ActiveCampaign and Constant Contact are the two names that surface together when a small business wants email software, and their pricing pages measure value differently. ActiveCampaign's page builds a calculator around contact count with a currency switch and four plans: Starter at $15 a month, Plus at $49, Professional at $79 and Enterprise at $145, all billed annually and all priced at the 1,000-contact tier. Every paid plan lists unlimited automation actions, and the page carries a guarantee of results in 30 days or your money back.
TL;DR
ActiveCampaign prices four plans by contact count starting at 1,000: Starter $15, Plus $49, Professional $79 and Enterprise $145 a month billed annually, with unlimited automation actions on paid plans. Constant Contact prices three plans starting at 500 contacts: Lite $12, Standard $35 and Premium $80 a month, or $10.20, $29.75 and $68 when prepaid annually. Pick ActiveCampaign for automation, pick Constant Contact for a simpler bill and included SMS on top.
Constant Contact's page prices three plans by contact tier starting lower: Lite at $12 a month for up to 500 contacts, Standard at $35 and Premium at $80, or $10.20, $29.75 and $68 a month when you prepay for twelve months, which the vendor describes as saving up to 15%. Users are the other gate: Constant Contact allows one user on Lite, three on Standard and unlimited on Premium, while ActiveCampaign prints one user on Starter and Plus, three on Professional and five on Enterprise.
Send limits and extras finish the picture. Constant Contact ties monthly sends to your contact tier at 10 times on Lite, 12 times on Standard and 24 times on Premium, charges $0.002 for each send over the allowance, and sells SMS in the US from $10 a month for 500 messages with 500 messages included on Premium. ActiveCampaign caps sends at a multiple of contacts as well, printing 10x to 15x across the plan table, and runs a separate WhatsApp product line beside the email plans.
| Feature | ActiveCampaign | Constant Contact |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | No free plan; paid tiers with a trial and a 30-day results guarantee | No free plan; trial with no credit card and a 30-day money-back guarantee |
| Entry price | Starter at $15/month billed annually at 1,000 contacts | Lite at $12/month for up to 500 contacts, $10.20 prepaid annually |
| Mid plan | Plus at $49/month, standard segmentation and CRM integrations | Standard at $35/month, 3 users, 10 custom segments, $29.75 prepaid |
| Top plan | Professional $79 and Enterprise $145/month billed annually | Premium at $80/month, unlimited users, $68 prepaid |
| Users included | 1 user on Starter and Plus, 3 on Professional, 5 on Enterprise | 1 user on Lite, 3 on Standard, unlimited on Premium |
| Send limits | Capped at a multiple of contacts, shown as 10x to 15x across the plan table | 10x contacts on Lite, 12x on Standard, 24x on Premium, overage at $0.002 a send |
| Automation | Unlimited automation actions on all paid plans, multi-step and cross-channel | 1 template on Lite, 3 plus an AI campaign builder on Standard, unlimited on Premium |
| SMS and messaging | Separate WhatsApp plans with Core, Advanced and Premium tiers | US SMS from $10 a month for 500 messages; 500 messages included on Premium |
Pick ActiveCampaign if
ActiveCampaign is built for journeys: multi-step, cross-channel automation with unlimited actions from the paid tiers, segmentation that deepens at each step, and CRM and ecommerce integrations inside the same account. At 1,000 contacts the entry is $15 a month, and the moment a second sender joins you are looking at Professional for $79 rather than a seat add-on.
Pick Constant Contact if
Constant Contact wins on entry price and clarity: $12 for up to 500 contacts, a published send multiple, and a stated overage rate you can calculate before you send. It is the better fit for a newsletter-first team that wants phone support, room to add users at $35, and SMS in the US without buying a separate product. Automation depth is what you trade away on the lower tiers.
No review scores or user quotes were used on this page; all figures come from activecampaign.com/pricing and constantcontact.com/pricing as published by the vendors, read on 14 October 2026.
Constant Contact at the bottom: Lite is $12 a month for up to 500 contacts, or $10.20 prepaid annually. ActiveCampaign's Starter is $15 a month billed annually at 1,000 contacts, so you get a bigger list for a $3 difference, and both prices climb with contact count.
Neither does. ActiveCampaign runs paid tiers with a trial and a 30-day results guarantee; Constant Contact runs a trial with no credit card and a 30-day money-back guarantee on paid plans.
ActiveCampaign allows one user on Starter and Plus, three on Professional and five on Enterprise. Constant Contact allows one user on Lite, three on Standard and unlimited users on Premium, which is the cheaper way to get a team into the account.
On Constant Contact nothing stops: messages still go out and each extra send is billed at $0.002, so 1,000 extra emails cost $2. ActiveCampaign also ties sends to a multiple of your contact count, printed as 10x to 15x across the plan table, and steps the plan price up as your list grows.
ActiveCampaign. It lists multi-step marketing automation and unlimited automation actions on every paid plan, plus conditional and predictive content on higher tiers. Constant Contact gates automation at one template on Lite and three on Standard, with unlimited custom automations only on Premium.
Constant Contact includes US SMS from $10 a month for 500 messages, with 500 messages a month included on Premium. ActiveCampaign sells WhatsApp through a separate Core, Advanced and Premium plan line rather than bundling SMS with the email plans.
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