Constant Contact vs ConvertKit: Which Email Marketing Platform is Right for You?

Table of Contents

• Quick Verdict
• Comparison Table
• Ease of Use and Interface Design
• Email Design and Templates
  • Personalization and Dynamic Content
• Automation and Workflow Capabilities
  • Triggered Emails and Behavioral Automation
• List Management and Segmentation
  • Custom Fields and Data Collection
• Landing Pages and Forms
  • Pop-up Targeting and Display Rules
• E-commerce and Sales Features
• Deliverability and Inbox Placement
  • Email Testing and Deliverability Tools
• Analytics and Reporting
  • A/B Testing Capabilities
• Integration Ecosystem
• Customer Support and Resources
• Mobile App Functionality
• Pricing Deep Dive
  • Constant Contact Pricing
  • ConvertKit Pricing
  • Value Analysis
• Who Should Choose Constant Contact
• Who Should Choose ConvertKit
• Migration Considerations
• Final Verdict

Quick Verdict

Choose Constant Contact if you’re a small business owner, event organizer, or nonprofit who needs robust event management, extensive template variety (100+ options), and reliable phone support. It’s the safer choice for email marketing beginners who prioritize hand-holding over advanced automation.

Choose ConvertKit if you’re a creator, blogger, or course instructor who needs powerful automation, landing pages, and subscriber tagging. You’ll get better value for audience segmentation and sales funnel building, though you’ll sacrifice template variety and direct phone support.

Comparison Table

Ease of Use and Interface Design

Constant Contact feels like it was designed by someone who’s never sent an email before—and I mean that as a compliment. The dashboard presents three giant buttons: Create, Contacts, Reports. You can’t get lost.

The email builder uses a drag-and-drop system where every element snaps to a grid. You’ll have a professional-looking email in 10 minutes, even if you’ve never done this before. The template library organizes campaigns by industry (restaurants, real estate, retail), so you’re not starting from a blank canvas.

ConvertKit takes a different approach. The interface is cleaner and more minimalist, but assumes you understand email marketing concepts like sequences, broadcasts, and segments. New users often confuse “sequences” (automated email series) with “broadcasts” (one-time sends).

Where ConvertKit shines is its visual automation builder. You can see your entire customer journey on one screen—when someone downloads your lead magnet, they get tagged, enter a 5-email sequence, and get added to a segment. Constant Contact’s automation feels like filling out a form by comparison.

Winner for beginners: Constant Contact. Winner for marketers: ConvertKit.

Email Design and Templates

Constant Contact offers 106 templates as of this writing, organized into 15 categories. Each template is mobile-responsive and includes variations (like “Winter Sale” and “Summer Sale” versions of the same layout).

The email editor lets you customize colors, fonts, spacing, and add custom CSS if you’re technical. You can insert social media buttons, polls, donation buttons, and coupon codes as pre-built blocks. The “Text Editor” mode lets you write in plain text, though the templates default to heavily designed HTML emails.

ConvertKit provides 32 templates, and honestly, they’re bare-bones. Most are single-column text layouts with minimal graphics. This isn’t a weakness—it’s intentional. ConvertKit is built on the philosophy that plain-text emails (or emails that look like plain text) get higher engagement from engaged audiences.

You can add images, buttons, and basic formatting, but you won’t find sparkles, borders, or fancy layouts. If you’re sending newsletters to a loyal subscriber base, this works. If you’re a retail store sending weekly promotions, the designs feel unfinished.

Tradeoff: Constant Contact’s templates can look generic (your subscribers probably recognize them). ConvertKit’s simple designs get better inbox placement but won’t work for visual-heavy campaigns.

Personalization and Dynamic Content

Both platforms let you insert subscriber names, but Constant Contact goes further with conditional content blocks. You can show different images or text based on subscriber location, interests, or past purchases. A restaurant could show lunch specials to subscribers within 5 miles and dinner menus to everyone else.

ConvertKit handles personalization through liquid syntax (like {{first_name}}), which works but requires learning basic code. You can personalize based on tags, but there’s no visual conditional content builder like Constant Contact offers.

Automation and Workflow Capabilities

This is where the platforms diverge dramatically.

Constant Contact’s automation includes welcome emails, birthday messages, abandoned cart reminders, and basic drip campaigns. You set a trigger (someone joins a list), add a delay (wait 2 days), and send an email. It works for straightforward needs.

The limitation: you can’t create complex, branching automation. If you want to send different emails based on whether someone clicked a link, you’re building multiple separate automations and manually managing lists. It becomes messy fast.

ConvertKit’s visual automation builder lets you create sophisticated sequences. Example: Someone downloads your free guide → gets tagged “interested in topic A” → receives a 3-email sequence → if they click the product link, they’re tagged “hot lead” and get added to a sales sequence → if they don’t click, they wait 7 days and get a different offer.

You can add conditional logic (if/then statements), tagging triggers, and multiple paths in one automation. I’ve built 12-step automation sequences that segment subscribers based on behavior without touching a list.

Important distinction: Constant Contact thinks in “lists” (static groups you manually manage). ConvertKit thinks in “tags and segments” (dynamic groups based on behavior). The tag-based system scales better as your audience grows.

Triggered Emails and Behavioral Automation

Constant Contact offers these triggers: list join, birthday, anniversary, purchase (if integrated with an e-commerce platform), and date-based campaigns. That covers 80% of small business needs.

ConvertKit adds: link clicks, email opens, form submissions, product purchases (through its native commerce feature), tag additions, and custom field changes. You can trigger automations when someone completes one sequence and immediately add them to another.

For creators selling digital products or courses, ConvertKit’s triggers are essential. For a local bakery sending weekly specials, Constant Contact’s triggers are sufficient.

List Management and Segmentation

Constant Contact uses a traditional list-based system. You create lists (Newsletter Subscribers, VIP Customers, Event Attendees) and contacts can be on multiple lists. You can segment by demographics, engagement (opened last 3 emails), purchase history, and custom fields.

The contact detail page shows full history: every email they received, which ones they opened, what they clicked. You can add notes manually (“Called on 3/15, interested in premium plan”).

ConvertKit uses tags instead of lists. A subscriber exists once in your account, and you add tags to describe them: “downloaded ebook”, “clicked pricing link”, “attended webinar”. You create segments by combining tags (“show me everyone tagged ‘interested in coaching’ who isn’t tagged ‘purchased’”).

This is more flexible. Instead of managing 15 different lists and worrying about duplicates, you manage one master list with unlimited tags. The downside: it requires planning. You need a tagging strategy or you’ll end up with 100 random tags you can’t remember.

Custom Fields and Data Collection

Constant Contact lets you create unlimited custom fields: text fields, numbers, dates, dropdowns. Use them to collect job titles, company size, interests, or anything else. You can segment and personalize based on these fields.

ConvertKit offers custom fields but limits them to 30 on the Creator plan ($29/month) and unlimited on Creator Pro ($59/month). Each field adds to your data structure, so ConvertKit encourages using tags for most categorization.

Both platforms let you create signup forms that populate these fields automatically.

Landing Pages and Forms

Constant Contact includes landing pages only on Standard and higher plans ($35/month for 500 contacts). You get templates for lead capture, event registration, and promotions. The builder is straightforward but limited—you can’t add custom code or create multi-step pages.

ConvertKit includes unlimited landing pages on all plans, even the free tier. Templates are minimal but functional. You can create opt-in pages, sales pages, and thank-you pages. The builder lets you add custom CSS and JavaScript, so developers can customize heavily.

Both offer embeddable forms (inline, popup, slide-in). Constant Contact’s forms match your website design through color customization. ConvertKit’s forms are more flexible with targeting rules—show different popups based on which blog post someone is reading.

Key difference: ConvertKit’s forms and landing pages are designed to feed directly into automation sequences. You connect a form to a tag, which triggers a sequence, all in one workflow. Constant Contact treats forms as separate from automation, requiring more manual setup.

Pop-up Targeting and Display Rules

Constant Contact’s pop-ups can be triggered by time on page (after 30 seconds), exit intent, or scroll depth (when someone scrolls 50% down). You can set frequency caps (show once per visitor) and exclude mobile users.

ConvertKit offers similar triggers plus URL-specific targeting. You can show different pop-ups on different pages, automatically tag subscribers based on which form they filled out, and create multi-step forms (collect email, then on the thank-you page collect more details).

Neither is as advanced as dedicated tools like OptinMonster, but both handle the basics well.

E-commerce and Sales Features

Constant Contact integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce, and other major e-commerce platforms. You can send abandoned cart emails, product recommendations, and purchase follow-ups. The platform pulls product images and details automatically.

For physical product sellers, Constant Contact’s event ticketing and donation features are valuable. You can sell event tickets directly through emails and track RSVPs within the platform.

ConvertKit offers Commerce, a built-in feature to sell digital products and subscriptions directly. You can sell e-books, courses, or memberships without Shopify or WooCommerce. The platform handles payment processing (through Stripe), sends download links automatically, and gives you 95% of revenue (5% ConvertKit fee).

This is huge for creators. You can build an entire business—landing page, email sequence, product sales, and delivery—inside ConvertKit. The limitation: it only works for digital products. Physical product sellers need external e-commerce platforms.

Deliverability and Inbox Placement

Both platforms maintain strong sender reputations and offer similar deliverability rates (industry standard is 85-95% inbox placement).

Constant Contact requires all users to use double opt-in for new subscribers, which hurts list growth but improves engagement rates. They’re strict about spam complaints and will suspend accounts that exceed 1% complaint rates. This protects their IP reputation, benefiting all users.

ConvertKit allows single opt-in, giving you faster list growth. They’re equally strict about complaints. Both platforms authenticate emails with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC when you use a custom domain.

Authentication setup: Constant Contact’s domain authentication takes about 5 minutes with clear DNS instructions. ConvertKit’s process is identical. Both offer dedicated IP addresses on enterprise plans if you’re sending 100K+ emails monthly.

Email Testing and Deliverability Tools

Constant Contact includes inbox preview for 40+ email clients (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail) before you send. You can see how your email renders on desktop and mobile. They also offer spam testing that flags words and formatting likely to trigger filters.

ConvertKit doesn’t offer inbox preview (you’d need a third-party tool like Litmus). They provide basic spam score checking but fewer diagnostics than Constant Contact.

Analytics and Reporting

Constant Contact’s reports show: open rate, click rate, bounce rate, unsubscribe rate, and social shares. You can see which links got clicked most, view a heat map of clicks on your email, and track engagement over time.

The real-time reporting dashboard updates as sends progress. For event emails, you can see who registered and track ticket sales. The mobile app lets you check campaign performance from anywhere.

ConvertKit’s dashboard focuses on subscriber growth and revenue. You see total subscribers, growth rate, and earnings from ConvertKit Commerce in one view. Email reports show standard metrics (opens, clicks, unsubscribes) plus link-level data.

Where ConvertKit excels: subscriber-level reporting. You can click any subscriber and see their complete journey—every email they received, which ones they opened, what they purchased, which automations they’re in. This individual-level data helps you understand customer behavior.

Constant Contact offers this too, but the interface makes it harder to find. You need to go to Contacts → individual contact → activity, rather than accessing it directly from reports.

A/B Testing Capabilities

Constant Contact offers A/B testing on subject lines, sender names, and content. You choose what percentage to test (10%, 20%, etc.), set a winning metric (open rate or click rate), and the platform sends the winner to remaining subscribers automatically.

Testing is available on all plans, which is generous. You can test up to 4 variations simultaneously.

ConvertKit limits A/B testing to Creator Pro plans ($59/month minimum). You can test subject lines only, not content or sender names. You manually choose the winner—there’s no automatic winner selection.

This is a significant weakness for ConvertKit. A/B testing is crucial for optimizing campaigns, and limiting it to expensive plans frustrates creators on tighter budgets.

Integration Ecosystem

Constant Contact connects with 400+ tools including: Salesforce, WordPress, Eventbrite, Shopify, WooCommerce, Facebook Lead Ads, QuickBooks, and major CRMs. The integrations focus on small business needs—payment processors, scheduling tools, CRM systems, and social media.

Setup is typically straightforward. For Shopify, you install the Constant Contact app, authenticate, and product data syncs automatically. Most integrations use Zapier for the connection.

ConvertKit offers 100+ direct integrations focused on creator tools: Teachable, Podia, Gumroad, Stripe, PayPal, WordPress, Leadpages, and Webflow. The integrations are designed for content creators and online educators.

ConvertKit’s WordPress plugin is particularly strong—it lets you deliver content upgrades (bonus PDFs, checklists) directly from blog posts. Readers enter their email, get tagged automatically, and download the file without leaving your site.

Integration quality matters more than quantity. Both platforms connect to essential tools. Choose based on which tools you actually use.

Customer Support and Resources

Constant Contact provides phone support (US business hours) on all plans, even the entry-level $12/month tier. You also get live chat, email support, and access to community forums. Average response time is under 2 hours.

They offer free live workshops on email marketing basics, strategy sessions, and platform training. These are genuinely helpful for beginners—I recommend taking the “Email Marketing 101” workshop before launching your first campaign.

ConvertKit offers email and live chat support (no phone). Response times average 3-4 hours. Creator Pro plan subscribers get priority support (under 1 hour responses).

The knowledge base is extensive with articles, video tutorials, and strategy guides. ConvertKit also runs Creator Network events and workshops, though these focus more on building online businesses than technical platform training.

Important note: Phone support matters more than you think when you’re starting. Being able to call someone and say “I’m stuck on this automation” saves hours of frustration. ConvertKit’s lack of phone support is a dealbreaker for some users.

Mobile App Functionality

Constant Contact’s mobile app (iOS and Android) lets you create and send campaigns, manage contacts, view reports, and respond to social media posts (if you use their social posting feature). It’s genuinely functional—I’ve sent complete campaigns from my phone.

The interface adapts desktop features to mobile well. You can’t build complex automations from the app, but you can handle urgent tasks: sending a last-minute promotional email or adding a new contact manually.

ConvertKit’s mobile app is view-only. You can check subscriber counts, view broadcast performance, and see revenue numbers. You cannot create campaigns, manage automations, or edit landing pages from mobile.

This reflects ConvertKit’s philosophy that you should batch create content, not build emails on your phone. It’s frustrating if you need mobile flexibility, but it keeps you from making hasty decisions.

Pricing Deep Dive

Constant Contact Pricing

Free Trial: 60 days, full access to all features, up to 100 contacts. No credit card required.

Lite Plan: Starting at $12/month for 500 contacts

• Email marketing and automation
• Pre-designed templates
• Social media posting (Facebook, Instagram)
• Basic reporting
• Phone and chat support
• Scales to $35/month (1,000 contacts), $80/month (5,000 contacts)

Standard Plan: Starting at $35/month for 500 contacts

• Everything in Lite
• Landing pages (up to 3)
• Advanced automation
• A/B testing
• Dynamic content
• Google Ads integration
• Scales to $65/month (1,000 contacts), $140/month (5,000 contacts)

Premium Plan: Starting at $80/month for 500 contacts

• Everything in Standard
• Advanced segmentation
• Revenue reporting
• SEO recommendations
• Google Ads optimization
• Dedicated success advisor
• Scales to $120/month (1,000 contacts), $250/month (5,000 contacts)

Pricing increases as your list grows. At 10,000 contacts, you’re paying $120-$335/month depending on plan.

ConvertKit Pricing

Free Plan: Up to 1,000 subscribers

• Unlimited landing pages and forms
• Email broadcasts
• Community support only
• ConvertKit branding on forms
• Basic automation (limited)

Creator Plan: Starting at $15/month for 300 subscribers

• Everything in Free (no subscriber limit based on tier)
• Visual automation builder
• Third-party integrations
• Automated email sequences
• Remove ConvertKit branding
• Email and chat support
• Scales to $29/month (1,000 subscribers), $49/month (3,000 subscribers), $79/month (5,000 subscribers)

Creator Pro: Starting at $29/month for 300 subscribers

• Everything in Creator
• Newsletter referral system
• Subscriber scoring
• Advanced reporting
• Priority support
• Free migration from other platforms
• Scales to $59/month (1,000 subscribers), $99/month (3,000 subscribers), $159/month (5,000 subscribers)

At 10,000 subscribers, Creator plan is $250/month, Creator Pro is $350/month.

Value Analysis

Constant Contact is cheaper at small list sizes (500-1,000 contacts) but more expensive as you scale beyond 5,000. You’re paying for phone support, extensive templates, and event management features.

ConvertKit is more expensive initially but offers better value for creators who need landing pages, advanced automation, and digital product sales. The free plan up to 1,000 subscribers is generous—you can build an entire email list before paying anything.

Hidden costs: Both charge extra for SMS marketing (add $10-30/month). Constant Contact charges separately for event management features on lower tiers. ConvertKit takes 5% of Commerce transactions (vs. 3% if you use Shopify with Constant Contact).

Try Constant Contact Free for 60 Days →

Try ConvertKit Free Up to 1,000 Subscribers →

Who Should Choose Constant Contact

Local and physical businesses: If you run a restaurant, retail store, gym, or salon, Constant Contact’s industry-specific templates and event management features are designed for you. The holiday email templates, promotion formats, and coupon features work out of the box.

Event organizers: The built-in event registration, ticketing, and RSVP tracking make Constant Contact the clear choice if you host workshops, conferences, or community events. You can manage everything in one platform instead of juggling Eventbrite, Mailchimp, and spreadsheets.

Nonprofits: Constant Contact offers 30% discounts for registered nonprofits. Combined with donation buttons, volunteer recruitment templates, and campaign reporting, it’s tailored for fundraising and community building.

Email marketing beginners: If you’ve never run an email campaign and need extensive hand-holding, Constant Contact’s phone support and training workshops will save you weeks of frustration. The template library means you’re never starting from scratch.

Anyone who needs phone support: If the thought of troubleshooting via chat or email makes you anxious, pay for the peace of mind. Being able to call someone when you’re stuck is worth the higher price for many users.

Social media integrators: Constant Contact’s social posting features (schedule Facebook and Instagram posts) and integration with social ad platforms make it useful if you’re managing multiple marketing channels from one dashboard.

Who Should Choose ConvertKit

Bloggers and content creators: If your business model is creating content and converting readers into subscribers, ConvertKit’s content upgrade delivery, tag-based segmentation, and automation sequences are built specifically for you.

Online course creators: The seamless integration with Teachable, Podia, and Thinkific, plus ConvertKit Commerce for selling directly, makes it ideal for educators. You can deliver course access, send lesson reminders, and segment students by progress automatically.

Podcasters and YouTubers: ConvertKit’s simple signup forms, automated welcome sequences, and integration with podcast hosting platforms help you convert listeners into subscribers. The focus on personal connection (plain-text emails) works well for building audience relationships.

Authors and writers: Selling digital books, managing launch teams, and segmenting readers by genre interests all work smoothly in ConvertKit. The visual automation builder lets you create sophisticated launch sequences without technical skills.

Anyone building a personal brand: If your name is your business and you need flexibility to experiment with funnels, products, and content strategies, ConvertKit’s tag-based system adapts as you pivot. You won’t outgrow it.

Budget-conscious creators with small lists: The free plan up to 1,000 subscribers means you can start building your audience immediately without monthly expenses. This matters when you’re pre-revenue.

Automation enthusiasts: If you enjoy optimizing customer journeys, testing different sequences, and segmenting based on behavior, ConvertKit’s visual automation builder is genuinely fun to use. Constant Contact’s automation feels limiting in comparison.

Migration Considerations

Switching between these platforms is straightforward but not instant.

From Constant Contact to ConvertKit: Export your contacts as CSV from Constant Contact, import to ConvertKit (they have CSV upload). You’ll need to manually rebuild automations since the structures are different (list-based vs. tag-based). Forms and landing pages must be recreated. Budget 4-6 hours for a basic migration, longer if you have complex automation.

ConvertKit offers free migration service on Creator Pro plans—they’ll handle the technical transfer for you.

From ConvertKit to Constant Contact: Export subscribers with their tags, import to Constant Contact, then manually create lists from tag groups. Again, automation must be rebuilt. Landing pages need recreation since the builders are incompatible.

Preserve your data: Both platforms let you export complete contact lists with custom fields and engagement history. You won’t lose subscriber information, just workflow structures.

Test before switching: Both offer free trials. Build a test campaign in your target platform before committing to migration. This reveals workflow differences you’ll need to adapt to.

Final Verdict

For most small businesses, local retailers, and nonprofits, choose Constant Contact. The extensive templates, event management, phone support, and social posting features address your actual marketing needs. You’re paying for comprehensive tools that work immediately without steep learning curves.

For creators, bloggers, coaches, and online educators, choose ConvertKit. The automation capabilities, landing page builder, tag-based segmentation, and Commerce features give you room to grow. You’ll invest more time learning the system, but the flexibility pays off as your business scales.

Price sensitivity tipping points:

• Under 1,000 subscribers → ConvertKit (free plan)
• 1,000-3,000 contacts, need phone support → Constant Contact
• 3,000-10,000 contacts, need automation → ConvertKit
• 10,000+ contacts → compare specific pricing; they’re roughly equal

The honest assessment: These platforms serve different markets. Constant Contact is the Toyota Camry—reliable, comfortable, handles 90% of use cases without drama. ConvertKit is the Subaru Outback—more specialized, better for specific terrain (content creators), requires knowing what you’re doing.

Your decision should start with this question: Am I primarily selling physical products/services locally, or am I building an audience online to sell digital products/expertise?

Physical/local → Constant Contact. Digital/online → ConvertKit.

Both platforms will send emails reliably, track opens and clicks, and help you grow. The difference is which growth path they’re optimized for. Choose the tool that matches your actual business model, not the one with flashier features you’ll never use.

Try Constant Contact Free for 60 Days →

Try ConvertKit Free Up to 1,000 Subscribers →

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