Mailchimp vs Constant Contact for contractors: prices, texting, refunds and your list

Mailchimp or Constant Contact: what is the real difference?

Both are do-it-yourself email tools sold to small businesses of every kind. You build the list, write the emails, set the automations and watch the reports. They differ on the entry point and on what the reviews complain about. Mailchimp lets a small company start for free and bills the paid plans with no refunds on monthly plans. Constant Contact starts at $10.20 a month on annual billing with a 30-day full refund, gets better marks on Trustpilot, and gets very poor marks from the customers who review it on the Better Business Bureau, mostly over billing and cancellation.

A note on sources. We read Mailchimp's pricing page, help articles and terms on October 31, 2026. Constant Contact's website returned an HTTP 403 error to our reader that day, so we opened its pricing page in a regular browser instead, on November 3, 2026. We have not read its terms, and we did not capture its month-to-month prices. Where a figure comes from a third-party tracker or from Constant Contact's help center or community, we say so.

What does Mailchimp cost?

Mailchimp's pricing page showed four plans on October 31, 2026:

Those are the figures on the plan cards, which also mention 15% off at 10,000 or more contacts. The page prices plans by contact count, and the follow-on "then starts at" amounts and the contact tier behind the card figures did not come through in the page text we read, so check the slider for your own list size. The free plan caps you at 250 contacts, keeps Mailchimp branding on your emails, and includes email support for the first 30 days only. Essentials and Standard carry a 14-day free trial.

The overage rule matters for a company whose list grows in spring. The page says that after the trial, if you go over your contact or sending limit, Mailchimp bills the overage automatically. On the free plan, sending is paused instead.

What does Constant Contact cost?

Constant Contact's pricing page, read November 3, 2026, shows three plans with "starting at" prices, billed annually:

The page says each plan's price is based on your number of contacts and email sends, and that overage fees may apply. Its FAQ ties the monthly send limit to the contact count, at 10 times your contacts. Prepaying 12 months saves up to 15%, and nonprofits up to 30%. The page also offers a 30-day guarantee: cancel within 30 days of signing up and get a full refund, subject to its terms.

We did not capture the month-to-month prices. A third-party tracker, PricingSaaS, recorded $12, $35 and $80 a month billed monthly in an August 24, 2026 capture; those are its figures, not ones we read on Constant Contact's site. A second tracker, UsagePricing, reviewed August 6, 2026, says the headline prices assume a 500-contact list and puts Lite at $30 a month for 1,000 contacts. Ask for the price at your own list size before you compare.

How do texting and 10DLC work on each?

Texting customers from a marketing tool over a US local number requires carrier registration, called 10DLC, and the customer's consent. Our guide to texting consent rules is general information, not legal advice.

Mailchimp. Its SMS help article says texting is an add-on for Essentials and higher plans, and that you must submit an application and be approved before sending marketing texts. US and Canada messages go out over 10DLC numbers, with rate limits and throttling. Registration is required for each audience, sending number and sending country, and the article says additional costs may apply, without naming them. Credit prices are managed on your billing page, not published in the article, and any unused text credits are forfeited when the next billing cycle begins.

Constant Contact. Its pricing page, read November 3, 2026, says Premium plans include 500 text messages, and that Lite and Standard can buy them as an add-on, from $10 a month for up to 500. A post in Constant Contact's own community, about a year old, adds that texting is for US customers only and is added from the Billing tab, after which you register a new texting number. We found no registration fee, so ask about one in writing.

Constant Contact's post describes registering a new texting number. Ask either company whether texts can go out from the number your customers already have saved, because a contractor's customers tend to recognize the office line and ignore numbers they don't know.

What do the terms say, and can you take your list with you?

Mailchimp's Standard Terms of Use, updated and effective October 10, 2025:

• No refund or credit "under any circumstance" on monthly paid plans, and a 60-day money-back guarantee on annual plans (section 12).
• Mailchimp may suspend service at any time "with or without cause," and may permanently delete an account and its data (section 3).
• Fees can change at any time (section 14). Text messaging plans renew automatically unless you opt out (section 10).
• You keep the rights to your content (section 15), and Mailchimp may use AI inputs and outputs, including customer data, for machine learning, with data preferences in your account settings (section 30).

The list itself is portable. Mailchimp's export article says only Owners and Admins can export, the file is a CSV (it may come as a ZIP with a separate CSV for each type of contact), it carries contact statuses and tags, SMS contacts come in their own folder, and the export stays in your account for 30 days. Email report data, such as opens and clicks, is not part of the contact export.

Constant Contact's terms were on the blocked site and we have not read them, so we cannot quote its renewal rules; the 30-day full refund on its pricing page is the one refund rule we can report. Its help article says you can export email and SMS contacts from the Contacts page as a CSV or Excel file, that exporting leaves the contacts in your account, and that the file won't include permission status unless advanced email permissions are turned on. Export once a quarter whichever tool you use, and keep the file somewhere the company owns.

What do reviewers say?

Figures are from October 31, 2026; themes are our paraphrase.

Mailchimp had a 2.5 TrustScore, labeled Poor, on Trustpilot from 1,557 reviews: 20% five-star and 66% one-star, with replies to 90% of negative reviews. Praise covers fast live chat, an easy interface and good deliverability. Complaints cover account lockouts, compliance holds that block sends, scripted support, unexpected text-message charges and campaign content going missing.

Constant Contact had a 4.0 TrustScore, labeled Great, on Trustpilot from 2,119 reviews: 64% five-star and 19% one-star, with replies to 98% of negative reviews. Praise centers on patient, named support agents and reaching a real person. Its BBB profile shows an A+ rating and accreditation since 2002, alongside 160 complaints in three years and customer reviews averaging 1.08 out of 5 from 108. The recent BBB and Trustpilot complaints repeat refused refunds, auto-renewals, price increases and trouble canceling.

What does a contractor actually need from an email tool?

Most service companies need four sends, not forty: a review request after each finished job, a maintenance or seasonal reminder, a follow-up on quotes that haven't closed, and a note to customers you haven't seen in a year. Each of those starts from job data, such as the finish date, the service and the address, that lives in your field software, not in the email tool. So check before you pick:

1. Does your CRM sync to it? If not, someone exports and imports a list by hand every time.
2. Is your domain authenticated? SPF, DKIM and DMARC on your own domain keep campaigns out of spam; see our plain guide to those records.
3. Do you have consent for texts? A customer who gave a phone number for scheduling has not automatically agreed to marketing texts.
4. Who will write the emails? Both tools assume you will.

Our email marketing guide for contractors covers what to send and when, and the email tools roundup compares more options.

Which should you choose?

Choose Mailchimp if your list is under 250 contacts and you want to start free, you want many automation flows on Standard, and you are fine paying monthly with no refunds or paying annually for the 60-day guarantee.

Choose Constant Contact if reaching a real person for support matters more to you than price, you want texting included on its top plan (500 messages on Premium, per its pricing page), and you confirm the price at your list size and the renewal terms in writing before you pay, since we have not read its terms.

Or have someone run it for you: our email and SMS marketing service builds the campaigns from your own customer list and job history.

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