Marketing is hard, but picking the perfect tool to launch and manage your email marketing can make it easier and more successful.
That’s why it’s so essential to pick the right email marketing platform for your business.
We know that if you’re reading this, you’re currently trying to do just that, and your choices are now between GetResponse or Constant Contact.
We obviously think the right choice is GetResponse. We believe our tool has powerful email marketing capabilities and other features like webinars, advertising, and landing pages that make it a great pick for small businesses and freelancers.
But the decision isn’t up to us — it’s up to you. So, we’ve put together this comprehensive comparison of GetResponse and Constant Contact’s features and pricing so you can make an informed decision.
Table Of Contents
We’ll be going over each key feature in detail, but if you’d like to access the quick recap first, here’s a full comparison table.
| Feature | GetResponse | Constant Contact |
|---|---|---|
| Email marketing | Yes | Yes |
| Forms and surveys | Yes | Yes |
| Conversion funnels | Yes | No |
| Landing pages | Yes | Yes |
| Live chats | Yes | No |
| Webinars | Yes | No |
| Web push notifications | Yes | No |
| Built-in image editor | Yes | No |
| Lead scoring | Yes | No |
| Website builder | No | Yes |
| Facebook ads | Yes | Yes |
| Google ads | Yes | No |
| 24/7 support | Yes | No |
1. Do they both have A/B testing features?
GetResponse:
GetResponse allows you to A/B test the basics of any marketing campaign.
In terms of emails, you can do a simple subject line A/B test using the A/B testing tool or a more complex analysis using the splitter tool inside the Marketing Automation builder.
As for landing pages, you can test pretty much anything that’ll come to your mind – it only takes one click to create a second variant of your page where half of your traffic will automatically be directed to.
Constant Contact:
Constant Contact also has A/B testing — but it’s limited.
You can only test out subject lines at the moment. While creating an email campaign, you can turn the A/B testing feature on and then add in two different subject lines to see which one works best:
An example of A/B headline testing using Constant Contact
Also, Constant Contact only allows you to test two subject lines at a time, unlike GetResponse that lets you test up to 5 different subject lines.
Constant Contact also requires you manually add in your winning subject line to send to your list once you’ve picked it, but GetResponse automatically sends it to your list.
Want to practice why you learn? Try GetResponse for 30 days for free – no credit card needed.
2. Do both have inbuilt templates?
GetResponse:
GetResponse’s template library is packed with options, so you can start building your marketing campaigns in minutes.
The template library includes email templates, landing page templates, social ads templates, and even full conversion funnel templates where all elements carry on the same branding.
It’s important to note that just because there are so many email templates to choose from doesn’t mean they lack quality. We’re not sacrificing quality for quantity here. Each email template is professionally designed and tested for deliverability. They’re also responsive, so they work on any device.
So whether you choose a template for sending out a welcome email or promoting a webinar, each template will function the same regardless of whether your customer receives it on their desktop or mobile.
Besides that, you can easily customize them to your taste with GetResponse’s drag-and-drop builder; it allows you to change out texts, images, or call-to-action buttons without needing any coding skills.
The email templates are also grouped into categories so you can find what you’re looking for faster. For example, email templates aimed at product sales can be found in the ecommerce section, and if you want to alert your customers to an upcoming event, there are templates for that, too.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact also has a large template library — with over 400 email templates.
Like GetResponse, it also has a drag-and-drop editor, so you can easily customize the email templates with your images and branding.
The editor also has features like Google Fonts and allows you to import PDFs into emails. It also has a branded template builder, so you can import your logo, color swatches, and social media links into a template to save time when you send out an email.
3. What does each tool’s marketing automation look like?
GetResponse:
We believe that any successful marketing campaign stretches beyond email — because you also need landing pages, workflows, autoresponders, web push notifications, and all sorts of other marketing channels to nurture your customers and improve sales (or any other types of conversions).
That’s why we’ve worked to make our marketing automation software easy to use and accessible to everyone.
Using an intuitive drag and drop automation workflow builder, you can set up automations based on various triggers like:
- Contact added
- Contact opened or clicked a link
- Contact made a purchase
- Contact abandoned a cart
- Contact visited a particular URL
- Contacted was moved or copied from another list
Based on those triggers, you can perform all kinds of actions – e.g. send an email, assign a tag, add a score – and narrow down your recipients using various types of filters.
So let’s say you want to welcome new subscribers who have signed up to your list through a webform. You can either use one of our pre-designed templates or build your own workflow using the workflow builder:
And if you want to add to this automation, all you have to do is drag and drop elements into the workflow and attach them. Easy!
Constant Contact:
If you choose Constant Contact’s Email Plus plan, you’ll have access to their Email Automation solution.
The tool lets you set up basic automations based on customers’ actions, e.g.:
- Contact added
- Contact opened an email or click a link
- Contact has birthday or some kind of anniversary
However, Constant Contact automation sequences don’t go beyond these basic triggers.
So if you want to set up more advanced scenarios, e.g. tag subscribers who click on a product link or add them to a webinar invitation if they visit a certain page on your website, you won’t be able to.
4. Conversion funnels, anyone?
GetResponse:
Imagine you’d like to sell an ebook or a webinar.
Until recently, you would have to piece together a tech stack of different products to host, promote, distribute, track, and finally sell your products.
To solve this, we created a Conversion Funnel feature in GetResponse so you can now set up and track all your efforts under one roof.
This feature allows you to build a custom conversion funnel so you can visualize every step of your marketing campaign:
We’ve also created templates you can use for each step of the funnel, like:
- Landing Pages
- Stores
- Facebook Ads
- Instagram Ads
- Social Ads creator
- Sales pages
- Payment processors
- Follow-up/abandoned cart emails
If you are building a new list, your conversion funnel might look like this:
All you have to do is add the pre-made templates to each step and then start your campaign. The tool will then track how successful each part of the conversion funnel is. And if, for example, people are opting-out of your emails, you can change that part of your funnel.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact doesn’t offer any conversion funnels right now.
5. What about autoresponders?
GetResponse:
GetResponse Email Autoresponders allow you to welcome new subscribers, set up email courses, and nurture your leads until they convert into paying customers.
So instead of spending hours sending out these emails to your list, GetResponse puts the tasks on autopilot.
If you want a quick breakdown of what our autoresponder can do, you can watch it here.
Also, our calendar feature helps you visualize your autoresponders so you can easily see when you’re sending out all your campaigns so there’s no overlap.
This helps you better visualize your customer journey and pick the right mailing frequency for your audience.
Constant Contact:
Constant Contact doesn’t have a separate autoresponder feature, but you can use their Email Automation to set up drip campaigns.
As we noted above, it can automatically trigger emails to be sent to new subscribers, customers who open a specific message or click your link, and contacts who have a birthday or anniversary.
Like GetResponse, you can customize these autoresponders, so they’re sent out immediately or delayed for a set time after somebody subscribes to your list.
Once you’ve created an autoresponder series, you can add as many follow-up emails as you want.
6. What about webinars?
GetResponse:
In the past, launching webinars required you to add an extra tool to your marketing stack. Not anymore.
GetResponse’s webinar software allows you to create interactive webinars, invite subscribers to attend, and automatically follow-up afterward right from the dashboard.
We’ve created a bunch of webinar templates so you can launch a professional-looking webinar easily. You can also add features like images, sign-up forms, and even interactive whiteboards before you start your webinar.
Every time you launch a webinar, you’ll also have access features like:
- Interactive whiteboards
- Screen sharing/interactive chat room
- Recording (so you can remarket the webinar once it’s over)
- Q&A session
- Payment gateways
- Moderated chat
- Multiple hosts
And since you’ll already be using GetResponse for your other marketing efforts like emails and landing pages, webinar leads will be automatically added to these lists and, if you choose, added to existing marketing campaigns.
The comprehensive suite of tools lets you nurture new leads, ask attendees questions, and even sell products and courses directly from your webinars.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact doesn’t offer any specific webinar tools in its marketing suite.
7. What are the prices?
GetResponse:
GetResponse’s pricing has four tiers: Basic, Plus, Professional, and Max.
The price you’ll pay depends on the size of your email list & features you want to access to.
Our Basic Plan costs $15/month/user and gives you access to our email marketing suite, autoresponders, landing pages, lead funnels, and Facebook Ads.
If you want access to our automation builder and webinar tools, you’d have to upgrade to the Plus plan, which costs $49/month/3 users.
Of course, it’s best to try before you buy, which is why we offer our tools for free with our 30-day free trial – no credit card needed.
If you’re happy with the product, you’ll be rewarded with a discount. Buy a 1-year plan, and you’ll get an 18% discount. And if you sign-up for a two-year plan, you’ll get a 30% discount.
On top of that, we also offer a special up to 50% off discount for non-profits.
Example: Let’s say you have a list of up to 10,000 subscribers and want to access Marketing Automation, but don’t want to use web-push notifications and other advanced features. Then your best choice is to go for the Plus plan where your monthly bill will be $95 (prior any discounts).
Constant Contact:
Constant Contact has two pricing tiers: Email and Email Plus.
The cheaper tier, Email, starts at $20/month for up to 500 contacts and includes unlimited email. Email Plus begins at $45/month and gives you access to more tools like automated welcome series, customizable pop-up forms, and advanced ecommerce marketing.
While Constant Contact’s free trial is generous (60 days), it requires that you provide your credit card details. Not only that, their plan automatically renews every month until you cancel your subscription.
It also offers a 15% discount if you buy a yearly plan upfront.
Example: Let’s say you have a list of up to 10,000 subscribers and want to access Email Automation. Then your best choice is to go for the Email Plus plan, which will add up to $125 per month (prior any discounts). That’s $30 more than what you’d pay at GetResponse and you’re not getting access to features like Webinars or Sales Funnels.
8. Which one lets you build landing pages?
GetResponse
With over 180 different templates to choose from, GetResponse is an excellent option for small businesses and freelancers who want a wide choice when building a landing page.
With our landing page builder, you can change any template using a drag-and-drop editor, making it easy to add your logo, text, and images to any landing page (no coding experience necessary.)
However, the landing page builder allows you to further customize landing pages so you can:
- structure your landing pages using sections.
- add content blocks for images, video, text, and buttons.
- add static and pop-up forms.
- add webinar registration forms.
- add a sense of urgency with countdown timers.
- collect payments thanks to PayPal integration.
- add social sharing icons.
- add custom-code elements using HTML, CSS, or Javascript.
- preview your landing page to see what it looks like on a desktop or a mobile device.
To top it off, it doesn’t matter what device your customers view the landing pages on, as they’re built to be responsive whether they’re viewed on a desktop or mobile.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact also has landing page capabilities.
You can now build basic, call-to-action landing pages like this one:
Constant Contact has also integrated with tools like Facebook, Eventbrite, WordPress, Salesforce, and Shopify so that, like GetResponse, you can create shoppable landing pages.
On top of the simple landing page builder, Constant Contact has a more robust website builder, which lets you set up multipage websites and simple online stores.
9. Can I add a chat to my landing page?
GetResponse
GetResponse introduced live chats recently.
You can use this feature to communicate directly with your audience, e.g. you can collect product feedback directly on the product page or give your contacts extra attention and follow up with them with targeted emails.
It’s a perfect solution if you want to build a stronger relationship with your audience and offer them a simpler way of contacting you.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact doesn’t offer a live chat feature right now.
10. Which one lets you do segmentation?
GetResponse
GetResponse’s segmentation tools make it easy to segment and tag users based on their behavior.
Once a contact lands on your list through a landing page or targeted advertising campaign, GetResponse can then segment them based on their behavior, how they signed up, or even the links they click on.
What our tool also does is go beyond tracking behavior and measures how engaged each contact is using lead scoring, which measures contacts on a 5-score scale:
- Not engaged (when somebody is not interested in the content you send them at all)
- At-risk
- Neutral
- Engaged
- Highly engaged (when somebody loves the content you send, is actively opening emails, and clicking the links)
That way, if you want to send out a marketing campaign to your most engaged subscribers — you can. Each contact on your list will have their Engagement Score put beside them:
An example of contacts with varying engagement scores
Constant Contact
Constant Contact also lets you assign tags and segment subscribers once they’re on your list.
Like GetResponse, you can segment subscribers based on their geographical location and activity. But if you want to add more detail to subscribers, Constant Contact doesn’t give you a way to edit a contact easily; you’ll have to load each list and then update each field manually for every contact, which can be time-consuming.
Constant Contact also doesn’t give subscribers a lead score, so you won’t know which ones are more engaged than others.
11. What’s customer support like with these two vendors?
GetResponse
We know that issues happen outside of normal business hours, which is why we make our customer support available 24/7.
So if our customers have an issue or a question, they get live chat, email, or phone support to talk to our experts depending on their plan.
We also want to break down any language barriers between our experts and our customers, which is why all our customer support channels offer help in 8 different languages.
Account Managers are also offered to Enterprise customers to make onboarding, setup, and campaign optimization easy.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact has a handy knowledge base with articles customers can access any time to help solve problems.
Unlike GetResponse, Constant Contact’s customer support isn’t offered 24/7. Customers can talk to a team member over the phone between 8 am – 10 pm Monday – Friday and then during reduced hours over the weekend.
Constant Contact also offers help over live chat Monday – Friday, but it’s unavailable over the weekend.
12. Which one helps you run Social media and Google ads?
GetResponse
You can now design and launch professional-looking Facebook, Instagram, and Google Ads easily using GetResponse.
We built the Social Ads Creator app so you can advertise your business through professional-looking Facebook Ads. The creator allows you to use a template or create an ad from scratch, and all you have to do is add your images and branding and hit publish.
Like our other templates, elements can be easily changed using a drag-and-drop tool:
And if your business is less focused on social media and more concerned about advertising on search engines, we’ve got your back too.
We have a tool that lets you build Google Ads easily. All you have to do is connect your Google Ads account, type out the ad content, choose a target audience, and set your desired budget:
Easy!
Constant Contact
Constant Contact has an in-app Facebook and Instagram ad creation tool to make it easier for businesses to advertise on social media tools.
The tool’s features are similar to GetResponse’s Social Ads Creator app: you can add custom images, add content, and change the ad’s call-to-action button:
However, Constant Contact’s tool still requires a lot of manual work.
With GetResponse’s tool, you just add photos, names, and prices, and then it automatically creates different sets of branded promotional videos, banners, and slideshows.
Constant Contact’s tool requires you to manually add in every element of an ad, meaning campaigns take longer to create, and you’ll have less material to choose from unless you build it yourself.
Constant Contact also doesn’t have any in-built analytics tools, making it harder to track a social media ad campaign’s success.
GetResponse vs. Constant Contact: Full feature comparison table
| Feature | GetResponse | Constant Contact |
|---|---|---|
| Email marketing | Yes | Yes |
| Forms and surveys | Yes | Yes |
| Conversion funnels | Yes | No |
| Landing pages | Yes | Yes |
| Chats | Yes | No |
| Webinars | Yes | No |
| Web push notifications | Yes | No |
| Built-in image editor | Yes | No |
| Lead scoring | Yes | No |
| Website builder | No | Yes |
| Facebook ads | Yes | Yes |
| Google ads | Yes | No |
| 24/7 support | Yes | No |
Wrapping Up
With so many email marketing platforms out there, it’s hard to know which one is best for your business.
It’s why we put this comparison together, so you can decide which tool’s features and pricing match up with your business’s needs and budget.
Now you know what each one offers, it’s time for you to make a choice: GetResponse or Constant Contact?
Author’s note:
This comparison is accurate on March 4th, 2021. We do our best to keep it as accurate as possible, and we check it on a regular basis, however, if you want to acquaint yourself with the offer of our competitors, you should check it at their official website or contact their representatives.