Constant Contact vs SMTP Email Relay Solutions | TrustRadius

What users are saying about

Score 7.9 out of 10

Based on 585 reviews and ratings

Score 9 out of 10

Based on 2 reviews and ratings

Feature Rating Comparison

Constant Contact

SMTP Email Relay Solutions

WYSIWYG email editor

Dynamic content

Ability to test dynamic content

Landing pages

A/B testing

Mobile optimization

Email deliverability reporting

List management

Triggered drip sequences

Constant Contact

SMTP Email Relay Solutions

Dashboards

Standard reports

Custom reports

Constant Contact

SMTP Email Relay Solutions

URL Validation

Link Tracking

Image Validation

Inbox Display

Email Accessibility Tools

Spelling and Grammar Check

Spam Testing

Email Previews

Pros

Importing new emails is extremely fast and easy. This is important because there are times where emails need to be sent out ASAP, so being able to import a new mailing list quickly allows that to happen in a timely manner.
Customization of the look and feel of the email. Sending out emails that look the same becomes boring to the recipients, so being able to change the look every time makes it more likely they will engage in the material.

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Verified User

Administrator in Other

Higher Education Company, 501-1000 employees

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It allows us to send email through the secure email gateway.
We are able to track and scan all email communications
It provides a way for legacy and current applications to send out notification and mass email communications.

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Network Operations Manager

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)Religious Institutions, 501-1000 employees

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Cons

Maybe make a bit more intuitive
Have it make suggestions for what you could or should do
More storage room for pics, logos, etc. (without additional cost)
While I think it is user friendly in general, I need a bit more guidance with options and possibilities

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Director of Development

Health Care Center for the HomelessHospital & Health Care, 51-200 employees

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As with any technology on a server, we sometimes see issues with downtime related to network changes or firewall updates.
It can be a challenge to work with some of our older applications when the TLS feature is used.
I wish there was a more direct way to reliably use SMTP for mass email sends without the fear of being blacklisted.

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Network Operations Manager

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)Religious Institutions, 501-1000 employees

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Likelihood to Renew

Constant Contact 8.0

Based on 19 answers

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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Ty Swartz, CPP, USN Ret.

Multimedia Communications Supervisor

Virginia Beach City GovernmentGovernment Administration, 5001-10,000 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Usability

Constant Contact 8.9

Based on 8 answers

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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Owner, Consultant

AZ Social Media WizInternet, Myself Only

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Reliability and Availability

Constant Contact 9.0

Based on 2 answers

No major problems in sending out the email campaigns and accessing the analytics

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Verified User

Manager in Research & Development

Public Policy Company, 11-50 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Performance

Constant Contact 10.0

Based on 2 answers

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

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Verified User

Employee in Marketing

Retail Company, 51-200 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Support Rating

Constant Contact 3.0

Based on 8 answers

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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Verified User

Administrative Assistant in Marketing

Real Estate Company, 51-200 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Implementation Rating

Constant Contact 8.0

Based on 4 answers

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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Verified User

Employee in Marketing

Retail Company, 51-200 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Alternatives Considered

Marketo does all of the same things but at an enterprise level. Marketo is substantially better than Constant Contact but the price tag is very seriously higher ... by a few zeros. The key components of differentiation would be database management and deliverability. I wouldn't say Marketo's editor is any better or worse than Constant Contact.

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Chief Digital Officer (CDO)

Rooster Strategic SolutionsMarketing and Advertising, 11-50 employees

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Office 365 does use secure non-standard ports for SMTP connectivity causing a problem with older programs. SMTP Email Delivery from Exchange solves this problem by giving the network admin full control over ports and specific program connections. While we do use both Office 365 and the SMTP Email Delivery we find that a mix is needed in order to meet all expectations for our end users. The majority of our SMTP communications, for users, go through Office 365 while the majority of our applications and servers do go through the SMTP Email Delivery service.

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Network Operations Manager

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)Religious Institutions, 501-1000 employees

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Scalability

Constant Contact 10.0

Based on 1 answer

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

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Verified User

Manager in Research & Development

Public Policy Company, 11-50 employees

View all 1 answers on this topic

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Return on Investment

Every month we send out our newsletter, the phone rings and we gain revenue.
For our events, the reminders create signs ups which drive revenue.
Our quarterly ecommerce sales drive store sales and keep us top of mind with our clients.

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Darcy Knapp, MBA

owner

seo web mechanicsMarketing & Advertising, 1-10 employees

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It's the easiest way to send mail out. No worries about complex configurations.
It can be finicky when used in a hybrid Office 365 environment to get the proper pathways secured and working.
I wish there were a better way to send out mass emails, on-site, without our domain or server IP being blacklisted.

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Network Operations Manager

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)Religious Institutions, 501-1000 employees

View all 1 answers on this topic

Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

Yes

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Constant Contact Editions & Modules

Edition

Email	$20.00¹
Email Plus	$45.00¹
Pro	$195.00¹

Per Month

Additional Pricing Details

—

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

SMTP Email Relay Solutions Editions & Modules

—

Additional Pricing Details

—

Rating Summary

Constant Contact

SMTP Email Relay Solutions

Constant Contact

SMTP Email Relay Solutions

Constant Contact

SMTP Email Relay Solutions

Constant Contact

SMTP Email Relay Solutions

Constant Contact

SMTP Email Relay Solutions

Constant Contact

SMTP Email Relay Solutions

Constant Contact

SMTP Email Relay Solutions

Constant Contact

SMTP Email Relay Solutions

Constant Contact

SMTP Email Relay Solutions

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