Featuring in our list of the best website builders, Constant Contact certainly has plenty to bring to the table. It’s known as one of the most advanced email marketing platforms available, and its website builder presents attractive site creation solutions.
Constant Contact review: Snapshot
Our Constant Contact review takes a closer look at the builder and its integrated features. It uses an AI-based site creator, making it an excellent option for those who are looking for a streamlined, hassle-free way to get online.
In addition, it’s backed by leading email marketing tools, simple blog integrations, and a selection of functional, if a little basic, e-commerce features. It’s also one of the more affordable platforms we’ve used, and the team continues to add new tools and features that make it an increasingly attractive option.
Score: 3.5/5
Read on for the full review.
Constant Contact's competitors
| Constant Contact | Wix | GoDaddy | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Score | 3.5/5 | 4.5/5 | 4/5 |
| Pros | - A tidy, beginner-friendly editor - Excellent integrated email marketing tools - Great budget ecommerce option | - Industry-leading design flexibility - Great selection of 500+ templates - Advanced drag-and-drop editor | - A great option for getting online fast - Integrated marketing and ecommerce tools - Tidy blog manager |
| Cons | - Somewhat limited blogging tools - Some features are a little constraining - Templates tend to be quite basic | - Can be quite confusing to get started with - Very expensive compared to other options | - Overly simplistic editor - Limited template library |
| Verdict | Along with its beginner-friendly website builder, Constant Contact is backed by excellent email marketing and ecommerce tools, and other features. | The Wix editor is extremely powerful, there are more than 500 templates that you can take advantage of, and there’s a neat free version so you can test the platform. | GoDaddy is a simple option, but it offers streamlined, beginner-friendly website building solutions for businesses of all sizes. |
| View deals | Visit site | Visit site | Visit site |
Key features
Constant Contact certainly isn’t the most advanced or the most powerful website builder in the world, but it has a few key features worth noting.
Constant Contact’s blogging tools are a little more basic than we would have liked to see, but they aren’t terrible. You can add a new blog to your site by clicking the Blog button on the left of the editor interface. Follow the prompts to set it up, and begin adding content as soon as you’re ready.
Adding new posts is quite straightforward, but you won’t have a whole lot of layout or design configuration options. Constant Contact uses a basic text editor, which enables you to add photos and simple designs, but not much more. YouTube videos can be embedded in a post, but that’s the only way to add video content. Images can’t be resized or formatted in any other way.
On the plus side, you can schedule posts, and there’s a search engine optimization (SEO) section that you can use to optimize your post’s metadata. Unfortunately, though, blog comments aren’t supported.
If you want to create a simple online store that’s driven by email marketing, Constant Contact might just be the perfect option. The attractive, conversion-oriented templates are great to see, and there are various tools to help you encourage return visitors and repeat customers.
You can accept credit/debit card payments through either Stripe or PayPal, and adding discount codes and sales is as easy as clicking your mouse button. There are also various management tools to help you look after your inventory and orders, along with advanced sales data that you can use to make informed management decisions.
Constant Contact: key features and highlights
Email marketing is the thing that Constant Contact is best known for, and it’s easy to see why. There are numerous tools to help you get the most out of your campaigns, including a selection of email templates.
Create as many or as few email campaigns as you need to, test them to determine which work best, and monitor ongoing performance with the various reporting and analytics tools. There’s also a selection of email marketing automation tools that you can use to streamline workflows and improve campaign effectiveness.
Constant Contact boasts full integration with the Unsplash image library, which contains more than 550,000 free stock photos. You can search these and add media directly from the website editor, which is a very attractive feature for those who don’t have their own personalized images to use.
What’s new?
Every month, Constant Contact releases a number of updates for its email marketing and website-building solutions. This is great to see, as it suggests that the team is committed to providing a premium site creation experience for all users.
Recent website builder updates include the ability to add group and/or class booking tools. One-on-one bookings have been available for some time, but the group booking tool is a neat addition. You can now view insights and reports from Etsy, Magento, WooCommerce, and other integrated third-party ecommerce platforms.
Another notable addition is the ability to connect your Vimeo account to your website, enabling you to embed videos fast and efficiently. The mobile app has received regular updates recently, although most of these are centered around email marketing rather than website creation and management.
This is far from an exhaustive list of Constant Contact’s recent updates, and we’d encourage you to head over to the Knowledge Base to browse other additions.
Pricing
Constant Contact offers a free plan, along with four different premium subscription options. However, it has a slightly different price structure to most other website builders, as it offers a range of email marketing services alongside its builder.
All website building tools, including those for ecommerce, are available with the cheapest Website Builder plan ($10 a month). The Email (from $20 a month) and Email Plus (from $45 a month) options add increasingly advanced email marketing tools, and the Ecommerce Pro plan (from $195 a month) adds powerful AI-driven email marketing.
| Plan type/feature | Free | Website Builder | Email Plus | Ecommerce Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per month | Free | $10 | From $20* | From $45* | From $195* |
| Cost per year | Free | $120 | From $240* | From $540* | From $2340* |
| Website builder | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Ecommerce tools | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Users | Up to 3 | Up to 3 | Up to 3 | Up to 10 | Up to 10 |
| Monthly email sends | None | None | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
*Email subscriptions use tiered pricing, and you will pay more with more contacts on your marketing list.
Testing Constant Contact
In order to comprehensively compare Constant Contact to the competition, we analyzed a series of its features and tools to see how it performed. This included starting the creation of a new website with its website builder, as well as changing templates.
How do you start building a website with Constant Contact?
To start a new Constant Contact website, click the "Sign up Free" button that you’ll spot throughout the company site. Provide basic personal information, including your name, email address, and phone number, and follow the prompts to create your account.
When setting up a new site, you will be guided through a short AI-based questionnaire. Specify the type of website you want to create, choose a color scheme and font pairing, and select from a number of different navigation layouts. Add basic business info to help your site gain online visibility—if you want to—then hit the "Next" button to be taken to the editor.
The Constant Contact editor itself is quite simple, but it remains a decent option for those who want to create a basic site. It uses a section-based editing method, which enables you to add, remove, or re-order elements as required.
However, each section comes with a number of predefined layout options. You won’t be able to place elements exactly where you want them, and the general appearance of your site will almost entirely be dictated by the theme and layout you use.
You can change, add, and remove content as required, and global designed settings can be changed via the menu on the left of the editor. Add store, blog, or booking elements for extra functionality, and specify SEO and metadata settings to ensure your site is visible across the web.
The competition
Constant Contact offers attractive website-building solutions, especially for those who plan to use email marketing to drive traffic to their site. Its email marketing tools stand out as some of the best available, but the website builder certainly isn’t terrible either.
All users will benefit from unmetered storage and bandwidth, and business-hours phone and live chat support are available. There are various tools to help you add functionality to your site, and the AI-based template creator stands out as excellent.
Wix, on the other hand, is a much more complex platform. It offers some of the best design flexibility we’ve seen, enabling you to drag and drop elements into pixel-perfect positions. There are more than 500 templates to choose from, and all subscriptions come with a free domain for the first year.
On the downside, though, Wix is quite expensive. There is a free-forever option, but premium solutions start at a high $14 a month. And all plans come with quite limited storage and bandwidth. Read our comprehensive Wix review to learn more about the website builder and its features.
Like Constant Contact, GoDaddy offers streamlined, beginner-friendly site creation solutions. It’s certainly not a powerful builder, but it enables users to get online in a very fast and efficient manner. All plans come with unmetered bandwidth and storage, and prices start from just $6.99 a month. For more details on this website builder, read our GoDaddy review.
| Constant Contact | Wix | GoDaddy | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storage | Unmetered | From 3GB | Unmetered |
| Bandwidth | Unmetered | From 2GB | Unmetered |
| Free domain | No | Yes | No |
| Support | Business-hours phone and live chat | Online ticketing or phone callback | 24/7 live chat and phone |
| Basic plan | $10 a month | $14 a month | $6.99 a month |
The verdict
All things considered, Constant Contact offers attractive website creation solutions that are let down a little by an overly simplistic editor. There is a lot to like here, though, especially for those who aren’t concerned about the lack of design flexibility.
For one, you will benefit from the full power of Constant Contact’s email marketing solutions, which are among the best we’ve seen. Simple blogging tools make it extremely easy to add and manage posts, and there’s a suite of ecommerce tools to help you sell online.
And speaking of ecommerce, all online selling tools are available for just $10 a month. This makes Constant Contact one of the cheapest ecommerce options we’ve tested, especially if you just want to build a simple store with a small number of products.
Other noteworthy features include unmetered storage and bandwidth with all plans, integrated analytics and marketing tools, and business-hours phone and live chat support. The Knowledge Base is excellent, and the AI-based site builder is a great tool to help you get started.
We’d say that Constant Contact is definitely a good option for some users. We’d recommend taking advantage of the free plan to test the platform, particularly if you’re looking for advanced email marketing or budget ecommerce tools.