Constant Contact vs Brevo: Which is Better in 2026?
Constant Contact and Brevo both sell email marketing to small businesses, but they start from different price floors and different product bets. Constant Contact has no free plan and leans on brand recognition and a specialized email toolset. Brevo, formerly Sendinblue, gives away a genuinely usable free tier and bundles SMS, WhatsApp, and a built-in CRM around the email product. This is a direct competitive comparison for anyone choosing a primary email marketing platform.
Bottom line: Constant Contact is our overall pick for email marketing workflows. Pick Brevo if you need a free tier to start with.
Short on time? Here's the quick answer
We've tested both tools. Here's who should pick what:
Constant Contact
Established email marketing for small businesses
Best for you if:
- • Affordable email marketing for small businesses
- • Drag-and-drop email builder with templates
Brevo
All-in-one marketing platform for email, SMS, and customer engagement
Best for you if:
- • Formerly Sendinblue, now Brevo
- • 300 free emails/day forever
| At a Glance |  Constant Contact |  Brevo |
|---|---|---|
Starts at | FreeFree tier available | FreeFree tier available |
Best For | Email Marketing | Email Marketing |
Rating | 4.2/5 | 4.6/5 |
Free plan | Yes | Yes |
Choose Constant Contact or Brevo?
Choose Constant Contact if
Established email marketing for small businesses
- Easy to use
- Good for beginners
- Event marketing
Choose Brevo if
All-in-one marketing platform for email, SMS, and customer engagement
- Very generous free tier (300 emails/day)
- Affordable paid plans
- All-in-one platform
| Feature | Constant Contact | Brevo |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing Model | Freemium | Freemium |
| User Rating | ★4.2/5 11,849 reviews | ★4.6/5 5,959 reviews |
| Categories | Email MarketingMarketing Automation | Email MarketingMarketing Automation |
In-Depth Analysis
Constant Contact
Strengths
- +A 60 day free trial gives a longer evaluation window than most email marketing competitors before any card is charged
- +The Standard tier at 35 dollars a month adds A/B testing, contact segmentation, and a subject line assistant, features aimed squarely at businesses that are actively optimizing campaigns, not just sending them
- +Premium at 80 dollars a month includes unlimited users, custom automation, revenue reporting, and Google Ads integration for businesses that want marketing and paid acquisition data in one place
- +An established, long-running platform with broad name recognition among small business owners, which shows up in Constant Contact's large existing customer base
Weaknesses
- -No free plan at any contact volume; the Lite tier still costs 12 dollars a month for as few as 500 contacts
- -SMS is a separate add-on starting around 100 dollars a month before per-message costs, a meaningfully higher barrier to multi-channel campaigns than a competitor with SMS built into its core plans
- -Pricing scales with contact count, so a list of 10,000 to 15,000 contacts pushes Lite to 180 dollars a month and Premium to 325 dollars a month, well above the advertised entry prices
Best For
Small businesses that want a specialized, established email marketing platform and are not looking to consolidate SMS or CRM into the same tool.
Constant Contact is the right choice for a business whose marketing is email-first, values a long free trial to test campaigns before committing, and does not need SMS or WhatsApp in the same platform.
Brevo
Strengths
- +A genuinely usable free tier allows up to 300 emails a day, roughly 9,000 a month, with a drag and drop editor, transactional API access, and SMS and WhatsApp campaigns included, not gated behind a paid plan
- +Starter at 9 dollars a month includes 5,000 monthly email sends with no daily sending limit, a lower entry price than any of Constant Contact's paid tiers
- +Business at 18 dollars a month adds marketing automation, A/B testing, advanced reporting with heatmaps, predictive sending, and landing pages, undercutting Constant Contact's comparable Standard tier on price
- +SMS and WhatsApp campaigns are part of the core product rather than a costly separate add-on, letting a business run multi-channel campaigns from one platform
Weaknesses
- -The free and Starter tiers carry Brevo branding on outgoing emails unless a business pays for the branding removal add-on
- -Enterprise pricing is custom and unpublished, the same opacity Constant Contact avoids by publishing all three of its tiers
- -Being priced lower across the board means Brevo's brand carries less established recognition among small business owners than Constant Contact's longer market presence
Best For
Small businesses and startups that want email, SMS, and WhatsApp marketing in one affordable platform without paying for each channel separately.
Brevo is the right choice for a budget-conscious business that wants multi-channel marketing, including SMS and WhatsApp, without stacking separate subscriptions or steep per-channel add-on costs.
Head-to-Head Comparison
Pricing
Brevo winsBrevo's free tier alone, up to 300 emails a day, beats Constant Contact's entry price of 12 dollars a month with no free option. Brevo's Starter tier at 9 dollars a month for 5,000 sends and Business tier at 18 dollars a month both undercut Constant Contact's comparable Lite and Standard tiers at 12 and 35 dollars a month.
Core capability
TieBoth platforms cover the fundamentals of email marketing well: templates, a drag and drop editor, segmentation, and automation at their mid and upper tiers. Neither has a clear functional gap in core email marketing against the other.
Multi-channel marketing (SMS and WhatsApp)
Brevo winsBrevo includes SMS and WhatsApp campaigns starting on its free tier. Constant Contact treats SMS as a separate add-on starting around 100 dollars a month before per-message charges, a much higher barrier to running the same multi-channel strategy.
Ease of use
TieBoth are built for small business marketers rather than specialists, with comparable drag and drop editors and campaign builders. Neither has a documented, significant usability edge over the other for a typical small business user.
Advanced automation and reporting
Brevo winsBrevo's Business tier at 18 dollars a month includes advanced reporting with heatmaps and predictive sending, features that only appear on Constant Contact's Premium tier at 80 dollars a month, a large price gap for comparable functionality.
Evaluation window before paying
Constant Contact winsConstant Contact's 60 day free trial gives a longer no-cost evaluation period than committing to Brevo's free tier's daily sending cap, though Brevo's free tier has no expiration date at all, which is a different kind of advantage rather than a clearly shorter one.
Cost at scale for a large contact list
Brevo winsConstant Contact's pricing rises steeply with contact count, reaching 180 to 325 dollars a month for 10,000 to 15,000 contacts depending on tier. Brevo's send-volume-based pricing model generally scales more gently for large contact lists that do not send proportionally as often.
Migration Considerations
Moving from Constant Contact to Brevo mainly means exporting contact lists and templates, both straightforward CSV and HTML exports, and rebuilding any Google Ads integration workflows since Brevo does not offer that specific integration. Moving from Brevo to Constant Contact means budgeting for SMS as a separate paid add-on if that channel is in active use, since it is bundled at no extra cost on Brevo but priced separately on Constant Contact.
Pricing: Constant Contact vs Brevo
| Plan | Constant Contact | Brevo |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | $12 month Lite | $0 Free |
| Tier 2 | $35 month Standard | $9 Starter |
| Tier 3 | $80 month Premium | $18 Business |
| Tier 4 | N/A | Custom Enterprise |
Pricing verified from each vendor's public pricing page. Compare in detail on Constant Contact pricing and Brevo pricing.
Who Should Use What?
On a budget?
Both are freemium. Compare plans on their websites.
Go with: Constant Contact
Want the highest-rated option?
Constant Contact: 4.2/5 (11,849 reviews). Brevo: 4.6/5 (5,959 reviews).
Go with: Brevo
Value user reviews?
Constant Contact: 11,849 reviews (4.2/5). Brevo: 5,959 reviews (4.6/5).
Go with: Constant Contact
3 Questions to Help You Decide
What's your budget?
Both are freemium. Pricing won't help you decide here.
What's your use case?
Both are email marketing tools. Compare their specific features to decide.
How important are ratings?
Brevo is rated higher: 4.6/5 vs 4.2/5.
Key Takeaways
Constant Contact
- Larger review base (11,849 reviews)
- Free tier available
- Our pick for this comparison
Brevo
- Higher user rating: 4.6/5 vs 4.2/5
The Bottom Line
For a small business that wants to add SMS and WhatsApp to its email marketing without paying for a separate tool or a costly add-on, Brevo wins on price and channel breadth at every comparable tier. For a business that is email-only, values an established platform, and wants a long trial window before paying anything, Constant Contact remains a solid, if pricier, choice. For a business with a large contact list and moderate send frequency, Brevo's volume-based pricing is very likely to come out cheaper than Constant Contact's contact-count-based tiers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Brevo have a free plan and does Constant Contact?
Brevo offers a genuinely free tier with up to 300 emails a day and access to SMS and WhatsApp campaigns. Constant Contact has no free plan; its cheapest tier, Lite, starts at 12 dollars a month.
Which platform is cheaper for SMS marketing?
Brevo, by a wide margin. SMS and WhatsApp campaigns are included in Brevo's core plans starting on the free tier. Constant Contact charges SMS as a separate add-on starting around 100 dollars a month plus per-message costs.
Is Brevo the same company as Sendinblue?
Yes. Sendinblue rebranded to Brevo, and the product has since expanded well beyond email into SMS, WhatsApp, and a built-in CRM, all under the Brevo name.
Which platform scales better for a large contact list?
Brevo's pricing is based primarily on send volume, which tends to scale more gently for a large list that is not emailed constantly. Constant Contact's pricing rises directly with contact count regardless of how often that list is actually emailed, which can make it more expensive at scale.
Does either platform integrate with Google Ads?
Constant Contact's Premium tier at 80 dollars a month includes Google Ads integration for combining campaign and paid acquisition data. Brevo does not offer an equivalent native Google Ads integration.