Both Brevo and Constant Contact are popular email marketing platforms used by small businesses and entrepreneurs. In this in-depth comparison, we evaluate both tools across key features, capabilities, and overall value to help you select the best platform for your specific business needs and budget.
We chose the evaluation criteria most important for small business owners and solo entrepreneurs. We will compare the platforms’ market popularity and position to gauge their reach and adoption. We’ll also dive deep into essential features like blogging, e-commerce, SEO optimization, third-party integrations, analytics, speed, uptime, and more.
Read the rest of this Brevo vs Constant Contact review to learn more about each platform and how you can choose the best email marketing tool for your business.
1. Understanding the Basics
Brevo, formerly Sendinblue, was founded in 2012 by entrepreneur Armand Thiberge. As a relatively new website builder, Brevo is tailored specifically for small businesses and entrepreneurs through its easy-to-use drag-and-drop site editor.
Constant Contact was launched back in 1998. The original founders were Randy Parker and Richard Yaeger. After over 20 years in business, Constant Contact now boasts over 600,000 customers worldwide, establishing itself as an email marketing leader.
While Brevo is quickly gaining popularity among solo entrepreneurs for its simplicity and affordable pricing, Constant Contact has decades more industry experience and an established market presence. However, Brevo’s modern interface also appeals to many small business owners.
Constant Contact Facebook Group
2. Features and Functionality
Automation
Brevo
Brevo offers workflow automation to help streamline repetitive tasks in your email marketing campaigns. You can set up triggers based on specific customer actions to send automatic emails or SMS messages.
For example, you can welcome new subscribers with a customized email series or reach out to customers who abandoned their shopping carts. Brevo also lets you schedule social media posts in advance.
However, Brevo has limited native automation functionality compared to other platforms. You would need to integrate third-party apps like Zapier for more advanced options.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact has robust automation tools built into its email marketing platform. You can create segmented email lists and set up lifecycle campaigns that get triggered based on subscriber behavior.
Use case automation includes welcoming new subscribers, following up with non-openers, targeting customers who haven’t purchased lately, and more. Workflows can also be based on dates, rather than actions, if preferred.
Additionally, you can automate promotional review requests and social media posting across platforms like Facebook and Twitter by connecting accounts. Overall, Constant Contact offers significantly more automation capabilities without needing third-party integrations.
Winner: Constant Contact
The Constant Contact Brevo comparison shows that Constant Contact is the clear winner for marketing automation. Its intuitive visual editor makes it easy to set up lifecycle campaigns tailored to your subscribers without advanced technical skills. Robust automation saves significant time for busy entrepreneurs juggling multiple responsibilities.
Email Templates
Brevo
Brevo has a small library of basic email templates you can customize for your campaigns. There are about 20 free templates spanning categories like promotions, newsletters, welcome emails, and more.
The templates are professionally designed but options are limited. You can personalize colors, fonts, and content within the existing template format. There isn’t much flexibility if you want major design changes.
Brevo’s template editor makes it quick to swap template elements without coding. But if you want advanced HTML customization, it requires upgrading to a paid plan.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact offers hundreds of professionally designed, mobile-friendly templates covering a wide variety of business needs. Whether you want a coupon template, event invitation, birthday offer, or abandoned cart recovery template, the all-in-one marketing platform have you covered.
Use the DIY email editor to fully customize each template to suit your needs. The template editor lets you customize colors, images, fonts, and layouts without any coding knowledge. You have a lot of design flexibility. Constant Contact also lets all users edit HTML source code for deeper customization.
There are also lots of industry-specific templates for real estate, retail, healthcare, travel, and more. Filter by category or theme to quickly find an appropriate starting template for every campaign.
Winner: Constant Contact
With 10x more templates covering far more specific use cases—on top of better design customization flexibility for all users—Constant Contact clearly beats Brevo for email templates. The wider set of industry-tailored template options and drag-and-drop editor make it easy for any small business to elevate campaign graphics affordably.
Segmentation
Brevo
Brevo allows you to categorize contacts based on certain behaviors or attributes. You can create segments to target subscribers who opened an email, clicked a link, have a birthday this month, and more.
Segmenting is only available on the paid Premium and Agency plans. You can send follow-up emails or offers automatically to a segment once they meet the defined criteria.
However, Brevo has limited native segmentation compared to competitors. You cannot combine multiple rules to target specific subsets—only one criterion per segment.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact enables dynamic, customizable contact segmentation at all paid levels. You can create highly targeted lists based on subscriber behaviors like email engagement, website visits, event attendance, and more.
Combine multiple filters with “and” or “or” logic to reach very specific groups. For example, target customers in a certain city who opened an email over 2 months ago but haven’t made a purchase.
Create segments directly tied to lifecycle automation that trigger emails when criteria are met. Constant Contact’s segmentation simplifies personalized messaging to improve results.
Winner: Constant Contact
With multi-condition segmentation flexible enough for every business need included at all plan levels, Constant Contact is the undisputed email segmentation leader. Segmentation is crucial for targeted, relevant communication—and Constant Contact makes it easy without added costs.
Analytics
Brevo
Brevo provides basic email marketing analytics to view your campaign performance. You can see open, click-through, and bounce rates for each email.
It also tracks clicks on individual links you insert into your email content. This helps determine what content and offers resonate best with your subscribers.
However, Brevo lacks advanced behavioral analytics outside of email. There are no website traffic analytics or customer engagement insights. You would need to install Google Analytics for deeper intelligence.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact enables comprehensive email marketing analytics to optimize your campaigns. Dive into opens, clicks, bounces, forwards, link click-through rates, and unsubscribe tracking.
Gain insights through A/B testing email content and designs. And access website analytics on traffic sources, top landing pages, visitor behavior flows, and conversions.
Constant Contact also offers dashboard reporting to demonstrate campaign ROI and email benchmarking against your industry averages. More data means more informed decisions.
Winner: Constant Contact
This Brevo Constant Contact comparison shows that while Brevo provides passable email analytics, Constant Contact’s robust suite of email, website, and business analytics offers complete visibility into marketing and sales performance. More insightful data leads to better engagement and revenue.
Unique Features
Brevo
One of Brevo’s biggest selling points is its extensive library of professionally designed website sections. Choose from hundreds of pre-made templates for headers, footers, about pages, contact forms, galleries, and more.
Simply drag and drop the sections you want onto your site. Customize colors, images, and text while maintaining a responsive design. This makes site building incredibly fast even without coding expertise.
Brevo also offers built-in access to Getty Images. Select from millions of royalty-free stock photos without leaving the software. Images automatically populate your site.
Constant Contact
A standout Constant Contact feature is its Facebook Ads builder. Create targeted Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns directly on the platform. Connect accounts to easily manage campaigns and track performance.
Constant Contact also maintains an extensive Knowledge Base resource center with DIY marketing tips, video tutorials, checklist guides, and expert advice articles. Helpful tools provide needed training for new users to succeed.
Winner: Tie
Brevo and Constant Contact bring unique strengths that set them apart from competitors. We declare this category a tie since Brevo simplifies website building for non-coders tremendously, while Constant Contact makes professional advertising and marketing education very accessible. The ideal tool comes down to individual business needs.
3. Ease of Use
Brevo
Brevo’s interface is clean, modern, and intuitive. Icons and visuals help guide users seamlessly through the experience. The visual website builder makes site creation fast and frustration-free for non-coders.
Simply point, click, drag, and drop to add sections, customize design, and manage content. No HTML or CSS skills are needed. Brevo also offers 500+ professionally designed site templates for easy customization.
The platform is beginner-friendly. New users can launch a great-looking website in under an hour without prior experience. The learning curve is short.
Overall, Brevo focuses fully on fast simplicity. It streamlines website building and simplifies growth tools into an interface even first-timers can navigate smoothly.
Constant Contact
While powerful, Constant Contact suffers some interface clutter issues that slow site-building. With tools aimed at marketing veterans, beginners face a steeper learning curve.
The editor is still drag and drop for basic site creation. However, customizing design and managing more advanced features takes time to learn. Expect to rely on documentation and tutorials.
Email automation and marketing tools see cleaner interfaces. But some tools still get buried behind dozens of menu links across the platform’s breadth of capabilities.
Winner: Brevo
With a UI that empowers beginners to create beautiful, responsive sites in minutes, Brevo’s superior ease of use and faster launch times give it the win. Constant Contact packs in more volume and versatility but fails on simplicity and intuitiveness.
4. Email Deliverability
Brevo
As a newer email platform, Brevo does not have the same sender reputation and ISP relationships as legacy providers. Open and inbox placement rates tend to lag behind veterans.
Brevo relies on third-party deliverability services to maintain adequate sender scores. But without decades of trust, deliverability suffers, especially on large-volume blasts. Expect higher spam folder send rates.
On the plus side, low-volume account initiation helps establish positive sender patterns early on. So individuals and tiny lists can expect decent initial inbox placement rates when starting out.
Constant Contact
With over 20 years of nurturing sender reputation, Constant Contact touts strong email deliverability and higher inbox placement rates. Their established trust helps bypass spam filters better for subscribers.
Constant Contact maintains dedicated IP pools solely for their users which further improves standing against blacklists and other reputation monitors. Open and click-through rates outperform smaller or newer competitors.
The platform also lets users authenticate email domains and set up DMARC reporting to further legitimize sending practices. Constant Contact provides deliverability monitoring and optimization guidance as well.
Winner: Constant Contact
Superior standing with ISPs and anti-spam monitors gives Constant Contact a clear deliverability edge. Emails bearing a long positive sender history bypass spam filters and reach inboxes better across subscriber bases.
5. Customer Support and Community
Brevo
Brevo provides email support and live chat on weekdays during business hours. As a smaller company, phone support is currently unavailable.
Response times are typically prompt – within an hour for chat and a day for email tickets. But quality can be lacking for complex issues. Self-serve resources are limited as well right now.
Users can access a small community on Brevo’s Facebook group to exchange tips, feedback, and assistance. However, the group is still new as the company continues gaining users.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact offers 24/7 phone, chat, and email support so timely assistance is always available. Different channels help address unique needs – chat for quick questions, and email for deeper issues.
In addition to responsive support reps, Constant Contact provides an expansive self-serve Knowledge Base with DIY articles, videos, best practice guides, and more for every product. Answers are never far away.
An active user community resides on the company’s Facebook page where members share marketing advice and product experiences daily. Helpful for troubleshooting from real peers facing similar challenges.
Winner: Constant Contact
With stronger support coverage across channels plus a vastly larger self-serve content library and user community, Constant Contact is the clear winner for customer support and community. Users gain guidance and troubleshooting assistance around the clock.
6. Integrations
Brevo
Brevo offers native integration with the email marketing platform MailerLite to access expanded email functionality like automation and surveys.
You can also integrate cloud storage platforms like Google Drive and Dropbox to access files when building sites.
For e-commerce needs, Brevo partners with Snipcart for shopping cart capabilities.
Additionally, users can connect Brevo to Zapier for access to over 3000 apps including popular platforms like MailChimp, Facebook, WordPress, and more.
However, most robust integrations require upgrading from free plans, so functionality can remain limited for budget buyers.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact enables deep integration to popular small business platforms like WooCommerce, Shopify, and Square for unified data insights and simplified marketing campaigns.
Built-in connectors also allow integrating email opt-in forms or contact management directly into WordPress sites for seamless lead generation and customer tracking.
The platform also syncs natively with Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to manage multi-channel campaigns from a single dashboard and easily share content across networks.
Zapier expands integrations to 100+ other apps. Opening Constant Contact’s API allows developers even more customization flexibility.
Winner: Constant Contact
While both platforms cover integration basics through Zapier, Constant Contact offers far more native app integrations without needing third-party tools. Deep Facebook, Instagram, WooCommerce, and WordPress integration, in particular, makes Constant Contact more versatile for targeted multi-channel coordination.
7. Pricing
Brevo
Brevo offers the following pricing plans:
- Basic – Brevo’s free plan lets you send up to 300 emails a day
- Starter – This paid plan costs $25/month for 20K emails/month
- Business – $65/month for 5,000 contacts and marketing automation features.
- BrevoPlus – Custom pricing for unlimited contacts.
The Basic plan provides core features like email marketing, forms, reports, and automation. Starter unlocks advanced options like A/B testing and API access.
At the Business tier, capabilities expand further with features like custom CSS, multi-user logins, and product recommendations for e-commerce.
Storage, bandwidth, and contacts scale with each tier, with the highest-priced plan offering unlimited marketing automation. Overall, Brevo is positioned at the lower end of industry pricing but delivers robust capabilities even at low tiers.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact’s free trial lets you send to 500 contacts. The Lite email plan is $12/month for up to 500 contacts with additional features like the marketing CRM, event management tools, and social marketing features.
The Standard plan is $35/month and comes with 3 users, pre-built automation, and contact segmentation features.
For $80/month, you get the Premium plan, which includes unlimited users, custom automation, custom segmentations, revenue reporting, and Google Ads Manager.
Winner: Tie
Both platforms offer free or low-cost tiers for basic needs as well as premium plans with expanded capability support for larger businesses. Determine pricing based on current website and contact requirements as well as projected growth needs.
The free trial period on Constant Contact’s lowest tier may better accommodate businesses wanting to test capabilities risk-free first. But Brevo’s lower upfront annual pricing on its paid essential plan makes it more budget-friendly for very small businesses to start.
With each platform bringing different advantages, pricing receives a tie here. Visit both Brevo’s and Constant Contact’s pricing pages to determine the best value based on your business’s specific needs and scale.
8. Reviews and Reputation
Brevo
Brevo earns positive feedback for its intuitive interface, affordability, and automation capabilities that help streamline marketing. Users highlight the easy contact management and campaign creation process even for beginners.
Potential downsides mentioned include a learning curve with advanced functions and occasionally slow customer support responses. But overall, Brevo garners a good reputation for delivering value email marketing.
Constant Contact
Users praise Constant Contact for its simplicity in building and sending campaigns, customizable templates that support branding, and strong analytics. Reliability and excellent customer support also lend to its positive reputation.
However, some users feel automation and advanced features lag behind competitors. And its pricing model may get less cost-effective as contacts grow. But the consensus is that it remains very easy to use.
Winner: Constant Contact
Both platforms earn positive marks for usability and provide email marketing essentials to small businesses. Brevo wins on price while Constant Contact leads with reliability and support. Each shows some room for improvement in depth of features or scaling support.
With a slight edge in reviews praising its performance and customer support, Constant Contact emerges as the winner in this comparison of reputation. Both services satisfy core needs but Constant Contact’s longevity and focus on simplicity give it the strongest industry referrals.
9. FAQ’s
Brevo FAQs
- What is the starting price of Brevo’s basic plan?
Brevo’s Starter plan costs $25 per user per month.
- Does Brevo offer a free trial for its Professional plan?
No, Brevo does not offer a free trial for the Professional plan, but there is a 14-day money-back guarantee available.
- Are there any limitations on the number of contacts in Brevo’s Enterprise plan?
No, the Enterprise plan is fully customizable based on each business’s unique requirements and needs.
- Can I integrate Brevo with other third-party tools and apps?
Yes, Brevo provides integration options with many popular third-party tools.
- How is customer support handled for Brevo users?
Brevo offers email and live chat support with response timelines depending on the subscribed plan.
Constant Contact FAQs
- Does Constant Contact offer a free trial?
Yes, there is a 30-day free trial for both Email and Email Plus plans.
- Can I cancel my subscription anytime?
Yes, users can cancel anytime without cancellation fees.
- What is the maximum number of contacts in the Email plan?
The Email plan supports up to 500 contacts.
- Are there limits on sending emails?
Daily sends are limited based on account history and email best practices adherence.
- Does Constant Contact offer non-profit discounts?
Yes, verified non-profits get a 20% subscription discount.
Final Thoughts
Choose Brevo if…
Brevo is the best choice for solopreneurs, entrepreneurs, and small businesses wanting an affordable and user-friendly platform to create sites quickly and manage basic email and SMS marketing. Its drag-and-drop website builder and library of professionally designed elements make launching sites simple even without coding expertise. While scaling limits exist on lower-cost plans, feature sets meet most baseline small business needs.
Choose Constant Contact if…
Constant Contact works best for established small businesses needing a very simple yet reliable email marketing solution with strong deliverability and analytics. The platform makes campaign creation intuitive while still providing robust tools to target segmented lists, automate workflows, and glean performance insights without added complexity. Constant Contact is an ideal choice if you value excellent technical support and proven email performance over having cutting-edge features.
You may also want to read about Constant Contact alternatives as well.