Constant Contact Pricing: Worth It or Not? (2026)

When I first started researching Constant Contact’s pricing structure, I felt overwhelmed—multiple tiers, hidden overage fees, and costs that jump dramatically as your number of contacts grows. 

If you’re trying to figure out whether this email marketing software fits your budget and marketing strategy—especially for small businesses and nonprofit organizations. The platform’s starting price is just $12/month, but I’ve discovered that real-world costs often surprise users when they factor in subscriber counts, email volume limits, and SMS add-ons, which significantly affect the small business email marketing cost over time.

As of June 1, 2025, Constant Contact restructured its pricing into just three tiers, eliminating its free plan entirely, a decision that drove users in droves looking for discount codes. I’ve put together this guide to cut through the confusion with exact pricing breakdowns, side-by-side competitor comparisons, and clear recommendations based on your business size. 

I’ll show you exactly what you’ll pay and whether Constant Contact lets you achieve enough value as an email marketing tool to justify the cost.

Constant Contact Pricing at a Glance

How Send Limits Work

Constant Contact uses a contact-based send allowance, meaning your monthly email limit is calculated as a multiple of the number of contacts on your plan. The more contacts you pay for, the higher your total monthly send volume—but sends are still capped rather than unlimited.

On the Lite plan, you can send up to 10× your contact count per month. Standard increases this to 12× contacts, while Premium offers the highest allowance at 24× contacts monthly. Say you have 750 contacts on your Standard plan. That means the maximum amount of emails you can send per month is 9,000 (750×12).

Premium unlocks advanced features such as dynamic content personalization, AI-content generator, AI-driven recommendations, in-depth segmentation, social media ads integration, landing pages, social media posts scheduling, and multi-channel campaigns, especially for businesses running frequent promotions or multi-step campaigns.

Keep in mind these limits mainly apply to regular email marketing campaigns, with automated emails typically excluded from the allowance calculation.

Constant Contact Plans & Costs Reviewed

Below, I break down each Constant Contact plan in detail, reviewing them across various criteria, such as pricing, send limits, automation features, and overall value as your list grows.

Free Trial Reviewed

When I learned that Constant Contact eliminated its permanent free plan in June 2025, I was disappointed—now there’s only a 14-day free trial. The trial allows you to explore most of the platform’s core email marketing features without an upfront payment. 

Email support is restricted during this period, which can be frustrating if you need quick answers. While the trial feels short compared to what I’ve seen from other email marketing platforms, it’s still a practical way to evaluate Constant Contact workflow and deliverability before committing. 

If you need a truly free email marketing solution to build your list over time, I’ve found that Sender offers a permanent free plan with up to 2,500 subscribers—something Constant Contact eliminated in 2025.

Lite Plan

The Constant Contact Lite plan is the entry-level paid option, starting at $12/month for up to 500 subscribers. What shocked me was discovering that costs can surge by up to 300% as your contact list grows, jumping from $12 to $50 at 2,500 subscribers. 

It includes email marketing essentials such as customizable email templates, branded emails, and access to basic automated email features and automation templates. However, I was frustrated to learn the plan is limited to one user and lacks A/B testing, advanced segmentation, and other features I consider essential for improving conversion rates. 

For context, Sender’s free plan includes more features than Constant Contact’s paid Lite tier, making the $12/month feel even less justified as a basic email tool. Monthly send volume is capped at 10 times your subscriber list, with overages billed at $0.002 cost per email—something I’ve seen catch email marketers off guard. 

Lite works best for solopreneurs or small business owners just getting started who want affordable access without advanced functionality.

Standard Plan

The Standard plan starts at $35/month for up to 500 subscribers, and it’s the first tier where custom automations and email marketing automation become genuinely useful—that is, if you’re looking to save time with automation. What bothers me about the June 2025 restructure is that many features offered I remember being available in lower tiers—such as A/B testing and advanced segmentation—are now exclusive to Standard and higher tiers. 

I discovered it adds A/B testing for subject lines and content, expanded automation workflows including custom automation paths, email campaign scheduling, and access to the full template library with drop content blocks functionality. 

You can also invite up to three users, making it practical for small teams that need to schedule emails collaboratively and track contact activity. Monthly email volume is capped at 12 times your list size, with those same $0.002 overage charges. 

This plan strikes a balance between cost and functionality for growing businesses and ecommerce businesses that need stronger engagement tools across multiple channels.

Premium Plan

The Premium plan starts at $80/month for up to 500 subscribers, being Constant Contact’s most advanced tier among paid plans. Unlike Lite and Standard, it offers 24x your number of contacts, which is attractive for higher-volume marketers. 

What frustrates me is that essential features for scaling businesses—like dynamic content, AI recommendations, and multichannel automation—are now locked behind this highest-priced tier following the 2025 pricing changes. 

Premium unlocks advanced features such as dynamic content personalization, AI-content generator, AI-driven recommendations, in-depth segmentation, social media ads/Google Ad Manager integration, landing pages, social media posts scheduling, and multi-channel campaigns. It also includes 500 SMS messages each month, with the option to purchase additional blocks. 

The unlimited users feature, live chat support, and priority phone support (available to U.S. customers only) are genuinely helpful based on what I’ve heard from users. This plan suits larger businesses or teams that require scalability and personalization.

Constant Contact Hidden Fees & Extra Costs

While Constant Contact’s plans look straightforward, I’ve uncovered several hidden costs you need to know about. Even with nonprofit pricing, overage fees, SMS add-ons, and inbox preview tools can increase monthly costs. Since the June 2025 pricing restructure eliminated the free plan and pushed essential features to higher tiers, the price increased significantly for most users. 

Email send limits on Lite and Standard plans—10 times or 12 times your subscriber list—can be restrictive, and the overage fees of $0.002 per extra email add up faster than you might expect (for instance, sending just 5,000 emails over your limit adds another $10 to your monthly bill.) 

Meanwhile, competitors like Sender offer 15,000 free emails per month without overage fees, highlighting how restrictive Constant Contact’s send limits really are. 

SMS marketing isn’t included by default (except for 500 monthly messages in Premium), and I’ve found add-on blocks start at about $10/month. What really surprised me was how sharply your monthly bill increases with subscriber growth, with massive jumps at 2,500, 5,000, and 10,000 contacts. 

There’s also inbox preview testing—checking how your emails display across different email clients—which costs an extra $10/month. Again, many competitors include this for free. Additionally, features like advanced automation, multi-user access, and AI tools remain frustratingly gated behind higher-tier plans, limiting what this email service provider can offer at lower price points.

Constant Contact Pricing by Subscriber Count

Constant Contact SMS Pricing & Costs

Note: The Premium plan includes 500 SMS messages/month by default. I’ve found that additional messages are billed based on location, with costs varying significantly by country and sender ID requirements. Bulk SMS blocks can be purchased starting from $10/month.

What You’ll Really Pay: Real Business Examples

While it’s good to have all the prices on paper, it can only show you as much—there’s small print, additional costs, overage prices, and other things most users find out about when the invoice arrives.

That said, there’s no better way to demonstrate how Constant Contact tiered pricing works than by taking some hypothetical real-life examples and crunching those numbers, putting annual vs monthly billing side-by-side.

Compare this to Sender, where 2,500 contacts costs $0/month on the free plan—a savings of $900/year.

Constant Contact vs Competitors: Which Costs Less?

Constant Contact vs Mailchimp

Let’s take a look at Constant Contact vs. Mailchimp. With Constant Contact’s elimination of its free plan in June 2025, I believe Mailchimp now holds a significant advantage for budget-conscious users. I’ve compared both tools extensively—they offer list-based pricing, but Mailchimp still maintains a limited free plan, while Constant Contact only offers a 14-day or 30-day trial.

If you’re budget-sensitive at the starter level like many people I’ve spoken with, Mailchimp may appeal more. However, for built-in SMS, Google ads integration, and what I’ve found to be stronger support, Constant Contact’s Premium tier holds an edge when considering Constant Contact alternatives.

Constant Contact vs HubSpot

I’ll be honest—when comparing Constant Contact with HubSpot, the latter one turns out to be a completely different beast. It integrates CRM, sales, and customer service, but I’ve seen that power come at a steep cost. HubSpot Starter starts affordably, but my research shows that scaling to 10,000+ contacts quickly surpasses Constant Contact’s Premium pricing, and onboarding fees can add hundreds or even thousands upfront. 

While I’ve documented how Constant Contact’s pricing can triple as lists grow, it remains more predictable than HubSpot‘s complex tier system. Constant Contact focuses on email and SMS without the heavy CRM overhead, which makes it more cost-effective for straightforward campaigns. 

If your priority is integrated sales pipelines and advanced analytics, HubSpot may justify the investment. For most SMBs I’ve worked with seeking affordable email marketing, Constant Contact remains the leaner choice.

Constant Contact vs ActiveCampaign

Lastly, ActiveCampaign vs. Constant Contact. In my experience, ActiveCampaign is a strong competitor for marketers who value automation depth. Even at lower-tier plans, I’ve seen ActiveCampaign offer advanced automation workflows and CRM features that Constant Contact reserves for its Premium plans. 

My pricing comparisons show it’s often cheaper than Constant Contact at mid-tier list sizes—though costs rise with larger contact lists. However, I’ve noticed that ActiveCampaign doesn’t include SMS by default; it’s an add-on, whereas Constant Contact’s Premium plan includes 500 monthly SMS messages. 

If automation and personalization are critical to you, I think ActiveCampaign is hard to beat. But for businesses that want a simpler platform with integrated email and SMS, I believe Constant Contact delivers more bundled value at scale.

Is Constant Contact Worth the Price?

From what I’ve seen, startups often find the 14-day trial or Lite plan too limited, while small businesses can get decent value from the Standard plan’s automation and testing features. 

For ecommerce stores, I’ve noticed the higher-tier plans are often necessary to access segmentation and SMS, though platforms like Klaviyo may deliver more tailored tools. Agencies and larger teams benefit from Premium’s unlimited users and dynamic content, while enterprises might lean toward HubSpot for its deeper CRM capabilities. 

My conclusion: Constant Contact works best for SMBs seeking ease and bundled SMS—though the increased Constant Contact costs from the 2025 restructure make alternatives more attractive for price-sensitive users.

Constant Contact Pricing FAQs