Martech Showdown: Comparing ActiveCampaign, Constant Contact, and Mailchimp

Assessing Today's Marketing Technology Giants

In our current environment, where technological advancements and changing consumer behaviors shape the market, it has become increasingly important to prioritize effective marketing strategies. Establishing a robust marketing approach is more vital than ever before, as it allows businesses to stay relevant, connect with their target audience, and navigate the marketing complexity with confidence.

If you're researching marketing platforms for your growing business, chances are you've come across an overwhelming amount of options. While Glances supports many martech platforms, we've chosen three to compare today: ActiveCampaign, Constant Contact, and Mailchimp. In this article, we'll evaluate these favored solutions based on the criteria below, so you can decide which platform is best for your business needs.

• Ease of use: How easy is it for your employees to use? Are there quick-start options, like templates and automations?
• Pricing: How much does the solution cost? Does pricing allow for scalability?
• Reporting: How can we see if our marketing strategy is working? What options for reporting are available for both in email and after a link has been clicked?
• Connected Apps: Is there flexibility for the apps that we connect to this platform?

Ease of Use

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign has been named #84 on Forbes’ annual Cloud 100 list and for good reason. Built for businesses of all sizes, ActiveCampaign has almost 1000 pre-built automated recipes (with help from AI for content generation) to make marketing simpler for teams with limited time. Building campaigns or templates is pretty straightforward, but users report that creating lists and using segmentation tools can have a steep learning curve.

Constant Contact

Constant Contact offers a user-friendly design that simplifies the importing of contacts and building of emails. The drag-and-drop build feature streamlines the email design process, making it effortless and straightforward. Even without a robust background, they include options for automations, social media, and signup forms with clear instructions and just a few clicks. Users report that while it’s simple to use, the actual interface is a bit dull-looking.

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is often touted as an easy and versatile marketing platform. It provides an intuitive drag-and-drop editor for creating emails, making it easy for even a novice or non-marketing user to begin sending campaigns. The platform also offers a selection of pre-made templates, which can be customized with images, your logo, and other content to fit your needs.

Pricing

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign does not offer a free plan. Their lowest tier begins at $29/mo (paid yearly). Pricing depends on how many records you have and the features you need. Their Plus plan which allows for custom automations and 10,000 contacts, would cost $229/mo (paid yearly).

Constant Contact

Constant Contact does not offer a free plan. Their lowest tier is $12/mo. Pricing depends on how many records you have and the features you need. Their Premium plan which allows for custom automations and 10,000 contacts would cost$325/mo. If you don’t need custom automation capabilities, their Standard plan would cost $210/mo. You are allowed an allotted email send volume per month (12x your contacts). Overages are $0.002 per email.

Mailchimp

Mailchimp has a limited free plan. Their lowest paid tier begins at $13/mo. Pricing depends on how many records you have and the features you need. Their mid-tier Standard plan (and the most popular plan) which includes custom automation options would cost $135/mo if you have 10,000 contacts.

Reporting

ActiveCampaign

Basic reports for open rates, click-through rates, and conversion tracking on automation and campaign activity are available on all of ActiveCampaign’s plans. Uniquely, ActiveCampaign offers site tracking so you can view how subscribers interact with your website after clicking on an email link.

Constant Contact

Constant Contact is well-known for it’s user-friendly reporting dashboard that gives quick insight to key metrics, like open rates, click-through rates, and bounce and unsubscribe rates. Using Constant Contact you can visually track email campaigns over time, comparing new campaigns side-by-side across time.

Mailchimp

Mailchimp offers a variety of reporting tools, including campaign-level data and metrics on both automation and e-commerce features (for their e-commerce products). For advanced plans, view heatmaps to see more directly how subscribers are interacting with your email and compare A/B campaign performance.

Connected Apps

All three marketing software options offer integrations. Both Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign offer a public-facing integration search so you can easily search for your preferred apps (like CRMs or content creation options) before making contact. Constant Contact requires you to contact their sales teams to see the full list of integrations available.

More good news? All three options are also compatible with Glances. Glances makes your team's business apps work together to build consistent processes that save time and reduce errors. Use Glances to view data (like campaign activity) and complete tasks across apps without the data-syncing hassle of traditional integrations. See what else Glances can do at glances.com or chat with us about your specific use case.

Want more software comparisons? Check out our CRM Showdown comparing HubSpot, Salesforce, and Zoho CRM. Or, learn more about selecting the best CRM that works for your team in our two-part series.

Integrate your martech platform and all your apps, using Glances

Start your free trial to connect your favorite business apps and access your data in one easy click, from any app or webpage. You can find and connect martech software like ActiveCampaign, Constant Contact, Campaign Monitor, Mailchimp, Zoho Campaigns, and many others when you are logged in to your Glances account.

More helpful steps

Schedule a demo to see the time-saving benefits of Glances in action or ask our team questions.

If you need to connect a specific app or platform with Glances that is not currently available on glances.com, please send your requests to hello@glances.com.

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