Mailchimp vs Constant Contact for Churches (2026)

Mailchimp vs Constant Contact for Churches: Full Overview

Mailchimp and Constant Contact are the two most compared email platforms in the church communications space. Both were built for small businesses and later added nonprofit features — but neither was designed specifically for churches sending weekly bulletins, prayer chains, and event invitations to a congregation.

Mailchimp launched in 2001 and grew into a full marketing platform with landing pages, social ads, CRM features, and automation workflows. Intuit acquired Mailchimp in 2021 for $12 billion. Its free plan (500 contacts, 1,000 emails per month) is the strongest draw for small churches with no communications budget.

Constant Contact has been in the email space since 1995. It focuses on simplicity and added event management tools that are genuinely useful for churches running services, retreats, galas, and community dinners. Its up-to-30% prepay discount through TechSoup is the most generous among major platforms — but it removed its free plan in 2023 and the discount requires a 501(c)(3) letter most automatically-exempt churches do not have on file.

Core Email Features Compared

Both platforms include the essential email features churches need: drag-and-drop editors for the weekly bulletin, contact management for the congregation database, signup forms for new visitors, basic analytics, and scheduled sending for Sunday-morning announcements.

Mailchimp gates its most useful features behind higher plans. Email automation — useful for new-visitor welcome series — requires Standard ($20/month at 500 contacts) or higher. A/B testing and send-time optimisation are also Standard-tier. The free plan includes only basic email sends and limited templates.

Constant Contact takes a similar approach but with fewer tiers. Its Standard plan includes basic automation, segmentation (handy for ministries and small groups), and social posting. Event management is available on all paid plans — a genuine differentiator for churches with active calendars. A/B subject-line testing requires Premium.

For churches sending a weekly bulletin and occasional event invites, both platforms provide more features than most congregations will use. The question is rarely about feature gaps — it is about what your church will actually pay for the features it needs.

Where Mailchimp Adds Value for Churches

Mailchimp's strongest case for churches starts with its free plan. For small congregations with fewer than 500 active members and no budget, Mailchimp is the only major platform offering a free entry point since Constant Contact removed its free tier in 2023.

Beyond the free plan, Mailchimp's integration ecosystem is its second advantage. With over 300 native integrations — including Planning Center, Tithe.ly, Eventbrite, WordPress, and Stripe — churches running multiple ministry tools can connect them without third-party middleware.

Mailchimp's reporting is also more detailed than Constant Contact's. Campaign analytics include click maps, audience growth charts, and member segmentation by ministry interest. For churches that report engagement metrics to elders, boards, or denominational leadership, Mailchimp provides more granular data out of the box.

The tradeoff is complexity. Mailchimp's dashboard has grown cluttered as Intuit has added marketing features most churches will never use — pastor and volunteer time spent learning the platform is a real cost.

Where Constant Contact Adds Value for Churches

Constant Contact's clearest advantage for churches is its built-in event management. Churches that run galas, fundraising dinners, retreats, vacation Bible school registrations, mission trip sign-ups, or community workshops can create event pages, manage registrations, collect payments, and send follow-up emails — all without leaving the platform.

The up-to-30% nonprofit prepay discount through TechSoup is the most generous among major email platforms. While the base prices are higher than Mailchimp's, the 12-month prepay discount brings Constant Contact's effective cost below Mailchimp's at most contact tiers above 2,500 — provided your church holds an IRS 501(c)(3) determination letter and has the cash flow to prepay.

Constant Contact also offers phone support on paid plans — unusual in the email platform space. For churches with non-technical secretaries or volunteer coordinators who need guidance, being able to call a real person is a meaningful differentiator that Mailchimp does not match.

The tradeoff: no free plan, higher base prices, the prepay requirement to unlock the best discount, and limited automation compared to Mailchimp's Standard tier and above.

Free Plan Comparison

The free plan question is straightforward: Mailchimp has one, Constant Contact does not.

Mailchimp's free plan includes 500 contacts and 1,000 email sends per month. It includes the drag-and-drop editor, basic templates, and signup forms — enough for a small church sending one weekly bulletin to one congregation. It does not include automation, A/B testing, or scheduled sending beyond limited options. There is also a daily sending limit of 500 emails, which matters less for churches than for marketers but can constrain large announcement blasts.

Constant Contact offered a 60-day free trial historically and removed even that in some markets. For churches with zero budget, Constant Contact is not an option at all.

Groupmail also offers a free plan at the same 500-contact, 1,000-email limits. The key difference: when your church outgrows the free tier, Groupmail's paid plan is $15/month for unlimited members — compared to Mailchimp's tiered pricing that scales with congregation size.

Migration Considerations for Churches

Switching email platforms is straightforward but requires planning. Both Mailchimp and Constant Contact allow CSV export of contacts including email addresses, names, ministry tags, and custom fields. Neither exports email campaign history or automation workflows.

If moving from Mailchimp to Constant Contact (or vice versa), expect to rebuild your bulletin templates, recreate any welcome automations, and re-import your member list. Plan for 2-4 hours of setup time for a typical church account, ideally during a quiet liturgical week rather than the run-up to Christmas or Easter.

If considering Groupmail as an alternative, the migration is simpler: export your members from Mailchimp or Constant Contact as a CSV, import into Groupmail, and start sending. There are no automations to recreate because Groupmail focuses on member updates rather than marketing workflows. Groupmail also offers migration assistance on the Continuity plan ($29/month) — useful if your church secretary is the one doing the move alongside their day job.

One critical note: both Mailchimp and Constant Contact charge for unsubscribed members. When you export, export only active members to avoid paying for dead contacts on any new platform.

Deliverability Track Records

Email deliverability — the percentage of emails that reach the inbox rather than spam — matters more than features for church communication. A beautifully designed bulletin is worthless if it lands in spam the morning of a service.

Both Mailchimp and Constant Contact maintain strong deliverability reputations. Industry tests consistently place both platforms in the 85-95% inbox placement range, though results vary by list quality, content, and sender reputation. Churches that send only to engaged members typically see deliverability at the higher end.

Mailchimp enforces stricter list hygiene and will suspend accounts with high bounce rates — a risk for churches with old, unmaintained lists. Constant Contact is somewhat more lenient but still monitors sender reputation actively.

Groupmail handles deliverability through managed email delivery — the platform manages the technical infrastructure (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and sending reputation on behalf of each church. This means church staff and volunteers do not need to configure DNS records or monitor deliverability metrics themselves. For churches without a technical volunteer, managed delivery removes a category of problems entirely.

For Churches Specifically

Neither Mailchimp nor Constant Contact was built for churches. Both were built for small businesses and later added nonprofit discounts as a customer acquisition strategy. The platforms reflect this: dashboards filled with e-commerce metrics, conversion tracking, ad management, and marketing automation that most churches will never use.

The core problem for churches is not features — it is cost structure. Both Mailchimp and Constant Contact charge based on total contacts, including members who have unsubscribed and former visitors who never engaged. A church that has been collecting emails for 15 years may have 800 active members and 4,000 historical unsubscribes from people who attended once or moved away. Both platforms bill at the 4,800-contact tier.

Volunteer turnover is the second pain point. Church secretaries, communications coordinators, and tech-volunteer roles often turn over every 1-3 years. Neither Mailchimp nor Constant Contact offers transition support — the outgoing coordinator hands over login credentials and the new person figures it out in the gap between Sunday services.

Groupmail was built for exactly this scenario: organisations with members (not customers), volunteer-led teams, and tight budgets. Flat pricing ($15/month, unlimited members), no charge for unsubscribes, and annual handover calls when your secretary or coordinator changes.