10 Best Constant Contact Alternatives Tested in 2026
Constant Contact has no free plan, has never had one, and prices every plan on the size of your contact list rather than on how much you actually send. That is the whole reason this page gets traffic, and it is a billing complaint rather than a product one. Our review scores it 4.0/10 on pricing value, the second-lowest figure in our database of 42 platforms.
We priced 10 alternatives against it and ranked them by the review score each already carries on this site, out of 10. One thing before you read on: Constant Contact’s deliverability is not the problem. It scores 8.0/10 there, and only one of the ten below beats it. Leave for the bill, or the automation ceiling. Do not leave expecting better inbox placement.
Why look for a Constant Contact alternative in 2026
Three specific mechanics, all of them about money rather than features.
First, there is no free tier and there never was. The pricing page puts it plainly: "Constant Contact is a paid platform, but you don’t have to pay to try it." What you get is a trial, whose length that page does not state, plus a 30-day money-back guarantee. Eight of the ten platforms below run a permanent free plan, and two — Sender at 2,500 subscribers and Kit at 10,000 — carry lists most small businesses never outgrow.
Second, the send limit and the overage fee. Every plan caps monthly sends at a multiple of your contact tier: 10x Lite, 12x Standard, 24x Premium. Constant Contact’s knowledge base is precise about what the multiple covers — "up to 10, 12, or 24 times the highest number of contacts in your contact pricing tier" — and about what follows: "Overage fees are assessed at $0.002 for every send over the maximum send allowance", deducted from your balance or invoiced separately. Nothing stops sending. You find out on the bill. To its credit, Constant Contact is one of very few vendors that publishes this rate at all.
Third, the automation ceiling sits below the price you pay. Lite gives one automation template and one user; Standard three and three. Custom automations arrive only on Premium, at $68/mo billed annually or $80 monthly at the entry contact tier. That is why our automation score is 4.5/10. Nine of the ten below beat it; ActiveCampaign by 5.0 points.
What Constant Contact still has, and it is not nothing: deliverability at 8.0/10, live phone and chat on every plan including the cheapest, ease of use at 8.0, an events and payments module most competitors do not ship, and a nonprofit discount of 20 percent on six-month prepay or 30 percent on twelve. If you are a nonprofit running ticketed events and someone in your office phones support, the case for staying is stronger than the score suggests.
10 Constant Contact alternatives at a glance
Ranked by the review score each platform carries on SMTPedia, out of 10. Constant Contact scores 6.1. Click any name to jump to its block.
| Platform | Score | Starting $ | Free plan | Best for | MCP | Deliverability | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brevo | 7.7/10 | $9/mo | 300 emails/day forever | Escaping contact-tier pricing | Yes | Medium | Bills what you send, so a dormant list stops costing money |
| MailerLite | 7.4/10 | $12/mo | 250 subs / 2,500 emails | The same deliverability, a third of the bill | Yes | High | Matches Constant Contact’s deliverability score and doubles its value score |
| Sender | 7.3/10 | $6.30/mo | 2,500 subs / 15,000 emails | Proving the channel works before paying | No | Low | The largest free tier here, with automation included |
| ActiveCampaign | 7.2/10 | Not published | No (14-day trial) | The automation Constant Contact lacks | Yes | High | Automation 9.5 against 4.5, the widest single gap on this page |
| Moosend | 7.2/10 | Not published | No (30-day trial) | Removing the send cap entirely | No | High | Unlimited sends on paid plans, so there is no overage to bill |
| Omnisend | 7.1/10 | $11.20/mo | 250 contacts / 500 emails | Retail and ecommerce, where the automation gap costs revenue | Yes | Low | Cart and browse abandonment out of the box, which Lite cannot build |
| EmailOctopus | 7.1/10 | $9/mo | 2,500 subs / 10,000 emails | The simplest replacement, at the lowest price | No | Medium | Ease 9.0 and support 9.0, both the highest scores on this page |
| Kit | 7.0/10 | $33/mo | Up to 10,000 subscribers | Creators, authors and course sellers | Paid | Medium | The largest free subscriber ceiling of any platform here |
| AWeber | 6.4/10 | $12.49/mo | 500 subs / 3,000 emails | The closest like-for-like peer, plus a free tier | Yes | Medium | The only platform here whose MCP server is on every plan, free included |
| Mailchimp | 6.3/10 | $13/mo | 250 contacts / 500 emails | The comparison everyone makes anyway | Partial | High | Level on deliverability, better on ease, considerably worse on support |
Scores are the overall review score published on each platform’s own SMTPedia page, out of 10, not a rating made for this comparison. Prices verified September 2026 against each vendor’s public pricing page or help centre; two publish no entry price before sign-in and are marked as such rather than estimated. Deliverability grades map our deliverability score: High is 8.0 and above, Medium 6.0 to 7.9, Low below 6.0. MCP means a first-party Model Context Protocol server, checked vendor by vendor.
1. Brevo
Brevo
When to pick Brevo over Constant Contact
Constant Contact prices you on list size, then caps sending at 10x your tier on Lite. Brevo inverts that: the bill is set by monthly send volume, and the free plan stores up to 100,000 contacts while letting you send 300 emails a day forever. If you hold a large list of past customers and mail them four times a year, this is the biggest line-item cut on the page. Brevo carries the highest pricing-value score in our database, 8.5/10 against Constant Contact’s 4.0.
| Feature | Constant Contact | Brevo |
|---|---|---|
| Priced on | Contacts held, with a send cap | Emails sent |
| Free plan | None, trial only | 300 emails/day, up to 100,000 contacts stored |
| Entry paid price | $12/mo monthly, $10.20 annual | $9/mo Starter |
| Send overage | $0.002 per email over the allowance | No send overage on plan tiers |
| Our pricing-value score | 4.0 / 10 | 8.5 / 10 |
| Our deliverability score | 8.0 / 10 | 7.5 / 10 |
What you give up by leaving Constant Contact for Brevo: Deliverability, and the phone. Brevo scores 7.5 against 8.0, and Constant Contact puts live phone and chat on every plan including Lite, which Brevo does not. If your marketing runs on someone picking up at 4pm, price it in.
Medium
half a day
CSV import; automations and signup forms rebuilt by hand
From $9/mo
Starter · priced by monthly sends
Free forever at 300 emails/day with up to 100,000 contacts stored. Starter from $9/mo, Standard from $18/mo, Professional from $499/mo. Tiers are set by monthly send volume, not by list size.
2. MailerLite
MailerLite
When to pick MailerLite over Constant Contact
The closest thing to a cut in cost without a cut in inbox placement. MailerLite scores 8.0/10 on deliverability, exactly level with Constant Contact, and 8.0 on pricing value against 4.0. Unsubscribed and bounced contacts do not count toward your limit, and there is no send-overage fee — you hit the ceiling and upgrade, rather than receiving an invoice you did not authorise.
| Feature | Constant Contact | MailerLite |
|---|---|---|
| Our deliverability score | 8.0 / 10 | 8.0 / 10 |
| Our pricing-value score | 4.0 / 10 | 8.0 / 10 |
| Free plan | None, trial only | 250 subscribers / 2,500 emails per month |
| Send overage | $0.002 per email over the allowance | None |
| Automations on entry plan | 1 template on Lite | Up to 50 active automations on Comfort |
| Live phone support | Yes, all plans | No, email and chat only |
What you give up by leaving Constant Contact for MailerLite: Phone support, and the events and payments module. Constant Contact hosts events, sells products and takes payments in-platform; MailerLite does not. You also inherit a cumulative billing count: any address active at any point in a cycle counts for the whole cycle, even if deleted mid-month.
Easy
about 2 hours
CSV import keeps segments and tags; automations rebuilt by hand
From $12/mo
Comfort · monthly billing
Free up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails/month since the June 16, 2026 change, down from 500 and 12,000. Comfort from $10.80/mo billed annually or $12/mo monthly; Power from $22.50/mo annually or $25/mo monthly.
Read full MailerLite review
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3. Sender
Sender
When to pick Sender over Constant Contact
Constant Contact has no free plan and never has: it sells a trial. Sender gives you 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails a month permanently, with automation included and no card. For a business still working out whether email earns its keep, paying $12/mo to find out is the wrong order of operations. Sender automation scores 7.5/10 against Constant Contact’s 4.5, so the free tier is not a crippled one.
| Feature | Constant Contact | Sender |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | None, trial only | 2,500 subscribers / 15,000 emails per month |
| Automation on free | Not applicable | Included |
| Our automation score | 4.5 / 10 | 7.5 / 10 |
| Entry paid price | $12/mo monthly, $10.20 annual | $6.30/mo Standard |
| Our deliverability score | 8.0 / 10 | 5.5 / 10 |
| First-party MCP server | No | No |
What you give up by leaving Constant Contact for Sender: Deliverability, and it is not close. Sender scores 5.5/10 against 8.0 — the widest deliverability drop here. A real trade: you save the subscription and spend some of it back in inbox placement. Use Sender to validate, not to scale a list that already converts.
Easy
about 2 hours
CSV import; rebuild forms and automations, no Constant Contact importer
From $6.30/mo
Standard · entry tier
Free forever up to 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails/month with automation and no credit card. Standard from $6.30/mo, Professional from $10.50/mo, plus a pay-as-you-go option at $5.80 per 1,000 emails.
4. ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign
When to pick ActiveCampaign over Constant Contact
Constant Contact’s Lite ships one automation template, Standard three, and only Premium unlocks custom automations. That ceiling is why our automation score for it is 4.5/10. ActiveCampaign scores 9.5, the joint-highest we award, and is the only platform here that also beats Constant Contact on deliverability, 8.5 against 8.0. If you are leaving because you cannot build the flow you want, this is the destination.
| Feature | Constant Contact | ActiveCampaign |
|---|---|---|
| Our automation score | 4.5 / 10 | 9.5 / 10 |
| Custom automations on entry plan | No, Premium only | Yes |
| Our deliverability score | 8.0 / 10 | 8.5 / 10 |
| Entry price published without sign-in | Yes | No |
| Our ease-of-use score | 8.0 / 10 | 5.5 / 10 |
| Send overage | $0.002 per email | $0.005 per email |
What you give up by leaving Constant Contact for ActiveCampaign: Simplicity, price transparency and the cheaper overage. ActiveCampaign scores 5.5/10 on ease against 8.0, publishes no entry price before sign-in, and bills overage at $0.005 per send — more than double $0.002. A heavier tool in every sense.
Hard
one to two days
Contacts import cleanly; the automations are the project, and that is the point
Price not published
Starter · price shown after sign-in
No free plan; 14-day trial without a card. Starter is capped at 25,000 contacts. Send allowances run at 10x your contact limit on Starter and Plus, 12x on Professional and 15x on Enterprise, with overage at $0.005 per send.
Read full ActiveCampaign review
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5. Moosend
Moosend
When to pick Moosend over Constant Contact
The charge that surprises people is not the subscription, it is the overage: $0.002 per email past 10x your contact tier on Lite. Mail a 5,000-contact list twelve times a month and you are over. Moosend paid plans carry unlimited email sends, so the cap disappears rather than getting larger. It matches Constant Contact’s deliverability at 8.0/10 and beats it on support, 8.5 against 6.5.
| Feature | Constant Contact | Moosend |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly send limit | 10x contacts on Lite, 24x on Premium | Unlimited on paid plans |
| Send overage | $0.002 per email over the allowance | None, sends are unlimited |
| Our support score | 6.5 / 10 | 8.5 / 10 |
| Our deliverability score | 8.0 / 10 | 8.0 / 10 |
| Free plan | None, trial only | None, 30-day trial |
| First-party MCP server | No | No |
What you give up by leaving Constant Contact for Moosend: The developer surface and the ecosystem. Moosend scores 5.0/10 on API and MCP against 5.5, has no first-party MCP server, and nothing like the 300 integrations Constant Contact lists. It has no free plan either, so the trial is the whole evaluation window.
Easy
about 3 hours
CSV import; the trial runs unlimited sends for up to 1,000 contacts so you can test properly
Price not published
Pro · price shown after sign-in
30-day free trial, no card, with unlimited sends for up to 1,000 contacts during the trial. Paid plans carry unlimited email sends and an SMTP server. Discounts of 15 percent bi-annual and 20 percent annual, with a further 25 percent for nonprofits. Prepaid credits never expire.
6. Omnisend
Omnisend
When to pick Omnisend over Constant Contact
Constant Contact sells to boutiques, restaurants and local retail, then gives Lite one automation template. For a shop, the flows that earn money — abandoned cart, browse abandonment, post-purchase — are exactly the ones you cannot build there. Omnisend ships them as defaults, scores 7.0/10 on automation against 4.5, and puts SMS on the same account without the $10/mo add-on Constant Contact charges on Lite and Standard.
| Feature | Constant Contact | Omnisend |
|---|---|---|
| Prebuilt ecommerce automations | No, Premium only for custom | Yes, on all plans |
| Our automation score | 4.5 / 10 | 7.0 / 10 |
| SMS included | $10/mo add-on on Lite and Standard | Same account, global credits |
| Our ease-of-use score | 8.0 / 10 | 8.5 / 10 |
| Our deliverability score | 8.0 / 10 | 5.0 / 10 |
| Live phone support | Yes, all plans | No |
What you give up by leaving Constant Contact for Omnisend: Deliverability, the largest drop here alongside Sender: 5.0/10 against 8.0. It is narrower too: built around a storefront, so if your email is a community newsletter rather than a catalogue, most of what you pay for goes unused.
Medium
half a day
Store connector does the heavy lifting; contacts and flows both rebuilt
From $11.20/mo
Standard · 500 contacts
Free up to 250 contacts and 500 emails/month. Standard at $11.20/mo for 500 contacts, Pro at $41.30/mo with unlimited monthly emails. SMS is bought as separate global credits from $0.007 per message.
7. EmailOctopus
EmailOctopus
When to pick EmailOctopus over Constant Contact
If what you actually do with Constant Contact is write an email and send it to a list, you are paying for a marketing suite to run a newsletter. EmailOctopus scores 9.0/10 on both ease of use and support — the two highest figures on this page, against 8.0 and 6.5 — and its free plan carries 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails a month with no time limit and no card.
| Feature | Constant Contact | EmailOctopus |
|---|---|---|
| Our ease-of-use score | 8.0 / 10 | 9.0 / 10 |
| Our support score | 6.5 / 10 | 9.0 / 10 |
| Our pricing-value score | 4.0 / 10 | 8.5 / 10 |
| Free plan | None, trial only | 2,500 subscribers / 10,000 emails per month |
| Our automation score | 4.5 / 10 | 4.0 / 10 |
| First-party MCP server | No | No |
What you give up by leaving Constant Contact for EmailOctopus: Automation, and the suite around the email. EmailOctopus is the only platform here scoring below Constant Contact on automation, 4.0 against 4.5. No social posting, no ads manager, no events or payments module, no phone line. A narrower tool on purpose.
Easy
about 1 hour
CSV import and send; the free plan holds a 2,500-contact list while you decide
From $9/mo
Pro · billed yearly
Free forever at 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails/month, with EmailOctopus branding, 30 days of reports and one landing page. Pro from $9/mo billed yearly removes the branding and the limits; the subscriber tier is set by a slider. Nonprofits get a 20 percent lifetime discount.
Read full EmailOctopus review
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8. Kit
Kit
When to pick Kit over Constant Contact
Kit’s free plan runs to 10,000 subscribers — forty times the free ceiling of the next platform on this page — with unlimited broadcasts, landing pages, tagging and the ability to sell digital products. Against a platform with no free plan at all, that is the whole argument. Kit scores 8.0/10 on API and MCP against 5.5, and ships a first-party MCP server.
| Feature | Constant Contact | Kit |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | None, trial only | Up to 10,000 subscribers |
| Our API and MCP score | 5.5 / 10 | 8.0 / 10 |
| First-party MCP server | No, community wrappers only | Yes, paid plans |
| Sell digital products natively | Events and payments module | Yes, including on Free |
| Our deliverability score | 8.0 / 10 | 6.0 / 10 |
| Visual automations on free plan | Not applicable | No, paid plans only |
What you give up by leaving Constant Contact for Kit: Deliverability and the free plan’s teeth. Kit scores 6.0/10 against 8.0, and the 10,000-subscriber free tier excludes visual automations, sequences, the MCP server, SMS, integrations and advanced A/B testing. A large room with most of the doors locked.
Medium
half a day
CSV import with tags; sequences rebuilt, and the free plan will hold the list first
From $33/mo
Creator · 1,000 subscribers
Free up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts, forms and landing pages, but no visual automations, sequences, MCP server or SMS. Creator from $33/mo at 1,000 subscribers, or $390 a year; Pro from $66/mo, or $790 a year. Every plan includes a 14-day trial of the tier above.
9. AWeber
AWeber
When to pick AWeber over Constant Contact
AWeber is the platform here that most resembles Constant Contact: same vintage, same small-business audience, same phone-support culture, and our support score says so — 8.5/10 against Constant Contact’s 6.5. The differences are a permanent free plan at 500 subscribers and 3,000 emails a month, and a first-party MCP server at mcp.aweber.com that is included on all plans, the free one included. Constant Contact ships no first-party MCP server at all.
| Feature | Constant Contact | AWeber |
|---|---|---|
| Our support score | 6.5 / 10 | 8.5 / 10 |
| Free plan | None, trial only | 500 subscribers / 3,000 emails per month |
| First-party MCP server | No, community wrappers only | Yes, included on all plans |
| Unlimited subscribers plan | No, priced per contact tier | Yes, Plus from $19.99/mo |
| Our deliverability score | 8.0 / 10 | 6.0 / 10 |
| Our pricing-value score | 4.0 / 10 | 5.0 / 10 |
What you give up by leaving Constant Contact for AWeber: Deliverability, mainly: 6.0/10 against 8.0, and an overall 6.4 that is second-lowest here. Its send allowance is also structured the way you are leaving: 10x your subscriber maximum on Lite, 12x on Plus.
Easy
about 2 hours
Closest structural match on the page, so forms, lists and broadcasts map almost one to one
From $12.49/mo
Lite · billed annually
Free forever up to 500 subscribers and 3,000 emails/month. Lite from $12.49/mo billed annually, scaling from 500 to 150,000 subscribers at 10x sends; Plus from $19.99/mo with unlimited subscribers at 12x sends. A Done For You tier adds expert setup.
10. Mailchimp
Mailchimp
When to pick Mailchimp over Constant Contact
Constant Contact links to its own Mailchimp comparison page, so let us be direct. The two are level on deliverability at 8.0/10. Mailchimp edges ahead on ease, 8.5 against 8.0, and on automation, 6.0 against 4.5. It loses badly on support, 4.5 against 6.5 — Constant Contact puts live phone and chat on every plan, which Mailchimp reserves for higher tiers. The honest summary: a sideways move with different failure modes.
| Feature | Constant Contact | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|
| Our deliverability score | 8.0 / 10 | 8.0 / 10 |
| Our ease-of-use score | 8.0 / 10 | 8.5 / 10 |
| Our automation score | 4.5 / 10 | 6.0 / 10 |
| Free plan | None, trial only | 250 contacts / 500 emails per month |
| Our support score | 6.5 / 10 | 4.5 / 10 |
| Our overall score | 6.1 / 10 | 6.3 / 10 |
What you give up by leaving Constant Contact for Mailchimp: Support, and the pricing trajectory: 4.5/10 on support against 6.5, and a bill that climbs sharply with contact count: Premium starts at $350/mo. At 6.3 against 6.1, this is the narrowest gap on the page, and the only entry we would call a lateral move rather than an upgrade.
Easy
about 2 hours
Both export clean CSVs; audiences and tags map directly, automations do not
From $13/mo
Essentials · 0 to 500 contacts
Free up to 250 contacts with a maximum of 500 emails a month or 250 a day. Essentials from $13/mo, Standard from $20/mo and Premium from $350/mo, all quoted at the 0 to 500 contact tier on 12-month terms.
Read full Mailchimp review
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Frequently asked questions
Does Constant Contact have a free plan?
No, and it never has. Its pricing page states that “Constant Contact is a paid platform, but you don’t have to pay to try it”, offering a free trial with no credit card and a 30-day money-back guarantee instead; the page does not state the trial length. Eight of the ten alternatives here run a permanent free plan: Kit has the largest ceiling at 10,000 subscribers, Sender the most generous sending at 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails a month, and ActiveCampaign and Moosend are the two that offer trials only.
What is the cheapest Constant Contact alternative?
By entry price, Sender at $6.30/mo, then Brevo and EmailOctopus at $9/mo. Constant Contact starts at $12/mo monthly or $10.20 billed annually. The entry price is the wrong comparison if your list is large: Constant Contact’s Lite ladder climbs to $365.50/mo billed annually before the published tiers run out, and Brevo is the only platform here billing on sends rather than contacts, so a big list you mail rarely costs nothing to hold.
Why does Constant Contact charge overage fees?
Because every plan ties monthly sending to your contact tier rather than selling sends outright. Its knowledge base states that customers — depending on plan — "can send up to 10, 12, or 24 times the highest number of contacts in your contact pricing tier during a given billing cycle", and that "overage fees are assessed at $0.002 for every send over the maximum send allowance". Sending does not stop when you cross the line; the fee is deducted from your balance or invoiced. Moosend removes the mechanic entirely with unlimited sends on paid plans.
Which alternative has better deliverability than Constant Contact?
Only one: ActiveCampaign, at 8.5/10 against Constant Contact’s 8.0. MailerLite, Moosend and Mailchimp are level at 8.0, and the remaining six score below it — Omnisend and Sender lowest at 5.0 and 5.5. This is the axis on which Constant Contact genuinely performs, and the reason we would not call most of this page a straight upgrade.
Which Constant Contact alternative is the closest like-for-like?
AWeber. Same vintage, same small-business audience, same list-and-broadcast structure, same phone-support culture — support 8.5/10 against 6.5 — and the same 10x and 12x send multipliers. The differences that matter: a permanent free plan at 500 subscribers, and a first-party MCP server on every plan. The caveat is deliverability, 6.0 against 8.0.
Does Constant Contact have an official MCP server?
No. As of September 2026 there is no first-party Constant Contact MCP server; agent access runs through community wrappers and general-purpose bridges. Six of the ten platforms here publish one: Brevo, MailerLite, ActiveCampaign, Omnisend, Kit and AWeber. Two of those gate it behind a paid plan — MailerLite and Kit — and AWeber is the only one that includes its server, at mcp.aweber.com, on every plan including the free one.
This review follows our email infrastructure testing methodology. We disclose affiliate relationships in our editorial independence policy.
