Constant Contact Pricing 2026: Plans, Tiers and SMS
Constant Contact pricing as of September 2026: Lite, Standard and Premium by contact count, SMS add-on tiers, send overages, and when Klaviyo costs less.
Table of contents
- How much does Constant Contact cost?
- Constant Contact’s plans at a glance
- Constant Contact cost by list size
- The hidden costs in Constant Contact pricing
- Send overages
- SMS is a US-only add-on
- Automation lives on Premium
- Add-ons
- Contact counting
- Which is cheaper, Mailchimp or Constant Contact?
- Is Constant Contact outdated?
- When Constant Contact is cheaper than Klaviyo, and when Klaviyo pays for itself
- How to keep your Constant Contact bill down
- Moving from Constant Contact to Klaviyo
- Sources
Constant Contact prices on two things at once: how many contacts you have and how many emails you send. The plan sets the feature set, the contact tier sets the price, and a send allowance tied to that tier decides whether you pay overage fees in a busy month.
All prices below are Constant Contact’s own US list prices, taken from its pricing page and plan tier tables in September 2026. We are a Klaviyo agency, so we will also be straight about where Constant Contact is the better buy.
How much does Constant Contact cost?
As of September 2026, Constant Contact costs $12 a month (Lite), $35 a month (Standard) or $80 a month (Premium) for up to 500 contacts on monthly billing. At 5,000 contacts those become $80, $110 and $200 a month. Paying 12 months upfront saves 15%, and there is no free plan.
The annual-billing prices are what you see first on the pricing page (“$10.20/mo billed annually” for Lite), so check which figure you are comparing.
Constant Contact’s plans at a glance
| Lite | Standard | Premium | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly price (500 contacts) | $12 | $35 | $80 |
| Billed annually (per month) | $10.20 | $29.75 | $68 |
| Users | 1 | 3 | Unlimited |
| Monthly email sends | 10x contacts | 12x contacts | 24x contacts |
| Automation | 1 automation template | 3 templates, AI campaign builder, resend to non-openers | Unlimited templates, custom automations, ecommerce templates |
| Contact segments | 1 custom segment | 10 custom segments | Unlimited, plus engagement and ecommerce segmentation |
| SMS (US only) | Add-on from $10/mo | Add-on from $10/mo | 500 messages/mo included |
| Inbox preview | $10/mo add-on | $10/mo add-on | $10/mo add-on |
Source: constantcontact.com/pricing, September 2026.
The line that matters for an ecommerce brand is automation. Lite gives you one automation template and Standard three. Ecommerce automation templates, custom automations and auto-send welcome emails sit on Premium, so a store that wants abandoned cart and post-purchase flows is effectively choosing between Premium and a different platform.
Constant Contact cost by list size
Monthly list prices in USD from Constant Contact’s plan tier data, September 2026. The Klaviyo column is Klaviyo’s email plan at the same count from klaviyo.com/pricing on the same date.
| Contacts | Lite | Standard | Premium | Klaviyo (email) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 500 | $12 | $35 | $80 | $20 |
| 1,000 | $30 | $55 | $110 | $30 |
| 2,500 | $50 | $75 | $150 | $60 |
| 5,000 | $80 | $110 | $200 | $100 |
| 10,000 | $120 | $160 | $275 | $150 |
| 25,000 | $280 | $310 | $425 | $400 |
| 50,000 | $430 | $460 | $575 | $720 |
| 50,000+ | Contact sales | Contact sales | Contact sales | $1,380 at 100,000 |
Take 15% off for annual prepayment (Constant Contact says nonprofits can save up to 30% by prepaying).
Australian visitors see a separate AUD price list rather than a straight conversion (Lite showed from A$12.75 a month billed annually in September 2026), so check the page from your own market before you budget.
The hidden costs in Constant Contact pricing
Send overages
Your monthly email allowance is a multiple of your contact tier: 10x on Lite, 12x on Standard, 24x on Premium. The tier table on the pricing page states that email send overage fees are $0.002 per email sent. A store on Lite with 5,000 contacts gets 50,000 sends; an extra 30,000 emails during a sale adds $60.
SMS is a US-only add-on
SMS marketing is available to US customers only. Premium includes 500 messages a month. Everyone else, and Premium customers who need more, buys a monthly message tier:
| SMS messages per month | Monthly price |
|---|---|
| Up to 500 | $10 |
| 501 to 1,000 | $20 |
| 1,001 to 2,500 | $45 |
| 2,501 to 5,000 | $75 |
| 5,001 to 10,000 | $120 |
| 10,001 to 20,000 | $150 |
| 20,001 to 35,000 | $215 |
| 35,001 to 50,000 | $250 |
Constant Contact SMS add-on tiers, USD, September 2026.
At 10,000 messages that works out at about 1.2 cents per message. If you sell into Canada, the UK or Australia, you will need a separate SMS tool.
Automation lives on Premium
This is the real cost for an online store. The automations that drive ecommerce revenue (abandoned cart, browse, post-purchase, win-back) are Premium features. Budget Premium, not Lite, if you are comparing Constant Contact with Klaviyo or Omnisend.
Add-ons
Inbox preview is a $10-a-month add-on on every plan. Other extras (such as a newsletter archive and SEO tools) are sold separately too. None are essential, but they add up.
Contact counting
Constant Contact bills on active contacts. Its community support team states that unsubscribed contacts are not counted towards your subscription, and that someone subscribed to both email and SMS counts once. Mailchimp, by contrast, bills unsubscribed contacts, which matters when you compare the two.
Which is cheaper, Mailchimp or Constant Contact?
On list price, Mailchimp is slightly cheaper at most sizes: $75 against $80 at 5,000 contacts on the entry plans, and $100 against $110 on the mid-tier plans. But Constant Contact doesn’t bill unsubscribed contacts and Mailchimp does, so a Mailchimp account with a lot of opt-outs can land a tier higher. Compare billable contacts, not total contacts. Our Mailchimp pricing guide has the full table.
Is Constant Contact outdated?
It is built for a broad small-business audience (events, social posting, donations, newsletters) rather than for ecommerce specifically. That is a strength if you run a café or a nonprofit and a weakness if you run a Shopify store that needs purchase-based segmentation. Constant Contact moved customers onto its current Lite, Standard and Premium plans, as its own knowledge base describes, and the pricing page now leads with AI content tools. “Outdated” is harsh; “not built for DTC ecommerce” is fair.
When Constant Contact is cheaper than Klaviyo, and when Klaviyo pays for itself
Constant Contact makes sense when:
- You are a service business, nonprofit or event organiser. Registration forms, payments for events and social scheduling in one tool are useful, and Klaviyo doesn’t try to do those.
- You want phone support and onboarding included on every plan.
- You have a large list and send simple newsletters. At 50,000 contacts, Premium ($575) is cheaper than Klaviyo’s email plan ($720) on list price.
Klaviyo pays for itself when:
- You run an online store. To get ecommerce automation on Constant Contact you need Premium, which costs more than Klaviyo at every list size up to 25,000 contacts ($200 against $100 at 5,000; $275 against $150 at 10,000).
- You sell outside the US and want SMS. Klaviyo’s mobile messaging covers the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and much of Europe from the same profile and flows.
- You segment on behaviour. Product viewed, predicted next order date and lifetime value are native Klaviyo properties.
- Revenue per recipient is your metric. Klaviyo’s benchmark report shows flows earning many times more per recipient than broadcast campaigns, and that is where the platform fee earns its keep.
For the full comparison, read Klaviyo vs Constant Contact. For Klaviyo’s own tiers and the 2025 billing change, see our Klaviyo pricing guide.
How to keep your Constant Contact bill down
- Prepay if you are staying. 15% off is the easiest saving on the page.
- Watch your tier boundaries. 5,001 contacts puts you in the 5,001 to 10,000 band.
- Size your send allowance. If you regularly pay overages, the next plan up may be cheaper than $0.002 per email.
- Don’t buy Standard for automation. If you need flows, compare Premium against Klaviyo and Omnisend directly.
Moving from Constant Contact to Klaviyo
If you have outgrown newsletters and want flows that sell, our Constant Contact to Klaviyo migration moves your contacts, consent status, templates and automations across without losing deliverability. If you would rather check the numbers first, book a free audit and we will tell you whether the switch pays back for your store.
Sources
- Constant Contact Pricing (plans, tier tables, SMS add-on and overage fee, September 2026)
- Constant Contact knowledge base: Switching to the Lite, Standard and Premium plans
- Constant Contact community: are we charged for unsubscribed contacts?
- Klaviyo Pricing
/ Frequently Asked Questions
Q.01 How much does Constant Contact cost? +
/ Answer
As of September 2026, Constant Contact's Lite plan starts at $12 a month, Standard at $35 and Premium at $80 for up to 500 contacts, billed monthly. Prices rise with contacts: at 5,000 contacts Lite is $80, Standard $110 and Premium $200 a month. Prepaying for 12 months saves 15%, and lists above 50,000 contacts are quoted by sales.
Q.02 Can I use Constant Contact for free? +
/ Answer
Constant Contact's pricing page lists no free plan as of September 2026. The cheapest option is Lite at $12 a month for up to 500 contacts. It does offer a 30-day guarantee: you can cancel and get a full refund within 30 days of signing up, subject to its terms. If you need a genuinely free tier, Mailchimp, MailerLite, Omnisend and Klaviyo all offer one.
Q.03 Which is cheaper, Mailchimp or Constant Contact? +
/ Answer
At most list sizes, Mailchimp. As of September 2026, 5,000 contacts cost $75 on Mailchimp Essentials against $80 on Constant Contact Lite, and $100 on Mailchimp Standard against $110 on Constant Contact Standard. At 50,000 contacts the gap is similar. The catch is that Mailchimp bills unsubscribed contacts, which can push you up a tier.
Q.04 Is Constant Contact worth the money? +
/ Answer
For small businesses that want newsletters, event registration and social posting in one place, with phone support, it can be. For ecommerce brands, Lite and Standard are thin on automation (one and three automation templates), and custom automations need Premium, which starts at $80 a month. At that point Klaviyo or Omnisend usually give more for the same money.
Q.05 Does Constant Contact charge for SMS? +
/ Answer
Yes. SMS is available to US customers only. Premium includes 500 messages a month; Lite and Standard customers add SMS from $10 a month for up to 500 messages. As of September 2026, the add-on steps up to $20 for 1,000 messages, $75 for 5,000, $120 for 10,000 and $250 for 50,000 messages a month.
Q.06 What happens if I go over my Constant Contact send limit? +
/ Answer
Each plan includes a monthly send allowance based on your contact tier: 10 times on Lite, 12 times on Standard and 24 times on Premium. Constant Contact's pricing page states that email send overage fees are $0.002 per email sent, as of September 2026. At 50,000 extra emails in a busy month, that is $100 on top of your plan.
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