Constant Contact vs HubSpot
Trying to choose between Constant Contact vs HubSpot as your email marketing software? Here's when to choose each tool – and the pros and cons to know about.
- 2.2 TrustPilot
- 4.3 Capterra
- 4 G2
Average 3.5 / 5
Constant Contact
Online marketing platform offering a range of features from email marketing and automation to SMS marketing and CRM.
Pricing
Starts at $12/month for up to 500 contacts and 5,000 email sends
Key features
- Drag-and-drop email templates
- AI Content Generator
- Event management
- CRM
- Automation
- Reporting
- Web sign-up forms
- SMS and social media marketing
- Polls & surveys
- Landing page builder
- 5,000+ integrations
Support
Live chat and phone for all the plans during the office hours. Self-service and community support.
- 3.4 TrustPilot
- 4.5 Capterra
- 4.4 G2
Average 4.1 / 5
HubSpot
A CRM platform that offers email marketing, content management, marketing automation, and customer service capabilities.
Pricing
Marketing tools only start at $18 a month for 1,000 marketing contacts
Key features
- Email automation, reporting, etc.
- Landing pages and forms
- Marketing automation
- Website builder and hosting
- CRM platform
- B2B commerce tools
- Customer service software
- Sales and operations software
- Integrations with various services
Support
24/7 support via email and chat on paid plans, phone support on professional and Enterprise plans. Community support only on the Free plan.
General info about company
Constant Contact
The company was founded in 1995 by Randy Parker and was later sold to Endurance International in 2015. In 2021, it was acquired by ClearLake Investments. Headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts.
HubSpot
HubSpot was founded by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah in 2006. Headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Difficulty
Constant Contact
Beginner-friendly. Basic tutorials are built into the interface.
HubSpot
The software may seem complex and even overwhelming. However, newcomers get service demos and tutorials for a smooth start. Overall, the interface is user-friendly and approachable.
Best for
Constant Contact
Small businesses, nonprofits, and event organizers. Some features are aimed at sales and marketing directors.
HubSpot
Medium to big e-commerce companies that want an integrated software package with marketing, CRM, customer service, and website hosting all in one.
Free plan
Constant Contact
No free plan. Depending on the location, users can get a 14 or 60 day free trial with access to the core features and send up to 100 emails. No credit card required.
HubSpot
A free plan for 2,000 email sends per month. Available email templates and features are limited. No customer support, only the access to HubSpot Community.
Pricing
Constant Contact
Based on number of contacts and email sends. Overage fees of $0.002 per email apply.
For up to 500 contacts, billed monthly:
Lite $12
- 1 user
- 1 GB storage
- Monthly email sends: 10x your number of contacts.
Standard $35
- 3 users
- 10 GB storage
- Monthly email sends: 12x your number of contacts.
Premium $80
- Unlimited users
- 25 GB storage
- Monthly email sends: 24x your number of contacts
Other pricing features:
- Everyone: 15% off for 12-month prepay
- Nonprofits: 20% off for 6-month prepay and 30% off for 12-month prepay
- Full refund for closing account within 30 days of signing up. Conditions apply.
- Free trial
- Customized solutions for agencies, organizations in need of 5+ accounts, franchises, and member-based associations.
- Lead Gen & CRM starting at $449/month
- SMS Marketing, starting at $10/mo USD for 0-500 messages with any paid plan. Available only for US customers.
HubSpot
Billed monthly:
- Starter: $20 for up to 1,000 marketing contacts
- Professional: $890 for up to 2,000 marketing contacts (the starting price is $3,890 with a mandatory paid onboarding)
- Enterprise: $3,600 for up to 10,000 marketing contacts (the starting price is $6,000 with a mandatory paid onboarding)
Other pricing features:
- Users are only billed for their “marketing” contacts (actively in use) and can have many more inactive contacts
- Even if a user cancels the subscriptions, they will be billed for the rest of their commitment period duration
Support
Constant Contact
- Live chat and phone for all the plans during the office hours.
- Live chat: Mon-Fri 3 am-8pm ET
- Phone: Mon-Fri 8am-8pm ET, Sat 10 am-6pm ET
- Knowledge Base
- Product Help Center
- Community Forums
HubSpot
- Service demo for new users
- Technical support is available on paid plans only
- Access to the HubSpot Community on the Free plan
- Chat and email support on all paid plans
- Phone support only on Professional and Enterprise plans
- Mandatory paid assisted onboarding on Professional and Enterprise plans
- Advanced and Premier additional onboarding options
- Customer training
- Various courses with certifications
- HubSpot user groups
Features
Constant Contact
- Drag-and-drop email templates
- Dynamic content in email
- Reporting (engagement, campaign comparison, open rate by device, heatmap*, revenue*)
- Automations (pre-built and custom templates)
- AI Content Generator
- Marketing CRM
- Web sign-up forms
- Polls & surveys
- Landing page builder
- Social media posting
- Event management, including selling services and merch with the tickets and accepting payments
- Scheduled email sends
- Contact segmentation
- Social media ads manager
- Facebook retargeting ads*
- Google Ads Manager*
- SEO recommendations*
- 5,000+ integrations
- SMS marketing (US only)**
- Subject line A/B testing
_____________________
*Available only with Premium
**Charged separately
HubSpot
- Email automation
- Dynamic list segmentation based on various criteria
- Email reputation reporting and tracking
- Custom reporting dashboards
- Integrations with popular services
- Drag-and-drop email builder and pre-made templates
- Landing pages
- Live chat with website visitors
- A CRM app for iOS and Android
Templates
Constant Contact
- Over 200 mobile-responsive templates
- Drag-and-drop editing
Popular templates:
- Newsletter
- Holiday-themed
- Retail
- Industry-specific
- Customizable Standard template to any occasion
HubSpot
15+ email templates
Only 5 email templates on the free plan
Templates for:
- Welcome messages
- Sales
- Newsletter
- Event invitations
- Announcements
- Ebook emails
Video/screenshots
Constant Contact
HubSpot
Integrations
Constant Contact
Over 5,000 integrations, including Google and Facebook Ads, WordPress, Canva, Vimeo, SalesForce, Eventbrite, Shopify, Stripe, WooCommerce, social media
HubSpot
1,495 integrations including WordPress, Zapier, Canva, Facebook, Salesforce, Shopify, Stripe, and more.
Devices
Constant Contact
- iOS
- Android
- Web
HubSpot
- Website
- A mobile app for iOS and Android to manage the CRM
- Chrome extension for Gmail or G Suite
- Office 365 add-in and desktop add-in for Office 365
- No installable solution.
Languages
Constant Contact
Danish
Dutch
English
French
German
Italian
Portuguese
Castilian Spanish
Latin American Spanish
Swedish
HubSpot
English
Chinese (traditional)
Danish
Dutch
Finnish
French
German
Italian
Polish
Portuguese (Brazil)
Spanish
Swedish
Automation
Constant Contact
- Automated email and SMS messages.
- Automation Path Builder with a library of plug-and-play path templates and ability to create a custom path.
Some path templates are compatible with Shopify and WooCommerce, including:
- Welcome email series
- Abandoned cart messages
- Win-back series
- Thank you series
- Request a review
HubSpot
Many pre-built automations (called workflows) triggered by:
- Contacts
- Companies
- Deals
- Tickets (for support purposes)
- Quotes
- Conversations
- Feedback submissions
Pros
Constant Contact
- Ease of use
- Diverse template library — more than 200 mobile-ready email templates categorized by tag
- Over 5,000 Integrations with filters by category
- Sharing newsletter content on social media in one-click
- Niche features for event organizers
- Automated contact list segmentation based on engagement
HubSpot
- An all-in-one solution for e-commerce businesses: email marketing, CRM, CMS, and more
- 1,482 integrations
- Thorough onboarding and courses
- A strong global community
- Ability to store many contacts for free
Cons
Constant Contact
- Steep price tag for the users who have more than a couple hundred subscribers and going beyond basic functionality. Some features are not included in the plans and cost extra, like SMS
- Automation can’t include multiple channels, actions and conditions. Selection of triggers is also limited
- A/B testing is limited to subject lines
- No customization options for sign up forms
- Only five templates for landing pages
- No geographical breakdown of the regions that are engaging more, or the time that subscribers open emails
- No RTL language support
- Account can be canceled only by phone
HubSpot
- Steep prices
- Complicated feature system may cause additional spendings
- Overwhelming amount of functions
- Support isn’t accessible enough
- Email templates aren’t sophisticated
Reviews from experts
Constant Contact
Pros: The email templates are easy to use, and I've been able to train multiple users in our organization to use it, who don't have a background with tools like this. As an email tool, I'm very happy.
Cons: As a social tool, I'm disappointed. Right now you can't post to Twitter (X) at all. You can't upload videos to share as Reels, and if you want to edit copy for each social media platform you have to make separate posts.
Pros: Constant Contact is very intuitive and user-friendly. People with no email experience can easily jump in and create nice-looking emails. <...>
Cons: Since I started using Constant Contact in 2019, the platform is virtually the same. <...> Unfortunately, we have used Constant Contact to its capacity. Our emails cannot improve or change with the features that are currently available. It would be nice to see more customization in emails and better analytics reporting!
HubSpot
The fact that it’s so user-friendly is a big advantage to using HubSpot’s CRM platform. Its guided set-up wizard, demos and intuitive interface make it a great tool for all levels of experience. It’s still a huge software with a lot of bells and whistles, but taking all that into account, its usability is still outstanding. You’ll be particularly impressed with its lead management features.
<...>
Anything above Starter gets very expensive and requires you to pay a high onboarding fee. In the case of the HubSpot Marketing Professional plan, this is $3,000 on top of the $890/month.
Surprisingly, HubSpot’s templates aren’t quite what you’d expect from such a popular, modern tool. I’d like to see some more design options for email and landing pages.
Overall: I'm 50-50 with HubSpot. I see it as a compromise and middle step until we are able to get more specialized solutions for each one of their offerings.
Pros: HubSpot is a good solution for organizations at their early steps. It provides all the necessary tools for website management and marketing activities. The contacts' management is good too.
Cons: It doesn't go in-depth on anything. For everything that HubSpot does there is a platform that does it better. But we would need many different tools so we stay with all in one but shallow approach (for now). It is also very expensive for what it is.
*This information is current as of 02/13/2024. While we regularly update our articles, it`s possible that this article may not contain some of the latest information.
