Both Constant Contact and ConvertKit are great email marketing tools. And they are pretty different email marketing software. So, it really depends on what exactly you want for your specific business. Constant Contact is more focused on Small businesses and ConvertKit is mainly focused on bloggers and content marketers. I tested both email marketing tools. Below is a complete review of Constant Contact Vs ConvertKit. By the end of this comparison, you can decide which one is the right option for you.
Quick Summary
Constant Contact
- Mobile optimized emails
- A good number of Templates
- Verifying & Uploading a large number of contacts is quick.
- More built-in integration
- Refund policy
- Live chat customer support
- Downgrade plan in one click
- 60 -days free trial with limited features
Website: https://constantcontact.com
ConvertKit
- Built-in lead capture pages
- More versatile forms
- High deliverability rate
- Built-in email Sequences
- Text-based Emails
- Affordable
- Free version Available Forever
- Good for content Marketers, Bloggers, & Single Business owners
Website: https://convertkit.com
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 ConvertKit?
ConvertKit is one of the fastest-growing email marketing companies in the world. It is easy to use, its visual automation workflow is great, and so many other features make ConvertKit unique. They are providing customizable landing pages and sign-up forms.
Who uses: Single business owners, Bloggers, Content marketers.
Some of the common features & their rating are given below.
| Email Marketing Features | Constant Contact | ConvertKit |
|---|---|---|
| Ease of use |  4Pretty straightforward. Will take time to understand all features at first. | 5 Easy to use. Best for beginners. |
| A/B Split Testing | 4 Only for the subject line | 4 Only for the subject line |
| Apps & Integration | 5 4500+ integration (including Zapier integrations). | 5 4500+ integrations (including Zapier integrations). |
| Automation | 4 | 5 Has visual automation workflow |
| Analytics & Report | 4 Basic analytics & reporting | 4 Basic analytics & reporting |
| Contact Management | 5 Can import contacts from other contacts like Google, BigCommerce, etc. | 4.5 |
| Deliverability | 4.5 | 5 99.7% deliverability |
| Email Builder | 5 | 5 |
| Sign-up forms | 4 | 4 |
| Templates & Designs | 4.5 Plenty of templates. But most of them are outdated | 3.5 A limited number of templates |
| List segmentation | 3 Limited tagging option. Can’t automatically tag based on customer behavior. | 5 Segmentation based on tags. You can easily target the audience. |
| Customer support | 3 | 3 |
| Value for money | 4.5 | 4 |
FAQs
Why you should use Constant Contact over ConvertKit?
Here is what is great about Constant Contact:
- Using Constant Contact, you can create mobile-optimized emails.
- You can import contacts from Gmail, Outlook, etc. in Constant Contact.,
- You can create dynamic content using Constant Contacts.
- You will get more built-in integration compared to ConvertKit.
- There is no contract time in Constant Contact. You can cancel your plan at any time.
- More email templates: If you want many design options for email templates, Constant Contact easily beat ConvertKit.
- Constant Contact has Live chat customer support. ConvertKit does not have that feature.
Why you should use ConvertKit over Constant Contact?
Here’s what’s great about ConvertKit:
- They have Built-in lead capture pages: ConvertKit has customizable and attractive landing pages for capturing leads. You can save some money by not having Lead Pageservices like Unbounce, Leadpages, Instapage, etc.
- More versatile forms: ConvertKit has more options in its form builder than Constant Contact does.
- Built-in email Sequences: To create something like ConvertKit’s Sequences on Constant Contact, you have to manually create an Automation, which is an inconvenient process compared to ConvertKit’s Sequence builder.
- It has an easy-to-use editor for simple emails. ConvertKit makes it very easy to compose plain emails or text-based emails.
- They have an interface for adding and uploading images.
Difference between Constant Contact & ConvertKit
- Constant Contact has more templates than ConvertKit. ConvertKit is mainly focused on Text-based templates.
- Constant Contact has a drag and drop feature that ConvertKit doesn’t have.
- Constant contact’s deliverability rate is around 97%. But ConvertKit’s deliverability rate is around 99.7%.
- ConvertKit has a free version. But Constant Contact does not have a free version. It only has a 60-days free trial.
- Constant Contact is affordable when compared to ConvertKit.
- ConvertKit’s automation is great when compared to Constant Contact.
Let’s check out these comparisons also.
In-depth Review
1. Contact Management
>> Constant Contact
Contact Management in Constant Contact is simple. It has the coolest interface when compared to ConvertKit. 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.
>> ConvertKit
ConvertKit allows you to add only one subscriber’s list. But you can organize the subscribers by segments and tag. You can give tags to the subscribers based on your interest. And also you can create segments of contacts with similar characteristics. If you import more contacts, they all will go to the same previous list. You can add subscribers in the ConvertKit using 3 ways. You can simply add the subscribers manually, you can import CSV files or you can import the contacts from another provider like Mailchimp, Mailerlite, etc. You can also create segments and give tags to the contacts. List management in ConvertKit is given below.
Key Take-Aways: Adding Contacts in Constant Contact is simple when compared to ConvertKit. It has a simple interface and also there are a lot of options for adding contacts in Constant Contact.
Winner of Contact Management: Constant Contact
Constant Contact: 1 – 0 : ConvertKit
2. Templates & Designs
>> 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.
>> ConvertKit
ConvertKit is mainly focused on text-only emails. There are mainly 3 options for templates in ConvertKit. They are Classic, Modern, and Text only. Among these, text-only is only focusing on the text. So there are only 2 templates. We can only change the appearance of the font by changing font style, font color, etc. and we can add images and links also. If you are an expert, you can code your own email templates using an HTML editor.
ConvertKit is not a design-centric email marketing tool. But the studies are saying that the deliverability of the emails is high for non-design-centric emails. A text-based email will most likely end up in the inbox and not in the Spam folder.
Key Take-Aways: Constant Contact has plenty of templated compared to ConvertKit. All are beautiful templates. In ConvertKit there are only a few templates. All of them are text-based. Customization options are also limited in ConvertKit.
Winner of Templates: Constant Contact
Constant Contact: 2 – 0 : ConvertKit
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.
>> ConvertKit
The campaign of ConvertKit comes under the send option. You can send broadcasts and also sequences. Broadcast is a one-time email to your customers. By sequences, you can create multiple emails that can be sent in a specific interval of time. In ConvertKit, the email campaign is called Broadcast.
You can create an A/B test from the editor itself. There the A/B test is for the subject line. You can create 2 subject lines and test which subject line is performing better.
Key Take-Aways: Campaign creation in Constant Contact is simple when compared to ConvertKit. You can create Campaigns in Constant Contact easily. In Convertkit, campaign creation is a little confusing. In Convertkit Campaign is called Broadcast and it comes under Send option.
Winner of Convertkit: Constant Contact
Constant Contact: 3 – 0 : ConvertKit
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.
>> ConvertKit
Creating a broadcast in ConvertKit is very easy. And also the email builder is easy to use. There are only limited options present in the editor section. The email builders are text-based. So, the customization of only the text like changing font size, font color, and adding images is available. There are no drag and drop options available in the ConvertKit.
Key Take-Aways: The email builder of Constant Contact has so many features. You can customize the email in your own way. You can add different blocks like Text, Images, Button, Video, Tables, etc. But ConvertKit’s email builder is very simple. It is text-based. You can add only text, images & links. (Note: Both of them have their own uniqueness. Studies are saying that the deliverability of the emails is high for non-design-centric emails). Constant Contact won because it has a lot of features in email builder.
Winner of Email Builder: Constant Contact
Constant Contact: 5 – 0 : ConvertKit
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 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 available.
>> ConvertKit
ConvertKit also has a great visual automation workflow. You can create your own automation workflow as well as you can use templates. There are so many options available for ConvertKit such as Event, Action, and Condition. Automation is available in the $9 and higher plan and not in the free version.
Key Take-Aways: Automation of ConvertKit is better when compared to Constant Contact. It provides you with a visual automation workflow. But Constant Contact provides you with only basic automation.
Winner of Automation: ConvertKit
Constant Contact: 5 – 1 : ConvertKit
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.
>> ConvertKit
ConvertKit is providing only the basic analytics & Report. You can only see the Open rate, Click rate, and Unsubscribers rate. If you are connected to an eCommerce store, you won’t even get the conversion rate. You can’t get the social media conversion and also bounce rate.
Key Take-Aways: Both Constant Contact & ConvertKit has only basic reporting. It only provides you open rate, click rate, bounce rate, and unsubscribers rate. Again it is a tie !.
Winner of Analytics & Report: Its a tie
Constant Contact: 6 – 2 : ConvertKit
7. Deliverability
Constant Contact provides you with around a 97% deliverability rate. ConvertKit provides you with a 99.7% deliverability rate.
The deliverability rate of ConvertKit is a little high when compared to Constant Contact.
Winner of Deliverability: ConvertKit
Constant Contact: 6 – 3 : ConvertKit
8. Pricing Comparison
>> Constant Contact
Constant Contact does not have a free version. It only has a free trial. The free trial of Constant Contact is very basic. It only allows you to send emails and nothing more. Constant Contact has mainly 2 plans. Email Plan and Email Plus Plan. 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.
>> ConvertKit
ConvertKit has a free version and as well a paid version. The Pricing plan of ConvertKit based on 300 subscribers is given below.
Free: Unlimited landing pages & forms, Send email broadcast, Sell digital products & Subscription, Community support
Creator: $9 /month Features of Free plan + Free migration from another tool, Automated funnels & Sequences.
Creator Pro: $25 /month Creator plan features + Facebook custom audience, Newsletter referral system, Subscriber scoring. Advanced reporting.
The pricing Comparison of Constant Contact & ConvertKit is given below.
| Features | Constant Contact Email Core ($9.99 /mo) | ConvertKit Creator Plan ($9 /mo) | Constant Contact Email Plus Plan ($45 /mo) | ConvertKit Creator Pro Plan ($25 /mo) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Users | 5 Users | 1 User | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Monthly Email send | 24 * No.of Contacts | Unlimited | 24 * No.of Contacts | Unlimited |
| Create signup forms |  | Unlimited | | Unlimited |
| Integrations & API | | | | |
| Shoppable Landing Pages | |  | | |
| Customizable Templates | Around 350 Templates | Only Text-based Templates | Around 350 Templates | Only Text-based Templates |
| Advanced Reporting | Only Basic reporting | Available for Creator Pro Plan ($25 /mo) | Only Basic reporting | |
| Deliverability Reporting | | Available for Creator Pro Plan ($25 /mo) | | |
| A/B Testing | For the Subject line only | For the Subject line only | For the Subject line only | For the Subject line only |
| eCommerce Segmentation | | | | |
| Customizable Pop-up forms | Available for Email Plus Plan ($45 /mo) | | | |
| Subscriber tagging | | | | |
| Contact List Import | | | | |
| List Segmentation | | | | |
| List growth reporting | | You will get analytics of your audience growth. | | |
| Visual automation funnels | Provides only single-step & Multi-step automation. No Visual automation funnels. | | Provides only single-step & Multi-step automation. No Visual automation funnels. | |
| Automated email sequences | | | | |
| Subscriber engagement scoring | | Available for Creator Pro Plan ($25 /mo) | | |
| Transaction fee | 1.5% | 3.5%+30c | 1.5% | 3.5%+30c |
| Sell digital products | | | | |
| Survey | Available for Email Plus Plan ($45 /mo) | | | |
Key Take-Aways: Constant Contact is affordable when compared to ConvertKit. You will get most of the features of the base plan of Constant Contact. But ConvertKit is a little costlier. Even if it has a free plan, it includes only the base features.
Winner of Pricing Comparison: Constant Contact
Constant Contact: 7 – 3 : ConvertKit
9. 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.
>> ConvertKit
ConvertKit has only around 100 integrations. It is integrated with popular apps and websites like Shopify, Squarespace, WordPress, Zapier, Woocommerce, etc. But they are not integrated with big CRMs. The list of some integration in ConvertKit is given below.
Key Take-Aways: Constant Contact has more integration compared to ConvertKit. Constant Contact provides you with around 4500 integration. Convertkit provides you with only around 100 integration.
Winner of Integration: Constant Contact
Constant Contact: 8 – 3 : ConvertKit
10. 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.
>> ConvertKit
ConvertKit offers email support and Live Chat support for all the customers (For free plans and also for higher plans), and also they are providing peer-to-peer support. They are providing limited live chat support on weekends. And also they are providing free quick migration for all plans and free advanced migration for importing 5k+ contacts. One of the customer support reviews of ConvertKit is given below.
Key Take-Aways: Customer Support of Constant Contact & ConvertKit is not that good. But when compared to Constant Contact, customer support of ConvertKit is better.
Winner of Customer Service: Convertkit
Constant Contact: 8 – 4 : ConvertKit
| Constant Contact | ConvertKit | |
|---|---|---|
| Found in | Started in 1995. Headquarted in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States | Started in 2013. Headquarted in Boise, Idaho |
| Customer Geography | Constant Contact is getting around 80% traffic from USA and Canada. | ConvertKit is getting around 55% traffic from USA and Canada. Given below is the customer geography of ConvertKit.  |
| Organic Vs Paid Traffic | Constant Contact is getting around 90% traffic from organic keywords & 10% paid keywords. | ConvertKit is getting around 90% traffic from organic keywords and about 10% paid keywords. |
| Top Website | Top websites that use Constant Contact is given below. >> Treat Cupcake Bar >> Soluna Garden Farm >> Good Boston Living >> Lovin’ Spoonfuls >> Siena Farms | The top websites that use ConvertKit is given below. >> Blogging For Devs >> RecipeTin Eats >> Sally's Baking Addiction >> Natasha's Kitchen >> Once Upon a Chef |
Alternatives of Constant Contact & ConvertKit
MailerLite
ActiveCampaign
SendInBlue
SendPulse
AWeber
Pardot
Drip
Omnisend
Zoho Campaigns
Marketo
A side-by-side feature comparison is given below:
| Email Marketing Features | Constant Contact | ConvertKit |
|---|---|---|
| A/B Split Testing | For the Subject line only | For the Subject line only |
| Advanced Tracking & Reporting | Basic Analytics & Reporting | Basic Analytics & Reporting |
| Apps & Integration | Around 350 integration | Around 100 integration |
| Bi-directional CRM syncing | | |
| Built-in CRM | | |
| Bulk social media posting | | |
| Create invoices | | |
| Create membership sites | | |
| Customizable pop-up forms | | |
| Drag & Drop Editor | | Focused on Text-based emails |
| Ecommerce marketing | | |
| Event management | | |
| Geo tracking | | |
| HTML Editor | | |
| In-depth reporting | | |
| Lead scoring | | |
| Lead segmentation | | |
| Mobile app | | |
| Mobile Optimized emails | | |
| Personalize web content | | |
| Predictive analytics | | |
| Real-time sales alerts | | |
| Refund Policy | | |
| SMS marketing | | |
| Social CRM | | |
| Template Library | Around 350 templates | Focused on text-based simple templates |
| Contact Management | Constant Contact | ConvertKit |
|---|---|---|
| Sign-up forms | | |
| Contacts list imported from Gmail, Outlook, etc. | | |
| List segmentation | | |
| Automation | Constant Contact | ConvertKit |
|---|---|---|
| Visual automation Workflow | | |
| List Building tools & Welcome emails | | |
| Smart Sending | | |
| Dynamic content | | |
| Automated email welcome series | | |
| Automated email behavioral series | | |
| Customer Support | Constant Contact | ConvertKit |
|---|---|---|
| Phone Support | | |
| Email/Help Desk | | |
| 24/7 (Live Rep) | | |
| Chat | | |
| FAQs/Forum | | |
| Knowledge Base | | |
| Training | Constant Contact | ConvertKit |
|---|---|---|
| Live Online | | |
| In-Person | | |
| Videos | | |
| Documentation | | |
| Webinars | | |
| Deployment | Constant Contact | ConvertKit |
|---|---|---|
| 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
Both Constant Contact & ConvertKit are good email marketing tools with a lot of features. In some of the features, Constant Contact is a step ahead of ConvertKit. But in some are ConvertKit is better. It just depends upon your wants and needs. Both of them provide you refund policy. Constant Contact & ConvertKit varies in different factors. If you are a small business owner, non-profit organization, etc, you can opt for Constant Contact.
If you need only simple email campaigns, then ConvertKit will be a good option. ConvertKit is mainly focused sending on text-based emails. You can try ConvertKit for free. ConvertKit provides you with a free version. But Constant Contact does not have a free version. You can try its 60-day free trial. If you are an author, blogger, or have a small business, use ConvertKit. If you have Small businesses, Non-profit organizations, etc. then you can opt for Constant Contact.
Top News of Constant Contact & ConvertKit
- Constant Contact Agrees to Acquire Vision6
- Constant Contact Closes Acquisition of SharpSpring
- Advanced Intellectual Methods Joins the Constant Contact Global Partner Program
- Germany in constant contact with US on Nord Stream 2 — Cabinet
- Endurance Finalizes Constant Contact Acquisition, Lays Off 15% Of The Staff
- ConvertKit acquires FanBridge, doubling down on expansion into the music industry
Top Commercials
Constant Contact
ConvertKit
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.
