Constant Contact vs Mailchimp
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 | Mailchimp | |
|---|---|---|
| Published rate | $12/seat/mo | $13/mo |
| Team size modeled | 5 | 5 |
| Annual subscription | $720/yr | $780/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.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp counts ALL contacts toward your billing tier — subscribed, unsubscribed, and non-opted-in. Unsubscribed contacts remain billable unless you manually archive them. A company with 10,000 'contacts' might have 3,000 active subscribers but pays the 10,000-tier rate.
Mailchimp deprecated the Classic Automation Builder in June 2025, pushing multi-step automations exclusively into the Standard plan ($20/mo minimum). Organizations running basic welcome sequences on Free or Essentials were forced to upgrade overnight.
When you exceed your contact or send limit, Mailchimp automatically adds extra email blocks and charges your next invoice — without an upgrade prompt or warning. The exact overage pricing isn't publicly listed, making costs impossible to predict.
Since Intuit acquired Mailchimp for $12B in 2021, pricing has increased 20-30% across paid tiers (Essentials from $9 to $13, Standard from $14 to $20), the free plan was gutted from 2,000 contacts to 250 — an 87.5% reduction — and an additional 11-13% increase was implemented in April 2026, pushing Premium's base to $375+/mo.
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 (1K subs), $10/mo (Growing), $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 Mailchimp
Brevo
Free (300 emails/day), Starter $9/mo, Business $18/mo
Charges by emails sent, not contacts stored. Unlimited contacts on all plans including free. Includes transactional email, SMS, and WhatsApp in one platform. A 50,000-contact list sending 50K emails/mo costs ~$35/mo vs Mailchimp's $450+.
Kit (formerly ConvertKit)
Free (10K subscribers), Creator $39/mo
Creator-focused with visual automation builder on all paid plans. Free plan supports up to 10,000 subscribers — 40x Mailchimp's free tier. No charge for unsubscribed contacts.
Loops
Free (1K contacts), $49/mo (5K contacts, unlimited sends)
Built for SaaS companies. One flat tier with all features — no feature gating at all. Includes marketing, transactional, and product emails in one platform. Unlimited sends on all paid plans.
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 | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|
| Annual subscription | $720 | $780 |
| Labor cost | $9,000 | $9,000 |
| Error & rework cost | $1,200 | $1,200 |
| Total Cost of Ownership | $10,920/yr | $10,980/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 Mailchimpcost 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 $12/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.
Mailchimp starts at $13/mo , but watch for Mailchimp counts ALL contacts toward your billing tier — subscribed, unsubscribed, and non-opted-in. Unsubscribed contacts remain billable unless you manually archive them. A company with 10,000 'contacts' might have 3,000 active subscribers but pays the 10,000-tier rate.
An AI-native alternative may replace the workflow at a fraction of the TCO.
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