Constant Contact and ActiveCampaign are the two best email marketing tools. Selecting among these two is a little confusing. Constant Contact provides you with all the basic features that are needed for an email marketing tool. on the other hand, ActiveCampaign provides you with some extra features. Below is a detailed comparison between Constant Contact Vs ActiveCampaign. By the end of this comparison, you can decide which one is the right option for you.
Quick Summary
Both ActiveCampaign and Constant Contact has high deliverability to the inbox and the lowest spam rates.
Constant Contact
- Affordable
- Mobile optimized emails
- A good number of Templates
- Verifying & Uploading a large number of contacts is quick.
- Refund policy
- Downgrade plan in one click
- 60 -days free trial with limited features
ActiveCampaign
- More integrations
- Anti-spam policy
- Pop-up chatbot
- SMS Marketing
- Great visual automation
- Good Analytics and reporting
- Split testing for different versions
- Landing page templates
- Better Customer Support
- 14 -days free trial with limited features
What is Constant Contact?
Constant Contact is one of the biggest and oldest email marketing software providers in the world. It started in 1995. Currently, Constant Contact is having over 650,000 customers. It provides you with all the essential features of an email marketing tool. Additionally, it has the features like event management, appointment scheduling, etc. It is used to create websites, email marketing campaigns, analyze marketing campaigns, etc.
Who uses?: Small businesses, Non-profit organizations, etc.
What is ActiveCampaign?
ActiveCampaign is a customer experience software that included a sales system, CRM, etc. They have added email marketing automation also. You will get the all the features like sending simple emails to complex multi-step automation. ActiveCampaign is mainly focusing on automation. On its lowest price pricing plan, ie. $9 /month, you will get all the basic features for email marketing. In its higher plan from $49 /month to $258 /month, you can access pro features like lead scoring, A/B testing, Sending SMS, etc.
Who uses?: Large corporate businesses, ECommerce, Those who want Complex automation
FAQs
Main Differences
Let’s see the advantages & disadvantages of both platforms
Best & Worst Things Between Constant Contact & ActiveCampaign
- ActiveCampaign has a visual automation workflow. Whereas Constant Contact has only a simple workflow.
- Constant Contact has a refund policy. But ActiveCampaign does not have a refund policy.
- Constant Contact offers you more than 350 stunning email templates. But Activecampaign has only around 150 pre-made email templates.
- Activecampaign provides you Spam Check feature. Constant Contact doesn’t have that feature.
- Constant Contact provides you with a 60-days free trial. But ActiveCampaign provides you only a 14-days free trial.
- Constant Contact provides you with only basic reports. But ActiveCampaigns offers you a better report compared to Constant Contact.
Why should you use Constant Contact over ActiveCampaign?
Here is what is great about Constant Contact
- There is no contract time in Constant Contact. You can cancel your plan at any time.
- Verifying & Uploading a large number of contacts is quick.
- Using Constant Contact, you can create mobile-optimized emails.
- The constant Contact spam rate is one of the lowest in the Industry.
- Constant Contact has a Refund Policy.
- You can upgrade or downgrade the plan anytime with one click.
- Constant Contact features are affordable compared to ActiveCampaign.
Why should you use ActiveCampaign over Constant Contact?
Here is what is great about ActiveCampaign
- ActiveCampaign has an anti-spam policy. It will help to your emails won’t be flagged by the email providers by spam reports.
- Landing page creation is better than in Constant Contact, (But you can use Constant contact website builder for free to create better landing pages than Activecampaign
- Activecampaign Message: You can add Chatbot automation to your site. That means ActiveCampaign brings your email, Chat, CRM, etc. together.
- ActiveCampaign has machine learning to improve the marketing result.
- A Gmail Extension: Sometimes people from your list reply to your emails. With ActiveCampaign’s Gmail extension, you can view all of that person’s information in your sidebar itself.
- A built-in CRM: This is for $49 and higher plans. If you do any sort of online sales, ActiveCampaign is a clear choice. You can bring leads into your email campaigns, and score those leads based upon links clicked and emails opened.
- SMS Marketing: This is also for $49 and higher plans. If you want to send a discount code to a customer if you want to alert a sales agent to follow up on a lead. You can do it with SMS marketing.
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| Features | Winner | Constant Contact | ActiveCampaign |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact Management | Constant Contact |  5 | 4.5 |
| Templates & Design | Constant Contact | 5 | 4.5 |
| Campaigns | ActiveCampaign | 4.5 | 5 |
| Email Builder | ActiveCampaign | 4.5 | 5 |
| Automation Workflow | ActiveCampaign | 4.5 | 5 |
| Analytics & Report | ActiveCampaign | 4 | 5 |
| Split Testing | ActiveCampaign | 4 | 5 |
| Landing Pages & Website Builder | Constant Contact | 5 | 4.5 |
| Pricing | Constant Contact | 4.5 | 4 |
| Integration | ActiveCampaign | 4.5 | 5 |
| Customer Support | ActiveCampaign | 4.5 | 5 |
| Winner | ActiveCampaign  |  | |
1. Contact Management
>> Constant Contact
Contact Management in Constant Contact is simple. Adding contacts in Constant Contacts has several options. You can create new contacts by entering contacts one by one including name, email, etc. You can copy and paste several contacts at a time from an excel sheet, google Sheets, etc., or from other apps. You can upload files like CSV files, spreadsheets, etc.
You can import the contacts from other apps that integrate with Constant contacts. You can import contacts from Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, etc.
You can create segments for your customer list. Given below are some segment options for Constant Contact.
>> Active Campaign
List management in ActiveCampaign is very easy. You can find all the options on the left itself. There you need to click on contacts. From that, you can manage your contacts, Manage Scoring, manage tags, manage exclusion, clean up the list, etc. In ActiveCampaign, you can add the contacts in many ways. You can add contacts manually by adding them one by one, you can import the contacts from CSV files, and you can also copy and paste the contacts.
You can also import the contacts by using app integration. You can connect to other services like many apps and you can add the contacts automatically. ActiveCampaign is providing you with one more option. That is migration. Its expert migration service will help you to move your contacts from the other marketing automation provider to ActiveCampaign. Then you can create different segments to the contact list and also you can give tags to them. Some of the services are given below.
Key Take-Aways: Managing contacts in Constant contact & ActiveCampaign is pretty similar. Most of the features are similar. But the speed of adding a contact is very quick in Constant Contact compared to Activecampaign.
Winner of Contact Management: Constant Contact
Constant Contact: 1-0 : ActiveCampaign
2. Templates & Design
>> Constant Contact
Constant Contact offers around 350 templates that are easily customizable and responsive in nature. Constant Contact provides you with a feature called Brand Templates. ie. it has AI where you are allowed to scan your website and Constant contact will autogenerate the template of your website color and image! This is really a useful feature and less time taking. You can even create an email campaign using your existing PDF document.
>> ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign has around 150+ modern and responsive email templates. You can create stunning and eye-catching emails using ActiveCampaign. You can also write code to create your own email templates. All the templates are responsive and attractive. You can easily edit these templates and change them as your own. There are basic templates, designed templates, Layouts, and past campaigns. And all these templates are again categorized into different categories. So you can easily find a template according to your need. You can also create the templates from the scratch.
If you are more focused on text-based tools, then ConvertKit will be a good option for you. You can see the comparison between ConvertKit Vs ActiveCampaign here.
Key Take-Aways: Constant Contact provides a lot of stunning templates and AI tools that autogenerate templates based on your website color theme. This feature is outstanding.
Winner of Templates: Constant Contact
Constant Contact: 2-0 : ActiveCampaign
3. Campaigns
>> Constant Contact
In Constant Contact, everything comes under Campaign. Email, Email automation, Social post, landing pages, etc come under the campaign. Campaign creation in Constant Contact is simple.
>> ActiveCampaign
In ActiveCampaign, the campaign creation comes under the campaign option. For creating the campaign, you have to choose the campaign type first. ActiveCampaign provides you mainly with 6 types. They are Standard, Automated, auto-responder, split testing, RSS triggered, and date based.
Key Take-Aways: Campaign creation is simple in ActiveCampaign compared to Constant Contact. You also have several options to create campaigns in ActiveCampaign.
Winner of Campaign: Activecampaign
Constant Contact: 2-1 : ActiveCampaign
4. Email Builder
>> Constant Contact
Constant Contact templates are easily customizable, and editable. It has drag-and-drop layouts. If you want a unique and completely different template you can add your custom code template. Using Constant Contact you can easily add a poll, Donation, and coupons for your email templates, you can select pre-designed layouts that will help conserve time and provide the proper structure to your template on all devices.
It has also a product picker option from Shopify, WooCommerce, and Eventbrite.
In the editor, in the top right corner, there is an email setting option. From there you can add a subject, Preheader, From name, From address, etc. And after creating the email, you can select the recipients, you can create an A/B test for the subject line, etc. But A/B test is not available in the free trial. And also you can’t schedule the time to send an email campaign with the trial version.
>> ActiveCampaign
The email builder of ActiveCampaign is cool. There are a lot of options are available in the editor section. The drag and drop options are available. You can add images, links, videos from youtube, etc. You can save a content block and you can also hide a content block from mobile devices. You can also customize the fields the way you want.
You can’t use a free email provider like Gmail as senders’ emails. ActiveCampaign will recommend using custom from your website domain. Because there is a chance for the email marked as spam when we use free email providers.
Key Take-Aways: The email builder of ActiveCampaign is pretty cooler than Constant Contact. It has a spam check feature. It also has better features.
Winner of Email Builder: Activecampaign
Constant Contact: 2-2 : ActiveCampaign
5. Automation Workflow
>> Constant Contact
Email automation is very simple in Constant Contact. You can’t try automation in your free trial. In Constant Contact, automation is coming under the campaign. Constant Contact provides you with 2 types of automation. Single-step automation and Multi-step automation. In Single-step automation, you can create Welcome email templates, Birthday email templates, and Anniversary email templates.
Constant Contact allows you to create multi-step automation for “when a contact opens an email”, “when a contact clicks one of your email links”, “when a contact joins a specific list” and “your contact made their first purchase”. That means in Constant Contact, automation is based on user engagement. After you select any automation trigger, you have to create a new campaign or select an existing campaign. Then you can adjust the time. Likewise can go on adding your emails as many as you want.
Constant Contact does not provide any visual automation. There is only step-by-step automation is available.
>> ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is more focused on its Automation. Automation is the feature that makes ActiveCampaign powerful. It provides you with 100+ automation templates. To create automation, you have to provide the web page URL or Landing page. ActiveCampaign provides you with a visual automation workflow. You can do anything using ActiveCampaign’s Automation. Because it has no limit. You can send emails, SMS, site message, notification mail, etc. You can create various conditions and workflows. You can also create various tasks with the help of plenty of apps. You can create automation from the scratch also.
Key Take-Aways: Automation of ActiveCampaign is far better in ActiveCampaign compared to Constant Contact. ActiveCampaign has a Visual automation workflow. You can create complex workflows. Constant Contact has only a simple workflow.
Winner of Automation: ActiveCampaign
Constant Contact: 2-3 : ActiveCampaign
6. Analytics & Report
>> Constant Contact
The reporting of Constant Contact is given below. It provides you with all the basic reporting like Open rate, Unopened rate, Click rate, and Bounce rate. You can also see that the opening and click happens on Desktop or Mobile. Recently Constant Contact launched Sales Accelerator. It is an all-in-one CRM platform. It costs $399 /mo.
>> ActiveCampaign
The Analytics and Reporting of ActiveCampaign are better when compared to Constant Contact. By using ActiveCampaign, we can see the open rates, Click rate, Unsubscribed rate, click-maps, page visits, geo-tracking, etc. You will also get a report of the sales performance because ActiveCampaign has an in-built CRM. If you are integrated with eCommerce websites like Shopify, WooCommerce, etc. you will get its report also. But you have to upgrade to the $9 plan or more.
Key Take-Aways: Analytics & Report is better in ActiveCampaign when compared to Constant Contact. You will get advanced reporting in ActiveCampaign. But reporting of Constant Contact is very simple.
Winner of Analytics & Report: ActiveCampaign
Constant Contact: 2-4 : ActiveCampaign
7. Split Testing (A/B Testing)
>> Constant Contact
Split Testing of Constant Contact is very limited. You can test only the subject line.
Subject lines are the expressive part of the email, if your subject line is neat and clear you will get more openings, here variation A is will reach 50% of the audience/contacts, likewise variation B. You need to have an email plus version ($45) to avail of this feature completely.
>> ActiveCampaign
Split Testing is better in ActiveCampaign when compared to Constant Contact. You can set up five different versions of your email using ActiveCampaign. You can test the subject line, overall design, email content, etc.
Key Take-Aways: Constant Contact has A/B testing that is only for the Subject line. But in ActiveCampaign, you can A/B test various options like Subject line, content, overall design, etc.
Winner of A/B test: ActiveCampaign
Constant Contact: 2-5 : ActiveCampaign
8. Landing Pages & Website Builder
>> Constant Contact
Constant Contact allows you to create Landing pages. And also you can easily get information from new contacts with pop-up, inline, and landing page sign-up forms. You can create sign-up forms and pop-ups on landing pages using OptinMonster. You can create a new landing page or you can use an existing landing page to get more subscribers. You can also use Facebook lead ads to capture the attention of customers. Features of Landing page creation are very limited. You can choose the fields to show, text, theme, and color in Constant Contact. But styling option is limited. You can only change the background color and font style.
However, Constant Contact has its own AI website builder. There you can create stunning Landing pages. or you can connect to your own custom domain. Constant Contact’s Website Builder is great. You don’t have to pay any extra money for that. Using its website builder, you can create beautiful web pages, Landing pages, you can create your store, and also you can connect your own custom domain.
>> ActiveCampaign
Creating sign-up forms in ActiveCampaign is pretty cool in ActiveCampaign. But these Landing page creations are available for only $49/ month or higher plans. There are around 50 templates in ActiveCampaign you can choose from. All are vibrant and stunning templates. Landing page templates are different from Email builder templates. But features are pretty similar. Both have drag and drop features with different content blocks.
Key Take-Aways: The landing page and Website creation in Constant Contact is super cool. Sign-up form creation is basic. Even though we can create stunning Landing pages using Constant Contact’s website builder.
Winner of Landing page & Website Builder: Constant Contact
Constant Contact: 3-6 : ActiveCampaign
9. Pricing Comparison
Tablewise Pricing Comparison of Email Plus Plan based on the number of customers of both Constant Contact & ActiveCampaign is given below.
| No. of Customers | Company | Price (Email Plus Plan) |
|---|---|---|
| 0 – 500 | Constant Contact => Activecampaign => | $45 /mo $49 /mo |
| 501 – 1000 | Constant Contact => Activecampaign => | $70 /mo $49 /mo |
| 1001 – 2500 | Constant Contact => Activecampaign => | $70 /mo $99 /mo |
| 2501 – 5000 | Constant Contact => Activecampaign => | $95 /mo $149 /mo |
| 5001 – 10,000 | Constant Contact => Activecampaign => | $125 /mo $229 /mo |
| 10,000 – 25,000 | Constant Contact => Activecampaign => | $225 /mo $379 /mo |
>> Constant Contact
Constant Contact has mainly 2 plans. Email Plan and Email Plus Plan. It does not have a free version. It only has a 60-days free trial. The free trial of Constant Contact is very basic. It only allows you to send emails and nothing more. The Pricing plan of Constant Contact is given below.
Email Plan: $9.99 /month => Unlimited emails, 300+ email templates, Customer list growth tools, Real-time reporting, Social posting, Subject line A/B testing, Live phone & Chat support, and Shoppable landing pages, Ecommerce marketing polls, etc.
Email Plus Plan: $45 /month => Email Marketing automation, Dynamic content, Customizable pop-up forms, surveys & event registration, Personalized kickoff call, Ecommerce segmentation, etc.
>> ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign doesn’t have a free version. It only has a 14-day free trial. The Pricing plan of ActiveCampaign is given below.
Lite: $9 /month Marketing Automation, Email marketing, site & event tracking, Campaign & automation reporting, Chat & Email support, Lead capture forms, etc.
Plus: $49 /month Features of Lite plan + Landing page, Advanced performance reporting Automation map, built-in CRM, Contact & Lead scoring, SMS sending, etc.
Professional: $149 /month Plus plan features + Split automation, Sales engagement automation, Site message, Predictive sending, Pro implementation service, etc.
Enterprise: $258 /month Features of Professional plan + HIPAA compliance, Create custom object via API, Customize your mail server domain, Custom SMS number, Phone support, custom marketing strategy, etc.
Refund Policy
Constant Contact provides you refund policy. If you are not satisfied with Constant contact, within the first 30 days of your first payment, you can request for refund. But ActiveCampaign does not provide a refund policy with any plan.
Key Take-Aways: Pricing is affordable in Constant Contact when compared to Activecampaign. They are providing a Refund. And also you can easily downgrade the plan from higher plans.
Winner of Pricing: Constant Contact
Constant Contact: 4-6 : ActiveCampaign
10. Integration
>> Constant Contact
Constant Contact has around 350 integrations. That is amazing. All the integrations are filtered into different categories like Ecommerce, CRM, Event management, etc. So you can easily find the apps.
>> ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign supports over 800 integrations. It is integrated with popular apps and websites like Shopify, Squarespace, WordPress, Woocommerce, etc. It also integrates with Zapier and helps to build APIs.
Key Take-Aways: ActiveCampaign has more Integration when compared to Constant Contact. Constant Contact has around 350 integrations. But in ActiveCampaign there are around 850 integrations.
Winner of Integration: ActiveCampaign
Constant Contact: 4-7 : ActiveCampaign
11. Customer Support
>> Constant Contact
Constant Contact supports various features like Email/Help Desk, FAQs/Forum, Knowledge Base, Phone Support, and Chat. But customer service is not that good.
>> ActiveCampaign
The customer support of ActiveCampaign is pretty good. You can access customer support via email, and live chat, with the knowledge base, and tutorials are also available.
Key Take-Aways: Customer support is better in Activecampaign compared to Constant Contact. You will get good customer support by using ActiveCampaign. In Constant Contact customer support is not that good.
Winner of Customer Support: ActiveCampaign
Constant Contact: 4-8 : ActiveCampaign
| Constant Contact | ActiveCampaign | |
|---|---|---|
| Found in | Started in 1995. Headquarted in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States | Started in 2003. Headquarted in Chicago, Illinois, US |
| Customer Geography | Constant Contact is getting around 80% traffic from USA and Canada. | ActiveCampaign is getting around 55% traffic from the USA and Australia. Given below is the customer geography of ActiveCampaign. |
| Organic Traffic Vs Paid Traffic | Constant Contact is getting traffic from around 90% organic keywords & 10% paid keywords. | ActiveCampaign is getting traffic from around 85% organic keywords and about 15% paid keywords. |
| Top Website | The top websites that use Constant Contact are given below. >> Treat Cupcake Bar >> Soluna Garden Farm >> Good Boston Living >> Lovin’ Spoonfuls >> Siena Farms | The top websites that use ActiveCampaign is given below. >> Mandatory >> Consequence >> euronews >> Eluniverso >> Brighteon |
Alternatives of Constant Contact & ActiveCampaign
>> ConvertKit
>> Mailchimp
>> Campaign Monitor
>> Salesforce Marketing Cloud
>> Emma
>> MailerLite
>> Moosend
>> Benchmark
>> SendInBlue
>> GetResponnse
Let’s compare the Email Marketing features of Constant Contact & ActiveCampaign.
| Email Marketing Features | Constant Contact ($9.99 /mo) | ActiveCampaign ($9 /mo) | Constant Contact ($45 /mo) | ActiveCampaign ($49 /mo) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Users | 5 Users | 1 User | Unlimited | Up to 25 Users |
| Drag & Drop Editor |  | | | |
| HTML Editor | | | | |
| Template Library | | 125 + Templates | | |
| A/B Split Testing | For the Subject line only | | For the Subject line only | |
| Split automation |  | | | For $149 /mo |
| Apps & Integration | | | | |
| Advanced Tracking & Reporting | | Site and Event Tracking, Campaign and Automation Reporting, | | Advanced performance reporting, Task Reporting, Advanced Mobile Reporting |
| Ecommerce marketing | | | | |
| Customizable pop-up forms | | | | |
| SMS marketing | With EZ Texting integration | | With EZ Texting integration | |
| SMS Service Follow-ups | | | | |
| In-depth reporting | | | | |
| Predictive analytics | | | | For $149 /mo |
| Built-in CRM | | | For $399 /mo | |
| Create invoices | | | | |
| Lead Scoring | | | | |
| Contact Management | ||||
| Sign-up forms | | | | |
| Contacts list import from Gmail, Outlook, etc. | | | | |
| List segmentation | | | | |
| Ecommerce Segmentation | | | | |
| Automation | ||||
| Visual automation Workflow | | | | |
| List Building tools & Welcome emails | | | | |
| Smart Sending | | | | |
| Dynamic content | | | | |
| Automated Email Welcome series | | | | |
| Automated email behavioral series | | | | |
| Landing Pages | ||||
| Custom Branded landing pages | | | | |
| Shoppable landing pages | | | | 50+ Templates |
| Landing page creation & Hosting | | | | |
| Logo Maker | | | | |
| Customer Support | ||||
| Phone Support | | For $259 /mo | | For $259 /mo |
| Email/Help Desk | | | | |
| 24/7 (Live Rep) | | | | |
| Chat | | | | |
| FAQs/Forum | | | | |
| Knowledge Base | | | | |
| Training | ||||
| Live Online | | | | |
| In-Person | | | | |
| Videos | | | | |
| Documentation | | | | |
| Webinars | | | | |
| Deployment | ||||
| Cloud, SaaS, Web-Based | | | | |
| Desktop – Mac | | | | |
| Desktop – Windows | | | | |
| Desktop – Linux | | | | |
| Desktop – Chromebook | | | | |
| On-Premise – Windows | | | | |
| On-Premise – Linux | | | | |
| Mobile – Android | | | | |
| Mobile – iPad | | | | |
| Mobile – iPhone | | | | |
Conclusion
In my opinion, ActiveCampaign is better than Constant Contact. ActiveCampaign is a little costlier than Constant Contact. Even though, its plan starts from $9 /mo. However, it is worth it if your business is already scaled up. You will get a lot of advanced features by using ActiveCampaign. If you need a better Visual automation workflow, and better customer service, you can opt for ActiveCampaign.
If you have a small business or non-profit organization, you can opt for Constant Contact. If you have large corporate businesses, ECommerce, or those who want Complex automation and better customer service, then you can opt for ActiveCampaign.
Top News of Constant Contact & ActiveCampaign
- Constant Contact Agrees to Acquire Vision6
- Constant Contact Closes Acquisition of SharpSpring
- Endurance Finalizes Constant Contact Acquisition, Lays Off 15% Of The Staff
- Advanced Intellectual Methods Joins the Constant Contact Global Partner Program
- ActiveCampaign Increases Opportunities for New Customers by 110%
- Companies that Automate their Customer Experience Expect to Double in 2022
Top Commercials
Constant Contact
ActiveCampaign
Sophia Gilbert is an Email Marketing Specialist and Web Application Expert with 10+ years of experience. She meticulously tested and used most of the email marketing tools & website builders in the real field. Here she is sharing reviews and comparisons of different email marketing tools based on her past experience through different companies where she has worked.
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