Constant Contact Contact & Send Fees, Actual Monthly Cost: 2026 Guide

Constant Contact runs from $12 to $80 a month across three tiers, with a custom Teams plan above and no free option. Lite is $12, Standard is $35, and Premium is $80, and every price is the lowest contact band. The bill scales with both your contact count and your send volume, so it climbs as either grows, and overage fees apply above your tier. SMS is a paid add-on from $10 a month on the lower plans. Prepaying a year saves up to 15 percent, or 30 percent for nonprofits. Budget from your real contacts and sends, not the entry rate.

No. Constant Contact does not offer a permanent free plan, only a 30-day money-back guarantee that lets you try the tool and get a refund if it does not suit you. So the real entry point is Lite at $12 a month, and there is no free tier to fall back on the way rivals like Brevo or MailerLite offer. If a free plan matters to you, those competitors keep one at smaller list sizes. Constant Contact's pitch is hands-on support and onboarding rather than a free door in, so weigh that against the lack of a free option.

Usually because the plan scales on two axes at once. Constant Contact prices by both your contact count and how many emails you send, so the entry rate is only the lowest band, and growing either one re-prices the plan. Inactive contacts add to that total until you clear them, and the page warns that overage fees apply once you pass your tier's limits, billing the excess rather than throttling. SMS, if you added it, is a separate $10-plus line on the lower tiers. Clean the list and check your send volume against your tier to keep the bill predictable.

Three sit outside the headline price. First, two-axis scaling: the $12, $35, and $80 rates are the lowest contact band, and both contacts and sends push them up, with overage fees above your tier. Second, SMS: texting is bundled only on Premium and costs from $10 a month on Lite and Standard. Third, the prepay structure, where the only discount comes from paying a year up front, so month-to-month buyers pay full rate. The plan card highlights none of them, yet together they can lift the real cost well above the entry figure, especially for a growing or texting business.

Yes, on all but the top plan. SMS marketing is bundled into Premium, which includes 500 messages, but on Lite and Standard it is a separate add-on starting at $10 a month for up to 500 messages. So a Standard subscriber who wants text campaigns is really paying $45 a month, not $35, and the cost rises with volume above the included messages. If SMS is part of your plan, factor it in when comparing tiers. Consider adding it only for the seasonal campaigns when you actually text, rather than carrying the line year-round.

The main lever is prepaying. Constant Contact has no monthly-versus-annual toggle and no coupon field, but paying twelve months up front cuts up to 15 percent off the effective rate. Registered nonprofits get a deeper prepay discount, up to 30 percent. Beyond that, the savings are structural. Keep your contact list lean to hold a lower band, and drop the SMS add-on between campaigns. If you run multiple locations, negotiate the custom Teams plan with a rival quote in hand. Below Teams, the listed tier prices are fixed, so a prepay plus list hygiene is the realistic route down.

Registered nonprofits can save up to 30 percent, applied to the same twelve-month prepay that gives other customers up to 15 percent. So the nonprofit rate is roughly double the standard prepay discount, which makes it one of the more generous nonprofit deals in the category. It still requires paying a year in advance rather than month to month, and you need to verify your nonprofit status to qualify. For a small nonprofit, that prepay discount plus a lean contact list is the main way to bring the bill down. There is no free plan to fall back on.

It depends on what you value. Constant Contact's strengths are live onboarding, phone and chat support, and a long track record, which suit a small business that wants hands-on help. At $12, Lite is competitive at entry, but the two-axis scaling, SMS add-on, and overage fees mean the real bill often runs higher, and there is no free plan. For a price-led sender, MailerLite at $12 with cheaper scaling or Brevo at $9 on a send-based model will carry the same list for less. Constant Contact earns its rate on support, not on being the cheapest option.