The Quick Verdict
Constant Contact wins for typical small businesses
Easier to use. Less expensive. Phone support included. Built for the small business owner who needs to send and ship.
ActiveCampaign scores 3.7 / 5 for small biz (4.5/5 for advanced automation users). Built for marketers running complex lifecycle programs.
See Our Top Pick at EmailToolAdviserHow They Compare at a Glance
| Feature | Constant Contact | ActiveCampaign |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $12/mo | $29/mo (Lite, 1k contacts) |
| Free plan/trial | Plans starting from $12 per month with no surprises | 14-day trial |
| Contact limit at starting tier | 500 | 1,000 |
| Drag-and-drop builder | Excellent for non-designers | Good (more technical) |
| Template count | 100+ industry-organized | ~250 (style-organized) |
| Ease of use | Mild learning curve | Steep learning curve |
| Automation capability | Strong basics | Industry-leading (200+ triggers) |
| Segmentation depth | Good | Excellent (behavioral) |
| CRM features | Basic | Light CRM included |
| Lead scoring | No | Yes |
| Deal pipelines | No | Yes |
| A/B testing | Subject line + send time | Subject, content, send time, multivariate |
| Dynamic content | Premium tier | Plus tier and above |
| SMS marketing | No (separate tool needed) | Yes, on Plus and above |
| Conditional content | Premium tier | Plus tier and above |
| Integrations | Strong | 900+ apps |
| Phone support | Yes, all paid tiers ($12/mo+) | Plus tier and above ($49/mo+) |
| Learning curve | Mild | Significant |
| Our verdict | Wins for small business | Wins for advanced automation |
Pricing: The Real Cost Story
Pricing is the cleanest single category for Constant Contact's win. At every functionally-equivalent tier, Constant Contact is significantly less expensive.
Constant Contact pricing
- Lite — $12/mo for up to 500 contacts.
- Standard — $35/mo for up to 500 contacts. Adds automations + AI assistant.
- Premium — $80/mo for up to 500 contacts. Adds revenue tracking + dynamic content.
ActiveCampaign pricing
- Lite — $29/mo for up to 1,000 contacts. Limited to 3 users.
- Plus — $49/mo for up to 1,000 contacts. Adds landing pages, automations map, CRM lite.
- Professional — $149/mo for up to 1,000 contacts. Adds attribution, conditional content, win probability scoring.
- Enterprise — Custom pricing.
The headline price comparison: $12/mo Constant Contact vs $29/mo ActiveCampaign. But the more honest comparison is the tier most small businesses actually use — Standard for Constant Contact vs Plus for ActiveCampaign. There, it's $35/mo vs $49/mo. Over a year, that's a $168 difference.
For most small businesses, the feature set on ActiveCampaign Lite isn't enough (no landing pages, no decent automations map). Constant Contact's Standard tier includes what you need. The functional cost gap is about $200/year — meaningful for a small business budget.
Same automations small businesses use, less expensive
At just $12 per month, if your first email campaign brings back even one customer who spends more than $12, you have already made your money back. Most small businesses see returns of $36 for every $1 spent on email marketing.
See Our Top Pick at EmailToolAdviserEase of Use: Which Is Faster to Get Started?
Constant Contact wins decisively. Setup-to-first-send time on our test: 28 minutes for Constant Contact vs 78 minutes for ActiveCampaign.
ActiveCampaign's product is genuinely sophisticated. The visual automation builder is the best in the industry. The CRM features are well-designed. But these come with a learning curve. For a marketing professional, the curve is worth it. For a small business owner, the curve is the obstacle between intention and action.
Constant Contact's UI is opinionated and guided. You don't get infinite flexibility, you get clear paths. For 90% of small business email programs, that trade is good.
Automation: ActiveCampaign Is More Powerful — Here's When That Matters
This is the section where ActiveCampaign genuinely wins. Its automation builder supports 200+ trigger types, behavior-based branching logic, lead scoring with custom rules, deal pipeline triggers, and multi-step CRM workflows. There is no email tool that comes close on automation depth.
When does this matter? Three scenarios:
- B2B SaaS with long sales cycles, lead scoring needs, and behavior-driven email triggers.
- Higher-end ecommerce (over $1M annual revenue) with customer lifecycle programs spanning 6-12 months.
- Service businesses with sales reps who need to track deals and email cadence together.
For 90% of small businesses — the weekly newsletter + welcome series + occasional promo crowd — Constant Contact's automation engine covers everything. The four most common small business automations (welcome series, abandoned cart, birthday, RSS-to-email) work cleanly on both platforms. ActiveCampaign's depth is a feature you pay for whether or not you use it.
Email Builder and Templates
Both platforms have drag-and-drop builders. Constant Contact's is more polished for non-designers; ActiveCampaign's is more flexible but requires more setup time. Template quality is comparable — ActiveCampaign has ~250 templates vs Constant Contact's 100+, but Constant Contact's are better organized by industry use case (restaurant, salon, nonprofit, services), which makes finding the right one much faster.
Deliverability: Both Are Strong, Differences Are Small
Both platforms perform above 96% inbox placement in our tests. Constant Contact: 97.4%. ActiveCampaign: 96.8%. The gap is small. Constant Contact is slightly more forgiving with imported lists; ActiveCampaign is slightly stricter but offers more granular sender-reputation tools.
If deliverability is the deciding factor, both are reasonable picks.
Support: Constant Contact Wins Decisively
Constant Contact: phone support on every paid tier ($12/mo and up). Average wait time during business hours: under 5 minutes across six test calls.
ActiveCampaign: phone support starts at the Plus tier ($49/mo). Below that, chat only. Chat response time in our tests averaged 8-15 minutes during business hours. Knowledge base is excellent.
For small business owners — most of whom don't have a marketing team to lean on — included phone support is one of the most important features Constant Contact offers.
Phone support at $12/mo. Same on ActiveCampaign costs $49/mo.
At just $12 per month, if your first email campaign brings back even one customer who spends more than $12, you have already made your money back. Most small businesses see returns of $36 for every $1 spent on email marketing.
See Our Top Pick at EmailToolAdviserWho Should Pick ActiveCampaign
- List size over 10,000 contacts
- B2B with a sales team that tracks deals
- Advanced lifecycle automation needs (lead scoring, behavior triggers)
- CRM-style workflows alongside email
- Technical marketer or marketing operations person on staff
- Budget supports $50+/month tools comfortably
Who Should Pick Constant Contact
- Small or local business with under 10,000 contacts
- Weekly or biweekly newsletter cadence
- Owner-operated or small team
- Needs phone support when something breaks
- $36-per-$1 ROI mindset (focused on revenue, not feature depth)
- Wants predictable pricing
Switching Either Direction
Moving from ActiveCampaign to Constant Contact is straightforward. Export contacts as CSV, import into Constant Contact (which forgives messy formatting), re-permission with a single email. Most small businesses complete the migration in an afternoon.
Moving from Constant Contact to ActiveCampaign is more complex. ActiveCampaign's automation setup requires more configuration. Plan a week to rebuild your top 3-5 automations and get comfortable in the interface.
Our Final Pick for Small Businesses
For typical small businesses — the audience this site serves — Constant Contact is the right pick. It costs less, ships campaigns faster, and includes the phone support that small business owners genuinely need. The Plans starting from $12 per month with no surprises removes the risk of trying it. The predictable pricing makes it possible to budget for the year.
ActiveCampaign is a genuinely excellent product. If you're a B2B SaaS company with a sales team, a $1M+ ecommerce store, or a marketer building complex lifecycle programs — it's the right pick. For most small businesses landing on this page, Constant Contact wins.
For the full editorial review of Constant Contact, see our Constant Contact review. For other comparisons, see Constant Contact vs Mailchimp or Constant Contact vs MailerLite. For the ranked top-5 across all small business email tools, see best email marketing for small business.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is ActiveCampaign better than Constant Contact?
For advanced automation, yes — ActiveCampaign genuinely outclasses every email tool on the market for behavioral triggers and CRM-style workflows. For typical small businesses, Constant Contact wins on price, ease of use, and support.
Why is Constant Contact cheaper than ActiveCampaign?
ActiveCampaign is built for marketers running complex behavioral programs. Constant Contact is built for small business owners running straightforward programs. Different products for different customers, hence different prices.
Can a small business actually use ActiveCampaign's automations?
Technically yes, but most small businesses use 5 to 10 percent of ActiveCampaign's automation capabilities. Paying for ActiveCampaign without using its depth is paying for features you don't need.
Which has better customer support, Constant Contact or ActiveCampaign?
Constant Contact wins by a clear margin. Phone support is included on every Constant Contact paid tier starting at $12/mo. ActiveCampaign includes phone support only on Plus and higher tiers, starting around $49/mo.
Does Constant Contact have a CRM like ActiveCampaign?
Constant Contact has basic contact management but not a true CRM. ActiveCampaign includes a light CRM with deal tracking and lead scoring. If you have a sales team that needs to track deals alongside email, ActiveCampaign is the better choice.