Constant Contact vs MailerLite: Events, Send Rules and Price

The short answer: if your calendar is built around events, a ticketed workshop, a fundraiser or a seminar series, Constant Contact is the better fit: it runs registration, tickets, promo codes and payments inside the same account as the invitations (event guide). If the work is a newsletter plus automations, MailerLite is the simpler buy, with a published price of $33 a month for 2,500 subscribers on its Comfort plan and no overage fee: when Comfort's sends run out, you upgrade or wait for the month to reset (MailerLite pricing).

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One gap first. On 26 October 2026 Constant Contact's pricing page returned a security check instead of prices, so this page quotes no Constant Contact price. Its knowledge base, which loaded normally, explains how the bill is built, and that turns out to matter more than the headline figure.

Before you compare the two:

1. Do the overage sum for your rhythm. For example, a plan with a 10x allowance in the 2,500-contact tier allows 2,500 x 10 = 25,000 sends a month. Mailing that list every weekday, about 22 times, is 55,000 sends, so 30,000 over, and 30,000 x $0.002 = $60 in overage on top of the plan (send allowance article). A weekly newsletter to the same list stays far inside it.
2. Clean the list before you import it, not after. Constant Contact sets your contact tier by the highest number of contacts you have had, and deleting contacts does not lower it (billing article). Remove bounces and long-silent addresses in your current tool first.
3. Name the result one campaign should produce. For an event, registrations per invitation sent; for a newsletter, clicks per issue. Record the current figure so the new tool has something to beat.

The rules behind each bill

Where the two differ in practice

A tier that only moves up

Constant Contact's billing article is plain about it: the tier is the highest number of contacts you have added, it may differ from what you hold today, and you pay the monthly fee even in a month you send nothing (billing article). A one-off import of an old list can set your bill for good. MailerLite also counts every address that was active during the billing cycle, deleted or not, but its FAQ says the count resets each month on the billing date (MailerLite pricing FAQ).

Sends are metered on one side

Constant Contact counts every scheduled campaign email against an allowance of 5, 10, 12 or 24 times your tier, bounces included, and charges $0.002 for each send above it; welcome series and abandoned cart emails do not count (send allowance article). MailerLite's Comfort plan allows ten times the top of the band, 25,000 for 2,500 subscribers, and when that runs out you upgrade to Power or wait for the reset; Power lists unlimited sends under a fair use policy (MailerLite pricing). If you mail daily, that line decides it.

Events live in one of them

Constant Contact's event tool covers the whole loop: an event page, free or paid tickets, add-ons, promo codes, a registration form and payment methods, then invitations from the same contact list (event guide). MailerLite sells bookings and digital products, which suits one-to-one calls better than a full room.

MailerLite's prices, read on 26 October 2026

Monthly billing in USD from the MailerLite pricing page, checked on 26 October 2026. Yearly billing takes 10% off.

For Constant Contact, open the pricing page or the Plans and pricing page inside your account, choose your contact tier and note the send multiple of the plan you pick. Those two numbers and the overage rate above give you the full monthly figure.

Letting the Campaign Builder draft a month

Constant Contact documents an AI step aimed at exactly the event use case. In the Campaign Builder you pick a goal, describe it, set a run of four weeks or a custom span between one day and 12 weeks, and it generates the emails, social posts, SMS messages and events for that goal, with suggested send dates (Campaign Builder guide). The guide says you customise each activity before deploying it, and that is the human check: a person reads every draft, fixes dates, prices and names, and schedules them one by one. It is listed on Standard and Premium, not Lite.

Free before paid

MailerLite's free plan covers 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, and its 14-day trial of the paid features asks for no card (pricing). Put your next event invitation through it with a booking link and see whether that is enough. If it is not, set up one real event in Constant Contact before committing, so you see the registration flow your attendees would use.

A tier that rises and never falls back serves the vendor's revenue line, and Constant Contact states it openly rather than hiding it. The defence costs nothing: a clean list on the day you import.

Choose Constant Contact if your job is

• Promoting and running events with tickets, promo codes and payments.
• Planning a multi-week campaign across email, social and SMS from one goal.
• Giving many colleagues access on Premium, with SMS included.

Choose MailerLite if your job is

• Sending a newsletter and automations at a price you can read before signing up.
• Mailing often, where an unlimited Power plan beats an allowance with overage.
• Working with an AI assistant through MCP, with limited access already on the free plan.

FAQ

Do welcome emails use up Constant Contact's send allowance?

No. Automated emails such as welcome series and abandoned cart reminders are excluded; scheduled campaigns and resends to non-openers count, per the send allowance article.

Will deleting old contacts lower my Constant Contact bill?

Not the tier. The highest number of contacts you have added sets it, and deleting contacts does not bring it down, according to the billing article.

What happens when MailerLite's Comfort sends run out?

Sending pauses until you upgrade to Power or the allowance resets on your billing date; the pricing FAQ describes no overage charge (MailerLite pricing).