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Nonprofits · head to head

CommCare vs Constant Contact

CommCare logo

CommCare

Nonprofits

Offline-first case management and mobile data collection for frontline health and development programmes

From
$100/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Constant Contact logo

Constant Contact

Nonprofits

Email marketing and event management

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Constant Contact has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: CommCare pricing is by included mobile user bands with a hard step between them, so a programme at 260 mobile users pays the Pro band plus per-user overage or jumps to Advanced, and neither option matches its actual size.; Constant Contact core plan started at $9.99 per month and Plus plan at $45 per month, both scaling by contact list size rather than a flat rate (Internet Archive capture, 2022)
  • They diverge on capability: CommCare covers Case management, Constant Contact covers Email marketing.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which CommCare and Constant Contact actually diverge.

Attributes where CommCare and Constant Contact differ
AttributeCommCareConstant Contact
Starting price$100/monthFree
Pricing modelPer month by mobile user countsubscription
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsAndroid, WebWeb, Mobile-responsive
FoundedUnknown1995

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Nonprofits).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in CommCare

  • Case management
  • Offline-first mobile app
  • App builder
  • Multi-language support
  • Two-way SMS
  • Report builder
  • API access
  • BI integration

Only in Constant Contact

  • Email marketing
  • Event management
  • Contact management
  • Automation
  • Analytics
  • Salesforce
  • Zapier
  • Google Analytics

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

CommCare

  • A community health worker programme where each worker must see their own assigned households, what is overdue and what happened last visit, which a survey tool cannot representnot Constant Contact
  • A ministry of health digitising a national frontline protocol and requiring in-region data hosting for legal reasonsnot Constant Contact
  • An NGO running the same intervention in four countries that needs one application, several languages and consolidated reportingnot Constant Contact
  • A research team collecting longitudinal data on the same participants over years, where linking visits to a case rather than a submission is the whole requirementnot Constant Contact

Constant Contact

  • Business operationsnot CommCare
  • Productivitynot CommCare
  • Automationnot CommCare

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

CommCare

  • Pricing is by included mobile user bands with a hard step between them, so a programme at 260 mobile users pays the Pro band plus per-user overage or jumps to Advanced, and neither option matches its actual size.
  • The subscription is the small number; application design, device procurement, worker training and supervision dominate the real cost, and grant budgets that fund only the licence stall at deployment.
  • Grant funding cycles and subscription renewals rarely align, so programmes routinely face a year-four cliff where the software is embedded in a workflow and the money that paid for it has ended.
  • It is Android-only on the device side, which is usually right for the target markets but blocks iOS-issued staff and makes the platform a poor fit for programmes in higher-income settings.
  • The open source option is real but effectively theoretical: self-hosting CommCare HQ requires substantial engineering, so the licence being free does not translate into an escape from the subscription.

Constant Contact

  • Core plan started at $9.99 per month and Plus plan at $45 per month, both scaling by contact list size rather than a flat rate (Internet Archive capture, 2022)

Pricing, plan by plan

CommCare

$100/month
  • Standard$100/month
    • 50 mobile users included
    • $2 per additional mobile user per month
    • Unlimited free web users
  • Pro$500/month
    • 250 mobile users included
    • Case sharing and child cases
    • Web report builder
  • Advanced$1000/month
    • 500 mobile users included
    • Power BI and Tableau integration
    • Web applications
  • Enterprise$4000/month
    • Custom mobile user count
    • Single sign-on
    • Named account management

Constant Contact

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Basic email marketing
    • Contacts up to 100
  • Plus$45/month
    • Advanced features
    • Event management
    • Automation

Which should you pick?

Choose CommCare if

  • You need case management.
  • You work on Android, Web.
  • You also want offline-first mobile app.
CommCare review

Choose Constant Contact if

  • You need email marketing.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Mobile-responsive.
  • You also want event management.
Constant Contact review

Questions people ask

Is CommCare or Constant Contact better?
Neither clearly leads. CommCare starts at $100/month and Constant Contact at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, CommCare or Constant Contact?
Constant Contact has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $100/month for CommCare and Free for Constant Contact.
Does CommCare or Constant Contact run on more platforms?
CommCare runs on Android, Web. Constant Contact runs on Web, Mobile-responsive.
Can I use Constant Contact for free?
Yes. Constant Contact has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. CommCare starts at $100/month.
What is CommCare best used for?
CommCare is most often used for a community health worker programme where each worker must see their own assigned households, what is overdue and what happened last visit, which a survey tool cannot represent, a ministry of health digitising a national frontline protocol and requiring in-region data hosting for legal reasons, an ngo running the same intervention in four countries that needs one application, several languages and consolidated reporting, a research team collecting longitudinal data on the same participants over years, where linking visits to a case rather than a submission is the whole requirement. Of those, a community health worker programme where each worker must see their own assigned households, what is overdue and what happened last visit, which a survey tool cannot represent and a ministry of health digitising a national frontline protocol and requiring in-region data hosting for legal reasons are not what Constant Contact is typically brought in for.
What can CommCare do that Constant Contact cannot?
CommCare covers Case management, Offline-first mobile app, App builder, Multi-language support. Constant Contact covers Email marketing, Event management, Contact management, Automation.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

CommCare: How much does CommCare cost?

Standard is $100 a month for 50 mobile users, Pro $500 for 250, Advanced $1,000 for 500 and Enterprise from $4,000. Extra mobile users are $2 each per month; web users are unlimited and free.

CommCare: Is CommCare open source?

Yes, CommCare HQ is open source, but self-hosting requires serious engineering capacity. Nearly all users take the hosted service.

CommCare: Where is our data stored?

You choose United States, European Union or India hosting, which is what makes it acceptable to ministries with data residency rules.

CommCare: Who funds CommCare?

Dimagi is a for-profit B Corporation funded by customer subscriptions and services. Individual deployments are usually funded by donors such as USAID successors, the Gates Foundation or national health budgets.

CommCare: Does it do case management or just forms?

Case management. Workers hold a caseload of individuals or households and see history and due actions, which is the main reason to choose it over a form tool.

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