Constant Contact features: what you get on each plan
Constant Contact covers 17 of the 19 features we test, but two of the gates are unusual. SMS marketing reaches exactly two countries, the United States and Australia, and requires a tax ID in either one. Event payments run through Stripe or PayPal with a 3.5% Constant Contact fee layered on top of the processor’s own cut. Custom automation paths are the single hardest gate: they need Premium, from $68/month billed annually.
Feature matrix
Nineteen features, checked against Constant Contact’s own plan comparison and its knowledge base in August 2026. From plan is the cheapest plan on which the feature is usable, not the plan where it stops being crippled.
| Feature | Included | From plan | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Email templates | Yes | Lite | Every plan, disputed catalogue size |
| Polls and Survey Pages | Yes | Lite | Up to 100 questions each |
| SMS marketing | Partial | Premium | Two countries, add-on below Premium |
| Landing pages | Yes | — | Gating never published anywhere |
| Web sign-up forms | Yes | Lite | Four placements, thin field types |
| Event registration | Yes | Lite | Registration form on every plan |
| Event payments | Yes | Lite | Costs 3.5% above the processor |
| Automation paths | Partial | Lite | One active path on Lite |
| Custom automation paths | Partial | Premium | Templates only below Premium |
| Subject line A/B testing | Partial | Standard | Subject lines, nothing else |
| A/B testing on email content | No | — | Absent from every published plan |
| Dynamic content blocks | Yes | Premium | Top plan only, no exceptions |
| Custom segments | Partial | Lite | One active segment on Lite |
| Engagement segmentation | Yes | Standard | Ten active segments at Standard |
| Email scheduling | Yes | Standard | Lite sends immediately or never |
| Drilldown reporting | Yes | Standard | Lite gets counts, not lists |
| Engagement heat map | Yes | Premium | Premium only, vendor pages conflict |
| AI content generator | Yes | Lite | Included everywhere, no metering shown |
| Users per account | Partial | Lite | One seat until Standard’s three |
A/B testing and dynamic content carry no dedicated section below because neither draws enough search demand to earn one, but both change what a plan is worth. Constant Contact’s own plan comparison names exactly one testable element: the subject line. Not the sender name, not the send time, not the content of the email. If your testing programme is built on comparing two layouts or two offers, that programme does not run here on any plan, and no upgrade unlocks it.
Dynamic content blocks are the mirror image. They exist, they are documented, and they are Premium only, with no partial version further down. Below Premium, personalisation stops at merge fields and at whichever segment you sent to. An operator who wants one email that renders differently for two customer groups is choosing between building two campaigns on Standard or paying for the top plan, and that is a clearer decision once you know there is no middle option.
Feature by feature
Constant Contact templates
Templates exist on every plan, including Lite, and the drag-and-drop editor is the same editor throughout. That part is not in dispute. The catalogue size is, and the disagreement is worth flagging because it is the number most comparison pages repeat without checking.
Constant Contact’s own template page describes the library as 600+ professional, mobile-responsive email marketing templates in its page metadata while the body of the same page offers 700+ email templates by category. An independent reviewer who worked through the account counts roughly two hundred and describes several as dated. Three numbers, two of them from the vendor, and no way to reconcile them. We publish no count.
What is verifiable is the branding layer. BrandKit pulls a logo, a colour set and imagery into new emails automatically, so templates arrive pre-styled rather than needing manual restyling each time. For teams that want full control over markup, Constant Contact documents HTML templates as the route, with the explicit caveat that you need to know HTML and CSS. There is no documented import path for an HTML file built elsewhere, which is the gap a developer will hit first.
Against a specialist, the honest comparison is that the editor is easy and the library is broad but conservative. If your brand needs layouts that a stock library will not produce, you are writing the HTML yourself, and Constant Contact does not pretend otherwise.
Constant Contact surveys
Survey Pages are a standalone product, not a block inside an email, and they sit on every plan including Lite. Constant Contact’s plan comparison lists polls and surveys across all three tiers, and its migration guide names Survey Pages explicitly in the Lite feature set.
The limits are generous where it counts and narrow where it does not. A single Survey Page holds up to 100 questions, drawn from five types: multiple choice, checkboxes, open answer, rank order and numeric scale. Responses can be tied to a contact record or collected anonymously, and both modes are documented separately, which matters if you are running feedback that people will only answer honestly without attribution.
One caution on sourcing. The knowledge base article for creating a Survey Page carries the boilerplate line this feature is not available in all Constant Contact plans, which reads like a gate but names no plan. Constant Contact attaches that sentence to a wide range of articles. Two specific, plan-named sources put surveys on Lite, so that is what the matrix says, and the boilerplate is treated as what it is.
Where this falls short of a dedicated survey tool is logic. There is no documented branching, no piping of an earlier answer into a later question, and no quota control. Five question types and a flat sequence is a feedback form, not a research instrument. For a small business asking customers what to stock next, it is enough. For anything with a screening question, it is not.
Constant Contact SMS
This is the sharpest limit on the platform and almost nobody states it correctly. Constant Contact’s SMS tools are available in the United States and in Australia, and nowhere else. The guidelines article is unambiguous on both: US customers need a valid nine-digit TIN or EIN, Australian customers need a valid eleven-digit ABN. Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands are excluded from the US eligibility, although the same article notes Puerto Rico contacts may still receive messages.
An independent reviewer states SMS is currently available only in the US. That is now wrong, and it is the same pattern seen on HubSpot and Klaviyo: the comparison page is stale, the vendor’s own documentation is not. On geography and on plan gating, the vendor defines the fact.
Sending numbers are assigned, not chosen. US accounts receive a 10DLC number after approval; Australian accounts receive a virtual long number. Neither is instant, since both go through carrier registration.
The plan gate has two shapes. Premium includes SMS automatically with the first 500 messages per month at no extra charge. Lite and Standard buy it as an add-on from $10/month, priced in tiers you select in advance based on expected volume and opted-in contacts. Constant Contact is explicit that you pay for the selected tier even if you send fewer messages, that unused messages do not roll over, and that exceeding your tier bills you at the tier matching what you actually sent.
Constant Contact landing pages
There are two landing page products and they solve different problems. Sign-up Landing Pages are hosted standalone pages built to collect contacts, and they carry an SMS opt-in field you drag in alongside the email field, so one page can grow both lists at once. Custom Landing Pages are the general-purpose builder, with templates aimed at link-in-bio, portfolio, event and product launch layouts.
The gating is the one line on this page we cannot source, and the reason is that Constant Contact never publishes it. Landing pages appear on neither the pricing table nor the full plan comparison, under any name, and no knowledge base article states a plan requirement. Rather than infer a plan from the absence of a gate, the matrix leaves the cell empty. If you are choosing a plan specifically for landing pages, ask before you buy.
What is documented is the ceiling. Constant Contact answers the custom domain question directly and in the negative: the builder gives you a URL you customise with a memorable phrase, so you don’t need your own website domain to get started. That framing is generous. In practice it means the page lives on a Constant Contact address, which rules out using these pages as campaign destinations where the domain itself carries trust, and rules out consolidating them under a site you already rank.
An independent reviewer calls the pages very basic, with few templates and a limited range of content blocks, and singles out event landing pages as the weakest of them. That matches the product’s positioning: these are list-growth pages, not a landing page builder you would choose over a dedicated one.
Constant Contact forms
Sign-up forms are on every plan, Lite included, and the placement options are the broadest part of the feature. Constant Contact documents pop-up, inline embedded, banner and flyout forms as separate form types with their own setup articles, plus a WordPress plugin that installs a sign-up or contact form without touching template code.
The weaknesses are in the field layer rather than the placement layer, and an independent reviewer is specific about them: no A/B testing on forms, no CAPTCHA, no GDPR consent field, and custom fields restricted to text and date types. Each of those has a consequence. No CAPTCHA means bot submissions arrive in your contact list and count against your contact-priced plan. No consent field means an operator subject to GDPR builds that compliance somewhere else, or accepts the risk. Text and date custom fields mean no dropdowns and no numeric capture, so anything you want to segment on later has to be typed correctly by the person filling the form.
Against a dedicated form or popup tool, that is a real gap, and it is not a gap a higher plan closes: the field limitations are the same on Premium as on Lite. What forms do well is the boring part, which is landing a contact in the right list with the right welcome automation attached, and doing it from four placements without a developer.
Constant Contact events
Event marketing is on every plan, and unusually for this platform, the top plan adds nothing to it. Constant Contact’s plan comparison lists the registration form and payments across Lite, Standard and Premium alike. Emails can carry an RSVP block, which is the lightweight path when you do not need a full registration page.
Payments run through Stripe or PayPal, connected to the event rather than to your account generally. Stripe covers credit and debit cards; PayPal covers PayPal balance, card, Venmo and Pay Later, which is the wider net of the two for consumer events.
The cost is where this needs stating plainly, because it is buried in a support article and appears on no marketing page. Constant Contact takes a fee on top of whatever the processor charges: 2.9% for events created before 1 August and 3.5% for events created on or after that date. That is a platform fee, not the Stripe or PayPal fee, and it applies to both processors identically. On a $50 ticket sold 200 times, the Constant Contact share alone is $350 before the processor takes its own percentage.
Registration forms can be customised and can carry paid add-ons, so the mechanics are complete enough for a workshop, a fundraiser or a class. Against a dedicated ticketing platform the gap is not features, it is that fee: several ticketing tools charge the organiser nothing and put their cut on the buyer.
Continue reading
Plan prices, contact tiers and the send allowance maths are on the Constant Contact pricing page. The overall verdict, scores and who the platform suits are in the Constant Contact review. If the gates above rule it out, the Constant Contact alternatives page compares the platforms people move to.
This review follows our email infrastructure testing methodology. We disclose affiliate relationships in our editorial independence policy.
