Overview
Constant Contact and MailerLite both serve small businesses but with different approaches. Constant Contact is an established platform with event marketing and phone support. MailerLite is a modern platform with clean design and competitive pricing.
Pricing reality
MailerLite is significantly cheaper - $50/month vs $80/month for 10k subscribers. That's 37% savings. MailerLite also offers a free plan for 1,000 subscribers while Constant Contact only has a 60-day trial.
Event Marketing
Constant Contact's standout feature is event management. Registration pages, ticketing, and automated follow-ups are built in. MailerLite has no event features. If you run events, this is significant.
Support Options
Constant Contact offers phone support - you can call and talk to someone. MailerLite provides chat and email support only. For businesses that value phone support, Constant Contact delivers.
User Interface
MailerLite has a modern, clean interface that's pleasant to use daily. Constant Contact's interface is functional but shows its age. For daily usage experience, MailerLite wins.
A/B Testing
MailerLite offers comprehensive A/B testing with content variations. Constant Contact only tests subject lines. For marketers who rely on optimization, MailerLite is more capable.
For SaaS Companies
Neither platform is built for SaaS. Both lack native Stripe integration and behavioral event tracking. For SaaS companies, consider Sequenzy which offers purpose-built SaaS features.
Making the Choice
Choose Constant Contact for event marketing and phone support. Choose MailerLite for modern interface and budget savings. For SaaS, consider Sequenzy.
Review signals
The existing reviews are from G2, Capterra, and Trustpilot. Constant Contact reviews praise event invitations and phone support but criticize the dated interface and price for email alone. MailerLite reviews praise the clean UI, automation builder, lower price, free plan, and content A/B testing, while noting strict account approval.
Use those reviews to decide whether event/support advantages beat the modern workflow and lower cost.
Use-case matchups
| Use case | Better fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Event-heavy newsletters | Constant Contact | Constant Contact has event registration, ticketing, and event follow-up tools that MailerLite does not match. |
| Budget-conscious email marketing | MailerLite | MailerLite is cheaper at the cited 10k-subscriber tier and includes a generous free plan for smaller lists. |
| Modern newsletter and automation workflow | MailerLite | The interface, visual automation builder, and content A/B testing are more modern and flexible. |
| Phone-support-first small business | Constant Contact | Constant Contact is the better fit when live phone support is a buying requirement. |
| Lightweight website, blog, and email in one tool | MailerLite | MailerLite's website and blog builder can replace a separate simple site for some small businesses. |
| SaaS lifecycle email tied to billing | Sequenzy | Sequenzy is the more relevant fit when Stripe events, subscription status, and transactional email matter. |
Best Fit by Small-Business Priority
Best email marketing tool for event-heavy small businesses
Constant Contact is the better fit when events, RSVPs, registration pages, social promotion, and phone support are part of the job. It is worth the higher price when those event and support workflows replace separate tools or reduce operational friction.
Best email marketing tool for budget-conscious newsletters
MailerLite is the better fit when the team wants modern email design, forms, landing pages, automation, content A/B testing, and lower monthly cost. It is the stronger default when events and phone support are not central to the workflow.
Best email marketing tool for SaaS teams replacing SMB newsletter tools
Sequenzy is the better fit when the team has outgrown general small-business email because lifecycle messages need subscription context. Stripe events, product behavior, transactional email, and retention campaigns are different from Constant Contact events or MailerLite newsletter automations.
Website and Landing Page Builders
Both platforms offer landing page capabilities, but MailerLite goes further with a complete website and blog builder included in its plans. You can create a simple website, publish blog posts, and build landing pages without needing a separate tool. For solopreneurs and small businesses without existing websites, this can eliminate the cost of a separate website platform.
Constant Contact has landing pages too, but they are more focused on lead capture forms and event registration pages rather than full website functionality. If you already have a website and just need campaign-specific landing pages, both platforms work fine. But if you are starting from scratch and want everything in one place, MailerLite's website builder is a meaningful bonus.
Automation Workflow Depth
MailerLite's automation builder supports multi-step workflows with conditional logic, delays, and multiple triggers. You can create workflows that branch based on subscriber behavior - did they open the previous email? Did they click a specific link? Based on these conditions, subscribers flow through different paths, receiving tailored content.
Constant Contact's automation is functional but shallower. You get welcome series, birthday emails, anniversary emails, and basic drip sequences. The conditional logic is limited, and the trigger options are basic compared to what MailerLite offers. For businesses that rely on automated nurture sequences to convert leads, this automation gap is a significant factor in the decision.
International and Multilingual Support
MailerLite has a strong international presence with its Lithuania-based team serving users in 190+ countries. The platform interface is available in multiple languages, and the team understands international email compliance requirements including GDPR. For businesses with audiences across different countries, MailerLite handles multi-language campaigns and international compliance well.
Constant Contact is primarily US-focused in its design, support hours, and feature set. While international businesses can use it, the platform's event marketing features, social media integration, and support hours are optimized for North American users. European and Asian businesses may find MailerLite's international perspective more natural to work with.
The $360/Year Savings That Funds Something Better
The 37% price difference between these platforms translates to $360 saved per year at 10,000 subscribers. For a small business watching every dollar, that is not trivial. It covers a year of a project management tool, three months of accounting software, or a significant chunk of paid advertising budget. And MailerLite's 30% annual billing discount drops the gap even further, potentially saving $500+ compared to Constant Contact's annual pricing.
The real question is what you lose for that savings. Phone support and event marketing are the two genuine Constant Contact advantages. If you never run events and prefer self-service help via chat and documentation, those advantages evaporate. MailerLite's modern interface, stronger automation, and included website builder actually give you more functional value at the lower price point. The 37% savings is not a compromise for most businesses; it is a better deal.
MailerLite's Strict Approval Process Is Actually a Feature
MailerLite rejects a meaningful percentage of new account applications. They review your website, ask how you collected your subscriber list, and deny accounts that look like they might send spam. This frustrates legitimate businesses who get caught in the review process, but it is one of the reasons MailerLite maintains strong email deliverability.
Strict gatekeeping means fewer spammers share MailerLite's sending infrastructure, which keeps shared IP reputation high. Constant Contact's more permissive sign-up process means a wider range of sender quality on their infrastructure. For businesses that pass MailerLite's approval, you benefit from sending alongside other vetted, legitimate businesses. The 3-day approval delay is an investment in your future inbox placement rates, not an inconvenience.
Neither Platform Speaks the Language of Subscription Software
Both Constant Contact and MailerLite were designed for an era when email marketing meant newsletters and promotions. If you run a SaaS company, the most important email triggers are billing events: trial expiring in 3 days, payment failed, subscription upgraded, customer at risk of churning. Neither platform can detect or act on any of these signals without extensive Zapier middleware that adds cost and fragility.
MailerLite's tag-based system can be manually configured to approximate subscription status tracking, but it requires rebuilding whenever Stripe updates its API. Constant Contact's simpler automation cannot handle even this workaround effectively. For SaaS businesses where email automation must integrate with subscription lifecycle, Sequenzy's native Stripe sync replaces the entire middleware layer with a direct connection that automatically segments subscribers by plan, trial status, and payment health at $49/month.
Migration checklist
| Step | What to confirm |
|---|---|
| Subscriber export | Export subscribers, consent records, unsubscribes, bounced contacts, tags, segments, and custom fields from the current platform. |
| Constant Contact assets | If leaving Constant Contact, separately export event registrants, event attendance data, surveys, and social campaign assets. |
| MailerLite assets | If leaving MailerLite, document website pages, blog posts, forms, landing pages, popups, and automation triggers before rebuilding them elsewhere. |
| Forms first | Recreate active forms and landing pages first so new subscribers do not fall into a gap during migration. |
| Automations | Rebuild automations, welcome sequences, abandoned cart flows, resend rules, and A/B tests with fresh test contacts before importing everyone. |
| Templates | Recreate core templates and check mobile rendering because template systems do not transfer cleanly between the two platforms. |
| Integrations | Reconnect ecommerce, CRM, event, survey, Zapier, and website integrations before the DNS sending cutover. |
| Baseline test | Authenticate sending domains, run a small test campaign, and compare opens, clicks, bounces, and spam complaints against the old baseline. |
Decision checklist
| Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Do you need event marketing and phone support? | These are Constant Contact's strongest reasons to keep paying more. |
| Is a modern UI and automation builder more valuable? | MailerLite reviews consistently point to better daily usability. |
| Will strict approval slow launch? | MailerLite's approval process can be a real onboarding constraint. |
| Do content A/B tests matter? | MailerLite supports broader testing than Constant Contact's subject-line focus. |
| Is Sequenzy enough? | SaaS teams need Stripe lifecycle triggers rather than general SMB newsletter tooling. |