Brevo vs Constant Contact: Which Email Marketing Platform Should You Choose in 2024?
Table of Contents
- Quick Verdict
- Side-by-Side Comparison
- Pricing: Where Your Money Actually Goes
- Email Editor and Template Quality
- Automation Capabilities: The Critical Difference
- Contact Management and Segmentation
- Deliverability and Email Performance
- Reporting and Analytics
- Integrations and Ecosystem
- SMS Marketing Capabilities
- Customer Support Quality
- Landing Pages and Signup Forms
- Event Marketing Features
- Mobile App Experience
- Data Privacy and Compliance
- Who Should Choose Brevo
- Who Should Choose Constant Contact
- Migration Considerations
- Final Verdict: Choose Based on Your Specific Situation
Quick Verdict
Choose Brevo if you need a free plan with actual automation features, want SMS marketing included, or prioritize affordability with your growing contact list (up to 300 emails/day on free plan).
Choose Constant Contact if you want beginner-friendly templates with drag-and-drop simplicity, need excellent phone support, or run physical events requiring integrated registration tools (up to 100 registrations on basic plans).
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Brevo | Constant Contact |
|---|---|---|
| Free Plan | Yes (up to 300 emails/day, unlimited contacts) | 60-day trial only |
| Starting Price | $25/month (20,000 emails) | $12/month (500 contacts) |
| Email Sends | Based on volume sent | Based on contact count |
| Automation | Available on free plan (basic workflows) | Starts at $35/month (Plus plan) |
| SMS Marketing | Included in all plans | Not available |
| Templates | 40+ responsive templates | 100+ templates with industry-specific designs |
| Learning Curve | Moderate (more technical interface) | Gentle (very beginner-friendly) |
| Phone Support | Paid plans only | All plans including trial |
| Mobile App | iOS/Android (limited features) | iOS/Android (full campaign creation) |
| Best For | Growing businesses needing multi-channel marketing | Small businesses and nonprofits wanting simplicity |
Pricing: Where Your Money Actually Goes
Brevo’s Volume-Based Pricing
Brevo’s pricing model charges based on emails sent rather than contacts stored. This makes a huge difference if you have a large list but don’t email them constantly.
The free plan includes unlimited contacts and 300 emails per day (roughly 9,000/month). You get basic automation workflows, signup forms, and email campaigns—legitimately useful for startups validating their business.
Paid plans start at $25/month for 20,000 emails, jumping to $65/month for 100,000 emails. The Starter plan ($25) removes the Brevo logo and adds A/B testing. The Business plan ($65) includes marketing automation, landing pages, Facebook ads, retargeting ads, and multi-user access for up to 3 users.
Here’s the catch: SMS credits cost extra ($0.0088 per message in the US), though you get transactional SMS included. If you send high volumes, you’ll need to contact them for custom pricing above their 1 million emails/month tier.
Constant Contact’s Contact-Based Pricing
Constant Contact charges based on your contact list size, which gets expensive fast if you’re collecting leads aggressively.
There’s no truly free plan—just a 60-day trial that lets you test everything with up to 100 contacts. After that, you’re looking at real money.
The Lite plan starts at $12/month for 500 contacts, scaling to $35/month for 2,500 contacts and $80/month for 10,000 contacts. You get email campaigns, basic reporting, and their template library—but no automation whatsoever.
The Standard plan ($35/month for 500 contacts, $70 for 2,500, $125 for 10,000) adds automation, dynamic content, social media posting, Google Ads integration, and polls/surveys. This is where most serious users land.
The Premium plan ($80/month for 500 contacts, scaling to $290/month for 10,000) includes advanced automation, keyword testing for subject lines, Google Analytics e-commerce tracking, and SEO recommendations for your website.
Their pricing jumps significantly as your list grows: at 50,000 contacts, you’re paying $330/month for Standard or $650/month for Premium. Brevo would charge you based purely on how many emails you actually send to those contacts.
Try Constant Contact’s 60-day trial →
Email Editor and Template Quality
Brevo’s Functional But Limited Design Tools
Brevo offers about 40 responsive email templates across categories like e-commerce, events, and newsletters. The drag-and-drop editor works smoothly for basic layouts—you can add text blocks, images, buttons, and dividers without touching code.
The editor saves automatically and includes mobile preview before sending. You can create reusable content blocks, which saves time when you’re using the same header or footer across campaigns.
Where Brevo falls short: the template selection feels sparse compared to competitors, and customization options are more limited. The interface looks dated, with a somewhat technical feel that confuses non-technical users initially. Advanced users can access the HTML directly, but beginners might struggle with making templates truly their own.
One strength: the same editor handles both marketing emails and transactional emails (order confirmations, password resets), so your design stays consistent across all customer touchpoints.
Constant Contact’s Template Paradise
Constant Contact provides over 100 professionally designed templates, many tailored to specific industries (restaurants, real estate, nonprofits, retail). This specificity helps beginners start with something that already looks relevant.
The editor emphasizes extreme simplicity. Hover over any element and click to edit—text changes happen inline, images swap with a single click. It guides you through best practices with tooltips and suggestions about subject line length or image sizing.
The mobile preview is more sophisticated than Brevo’s, showing how your email renders across different email clients (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail). You can see potential rendering issues before sending.
Template customization goes deeper than Brevo: you control spacing, fonts, colors, and layout structures more granularly without needing HTML knowledge. The tradeoff is less flexibility for power users who want complete control—the editor prioritizes safety over sophistication.
Constant Contact also includes stock photos from iStock and Unsplash directly in the editor (over 1 million images), so you’re not constantly switching between tools to find visuals.
Automation Capabilities: The Critical Difference
Brevo’s Multi-Channel Automation
Brevo includes basic automation even on the free plan—a rare feature that actually matters for bootstrapped businesses. You can create welcome series, birthday emails, and simple workflow triggers based on email opens or link clicks.
The paid Business plan ($65/month) unlocks the full marketing automation platform. This is where Brevo genuinely shines: you can build complex workflows that combine email, SMS, and retargeting ads based on website behavior.
Specific capabilities include:
- Website tracking: Monitor which pages contacts visit, trigger emails when they view specific products
- Lead scoring: Automatically assign points based on engagement, segment by behavior
- Conditional splits: Create if/then logic (if they opened but didn’t click, wait 2 days then send follow-up)
- Multi-channel sequences: Start with email, add SMS if no response, trigger Facebook ad to that contact
- Contact property updates: Automatically update custom fields based on actions
The automation builder uses a visual flowchart that’s intuitive once you understand the concepts, though it requires more upfront learning than simple email sequences. You can see exactly how contacts flow through your automation with real-time analytics showing drop-off points.
One limitation: While powerful, Brevo’s automation doesn’t reach the sophistication of dedicated marketing automation platforms like ActiveCampaign or HubSpot. Complex scoring models and advanced CRM features require workarounds.
Constant Contact’s Simpler Automation Approach
Constant Contact reserves automation for the Standard plan ($35/month minimum), and the scope is considerably narrower than Brevo’s offering.
Available automations include:
- Welcome series: Up to 3 emails sent when someone joins your list
- Birthday/anniversary emails: Automatic sends based on custom date fields
- Resend to non-openers: Automatically resend campaigns to people who didn’t open
- Product remarketing: Send follow-ups based on purchase behavior (with Shopify integration)
- Series emails: Simple drip campaigns with timed intervals
The automation setup wizard asks plain-language questions (“What should trigger this email?” “How long should we wait?”) rather than showing workflow diagrams. This hand-holding helps beginners but frustrates users wanting precise control.
Critically missing: You can’t trigger automations based on website behavior, can’t build complex conditional logic, and can’t incorporate SMS or ads into automated sequences. The automation feels more like “scheduled follow-ups” than true behavior-based marketing.
For simple businesses (local shops, consultants, small nonprofits), this limitation might not matter. For e-commerce or lead nurturing that depends on behavioral triggers, Brevo’s automation is substantially more valuable.
Contact Management and Segmentation
Brevo’s Technical Approach to Lists
Brevo lets you store unlimited contacts even on the free plan—you only pay when you actually email them. Contacts are organized into lists and segments, with unlimited custom attributes you can add.
You can import contacts via CSV, copy-paste, or sync from integrations. Brevo automatically manages unsubscribes and bounces, maintaining your sender reputation. The duplicate detection works reliably, merging records when the same email appears multiple times.
Segmentation gets sophisticated: combine multiple conditions with AND/OR logic (contacts in “Customers” list AND opened last email AND NOT purchased in 90 days). You can segment by:
- Contact attributes (location, company, custom fields)
- Engagement history (opened, clicked, specific campaigns)
- Website activity (visited pages, products viewed)
- SMS engagement
- Purchase behavior (with e-commerce integration)
These segments update dynamically—if someone meets the criteria tomorrow, they’re automatically included. This enables truly personalized targeting without manual list management.
The interface assumes you understand concepts like boolean logic and dynamic lists, which creates a learning curve for less technical users.
Constant Contact’s Guided List Management
Constant Contact also offers unlimited contacts on all plans, but remember—you pay based on your total contact count, not just who you email.
List management emphasizes simplicity over power. You create lists, add contacts via import or signup forms, and the system handles basics like unsubscribes and bounces automatically.
Segmentation exists but feels more limited. You can filter by:
- Basic demographics (from contact fields)
- Engagement (opened, clicked, or didn’t engage with recent emails)
- List membership
- Tags (manually applied labels)
The segmentation interface uses dropdown menus and checkboxes rather than query builders—easier for beginners but less flexible for complex conditions. You can’t segment based on website behavior unless you’re using their (limited) website tracking, and combining multiple conditions quickly hits limitations.
Where Constant Contact excels: Tags are easier to understand and apply than Brevo’s more technical approach. Their interface explicitly shows you how many contacts match your criteria before you create the segment, preventing surprise over-sends.
For brick-and-mortar businesses or organizations with straightforward lists (“customers,” “prospects,” “event attendees”), Constant Contact’s simplicity works fine. For online businesses needing behavioral segmentation, Brevo’s depth matters.
Deliverability and Email Performance
Brevo’s Infrastructure and Sending Reputation
Brevo maintains dedicated IP addresses for high-volume senders (typically Business plan users sending 100k+ emails monthly). Lower-volume senders share IP pools with other Brevo users, which means your deliverability depends partly on their behavior.
Measured deliverability rates hover around 89-92% across independent tests—solid but not industry-leading. Brevo provides authentication tools (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) with setup guidance, critical for reaching inboxes rather than spam folders.
The platform includes spam testing before you send, checking your content against common spam filters and providing specific suggestions (“Remove ‘Free!’ from subject line” or “Add unsubscribe link to top of email”).
One advantage: Brevo’s transactional email service shares the same sending infrastructure, so maintaining good sender reputation across all your emails improves overall deliverability. They also enforce stricter list hygiene, automatically removing hard bounces and managing complaint rates.
Downsides: Because you’re on shared IPs until you reach high volumes, a few bad actors in your sending pool can temporarily affect your deliverability. Brevo’s support recommends warming up your sending patterns gradually when you first start.
Constant Contact’s Deliverability Focus
Constant Contact emphasizes deliverability as a core feature, with reported rates around 91-94% in third-party tests. They maintain strong relationships with major ISPs (Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook) and actively monitor sender reputation.
Every account includes:
- Automatic authentication setup (SPF/DKIM configured during onboarding)
- Real-time deliverability coaching (warnings if your content might trigger spam filters)
- Bounce management with explanations
- Complaint monitoring with guidance on improving list quality
Constant Contact uses shared IP pools for all users but monitors account health aggressively. If your open rates suddenly tank or complaint rates spike, their deliverability team reaches out proactively with specific recommendations.
They provide a “Deliverability Checker” tool that scans your email before sending, checking for blacklisted links, spam trigger words, and authentication issues. The feedback is more beginner-friendly than Brevo’s technical reports.
The platform enforces permission-based marketing strictly—you must confirm contacts opted in, and purchased lists are prohibited. This protects deliverability across their entire user base but might frustrate users accustomed to lax standards elsewhere.
For users who simply want their emails to reach inboxes without becoming deliverability experts, Constant Contact’s hands-on approach and slightly higher deliverability rates provide peace of mind.
Reporting and Analytics
Brevo’s Data-Rich Dashboards
Brevo provides detailed analytics including open rates, click rates, unsubscribes, bounce rates, and spam complaints. The dashboard visualizes performance over time with comparison to previous campaigns.
Advanced reporting (Business plan) includes:
- Click maps showing exactly which links people clicked
- Geolocation data (where your contacts opened emails)
- Device and email client breakdown (mobile vs desktop, Gmail vs Outlook)
- Website activity tracking (which pages contacts visited after clicking)
- Revenue tracking (when integrated with e-commerce platforms)
- A/B test results with statistical significance indicators
You can export reports as CSV or PDF, and create custom reports filtering by specific lists, campaigns, or time periods. The automation analytics show exactly how contacts flow through your workflows, identifying bottlenecks where people drop off.
One powerful feature: Brevo’s real-time reporting updates immediately as people interact with your campaigns. You can watch opens and clicks happen live, useful for time-sensitive promotions.
The interface assumes you’re comfortable interpreting data—charts and numbers are plentiful but explanations of what they mean or what actions to take are minimal.
Constant Contact’s Guided Reporting
Constant Contact provides similar core metrics (opens, clicks, bounces, unsubscribes) but presents them with more context and guidance. Each report includes benchmarks comparing your performance to industry averages.
The reporting dashboard highlights actionable insights: “Your open rate is 5% below average for nonprofits—try these subject line improvements” or “Your click rate is strong—consider sending to this audience more frequently.”
Standard and Premium plans include:
- Social media performance (when using their posting tools)
- Survey and poll results with response analysis
- Event registration tracking
- E-commerce tracking (revenue per email, purchase behavior)
- Engagement trends over time with explanations of changes
The automation reporting is simpler than Brevo’s—you see how many people entered each automation and where they are in the sequence, but lack detailed flow analytics.
Constant Contact’s strength is making data accessible to non-analytical users. The reports explicitly tell you what’s working and what needs improvement, rather than just presenting numbers.
For data-savvy marketers wanting to dig deep into metrics, Brevo offers more granular data. For business owners who want to glance at results and understand next steps, Constant Contact’s guided approach is more valuable.
Integrations and Ecosystem
Brevo’s Integration Landscape
Brevo offers native integrations with about 150 platforms including:
- E-commerce: Shopify, WooCommerce, PrestaShop, Magento
- CRM: Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive
- Forms: Typeform, Google Forms, OptinMonster
- Events: Eventbrite
- Analytics: Google Analytics
- Zapier: Connects to 5,000+ additional apps
The WordPress plugin is particularly robust, enabling signup forms, tracking code, and transactional email sending directly from your site. Shopify integration is deep—abandoned cart emails, product recommendations, and purchase behavior tracking work out of the box.
API documentation is comprehensive for developers wanting custom integrations. The REST API supports most platform functions including contact management, campaign sending, and automation triggers.
One gap: Brevo lacks native integration with some popular landing page builders and webinar platforms that Constant Contact supports. You’ll often need Zapier as a bridge, adding complexity and potential cost.
Constant Contact’s Partnership Ecosystem
Constant Contact maintains over 400 integrations, considerably more than Brevo, with particularly strong coverage of:
- E-commerce: Shopify, Etsy, Square, Salesforce Commerce Cloud
- CRM: Salesforce, Zoho CRM, Insightly
- Social media: Facebook, Instagram, Canva
- Website builders: WordPress, Wix, Weebly, GoDaddy
- Events: Eventbrite, Evite, MINDBODY (fitness/wellness)
- Fundraising: PayPal, Classy, GoFundMe (nonprofit-focused)
- Point of sale: Square, ShopKeep, Vend
The integration setup is deliberately simplified—most connections require just clicking “Connect” and authorizing access, with minimal configuration needed. This reduces setup friction but limits customization options.
Constant Contact’s mobile app integrates with your phone’s camera and contacts, enabling you to add people you meet at events instantly and include photos you take directly in campaigns.
For brick-and-mortar businesses, the Square and POS integrations are particularly valuable—automatically sync customers from in-store purchases to your email list, then segment based on purchase history.
The tradeoff: While Constant Contact has more integrations, they tend to be simpler and less customizable than Brevo’s more technical approach.
SMS Marketing Capabilities
Brevo’s Built-In SMS Platform
Brevo includes SMS marketing in all plans—a significant differentiator. You pay only for messages sent ($0.0088 per SMS in the US, varying by country), with no monthly minimums or additional platform fees.
You can:
- Send promotional SMS campaigns to your contact lists
- Include SMS in automated workflows (send email, then SMS if no response)
- Use transactional SMS for order confirmations, shipping updates, etc.
- Personalize messages with contact attributes
- Track delivery, clicks (with shortened URLs), and replies
The SMS editor is straightforward—compose your message (160 characters for single SMS, longer messages split automatically), insert personalization, add links, and schedule or send. Preview shows exactly how recipients will see the message on their phones.
SMS and email contacts are unified—the same contact record includes both email address and phone number, enabling coordinated multi-channel campaigns from one platform.
Limitations: SMS compliance (TCPA in the US, GDPR in EU) requires you to manage opt-ins correctly. Brevo provides tools but doesn’t hold your hand through compliance like specialized SMS platforms do. SMS templates are limited compared to email templates.
For businesses wanting to test SMS without adding another platform, Brevo’s inclusion is exceptionally convenient and cost-effective.
Constant Contact: No SMS Option
Constant Contact doesn’t offer SMS marketing at all. If you need text message campaigns, you’ll need a separate tool like EZ Texting, SimpleTexting, or SlickText.
This means:
- Additional platform to learn and manage
- Separate contact lists to maintain
- No unified multi-channel automation
- Extra monthly subscription cost
For businesses that don’t plan to use SMS, this isn’t a disadvantage. But for retailers, restaurants, or service businesses where text messages drive strong engagement, Brevo’s built-in SMS becomes a compelling reason to choose it.
Customer Support Quality
Brevo’s Support Tiers
Brevo’s support varies significantly by plan:
Free plan: Email support only, with typical response times of 24-48 hours. You also get access to the knowledge base, tutorial videos, and community forum.
Starter plan ($25/month): Same email support with slightly faster response (typically within 24 hours).
Business plan ($65/month): Email support with priority response (typically same-day), plus phone support during business hours (limited callback slots).
Enterprise plans: Dedicated account manager, phone support, and onboarding assistance.
The knowledge base is comprehensive with detailed articles covering most features, but the writing assumes technical comfort. Video tutorials are helpful but not as extensive as Constant Contact’s library.
Users report that email support is knowledgeable and solves technical issues effectively, but the lack of immediate support on lower plans frustrates users encountering urgent sending issues.
Constant Contact’s Support-First Approach
Constant Contact emphasizes customer support as a core differentiator, offering:
All plans (including trial): Phone support (Monday-Friday, with limited weekend hours), email support, live chat, and an extensive knowledge base.
The phone support deserves specific mention—representatives are trained not just on the platform but on email marketing best practices. They’ll help you write better subject lines, improve your templates, and troubleshoot deliverability issues. Average wait times are under 2 minutes.
Live chat provides quick answers to simple questions, with the option to escalate to phone if needed. Email support typically responds within 4-6 hours.
Beyond reactive support, Constant Contact provides:
- Free live webinars covering email marketing topics
- Local seminars and events (in major cities)
- Community forum with active participation
- Extensive video tutorial library organized by skill level
- Marketing advisors who review your account and suggest improvements (Standard plan and above)
For users new to email marketing or who value hand-holding, Constant Contact’s support accessibility significantly flattens the learning curve. The phone support alone may justify the higher cost for some users.
Landing Pages and Signup Forms
Brevo’s Landing Page Builder
Brevo includes landing pages in the Business plan ($65/month), offering:
- Drag-and-drop builder with templates
- A/B testing for different versions
- Custom domains (or use Brevo subdomain)
- Mobile responsive designs
- Integration with forms and automation
The builder is functional but basic—you can create effective lead capture pages, event registrations, or content download gates, but the design flexibility is limited. Templates number about 15-20, covering common use cases.
Signup forms are available on all plans (including free), with customizable fields, embedded or popup options, and GDPR-compliant consent tracking. The forms connect directly to your lists and can trigger automations.
Form creation is straightforward with a visual builder showing exactly how your form will appear. You can add custom fields, conditional logic (show field X if they select option Y), and multi-step forms for complex signups.
Constant Contact’s Form and Landing Page Tools
Constant Contact includes landing pages on all paid plans, with a builder that matches their email editor’s simplicity:
- 50+ templates specifically designed for conversion
- Industry-specific designs (restaurants, nonprofits, retail)
- Stock photo library built into the editor
- Mobile preview and optimization
- Built-in SEO suggestions
The landing page builder guides you through best practices—“Add a clearer call-to-action button” or “Your headline should be shorter”—making it easier for beginners to create pages that actually convert.
Signup forms are highly customizable with options to embed on your website, create popup lightboxes, or use a hosted form. The form builder includes:
- Custom fields with validation rules
- Multi-step forms for reducing abandonment
- Thank-you page customization
- Social sharing buttons to encourage viral signups
- A/B testing for different form versions
Constant Contact’s form and landing page aesthetics are notably more polished than Brevo’s, with templates that look professionally designed rather than functional. For businesses where visual brand matters, this difference is meaningful.
Event Marketing Features
Brevo’s Limited Event Capabilities
Brevo doesn’t include dedicated event marketing features. You can create landing pages with registration forms and send email campaigns promoting events, but there’s no specialized event management tool.
For tracking attendees, you’d need to:
- Create a custom list for registrants
- Manually manage registrations through form submissions
- Use automation to send confirmation and reminder emails
- Integrate with Eventbrite or similar platforms for actual event management
This works for simple events but becomes cumbersome for organizations running frequent events like workshops, webinars, or fundraisers.
Constant Contact’s Event Marketing Focus
Constant Contact includes built-in event marketing tools on all plans (with registration limits based on tier—up to 100 registrants on Lite, 250 on Standard, unlimited on Premium).
The event feature provides:
- Event registration pages with customizable details
- Payment collection (using PayPal or integrated payment processing)
- Automated confirmation and reminder emails
- Check-in tools (mobile app for scanning attendees)
- Post-event follow-up email sequences
- Registration management and reporting
Creating an event is streamlined: enter details (date, time, location, description), customize the registration page, set ticket prices if applicable, and publish. Constant Contact handles the registration database, payment processing, and attendee communication automatically.
For nonprofits, community organizations, fitness studios, or any business running regular events, Constant Contact’s event tools eliminate the need for separate platforms like Eventbrite. The integration between event registrations and your email list enables sophisticated follow-up marketing.
This represents a clear advantage for event-dependent businesses—the event tools alone might justify Constant Contact despite higher pricing for large lists.
Mobile App Experience
Brevo’s Mobile Companion App
Brevo offers iOS and Android apps that function primarily for monitoring rather than creation:
- View campaign performance and real-time stats
- Check contact list sizes and recent additions
- Monitor automation workflows
- Receive notifications for campaign milestones
- Basic contact management (add or edit contacts)
You cannot create or send full campaigns from mobile, though you can send transactional emails. The app is useful for checking results while traveling but doesn’t enable mobile-first marketing.
The interface is clean and loads quickly, but the limited functionality means you’ll need your computer for actual campaign work.
Constant Contact’s Full-Featured Mobile Platform
Constant Contact’s mobile apps (iOS and Android) enable complete campaign management from your phone:
- Create emails using mobile-optimized templates
- Take photos and add them directly to campaigns
- Send campaigns (or schedule them)
- Add contacts by scanning business cards or importing from phone contacts
- Manage event registrations and check in attendees
- View detailed reporting and analytics
The mobile email editor simplifies to match the smaller screen—you choose a template, edit text by tapping, add photos from your camera roll or take new ones, and preview before sending. The interface intelligently limits options to prevent mobile-created emails from looking terrible.
For businesses where the marketing manager is rarely at a desk (event coordinators, sales teams, field workers), Constant Contact’s mobile capability provides genuine flexibility. You can legitimately run your email marketing from your phone.
Data Privacy and Compliance
Brevo’s Compliance Approach
Brevo maintains GDPR compliance for European users and provides tools for managing consent:
- Double opt-in for signup forms
- Granular consent tracking (what they agreed to receive)
- Easy unsubscribe in every email
- Data processing agreements available
- ISO 27001 certification for security
European data is stored on servers within the EU. Brevo provides features to help you comply with privacy regulations but doesn’t offer hands-on guidance through compliance requirements.
The platform maintains contact history including when they subscribed, what campaigns they received, and their engagement—useful for demonstrating compliance if questioned.
Constant Contact’s Compliance Support
Constant Contact similarly maintains GDPR compliance and provides:
- Permission-based marketing enforcement (they verify you have consent)
- Easy unsubscribe options with confirmation pages
- Data processing agreements
- Compliance guidance specific to industries (nonprofit regulations, financial services requirements)
Constant Contact’s support team helps users understand compliance requirements for their specific situation, which is valuable for small businesses without legal teams. They enforce strict anti-spam policies, sometimes suspending accounts that appear to violate permission-based marketing rules.
Both platforms handle the basics adequately. Constant Contact’s additional guidance benefits users unfamiliar with email marketing regulations.
Who Should Choose Brevo
Startups and bootstrapped businesses: The genuinely useful free plan (300 emails/day, unlimited contacts, basic automation) lets you validate your business before spending money. No other platform offers comparable free features.
E-commerce businesses with large lists: If you have 25,000 contacts but only email them weekly, you’ll pay $25-65/month with Brevo versus $140-290/month with Constant Contact. The volume-based pricing saves thousands annually.
Businesses needing multi-channel marketing: The included SMS, website tracking, and ability to combine email/SMS/ads in automated workflows provides sophisticated marketing at mid-tier pricing. You’d need multiple tools to match these capabilities with Constant Contact.
International businesses: Brevo supports sending in 65+ languages with better international SMS coverage and pricing than US-focused platforms.
Technical teams comfortable with complexity: If you have the skills to leverage Brevo’s more sophisticated automation and don’t need hand-holding, you’ll get more marketing power per dollar.
Transactional email needs: Businesses sending both marketing and transactional emails (order confirmations, password resets) benefit from managing everything in one platform with unified sender reputation.
Who Should Choose Constant Contact
Complete beginners to email marketing: The intuitive interface, extensive support (including phone support on all plans), and guided best practices make Constant Contact the gentlest learning curve. You’ll be sending professional emails in hours rather than days.
Small businesses with modest lists: If you have under 1,000 contacts and email frequently, the pricing difference is minimal ($35-45/month for either platform), so Constant Contact’s superior templates and support provide better value.
Event-driven businesses: Nonprofits, fitness studios, community organizations, or any business running regular events should strongly consider Constant Contact for the built-in event management, registration, and ticketing tools.
Brick-and-mortar retailers: The extensive integrations with point-of-sale systems (Square, Clover, Shopify POS) and simplified social media posting help local businesses with their entire marketing presence, not just email.
Organizations prioritizing support access: If you need to call someone when things go wrong or want strategic guidance on improving your email marketing, Constant Contact’s accessible support team is genuinely valuable.
Nonprofits: The industry-specific templates, event tools, and fundraising integrations specifically serve nonprofit needs. Many team members can learn the system quickly despite limited technical skills.
Mobile-dependent users: If you need to manage campaigns primarily from your phone (or at least want the flexibility), Constant Contact’s full-featured mobile app enables genuine mobile-first marketing.
Try Constant Contact free for 60 days →
Migration Considerations
Both platforms offer import tools that accept CSV files with contact data. The technical migration is straightforward—export from your current platform, map fields to the new platform’s structure, and import.
Moving from Constant Contact to Brevo: You’ll gain automation sophistication and reduce costs if you have a large list. The learning curve is steeper, so budget time for your team to learn the interface. You’ll need a separate event management tool if you currently rely on Constant Contact’s event features.
Moving from Brevo to Constant Contact: You’ll get easier daily usage and better support, but pay significantly more for large lists. SMS campaigns will require a separate platform. Complex automations may need simplification to fit Constant Contact’s more basic automation capabilities.
Neither platform imports campaign history or past reporting data—you’ll start fresh with analytics. Plan your migration timing around major campaigns to avoid data gaps.
Both platforms offer free migration assistance on higher-tier plans, with support teams helping map your contact structure and rebuild key automations.
Final Verdict: Choose Based on Your Specific Situation
Brevo wins for: Price-conscious businesses with growing lists, e-commerce stores needing behavioral automation, multi-channel marketing (email + SMS), technical teams wanting sophisticated features, and anyone starting out who needs a truly functional free plan.
Constant Contact wins for: Beginners needing intuitive design and strong support, event-driven organizations, small businesses with modest lists (under 2,500 contacts), teams without technical skills, and anyone wanting to manage marketing primarily from mobile.
The price crossover point: If you have fewer than 2,500 contacts and email frequently (2-4 times weekly), Constant Contact’s Standard plan ($70/month) competes with Brevo’s Business plan ($65/month) while offering better templates and support. Above 5,000 contacts, Brevo becomes dramatically cheaper unless you rarely email your list.
For most readers: Choose Brevo if you’re technical or willing to learn, have a growing contact list, or need marketing automation and multi-channel capabilities. Choose Constant Contact if you value simplicity and support over features, run events regularly, or have a small list with no immediate growth plans.
The “best” platform depends entirely on your specific context. Consider not just current needs but where you’ll be in 12 months—switching platforms is disruptive, so choose based on your growth trajectory rather than just today’s requirements.
Both platforms offer trials (Brevo’s generous free plan, Constant Contact’s 60-day trial). Test both with your actual contact list and campaigns before committing. Pay attention to which interface feels natural to your team and which features you’ll genuinely use versus features that sound good but remain unused.
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