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Constant Contact versus Aweber

August 26, 2008 by 26 Comments

Constant Contact versus Aweber

If you are in Sales & Marketing then no doubt you are emailing your customers and prospects on an ongoing basis. If you aren’t using a service that specializes in email marketing, then you are losing out on increased sales, your valuable time and ultimately money. If you are still sending emails via BCC (Blind Carbon Copy), get with the times my friend as you are not only NOT personalizing your emails, you are potentially opening yourself or your company up for spam complaints and potential legal issues.

On to the task at hand comparing two of the world’s most premier online email marketing services, often referred to as auto responders. I have aimed to make this as impartial as possible, and ask that users of either services, or other competitive products, comment as to their thoughts and experiences.

Here is a side by side comparison of features & costs:

Last Updated Jan 4th, 2012

Constant Contact Aweber
Cost Per Month $15 for 500 email addresses to $150 for 25,000 $19/500 email addresses to $130 for 25,000
Email Newsletters Yes Yes
Deliverability 97% 99+%
Support Free Phone, Email & Chat Free Phone, Email & Chat
Auto Responders Yes Yes
Email Templates 400+ Templates 150+ Templates
Affiliate Program Commission Junction Aweber’s Own
Website Integration Yes Yes
Image Hosting Yes No
Tracking Yes Yes
Spam Check Yes Yes
Surveys Yes No
User Community Yes No
Blog Newsletter No Yes
Native Shopping Cart Integration 3rd Party Yes
API Yes Yes

Note (May 2010): I am now exclusively recommending AWEBER & not Constant Contact. I had an unfortunate run in with a Constant Contact representative & as a result prefer to affiliate myself with a company that appreciates those who send them business.

If you aren’t currently an Aweber  user, I’ve negotiated for you a 1$ Test Drive of the service below… when you click on the banner below to get to the Aweber landing page, just click on their PRICING link and you’ll see the 1$ trial/test drive.

Cheers,

Lee
Turn One-Time Visitors Into Active Subscribers with AWeber Email Marketing


Filed Under: AWeber Tips, Email Marketing, Featured, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Sales
  • http://www.aweber.com Tom Kulzer (AWeber CEO)

    Hi Lee,

    Thanks for the write up about AWeber. Unless CC has just released some new features, they definitely do not have any sort of autoresponder or sequential follow up functionality. AWeber was founded 10 years ago this month based exclusively on that feature. We do much more now, but it’s still the staple of automating communication with your website’s visitors.

  • http://www.leeraito.com leeraito

    Honest mistake Tom, as you will see I have updated the features.

    Thanks for stopping by!

  • http://www.aweber.com Tom Kulzer (AWeber CEO)

    Not a problem.

    Keep up the great work Lee!

  • http://www.palmettobug.com Michael Carnell

    Any real-life use comparrisons? And, any idea how Vertical Response (http://www.verticalresponse.com) compares in all this? They are less expensive, $10/month entry level, but are they any good?

  • Georjina

    Hello Lee,
    I recently took the Constant Contact 60 day trial after closing down my Aweber account last year (nothing to do with Aweber’s service, I wasn’t ready at the time).

    I’ll be going back to Aweber. Constant Contact to date still does not offer an autoresponder service, and I was told my 26 sequence newsletter would have to be entered by hand – it took me months to write the original content and now I’m supposed to do it again?! I don’t think so.

    Thank you for the even handed treatment of both services. I’ve considered Get Response but I’m going with Aweber, it’s better for a newbie like me:)

  • https://www.aweber.com/signup.htm?301855 Ron Givens

    Thank you for the write up. Great information.

    Also with AWeber’s affiliate program, you have direct and personal contact with the affiliate manager – me :) . I am always here for our affiliates and am willing to answer any questions they may have.

    I have been with AWeber for several years, so I have an intimate knowledge of the AWeber email marketing system that you will not find if you use a company that outsources it’s affiliate program.

    Have a brilliant day!

  • RL

    Constant contact now has an autoresponder offering, but it’s rumored they will charge for it in the future plus it’s not very robust nor does it allow for the extensive segmenting that Aweber has.

    I’m going back to Aweber though I did have to get a newletter template designed for me to use with Aweber. I would like to see way more e-mail newsletter html templates at Aweber.

  • http://www.housecallspersonaltrainer.com Michael Rinsler

    Hi

    Can somebody out there please be kind enough to help me. I am a single dad who lost everything I had. I am a personal trainer that goes to peoples homes on the North Shore of Long Island. I just started a web-page from homestead.com, the site is named up abobe-www.housecallspersonaltrainer.com . I do not have money for any S.E.O.- so the only way future clients will find me is from flyers with my web-address that I have in a few places. I am new at this internet business thing- and am trying to build up my in home client business-can someone please tell me which would be the easiest set up for me ?- constant contact or Aweber?- and please- what is an “autoresponder”?- is there a way that one of these services- once someone puts in their e mail info- can automaticly send out maybe a “word document automaticly” on different training articles I have ?- is there such an animal out there ?- I appreciate if someone can please answer me. I actually signed up for the webinar on how to use aweber this Tues. night- and I also signed up for the free constant contact trail-but cannot seem to put the sign in box on my webpage- ty for your help- sincerely Michael-thetrainer21@yahoo.com

  • http://www.leeraito.com Lee

    Hi Michael,

    Aweber will do exactly what you want by sending out an auto response with whatever links you want! Aweber is a true autoresponder, and in your case Constant Contact is probably not the best fit. The folks over at Aweber are very helpfu,l so I would definetly take in one of there training sessions if you can.

    If you need any additioinal help feel free to get in touch via my contact page!

    Cheers,
    Lee

  • http://www.weddingfitnessplanner.com Michael Rinsler

    Hi Lee

    Thank you very much for your reply. I will be on the Aweber webinar tonight !- I will let you know how it goes- ty so much again- have a great night-sincerely- Michael

  • Shenil

    Constant Contact does offer an auto responder service.

  • http://www.makingyoufindable.com Tom Lyons

    I’m in the process at looking at Constant Contact, I’ve been with Aweber forever, but they just don’t offer a nice easy approach to make your newsletter look great for non tech people.

    I’ll see if Constant Contact is any better.

  • http://www.cratercom.com Amanda Crater

    Hi Tom,
    I am an non-tech person and used Constant Contact to make a newsletter. It was pretty easy and came out looking professional. The pricing is good too (about $40/month, $45 if you want to be able to publish the newsletter to your website). Good luck!

    @AmandaCrater

  • http://www.mowplus.com/ Naples lawn care

    The only thing Aweber lacks is the templates but you still have a wide variety to choose from.

  • http://www.leeraito.com Lee Raito

    Thanks for your comment Amanda. Just so readers are clear, both Aweber & Constant Contact have many templates to choose from.

  • http://www.leeraito.com Lee Raito

    Thanks for your comment Amanda. Just so readers are clear, both Aweber & Constant Contact have many templates to choose from.

  • Pingback: Use These Customer Communication Tools to Add Sales Power Without Adding Sales People « QuestionPro Blog

  • JS

    I enjoy using E-MAIL NETWORKS as my email marketing service for PR purposes and think it's user-friendly for the most part. I also liked the fact that the service dept is dependable when I have issues with some of my segment groups, depending on the newsletter campaign.

  • http://www.leeraito.com Lee Raito

    Jan. 10th, 2010 Just did a review of both Aweber & Constant Contact to update the comparison chart. Please let me know if you think it should include anything else or if you notice anything out of order.

  • http://twitter.com/RxMusicandArts Remedy Records

    After three years of this blog post being online, it’s STILL so very worth the read. And, after months of comparing Constant Contact with Aweber and Patron Mail, NONE of these three services were able to bolster offering 100% FREE service to non-profit organizations. Michael, thanks so much for your response. Your response just saved us tons of $$ in overhead that we could not otherwise afford as a ground-level non-profit org. I’ll forego the bells and whistles (auto responders) for the FREE service, 10,000 emails per month, unlimited storage space, and pay-as-you go option. Excellent choice for us non-profits!

  • Lflaming

    Thanks for the review. I find the lack of image hosting and therefore logos and branding in the confirmation email to be a problem on aWeber. They also have extremely limited number of characters on the content of that confirmation email. I also imported a comma delimted list and had it completely rejected but did not receive notification. So, I’m back looking at Constant Contact.

  • KMI

    Hi Lee –

    We’re moving 5000 email-addresses only from Topica. I want either AWeber or CC to send auto-responders when my people click something on our site off the newsletter; I want to see easy to understand analytics; I want the “forward to a friend” link; and I really, really, really need to have some great scalable template options – Topica offers only three. Your best advice?

  • http://www.leeraito.com Lee Raito

    Thanks for the question.

    Honestly, both Aweber & Constant contact will give you what you are looking for… Although I’m not 100% sure on the ‘forward to a friend’. I have been recommending Aweber over CC for quite sometime now as the service, analytics, & customizations are superior based on my experience.

    My suggestion would be to call both companies directly & put your mind at ease by getting all your questions answered upfront.

    Good luck with your transfer!

  • Dave Miller

    I’m a Constant Contact user but have been only for a short time. I’m a mortgage consultant – not so much a full time marketer, although I guess you could say I’m a full time marketer and part-time mortgage consultant since I spend way more time lately doing marketing and much less time doing actual mortgages – maybe because I’m not that good at the marketing yet. I need some help creating and implementing a marketing plan using Craigslist and Backpage primarily – but am open to other suggestions. Who would be a good group that is not too expensive because I have a very tight budget to start with. Any thoughts? Also, I noticed something that Aweber has that Constant Contacts doesn’t. With Aweber you can create and host landing pages. With Constant Contact you can’t without using an API (not sure what this is but I think it means you need to hire someone to write the landing page for you). I noticed this because I sat through a video presentation and the presenter was showing how to create a landing page and he embedded his sign-up form that he created with Aweber. I immediately went to Constant Contacts to figure out if I can do this same thing with Constant Contacts and it said I either need to use the survey/poll which cannot be customized much or I have to hire someone to do it for me. So I think on that basis, I’m switching to Aweber.

  • http://www.leeraito.com Lee Raito

    Hi Dave,

    I think you’ll be happy with your decision on switching to Aweber. As for
    your Craiglsist marketing question send me your details via my contact page
    and I can get back to you with the contact info of a friend of mine that has
    done a ton of marketing on Craigslist… I’m sure he could help or at least
    point you in the right direction.

    Good luck with selling all those low rate mortgages :)

    Cheers,
    Lee

  • Cgwwbooks

    Thank you for a great comparison. I have AWeber and am trying to use it to market.