marketing. MailChimp seems to be everywhere, so we thought we’d include it on our list and see if it's a worthy Constant Contact competitor.

Pros of MailChimp

• MailChimp offers a free plan with a max. of 500 contacts, although features are limited. Don’t expect a full suite of templates or automations, but it's still a respectable free Constant Contact alternative.
• An impressive set of marketing automation features (on paid plans), including visual journeys, scheduling tools and custom triggers
• Great email builder that allows you to easily change and edit content
• Mailchimp's A/B tool lets you test subject lines, send name, send time or body content

Cons of MailChimp

• Although the free plan is available for as long as you need it, it includes MailChimp branding.
• A limited number of emails you can send each month. On the Premium Plan, you’ll be paying $288/month but are still limited to 150,000 monthly email sends. To be fair though, on their Standard plan, you pay a reasonable $14.70 for 6000 email sends.
• Customer support is lacking.

Why Choose MailChimp as your Constant Contact alternative

When it comes to price, advanced reporting features and better A/B testing capabilities, you should choose MailChimp. However, in terms of ease of use, customer service and higher deliverability rates, you want to stay with Constant Contact.

4. Good for eCommerce - Drip

drip.com

What makes Drip stand out as different from other email marketing tools?

Pros of Drip

• Integrates with eCommerce platforms like WooCommerce and Shopify.
• Intuitive email editor makes it fun and easy to design templates
• Easily create forms and pop-ups with 50+ templates
• An unlimited number of monthly email sends

Cons of Drip

• While anyone can sign up, most of Drip’s features are catered to eCommerce
• Monthly costs increase as your subscriber list grows, making it one of the more expensive options on our list
• Those new to email marketing might experience a steep learning curve
• No landing page builder and a small collection of email templates

Why Choose Drip over Constant Contact

Basically, the only reason why you’d choose Drip over Constant Contact is that you want a tool that integrates with your preferred eCommerce platform. Drip revolutionizes ecommerce by offering customizable templates, intuitive tools, and a visual builder designed specifically for the sector.

5. Best for CRM - HubSpot

hubspot.com

Another well-known name in the digital marketing space, Hubspot is a great Constant Contact alternative for businesses looking for more than an email marketing tool. It offers sales, email marketing, social media management and CRM tools in one handy package.

Pros of HubSpot

• CRM integration included
• A wide range of features to automate marketing campaigns, including lead nurturing, lead scoring, and customer journey mapping.
• A comprehensive free plan
• A drag and drop email builder
• Tons of resources and training materials are available

Cons of HubSpot

• Steep learning curve
• While HubSpot offers a good free plan, as your business grows, the costs will soon start to rise and exceed other platforms.

Why Choose Hubspot over Constant Contact

HubSpot offers a comprehensive suite of marketing, sales, and customer service tools in one platform. Its CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system is deeply integrated with its marketing platform, providing a centralized database for managing customer interactions and tracking engagement across channels.

However, Constant Contact could be a more cost-effective option for businesses with simpler needs.

Courtesy of Canva/Alvarez

Conclusion

If you’re doing research, you’ve probably noticed our competitors have offered a long, confusing list of Constant Contact alternatives that probably left you scratching your head. (who needs 21 alternatives, Hubspot?)

We’ve purposefully left our list short so as not to overwhelm you with information. Although there are many email marketing platforms available, we believe this list provides you with some solid alternatives, each offering something unique to Constant Contact.

If you’re ready to take the bull by the horns (the email marketing bull, that is) and have complete control of every campaign with no restrictions, you want to choose MailWizz. We’re here for you every step of the way - Contact our sales team now, and let’s figure out if MailWizz is the best alternative for you.