Constant Contact vs Drip: Which Email Marketing Platform Should You Choose?

Table of Contents

• Quick Verdict
• Side-by-Side Comparison
• Email Marketing Features: The Core Comparison
  • Email Builder and Templates
  • Deliverability Rates
• Marketing Automation: Where They Diverge Dramatically
  • Constant Contact’s Automation Capabilities
  • Drip’s Advanced Workflow Builder
• Ecommerce Integration and Revenue Tracking
  • Constant Contact’s Ecommerce Features
  • Drip’s Deep Ecommerce Capabilities
• List Management and Segmentation
  • Constant Contact’s List Structure
  • Drip’s Tag-Based System
• Reporting and Analytics
  • Constant Contact’s Reporting
  • Drip’s Analytics Dashboard
• Pricing Breakdown: What You Actually Get
  • Constant Contact Pricing Structure
  • Drip Pricing Structure
  • Value Analysis
• Integration Ecosystem
  • Constant Contact Integrations
  • Drip Integrations
• Customer Support Experience
  • Constant Contact Support
  • Drip Support
• Mobile App Capabilities
• Who Should Choose Constant Contact
• Who Should Choose Drip
• Migration Considerations
  • Moving from Constant Contact to Drip
  • Moving from Drip to Constant Contact
• Final Verdict: Which One Should You Choose?

Quick Verdict

Choose Constant Contact if you’re a small business owner, nonprofit, or local retailer who needs straightforward email marketing with excellent customer support and wants event management tools built in.

Choose Drip if you run an ecommerce store or online business that needs sophisticated automation workflows, detailed customer tracking, and revenue attribution to understand which emails actually drive sales.

Side-by-Side Comparison

Email Marketing Features: The Core Comparison

Email Builder and Templates

Constant Contact provides over 400 pre-designed templates spanning industries from real estate to restaurants. Their drag-and-drop builder uses large, clearly labeled blocks that snap into place. You can add social sharing buttons, donation buttons, polls, and coupons without touching code. The interface feels like building with LEGO blocks—intuitive enough that my 60-year-old clients figure it out in their first session.

Drip offers around 50 templates, but the focus is different. Their builder assumes you’ll customize heavily or import HTML. The visual editor includes dynamic content blocks that change based on subscriber data—showing different product recommendations to customers who bought hiking gear versus yoga mats. You can insert liquid template code directly to pull in personalized data like “items left in cart” or “days since last purchase.”

The template gap matters less than it appears. Constant Contact users typically send weekly newsletters with consistent layouts. Drip users send targeted campaigns where the content personalizes based on behavior, so they build fewer templates but use them more dynamically.

Deliverability Rates

Constant Contact maintains an average deliverability rate of 96-97% according to EmailToolTester’s 2024 benchmarks. They’ve invested heavily in sender reputation management and have dedicated IP addresses for high-volume senders (available on their Email Plus plan).

Drip reports similar deliverability at 95-96%, with built-in spam testing before you send. Their “Deliverability Center” shows you exactly which spam filters might flag your email and why. For ecommerce businesses, Drip automatically authenticates your domain with DKIM and SPF records during setup—a technical step that Constant Contact requires manual configuration for.

Both platforms enforce good list hygiene by automatically suppressing bounced and unsubscribed contacts. Neither lets you purchase lists or import obviously scraped contacts.

Marketing Automation: Where They Diverge Dramatically

Constant Contact’s Automation Capabilities

Constant Contact offers three automation series types: welcome emails, anniversary/birthday emails, and resend-to-non-openers. You can trigger these based on list signup, contact details, or email engagement.

Their “Autoresponder” feature lets you create a sequence of up to 30 emails that send based on time delays (3 days after signup, 7 days after that, etc.). You can segment who enters the series based on list membership or specific signup forms.

Here’s what you cannot do: create branching workflows where the next email depends on whether someone clicked a specific link, bought a product, or visited a webpage. Constant Contact’s automation follows a single path forward.

Drip’s Advanced Workflow Builder

Drip built their entire platform around visual workflow automation. You can create workflows with unlimited branches, decision points, and conditional logic.

A typical Drip workflow for an online store might look like: Contact abandons cart → Wait 2 hours → Did they purchase? (No) → Send discount email → Did they click? (Yes) → Tag as “discount shopper” + Send to Facebook Custom Audience → Wait 24 hours → Did they purchase? (No) → Send social proof email with reviews → Remove from workflow if purchase detected.

You can have up to 50 steps per workflow and run unlimited workflows simultaneously. Each contact can be in multiple workflows at once. Drip tracks exactly where each person is in every workflow through their “People” dashboard.

The workflow builder includes 11 different action types: send email, apply tag, subscribe to campaign, add to Facebook Custom Audience, send webhook, adjust lead score, remove tag, shift time zone, trigger another workflow, and more.

For businesses that need it, this difference is deal-breaking. For businesses that don’t, it’s overwhelming complexity they’ll never use.

Ecommerce Integration and Revenue Tracking

Constant Contact’s Ecommerce Features

Constant Contact integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce, Square, and Eventbrite through native connections. Once connected, you can segment lists based on “customers” vs “non-customers” and total purchase value ranges ($0-50, $50-100, etc.).

You can insert product blocks into emails that pull images and prices from your store catalog. When someone clicks through and purchases, Constant Contact tracks that as a “click” but doesn’t attribute specific revenue to that email campaign.

Their abandoned cart feature (Email Plus plan only) sends a single reminder email to customers who left items in their cart. You cannot customize the timing or send a series of escalating reminders.

Drip’s Deep Ecommerce Capabilities

Drip syncs your entire product catalog and customer purchase history. Every contact record shows their lifetime value, average order value, total orders, and complete purchase timeline.

You can segment based on 30+ ecommerce conditions: purchased specific products, purchased from specific collections, order count greater than X, lifetime value between Y and Z, days since last purchase, predicted next order date, and more.

Each email campaign shows revenue generated. When someone receives an email Tuesday, clicks Wednesday, and purchases Thursday, Drip attributes that revenue to the campaign. Their analytics dashboard shows total revenue per campaign, revenue per subscriber, and your most valuable automation workflows by revenue.

The abandoned cart workflow is fully customizable. Most Drip users send 3-4 emails over 5-7 days with escalating incentives. The workflow automatically stops if the customer completes their purchase at any point.

Drip’s “Product Recommendations” feature uses purchase history to automatically populate emails with relevant products. If someone bought running shoes, future emails can automatically show running accessories without you manually selecting products.

List Management and Segmentation

Constant Contact’s List Structure

Constant Contact uses a list-based system. You create separate lists (Newsletter Subscribers, VIP Customers, Event Attendees) and contacts can belong to multiple lists.

Segmentation happens at send time. You can filter lists by 12 criteria: location (state/country), contact details, list membership, how they signed up, engagement with previous emails, purchase behavior (if ecommerce connected), and custom fields.

You can create up to 200 custom fields to store additional data (member ID, industry, company size, etc.). Each contact can have unlimited custom field values. Segmentation using custom fields requires creating them first and consistently populating them.

Constant Contact’s segments are dynamic—when you segment by “opened last 3 campaigns,” the list updates automatically as engagement changes.

Drip’s Tag-Based System

Drip uses tags instead of lists. A single contact might have tags like: customer, purchased-within-30-days, interested-in-hiking-gear, attended-webinar, discount-shopper, high-value (each tag you create).

You can apply unlimited tags per contact and use them in any combination for segmentation. Tags can be applied manually, through signup forms, automatically based on behavior (clicked specific link, visited specific page, purchased specific product), or through workflows.

The “People” search lets you combine tags with 40+ conditions using AND/OR logic: Show me contacts tagged “customer” AND “interested-in-hiking-gear” AND last_order_date more than 60 days ago AND lifetime_value greater than $200. These segments update in real-time.

Drip also includes a visual “Lead Score” system where you assign points for positive actions (opened email +1, visited pricing page +5, purchased +20) and subtract for negative signals (unsubscribed from campaign -10). You can trigger workflows or segment based on lead score thresholds.

The tag system offers more flexibility but requires more planning. You need to think through your tagging strategy upfront to avoid creating hundreds of inconsistent tags that become unmanageable.

Reporting and Analytics

Constant Contact’s Reporting

Constant Contact provides standard email metrics: delivery rate, open rate, click rate, bounce rate, and unsubscribe rate. Campaign reports show which links were clicked most, geographic breakdown by state, and time-of-day opened.

The “Engagement Report” identifies your most and least engaged contacts over the past 6 months. You can export these segments to re-engage inactive subscribers or suppress them to improve deliverability.

Social media reports track shares, likes, and follows generated from email campaigns. If you use their SMS feature, you’ll see those metrics in a separate dashboard.

What’s missing: A/B test results beyond “which subject line won,” funnel visualization showing the path from email to conversion, cohort analysis, or revenue attribution.

Drip’s Analytics Dashboard

Drip’s reporting focuses on revenue and customer behavior. The main dashboard shows: total subscribers, new subscribers this period, revenue generated from email, revenue per subscriber, and total orders influenced.

Each campaign report includes: sent, delivered, opened, clicked, unsubscribed, revenue generated, orders placed, and conversion rate. You can see exactly which products were purchased after clicking that email.

The “Revenue Attribution” report shows a 30-day view of how much revenue each workflow and broadcast generated. The “Customer Insights” dashboard reveals your average customer lifetime value, purchase frequency, and time between purchases.

Drip’s “A/B Testing” goes beyond subject lines. You can test sender name, email content, send time, and entire workflows against each other. Tests run until reaching statistical significance (configurable confidence level) before declaring a winner.

The “Link Activity” report shows not just clicks but who clicked, when they clicked, whether they purchased afterward, and their complete interaction history with your emails.

Pricing Breakdown: What You Actually Get

Constant Contact Pricing Structure

Core Plan ($12/month for 500 contacts, scales to $335/month for 50,000 contacts):

• Unlimited emails
• Basic automation (welcome series, resend-to-non-openers)
• 400+ email templates
• Social media posting tools
• Basic reporting
• Phone and chat support

Email Plus Plan ($35/month for 500 contacts, scales to $595/month for 50,000 contacts):

• Everything in Core
• Advanced automation features
• A/B testing (subject lines only)
• Dynamic content blocks
• Polls and surveys
• Abandoned cart emails (single email)
• Donation forms
• Google Ads integration

Add-ons:

• SMS Marketing: $10/month base + per-message costs (starts at 5¢/message)
• Logo design services: One-time fees starting at $99

Constant Contact increases pricing by contact count in tiers. Jumping from 10,000 to 10,001 contacts moves you from $95/month to $125/month on Core plan. They count each unique email address once, regardless of how many lists they’re on.

Drip Pricing Structure

Single Plan (features identical at all tiers, pricing by contact count):

• $39/month for 2,500 contacts
• $89/month for 5,000 contacts
• $154/month for 10,000 contacts
• $289/month for 20,000 contacts
• Custom pricing beyond 50,000 contacts

All plans include:

• Unlimited emails
• Full visual workflow builder
• Revenue attribution
• Ecommerce integrations
• SMS via integrations (using Postscript or similar)
• 100+ integration connections
• Email and chat support
• Multiple user accounts
• Advanced A/B testing

Drip counts contacts differently for ecommerce stores: they only charge for contactable subscribers, not your entire customer database. If you have 10,000 customers but only 3,000 are subscribed to email, you pay for 3,000.

Value Analysis

Constant Contact costs less at lower contact counts but provides fewer automation features even on their higher plan. You’re paying for simplicity, excellent support, and event management features that Drip doesn’t offer.

Drip costs more upfront but includes enterprise-level automation and analytics at every tier. For ecommerce businesses, the revenue attribution often justifies the cost—users regularly discover that specific workflows generate 3-4X the revenue of regular broadcasts.

The crossover point: If you need advanced automation and have fewer than 5,000 contacts, Drip costs $89/month vs Constant Contact Email Plus at $70/month—a $19 difference for dramatically more capability. Above 10,000 contacts, the gap narrows (Drip $154 vs Constant Contact $165 for Email Plus).

Integration Ecosystem

Constant Contact Integrations

Constant Contact connects with 5,000+ apps through Zapier and direct integrations with major platforms:

Direct integrations: Shopify, WooCommerce, Eventbrite, Square, Facebook, Instagram, Canva, Salesforce, Microsoft 365, QuickBooks Online, Zoom

Notable integrations: WordPress (form builder plugin), Outlook, Gmail (sidebar app), Google Ads (audience sync)

Their Zapier connection handles most needs, but direct integrations sync faster and include more features. The Shopify integration is relatively basic—it syncs customer lists and enables abandoned cart emails but doesn’t track product-level behavior.

Drip Integrations

Drip offers 200+ native integrations and connects with thousands more through Zapier:

Deep ecommerce integrations: Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, BigCommerce (these sync product catalog, complete purchase history, and behavioral data)

Marketing integrations: Facebook Custom Audiences, Google Ads, TikTok Ads, Klaviyo (import from), OptinMonster, Privy, Justuno

Business tools: Stripe, PayPal, Gumroad, ThriveCart, Memberful, WordPress, Zapier, Segment, Webhooks

The ecommerce integrations go much deeper—syncing not just customer data but browsing behavior, cart events, product views, and purchase attribution. Drip can trigger workflows based on “viewed product page” or “added to cart but didn’t checkout.”

Customer Support Experience

Constant Contact Support

Constant Contact provides phone, live chat, and email support on all plans—a rarity in email marketing. Phone support is available Monday-Friday 8am-10pm EST and Saturday 9am-6pm EST with average wait times under 5 minutes.

They offer live webinar training sessions covering basics to advanced topics, with recordings available in their library. Their help documentation is extensive with screenshots and step-by-step guides.

The “Community” forum connects users for peer support. Constant Contact support staff actively answer questions there within 24 hours.

My experience: Their support reps are genuinely helpful but sometimes limited by the platform’s capabilities. They’ll spend 30 minutes walking you through a workaround for something Drip does natively.

Drip Support

Drip offers email support on all plans (response time 2-4 hours during business days) and chat support for accounts paying $184/month or more.

Their “Drip University” includes video courses, written guides, and certification programs. The “Automation Cookbook” provides pre-built workflow templates you can import directly into your account.

The documentation assumes technical comfort—articles reference things like “liquid template variables” and “webhook payloads” without extensive explanation.

My experience: Drip’s support team is highly knowledgeable about automation and ecommerce strategy. They’ll suggest workflow improvements beyond just answering your immediate question. The tradeoff is slower response times and no phone support for troubleshooting.

Mobile App Capabilities

Constant Contact’s mobile app (iOS and Android) lets you create and send campaigns, manage contacts, check campaign reports, and post to social media from your phone. You can take photos at events and send recap emails within minutes.

Drip’s mobile app is view-only—you can monitor campaign performance and check subscriber details but cannot create campaigns or edit workflows. The app serves as a dashboard rather than a full mobile version.

Who Should Choose Constant Contact

Local Service Businesses: Hair salons, dental offices, gyms, and restaurants that need simple weekly newsletters with appointment reminders, promotions, and event announcements. The event management features are perfect for open houses, classes, or workshops.

Nonprofits: Organizations that need donation forms, volunteer coordination, and event ticketing alongside email marketing. Constant Contact offers a 30% discount for verified nonprofits.

Real Estate Agents: Professionals who want to send property listings, market updates, and open house invitations using industry-specific templates. The mobile app lets them photograph properties and send listings immediately.

Small Retail Stores: Brick-and-mortar shops with basic ecommerce needs (under $50K/year online revenue) who want to announce sales, share new arrivals, and build customer relationships without automation complexity.

Technophobic Business Owners: Anyone who gets anxious about technology but knows they need email marketing. The interface is forgiving, support is outstanding, and you won’t encounter features that confuse you.

Budget-Conscious Startups: New businesses with under 1,000 contacts who need professional email marketing for $12-20/month and can accept limited automation capabilities.

Try Constant Contact →

Who Should Choose Drip

Ecommerce Stores: Online retailers doing $100K+ in annual revenue who need abandoned cart recovery, post-purchase follow-up sequences, win-back campaigns for inactive customers, and revenue attribution to justify marketing spend.

Digital Product Sellers: Course creators, membership site owners, and software companies who sell online and want to automate customer onboarding, upsell sequences, and renewal reminders based on purchase behavior.

Growth-Focused Online Businesses: Companies that A/B test everything, want to understand customer lifetime value by segment, and build sophisticated funnels where the next message depends on previous behavior.

Marketing Teams: Businesses with dedicated marketers (or marketing-savvy owners) who will invest time learning advanced features and implementing behavioral segmentation strategies.

Multi-Channel Marketers: Teams that coordinate email with Facebook Custom Audiences, Google Ads, and other channels using customer data to create consistent experiences across platforms.

Data-Driven Decision Makers: Business owners who want to see exactly which campaigns generated revenue and optimize based on customer value rather than just open rates.

Try Drip →

Migration Considerations

Moving from Constant Contact to Drip

Export your contact list from Constant Contact as a CSV (includes all custom fields). Drip imports this directly, preserving contact data. Campaign history and engagement metrics don’t transfer—you’ll start fresh with Drip’s analytics.

Set up your ecommerce integration first so Drip syncs historical purchase data. This populates customer records with lifetime value and purchase history before you send your first campaign.

Plan your tag structure before importing. Map Constant Contact lists to Drip tags (their “Newsletter” list becomes your “newsletter_subscriber” tag).

Budget 5-10 hours to rebuild your main automation workflows in Drip’s visual builder. You’ll likely expand them once you see what’s possible.

Moving from Drip to Constant Contact

Export contacts from Drip as CSV (tags export as separate columns). Import into Constant Contact and create separate lists based on major tag categories.

Understand that sophisticated workflows won’t translate. You’ll simplify automation sequences to fit Constant Contact’s linear model.

Revenue attribution data stays in Drip—Constant Contact won’t show historical revenue by campaign. Download Drip reports before canceling if you need this data.

The move typically happens when businesses shift away from ecommerce or decide they’re paying for features they’re not using.

Final Verdict: Which One Should You Choose?

Choose Constant Contact if: You’re a small business owner who needs straightforward email marketing without technical complexity, values phone support when you’re stuck, or runs events that need integrated RSVP management. It’s the reliable Honda Civic of email marketing—it won’t excite marketing geeks, but it’ll serve most small businesses perfectly for years.

Choose Drip if: You run an online store or digital business where email marketing directly drives sales, you want to understand which campaigns generate revenue, and you’re willing to invest time learning powerful automation tools. It’s built specifically for ecommerce and digital products—everything from the interface to the pricing model assumes you’re tracking customer value and optimizing for revenue.

The deciding question: Do you need to know which emails generate revenue and trigger different messages based on purchase behavior? If yes, choose Drip despite the higher cost. If no, save money and complexity with Constant Contact.

For most local businesses, service providers, and nonprofits, Constant Contact provides everything needed at a lower price with better support. For ecommerce stores doing over $100K annually, Drip typically pays for itself through abandoned cart recovery and better customer segmentation within the first few months.

The platforms serve genuinely different audiences. This isn’t a “better vs worse” comparison—it’s a “general-purpose vs specialized” comparison. Choose based on your business model, not just your budget.

Related Articles

• Constant Contact vs GetResponse: Which Email Marketing Platform Should You Choose?
• Constant Contact vs Mailchimp: Which Email Marketing Platform Should You Choose in 2024?
• Constant Contact vs Mailchimp Comparison: Which Email Marketing Platform Should You Choose in 2024?