Small businesses moving off Constant Contact are usually chasing two things: a wider ecosystem of integrations and a more modern template library. Constant Contact does the basics of email marketing solidly, but its app marketplace and design tools have fallen behind, and businesses that use a lot of third-party tools — booking systems, CRMs, ecommerce platforms — find Mailchimp connects to more of them natively.
The move isn't without cost. Constant Contact includes phone support on its plans, which Mailchimp doesn't offer at comparable tiers, and its native event registration tool has no direct Mailchimp equivalent — you'll need a separate tool if you run in-person or virtual events regularly. Neither is a dealbreaker, but both need a plan before you switch, not after.
This guide walks through the practical migration: exporting your lists in a way that preserves segmentation, setting up the audience-and-tag structure Mailchimp expects, rebuilding your automations as Customer Journeys, and — the part that catches people out later — understanding Mailchimp's contact-based billing well enough that your bill doesn't jump unexpectedly as your list grows.
How long this takes
2–3 hours
Most of that time goes into rebuilding automations and repointing forms, not the import itself.
Why switch from Constant Contact to Mailchimp?
Switch if…
- You want access to Mailchimp’s much wider marketplace of native integrations.
- You want a more modern, flexible template and design editor.
- You need branching automation logic that Constant Contact’s simpler automation builder doesn’t support.
- You’re already using tools (Shopify, WooCommerce, various CRMs) that connect more cleanly to Mailchimp.
- You want a platform with a larger community, more tutorials, and third-party support resources.
Stay put if…
- You rely on Constant Contact’s phone support and don’t want to lose direct human help.
- You run in-person or virtual events and use Constant Contact’s built-in event registration and ticketing.
- Your list is large and growing — Mailchimp’s contact-based pricing can end up costing more than Constant Contact’s at scale.
Constant Contact vs Mailchimp: the key differences
| What changes | Constant Contact | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|
| Support | Phone support included | Chat and email only on most plans |
| Event registration | Built in natively | Not available — needs a separate tool |
| Contact structure | Lists | Audiences with tags and groups |
| Automation | Simpler, mostly linear | Customer Journeys with branching |
| Integrations | Smaller marketplace | Much wider native ecosystem |
| Template editor | Functional, dated | More modern and flexible |
| Pricing model | Per contact, simpler tiers | Per contact, tiers scale faster with features |
Before you switch, have this ready
- Admin access to both Constant Contact and Mailchimp.
- A written list of every Constant Contact list and how you currently use each one.
- Screenshots of every active Constant Contact automation, including triggers and timing.
- A decision on what replaces Constant Contact’s event registration if you use it.
- A list of every signup form, landing page, and integration currently feeding Constant Contact.
- An estimate of your list’s growth rate over the next year, to sanity-check Mailchimp’s pricing tiers before committing.
Step-by-step: Constant Contact to Mailchimp
Step 1: Export each Constant Contact list separately
Go to Contacts in Constant Contact, select a single list, and use the Export option to download it as CSV. Do this for each list individually — a combined export of all contacts loses the list membership you need to rebuild segmentation in Mailchimp.
Also export your Do Not Contact list separately. You need this to build a suppression list in Mailchimp so you never re-email someone who opted out or bounced under Constant Contact.
Check that each CSV includes any custom fields you use for personalisation — name, company, or custom tags — since these don’t always export by default depending on your list view settings.
Screenshot
Constant Contact Contacts → Export screen with list selected
Step 2: Build your audience and tag structure in Mailchimp
Mailchimp works best with a single audience and tags for segmentation, rather than one audience per Constant Contact list — multiple audiences in Mailchimp create billing and reporting headaches since contacts in more than one audience can be counted twice.
Decide upfront: each Constant Contact list usually becomes a Mailchimp tag rather than a separate audience, unless you have a genuine reason to keep audiences fully separate (for instance, entirely different businesses under one account).
Create any custom merge fields you need in Audience → Settings → Merge fields before importing, matching what came through in your Constant Contact export.
Screenshot
Mailchimp Audience → Settings → Merge fields screen
Step 3: Import contacts and apply tags per list
In Mailchimp, go to Audience → Import contacts and upload the first list’s CSV. During import, apply a tag matching the original Constant Contact list name — this recreates your segmentation without needing separate audiences.
Repeat for each list you exported. Mailchimp will update existing contacts rather than duplicate them if the same email address appears in more than one imported file, so overlapping list membership is preserved correctly as multiple tags on one contact.
Import your Do Not Contact list last, marking those contacts as unsubscribed or adding them to a suppression list, before you send anything.
Screenshot
Mailchimp Audience import screen with tag application step
Step 4: Rebuild your automations as Customer Journeys
Nothing automated transfers. Start with your highest-value automation — usually a welcome series — and rebuild it in Mailchimp’s Automations → Customer Journeys.
Where your Constant Contact automation was a simple linear sequence, consider whether Mailchimp’s branching options are worth using now — splitting by engagement or by tag is straightforward to add and something Constant Contact didn’t offer as cleanly.
Recreate the email content in Mailchimp’s editor rather than pasting the Constant Contact HTML directly, since imported markup rarely renders correctly on mobile without adjustment.
Test the full journey with a test contact before activating it, walking each step to confirm timing and content are correct.
Screenshot
Mailchimp Customer Journey builder with a welcome journey
Step 5: Plan a replacement for event registration
Mailchimp has no native equivalent to Constant Contact’s built-in event registration and ticketing. If you run regular events, look at a dedicated tool (Eventbrite is the common choice) and integrate it with Mailchimp via its native connection or Zapier.
Recreate any event reminder sequences as a Mailchimp Customer Journey triggered by the registration integration, rather than trying to replicate Constant Contact’s all-in-one event flow exactly.
Test the full registration-to-reminder path before your next scheduled event, since this is the piece most likely to have gaps after switching.
Screenshot
Eventbrite to Mailchimp integration settings screen
Step 6: Repoint forms and integrations
Work through your checklist of forms and integrations. Website embeds, WordPress plugins, ecommerce platform connections, and any Zapier scenarios built around Constant Contact all need updating.
Replace embedded Constant Contact forms with Mailchimp forms directly, rather than trying to keep the old markup pointed at a new endpoint.
Leave Constant Contact active for two weeks after switching and check for any new signups landing there — that tells you exactly which form or integration you missed.
Screenshot
List of connected integrations with Constant Contact links to replace
Step 7: Test sending and watch your billing tier
Send your first Mailchimp campaign to a smaller, engaged segment before blasting your full list, and compare open rates against your Constant Contact baseline.
Check your total contact count in Mailchimp against its pricing tiers — Mailchimp bills by contacts stored, and depending on your plan, unsubscribed and cleaned contacts may still count towards your total. Clean up anyone who hasn’t engaged in a long time before you get billed for storing them unnecessarily.
Set a calendar reminder to check your contact count against your Mailchimp tier every few months as your list grows, since crossing a tier boundary raises your bill immediately, not gradually.
Screenshot
Mailchimp Billing → Plans screen showing contact tier
Integrations you need to update
Every one of these is a place contacts or data currently flow into Constant Contact. Work through the list before you stop watching the old account — a missed form is invisible until someone complains they never got your email.
| Integration | What to do |
|---|---|
| Website signup forms | Replace Constant Contact embeds with Mailchimp forms and test a live submission. |
| WordPress | Swap the Constant Contact plugin for Mailchimp’s and reconnect each form. |
| Shopify or WooCommerce | Connect the native Mailchimp integration and confirm order sync before disconnecting Constant Contact. |
| Event registration (Eventbrite, etc.) | Set up a dedicated events tool since Mailchimp has no native equivalent, then integrate it. |
| Zapier / Make | Rebuild every Constant Contact scenario using the Mailchimp connector. |
| Facebook / Instagram lead ads | Reconnect lead forms to Mailchimp so leads stop landing in an account you’ll stop checking. |
| CRM tools | Update the API connection or native integration and verify a test contact syncs correctly. |
| Landing pages | Repoint any Constant Contact-hosted landing page to Mailchimp’s landing page builder. |
Troubleshooting: common post-migration problems
Contacts imported without their list segmentation
You likely did a combined export rather than exporting each list separately. Re-export list by list from Constant Contact and re-import with a tag applied per list.
Someone from the Do Not Contact list received a campaign
The suppression import was skipped. Import the Do Not Contact CSV immediately, mark those contacts unsubscribed, and pause sending until confirmed.
Bill jumped unexpectedly after import
Your total contact count crossed a Mailchimp pricing tier. Check Billing → Plans, and clean out unengaged or unsubscribed contacts that don’t need to be stored.
Event attendees aren’t receiving reminder emails
There’s no native event tool in Mailchimp. Confirm your Eventbrite or equivalent integration is correctly triggering the Mailchimp Customer Journey.
Customer Journey sent all emails at once
A delay step was set to zero during rebuild. Open the journey, check each wait step, and remove anyone stuck mid-flow before re-enabling.
Need phone support but Mailchimp doesn’t offer it on your plan
Check whether phone support is included on a higher Mailchimp tier; otherwise budget for slower turnaround via chat and email compared to what Constant Contact provided.
Should you make the switch?
The migration itself is rarely the hard part — it is the automations you rebuild and the forms you forget. If the reasons in the "switch if" list above describe your situation, Mailchimp is worth the afternoon. If you are only moving because you are frustrated with an interface, fix the emails first and keep the platform.
Read both sides before you commit: our Constant Contact review covers what you would be giving up, and our Mailchimp review covers what you are buying, including current pricing and where it falls short. Every switch we document is listed on the migration guides hub.