ActiveCampaign vs. Constant Contact: a data-backed comparison
Explore ActiveCampaign and Constant Contact's market position, automation capabilities, and pricing to find the best email marketing platform for your firm's unique needs.
ActiveCampaign vs. Constant Contact at a glance
ActiveCampaign offers sophisticated automation with behavior-driven campaigns and CRM integration, which is ideal for businesses with complex marketing needs and multiple customer journeys.
Constant Contact offers a straightforward approach, intuitive interfaces, and strong event management tools, making it suitable for smaller firms or those new to email marketing.
Both platforms serve over 100,000 businesses but differ significantly in automation depth, integration capabilities, and pricing models for industry applications.
Metrics | ActiveCampaign | Constant Contact |
|---|---|---|
Relative cost | 1% lower cost than category average | 82% lower cost than category average |
Adoption trend | 11% QoQ adoption growth | 13% QoQ adoption growth |
Primary user segment | – | – |
Best for | Startups and small teams seeking accessible marketing automation tools without enterprise-level complexity or pricing. | Constant Contact is best for small businesses and nonprofits seeking user-friendly email marketing with excellent customer support and pre-built templates. |
ActiveCampaign overview
ActiveCampaign is an automation-first marketing platform built for behavior-driven engagement across email, SMS, and on-site messaging. It includes built-in CRM tools and supports over 40 currencies in 195 countries.
Best suited for businesses that need personalized, multi-step campaigns, ActiveCampaign offers visual workflows, advanced segmentation, and compliance-ready features to help teams target the right clients while meeting regulatory standards.
ActiveCampaign key features
Features | Description |
|---|---|
Email marketing automation | Creates behavior-triggered email sequences with a visual automation builder that requires minimal technical knowledge |
Built-in CRM | Tracks contacts, deals, and conversations in one system with pipeline visualization and sales automation capabilities |
Customer experience automation | Orchestrates personalized experiences across email, messaging, site, and sales based on customer behavior and preferences |
Predictive sending | Uses AI to determine optimal send times for individual contacts, improving open rates and engagement metrics, reflecting current predictive analytics trends |
Segmentation | Divides audiences based on behaviors, custom fields, and engagement levels for targeted messaging |
Reporting and analytics | Provides accessible insights into campaign performance with conversion tracking and ROI measurement tools, similar to how finance automation can enhance business intelligence |
Constant Contact overview
Constant Contact is an email marketing platform built for ease of use, offering simple tools for professionals who need effective communication without technical complexity. It combines email marketing with event management and social media features tailored to small businesses.
Best suited for advisors and firms running campaigns or client events, Constant Contact includes over 350 pre-designed templates and strong event marketing tools, making it easy to create polished emails, host webinars, and engage clients.
Constant Contact key features
Features | Description |
|---|---|
Email templates | Drag-and-drop editor with industry-specific, mobile-responsive layouts. |
Automation | Triggered welcome emails, drip campaigns, and birthday reminders. |
Event management | Create and promote events with registration, ticketing, and attendee tracking. |
Surveys & polls | Build surveys and polls to gather customer feedback. |
Social campaigns | Schedule and post directly to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. |
List segmentation | Group contacts by engagement, demographics, or custom fields. |
Pros and cons
Tool | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
ActiveCampaign |
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Constant Contact |
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Use case scenarios
ActiveCampaign suits businesses needing advanced automation and client journey mapping, while Constant Contact is better for smaller firms focusing on ease of use and event marketing.
When ActiveCampaign is the better choice
- Regional banks offering multiple product lines that need adaptive nurture campaigns based on customer behavior
- advisories managing communications across different regulatory environments, requiring precise targeting
- Credit unions focused on cross-selling based on behavioral signals and engagement patterns
- Enterprise-level organizations with sophisticated marketing needs and multiple customer journeys
- Investment firms with strict compliance requirements need detailed documentation and audit trails
- Businesses with technical resources to leverage advanced marketing features and improve business process management
- Organizations seeking detailed analytics to optimize marketing ROI across product lines
When Constant Contact is the better choice
- Small accounting firms or independent advisors maintaining regular client communications with minimal technical staff
- Education companies regularly hosting workshops, webinars, and conferences
- Fintech startups with limited initial marketing budgets seeking simplicity
- Local credit unions focusing on straightforward email campaigns and basic segmentation
- Advisors without dedicated marketing staff needing an intuitive platform
- Businesses prioritizing event marketing for client acquisition and retention
- Organizations seeking a platform with minimal training requirements for seasonal campaigns
Other email marketing tools
- Klaviyo: Better for e-commerce-focused services with superior purchase behavior tracking.
- Mailchimp: Offers simpler campaign creation with built-in design features for education content.
- Marketo: Provides enterprise-grade marketing automation for large institutions with complex compliance needs.
- Omnisend: Specializes in e-commerce with features for abandoned cart recovery and product recommendations.
- SendGrid: Delivers superior email deliverability and API access for fintech applications requiring transactional emails.