Constant Contact vs GetResponse
Side-by-side total cost of ownership: subscription fees, labor, hidden costs, and AI alternatives.
Published pricing
The subscription is only part of the cost.
| Constant Contact | GetResponse | |
|---|---|---|
| Published rate | $10/seat/mo | $16/seat/mo |
| Team size modeled | 5 | 5 |
| Annual subscription | $612/yr | $935/yr |
What the invoice doesn't show
Constant Contact
Constant Contact's pricing scales aggressively with contact count. The $12/mo Lite price is for 500 contacts. At 10,000 contacts, Lite jumps to $120/mo, Standard to $160/mo, and Premium to $300/mo. A 50,000-contact list costs $430/mo on Premium.
Lite plan limits email sends to 10x your contact count per month and blocks all automation. Even basic welcome sequences require Standard ($35/mo for 500 contacts). This means the '$12/mo' plan can't do what most businesses need email marketing for.
Constant Contact's email editor and templates are widely described as dated. Users report limited design flexibility, clunky drag-and-drop building, and templates that look like they haven't been updated since 2015.
Contract cancellation requires calling customer support. Users report being charged for months after requesting cancellation via email, with refunds requiring escalation to management.
GetResponse
A/B testing, contact tagging, and unlimited automation workflows are absent on the $15/mo Starter plan — accessing them requires Marketer at $48/mo (annual) for 1,000 contacts, the tier most growing businesses actually need from day one.
Contact-tier pricing scales harshly: the Marketer plan jumps from $88/mo at 10,000 contacts to $168/mo at 25,000 contacts (annual billing) — a 91% price increase for a 2.5× list-growth milestone most businesses cross within two or three years.
GetResponse bills on peak subscriber count, not monthly average — a temporary list spike moves you to the next tier for the full billing cycle. Contacts duplicated across multiple lists count separately, inflating your billable total above your true audience size.
Annual prepayment carries no refund protection: cancel a 12-month plan after three months and you forfeit the remaining nine months of payment. GetResponse's published policy explicitly states no refunds are issued for any reason.
What teams are switching to
Replacing Constant Contact
Brevo (Sendinblue)
Free (300 emails/day), $9–$18/mo (5K-20K emails)
Pay-by-email-volume rather than contact count — store unlimited contacts for free. AI-powered send-time optimization and content generation. Includes CRM, SMS, and WhatsApp at no extra cost.
Kit (ConvertKit)
Free (10K subs), $39/mo (Creator), $79/mo (Creator Pro)
Creator-focused email platform with visual automation builder on all paid plans. AI subject line generator and content assistant included. Free plan supports up to 10,000 subscribers. Note: Kit raised prices 35% in September 2025.
MailerLite
Free (500 subs), $10/mo Growing Business, $20/mo Advanced
Modern email marketing with AI writing assistant, smart sending, and advanced automation at a fraction of Constant Contact's price. 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails/month free.
Replacing GetResponse
Brevo
Free: 300 emails/day, unlimited contacts; Starter: $9/mo (5K emails/mo); Business: $18/mo (5K emails/mo, advanced automation). Scales by email volume, not contacts.
Prices by emails sent per month, not list size — unlimited contacts are included on every plan. A 25,000-subscriber list emailed twice a month costs the same as a 5,000-subscriber list at the same frequency, eliminating the per-contact tax that drives GetResponse bills upward as lists grow. Advanced automation is available at $18/mo, not locked behind a mid-tier plan.
MailerLite
Free: up to 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails/mo; Comfort: from $12/mo; Power: from $25/mo (unlimited automations, unlimited team seats). 10% annual discount.
Unlimited email sends on all paid plans with A/B testing and dynamic email available on Comfort — features GetResponse reserves for its Marketer tier. Billing excludes unsubscribers and hard bounces from the contact count, so the number you pay for reflects your actual reachable audience rather than your historical peak.
beehiiv
Launch: free up to 2,500 subscribers, unlimited sends; Scale: $43/mo (automations, ads, paid subs, 0% revenue take); Max: $96/mo (white-label, audio, RSS-to-email, unlimited team seats).
Built for newsletter and creator-economy use cases with 0% take rate on paid subscriptions — a direct contrast to platforms that skim revenue. Automations, ad network access, and paid subscription tooling are included on the $43/mo Scale plan, and the free tier supports up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited email sends, no contact-count upsells.
StackCut doesn't sell or recommend any of these tools. We show them for context. The decision is yours.
Total Cost of Ownership
Subscription fees plus labor and error costs, modeled at $50/hr loaded rate (BLS ECEC).
| Cost Component | Constant Contact | GetResponse |
|---|---|---|
| Annual subscription | $612 | $935 |
| Labor cost | $9,000 | $9,000 |
| Error & rework cost | $1,200 | $1,200 |
| Total Cost of Ownership | $10,812/yr | $11,135/yr |
| Est. AI alternative | $5,088/yr | $5,088/yr |
Labor rate based on BLS ECEC June 2025 ($45.65/hr private industry total compensation, rounded to $50). Team sizes differ because each vendor targets different market segments. Your actual numbers depend on team size, role mix, and usage. Run it with your own data.
Which one fits your team?
Both Constant Contact and GetResponsecost more than their published pricing suggests. The right choice depends on your team size and how you weigh each tool's trade-offs.
Constant Contact starts at $10/seat/mo , but watch for Constant Contact's pricing scales aggressively with contact count. The $12/mo Lite price is for 500 contacts. At 10,000 contacts, Lite jumps to $120/mo, Standard to $160/mo, and Premium to $300/mo. A 50,000-contact list costs $430/mo on Premium.
GetResponse starts at $16/seat/mo , but watch for A/B testing, contact tagging, and unlimited automation workflows are absent on the $15/mo Starter plan — accessing them requires Marketer at $48/mo (annual) for 1,000 contacts, the tier most growing businesses actually need from day one.
An AI-native alternative may replace the workflow at a fraction of the TCO.
See all SaaS cost comparisonsBrowse alternatives for every tool
FAQ
Constant Contact vs GetResponse: quick answers
Is Constant Contact or GetResponse cheaper?
On total cost of ownership, Constant Contact runs about $10,812/year (5-person team) versus $11,135/year for GetResponse (5-person team) once labor and hidden costs are counted, not just the published subscription. Adjust the inputs to your own team to compare them directly.
What can replace Constant Contact or GetResponse?
Constant Contact is often replaced by Brevo (Sendinblue) and Kit (ConvertKit); GetResponse by Brevo and MailerLite. StackCut shows the cost case for each AI-first alternative without taking referral fees.
What are the hidden costs of Constant Contact and GetResponse?
Constant Contact: Constant Contact's pricing scales aggressively with contact count. The $12/mo Lite price is for 500 contacts. At 10,000 contacts, Lite jumps to $120/mo, Standard to $160/mo, and Premium to $300/mo. A 50,000-contact list costs $430/mo on Premium. GetResponse: A/B testing, contact tagging, and unlimited automation workflows are absent on the $15/mo Starter plan — accessing them requires Marketer at $48/mo (annual) for 1,000 contacts, the tier most growing businesses actually need from day one.
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