Constant Contact vs. HCL Digital Experience

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Constant Contact
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
Constant Contact is a full-featured email marketing solution with capabilities such as social media integration, drag-and-drop editing, and real-time reporting. It is a bulk email tool designed for SMB customers. Since 2019, Constant Contact also offers marketing automation features, a website and landing page builder, and other tools to support midsize businesses.
$12
per month
HCL Digital Experience
Score 9.9 out of 10
N/A
HCL Digital Experience is based on the former IBM Web Content Manager and IBM WebSphere Portal products, acquired by HCL Technologies from IBM in late 2018. The product allows the user to create, manage and deliver engaging omnichannel digital experiences to audiences with responsive content, targeted offers, seamlessly integrated applications and consistent branding across channels (web, mobile, and hybrid mobile/web applications and more).N/A
Pricing
Constant ContactHCL Digital Experience
Editions & Modules
Lite
Starting at $12.00
per month
Standard
Starting at $35.00
per month
Premium
Starting at $80.00
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Constant ContactHCL Digital Experience
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsThe SMS Marketing tool can be added to any Standard or Premium Constant Contact account. SMS is only available in the US for Standard and Premium paid plans. SMS can be added when logged in to an account after purchase. Plans start at $10/month for up to 500 messages.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Constant ContactHCL Digital Experience
Considered Both Products
Constant Contact
Chose Constant Contact
Constant Contact was initially cheaper than Mailchimp, which is why we switched. Once we started using Constant Contact, it was clear we made the right choice. It is so much easier to use than our old platform. I can’t see any reason why we would ever change away from this …
Chose Constant Contact
Constant Contact and Novi AMS integrate, which makes our lives very easy. Feathr is a little difficult to use, and the results are mixed on reporting. Mailchimp was a very difficult product to use. I had a hard time getting used to it, and I quickly switched to Constant Contact …
Chose Constant Contact
Constant Contact destroys Microsoft 365 when it comes to mass emailing. Microsofts max email recipients is like twenty people at once. Constant Contact you can email thousands at a time WITH dynamic content. Meaning if some clients are in New York and some in New Jersey, you …
Chose Constant Contact
The ease of use and segmentation of Constant Contact makes it superior!
You can upload images easily and it is pretty easy to walk someone through how to design and email and upload an email list for sending.
Chose Constant Contact
1. Constant Contact provides features that were well suited for us being a mid-size organization.
2. Implementation of Constant Contact with Wordpress and WooCommerce was easy as compared to Brevo.
3. Peer-recommendations, brand reputation and research by our internal team also …
Chose Constant Contact
It's been a long time since I used MailChimp. I do remember being impressed the first time I used Constant Contact after having used MailChimp exclusively for a couple of years.
Chose Constant Contact
i have not used any other products that are similar to Constant Contact
Chose Constant Contact
Mailchimp is pretty comparable in a lot of ways to Constant Contact, but Constant Contact just continues to win when it comes to deliver-ability and user-interface. It's clean, simple, and intuitive.
There are other platforms like ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo that have some …
Chose Constant Contact
Constant Contact is quite intuitive making it easy to distribute the workload such as one person creates conntent, one migrates it to the template, one edits the content, and so on. However, it is easy for any one of us to do each others work.
Chose Constant Contact
We selected Constant Contact due to pricing constraints. However, if the pricing were to increase, we may look at alternative products that offer more features. We are looking for a product that will allow us to stand out from other organizations like ours that are appealing to …
Chose Constant Contact
Constant Contact allows a more in-depth look at our audience, what they like, etc.
Chose Constant Contact
I know what CC offers (but not sure if the others offer this or Retargetting - CC automatically retargets any of our customers with abandoned carts. We also set triggers on our promotional email system, and for follow-ups. This has been very helpful in targeting and retargeting …
Chose Constant Contact
They’re both pretty similar software, however mailchimp maybe more intuitive. I think they are similar in terms of deliverability at this point. Constant Contact might be more bang for the same buck.
Chose Constant Contact
Very similar in nature. I feel it's more just what works for your organization as to what solution you are more familiar with and the pricing structure that fits your needs. For most organizations with sales departments, I would recommend a email platform that is linked with …
Chose Constant Contact
In my view, If I were made aware of Constant Contact's lack of performance, I would have never created an account. I would rather use Wix, or even just social media! It would be more effective, user-friendly, and less costly or stressful, I believe.
Chose Constant Contact
it is the youngest sibling compared to the much more competent and capable older brother that is Marketo Engage. The reports, database management, and complete control of email designs, and interaction of recipients does not compare. Constant Contact is a great entry-level …
Chose Constant Contact
We use BEE Pro to create our emails; we like their email builder. However, when sending emails, Constant Contact is much better. They allow more emails to be sent out at once and let us store more contacts within the program. Constant Contact has greater flexibility and variety …
Chose Constant Contact
Constant Contact is much more intuitive for people who are not tech-savvy. Also, while SendGrid offered more options in it's drag and drop interface, it displayed differently across different email clients, which made it very cumbersome to use. It also took much longer to …
Chose Constant Contact
Overall, Constant Contact is the easiest to use with one of the lower price points. It is a great entry-level tool for a beginner in order to graduate into more sophisticated platforms. The design features are a good start along with the subject line testing which is helpful …
Chose Constant Contact
Constant contact was perfect for our needs for many clients, it wasn’t overly robust, but powerful enough to see strong ROI. With regards to the competitor tools, amongst standard ESP there’s not a huge difference as they all essentially work the same, it’s just about pricing …
HCL Digital Experience
Chose HCL Digital Experience
Each of the options had good points and bad points. Building a site with tight integration to HCL Commerce and SAP backend systems was just easier with HCL DX. Security is also a concern and HCL DX provided better fine-grained security across the board. HCL DX also allowed us …
Chose HCL Digital Experience
When compared with CMS products like Adobe Day CQ, Fatwire, Interwoven:
        • IBM Web Content manager is reliable and scalable
        • Better customer service and IBM is keen on helping customers fix any issues with quick turnaround
Chose HCL Digital Experience
IBM Web Content Manager comes with IBM WebSphere Portal. Both [have been] leaders in the portals and content management space for a long time with proven capabilities. Our clients also have other products from the IBM stack and they fit along nicely.
Chose HCL Digital Experience
I used Liferay WCM; the open source system is too customizable such that what you get out of the box is not adequate. However, the portal pages in Liferay blend better with WCM than IBM: This is not always an advantage if you want to build a WCM site separated from portal …
Chose HCL Digital Experience
Adobe Experience Manager,Liferay Portal,Magnolia (V5 and later versions),Adobe CQ
Chose HCL Digital Experience
Magento and Prestashop are E-commerce CMS platforms.
They are used in a different scale of application than WCM.
Features
Constant ContactHCL Digital Experience
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Constant Contact
8.9
Ratings
10% above category average
HCL Digital Experience
-
Ratings
WYSIWYG email editor9.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Dynamic content9.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content8.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Landing pages9.20 Ratings00 Ratings
A/B testing8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile optimization8.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting9.80 Ratings00 Ratings
List management9.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences7.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Constant Contact
8.5
Ratings
10% above category average
HCL Digital Experience
-
Ratings
Dashboards8.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Standard reports9.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Custom reports7.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Pre-Send Testing
Comparison of Pre-Send Testing features of Product A and Product B
Constant Contact
8.4
Ratings
4% above category average
HCL Digital Experience
-
Ratings
URL Validation8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Link Tracking7.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Image Validation8.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Inbox Display8.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Email Accessibility Tools7.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Spelling and Grammar Check9.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Spam Testing6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Email Previews9.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Constant Contact
-
Ratings
HCL Digital Experience
5.0
Ratings
48% below category average
Role-based user permissions00 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Constant Contact
-
Ratings
HCL Digital Experience
4.1
Ratings
66% below category average
API00 Ratings4.10 Ratings
Internationalization / multi-language00 Ratings4.10 Ratings
Web Content Creation
Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Product A and Product B
Constant Contact
-
Ratings
HCL Digital Experience
2.9
Ratings
85% below category average
WYSIWYG editor00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Code quality / cleanliness00 Ratings3.10 Ratings
Admin section00 Ratings3.10 Ratings
Page templates00 Ratings1.10 Ratings
Library of website themes00 Ratings1.10 Ratings
Mobile optimization / responsive design00 Ratings4.00 Ratings
Publishing workflow00 Ratings1.10 Ratings
Form generator00 Ratings3.00 Ratings
Web Content Management
Comparison of Web Content Management features of Product A and Product B
Constant Contact
-
Ratings
HCL Digital Experience
1.9
Ratings
112% below category average
Content taxonomy00 Ratings1.10 Ratings
SEO support00 Ratings2.10 Ratings
Bulk management00 Ratings2.10 Ratings
Availability / breadth of extensions00 Ratings2.10 Ratings
Community / comment management00 Ratings2.10 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Constant ContactHCL Digital Experience
Small Businesses
Mad Mimi
Mad Mimi
Score 10.0 out of 10
Bloomreach
Bloomreach
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
VerticalResponse
VerticalResponse
Score 10.0 out of 10
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Emma by Marigold
Emma by Marigold
Score 8.6 out of 10
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Constant ContactHCL Digital Experience
Likelihood to Recommend
9.6
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.9
(0 ratings)
5.7
(0 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Online Training
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Constant ContactHCL Digital Experience
Likelihood to Recommend
Constant Contact is great when trying to target specific market segments. We typically like to segment our master list by region, but also have product segments, as well. They do provide pre-made segments to start you off too. We don't usually use their email builder, we find others to be more flexible, intuitive, and have more variety. We do prefer emailing from Constant Contact, however.
Read full review
IBM Web Content Manager is well suited for intranet employee portals, websites which drive extensive marketing content, and e-commerce sites to provide product images and details. It cannot be used a document management system to store large volumes of data as it's purely a web content management system.
Read full review
Pros
  • Constant Contact allows the users to send unlimited emails and just pay per list size.
  • The software does welcome emails pretty well and allows you to set up all sorts of automation.
  • The branded templates and starter templates are very useful and look good.
Read full review
  • Well designed web content management system with clearly defined relationships between the various web content objects such as sites, site areas, authoring templates, presentation templates, library resources, components, web content objects, etc.
  • Can create robust content creation and publishing workflows with workflow stages and workflow actions
  • Web Content can be rendered on multiple devices and browsers in a responsive and adaptive manner.
Read full review
Cons
  • Sometimes some software provides outdated and useless features and functions, but this email marketing tool gives advanced kinds of functionalities with modern features.
  • I like the ease of use of this platform also appreciate its professional customer support team.
  • I am no longer desperate after getting this tool at my work.
Read full review
  • Search is not working well. We could not get it work even we worked it with IBM support.
  • Java Applet in Ephox editor is pain. You have to watch that you update your Java version correctly or You cannot edit anything. This might work somehow on enterprise environment with tight workstation configuration. I think that Java Applet editor is the worst part of IBM WCM
  • IBM WCM needs lot of capacity on database and appserver.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
There is no doubt that we are going to renew Constant Contact. We have not just invested a lot of time in learning and creating a great looking product but we have developed a strong database of information that allows us to track how we are doing for each newsletter. This supports our goals of creating products that residents desire and are excited to receive.
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IBM products always moves forward to adapt to new requirements and technologies. I have used versions 6, 6.1, 7 and 8 of IBM WCM, and I know IBM is ready to revamp the tool based on emerging needs, and still provide the capabilities to migrate your old system to the newer versions.
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Usability
There is always room for improvement. I don't know how they test their systems, but they should invite not-so computer savvy people to test it. If I, as an expert have problems, they need to think like the technophobe. Since I've used Constant Contact in the past as part of my former employment, I have not viewed any of the tutorials and just jumped in to work on my client's newsletter. With that said, I found some areas easy and some a bit cumbersome
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New versions has increased user experience facilitating usability.
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Reliability and Availability
No major problems in sending out the email campaigns and accessing the analytics
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Performance
The system seemed quite slow sometimes. Specifically, there was sometimes a delay in sends if it was during a high traffic period. There were time-outs when uploading new code for an email, and a lag in reporting analytics which was sometimes as long as 72 hours
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
I think the overall support for Constant Contact has always been incredible; I have nothing negative to say. Our customer support representative was attentive, easy to understand, and very knowledgeable. I never felt like I wasn't a priority of his and my issues, while very small, were fixed in a very short time frame.
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We had some issues related with performing and the support was suitable and sucessful.
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Implementation Rating
Implementation is very easy for someone who wants to send out the “batch and blast” type newsletters. If you want to use their templates with no customizations, the product works fine. However, the more customizations you get into involving link color, etc, that’s where things can get tricky for someone who may not be familiar with coding
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Implementation was successful due to Websphere application server used.
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Alternatives Considered
We selected Constant Contact due to pricing constraints. However, if the pricing were to increase, we may look at alternative products that offer more features. We are looking for a product that will allow us to stand out from other organizations like ours that are appealing to the same customers—a product that will set our company apart from the others.
Read full review
Each of the options had good points and bad points. Building a site with tight integration to HCL Commerce and SAP backend systems was just easier with HCL DX. Security is also a concern and HCL DX provided better fine-grained security across the board. HCL DX also allowed us to use multiple technologies and maintain a cohesive feel across everything.
Read full review
Scalability
Very reliable in sending email campaigns and controlling the recipients so that no contact is sent the same email more than once, even if they are on a resent list
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • I can't report hard numbers, however, being able to execute sales and marketing campaigns led to a noticeable increase in brand awareness in our industry.
  • We were able to offer white-labeled email communication services to clients, which is not something that other administrators typically offer. This helped us win and retain business.
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  • Unique, easy and user friendly solution that has increased business benefits such as a single repository for all company's products. It provides a better customer service.
  • A huge network of offices managed centrally increasing SEO, marketing, business and clients.
  • Employee efficiency reducing time through a single automated solution.
  • Internal communication within the company has been helped by Web Content Manager as a way of transparency, shared repository and networking with the goal of bringing teams and colleagues together.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Constant Contact Screenshots

Screenshot of the AI Content Generator that can be used to create content for emails, social posts, or SMS.Screenshot of an example automation workflow. These help to ensure a business's marketing is always on.Screenshot of some of the available pre-built email templates, that can be edited with the included drag-and-drop email editor.Screenshot of the Social Posting tool, used to plan and post social media messaging across platforms.Screenshot of the SMS Marketing feature.Screenshot of some of Constant Contact's available integrations.