by Alkan Balkaya · Last updated: 2026-07-29

Constant Contact vs Mailsoftly: Which Email Marketing Platform Delivers More Value?

Mailsoftly delivers more value than Constant Contact for most growing businesses. It costs roughly 65% less at 5,000 contacts, includes automation, segmentation, and AI email writing on every paid plan, and offers a permanent free plan. Constant Contact wins mainly for built-in event management and native SMS marketing.

Constant Contact has been a household name in email marketing since the early 2000s, built on simplicity: a straightforward way for growing businesses to send newsletters and manage lists. Two decades later, that simplicity has become a limitation for teams that need modern automation, AI content tools, and pricing that does not punish growth.

This comparison covers pricing, features, automation, ease of use, and deliverability so you can make a clear-eyed decision. If you have already decided to switch, our Constant Contact to Mailsoftly migration guide walks through the full process.

Comparing options? See our full roundup of the best email marketing services for the complete picture, then come back to this head-to-head.

Quick context: Mailsoftly offers transparent pricing, free hands-on migration, and human support. 500 contacts and 2,000 emails per month, no credit card.
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How Much Does Constant Contact Cost vs Mailsoftly?

At 5,000 contacts, Constant Contact’s Standard plan costs $110/month while Mailsoftly Basic covers the same tier for $39/month on annual billing, a saving of $852 per year. The gap widens as your list grows, and Mailsoftly includes automation and segmentation that Constant Contact charges extra for.

Read enough? Try Mailsoftly free with 500 contacts and 2,000 emails per month, no credit card.Start free with Mailsoftly →

Pricing is where the gap between Constant Contact and Mailsoftly becomes impossible to ignore. Constant Contact uses a tiered model across three plans (Lite, Standard, Premium) where costs escalate steeply as your contact list grows. Mailsoftly uses straightforward tier-based pricing with generous send limits and no hidden fees. You can verify the vendor figures against Constant Contact’s published pricing before you decide.

At every contact tier, Mailsoftly costs significantly less than Constant Contact’s Standard plan, which is the tier most businesses actually need for automation and segmentation features. The gap widens as your list grows. A business with 25,000 contacts saves over $1,800 per year by choosing Mailsoftly, and that does not account for the features Mailsoftly includes at no extra charge.

Constant Contact also has no permanent free plan. Once the 60-day trial ends, you must pick a paid tier or lose access. Mailsoftly’s free plan is permanent: 500 contacts and 2,000 emails per month with no expiration date. For a deeper look at what email marketing actually costs across platforms, see our email marketing cost breakdown.

What Features Do You Get With Constant Contact vs Mailsoftly?

Mailsoftly includes automation, A/B testing, advanced segmentation, a full CRM, and AI content generation on every paid plan. Constant Contact gates most of those behind its Standard and Premium tiers. A lower price only matters if the platform delivers the features you need, so here is the head-to-head.

The pattern is clear. Constant Contact gates its most useful features, automation workflows, A/B testing, and dynamic segmentation, behind its Standard ($110/mo at 5K contacts) and Premium ($200/mo at 5K contacts) tiers. Mailsoftly includes all of these in every paid plan starting at $39/month.

Constant Contact does offer SMS marketing on its Premium plan, which Mailsoftly does not currently include. If SMS is a core part of your marketing strategy, that is worth weighing. But for the majority of businesses focused on email marketing, paying $200/month for 5,000 contacts just to unlock SMS alongside automation is hard to justify.

Which Has Better Automation, Constant Contact or Mailsoftly?

Mailsoftly has stronger automation. It offers a visual workflow builder with behavior-based branching on every paid plan, while Constant Contact relies on template-driven automations locked behind its Premium tier. Email automation is what separates email marketing from email blasting, and this is where Constant Contact’s legacy architecture shows its age.

Constant Contact’s automation is template-driven. You select from a library of pre-built automations, such as welcome series, birthday emails, or resend-to-non-openers. This works for basic use cases, but you cannot build custom multi-step workflows with conditional branching, scoring, or dynamic path selection. And full automation is locked behind the Premium tier.

Mailsoftly provides a visual workflow builder where you design multi-step automation sequences with if/then branching, time delays, and behavior triggers. You can build welcome sequences, re-engagement campaigns, post-purchase flows, and lead nurturing paths, all from the same interface. For a deeper look at what modern email automation can do, see our guide on email automation.

Which Has the Better Email Editor and Templates?

Both platforms offer drag-and-drop editors, but Mailsoftly gives you more design control plus built-in AI writing, while Constant Contact offers a larger template library aimed at events and seasonal campaigns. The experience and flexibility differ considerably.

Constant Contact’s editor is functional and straightforward. It uses a block-based system where you drop text, images, buttons, and dividers into a layout. The template library is extensive, especially for event invitations and seasonal campaigns, which reflects its long history serving growing businesses and nonprofits. However, the editor enforces a rigid grid structure that limits creative flexibility, and customizing templates beyond basic colors and fonts requires workarounds.

Mailsoftly’s editor is built on a modern visual framework that gives you full control over layout, spacing, and design. You can customize every element, nest columns, adjust padding at the section level, and preview across devices in real time. The AI writing assistant is integrated directly into the editor, so you can generate subject lines, body copy, and call-to-action text without switching tools.

How Do Contact Management and Segmentation Compare?

Mailsoftly uses a tag-based unified database with auto-updating dynamic segments, while Constant Contact relies on a list-based system that can get messy with overlapping lists. How you organize and target subscribers directly impacts open rates, click-through rates, and revenue per email.

Constant Contact uses a list-based system. You create separate lists and assign contacts to one or more lists. Segmentation within lists is available on Standard and above, using filters based on engagement, location, and custom fields. The approach works but can become messy when contacts belong to multiple overlapping lists, leading to duplicate sends or contacts falling through the cracks.

Mailsoftly uses a tag-based system backed by a built-in CRM. Every contact lives in a single unified database, and you segment dynamically using tags, custom fields, behavioral data, and engagement scores. This means you never deal with duplicate contacts across lists, and segments update automatically as subscriber behavior changes.

For businesses running sophisticated campaigns targeting different buyer personas or lifecycle stages, the tag-based approach in Mailsoftly is significantly more flexible. You build segments once, and they stay current as contacts interact with your emails, visit pages, or meet scoring thresholds.

Is Constant Contact or Mailsoftly Better for Deliverability?

Both platforms maintain strong deliverability, but Mailsoftly leans on proactive list hygiene and real-time monitoring while Constant Contact relies on long-standing ISP relationships. Neither platform matters if your emails land in spam, so infrastructure, authentication, list hygiene, and content quality all count.

Constant Contact has a long track record with ISPs and maintains established relationships with major email providers. It offers built-in authentication (SPF, DKIM) and provides basic bounce and complaint management. Its deliverability rates are generally solid, benefiting from decades of sender reputation management across millions of accounts.

Mailsoftly provides full domain authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), real-time deliverability monitoring, and proactive list hygiene tools. It automatically identifies and suppresses invalid addresses, role-based emails, and chronic non-engagers that drag down your sender reputation. The platform also provides dedicated IP options for high-volume senders who want complete control over their sending reputation.

Both platforms give you the tools to meet the FTC’s CAN-SPAM compliance rules and GDPR requirements, including unsubscribe management and honest sender identification. The differentiator is Mailsoftly’s proactive engagement monitoring, which prevents deliverability problems before they impact your campaigns rather than reacting after the damage is done.

Who Should Choose Which Platform?

Choose Constant Contact if you need built-in event management or native SMS. Choose Mailsoftly if you want advanced automation, AI writing, and a built-in CRM at a lower price. The decision comes down to what your business actually needs, not what each platform lists on its feature page.

Constant Contact still serves a specific niche well: small organizations with modest email needs, event-heavy marketing, and a preference for a familiar brand. But the moment you need real automation, AI-assisted content, or your list grows past a few thousand contacts, the cost-to-value ratio tilts sharply in Mailsoftly’s favor.

What Do Constant Contact’s Three Plans Actually Cost?

Constant Contact prices climb steeply across Lite, Standard, and Premium as your contact count grows. To make a fully informed decision, it helps to understand what each plan includes and where the real costs land.

Notice how steeply Constant Contact’s pricing climbs between tiers. Going from 500 to 5,000 contacts on the Standard plan means jumping from $35/month to $110/month, a 214% increase. On Mailsoftly, the same growth takes you from the free plan to $39/month on Basic. The total cost of ownership difference over a year is dramatic, and it compounds as your business grows.

For a detailed breakdown of what each Mailsoftly plan includes across contact tiers, visit our pricing page and compare it directly against the Constant Contact table above.

How Do You Switch From Constant Contact to Mailsoftly?

You switch by exporting your contacts as a CSV, importing them into Mailsoftly, setting up domain authentication, and rebuilding your segments and automations. Most businesses complete the move in under 30 minutes, and Mailsoftly offers free hands-on migration if you would rather have help.

Our complete migration walkthrough includes detailed screenshots and step-by-step instructions for every stage of the process. The migration costs nothing, and your subscriber relationships, email cadence, and sender reputation all transfer seamlessly.

For the broader picture on this topic, see our complete primer on Email Marketing, which covers strategy, fundamentals, and advanced playbooks.

Looking for a simpler Constant Contact alternative? See why teams switch to Mailsoftly as a Constant Contact alternative with free hands-on migration in 1 to 2 hours, no contracts, and real human support.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Constant Contact better than Mailsoftly for beginners?

Both are beginner friendly, but Mailsoftly closes the gap with a built-in AI writing assistant and a permanent free plan. Constant Contact has a simpler interface, which can feel more approachable for someone sending their first campaign. Mailsoftly’s interface is designed to be intuitive from the start while giving you room to grow, and unlike Constant Contact it lets you learn without a 60-day clock ticking down.

Does Constant Contact have better deliverability than Mailsoftly?

No, both platforms maintain strong deliverability rates. Constant Contact benefits from long-standing ISP relationships, while Mailsoftly provides more proactive deliverability tools, including real-time monitoring, automatic suppression of invalid addresses, and dedicated IP options. The biggest factor in deliverability is your own list hygiene and sending practices, not the platform name.

Can I migrate from Constant Contact to Mailsoftly without losing subscribers?

Yes. You export your contacts as a CSV from Constant Contact and import them directly into Mailsoftly. All subscriber data, including custom fields and tags, transfers cleanly. Your subscribers will not notice any change beyond potentially improved email design and more relevant content from better segmentation.

Does Mailsoftly offer event management like Constant Contact?

No, not natively. Constant Contact includes built-in event management tools (invitations, registrations, ticketing) that Mailsoftly does not offer. If event management is central to your marketing, Constant Contact has an edge in that specific area. Mailsoftly integrates with event platforms and handles the email marketing side of events, including invitation sequences, reminder automations, and post-event follow-ups, through its workflow builder.

What happens to my Constant Contact data if I switch?

Your Constant Contact account and historical campaign data remain accessible until you cancel your subscription. We recommend exporting your contacts and any campaign reports you want to keep before canceling. Once your data is in Mailsoftly, it lives in the platform’s CRM and is fully yours to manage, export, or segment as needed.

Alkan Balkaya

Founder & CEO at Mailsoftly

Alkan is the founder and CEO of Mailsoftly, building AI-powered email marketing tools for businesses of all sizes. He writes about email marketing strategy, deliverability, and the future of marketing automation.