Mailchimp
Highlights
Mailchimp and Constant Contact are email marketing solutions designed to allow businesses to create and automate email marketing campaigns. Both include features such as email templates, form creation, and email analytics.
Both Mailchimp and Constant Contact are popular with small and mid-sized businesses, likely due to their flexible pricing plans that scale based on an organization’s email volume.
Features
Mailchimp and Constant Contact both include essential email marketing features, but they also both have some standout features that set them apart from each other.
Mailchimp offers a wide variety of automation features for email campaigns and email sequences. Users can easily set up automation rules to save time. Mailchimp also provides robust customization options for form and email template creation, including custom fields and branding. Lastly, Mailchimp offers detailed reporting and analytics features, including geographical tracking and social media reporting. Users can also use Mailchimp’s analytics tools to compare their organization’s analytics with industry averages.
Constant Contact offers a large volume of email templates, allowing users to create most emails with minimal customization. Additionally, Constant Contact includes a spam testing feature so that users can ensure their emails are unlikely to end up in the recipient’s spam folder. The spam testing feature likely contributes to many users stating improved deliverability when using Constant Contact compared to other options.
Limitations
Though Mailchimp and Constant Contact both have key strengths, they also both have some limitations that are important to consider.
Mailchimp offers fewer email templates out of the box compared to Constant Contact. As a result, users that send a variety of different emails may need to spend time creating a custom template library to fill in the gaps. Mailchimp also has a lower delivery rate than Constant Contact, meaning more emails are likely to go undelivered or land in a spam inbox.
Constant Contact has more limited image storage compared to Mailchimp, where users can store an extensive library of images. Additionally, while constant contact includes analytics tools it lacks some advanced features, such as industry comparisons. Lastly, though Constant Contact contains an easy to use drag and drop editor for forms, it is missing some of the visual customization features provided by Mailchimp.
Pricing
Both Mailchimp and Constant Contact offer scaling prices. All of their pricing packages have a starting rate that is increased based on the buyer’s number of contacts.
Mailchimp offers a free package that includes basic email features for up to 10,000 emails a month. Their Essentials package starts at $9.99 per month and includes email templates, 24/7 email support, and custom branding. The Standard package costs $14.99 per month and includes automation features and custom templates. Lastly, the premium package starts at $299.00 per month and includes phone support, advanced segmentation, and support for unlimited users.
Constant Contact provides 2 pricing packages. The Email package includes basic email tools and templates and starts at $20.00 per month. The Emal Plus package starts at $45.00 per month and includes additional automation tools, as wells as customizable forms and polls.
