AWeber and Constant Contact are two prominent names in the email marketing and marketing automation space. They help businesses of all sizes become proficient at creating and sending targeted emails, analyzing campaign metrics, and setting up autoresponders based on specific triggers. If you’re not familiar with either solution, their functionality can appear quite similar, making it difficult to decide which would be best for your company to adopt, integrate and use.
We’ve compared AWeber and Constant Contact to highlight key features and other pertinent factors to consider when making a purchasing decision.
Product Overviews
Here are excerpts from our full-fledged AWeber and Constant Contact reviews.
AWeber – AWeber is a robust marketing automation and email marketing platform that gives small businesses the flexibility to manage contacts, set up autoresponders based on time and day, and customize their email templates. Its tracking feature enables users to see where contacts are in the lifecycle of a campaign, as well as which campaigns generated the most activity or caused the most unsubscribes. In addition, AWeber lets business marketers A/B test specific elements of any campaign to determine which subject line/call-to-action/message works best.
Constant Contact – Constant Contact is an easy-to-use marketing automation and email marketing platform with capabilities such as contact management, event registration and real-time reporting. Its automation feature enables users to schedule autoresponder series, and distribute welcome, birthday and anniversary emails to recipients based on predefined triggers. In addition, Constant Contact offers comprehensive reports that display statistics on the number of opens, clicks, forwards, unsubscribes and more.
How They Stack Up
Marketing Automation
AWeber: AWeber offers its users a simple way to create autoresponders and segment lists, so marketers can deliver relevant content to their subscribers. Business marketers can also set up custom drip campaigns – such as a customer onboarding sequence, a product launch series or even an online course. In addition, users can assign a message number to each recipient and send emails accordingly, including customized messages.
Constant Contact: Constant Contact’s autoresponder functionality lets users create an email series for similar clients and set up targeted messages to recipients. Marketers can send automated messages to visitors who make a purchase or sign up for their newsletter. However, users must wait a day after adding new email contacts to their autoresponder list before the list is updated and synced so new users can receive messages. Also, an option to assign a message number to each recipient isn’t available with Constant Contact.
Bottom Line: Both AWeber and Constant Contact enable users to set up automated email delivery based on specific triggers. However, AWeber users can assign tags to contacts that can be used to determine which message goes out to whom and when – a feature unavailable with Constant Contact.
Email Templates
AWeber: The AWeber template designer is ideal for novices since users can simply choose a template and insert their content. There are more than 700 pre-designed templates available. Developing custom templates is more time-consuming and requires knowledge of HTML basics. Alternately, users can request the AWeber team design a new template or customize an existing one. AWeber charges $299 for developing an entirely new design and $29 for changing the background, layout, font or color of an existing one.
Constant Contact: Templates in Constant Contact aren’t as abundant as those of AWeber. Users still get access to more than 400 pre-designed templates, and through a drag-and-drop interface, they can modify the templates to put their personal touch on them. An HTML editor is also available for those who want to design a custom template from scratch. However, Constant Contact doesn’t offer a mobile preview, so users should perform a diligent review when developing a template.
Bottom Line: From a usability perspective, AWeber is more robust than Constant Contact, offering eye-catching templates that render well on mobile and are extremely easy to modify, review and approve.
Customer Support
AWeber: AWeber’s representatives can be reached by email, phone, or live chat. Live customer support is available from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST Monday through Friday and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST on weekends. For less urgent matters, users can consult the AWeber Knowledge Base where hundreds of articles on the app’s functionality are available to help them address many issues.
The company also provides a series of free video tutorials and live webinars to help new customers learn the platform and troubleshoot common problems that existing users have encountered.
Constant Contact: Constant Contact representatives can be reached by email, phone, live chat or the company’s Ask Constant Contact Twitter account @CTCTHelp. Online chat is available from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. EST Monday through Friday. Phone support is available from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. EST Monday through Friday, from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. ET Saturday, and from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST Sunday.
For less urgent issues, users can consult the Constant Contact Knowledge Base, its comprehensive collection of live and recorded webinars, or its Help Center community. The company also offers seminars and in-person classes for those interested in hands-on supplemental training.
Bottom Line: Both solutions are well-known for their customer support. For users who prefer hands-on training, Constant Contact’s in-person classes may be the best option. Also, Constant Contact users can tap additional resources, such as attending frequent seminars.
Pricing
AWeber: AWeber has a free plan for companies that are just starting out. It includes basic features, such as up to 500 email subscribers, landing pages, a drag and drop builder, push notifications, email templates and eCommerce functionality.
Then, there are three paid plans: Lite, Plus and Unlimited. The Lite plan starts at $12.50 per month (billed annually) for up to 500 subscribers and includes all of the features of the free trial, plus unlimited email sends, advanced message analytics, up to three users, email automation and landing pages, import shared campaigns, email split testing, the ability to buy and connect domains and phone support.
The Plus plan starts at $20 per month (billed annually) for up to 500 subscribers. It accommodates unlimited users, email automation and landing pages. It adds on priority support, a full template library and advanced reporting, among other features.
The Unlimited plan starts at $899 per month (billed monthly) for up to 500 subscribers. It adds on personalized account management and the ability to send 12 times the number of subscriber emails per month.
Constant Contact: Constant Contact has three monthly pricing plans with a 60-day free trial and a 15% discount if companies pay annually. The Lite plan includes basic features and starts at $12 per month for up to 500 contacts.
The Standard plan adds on A/B testing, email resends to non-opens, prebuilt automation template, contact segmentation and social media ads integration. It starts at $35 per month for up to 500 contacts.
The Premium plan adds advanced email marketing features, custom automation, search engine optimization (SEO) and advanced ads. It starts at $80 per month for up to 500 contacts.
Constant Contact offers a Marketing Automation+ platform for organizations that need robust functionality. It starts at $449 per month and includes features like sales automation, lead scoring, advanced workflows, tracking and analytics and a dedicated onboarding expert.
Bottom Line: Based on the number of contacts, AWeber pricing plans are more affordable. However, Constant Contact users get a discount on annual payments, which makes it a more suitable option for larger businesses or high-growth small- and medium-sized businesses whose email marketing needs may be more complex.
Key Takeaways
AWeber and Constant Contact are fully featured email marketing solutions with robust automation capabilities. While Constant Contact offers a lengthy 60-day free trial, AWeber offers flat pricing tiers and access to each of its features regardless of the number of contacts in a user’s database. This can allow companies with fewer contacts to use the platform without exceeding their budget.
For those who value hands-on training, the scale is tipped in Constant Contact’s favor, as AWeber doesn’t offer in-person classes. However, AWeber excels at advanced automation and custom template development, which are important to many companies.
If your company is starting fresh with marketing automation software, read our Marketing Automation Buyers Guide. It offers a full overview of key features, pricing and everyday challenges.
If you’re searching for alternatives, our comprehensive lineup of reviews is an excellent place to start.
Thank you this was very informative. Just signed up with Constant Contact before the end of my trial subscription. I’m in the start-up phase of my business. Based on your comparison of Aweber and Constant Contact I’m pleased with my decision. Time will tell if I need to make a change.