Overview
AWeber and Constant Contact are both veterans of email marketing. Constant Contact since 1995, AWeber since 1998. Both serve small businesses but with different feature focuses.
Similar Age, Different Strengths
Both platforms have 25+ years of experience. AWeber has focused on email marketing fundamentals with strong A/B testing. Constant Contact expanded into event marketing and social tools.
Event Marketing
Constant Contact's standout feature is event management. Registration pages, ticketing, and automated follow-ups are built in. AWeber has no event features. For organizations running events regularly, this is a significant differentiator.
A/B Testing
AWeber excels at A/B testing with content variations, send times, and comprehensive split testing. Constant Contact only tests subject lines. For marketers who rely on optimization, AWeber is more capable.
Support Options
Constant Contact offers phone support alongside chat and email. AWeber offers chat and email only. For businesses that value being able to call for help, Constant Contact delivers better support.
Free Plans
AWeber offers a free plan for 500 subscribers. Constant Contact only offers a 60-day trial. For ongoing free access, AWeber provides more flexibility.
For SaaS Companies
Neither platform is built primarily for SaaS. Both lack native Stripe lifecycle automation and deep behavioral event tracking. For SaaS companies, consider Sequenzy when subscription events and transactional email matter more than event marketing.
Making the Choice
Choose AWeber for better A/B testing and automation capabilities. Choose Constant Contact for event marketing and phone support. For SaaS, consider Sequenzy.
Use-case matchups
| Use case | Better fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Newsletter sending with stronger testing | AWeber | It supports broader A/B testing and RSS-to-email workflows. |
| Events, surveys, and phone support | Constant Contact | Its broader small-business toolkit is stronger outside email-only workflows. |
| Blog-driven publishing | AWeber | RSS-to-email is a natural fit for recurring content updates. |
| Nonprofit or local-business event promotion | Constant Contact | Event registration and follow-up are built into the platform. |
| SaaS lifecycle and billing-triggered email | Sequenzy | Neither legacy platform is built around Stripe events or transactional email. |
Best Fit by Events and Publishing Workflows
Best email marketing tool for blog-driven newsletters
AWeber is the better fit when the program is built around recurring content, RSS-to-email, classic autoresponders, list forms, and newsletter testing. It is especially relevant for publishers, consultants, and small businesses that want email depth without event-management features.
Best email platform for local events and nonprofit outreach
Constant Contact is the better fit when the team needs event promotion, surveys, phone support, and simple small-business campaign management beyond email-only newsletters. It works well when the audience is local, donor-based, or event-driven.
Best email tool for SaaS lifecycle and billing emails
Sequenzy is the better fit when email needs to respond to product signups, Stripe events, trials, upgrades, invoices, and transactional messages. That workflow is outside the normal center of gravity for both AWeber and Constant Contact.
Pricing reality
At the 10,000-subscriber comparison point, this page lists AWeber at $90/month and Constant Contact at $80/month. The $10/month difference is small enough that the choice should be driven by workflow: testing and RSS-to-email versus events, phone support, surveys, and broader small-business marketing.
Also check current plans before buying. Legacy email platforms often vary by contacts, features, send limits, support level, and add-ons.
Review signals
The AWeber reviews on this page praise A/B testing, reliability, and straightforward use, while also calling out dated UI and missing modern features. That makes it a credible fit for teams that value stable email basics over newer channel depth.
The Constant Contact reviews highlight event management and phone support, while warning about rising price and limited A/B testing. That points to a small-business operations tool, not a deep experimentation platform.
Migration checklist
Before moving between AWeber and Constant Contact, export contacts, lists, tags, segments, suppression lists, forms, templates, campaign history, and automation logic. If moving into Constant Contact, rebuild event registration and follow-up workflows before launch. If moving into AWeber, document any event, survey, or social campaigns that will need another tool.
Decision checklist
- Choose AWeber if A/B testing, RSS-to-email, simple automation, and reliable newsletters matter most.
- Choose Constant Contact if events, surveys, phone support, and broader small-business tools matter most.
- Avoid AWeber if event management or phone support is central to the workflow.
- Avoid Constant Contact if advanced split testing and deeper email automation are must-haves.
- Consider Sequenzy if the business needs transactional, lifecycle, and Stripe-aware SaaS email instead of legacy small-business marketing.
Two Legacy Platforms at a Crossroads
Both AWeber and Constant Contact are email marketing veterans that established the category. However, both face increasing competition from modern platforms that offer more automation, better pricing, and more innovative features. The question for long-time users is whether loyalty to a familiar platform outweighs the benefits of switching to something newer.
Neither platform has kept pace with the automation capabilities of ActiveCampaign, the e-commerce depth of Klaviyo, or the simplicity of newer tools like MailerLite. Both feel like they are serving an existing customer base rather than innovating to attract new users. If you are evaluating email platforms for the first time, consider whether these legacy options truly serve your needs or whether a more modern alternative would be a better investment.
Event Marketing as a Differentiator
Constant Contact's event management feature is genuinely unique in the email marketing space. The ability to create event registration pages, manage tickets, collect payments, and send automated pre-event and post-event email sequences from within your email platform saves significant time and eliminates the need for separate tools like Eventbrite.
For nonprofits, community organizations, educational institutions, and businesses that regularly host events, this feature alone can justify choosing Constant Contact. AWeber has no comparable functionality, and adding a third-party event tool introduces complexity and cost that Constant Contact's built-in solution avoids.
Support Quality Matters for Small Businesses
Constant Contact's phone support is a meaningful advantage for less technical users. Small business owners who are not comfortable troubleshooting software issues themselves value the ability to call and speak with a real person. AWeber's chat and email support are adequate but lack the immediacy and personal touch of phone support.
This difference matters most during setup, when troubleshooting deliverability issues, or when navigating complex situations like list imports and domain verification. For tech-savvy users, support channel differences are less relevant. For non-technical small business owners, phone support can be the difference between success and frustration with the platform.