Comparison
Constant Contact vs Mailchimp
Constant Contact vs Mailchimp for Shopify email: free tier, pricing, phone support and automation depth compared — and why Shopify-first stores weigh Klaviyo or Omnisend.
Constant Contact
Email and digital marketing for small business.
Mailchimp
All-in-one marketing platform — email, automation, SMS, and CRM for small businesses (Intuit-owned).
Affiliate link. Pricing and terms are set by the vendor. details
On this page
At a glance
Constant Contact and Mailchimp are both generalist small-business email platforms — neither was built for Shopify the way Klaviyo or Omnisend were. The real split is the on-ramp: Mailchimp keeps a free tier and broad brand recognition, while Constant Contact drops the free plan in favour of live phone support and event tools. This compares two SMB email defaults, judged for a Shopify operator.
Quick stats
Starting price
Constant Contact
$12/mo
Mailchimp
$13/mo
Rating
Constant Contact
7.3/10
Mailchimp
8/10
Integrations
Constant Contact
9
Mailchimp
6
Pricing
Constant Contact
$12/mo
- up to
- $80/mo
- Model
- tiered
Tiers (verified 2026-04 at constantcontact.com/pricing; reconfirmed unchanged 2026-06-05 via 2026 third-party sources): Lite $12/mo, Standard $35/mo, Premium $80/mo — all at 500 contacts. Pricing is contact-count based and scales steeply: Lite ~$30/mo at 1,000 contacts (a 150% jump for doubling the list); Standard ~$110/mo and Premium ~$200/mo at 5,000. Pricing gotchas: no permanent free plan (60-day trial, 30-day refund); automatic mid-cycle upgrades across contact thresholds; SMS add-on $10/mo on Lite/Standard; overage fees $0.002/email; annual prepay saves 15% (nonprofits up to 30%) but is non-refundable. Free plan: No — 60-day trial only. Verified 2026-04 (official); pricing unchanged as of 2026-06-05.
Mailchimp
$13/mo
- up to
- —
- Model
- freemium
Tiers: Free $0 (250 contacts, 500 emails/mo); Essentials from $13/mo (500 contacts); Standard from $20/mo (500 contacts); Premium from $350/mo (10,000 contacts minimum); Custom above 200K Pricing gotchas: Counts unsubscribed + non-subscribed contacts toward limit unless manually archived (typically 20-40% bloat); Premium tier requires 10,000 contact minimum (sharp jump from Standard). Free plan: Yes—250 contacts/500 emails/mo Verified 2026-05-30
Constant Contact starts at $12/mo vs Mailchimp's $13/mo. At the top tier Constant Contact climbs to $80/mo. Pricing models differ: Constant Contact is tiered, Mailchimp is freemium.
Features
Constant Contact
- Email campaigns + drag-drop templates
- Automation (welcome / resend)
- A/B testing
- Segmentation
- AI content recommendations
- Events / registration
Mailchimp
- All-in-One Marketing Platform — Combines email, landing pages, websites, social, and automations
- Customer Journey Builder — Drag-and-drop multi-step automation builder with branching logic
- Predictive Demographics — Predicts age and gender for contacts where unknown
- Send-Time Optimization — Predicts the best individual send time per recipient
- Generative AI Content (Intuit Assist) — AI generates email copy, subject lines, and creative based on brand voice
- Behavioral Targeting — Trigger campaigns from website / purchase / product activity
Shopify integration
Constant Contact
Not a native Shopify app — connects via API/data import (native Shopify data import). 300+ native integrations on Lite; 5,000+ via marketplace/Zapier.
Mailchimp
Official Mailchimp Email & SMS app on Shopify App Store; syncs customers, products, orders and discount codes; on-site tracking pixel; NOT Built-for-Shopify
Integrations
Only Constant Contact
- Canva
- Eventbrite
- Microsoft
- Zapier
Both
- Shopify
Only Mailchimp
- Google Ads
- Google Analytics
- Meta
Customer support
Support rating (aggregated from independent review platforms like G2, Capterra, Shopify App Store): Constant Contact 8/10, Mailchimp 8/10. This is an editorial composite of channel availability, response speed, and resolution quality — see the individual reviews below for specifics.
Pros & cons
Constant Contact
Pros
- Genuinely easy to use
- Legendary phone support
- Strong event/registration tools
Cons
- Steep price scaling with list size
- No permanent free plan
- Limited automation depth vs competitors
Mailchimp
Pros
- Famous drag-and-drop email builder & template library
- 300+ native integrations
- Brand recognition & easy onboarding
Cons
- Pricing escalates aggressively with list growth
- Counts unsubscribed contacts toward billing
- Free-tier support cut after 30 days; advanced features gated to Standard/Premium
When each one wins
Winner: Mailchimp
Starting on a budget
Mailchimp's free tier (250 contacts, 500 emails/mo) lets a new store start at $0 and upgrade to Essentials ($13/mo) later. Constant Contact offers only a 60-day trial.
Winner: Constant Contact
Hands-on phone support
Constant Contact's live phone line is its signature strength — the reason non-technical operators and nonprofits choose it over Mailchimp's chat/email support.
Winner: Constant Contact
Events and registration
Constant Contact bundles event invitations and registration tools that Mailchimp leaves to third-party integrations.
Our verdict
Mailchimp wins the on-ramp: a free tier (250 contacts, 500 emails/mo), Essentials at $13/mo, and an ecosystem most operators already know. Constant Contact has no free plan ($12 Lite, $35 Standard, $80 Premium, verified 2026-04) but counters with genuinely better live phone support and event/registration tools — the reason non-technical SMBs and nonprofits stay loyal. Both scale by contact count and both get expensive past a few thousand contacts. For a Shopify store the honest answer is that neither is the category's best: Mailchimp is the safer free start and broader integrator, Constant Contact is the pick when phone support and events outrank automation depth — but if Shopify-native flows, segmentation and SMS are the actual goal, Klaviyo and Omnisend outrank both. For the full Mailchimp pricing breakdown (unsubscribed-bloat tax + April 13 hike), see /pricing/mailchimp.
Related comparisons
- ActiveCampaignvsMailchimp
Mailchimp wins the start: a free tier (250 contacts), Essentials at $13/mo, and an interface most operators already know. ActiveCampaign wins the ceiling: branching, conditional automation and a built-in CRM that go far deeper than Mailchimp, from $15 (Starter) / $49 (Plus) / $79 (Pro). Both scale by contact count and both bill harder as you grow — ActiveCampaign now charges for inactive contacts too. For a Shopify store, choose by need: Mailchimp if you want a cheap, familiar start and shallow automation is fine; ActiveCampaign if branching workflows and a CRM are the point and you'll invest the setup time. If Shopify-native flows and SMS are what you actually want, Klaviyo or Omnisend beat both. For the full Mailchimp pricing breakdown (unsubscribed-bloat tax + April 13 hike), see /pricing/mailchimp.
Open
- KlaviyovsMailchimp
For Shopify stores under 2,000 subscribers in 2026 the answer is segmented. 0–250 contacts: Klaviyo wins because its free plan ships with the full ecommerce data model. 250–1,000 contacts: Mailchimp Essentials at $13/mo is the real budget play — but only if single-step automations are enough. 1,000–2,000 contacts: Mailchimp Standard and Klaviyo Email are roughly the same price; Klaviyo wins on capability. Decisive question: do you need multi-step automation logic? If yes, Mailchimp pushes you to Standard which costs the same as Klaviyo and does less on the ecommerce side. For the full Mailchimp pricing breakdown (unsubscribed-bloat tax + April 13 hike), see /pricing/mailchimp. For the full Klaviyo pricing breakdown (active-profiles billing trap + Customer Agent $200/mo), see /pricing/klaviyo.
Open
- MailchimpvsOmnisend
For Shopify stores under 2,000 subscribers in 2026, Omnisend is the cleaner pick — free-tier covers more, ecommerce automation is included where Mailchimp gates it to Standard at $20/mo, and Omnisend's ~4-minute average support response (per vendor + corroborated by 4.7/5 ease-of-use on G2) reduces onboarding friction. Mailchimp wins only when an existing audience or brand workflow makes migration costly — and only on the Essentials tier at $13/mo where multi-step automation is not needed. For brands above 2,000 subscribers, this comparison reshapes around Klaviyo entering the picture. For the full Mailchimp pricing breakdown (unsubscribed-bloat tax + April 13 hike), see /pricing/mailchimp. For the full Omnisend pricing breakdown (billable-contacts denominator + MCP on Free), see /pricing/omnisend.
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