Constant Contact vs Brevo vs ConvertKit (Kit): Email Marketing Platform Comparison for Small Businesses, Creators, Nonprofits and E-Commerce Stores in 2026
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Platform Overview
| Attribute | Constant Contact | Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) | ConvertKit (now Kit) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Founded | 1995 (one of the oldest email marketing platforms) | 2012 (Paris, France; rebranded from Sendinblue to Brevo in 2023) | 2013 (founded by Nathan Barry; rebranded to Kit in 2024) |
| Primary audience | Small businesses, nonprofits, associations, local businesses, franchises, real estate agents, restaurants | Small to mid-size businesses, e-commerce stores, SaaS companies, agencies; strong in European markets | Content creators, bloggers, podcasters, YouTubers, course creators, coaches, authors, musicians, newsletter writers |
| Core philosophy | Ease of use; get small businesses sending professional emails quickly without technical expertise | All-in-one marketing platform (email + SMS + chat + CRM + marketing automation) at an affordable price point | Creator-first: built for individuals and small teams who monetise an audience through content, courses, memberships, digital products and newsletters |
| Free plan | No free plan (free trial only: 14 days or 60 days depending on promotion) | Free plan: up to 300 emails per day (approximately 9,000 per month); unlimited contacts; includes Brevo branding on emails | Free plan: up to 10,000 subscribers; limited to 1 email broadcast per day; no automation; includes Kit branding |
Pricing Comparison
| List size / volume | Constant Contact (Standard plan) | Brevo (Business plan) | ConvertKit / Kit (Creator plan) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 500 contacts | $12/month | Free (up to 300 emails/day); Starter at $9/month (no daily limit) | Free (up to 10,000 subscribers); Creator at $15/month for automation |
| 1,000 contacts | $30/month | $9-$18/month (depends on email volume, not contact count) | $29/month |
| 2,500 contacts | $50/month | $18-$29/month | $49/month |
| 5,000 contacts | $80/month | $29-$39/month | $79/month |
| 10,000 contacts | $120/month | $39-$59/month | $119/month |
| 25,000 contacts | $230/month | $59-$89/month | $199/month |
| 50,000 contacts | $430/month | $89-$129/month | $379/month |
| 100,000 contacts | Custom pricing | $129-$199/month | $679/month |
| Pricing model | Per contact: you pay based on the number of contacts in your account; unlimited emails | Per email volume: you pay based on the number of emails you send per month, not the number of contacts; contacts are unlimited on all plans | Per subscriber: you pay based on the number of subscribers; unlimited emails; subscribers who unsubscribe or are tagged as inactive still count toward your total unless you manually remove them |
Key pricing differences:
| Factor | Constant Contact | Brevo | ConvertKit / Kit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best value at what size | Under 500 contacts (competitive starting price); becomes expensive as list grows past 10,000 | Best value at any list size if you send fewer emails per contact per month; unlimited contacts means large lists cost less than competitors if email frequency is low | Best value for creators under 10,000 subscribers (generous free plan); becomes expensive above 25,000 subscribers |
| What makes it more expensive | Contact-based pricing: you pay for every contact, including unengaged subscribers who never open emails; no way to exclude inactive contacts from billing without deleting them | Volume-based pricing can become expensive if you send daily emails to a large list (e.g., 50,000 contacts x 30 emails/month = 1.5 million emails/month would be on a higher tier) | Subscriber-based pricing: counts all subscribers including unsubscribed (unless manually removed); duplicate subscribers across forms are counted once; no distinction between free and paid subscribers in billing |
| Nonprofit / creator discount | 20-30% nonprofit discount (significant savings for associations and charities) | No specific nonprofit discount; the low base pricing is the value proposition for budget-conscious organisations | No nonprofit discount; creator-focused pricing; Kit Commerce (selling digital products) takes a transaction fee rather than increasing the platform fee |
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Constant Contact | Brevo | ConvertKit / Kit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Email editor | Drag-and-drop editor with 200+ templates; template quality is strong (professional, well-designed); good for visually rich emails (retail, restaurant, event invitations) | Drag-and-drop editor with 40+ templates; templates are functional but less polished than Constant Contact; the editor is capable but has a steeper learning curve | Minimal editor by design: plain-text-style emails with optional formatting; very few templates; philosophy is that simple, text-based emails perform better for creators than heavily designed ones; no drag-and-drop for visual layouts |
| Email automation | Basic automation: welcome series, birthday emails, anniversary emails, abandoned cart (with Shopify integration); visual automation builder introduced in recent years but limited compared to Brevo | Advanced automation: visual workflow builder with branching logic, if/then conditions, scoring, multi-channel (email + SMS + WhatsApp in a single workflow); strongest automation of the three | Good automation for creators: visual automation builder; tag-based subscriber management; automation rules (when subscriber does X, do Y); well-suited for course launch sequences, welcome funnels, segmented content delivery |
| Segmentation | Contact lists and tags; segment by engagement (opens, clicks), location, purchase history (with e-commerce integration); adequate for small businesses but less flexible than Brevo | Advanced segmentation: segment by contact attributes, email engagement, website behaviour (with tracking script), purchase history, CRM deal stage, custom events; the most powerful segmentation of the three | Tag-based segmentation: subscribers are tagged (not placed in lists); segment by tags, custom fields, subscription date, engagement; simple and flexible for creator use cases; less powerful than Brevo for complex behavioural segmentation |
| Landing pages | Landing pages included on all plans; drag-and-drop builder; 100+ templates; connected to contact lists; adequate quality for small business lead capture | Landing pages on paid plans; fewer templates than Constant Contact; functional but not a primary strength | Landing pages on all plans (including free); focused on opt-in pages for lead magnets, newsletter sign-ups, product launches; templates are minimal and creator-focused; one of Kit's strongest features for its target audience |
| E-commerce | Shopify and WooCommerce integrations; product blocks in emails; abandoned cart automation; basic product recommendations | Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, PrestaShop integrations; abandoned cart, post-purchase, product recommendation automations; Brevo also offers a built-in e-commerce CRM with deal tracking | Limited e-commerce integrations (Shopify, WooCommerce); Kit Commerce allows selling digital products (courses, ebooks, memberships, paid newsletters) directly through Kit without a separate platform; transaction fee: 3.5% + $0.30 per transaction on free plan; lower on paid plans |
| SMS marketing | SMS add-on available; US and Canada only; limited SMS automation | Built-in SMS and WhatsApp marketing on Business plan and above; global coverage; SMS can be integrated into automation workflows alongside email; strongest SMS capability of the three | No SMS marketing |
| CRM | No built-in CRM; integrates with external CRMs (Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho) | Built-in CRM with deal pipeline, contact management, task management, meeting scheduling; the CRM is included on all plans (even free); useful for businesses that do not have a separate CRM | No CRM; subscriber management only (not designed for sales pipeline management) |
| Reporting and analytics | Open rate, click rate, bounce rate, unsubscribe rate; heat map (shows where in the email people clicked); comparison to industry averages; adequate for small businesses | Open rate, click rate, bounce rate, unsubscribe rate; real-time reporting; advanced analytics on Business plan (conversion tracking, revenue attribution, A/B testing analytics); Google Analytics integration | Open rate, click rate, unsubscribe rate; subscriber growth over time; deliverability reporting; minimal compared to Constant Contact and Brevo; sufficient for creators tracking audience growth and engagement |
| A/B testing | Subject line A/B testing on Standard plan and above; limited to two variants | Subject line, content, send time, sender name A/B testing; available on all paid plans; the most flexible A/B testing of the three | Subject line A/B testing on Creator plan and above; two variants only |
| Deliverability | Strong deliverability reputation; dedicated IP available on Premium plan; authentication support (SPF, DKIM, DMARC); deliverability team monitors sending infrastructure | Strong deliverability; dedicated IP on Business plan ($250/year) or included on Enterprise; authentication support; Brevo's shared IP pools are well-managed; European infrastructure (may benefit EU-based senders) | Very strong deliverability for text-based emails; text-style emails tend to have higher inbox placement than heavily designed HTML emails; authentication support; no dedicated IP option (all senders share IP pools) |
Best Fit by Use Case
| Use case | Best platform | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Local small business (restaurant, salon, retail store, fitness studio) sending monthly newsletters and promotions | Constant Contact | Easiest to use; professional templates for promotional emails; event management features; social media posting; low learning curve for non-technical users |
| Nonprofit or association sending member communications, event invitations, fundraising appeals | Constant Contact | Nonprofit discount (20-30%); event management integration (RSVP tracking, ticket sales); strong template library for fundraising emails; donation page builder |
| E-commerce store needing abandoned cart, post-purchase and product recommendation automations | Brevo | Best automation capabilities; strongest e-commerce integrations; built-in CRM tracks customer journey; SMS + email in a single workflow; competitive pricing for large lists |
| Business needing email + SMS + chat in a single platform | Brevo | Built-in SMS and WhatsApp marketing; live chat widget; automation workflows that combine email, SMS and chat; the only platform of the three that offers all three channels natively |
| Business with a large contact list but low email frequency (e.g., 50,000 contacts, 2 emails/month) | Brevo | Volume-based pricing means you pay for emails sent, not contacts stored; 50,000 contacts with 2 emails/month = 100,000 emails, which is far cheaper on Brevo than on contact-based platforms |
| Content creator, blogger, podcaster, YouTuber, newsletter writer | ConvertKit / Kit | Built for creators; tag-based subscriber management suits content segmentation; landing pages and forms for lead magnets; Kit Commerce for selling digital products; plain-text email style aligns with creator-audience relationships |
| Course creator or coach selling online courses, memberships, coaching packages | ConvertKit / Kit | Kit Commerce handles digital product sales natively; automation for course launch sequences, drip content delivery, student onboarding; integrations with course platforms (Teachable, Podia, Kajabi) |
| Author, musician, or artist building a fan audience and selling directly | ConvertKit / Kit | Fan/audience relationship management; tip jars and paid newsletters through Kit Commerce; landing pages for book launches, album releases, art drops; subscriber tagging for genre/interest segmentation |
| Real estate agent sending listing alerts, market updates, open house invitations | Constant Contact | Real estate templates; listing email templates; contact management for buyers/sellers/past clients; event features for open house RSVPs; many real estate brokerages have enterprise agreements with Constant Contact |
| Agency managing email for multiple clients | Brevo | Multi-account management; sub-organisation structure; the strongest API for custom integrations; white-label options on Enterprise plan; competitive pricing per client |
Preparing Your Contact List
All three platforms require you to import a contact list to get started. Before importing, extract and deduplicate your email addresses by uploading your contact exports (CSV, XLSX) from your CRM, e-commerce platform, website forms and any other sources to Email Extractor. The deduplicated list ensures you are not paying for duplicate contacts (particularly important on Constant Contact and Kit, which charge per contact/subscriber).
After extracting and deduplicating, run the list through an email verification service before importing into your chosen platform. Importing a list with invalid or bouncing email addresses damages your sender reputation from the first campaign and can trigger account suspension, particularly on Brevo, which has strict list quality requirements.
Migration Between Platforms
| Migration path | What transfers | What does not transfer | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Constant Contact to Brevo | Contact list (CSV export/import); tags and custom fields (manual mapping); email templates (must be recreated) | Automation workflows (must be rebuilt); email send history and engagement data (opens, clicks); landing pages (must be recreated) | Medium: the contact migration is straightforward (CSV); rebuilding automations and templates takes time |
| Constant Contact to Kit | Contact list (CSV export/import); tags (manual mapping) | Templates (Kit uses a different email style; heavily designed Constant Contact templates cannot be replicated in Kit's minimal editor); automations (must be rebuilt); engagement history | Medium: contact migration is simple; the bigger adjustment is shifting from designed emails to Kit's plain-text style |
| Brevo to Constant Contact | Contact list (CSV export/import); basic tags and custom fields | Complex automations (Constant Contact's automation is less capable; multi-step Brevo workflows may not be fully replicable); SMS campaigns (Constant Contact has limited SMS); CRM data (Constant Contact has no CRM) | Medium-hard: functionality downgrade; complex Brevo automations may need to be simplified |
| Brevo to Kit | Contact list (CSV export/import); basic tags | Complex automations (Kit is capable but different); e-commerce automations (different integration approach); SMS campaigns (Kit has no SMS); CRM data (Kit has no CRM); designed email templates | Medium: contact migration is simple; automations must be rebuilt in Kit's visual builder |
| Kit to Constant Contact | Subscriber list (CSV export/import); tags | Automation sequences (must be rebuilt); Kit Commerce products and sales data (does not transfer); landing pages (must be recreated) | Medium: subscriber migration is simple; the shift is from tag-based to list-based contact management |
| Kit to Brevo | Subscriber list (CSV export/import); tags | Automation sequences (must be rebuilt in Brevo's visual workflow builder); Kit Commerce products and sales data; landing pages | Medium: subscriber migration is simple; Brevo's automation builder is more powerful but different |
