Constant Contact alternative for abandoned cart recovery
If you want a Constant Contact alternative for abandoned cart recovery, CartAbandon is a recovery platform that sends texts, email and WhatsApp from one flat plan and also recovers declined cards. Plans start at 49 USD per month, or 24 USD per month billed yearly, with 250 to 15 000 SMS included. Constant Contact is an email marketing platform that prices by contact count and sells SMS as a separate add-on.
CartAbandon vs Constant Contact at a glance
Constant Contact is a broad small business marketing tool: email campaigns, automations, landing pages and social posting. CartAbandon does one job, bringing back carts, checkouts and failed payments.
Constant Contact figures below come from constantcontact.com/pricing as checked on 2026-11-14. Its plan prices start at an entry contact tier and rise with the size of your list.
| Constant Contact | CartAbandon | |
|---|---|---|
| Main job | Email campaigns, automations, landing pages, social | Cart, checkout and declined card recovery |
| Platform price | Lite from 12 USD, Standard from 35 USD, Premium from 80 USD per month, by contact count | Flat plan, 49 to 999 USD per month, or half that billed yearly on Starter to Growth |
| Send limit tied to contacts (10x on Lite, 12x on Standard, 24x on Premium), 0.002 USD per extra send | Recovery email on every plan | |
| Texts | Add-on from 10 USD per month for 500 messages on Lite and Standard, 500 included on Premium, US customers only | Included in every plan up to its limit |
| Not listed on the pricing page | Included from Growth | |
| Per-cart decisions | Automations you build yourself | AI decision engine that logs the reason for each message |
| Declined card recovery | Not listed on the pricing page | Flow based on decline codes (Growth and up) |
| Trial | Free trial offered | 14 days, no card |
What the two pricing models mean for your store
Constant Contact is cheaper than we are on sticker price for a small list, and it is better to say that up front. Lite starts at 12 USD per month and Standard at 35 USD per month. For a store that sends a weekly newsletter and one cart reminder, that is a fair deal.
Three things make the bill grow in a store that leans on recovery.
The plan follows your list. Each plan is priced by the number of contacts. Collect more addresses for a launch and the tier moves, whether or not those people ever abandon a cart.
Texts are an add-on. On Lite and Standard, SMS starts at 10 USD per month for up to 500 messages, and Premium includes 500. A store that sends two or three texts per recovered cart passes 500 messages quickly. The SMS pages also say the service is for US customers only.
Extra sends cost money. Past your monthly send allowance, each additional send is billed at 0.002 USD, which is 2 USD per 1 000 sends.
CartAbandon is priced by recovery volume. Growth is 149 USD per month, or 74 USD billed yearly, with 1 000 texts and 1 000 WhatsApp messages included. Scale is 399 USD per month, or 199 billed yearly, with 4 000 texts. A bigger list does not change it. The estimate at the top of this page uses your own order numbers, so you can see whether recovered revenue covers the plan.
When Constant Contact is the better choice
Constant Contact is a good tool and for some stores it is the right one. Keep it, or pick it, when:
- You run a service business with a store on the side. Events, newsletters and social posts in one tool are its strength.
- Phone and email support matter to your team. It is built for owners who are not marketers.
- Your list is small. Under a few hundred contacts the price stays near its minimum.
- Cart volume is low. If a few carts a week are abandoned, one reminder email may be all you need.
Where CartAbandon works differently
Texts and WhatsApp inside the plan
Many shoppers never open a cart email. CartAbandon sends texts and WhatsApp where the shopper has given consent, so a cart reminder reaches them on the channel they actually read. See how this works in abandoned cart SMS.
Not every cart gets the same message
CartAbandon reads the cart first: customer type, cart value, past discount use, consent per channel, stock and time zone. The AI cart recovery decision engine logs the reason for each choice, so you can audit every message.
Declined cards treated as a payment problem
A declined card is not a pricing objection, so a discount does not help. On Growth and up, CartAbandon sends a secure payment update link matched to the decline code. Read more about failed payment recovery.
A price that ignores list size
Your plan is set by recovery volume, not by how many contacts you have collected.
How to move cart recovery off Constant Contact
- Write down your baseline. Pull 90 days of results from your cart reminder automation: emails sent, orders recovered and revenue.
- Connect your store. Add Shopify, WooCommerce or Magento, for example the Shopify abandoned cart app setup.
- Keep your consent. CartAbandon reads the consent your store holds and records source and time per contact and channel.
- Set guardrails. Maximum discount, minimum margin, quiet hours.
- Switch on one day. Turn on CartAbandon flows and pause the Constant Contact cart automation the same day, so no shopper gets two messages for one cart. Keep Constant Contact for newsletters if you like it for that.
Stores that usually switch, and stores that should stay
| Your situation | Better fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Store whose recovery is mostly texts | CartAbandon | Texts and WhatsApp included in the plan |
| Large list, modest cart volume | CartAbandon | Price does not follow list size |
| Store losing orders to declined cards | CartAbandon | Decline-code recovery in the same panel |
| Small shop, newsletters and events | Constant Contact | Simple all-round tool, low entry price |
| Owner who wants social posting and landing pages in one place | Constant Contact | Broader marketing suite |
For the wider field, see the MailerLite alternative page, the Drip alternative page and abandoned cart software pricing compared. Plans and limits are on the Constant Contact pricing page.
FAQ
Questions about constant contact alternative
What is the best Constant Contact alternative?
For stores that want texts, email and WhatsApp in one flat plan, CartAbandon is a strong alternative, with plans from 49 USD per month. If you mainly need newsletters, events and social posts at a low price, Constant Contact may still fit better.
How much does Constant Contact cost?
constantcontact.com/pricing lists Lite from 12 USD, Standard from 35 USD and Premium from 80 USD per month at the entry contact tier. Prices rise with contact count, and SMS is an add-on from 10 USD per month on Lite and Standard.
Does Constant Contact have abandoned cart recovery?
Its pricing page does not list abandoned cart recovery as a feature, so check your plan and store integration before relying on it. It also does not list WhatsApp or declined card recovery. CartAbandon is built for all three.
Does Constant Contact include SMS?
Premium includes 500 SMS messages per month. On Lite and Standard, SMS is an add-on starting at 10 USD per month for up to 500 messages, available to US customers. CartAbandon includes texts in every plan up to its limit.
Can I use CartAbandon and Constant Contact together?
You can, but not for the same carts. Pause the Constant Contact cart reminder when CartAbandon goes live, so a shopper never gets two messages about the same cart.
See what your store loses to abandoned carts every month
Your estimate shows recoverable revenue by flow and channel, and which plan fits your order volume.