Mailchimp vs Constant Contact 2026: Which Email Platform Is Better?

Mailchimp and Constant Contact are the two legacy email marketing platforms that small businesses evaluate most often. Both have evolved significantly, but they have diverged in focus. Mailchimp has become a broader marketing platform with deep e-commerce tools. Constant Contact has stayed closer to straightforward email marketing with an emphasis on ease of use and customer support.

Here is an honest breakdown of how they compare in 2026.

Feature Comparison

Pricing Breakdown

Mailchimp's plans (as of 2026): Free (500 contacts, 1,000 sends/month, heavy branding), Essentials ($13/mo for 500 contacts), Standard ($20/mo for 500 contacts, includes automations and A/B testing), and Premium ($350/mo for 10,000 contacts). At 5,000 contacts, Essentials costs about $69/month and Standard about $100/month. At 25,000 contacts, Standard runs roughly $270/month.

Constant Contact's plans: Lite ($12/mo for 500 contacts), Standard ($35/mo for 500 contacts), and Premium ($80/mo for 500 contacts). At 5,000 contacts, Lite costs about $55/month and Standard about $110/month. At 25,000 contacts, Standard is around $260/month.

At the entry level, both are priced similarly. Constant Contact's Lite plan is slightly cheaper than Mailchimp Essentials at most subscriber counts, but Mailchimp's Standard plan includes significantly more automation and analytics features. For small lists under 5,000, the cost difference is negligible. At larger scales, Mailchimp's pricing becomes more aggressive, especially given the features included.

Ease of Use

Constant Contact is genuinely easier to learn. The interface is cleaner, navigation is more intuitive, and the email builder is straightforward. A small business owner with no marketing experience can create and send a professional-looking email campaign in under 30 minutes on their first try.

Mailchimp has more features, which means more complexity. The dashboard is denser. Finding specific settings requires navigating nested menus. The Customer Journeys automation builder is powerful but takes time to learn. Mailchimp has improved its UX significantly in recent years, but it still assumes a higher baseline of marketing knowledge from its users.

Automations

Mailchimp is clearly ahead. Its Customer Journeys feature supports multi-step automation workflows with branching logic, conditional splits, and multiple trigger types. You can automate welcome series, abandoned cart recovery, post-purchase follow-ups, re-engagement campaigns, and date-based triggers. The visual builder shows the entire flow on a canvas.

Constant Contact's automations are functional but limited. You can set up welcome email series, birthday and anniversary emails, and basic behavioral triggers. But there is no visual flow builder, no branching logic, and fewer trigger options. If you need anything beyond simple drip sequences, Constant Contact falls short.

E-Commerce

Mailchimp integrates deeply with Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and Square. It can sync product catalogs, track purchase behavior, calculate customer lifetime value, send product recommendation emails, and build segments based on buying patterns. The abandoned cart flow pulls product images and pricing automatically.

Constant Contact connects to Shopify and WooCommerce, but the integration is shallower. You can trigger emails based on purchases and segment by purchase history, but you do not get product recommendation engines, predictive analytics, or the same depth of e-commerce reporting. For a basic online store, Constant Contact works. For a serious e-commerce operation, Mailchimp is the better tool.

Support

Constant Contact includes phone support on all plans. You can call and speak to a person. For small business owners who are not technically inclined, this is a meaningful advantage. Constant Contact also offers email and live chat support with generally shorter response times than Mailchimp.

Mailchimp removed phone support from all but the Premium plan ($350/month). Lower tiers get email and chat support, but response times can be slow during peak periods. Mailchimp's knowledge base and documentation are excellent, but if you want to talk to a human without paying a premium, Constant Contact is the clear winner.

Event Marketing

Constant Contact has a built-in event management tool that lets you create event pages, manage RSVPs, send invitations, and follow up with attendees. For businesses that run workshops, webinars, fundraisers, or community events, this is a unique and useful feature. Mailchimp has no equivalent.

Who Wins?

Choose Mailchimp if:

• You run an e-commerce store and need deep product integrations
• You need multi-step automations with branching logic
• You want advanced A/B testing across multiple variables
• You need detailed analytics with revenue attribution
• You want 300+ integrations with third-party tools
• You are comfortable with a steeper learning curve for more power

Choose Constant Contact if:

• You want the simplest email marketing setup with minimal learning curve
• You need phone support (included on all plans)
• You run events and need built-in RSVP and invitation management
• You need social media posting and ad management in one tool
• You are a small business, nonprofit, or local organization
• You want reliable email delivery without needing to learn complex features